MEMORIES OF AN OVERLORD
by Victar (vctr113062 [at] aol [dot] com)
Victar's Archive: https://www.vicfanfic.com
"Ever since that day, it's been hard to see myself as anything other than a useless screw-up, or worse. Like I can really do anything other than watch people ruin themselves, or push them toward ruin."
Chapter Eight
Memories of an Overlord: Awakening Faith
%I said, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR OVERLORD!%
Anemos ducked under Overlord Yusis Orzand's wide arc of solid miasma. Laminah leaped over it, gracefully. The obsidian crescent slammed into Cynthia; it knocked her down, then dissipated into smoke.
Laminah landed and swept her halberd's blade from right to left, slicing through the Overlord's neck. His monstrous head started to drift from his shoulders.
%Nngh-!% In an astoundingly fast movement, the Overlord seized his head with one hand; his head reattached to his neck in an eruption of jet-black miasma-smoke. %I hate that.%
Laminah's face was expressionless, her eyes intensely focused on the flow of battle, as she swung her halberd back the other way.
The Overlord made an almost instantaneous vertical gesture; a small wall of solid miasma erupted from the rocky ground, blocking Laminah's second attack. The force of the impact reverted the miasma-wall to smoke.
%I've been conserving my power for this. You won't exhaust my reserves anytime soon.%
Anemos released the bardic magic he had been gathering through his lute. He willed his invocation to lend Laminah speed and heighten her strength.
Cynthia pushed herself to her knees and called, "Yusis, why are you acting this way?"
The Overlord seemed to magnify the distance between himself and Laminah in the blink of an eye. She barely raised her halberd in time to parry a small miasma-block that he hurled at her. The cloying sensation of dark magic and a smattering of motion beneath her feet alerted her to a manifesting threat; she quickly sidestepped to avoid heavy, jet-black chains emerging from the ground.
%Nice dodge. It really is harder to focus on spells if I don't say or do anything special when I cast them.%
Even as the jet-black chains dissolved into smoke, the Overlord sent two miasma-chunks flying at Anemos and Laminah. The bard lithely evaded the attack; Laminah willfully accepted a glancing blow to her armor so that she could advance close enough to thrust her halberd.
%Personal space,% chided the Overlord, and in an unreadable blur of motion he was standing just beyond the weapon's extended tip.
"Anemos!" Laminah directed. She did not have to elaborate; the bard was already invoking his power of sound and magic in an attempt to entangle the Overlord, and slow him down as much as possible.
%I can do that too, you know. Only mine's better.%
The Overlord held one hand palm out, and a flare of thick miasma-smoke briefly enveloped his three former comrades. Its aftereffects made their eyes water and dragged on their senses, like a thousand tiny, invisible cords hampering every thought and movement.
%So, what part of KNEEL BEFORE YOUR OVERLORD don't you understand?% Another solid chunk of miasma struck Laminah's midsection, making her stagger before she could renew her assault.
%I mean, KNEEL BEFORE YOUR OVERLORD is pretty self-explanatory, isn't it?% Hampered by the clinging dark magic, Anemos could not elude the Overlord's next blast of solid miasma, which cuffed his side hard enough to topple him. He fluidly turned his fall into a roll.
Cynthia watched the struggle unfold without moving to stand up. The Overlord appeared in front of her so suddenly that she couldn't tell whether he had run or warped space itself.
%Are you going to do literally anything?% The Overlord raised his claw-nailed hands in a disdainful, exaggerated shrug. His glowing yellow eyes darted to one side.
"What are you trying to do, Yusis?" Cynthia retorted.
%It's Overlord Yusis Orzand, now. Say what you want, but don't forget what I am.% He snapped his fingers; liquid miasma rained upon Laminah and Anemos from above. Anemos called upon his power over sound and force to deflect the jet-black droplets.
Cynthia asserted, "What you are is our friend!"
%Your friend died ten years ago.%
The rain of miasma stopped; Anemos reworked his bardic magic to counter the Overlord's slowing-spell. Laminah rushed the Overlord, shouting, "Leave her be, Yusis! I shall be your opponent!"
%You just challenged me to a duel, Laminah. Do you know what that means, according to the rules?%
The Overlord retreated a substantial distance, so quickly that none could ascertain whether it was truly a physical motion. Laminah accelerated her dash into a high sprint, heightened by another burst of bardic magic from Anemos.
%It means I have to take you seriously.%
The Overlord twirled one hand, and a tall, flashing wall of purple-black fire surrounded him and Laminah in a wide circle. Anemos recoiled from the supernatural fire's blistering heat and crackling noise.
Anemos could not see or hear what was transpiring within the flames. He tried to send more of his power to aid Laminah, and felt reverberations of his efforts being forcefully repelled.
The bard winced from the sting of his bruises. He used a small healing bead to treat himself, then approached Cynthia and applied another healing bead to her.
"Are you not going to stand?" Anemos mused to the kneeling priestess.
"Why should I?" she rejoined, folding her arms and making a perturbed frown.
Anemos raised a light green eyebrow. "Cynthia, I respectfully request that you call water magic to dispel that fire, while I prepare an invocation to assist Laminah."
