Overlord - Of Sin And Sanctity 16 Abusing Authority

Dabilosi: Cool. If you give me the deeds for the Umbrium mine I'll protect the people in the Slane Theocracy for five years. The deeds only need to last for ten years.

Neglecting to mention that protecting the people does not necessarily mean upholding the borders. Just making sure as few people die as possible - and even then only while they are undeniably in Slane Theocracy territory. Once a case can be made for territory belonging to any other nation, I will not be required to help those people. All in all, I win.

Berenice: Kuh. You said you need this material, and yet you are only willing to defend our lands for 5 years? Pathetic. I do not believe we should agree.

Raymond: Whilst I am aware of your strength, I too believe that 5 years is too little in exchange for 10 years of owners.h.i.+p.

Yeh, no. Time to play them like a flute.

Dabilosi: First of all, I never said that this was one of the materials I desperately need. In fact, I merely wish to conduct experiments on it due to it's unique properties - having encountered it once before. Second of all, I would be an unstoppable force for any opposing me, and as such would save countless lives on a battlefield whilst inflicting crippling casualties to the enemy. So don't try and twist it to get more than your fair share out of me. Also, I'd just like to mention again that I could kill you without anyone being able to stop me.

After throwing the half-rotten carrot, prepare your big stick. First rule of negotiation.

Raymond: ah. In that case, how about we put this in writing officially.

Dabilosi: How about I make an oath on G.o.d's name. Paperwork is annoying.

Raymond: 'Maybe he is trying to put across his sincerity. If it is only in writing it definitely can just be ignored at a crucial juncture, but angels cannot disobey their G.o.d.' Very well. We too will swear in our G.o.d's names.

Dabilosi: I want it in writing from you. Humans cannot be trusted. Ahem! I, Archangel Darnell, do swear upon my Saviour and my G.o.d that forthwith I shall be bound to protect the people in the Slane Theocracy to the best of mine own small ability, even unto death, and for the duration of 5 years. In exchange for my service, leaders of the other party shall grant me 10 years with exclusive owners.h.i.+p over one Umbrium mine, and allowing no man, woman or beast to see the happenings within 1 mile of the mine. Should I break this contract, my soul itself shalt be cast unto eternal d.a.m.nation. Should the latter party at any time break their contract, I reserve the right to demand or outright take, as many items and as much land as I see fit from that party.

Given I'm already a fallen archangel I'd like to point out that my soul is eternally d.a.m.ned anyway, so the consequences of myself breaking the contract might as well not exist. On the other hand, even if I do, they still aren't allowed to be within a mile of the mine, or I can take literally the whole theocracy with a good excuse. Well, actually they can break the terms by having anyone even LOOK at the land in a 1 mile radius of the mine, but those are petty details.

Raymond: Gah! Don't you think that's a bit much?

Dabilosi: You weren't planning on giving me the deeds and the preventing me from bringing in people to use my land right? I'd HATE to see what would happen if you did that.

Raymond: No, however these terms are too much! If one of us even pa.s.ses through that land by accident you have a reason to leave us with nothing!

Dabilosi: No... You'll still have your lives. Which is more than I can say for those of other countries who intrude. So just shut up and make the oath. I'm actually getting sick of talking to you.

Raymond: I will pretend you didn't say that. Berenice?

Berenice: You aren't giving us much of a choice are you?

Dabilosi: *chuckling* Hah- No. But you get plenty out of it, so I don't really know what you're complaining about.

Plenty of nothing. But I will make sure it is PLENTY of nothing.

Raymond: I swear upon my life, my country and the G.o.ds Alah Alaf and Surshana, that I will uphold my section of the oath made by one Archangel Darnell. I agree that the terms are just, and shall begin to carry this burden beginning 72 hours from this point.

Dabilosi: Now that that's done - who in this country know the most martial arts?

Raymond: That would most likely me Zarion, an instructor for swordsmans.h.i.+p who helps train the Clearwater scripture. He is not the strongest however, merely being a fanatic who attempts to learn any martial art he can, regardless of it's utility. He is very rarely seen outside the training court polis.h.i.+ng combinations of his bizarre techniques or doing his jib.

Dabilosi: Right then. I won't see you again for a while so I say good riddance you lowly worms.

Then I walked out feeling pleased with myself. I always wanted to call people in power worms, but it just didn't seem right if they aren't actually being obnoxious and/or rude.

As they said, there was a man in the training court swinging his sword around like a madman with unconventional and unsuitable for combat movements.

Forneus: You would not be terribly inconvenienced if I avoided interaction with that man?

Dabilosi: Sure, you can sit this one out. It is a bit rude to judge a book by it's cover though.

I went up to greet him and was met at around 5 metres by an... aura? It seemed as though the could cut through anything, but only until he realised I was there and stopped to look at me.

'This man... Even at such a low level he managed to activate the [Sword Domain] pa.s.sive aura. In YGGDRASIL this was only possible by having 150+ sword related moves, 1/2 or more of the total maximum. If he actually managed to learn that many sword skills, I am astonished that he isn't higher up the ranks. Then again, Raymond did mention he learnt them 'regardless of utility'.

