I looked at Tempest with half-lidded eyes. “Explain yourself,” I said, trying to pull my arm free.

She refused to let go, and I found I lacked the strength to shake her off. “I have reason to believe you’ve been cursed, Master,” she said, instead pulling my wrist closer. “Please. Hold still.” In a faint, desolate corner of my mind, I registered the sound of several elves making nervous gulps.

“Hmph. Fine. Do as you will.”

“Thank you,” she said, followed by a swift incantation, and soon, a magic circle formed around my wrist. “[Light-Attribute Magic: Identify Magic].”

Her expression revealed nothing to me, though that may just have been because her assumption was correct.

“Curse of Listlessness, Curse of Sluggishness, Curse of Restlessness, Blessing to Sleepless Folk…” She raised her face to look me in the eyes. “In several ways, Master, I’m surprised you’re still standing.”

“So?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. She let go of my wrist, so I pulled my hand back to myself. “Can you trace them to their source, or perhaps undo them?”

“I already know the source,” she said, “and as for undoing them… one second.” She once more muttered an incantation, though the spell was a fair bit longer this time, and the magic circle covered the floor of the whole room.

I made a quick gesture while Tempest was busy, prompting Davna to place herself in front of the door.

“[Wind-Attribute Magic: Area Dispel].”

The magic circle under our feet shattered as though it were a broken mirror, and it took with it every spell in its area of effect. A fog lifted from my mind and a weight disappeared from my shoulders, and—

At least half the drakonids had the smirks wiped off their faces, revealing nervous or even on-the-verge-of-crying expressions, and their horns decreased in length by perhaps half. In other words, they were using magic to make themselves look more intimidating.

Not one of them met my gaze dead-on.

With the fog lifted off my mind, I finally realised how poor of an idea it was to try and take on the entire huddle of drakonids while mysteriously exhausted. At the same time, it also gave me the leeway to have a more detailed look at their mana reactions, which told me they were not that big a deal.

“Charlotte,” I said, extending one of my arms to her. “Check my physical condition.”

“As thou commands, M’lord,” she said, rolling up my sleeve and drawing her knife.

“Tempest. Which fool committed the sin of cursing me?”

“I located the necessary items to perform these curses scattered in a number of tents in the drakonids’ encampment, Master,” she answered, gesturing loosely to the scaled imbeciles. “My leading hypothesis is that they used the items either from a distance or at night, while you slept. Neither possibility can be ruled out.”

“I see, I see,” I said, narrowing my eyes and cocking my head back. “Well, as it turns out, they were rather willing to make an arrangement with me… I shall not have them renege on that.”

“M’lord, I have p’rified the banes in thy bloodstream,” Charlotte said, rolling my sleeve back into place. “There were sev’ral, all norm’lly administ’red through food.”

“Not just the drakonids, but the elves, too?” I said, dramatically extending my arms out. “I am appalled you would treat a foreign leader like this. It would not be strange for me to start a war with you over this, you know.”

Of course, a war against a nation that possessed a ninth-grade monster, several seventh-grade monsters, and armies of sixth- and fifth-grade monsters was already a ridiculous concept, only made worse if that enemy nation had one’s own goddess under their thumb. Realising this, several of the elves paled their already pale faces.

“I will politely inform you that this was not the Council’s decision,” the Elven Council Vice President said, “this is the first I have heard of any such underhanded means.”

My ears were filled with words of assent. A quick mind-reading skill told me which were truthful and which were lies, so I could easily use a hint of telepathy to inform Charlotte of the locations of the imbeciles who had tried to deceive me.

The very moment she slit her wrist, they were wrapped in chains of blood and presented before me in a neat tower. That is, a tower of three elves, precariously stacked upon one another, and not a single drakonid.

I clicked my tongue. “Are there any absentees?”

“Now that you mention it, Lord Kieran is absent,” an elf said, looking around.

“Idrais ain’t here either,” a drakonid said.

Considering the morons I had scared away yesterday were not here and each side only mentioned one person, it was likely that the absentees were exactly those morons.

“Then go find them,” I said, gesturing towards the door. “Meanwhile, it is time you honour your promise.” I could not even bring myself to smirk as I looked at the drakonids.

The elf and the drakonid who had spoken up left rather quickly, apparently rather grateful for an easy way out. The rest of the drakonids huddled together in a manner akin to… Yes, to a herd of wild prey animals confronted by a predator, perhaps, and sent a number of defensive and begging glowers my way.