"Water magic can't dispel that," she replied, shaking her head. "Nothing can."
"Is the Overlord's fire truly so powerful that water cannot quench it?"
"That's not fire magic. Yusis was telling the truth when he said he can't cast elemental spells. Is it hard for you to sense his talent for magic, because of all the miasma vapors in this place?"
"Perhaps that could be one reason why. Perhaps another reason is that he is fighting us?" the bard prompted, gently.
"Yusis can use dark magic, magic that affects time, and a little mind-related magic. That's all, not counting minor magic like his illusions."
"Most enlightening. Now, about that fire-"
"Can't you feel what it is?"
"I am having some difficulty concentrating upon its subtleties because it currently entraps Laminah with the Overlord," the bard stressed, urgently.
"Anemos, calm down," the priestess sighed.
"He was not being facetious when he commanded us to destroy the next Savior. He earnestly delivered the imperative, on behalf of what he calls 'the Voice of Orzand'."
"I don't know what Yusis is trying to do, but I know what he isn't trying to do, and you should also know it."
"Should I know how to bypass that fire, as well?"
"There's no way to get past it, or send anything through it. Trying to jump or fly over it would make it stretch higher; even teleportation won't work."
"Is there truly no way to douse the flames?"
"I told you, it's not fire magic. It looks like a fiery wall, but it's really a completely uncontrollable force. Yusis has no more power over it than we do. He didn't exactly summon it; it's here only because it chose to answer his call. We just have to wait for it to go away."
Anemos did not press the priestess any further. He approached the purple-black fire, and invoked a handful of magical beads to temporarily magnify his own battle prowess. Worried apprehension gathered on his face.
Inside the crackling ring of fire, Laminah skidded on loose rocks, and crouched to avoid sliding into a blazing purple-black wall. When her eyes realigned upon her enemy, she furrowed her horned brow. "Another illusion?"
"You demanded a duel with 'Yusis'," affirmed the Overlord, in an erratically shifting yet otherwise unremarkable tenor voice. "What you're actually going to fight is Overlord Yusis Orzand, but I don't care if you shorten the name."
The Overlord's illusion resembled the Savior he used to be, with one striking change. Instead of the white and earthy brown casual clothing the former Savior had once worn, he was dressed in a jet-black suit with a small, rectangular decoration carrying his first name, pinned to the upper right of his chest. Matching jet-black shoes lent an accent of formality to his appearance. The uniform had to be from his home world, yet on an indefinable level, Laminah was keenly reminded of the garb worn by employees of her uncle's supply shop.
Laminah noted that the Overlord's brown hair was still an uncombed, jaggedly-cut, disheveled mess.
The Overlord's glasses were over his eyes. Laminah felt an intense wave of invisible dark power, as he appraised her with a malicious smirk.
Violet gloves materialized on the Overlord's hands. His left hand lightly grasped the glove on his right hand, tugging it tighter. "The rule is very clear, %The Overlord cannot refuse a challenge to duel,% and what's left of 'Yusis' really does have to take you 'seriously'. No slacking off allowed, in duels or any battle with the Savior! This is going to hurt. A lot."
"I do not fear pai-"
"I can see you when I'm like this," he interrupted, his fist battering her face before she could finish expressing her defiance.
Laminah turned her reel into a backstep that reduced the second blow from his other fist to a significantly lighter glance.
"It looks like I'm wearing glasses, but it's really a transformation that lets me see everything. I call it %Final Form: Vision.%" Yusis snapped a backhand punch; Laminah deflected the strike with the shaft of her halberd. Her counterattack whistled through empty space.
He is too fast! the warrior grimly thought to herself.
"%Vision% can't see what you're thinking, but I have an idea anyway." He all but disappeared from her view; she pivoted in response to a nearly-invisible motion. "You're wondering why it's so hard to keep up with me, right?"
The sound of his illusionary voice is an unreliable cue to his position.
She spotted a jet-black shadow of movement low to the ground, and hopped over his sweeping kick to her shins. She attempted to bring her halberd down on his form as she landed; its blade rebounded against bare rock.
"%Miasma throw% isn't a normal spell, so I can mix it with other physical attacks, but your problem is more than that."
A heavy slam into her torso unbalanced her before she recognized that a solid chunk of miasma was flying toward her other side.
"I'm a Time Mage. I %Bend time% around myself. It's not a spell; it happens automatically in combat."
Laminah did not resist falling; she flowed with the motion, folding her body to partly evade the flying block of miasma. She raised her halberd as she descended; the chunk's lower border struck the halberd's haft, altering its trajectory enough to pass over her. The miasma-block almost struck the Overlord, stymieing his attempt at a pincer attack.
"I haven't bothered to learn an %Accelerate% spell, like what Anemos cast on you. I think %Bend time% is good enough for fighting, fast travel, or spellcasting."
The Overlord didn't quite vanish, but Laminah could not keep track of his position while she transformed her fall into a lengthwise flipping motion, and landed in a crouch.
"The Voice wants me to learn %Accelerate% so I can stack it with %Bend time,% but I've been slacking off. I was a slacker for nearly all my life, you know. Except when I was the Savior, and that was a temporary gig."
