“He’s fine. Give him a minute.” A voice thundered from reality as time came to a stop.

  The voice brought Lili from her frantic work of trying to revive Tesilim, still to no avail. As she looked around, she saw the leaves of a tree having stopped mid-breeze. It wasn’t long before she realized what was going on based on Tesilim’s previous story from the incident with the drake. Even so, she couldn’t help herself. Her friend was dead, after all, and her emotions were raw and all over the place.

  “How do you know!?”

  Of course, the moment she said that, she realized how dumb it was. It also didn’t help; the very world itself felt like it was giving her a raised eyebrow, questioning her intelligence.

  On the other hand, Jolly was confused about what she should do. A lifetime of serving a god told her she should bow and show respect, but looking at Lili, who wasn’t doing that, the dryad was unsure. More important, how did she address the world itself? Then, the last part of her wanted to see how the World Crystal was communicating. How did its magic work? If she could get some insights into it, it might help her advance.

  “Yeah. No. Please stay there and stay quiet.” The world said, and Jolly went stiff.

  Not long after the world spoke, Lili heard Tesilim gasp for air, and her gaze shot over to him from Jolly. As she watched, his eyes slowly opened, and he looked around, confused. Seeing him alive, Lili threw herself at him and hugged him tightly.

  Tesilim was confused. The trees weren’t moving, and everything was oddly still. The problem was that Lili was moving, and she threw herself onto him. Had he finally died? Was Lili actually a death angel? Was that what was happening?

  It didn’t matter; her light sobbing brought him back to reality.

  “What happened? Why are you crying?” He asked while his somewhat numb hand instinctively moved to pat her head.

  “You… you died,” Lili responded between quiet sobs.

  Hearing the answer, Tesilim wanted to argue, but he had yet to see Lili in such a state, which only meant she was telling the truth. Somehow, he had died. Could that have been the result of the Chaos Event? If it had, that was incredibly dangerous.

  “I am sorry.” He murmured quietly as he continued to stroke her hair. He was annoyed that he had put her in such a position, even if it was out of his control. Though at the same time, he was happy to see she cared for him enough to get like she was. They had only known each other for a couple of months, but if you spent nearly all of your time with someone, a strong bond was bound to be born.

  “Ah, what a touching moment.” Tesilim heard the voice, and a big grin spread across his face.

  “You shouldn’t be laughing, you know. You’re lucky to be the first of your kind to show on my planet like this.”

  “Really?” Tesilim asked, surprised.

  “Yeah, it’s the reason why I am putting up with this nonsense. I am really interested in the various interactions your power has with reality.”

  “Does that mean I can count on you stepping in every now and then?”

  “Eh, maybe, depends on what exactly is going on. This time around, I was interested in your use of contracts and Chaos Mana.”

  “I figured. What exactly caught your attention?’ Tesilim asked, still on the ground with Lili still on his chest. Thankfully, she had calmed down some.

  “The whole thing about putting me in the contract and using your connection to me to bring me into the fold. A nice touch. It only really worked because of your indirect Chaos Mana manipulation. Thankfully, that is a very limited thing; otherwise, I might have to erase you from existence.” The World Crystal answered, and Tesilim knew by the feel in the air that it was not kidding.

  “Good to know. I will keep it in mind.”

  “That would be good for your health.”

  “So, what now? Are you gonna help me out?”

  “I don’t have a choice. As you know, connections work both ways. So, technically, I am already the enforcer of the contract. The problem is that the contract itself is still not powerful enough to not be torn apart by your dryad friend or someone of equivalent power.”

  “Wait, how does that work? If you are enforcing the contract, how is it not already strong enough to stop someone from breaking it?”

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  “Because I am not some mortal. Also, you do know you can have the enforcer imbue the contract with a lower level of magic. I don’t even know why they call them enforcers since it really is just a lot of mana and some of my background work that deals with the contract.”

  “I see, so the enforcer is the enchanter making the contract strong; that way it can't be destroyed. Then, you enforce the stuff on the contract. At least the magical aspects of it. So, I was technically the enchanter this time around.”

  “Yeah, it was more like your Chaos Mana forced the issue, which is why so much mana went missing. It was somehow able to even purify it. Sadly, it ran out of power before too long, hence the contract's level of power.”

  “I see. Well, can you give it that last boost?”

  “Sure, might as well.” The World Crystal answered, and in the next second, the contract's power increased.

