Chapter 21 – Angel Dominating Crown

Louie was shocked to see a human in the room, and in a flash, he readied the godhood within him to attack and slap this human to death.

Although his divine power reserves had decreased by two-thirds, he would not hesitate to use the remaining portion to guarantee his safety.

Surprisingly, however, his apprehension turned out to be unnecessary.

Seeing the old mage hugging his leg and wailing, Louie felt slightly lost as to how to proceed.

Embroidered onto the mage’s robes were seven rings, indicating his status as an archmage. As a demigod, Louie’s sneeze alone could incinerate him, but as a baby, the archmage could probably turn Louie into his pet if he so wished.

Right now, however, this mage was on his knees weeping and begging for mercy. Louie knew then that his previous performance had been flawless. At this point, his ‘strength’ should have been well-understood, and no one would make a move on him casually.

As a side note, it should be mentioned that in the world of San Soliel, death was not the end for lifeforms. Powerful mages could extract and torture the souls of their enemies. And with a dragon on the level of a demigod, the mere hypotheticals of what they could do would leave anyone in spine-tingling horror. Only lunatics would dare make such a gamble.

That a dragon would pick up godhood and merge with it so completely using non-magical means would be the last thing on anyone’s mind.

Marches hugged the dragon’s leg. He rubbed the corner of his eyes and stealthily measured up Louie. Seeing the dragon’s cold and cruel pupils, he shivered in fear of being obliterated the next instant.

Naturally, all of this was just in his imagination. As a human, he couldn’t actually read a dragon’s expression. It was even more impossible for him to decipher a dragon’s intent by just looking at its eyes. He could only guess based on what he knew.

Marches’ gaze swept over the sword rolled up by Louie’s tail. A momentary fervor flashed through his face, but he stifled it instantly. Revealing any greed for a dragon’s belongings in front of it was simply tying his own noose.

Nonetheless, his heart still ached at the sight of the sword; after all, it was a divine weapon!

This longsword was passed down within the Holy Iris Order of the Theocracy to successive knights of significant status in each generation. It formed a bridge between the God of War and the knight order and perpetually strengthened their faith. Prior to the battle with Louie, it had been of legendary rank, but with the dedication and faith that Abir poured into it, it had actualized its potential and become a full-fledged divine weapon.

Every divine weapon was priceless, and the slightest movement while holding one would unleash terrifying power.

‘But now this weapon belongs to a dragon…….’

Marches sighed. No matter how much it infuriated the Theocracy, they would not dare attempt to steal it back.

But there were more pressing matters at hand for Marches. Namely: surviving. His speech a few moments ago was good for improvisation, but he feared his words were over-exaggerated, and that they would incur the dragon’s distrust if anything.

Marches grit his teeth. Abandoning his pride he knelt on the floor and pulled out a scroll made of parchment. He began in a respectful tone, “…O, great dragon, your servant Marches offers his life and loyalty. Please spare me. I am willing to spend the rest of my life in your service!”

The spread scroll revealed several words written in magic characters on it. Despite having no proper knowledge of magic, Louie could understand them. Essentially the parchment was a master-slave contract.

As long as it was signed, the master would yield absolute control over the life and death of the servant. It was one of the strictest pacts that the inhabitants of San Soliel could form.

Naturally, there were restrictions on who could enter such an agreement. For one thing, the gap between the respective entities’ powers could not be astronomically huge. At the very least, the slave side could not be overwhelmingly more powerful than the master. Louie for instance couldn’t sign to become a slave even if he wanted to, as the godhood within him had raised the level of his existence beyond everything else. It would take an actual God descending to force him into a slave pact.

To show his sincerity, Marches immediately signed his name on the contract with blood.

Louie looked first at the contract, and then at the pale mage with a nervous smile. After thinking about it, he stretched out his claws and left a mark on the parchment.

The intruder was not a weakling. As a seven ring archmage, he had no small measure of repute. Moreover, all mages were knowledgeable, and Louie felt that having such a servant would allow him to understand the world more quickly.

With the contract signed, Louie felt that he held the soul of the human in front of him. As long as he willed it, he could make him die a violent death.

At this moment, Louie also relaxed. He had been truly afraid that this mage would rise up and hurt him!

Seeing Louie sign the contract, Marches also relaxed. At the very least, this meant that the dragon would not kill him at the moment.

But thinking about the fact that he had signed a master-servant contract with a dragon, Marches was filled with despair.

It was well-known that dragons were very tight-fisted. It was even joked on occasion that dirty gnomes were better as masters than dragons, who were extremely stingy. At least gnomes could give rewards on occasion.

After grasping control of the archmage’s soul, Louie finally directed his attention to the treasure trove before him. His eyes moved to a crown that emitted strong magical fluctuations.

“What is that?”

Louie pointed his claw at the crown.

Marches looked in the direction Louie pointed at and wondered why Louie did not recognize the object. Although dragons did not actively learn things, they would undoubtedly accumulate knowledge as they grew. The more ancient a dragon was, the more knowledgeable it was.

The primordial dragon in front of him should have already lived for tens of thousands of years. It was only right that it was near-omniscient.

But Marches immediately suppressed this thought. He suddenly realized that perhaps the great dragon was just testing him. If he could not show his value, then he would be slapped to death in the next second.

With this realization, Marches immediately showed a flattering smile, bent over, and said humbly, “…… O, Lord Caracolon, this is the Crown of Dominance. It is said to have been a divine weapon used by the Gods to dominate the angels, but after being damaged it was downgraded to a legendary weapon.”

“……. Even though it can’t use the ‘Dominate Angel’ spell anymore, it can still release the ‘Dominate Human’ spell once a day. Any human below the seventh rank will be incapable of resisting this spell. It also has a constant ‘Aura of Fear’ that can be released at any time!”