Laminah straightened and searched for her enemy.
"Maybe the Voice will get me to learn %Accelerate% tomorrow, or the next day. Who knows?"
Laminah barely raised her halberd in time to batter away a small chunk of miasma, then slashed in response to a streak of darkness on the edge of her sight.
"Warrior Overlords don't have a signature spell. They're just good at physical attacks. My Greater Seal can copy what they do, sort of." Yusis made a stabbing kick to her knee, while conjuring a small wall of solid miasma to block her halberd swing. When she retracted and thrust forth her weapon, he evaded it with a tuck-and-roll backflip.
A solid miasma-pillar with a slanted top erupted underneath Laminah, hurling her to one side. Laminah landed gracefully, but a hard kick to her back made her stumble.
"Lucky for you, my hits are nowhere near as strong as a real Warrior Overlord's would be. Once a weak warrior, always a weak warrior, I guess?"
Laminah swiftly recovered her footing.
"I don't control the Greater Seal like a living body, especially in battle. It's more like playing a fighting game," Yusis remarked from behind her. "I used to be pretty good at those."
Laminah strived to anticipate his next move. She swung her halberd in a horizontal crescent at a blur of motion; her weapon sliced only air. She barely saw him spring from a crouch into an uppercut in time to dodge. The hit glanced her chestplate, instead of striking her chin.
"I was never a top-tier competitor, but I ranked in some local events."
The warrior kept her back to the flaming wall and held her halberd's blade ready. Her instincts and reflexes triggered before her conscious mind processed his next attack; her weapon knocked away a midair chunk of solid miasma.
"At least I don't need an imaginary keyboard to talk, or an imaginary video game controller for expressions and gestures. Communication still happens naturally. Convenient, huh?"
Laminah made a wide swipe with her halberd.
"%Vision% alerts me to every incoming attack, anywhere in my field of view. Just so you know."
The warrior belatedly realized that the Overlord was slightly beyond the furthest distance her weapon could reach. He was lightly tapping the hinge of his glasses with one finger.
"Let's make this more unfair. %Slow% your roll." He held his other hand palm out.
A flare of thick miasma-smoke enveloped her, dispelling Anemos' bardic magic, dragging on her every thought, and entangling her every movement.
"You surprised me once-"
A small chunk of solid miasma struck her.
"-because I cast a large %Miasma throw% from too close-"
And another.
"-but you're not cutting off my head again."
And another.
"I hate having to %Regenerate% the Greater Seal-"
And another.
"-like a disgusting thing."
And another.
This dark magic makes defending impossible!
Can I distract him with words?
Laminah scornfully asked, "If you can 'see' so well, then why is your illusion's haircut such a shameless-"
%I have to take you seriously, and you're bringing up that?%
She took advantage of his enraged outburst to advance with a lunge.
"You know what? Go ahead," Yusis sneered, sidestepping. %Tell me how bad my haircut is. I dare you.%
"It is the second most vile thing in Kreisia, next to the miasma itself." She attempted a slashing attack.
"Nice taunt." He made a barking laugh as he effortlessly vaulted over her weapon. "The best part? %You said it to a glorified miasma sewer.%"
She was so keenly focused on the Overlord that she never saw the great block of solid miasma that had formed above her, until it crashed down in a shock that slammed her body flat, cracked her ribs, and knocked her halberd out of her hand.
"Victory!" Yusis proclaimed. %To the most vile thing in Kreisia.%
"I will never surrender - I will fight you to the end-!" Quivering and hardly able to move, Laminah struggled to push herself up.
"Uh-uh. This was a one-round match. Living challengers can't force the Overlord to duel them more than once a day, and undead challengers can't force the Overlord into a duel at all." Yusis snapped his fingers. %Chains of miasma.%
Jet-black, heavy links erupted from the ground, tightening around Laminah's limbs and body, raising her to her knees and suspending her in place. She strained against the bindings, to no avail.
"Float gossamers would prevent that, or dispel it. I wonder if Anemos has any left?" Yusis contemplated. "Not that it matters. The others can't get through this %Burning ring of fire.% They can't even see or hear you. As long as I keep some concentration on those chains, you're helpless."
"Then kill me."
"I told you, I want living Primary Servants."
"The Savior I served died ten years ago."
"You noticed! Yeah, that pledge you made to me before? It expired when I did. Time for a new one."
"I will never serve the Overlord Orzand."
"Not even to save your king?"
Laminah fixed him with an icy glare.
"%The Overlord must protect Kreisia from all life,% Laminah. It's a rule. Number two on the priority list, after Aldea's command to 'Prepare to confront the next Savior in a battle to the death', and before %The Overlord cannot surrender.%
"Aldea's rule is an absolute law; the Overlord must obey it. The other rules can't be directly resisted, or broken. Not by accident. I'm automatically blocked before I say or do anything that would break them, and I'm pushed to take action if doing nothing would break them. If I try to break the rules on purpose - say, if I flat-out refuse to destroy all life - then what's left of 'Yusis' gets erased, and the Voice of Orzand takes over. Completely.
"I do have some choice over who or what I kill first, though! I can use that leverage to offer you an extra-special bargain!"
