Dungeon Overlord (OLD Version) Chapter 20 - Agreement with God (Patreon)

"And at the last from inner Egypt came

The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed.

That wild beasts followed him and licked his hands.

Soon from the sea a noxious birth began

Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold

The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled

Down on the quaking citadels of man.

Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play,

The idiot Chaos blew Earth's dust away."

- Fungi from Yuggoth

***

Braavos, House of Black and White

Archaon stood in the empty dark room and even though he possessed a dark vision he didn't see anything. Thus, for the time being, he just waited for something to happen, like for the Avatar of the Many-Faced God to descend or whatever.

The place was so dark that the only thing that he saw was endless darkness and nothing more. This was their most sacred place, so it was embodying one of the aspects of the Many-Faced God, the endless darkness and night. 

Darkness was also related to death. 

As assassins often killed in the dark.

"I am here..."

Archaon muttered as he already wanted to have this entire thing behind him.

He knew that coming here was a certain degree of risk for him, but he still decided to undergo this risk as he felt that he could profit from the meeting.

Something was telling him that he could obtain some benefits from meeting with the Many-Faced God, while at the same time, if there was some serious danger, then he felt that he would be warned by his Patron.

That was one thing that he was sure of, because his Patron God wouldn't really allow him to die at the hands of some random Divine Being, that was not the plan. He still had a lot of things to do for his Patron, a lot of Fate collect, a lot of Chaos to seed, and a lot of Dungeon Echoes to gather.

Suddenly, the entire room descended into absolute silence, not like previously there was some sound or anything, but this time, he couldn't even hear his own steps or his own breathing.

He felt a gush of wind pass by him, and an energy signature appeared from the Divien Altar of the Many-Faced God. This was the first time that he had felt a genius Divine Being and its presence, and it was powerful like he had never felt before.

Aside from the meeting with his Patron.

Though...

If there were to come, then the being in front of him was like a small flame when a cigarette was lit.

His Patron God meanwhile...

It was like a flaming inferno in a burning forest.

"Many-Faced God, I presume?"

Archaon asked as he looked at the Divine Altar, which now had a shadowy figure levitating in front of the Divine Altar as it looked at him with scrutinizing gaze, before it hastily looked away, which made Archaon grin.

It seemed that the protection was still working rather very well.

'Foreigner.'

The raspy deathly voice of the Avatar of the Many-Faced God would be enough to send shivers through the spines of lesser men, but Archaon just looked at the Avatar with some sort of contempt as he found it rather a poor attempt at intimidation.

'You have been creating a lot of waves in the world with your Dungeon.'

The being said as Archaon waited for the Avatar of the Many-Faced God to say something significant, because right now he was just parroting everything that was already known to Archaon.

"Let's get straight to the point, Many-Faced God. I know that you most probably want something from me and seeing... feeling your state is telling me a lot about what you actually want from me."

Archaon said as he could sense that the Avatar of the Many-Faced God was weak. 

It is not weak per se, but rather, it was weakened several times by something.

He could feel it on an innate level, rather intrinsically, when he looked at the Avatar of the Many-Faced God, he could instantly tell that the Many-Faced God was severely weakened and now he would be barely powerful enough to classify as Level 5.

And he would be right if he told anyone it was due to the lack of Mana in the air, then he would be right. It seemed that dying of the Magic was also affecting the Gods, probably even more than some of the Gods realized.

Even the Gods needed something to sustain their existence and being in this world, and that something wasn't just a Faith of their worshippers but it was also the Magic.

Without the Magic, even if there were countless worshippers, the maximum result that the Gods could achieve was to sustain their very own existence, but they couldn't advance any further or become stronger.

Those without an overwhelming number of worshippers, most of the Gods would just fade into the nothingness as all of the Gods in this world were dependent on the Faith almost existentially.

Yet Faith was interviewed with the Magic rather deeply.

"You most probably noticed that when the Dungeon Creatures are killed outside of the Dungeon, part of their essence is absorbed by the world itself, right? So you most probably want me to release more of the Dungeon Creatures into the world in hopes of restoring the Magic that is fading so you can preserve your own existence."

It didn't take long for Archaon to figure out the things and where they exactly stood and he knew what the Many-Faced God wanted through his Avatar. Archaon knew very well what the Many-Faced God wanted from him, it wasn't actually that hard to figure out, because once he realized that the Many-Faced God was most probably aware of the process of aftermath of death of the Dungeon Creatures.

'Your observations are rather accurate, mortal. Yes... The fading of Magic has not benefited anyone... Probably only the Seven-Who-Are-One are still standing rather strong though, even they are not in the best shape...'