“Not here, you imbeciles,” I said, knocking on the wall. “This place is made of wood. Do you want to burn down the elves’ capitol building and accelerate this into a war?” I turned to the Elven Council Vice President. “You. A more suitable location for this.”

“Ah- Of course, Lord Astaroth.”

An area that was almost like the Colosseum—the only stone building I had seen so far in the entirety of the elven capital. Perhaps it was used for entertainment and thus needed to be fire-resistant in case some manner of fire-related act went wrong…

Well, I did not really care to begin with.

I cleared my throat and looked at the drakonids before me. They numbered perhaps twenty, in a rough circle around me, and sent me a variety of glares and sneers.

“To make things almost fair,” I said, “I will not be using this artifact and will rely only on my own power.” I gestured to Gnome’s ring.

“Looking down on us, are you?” one of the drakonids responded, readying his claws. “You’ll pay for that!”

I was not particularly underestimating them, and I was nigh certain I would be paying only the mana required to win this fight.

“Hmph. I would like to see you try.” I turned to the Elven Council Treasurer, who had volunteered to act as a referee. “A count of three.”

“Ah, y-yes.” They closed their eyes, took a deep breath and looked out over the arena.

“Three.” The drakonids who had not yet done so readied their claws, taking on battle-ready poses and flaring their wings.

“Two.” I placed my hand over my face as dramatically as I could, tilted my head back, and sneered. This prompted several of the drakonids to growl.

“One.” As a group, the drakonids took a few steps closer, and I spotted a few of them open their mouths, revealing an ominous orange glow.

“Zer-”

Before the elf could even finish the word, several drakonids launched their firebreaths at the place I was standing. Only moments before that did I unfurl my wings and take off, and I narrowly avoided being scorched.

It was not as though the fire would really harm me, what with my regenerative abilities, but I was not very keen on wearing burnt clothes.

“Wh- You bastard!” one of the drakonids yelled, chasing after me with his own wings.

I extended one arm towards him even as the other did not leave my face, chanting a spell under my breath as I kept ascending.

It should have been easy to conclude that I was a mage, with my relatively light clothing and complete lack of weaponry, but he did not seem to appreciate the danger of that, given he simply kept going.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Dark Bullet].”

His foolishness did not go unpunished—the bullet made point-blank contact with his face and caused a fair impact. With a thud, he landed on his back on the ground. After a few moments, he glared at me, tears in the corners of his eyes.

“... Disgusting.” With the small opening produced by the drakonids’ distractedness, I swiftly cast Purple Magic Guard on myself.

Of course, it would not last forever. In the first place, Purple Magic Guard was ill-suited to physical protection.

But it would give me enough time to cast a stronger barrier.

For a few seconds, I chanted, during which my Magic Guard managed to push away flames and keep back sharp claws. And then, I declared the name of the spell—nay, I declared my very victory itself.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Amethyst High Magic Guard].”

The darkness of the Purple Magic Guard fell to the ground and seeped away, replaced by nothing more than a slight purple sheen on my body and clothes. And yet, the moment a drakonid attempted to take advantage of this opening to slash at me—

His claws snapped.

A drakonid’s claws, their symbols of pride said to be stronger than the strongest metal of man, snapped clean in half due to his own attack.

He yelped in pain, pulled back his hand and looked at me with a hateful glare.

“Do not think your measly natural weapons can overcome a High Magic Guard. Had I used a Diamond High Magic Guard, your entire arm would have met the same fate.”

With a sneer on my face, I accepted every attack that came my way, and likely snapped a hundred-odd claws without even doing anything.

“Now, then. I suppose it is my turn next, yes?”

Finally, I removed my hand from my face and once more gathered mana in my hands as I chanted. With a grand, maniacal grin, I raised my hands to the sky and spread out mana in the shape of an outrageous magic circle, my mouth spinning devoted prayers I did not quite understand.

On top of the magic circle, perhaps fifteen metres in diameter, appeared another, smaller. And another, yet smaller. And so forth, until I had built a tower of seven circles atop one another, which I promptly layered into one.

And then I spoke.

With a tranquil, calm voice, as if reading a fact off a list, I made a simple declaration. A declaration that in this space, there was no one who could beat me.

“[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Requiem].”

Empowered by around a quarter of the mana pool of an absurd Overlord and given his verbal permission to act, the magic circle whirred in delight. A pillar of solid darkness raised from the ground, granting me solid footing to stand on—I put my wings away.