"I will not bargain with the enemy of all life," Laminah refuted.
"You can call me 'the enemy of all life' if you want, but you should know that isn't how the Overlord Orzand sees it. The Overlord isn't fighting a war against life on Kreisia. The Overlord is exterminating a disgusting infestation. Miasma is 'hatred of life' and 'love of that which torments life', and it animates every undead monster. Miasma pressures all monsters to terrorize, torment, and destroy life, but the Voice of Orzand turns that pressure up higher on some monsters than others."
A crazed light flashed in Yusis' eyes. He rubbed his gloved hands together as he eagerly stressed, "Want to guess which monster gets the most pressure to kill every living thing it sees? Huh? Want to?
"Are you sure you don't want to?
"Not even a little bit?"
Laminah remained still like a glacier.
"Trick question! It's the Lesser Seals!" Yusis laughed, spreading both arms wide in a wild gesture. "They get pressure both from their miasma, and from their connection to the Overlord. The bonds that imprison the Overlord for ten years also make the Lesser Seals into Primary Servants, total slaves to his will! The Overlord has so much control that no risen Lesser Seal has kept their own mind for long!
"But you're a living Lesser Seal, and that makes you difficult," Yusis continued, lifting one index finger and pointing to Laminah with a tapping motion. "You have no miasma in your body, and I guess all being my Primary Servant means is that I can mentally detect your presence. Turns out I can't read, contact, or control your mind. I can't have a conversation with you across a longer distance than the normal range of sound, and the Voice can't directly communicate with you at all. It's not happy about that. I felt its frustration, when I woke up Anemos and you."
"And Cynthia?" Laminah coolly questioned.
"Quiet. Overlord talking here. What was I saying? Oh yeah, the Voice thinks you're defective. That's why it wants your pledge of obedience, and that's why I've got a bargain for you! I hope you appreciate all the thought I put into creating the most sincere, effective terms I could.
"Here's the deal, Laminah. If you swear to obey me, then I'll postpone Cedric's execution until after the next Savior is destroyed-"
"You dare barter for my king's life?"
"-and I'll also delay murdering everyone in or near the Royal Capital. That includes your mother, your uncle, the Royal Guards you used to supervise, even the animals. You can add another two areas to the safe-for-now list. Got any more distant relatives in another Varg city? One that you don't want to end up like Vatoren?"
Laminah spat at him.
"You're going to think about it more than that," Yusis reprimanded. "I'm not letting you brush me off. I'm a sincere, effective Overlord."
"You are completely mad."
"Whatever works. Speaking of total insanity, do you know that your mother fully recovered her mind, after you became a Lesser Seal? I saw it in the memories of a monster she destroyed."
"Yet you waited until now to inform me."
"I'm a Time Mage. I know timing is everything."
"You know far less than you think."
"You remember that Lesser Seals have returned to butcher their former loved ones throughout history, right? Well, your mother's looking forward to your return. With a sharp, snazzy halberd that resembles yours. I think your uncle made it just for her, to use on you." Yusis flashed a wicked grin.
"You could be lying to me."
"Oh, I can lie, and the Voice can definitely lie, but not while striking a bargain! We're both compelled to keep our deals to the letter, and any deal that's impossible for us or you to guarantee can't be made at all. It's just how the Overlord works. You will keep your side of the deal, by the way. Guaranteed. That's also how the Overlord works."
"You could be lying without explicitly saying the lie. You have lied to me in this way before."
"Huh. Well, yeah, you're right on both counts," Yusis admitted. "Okay, this bargain does have a couple loopholes. If the next Savior can't be summoned because Kreisia doesn't have enough survivors to cry out for him, then it's the same as if the Savior were destroyed. That loophole probably won't trigger during this cycle, though. My obligation also ends if the Savior abandons Kreisia, but I'm pretty sure that won't happen either. I was the only Savior in history who tried to run away, you know."
"Even if you are not lying to me, it changes nothing," the warrior stated.
"I had to think about stuff like this for ten years, Laminah. You will think about it now.
"Your mother doesn't live with your uncle anymore. She's moved into her own house outside of the Royal Capital's walls. There's a flower garden on both sides of the front door. It's a really nice little house.
%It would be a shame if some miasma happened to it.% Yusis leaned down, his face almost on level with Laminah's, and his lips curled in a predatory leer.
%So. Swear to obey me, and the entire region surrounding the Royal Capital won't drown in miasma, or fall to a horde of monsters, and then have every last victim reanimated as a disgusting undead thing.%
"Like you."
%Exactly. Everyone there will be spared until the next Savior is destroyed, and so will everyone in another two locations of your choice. You're counting on the next Savior to kill me, aren't you? What do you have to lose?%
"Honor."
Yusis straightened, and made an ambivalent shrug. "Is your honor really worth all the lives you could trade it to save?"
"Sacrificing honor can save no one," she replied, cold as arctic permafrost. "It matters not whom you threaten with death and worse. I will NEVER pledge obedience to you!"
Yusis' eyes became unfocused. His mouth tightened, and he briefly raised one hand to the side of his head.
"Uh-huh. Okay. %Take a nap.%" Yusis touched his hands together, then moved them by his head while inclining his neck.