The Avatar of the Many-Faced God stated naturally as it was clear that the Many-Faced God was rather annoyed that Archaon saw through him easily. Archaon knew that these beings that became Gods valued their lives above everything, the last thing that they wished was to fade. 

Fading was worse than death for them, because there was no recovery from the Fading.

So, the Many-Faced God seen it first hand that he needed to do something to prevent the Fading or else, he would be forced to do some rather unsavory methods like the ones done by the Seven-Who-Are-One who forced his worshippers into aboslte zealoty or the Lord of Light Rh'llor who dmeated life sacrificed in fire which allowed him to recover and sustain his own being slowly.

Though those ones were far from the ideal state.

"So what are you willing to offer in exchange?"

Even though he was going to do it nonetheless, that was something that he was rather keeping for himself and not saying to the Avatar of the Many-Faced God. Right now, Archaon was most interested in what he could get from the Avatar of the Many-Faced God in exchange for helping him.

"I can create a Gate to the Dungeon near the Braavos and let occasionally a few thousand Dungeon Creatures escape from the Dungeon and wreak havoc. This way, this area should become richer with Magic and at the same time, you could obtain more followers by protecting the city through the Faceless Men."

Archaon said to the Avatar of the Many-Faced God, as he saw many benefits that the Many-Faced God could reap for himself if the Gate to the Dungeon appeared near the Braavos and the Free City was under the constant threat of the Dungeon Creatures.

He could already create Dungeon Gates that would connect the Dungeon to the Gates that could be placed all around the world. This way, the entire world would be able to enter the Dungeon and he would be able to harvest the resources from the entire world, not just one corner.

What Archaon was proposing was really tempting to the Many-Faced God, rather too much as the benefits that the Many-Faced God would obtain were immense. In the end, the Many-Faced God knew that he would need to offer something substantial to the Foreigner in front of him.

'The Faceless Men will provide information and support to whatever you may need in this world as long as you can do what you have spoken about.'

Avatar of the Many-Faced God stated ass he agreed to the proposal of the Foreigner in front of him. In the end, the Many-Faced God felt that he could benefit a lot from this agreement between him and the Foreigner for a long run.

"Then we are in agreement. Shall we sign it formally?"

There was no way he planned to have this as just on the level of oral agreement, as he needed to have it in a binding contract. He produced an empty scroll that was created through the Dungoen System and directly contained the power of his Patron God.

Meaning that the other side would be bound by the Contract's terms as long as they signed the Contract and there was no way around it as their Patron God was far stronger than the Many-Faced God.

'That thing... it's dangerous...'

Archaon swore that he felt fear from the raspy voice of the Avatar of the Many-Faced God as the Avatar spoke. The Avatar of the Many-Faced God could clearly feel the aura of his Patron God in that scroll that he brought out.

This was something that was created from the essence of his Patron God and would guarantee that the Many-Faced God would adhere to the terms of the contract. 

"It is done then."

Archaon said as he signed the contract with his very own blood and observed how the Avatar of the Many-Faced God signed the contract through some form of dark liquid.

Once the contract was signed, Archaon felt a certain connection between him and the Avatar of the Many-Faced God form. The scroll then dispersed into the nothingness and returned back to the otherworld where his Patron God was residing as the original scroll would be in his possession.

The benefits that he would obtain from the Many-Faced God that was commanding the Faceless Men would be tremendous and they had the network that was spread across the entire world.

Everything, including the Westeros and Essos, was under the watchful eyes of the Faceless Men, and some of their outpost were also located within the distant parts of the Sothoryos and Ulthos, where there was also some civilization.

***

Outside of the House of Black and White, Some Time Later

"That actually went far better than expected."

Archaon muttered as they were led outside of the Black and White House, and he welcomed the salty wind of the Braavosian Sea. The negotiations with the Many-Faced God went far better than he anticipated.

At the same time, it was also a pretty good news that iut wasn't trap and he obtained access to the resources of the Facelss Men. The resources of the Faceless Men could be matched only by a very few number of factions, if by any, in the terms of intelligence gathering and information networking.

In the future, when the Magic became more powerful in the Essos, or at least in the Braavos, the Faceless Men would be able to cultivate more assassins, and their power would be even greater.

Many-Faced God was a good choice for an ally.

According to the rules of the exchange, part of their alliance was also about exchanging information, and the Avatar of the Many-Faced God also sent him information about the various Gods in this world, their powers, and everything else.

"So what did you obtain from the creature?"