And then the world turned black.

The ground, the sky and everything inbetween—

As long as it was within the range of my spell, that is, within the arena of the colosseum, it all turned black.

The sound of a majestic church bell filled the air, ringing again and again.

Every single “enemy”—that is, every drakonid—had their eyes wrapped in darkness. They cried out for they could not see. Then the spell reached into their minds, tore apart their thoughts and replaced them all with despair.

But of course, such a delightful spell would not end here. I lowered my hands and let them relax at my sides, and—sat down atop the black pillar.

With a snap of my finger, the spell performed its second effect.

From the black ground emerged countless shadows. Around the pillar, as if to protect it, a group of dolls with wicked grins and vacant eyes kept watch. Giant, clawed, ball-jointed hands appeared from the ground and grasped screaming sacks of meat, crushing some of their bones and leaving them gasping for air. Black ghosts rode forth on black beasts and skewered claws on their black spears. Small, black bats, capable of the vilest of magics, cosied up to their master—to me. I stroked a few on the head, some light chuckles escaping my mouth.

“That… That’s enough!” the Elven Council Treasurer yelled, their eyes displaying a wonderful mixture of panic and fear.

“Oh, boo. Already? How boring.” Despite my protests, I simply willed it, and—

The creatures faded into the shadows, colour returned to the world, the pillar faded, darkness no longer clouded their eyes and the spell let go of their minds.

I stood in the centre of a collection of sobbing, wheezing drakonids.

“Ah, incidentally, I am not particularly interested in healing their wounds.”

“I- Yes, of course,” the Treasurer said, “I will have a Dryad deal with it. You need not concern yourself with it.”

“As it should be.” I turned back in the direction of the capitol, flaring my cape. “Then, I will be… dealing with those treacherous low-lifes.”

“Please go easy on them, Overlord,” the Treasurer said.

“That is my judgment to make.”

The heavy sound of my footsteps seemed to snap my Demon Generals out of their dazes. They followed closely behind me.

“M’lord,” Charlotte said, taking a few steps ahead, “I am truly hon’red to be your vass’l.”

“... What is this, suddenly?” I asked, raising an eyebrow and halting in place.

“Nay, ‘tis just… You have once more pr’ven that you are w’thout a doubt the great’st liege I could hope t’ ask for. ‘Tis only appropri’te t’ treat s’periors with the r’spect they d’serve, nay?” She curtsied, an unusual true, genuine smile on her face—one filled with respect.

“If you say so. But do not look down on yourself. You five are the greatest servants one could hope for, too.”

“I am und’serving of your words, M’lord.”

“Master,” Tempest said, apparently having the will to speak up now that the silence was broken anyway, “that was… incredible. As far as I know, spells like Requiem are ritual spells intended for several mages to cast, with the determination to end their lives…” I was forced to pull away my hand to prevent her clinging onto it.

“That is not wrong, Tempest. I brute-forced it. I could not do that four more times without giving my mana time to recover.”

“To be able to brute-force a spell like that is plenty amazing on its own! And the behaviour of the summoned creatures… It is as though you are loved by mana itself, Master!”

“If you say so, Tempest, if you say so.”

Amazing or not, this was still nowhere near enough. I was certain she could cover this entire country in darkness in the blink of an eye.

If I wanted to stand by her side as her equal, I had to…

We arrived.

“Ah, he’s back.”

“We may as well be dead already.”

“Hey, isn’t that spirit even more excited than earlier?”

The trio of elves might not have understood the situation entirely, but at the very least, they knew their place.

“Dead, is it?” I said, chuckling. I shut the door behind me.

Notably, it was just the four of us in here.

“Yeah. You’re gonna kill us for poisoning you, right? I don’t blame you. I might do the same if I were you.”

“Ah, killing, killing… Although there is a part of me that wants to do that, killing you would truly be—”

I grasped him by his hair and pulled him up, staring him straight in the eyes.

“—Such a waste.”

I dropped him back down, right into the tip of my shoe, and then moved my foot to hit the other two in the head as well, for good measure.

“Throwing away such valuable contacts in the elven council, what kind of an imbecile do you take me for? Trust me, you will wish you were dead.”

I ground one of my heels into the chest of the elf who happened to be lying closest to that foot.

“I will make sure you three can repent properly, so look forward to it~,” I said, a friendly smile on my face.