The miasma-chains holding Laminah transformed into a black cloud tinged with deep blue. The vapors engulfed her, filling her lungs and forcing her unconscious.
The ring of purple-black fire vanished.
Anemos was in the midst of renewing a bardic magic enhancement on himself when the blazing wall before him disappeared, revealing Yusis next to the insensate Laminah.
"She's not dead," the black-suited Overlord idly remarked. "%Take a nap% doesn't really suffocate the target. That's just a trick it plays on the mind."
The bard summoned elemental power through his lute.
%Chains of miasma.% Yusis snapped his gloved fingers, and jet-blank links thoroughly immobilized Anemos, dragging him to his knees before he could complete his invocation. "I remember what you taught me about magic, including bardic magic. You need to play music on your lute to cast it. No movement, no magic."
Cynthia voiced a loud, irritated reprimand from a modest distance away. "Yusis, you don't need sleep spells or binding spells to stop this pointless fighting. Don't you know that?"
Yusis ignored her, and touched the hinge of his glasses with his fingertip as he scrutinized the bard. "I see you've applied magic items to enhance your battle ability, but no float gossamers? You really are out of them, aren't you?"
"That is correct," Anemos warily answered.
"We used a lot of them to get past the traps in Overlord Clize's castle. The rest of us burned through all of ours, and then you handed out yours. Did you have only two left by the end?"
"Yes."
"When you wasted your last one on me, you spared me from having to %Regenerate% like a disgusting thing. I hate doing that. I should be grateful. Unfortunately for you, %The Overlord makes obeisance to no one.% It's a rule." A nasty sneer turned up the corners of Yusis' mouth.
Cynthia reproached, "Yusis, enough already."
Yusis' eyes darted toward the priestess. His face became blank. "You're still kneeling."
"What are you trying to accomplish?" she pressed. "I know you don't like binding spells. You think they're 'weird'."
The glasses vanished off of Yusis' face in a puff of smoke, and reformed on a dark cord around his neck.
"One... one thing at a time." Yusis twirled his hand, and the ring of purple-black fire returned, encircling him along with Anemos and Laminah.
"You haven't challenged me to a duel. This %Burning ring of fire% is so I can offer a private bargain. It blocks out all interference, and doesn't cost any power or concentration," Yusis told the imprisoned bard. "Convenient, huh? I can only summon it when I'm bargaining or answering a challenge, though. For something that's not a video game, Kreisia sure has a lot of stuff to preserve game balance."
"The balance of your lucidity seems less than preserved," Anemos appraised.
"What was your first clue?"
"The Savior I remember expressly denounced binding spells as 'weird and creepy'."
Yusis' eyes darted back and forth. "Yeah, well, I figured I'd need a captive market. I can't make a sincere, effective pitch if you're setting me on fire - wait, that was your first clue?"
"Perhaps it was not. Perhaps I was telling you one of a thousand lies."
"You can tell me nine hundred and ninety-nine more if you want! I don't care!" Yusis sprightly returned, on the border between cheerful and crazed.
"Would you care to cease your concentration on this 'weird and creepy' spell?"
"I wonder if you really do understand how much I hate having to %Regenerate% the Greater Seal. %The Overlord cannot refuse a challenge to duel,% so you could force me to square off on even terms, and then smash you into the ground. Like I did to Laminah." A malicious glint sparkled in Yusis' eyes, as he swept both arms toward the unconscious warrior.
"The Holy Brand questioned how 'corrupt' you were, shortly before you died," Anemos quietly recalled. "You appear to have risen as corruption incarnate."
"Yeah, that's me!" Yusis enthusiastically agreed, raising one hand in a flippant gesture and flashing a salesman's smile to match his off-world shopkeeper's uniform. "Pure, grade-A, off-world corruption, accept no substitutes! And just for you, I've got a once-in-a-cycle deal!"
"I will make no deals with you."
"Don't touch that dial!" Yusis exclaimed, pointing to the bard. "You haven't even heard the most sincere, effective, non-rule-breaking terms I could think of, in exchange for the low, low price of swearing to obey me! Remember, a pledge to serve has to come from free will; it can't come from trickery, mind-control, or torture. You have to understand that you're literally signing on to serve your Overlord. Introducing yourself with 'at your service' doesn't cut it; that's not a binding oath."
"The last 'Overlord' I served never demanded any oath," Anemos reflected. "He simply wielded death and terror against any who defied him."
"And suffering! Don't forget the suffering! Death, terror, and suffering are what miasma's all about!" Yusis eagerly stressed, rubbing his gloved hands together. "I'm pretty sure you don't want any of those for your compensation package though, so here's your extra-special offer! Pledge obedience to me, and I'll postpone Laminah's execution until after the next Savior is destroyed.
"But wait, there's more! I'll also delay exterminating Ascendance City, where the Alteans you grew up with live. I think a few of them are kind of, sort of, maybe friends of yours?
"As a special bonus, I'll throw in the entire region of the Royal Capital - Laminah's home - including her family and her beloved Cedric. And one more inhabited location of your choice!"