Ornstein wasn't clearly the fan of the Gods, because it was due to the Gods and tragedy would have occurred with the Lordran, the Lands of the Ancient Gods ended how they ended. At the same time, Archaon was rather surprised by the strength of the so-called Gods in this world, because even if they were at their peak, they were...

Rather weak?

"We would have the support from the entire Faceless Men Assassin Guild in the future endeavors, which may come handy especially if their numbers grow a bit. They would be instrumental at a later date, and their intelligence network would be of great use to us."

Archaon said as he felt that he made a good deal and his own effort into it equaled zero, because he would do it either way.

He got the Quest from the Dungeon System and he chose to reverse the dying of the Magic in this world, because through that way, he would be harvesting even more Dungeon Echoes for himself and even more Fate for his Patron God and create even more Chaos.

"Not to mention we finally know the state of their Gods in this world... and they are rather disappointing. Most of the Gods in this world, or rather, majority of them were formerly mortals that ascneded to the Godhood and they are probably as strong as Level 5 or Level 6 individuals at their peak... but with the decay in Magic and their own worship, many of them are lowered greatly to the Level 4 with their actual combat prowess being even weaker."

This was rather a huge disappointment for even Ornstein, because even at his prime he would be able to slay a few of their Gods who were not weakened. Though, it seemed that there was a difference in the Godhood from world to world, and it made sense?

Archaon always thought that Gods were just another form of Lifeform. 

Albeit one that was more advanced and powerful than the others. Nevertheless, it was just an advanced one. He never considered the Gods as they were portrayed on Earth in his past life, he just considered the Gods as beings like any other else.

Still, he would say that even if at their peak they were at the Level 5 it would be fairly powerful, because Level 5 individuals would be powerful enough to either wipe out entire cities by themselves or to withstand such an attack.

Much less being said about the Level 6 Hazard-Class individuals that were even far stronger.

On the bright side, if this was the strongest that this world could get, then it was only better for them, because if these Gods were so weak they could slay them. He wondered what would happen if they managed to kill God or several of them. 

He was rather sure that the rewards would be staggering.

On the top of that, he learned that R'hllor was one of the most powerful Gods in this world that rose during the Doom of the Valyrian Freehold. 

According to the information that Many-Faced God gave him, told him about the Doom of the Valyria Freehold and how technically it was due to the R'hllor who was using some sort of ritual to promote himself to the Godhood in the Fourteen Flames. 

The end result?

Sacrifice of the entire Valyrian Freehold, R'hllor becoming God and destruction of the entire Freehold.

R'hllor was probably the most hit by the decay of Magic in the world, because as the Sorcerer before his Apotheosis, he still remained innately connected to Magic even after he became God.

So for the Lord of Light this situation with dying Magic was probably the worst thing imaginable and it seemed that the God of Light, Fire and Shadows was doing everything that he could to preserve his power and status.

"Hopefully, if we reconnect with the last Companion that was summoned by the Patron God, then we should be able to slay God..."

Archaon was eager for some God-Slaying because he felt that his Dungoen would obtain a lot for it. Especially if he brought the corpse to the Dungeon Heart so the Dungeon could assimilate the essence of the killed God and upgrade itself in some way.

"We should be getting out of this dammed city... once we reconnect with the last Companion we will return here and I will create the Dungeon Gate."

Archaon said as he wanted to leave Braavos already and he reconnect with the last Companion that was summoned by his Patron God.

On their journey back, or rather to the Dragonstone, they would once again pass through the Braavos. He could then place the Dungeon Gate here, slowly start releasing the Dungeon Creatures, and fulfill his agreement with the Many-Faced God.

"As you command my Lord."

Ornstein said as he was eager for some God-Slaying already and sooner or later, he would get his fill of the God Blood. In the Lands of the Ancient Lords, the closest thing to the Godhood were the Lords.

After Lord Gwyn entered the Kiln of the First Flame, most of the gods abandoned Anor Londo, leaving behind a small army of Silver Knights and two elite knights: Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough, to protect the city.

He held a great deal of hatred towards the Gods.

"Since we have arrived at the Essos I started feeling very strong Magical presence from the direction of Qohor so that we would be going there way."

Archaon could pinpoint the very strong source of the Magic that was coming from the Qohorian forests some distance from the Braavos. It was rather undeniable that this was the Companion that his Patron God summoned, because due to the state of the Magic in this world, nobody had such a strong Magic. 

The Magic that he was feeling was very pure and powerful, not something that many Sorcerers or Magicians in this world possessed. Not to mention, even the power of the Avatar of the Many-Faced God felt much weaker than that of the source of the Magic that he felt since their arrival at the Braavos.

Only someone who was originally for a Magic-rich world could have such powerful Magic that was so pure and dense.