Watching the heartwarming scene, Cipher suddenly said, "Actually, Aria, if you want to, you can form a contract with Half right now."
Aria's strength had long since surpassed Olivia's, and Half had become a being that was half Faith God, half Ancient God, far more powerful than before. If they formed a contract now, their combined strength would be even greater.
However, the one who reacted most strongly to Cipher's words wasn't Aria or Half, but the Pixie hovering nearby. She remembered how Cipher had vehemently opposed her forming a contract with Aria. Why was she now so eager to let Aria sign with some unknown, dumb dog?
The Pixie flapped her wings and flew right up to Half, frowning as she scrutinized him. "Little guy, what exactly are you?"
Half glanced back at the Pixie, opened his mouth, and instead of a bark or a meow, a surprisingly cute voice emerged. "I am the Northern Wolf God, meow~!"
The Pixie: "?"
Aria, Douglas, Feidric, and Daphne, who were also present, all wore the same bewildered expression. "?"
Douglas, utterly bewildered, blurted out, "What the hell are you talking about!?"
The combination of the soft, adorable voice, the claim of being the Northern Wolf God, and the final "meow" made Douglas feel a profound sense of unreality.
Then, to everyone's even greater astonishment, Half leaped from Aria's arms. A flash of blue light enveloped him, and by the time he landed, he had transformed into a... blue-haired loli about 1.4 meters tall.
"Huh?" Aria's face went completely blank. "You're... Half?! But aren't you..."
...a boy? Aria left the last word unsaid, but Cipher cut her off, stating directly, "Yes, don't let his cute appearance fool you. He is indeed a boy."
Aria: "?"
The Pixie: "?"
The root of the problem lay with Cerydra. Recently, she had been carrying Half everywhere while she preached the "correct" Wolf God Faith to the barbarians of the Northern Territory.
Although Cerydra never explicitly stated it, she hinted in various ways that the little creature in her arms was the Wolf God. As the barbarians gazed at her while listening to her stories and offering their faith, this inevitably led to some problems.
A believer's faith directly affects a Faith God. So, when those barbarians generated faith related to the Wolf God, it was impossible for their minds not to contain some image of Cerydra.
In the past, the barbarians of the Northern Territory valued strength and ferocity above all else. But honestly, Cerydra had gradually warped their preferences. If you were to ask them now whether their old muscle-bound leaders were more attractive or if Her Majesty Cerydra was, they would choose the latter without hesitation.
This resulted in Half's transformed appearance... actually bearing a slight resemblance to Cerydra. Both were blue-haired lolis.
The first time Half transformed, even Cerydra herself was stunned for a moment before she quickly figured out why.
"But appearance doesn't matter. Look, Half himself doesn't mind at all. He still speaks with his childhood verbal tic—'Meow, meow, meow.' So cute."
"So, Sister Aria, do you want to form a contract?" Half looked at Aria, his adorable blue eyes seeming to twinkle like stars. Of course, Aria didn't refuse. "How do we do it?"
Half replied, "It's simple! Just hold my hand, meow~"
Aria knelt down and extended her right hand to clasp Half's. The process was incredibly simple and swift, without any flashy special effects. After just four or five seconds, Half announced, "All done~ Now, Sister Aria, you can use my power!"
In truth, what the two had just done wasn't so much "forming a contract" as it was "reopening a contract."
It was like two cities. Forming a contract for the first time was like building a road between them. But the "road" between Aria and Half had always existed; it had just fallen into disuse and become cluttered with obstacles. All Half had done was clear away the debris.
Warlock contracts are soul-level agreements. Even though neither of them were the same people they once were, their souls remained unchanged, so the contract naturally persisted.
Aria blinked, surprised. "Eh? That's all it took?"
Half nodded. "Of course~!"
With that, he transformed back into his puppy form and leaped into Aria's arms, nuzzling against her chest.
Getting back on track, Cipher spoke up. "Alright, alright, we can set off now! Let's see... the source of the corruption is... this way!"
With Cipher leading, the group slowly began to move. Along the way, they inevitably encountered several waves of mutated animals. But Cipher didn't even need to act—nor did Aria and the others. The large group of warlocks who had contracted with Pixie ended the battles in an instant.
Pixie deliberately flew over to Half, pouting provocatively. "See? My magic is so powerful! It's such a shame. Aria is so cute; it would have been much better if she'd contracted with me~"
In response, Half merely glanced at Pixie without saying a word. But just a moment later, snowflakes began to drift down from the sky. As natives of the Great Forest, Daphne and the others were completely stunned at the sight of snow.
It was like indigenous people from a tropical rainforest seeing snow for the first time. The more knowledgeable Daphne had heard of snow, but she had never seen it with her own eyes. The others hadn't even heard of it; they might have gone their entire lives without ever encountering such a thing.
But now, thanks to Half's power, they were witnessing it.
Even though snow was falling, the temperature barely dropped. Daphne reached out and caught a snowflake. It felt icy cold in her palm before quickly melting and disappearing from her body heat.
However, as the group continued forward, they soon saw mutated animals frozen into ice sculptures appearing in their path.
The snowflakes were harmless when they landed on the ground or on the group members. But when they touched these "enemies," they instantly unleashed an unimaginable chill, freezing them solid in an instant.
Only then did Half look provocatively at Pixie and stick out his tongue. "Bleh~"
Pixie: "..."