Yusis whipped both arms wide with maniacal abandon. "All of these places, all of these people - I won't drown any of them in miasma, or send a legion of monsters to annihilate them, or raise my victims as disgusting undead things, until after the next Savior is destroyed. They'll all be spared in the meantime!
"My obligation's void if the Savior can't be summoned or abandons Kreisia, but neither of those is likely to happen this cycle. You're betting your margin that the next Savior will kill me, aren't you? With this deal, you'll manage the credit risk to the people and places you love the most! Operators are standing by!
"Well, a glorified miasma sewer and the Voice of Orzand are standing by. We're multitasking. Dedicated operators are expensive, and the Overlord startup budget is limited."
Yusis leaned down and plucked the red rose fastened over Anemos' heart. "Asterisk fine print - do not try to make a false pledge. Your obedience will be for real."
Anemos softly replied, "Precisely which of us seeks to play whom for a fool? I seem to have lost my memory."
"This deal comes with a genuine, Greater-Seal-lifetime guarantee! What's left of 'Yusis' is compelled to keep all bargains to the letter, and so is the Voice of Orzand!"
"I will not bargain with either of you."
%Not even to save Laminah's life?% Yusis held the red rose over the warrior. Miasma vapors drifting from his arm coalesced around the blooming flower. The rose wilted to sickly brown, then fragmented into jet-black ash that spilled on Laminah's still form. %Or to spare her the torment of undeath?%
"She would never forgive me. I would never forgive myself. I refuse to bear such regrets in life, death, or undeath."
%I can command a monster to murder or reanimate anyone. What do you think it would do to her soul, if she had to slay her family, her friends, and Cedric, and turn them all into maddened, miasma-filled things?%
"She prepared herself for that potential fate when she chose to become a Lesser Seal, as did I. No matter what evil you compel us to suffer, I will not hold any regrets over it."
Yusis made an ambivalent shrug. "Is your fear of regrets really worth all the lives you could trade it to save?"
"Regrets are a terrible burden to carry. Such unbearable oppression can save no one," the bard sternly refuted. "I will never pledge obedience to you. Anemos the Dazzling is not at your service!"
Yusis' eyes became unfocused. His mouth tightened, and he briefly raised one hand to the side of his head.
The ring of purple-black fire vanished.
When the blazing wall disappeared, Cynthia admonished, "Yusis, this is stupid. Dismiss that binding spell already." The Overlord paid her no heed.
"Uh-huh. Okay. Should I make you %Take a nap% too?" Yusis mulled, assessing the imprisoned bard. "Maybe I'll conserve my power. You're a lot weaker than Laminah; if I take away your lute and your magic beads, then you can't damage me at all."
"This is not concluded yet," Anemos replied, with determination. "You harmed Laminah. You threaten her with death and worse. And you destroyed my rose. For these wrongs, I will punish you with wounds you must 'Regenerate'."
"You think you can do that? How? I'm actually curious."
Anemos chanted, invoking the power of the Altean race.
"Have you forgotten? Altean chants can't work on the Overlord," Yusis scoffed. "I know I warned you about that. It was ten years ago, but it should feel like yesterday to y-"
A bright red crossbow bolt ripped through Yusis' throat, lodging in his neck with its point extending under his chin. His eyes snapped wide in shock. More bolts plunged into his black-suited back; one flew directly through him, emerging from the center of his chest as a withered shadow.
%What...?% Yusis turned in the direction from which the bolts had come. Cynthia, still on her knees, was pointing her magical crossbow at him.
Cynthia's reddish-brown eyes narrowed as she flatly declared, "Anemos, this is even more stupid."
%It takes a DOMINATION CHANT to make you fight back!?% The Overlord's black-suited illusion vanished, along with any sense of composure in his bearing. In an astoundingly swift motion, his undead form was in front of the priestess, flinging out gloved hands in a frantic gesture. %And you're still kneeling!%
"Yusis, stop 'role-playing'. I don't want to fight you, and you don't want to fight me. Anemos doesn't want to make me keep fighting you, either." Cynthia willed her crossbow to vanish.
%WHY ARE YOU STILL KNEELING!?% Flares of miasma erupted around the crossbow bolts embedded in his body, consuming them instantly. The swirling, jet-black vortex in his chest accelerated its spin into a frenzied whirl.
"Yusis, calm down!"
%Can you even STAND UP!?%
Cynthia rose to her feet. "Are you going to summon a fiery wall around me, now? Or are you done with whatever test or trial you had to put us through?"
The Overlord's glowing yellow eyes became unfocused.
Then he clutched at the side of his head. He gritted his serrated teeth, and a tremor ran through him. The violet gloves dissolved off of his claw-nailed hands, and his churning miasma vortex decelerated to a near-standstill.
The Overlord's appearance flickered and changed. He resumed the illusion of Kreisia's most unlikely Savior, dressed in the memory of white and earthy brown casual clothing.
"I'm done," Yusis said in a hoarse undertone, slowly lowering his hand from his head. He stared at the rocky ground.
"Good."
"I... I used too much power on you."
"Now what are you talking about?" Cynthia trilled.
