Chương 67: Master debater

How? Why didn't I know?"

"Well–" There were three objectives that Dennis had to achieve. First, to stall for time in order to figure out a viable upgrade for his skill. Something that would let him fight without a target, or with an abstract target. Basically, he needed his superspeed and he needed it now. Second, to fish for information. In front of him was a freaking elf who clearly knew something about something. What did it mean when he called Dennis 'The Weapon'? Was he the High Authority?

The one responsible for the people floating in the sky, and the apocalypse in general? What was the deal with the Soul Devouring dude? Dennis had a lot of questions, and here was a guy who maybe had a lot of answers. Third, Dennis had to survive. By using his talking skills and not putting a foot in his mouth. As Kriya had helpfully confirmed before he ran out of mana for the last time, saying the wrong thing could get him killed. He had to use the art of diplomacy.

To masterfully control the conversation, to expertly bluff without revealing anything, to read his opponent like a book, perfectly understanding every nuance and microexpression. The consequences of failure were dire, and the rewards for success could be limitless. Who knew, maybe Dennis could even talk the guy into cancelling the end of the world altogether. Just wonderful. Dennis had to use every trick he had learned during his fulfilling and very social life.

Thankfully, one might even say, he was an expert in winning a conversation.

"Why didn't you know?" he asked back scornfully, like he was talking to an infant who had been repeatedly hit in the head.

"Are you dumb?! Is that what this is? And here I thought you were at least, like, semi-important, and yet no one even bothered to tell you?!" Attack, attack, attack.

"What–" the elf sputtered, his expression quickly morphing into indignation.

"How dare you–""Don't you fucking know who I am?!" Dennis puffed his chest. The elf was clearly not human. Right? In front of Dennis was a person who probably had never seen the internet once in their life. More than that, the elf was clearly someone important, considering he could control dragons and all that. That implied that he was used to some degree of deference when spoken to. In other words, this was someone who had negative resistance to shit-talking.

Someone who may as well have never heard about the classic 'that's what she said – your momma' one-two combo.

"Now listen here–" the elf was collecting himself, getting angry, defensive, and ready to argue. Gotcha. Maybe Dennis wasn't that good with thoughtful conversations or understanding people. He knew that he couldn't manipulate anyone into anything, because that would require putting himself in their head, empathising with people to know what they wanted. He couldn't do that. It was a skill that had eluded him for as long as he remembered, no matter how hard he tried. Things just didn't click that way.

What he had mastered instead was the art of screaming at his opponents until they gave up. By opponents, he meant conversation partners who he disagreed with. It was a question of semantics. As long as the elf was angry and distracted, he wasn't thinking. As long as he tried to argue with Dennis, to prove him wrong, he wasn't asking any awkward questions.

"No, you listen here!" Dennis took a threatening step forward. He didn't die on the spot, which was a relief.

"I asked you, do you fucking know who I am?! Say My Name!" He may have gotten carried away there for a bit. The elf scowled, as if he had eaten a lemon.

"You're the Weapon," he seethed quietly, with barely restrained fury.

"Dennis Smith." Dennis almost tripped. How the fucking fuck did he know that?!

"Damn right I am!" he shouted mockingly, pointing a finger in the elf's face.

"And do you know what that means, or did your momma drop you a few times too many when you were a child?!" The elf closed his eyes, and almost growled the answer.

"It means war." Elaborate on that one, pretty please? Dennis didn't say anything, still pointing the finger in the elf's face. He tried to look as condescending as possible, as if implicitly saying ' That's all you have to say? Pathetic. You're dumb.' Honestly, it was a miracle that Dennis was still alive. A miracle of the elf's self-restraint. Which implied that the dude had a reason to restrain himself from killing Dennis.

Which was weird, as Kriya helpfully outlined that saying the wrong thing would get Dennis killed. It was a contradiction. Basically insulting the guy was somehow fine, and yet telling him that Dennis hung out with the Soul Devouring guy a month ago was a death sentence? There was some sort of assumption at play that Dennis couldn't figure out yet. Something that stopped the elf from killing him. That would mean that 'saying the wrong thing' was dispelling that assumption. His mind raced.