  “Alright, let's wrap this up. Jolly was it? Would you mind coming here and signing this?”

  Jolly had been hearing the whole exchange, and she wasn’t sure how to feel. The World Crystal was acting like she wasn’t there at all. She was glad for that because it meant there was less chance for her to say something that might get her killed. However, at the same time, she was curious to speak with the entity and hopefully learn something.

  Of course, out of everything, she was most taken aback by how Tesilim spoke to the god. To Jolly, it felt like it was just two friends having a conversation, even though they were talking about some serious stuff. It was even more crazy that the World Crystal was helping Tesilim out and that it was doing it for the same reasons she was interested in the elf, his Chaos Mana.

  Finally, the conversation came to an end, and she was asked to come forward and sign the contract. That was an odd thing she had noticed. The World Crystal hadn’t commanded her to do anything so far. Instead, it had asked. Usually, gods didn’t ask. They simply told you what to do. Not like it changed anything since the pressure exerted by the question was enough to get anyone moving and she was grabbing hold of the contract before she knew what she was doing.

  Tesilim saw the proud and powerful dryad meekly walk towards the floating contract. She grabbed it from the air, and he assumed she began signing it. Leaving the dryad to do her thing, he focused back on the elf on his chest.

  Lili had been paying attention to the exchange but hadn’t said much, and Tesilim had been too preoccupied to pay attention to her. However, now, as they looked at each other, their eyes met, and Tesilim saw a few emotions pass through her beautiful violet eyes.

  There was fear, worry, and wanting, which made him wonder what was troubling her.

  For one, Lili was worried about losing Tesilim, not just because of his mana but for his companionship. The elf lived in the present most of the time, a quality she admired since she was trying to forget her past.

  It was also clear to her that she had been developing feelings for him, but the latest event of having him die brought out and made her aware of how she felt. However, she worried that one day he would find out about her past, and whatever it was they built would crumble. She had done some incredibly terrible things, and though Tesilim was the forgiving sort, quickly trying to move past issues, she worried that he would not forgive her.

  Finally, she hadn’t been teasing him for no reason. The elf was handsome, and she felt like they were a good match. It just never felt like a good moment to do anything. She was aware that the customs of Earth differed and had been worrying about doing something wrong. Moreover, it had been early in their friendship, and she had wanted to get a measure of who he was.

  However, as she looked up into his eyes, it was clear their feelings were relatively mutual, if still young. He wasn’t scared or worried but looked at her with adoration and hunger, which made her smile.

  “You feeling better?” Tesilim asked as he saw Lili’s eyes stop wavering as some measure of stability came to them. The elf didn’t respond and gave a quick noise of affirmation, their eyes still locked to one another’s.

  “That’s good. You know that-that was probably just a Chaos Event. Isn’t that right?” Tesilim asked out loud.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. Anything that would kill him outright without giving him a chance to do something, even if whatever he does is insignificant, is not allowed. That’s why the effect brought him back to life. That one was mostly for shits and giggles, as they say.”

  “Did it make you laugh?”

  “Eh, not really my type of humor, probably made someone else laugh.”

  “Who?”

  “Can’t say, or she will get mad. Anyway, I am going to freeze your dryad friend here and give you guys a bit more time in the time freeze so you can have a private moment.”

  “Wait! Wha-“ Jolly began to say but was stopped midway as her whole existence froze.

  “Well, that’s not ominous at all. Still more privacy, for what? Tesilim questioned, looking back at Lili and seeing her slightly pouty face.

  It took him a second to put the puzzle together, and when he did, his eyes widened, making Lili smile.

  “You know, for the whole free will thing, it sure doesn’t care about minding its own business,” Lili said, annoyed.

  “I-I was not expecting today to go like this…” Tesilim answered, his face going still as he thought hard on how to broach the subject, his eyes wandering all over the place.

  Seeing this, Lili took charge, “Tesilim.”

  “Hmmm?” The elf answered, his eyes still moving about as he got even more nervous. He wasn’t sure why he had so many butterflies in his stomach all of a sudden, but he swore it was because of the after-effects of the Chaos Event.

  “Look at me,” Lili demanded, and Tesilim’s head snapped to meet her eyes.

  “Would you like to make love with a dryad with me?” Lili asked, dead serious, having decided to take a risk.

  Hearing the question, Tesilim’s eyes went wide, but he saw the humor in her eyes.

  “Absolutely.” He answered, and in response, she leaned in for a kiss.

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