"The Voice of Orzand uses miasma to erase the minds of the Saviors it inhabits. I've kept my mind for now, but the Voice will erase me too, in time. Its power is what I used to 'save' all three of you. I was terrified it wouldn't work, I had no idea what I was doing, I had to strike a deal with the Voice because %The Overlord may not show mercy to the living,% it's a rule. I wanted to save you the most, Cynthia. I used too much power on you."
"You saved all of us."
"No. I didn't save you. %Time Stop% affected you more, and your miasma font less. You got more power from your miasma font than the others did from theirs. Applying that power changed all of you. I used your extra power to reduce your weakness to holy magic, but-!"
"I'm not giving up on holy magic yet. I know I couldn't fix Laminah's hair, but I'm going to try other holy spells when I have more time to concentrate."
"You can't use holy magic. You flat-out can't. Holy power won't let you call it anymore."
"I think you're wrong. Holy power is just reluctant to let me call it, because that would hurt me; holy power doesn't like hurting people. It will come to me when I really need it."
"It would come to 'Cynthia', if she needed it. Not you. Miasma didn't just taint 'Cynthia'. It erased her."
The miasma-chains binding Anemos dissolved into smoke. He mentally dismissed his domination chant on Cynthia; it had served its purpose as a distraction.
The bard silently moved to Laminah's side, and drew beads from his vest. He applied their magic to mend her injuries and rouse her from slumber.
Laminah's eyes fluttered open. She shifted to a low crouch in a single motion, and retrieved her halberd. Her intense gaze turned toward Yusis and Cynthia.
"Did he try to bargain for your pledge?" she whispered to Anemos, without taking her eyes off of the pair.
"Yes. I refused," the bard answered, also in a whisper.
"I knew you would."
"Even though I have served an 'Overlord' before?"
"Especially because of that."
"Did he offer you a bargain as well?"
"Yes."
"Why would he attempt such futility with you?"
Laminah continued to study Kreisia's greatest threat, and the priestess who had once summoned him to be Kreisia's greatest hope.
Anemos quietly said, "I do have a single teleportation bead."
"Yes. I am aware."
"Yusis knows that it is my last one. He will notice if we approach close enough for Cynthia to escape with us. The magic that he calls 'Time Stop' can disrupt a teleport, according to legend."
"He did not use that magic against us, or summon any monsters. He has been holding back his full strength."
"Will he continue to hold back?"
"Without a replacement for the Greater Seal, the only purpose in fighting is to incapacitate him long enough for a successful teleport, or to die in battle."
"If Cynthia will not fight, then I do not know how the first outcome is possible."
Laminah watched Yusis slowly walk away from Cynthia.
"She has far more power over the Overlord than we do," remarked the warrior.
"I should not have forgotten something so obvious," admitted the bard.
Then, he remembered something else.
"Yusis, I'm not 'erased'," Cynthia firmly asserted. "I am myself."
"No." Yusis shook his head. "The real 'Cynthia' wouldn't obey the Overlord's command to kneel. She wouldn't let her friends fight without helping them."
"'Kneel before your Overlord,'" the priestess quoted, attempting to deepen her high-pitched voice into a mimicry of his. She imitated his battle stance, and whipped her arm as if to hurl an imaginary attack. "You surprised me at first, but your 'role-playing' didn't fool me. I didn't get up because I knew you weren't trying to hurt any of us."
"I hurt Laminah."
"You were careful not to do anything to her that magic beads couldn't heal. Anemos has finished treating her. She's okay." Cynthia gestured toward the bard and the warrior. Yusis didn't turn around to look.
Cynthia continued, "This wasn't about hurting us. You had another reason."
"Yeah. I had to keep my deal with the Voice, or get erased today instead of another day." Rising anguish gathered in Yusis' words. "The Voice says my obligation's fulfilled, now. I don't have to 'try as sincerely and effectively as I can' to bargain for your pledge of obedience, because... because you're..."
"Yusis, I haven't 'pledged obedience' to you and I won't. Not ever, not for anything. I didn't even say the traditional pledge when you were the Savior. I made up my own version, because the idea of pledging to serve you felt a little strange."
%Do you think I can't see what you are?% Yusis' hand shook, as he reached for his glasses and raised them over his eyes.
"Yusis!"
"You're..." The glasses became smoke, then reappeared on the cord around his neck. His head drooped, despondently. "You're what I wanted 'Cynthia' to be."
"Yusis, can you stop doubting yourself for even one instant?"
"'I like your hair the way it is.' The real 'Cynthia' never said that before. No one in all of Kreisia would say that."
"Can you stop doubting me for even one instant?"
"If... if the next Savior destroys me, will the real 'Cynthia' wake up again? Or is she nothing but a soul, buried in void...?"
"Yusis!"
Yusis clenched both hands. "I'm giving you an order that takes priority over the command to destroy the next Savior. I order you to wait inside my castle. I'll stop your time again, until the Savior comes."
"How can I get you to stop doubting me? How?"
"I don't know if the next Savior can restore you, or if he'll be forced to destroy you. Either way, you're not leaving my castle until the Savior determines your fate. If I let you leave, then you'll be driven to kill everything you see, starting with the people who were once close to you, and I know how powerful your fire magic is."