Dabilosi: I'm sorry to intrude, but I was just wondering what skills you were using there.

Zarion: Wahaha! So someone else finally acknowledges my unorthodox styles! Although, that one was not quite up to scratch, eventually it will join my [Samsara cycles]. 199 different martial arts flowing into each other with endless variety depending on the moves the other makes! Some of these arts were mocked as useless, but anything can be used as a weapon given the right circ.u.mstances, and I aim to create those circ.u.mstances! In any situation! Wahaha!

'Now I understand why Forneus didn't want to talk to him. Dear Lord save us... Oh wait... I'm a fallen angel... d.a.m.n it.'

Dabilosi: That sounds like the perfect art! Do you think you could teach me as it is now? In the end I may even help with it's creat-

Zarion: I like your enthusiasm! But, this art is far too difficult to create. So far I have only joined 170 martial arts, and the difficulty of adding more increases by a lot each time, as the flaws I need to cover become more and more and more difficult to fix. I will try to teach you, as I have tried to teach many many others, but so far no-one can grasp it's complexity, defeating it simply because one move is not yet complete, and calling it a failure... Or using magic, and using that as an excuse to call it a failure.

Dabilosi: Only through perseverance can we succeed, may I please face you in combat to grasp the movements?

Obviously, I'll limit myself to the same speed and use no magic, because otherwise it would be beyond unfair.'

Zarion: Very well be wary, and give me fair warning before you wish to end. Hah!

He launches himself at me, striking down with force, but as I block with Masamune and he goes for a strike on my side, and shadow is formed, swinging above in the exact same manner as he did before. Jumping to the right to avoid both blades and counter, the true blade extends, tearing my clothes and almost injuring me. My blade tears down at a diagonal, but he kicks out straight as an arrow, he tilts, slides his blade against mine and thrusts, as I'm bringing my sword around he uses his palm to force my blade away without even touching it and his blade extends again.

Dabilosi: Stop!

Just before the blade pierces my chest, it stops. Thinking back, throughout the battle his mouth was ever so slightly open and I could see it moving a tiny amount. So every one of those was a martial art huh... 170 and I only saw 3. Is this what my level of swordsmans.h.i.+p amounts to in this world.

Zarion: Phew. You did well for a first time. You made me use 8 martial arts in battle, for a total of 33.

Dabilosi: What?! I only noticed 3!

Zarion: Wahaha! Obviously you noticed [Shadow Blade] [Extension] and [Repulsion wave], but I used 25 martial arts to boost my power as soon as I saw the strength of the grip on your blade, when I jumped at you both times I used [Evasion] because it makes you super fast for an instant, again to tilt myself midair, [Locate] to move as perfectly as possible when dipping to your side, and [Continual] to reverse time on the shadow so it can strike again. [Continual] sounds great when I put it like that, but I can only use it this way because I am a genius! It only targets the user, or as you can see, a part of you. It also makes you repeat the same actions, and since the opponent can see you do it and knows the follow up, they can easily counter. Not if I have anything to say about it! Wahaha, what did I tell you?! There is endless variety! By the way there seems to be someone else watching from a distance... A friend of yours?

Dabilosi: Yeh, but don't mind him, he's incredibly antisocial. I have to hand it to you, as far as I can see this really is a perfect art for close combat if everything is as polished as this. Sadly I need to check in with my 'significant other', but I'll be back later on to learn more if that isn't too much of a problem!

'[Continual]... The opponent uses super tier magic but you don't want to take damage, just use this! I just cast a super tier magic, well lets do it again!... [Evasion] is the definition of a kiting art, [Shadow Blade] might be able to duplicate magic which would lead to even bigger combos with [Continual] and [Repulsion Wave] could presumably if strengthened be used to repel anything wearing metal armour... I can't see ANY problem with this.'

Forneus: So polygamy is an acceptable practice for Denizens of Nazarick? Noted. I have not seen relations.h.i.+ps within before, so I was unaware of this.

Dabilosi: I said 'significant other' Forneus. Not 'wife'. s.h.i.+zu is the only other person of importance in the Slane Theocracy, so I was completely justified in saying it.

Forneus: And yet you jumped to the conclusion that is C.Z 2128 Delta without even considering Zess.h.i.+ Zetsumei. I believe you may be more attached than you think.

Dabilosi: Oh really now. You aren't an expert on love itself if I remember correctly, just making people be loved. So shut up.

Forneus: Hmmm, very well.

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Huh. The last few author's notes have been too long and wouldn't register on webnovel which is rather annoying so from here on they're just going to be underneath the chapter.

I honestly don't know what to say right now because at the moment this novel is at just under 500 collections. Honestly, may the odds be... Thank you. Thank you for your collections, thank you for your support, and thank you for not getting too angry that it's only one chapter a week XD.

Side note I might do an extra 5000 words over the next week or two. So that's something.

Discord link: discord.gg/NWRtraT