Titan's Throne

Chapter 6- Soul Sworn

  Chapter 6- Soul Sworn

Boom!

Ben felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He had never expected to receive such an opportunity. He tried opening his mouth to say something, but he didn't quite know what to say. He felt paralyzed, as if his body was no longer his own.

A Soul Sworn was a person, who through a certain ritual, offers up their life in servitude to another. This bond would last until either the master or the Soul Sworn die. It was an unshakable bond that would bind both parties, and nothing could break or interfere with it except death.

Normally one would never want to become another person's Soul Sworn, because you would effectively become a slave for life. Becoming a Soul Sworn to a powerful person, let alone a Mark Bearer was different, very different. Even though you are essentially becoming that person's lifelong slave, being a Soul Sworn also has its advantages.

The master of a Soul Sworn is called a Meister. A Meister has complete control of his or her slave. Once one becomes a Soul Sworn, their personality is modified. They will start seeing the Meister in complete reverence. They will find it practically impossible to resist their master's orders. The rule is if a Soul Sworn disobeys their master, their soul gets destroyed, so they have even more of a reason to obey.

It is for this reason, that any Meister will completely trust any Soul Sworn they have. Another reason why Soul Sworn are valued is because the amount of Soul Sworn one can have is limited by the power of their soul. An average person doesn't even have a powerful enough soul to have even one Soul Sworn. To have more than one is already seen as being impressive.

Since the number of Soul Sworn one can have is limited, A Meister does not choose lightly. This number or capacity is determined at birth. It cannot be increased or decreased through any means.

Also the amount of times you can do the ritual as a Meister is limited as a result. So if you kill one of your own Soul Sworn and you have reached your limit, then you have lost one more permanently and cannot replenish your numbers.

Thus if you become the Soul Sworn of a powerful person, they would most likely treat you with great value, especially if they have the capability to create only a few Soul Sworn. This boy was young, even if the mark had improved his talent, Ben doubted it could change the power of his soul.

A Soul Sworn is a highly trusted and valued servant. Since his/her fate is tied to their Meister, then the more powerful the Meister is, the better. Not to mention a Mark Bearer!

Ben knew better than to be hesitant when such a chance was before him. He immediately kowtowed to Bastian, and pledged his allegiance to him.

The only issue left was that neither Bastian nor Ben knew how to do the ritual, luckily for them, the little girl did.

"Master, are you sure this girl is to be trusted? What if she tricks us and uses this opportunity to try something?" Ben said with a worried expression on his face.

Bastian only smiled and said nothing. His smile was brimming with confidence, so Ben ended up remaining quiet.

Bastian was very good at reading faces. In his previous life, Bastian was very skilled at this, because his father was a deception expert, who specialized in micro expressions. Bastian's father started as a psychiatrist but was eventually pulled into behavioral psychology.

From a very young age Bastian was taught how to read faces. Perhaps the father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, either way he taught Bastian most of what he knew regarding this.