"Do I really have to fight you, Yusis? Is that the only way I can get through to you?"
Yusis unclenched his hands. His shoulders slumped. "Laminah has the book; Anemos has a teleportation bead and Aldea's pommel stones. The two of them will have to continue on their own."
"Do I have to make you 'Regenerate' some more? You said you hate doing that."
"Follow me," Yusis instructed, slowly walking past her.
"Stop doubting me!" Cynthia's hands curled into fists. Her face tightened. She took a step after him, then another step.
"You really are following me, aren't you," Yusis mumbled, without looking back.
Cynthia halted. Tears formed in her eyes. Her arms trembled. "Stop walking away from me, Yusis. Stop right now."
"%The Overlord makes obeisance to no one.% It really is a rule. I can't even apologize to 'Cynthia'."
"Then I'll... I'll..." The tears streamed down Cynthia's face. "I'll make you stop." Her body shook severely.
"You can't do that," he denied, without turning around. "You don't have the power, or the will."
"Stop - doubting - me!"
Cynthia's shaking became violent tremors, on the verge of a fit. She whipped her head back and forth. "I am - the Priestess of Salvation! I - I will not let you walk away from me!"
A piercing shriek burst out of her, echoing across the dead island, and shaping into words.
"CHAINS - OF - HOLY!"
Brilliant, beautiful, shining white chains erupted from the rocky earth, locking around Yusis' arms and legs. Miasma sizzled and burst in raw gouts where the links touched him, dissolving some but not all of the bonds. Radiant holy power dispelled his illusion. An undead monster with a swirling miasma vortex in his chest looked back at her, astonishment frozen in his glowing yellow eyes.
"WILL THIS MAKE YOU STOP DOUBTING ME!?" Cynthia furiously screamed, thrusting her arms forth. A torrent of luminous white holy power sprang from her hands, forming a beam that slammed into the Overlord with hurricane force.
Cynthia heaved deep breaths. Raw, vicious burns were clearly visible on her arms. She winced, then set her mouth in a flat line and glared at the Overlord.
Miasma plumes consumed the remainder of the holy chains binding the Overlord. He swayed unsteadily as he anxiously exhorted, %Cynthia, don't - don't do that again. It hurts you-%
"Just because you said not to, I will."
Cynthia cast an even greater cascade of holy power at the dazed Overlord. The radiance vaporized his left arm and part of his torso, revealing the spherical surface of his rotating miasma vortex. His right arm went limp. He staggered in place, barely able to keep his balance.
"Do you really think I can't take some pain?" Cynthia demanded, fiercely. "Do you still doubt me that much?"
Cynthia's arms shook. She withdrew a healing bead and used it on herself. Her burns faded.
The Overlord blinked his glowing eyes and cradled his brow with his remaining hand, groggily coming out of his stupor. He moved his hand cross-body and gritted his fangs in a nauseated grimace, as he watched black smoke coalesce and restore his missing limb.
Cynthia marched up to the disoriented monster, and put her hands on her hips.
The Overlord's gaze drifted down, and the appearance of Kreisia's most unlikely Savior returned. "The Voice said my obligation's fulfilled, because %SHE IS YOUR MINDLESS PUPPET.% I should be glad it was lying about you... but... Cynthia, you're in horrible danger, and so is all of Kreisia."
He shuddered, and gripped his tangled hair with both hands. %I'm going to lose my mind to the Voice very soon. I can't even see through its lies anymore.%
"Yusis," Cynthia sharply addressed. "Can you. Stop doubting yourself. For even. One. Instant?"
Yusis flinched.
Then he lowered his hands and rapidly muttered, "Strictly for my own reasons, and making obeisance to no one, yeah, I guess I could work on that."
Cynthia regarded him with a severely disapproving look, and tapped her foot.
"I could work on not doubting you so much, too," he mumbled. "I'll work on stuff like that."
The stern disapproval on Cynthia's face gradually eased to reserved concern.
Yusis raised his head and said, "Oh, hey, Laminah. Anemos."
The warrior and the bard flanked Cynthia's either side, mirroring her expression.
Yusis' eyes darted back and forth. "Uh, maybe walking away from the two of you wasn't a good idea. The super-strong monsters on this island could attack you if I'm not around to hold them back. I kind of didn't think about that."
Laminah was carrying the jet-black tome that Yusis had given her. She opened it and turned to a section titled Can Kreisia's Miasma Be Destroyed Forever?
"I, uh, guess you figured out the condition I used to seal that book."
Anemos nodded once.
"I couldn't let you read it before I kept my deal with the Voice," Yusis confessed. "Withholding information is a dirty sales trick, but I was on the hook to 'try as sincerely and effectively as I can' with every trick I've got. I just wanted to make sure you had the information, in case you teleported away afterward. Which I seriously would not blame you for doing. At all."
Cynthia let out an exasperated sigh.
"You know what the cool thing about free will is?" Yusis rambled. "I can give a command like 'destroy the next Savior', and you're not forced to do it. Your minds won't be erased if you flat-out refuse. Free will really is amazing, huh?
"I... miss having free will.
"I really do miss it. A lot."
End of Chapter Eight: Awakening Faith