The elf's shoulders hunched, and a look of grim resignation returned to his face as he sat down on the dragon's head.

"It means trillions dead, and another part of the branch subjugated by our glorious Soul King," he said dryly.

"Without the Sword Saint, there's no one who could oppose him. No one who's willing, anyway. Has the war already started? How many worlds are gone? And why are you here?" Puzzle pieces were clicking.

"Think about it, dumbass." The elf looked thoughtful. Dennis was starting to believe in his masterful negotiation skills.

"He's using me to ascend you," he said slowly, as if testing out the thought.

"By not telling me that he somehow managed to contact you or who you are, he has forced me to respond to you as I would to any other heretic. By trying to actually kill you with the full force of my authority and without holding back, I have given you full acknowledgement, and thus power." The elf was looking more sure of himself with every word.

"But of course I couldn't defeat you. You are a Sovereign. There was never a chance." He chuckled bitterly.

"Clever of you to not use the more commonly known techniques. Were you moving that fast by cutting space? Time? I always wondered if that was within the Saint's capabilities." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Dennis was putting together a puzzle, but instead of a missing piece this dude just casually dropped a manual on his head. The elf's assumption was that Dennis had the Sword Saint skill.

Facts that he knew were connecting with each other. Dennis had a bullshit fighting talent. He didn't have a soul. He was 'The Weapon'. The Soul Devouring Sovereign, also known as Soul King, also named Xin, knew about him, possibly by his fucking name, no less. Sovereign skills could change wielders. Sword Saint was a guy strong enough to be a deterrent from starting some bullshit 'trillions dead' war.

The most likely hypothesis: somehow, at some point in the past, Xin had replaced Dennis' soul with so much talent that Dennis could just 'steal' the Sword Saint's skill, thus eliminating his opponent without the need to fight the overpowered guy. Dennis was 'The Weapon' in that way, the silver bullet that disabled the enemy's nukes. The elf–who Dennis was pretty sure at this point was the High Authority–was either working with or for the Soul King.

He said 'by not telling me', and that implied that he was supposed to be told. But that didn't make any sense, since the elf sounded at least mildly antagonistic towards Xin? And also would've killed Dennis if he had told him that he had talked with Xin a month ago, instead of recently. Also, the current theory didn't include the 'administrator' at all. The person who blocked the message when Dennis got to the third level. What was the deal with that? And, well… Why the apocalypse?

How did goblins and floating people fit into all of that? Dennis really needed more Mind. Twenty was not cutting it. Also, there was an awkward silence that stretched for a few seconds as he was absorbed in his thoughts.

"Well, you can figure out at least something, I'll give you that," Dennis said more calmly, relaxing a little. The elf wasn't as angry as before, thoughts of war or something distracting him enough that he sort of forgot that Dennis was insulting him like a little bitch. That was fine. Now that Dennis had a strong suspicion of what exact lie was keeping him alive, he didn't really need to rile up the dude. As long as he kept pretending that he had the Sword Saint skill, he should be fine.

The elf released a heavy sigh.

"I'll lift the blockade and open The Road to the Throne for you," he said as glyphs started appearing in front of him.

"Xin will cover the breach of Law, yes? The agreement is still on?" The Throne? Assuming Xin was the Soul King, the throne was most likely the place where he sat his ass on.

"Yep. Totally," Dennis was trying to come up with a reason why opening a portal to the soul-eating guy was a bad idea. He couldn't find a plausible one.

"Absolutely no change to that whatsoever. Say, how long does it usually take to do this thing you're doing?"

"A few dozen heartbeats for a grade one," the elf muttered without losing his concentration.

"Cool." It was not cool. Dennis wanted to milk the guy for more information, and stopping him from opening a portal to an even more evil dude sounded like a good idea, but he had to remember his priorities. Sure, he could ask more questions or try to bluff his way into… well, what? Some sort of lie about how he didn't actually need a portal to the soul guy, despite them being 'buddies' and it all being a part of some kind of plan?

He could try, but he wasn't confident in his chances, and he was feeling like he was forgetting the important thing. He looked around, seeing blood and broken bodies everywhere. Those little props, the people casually floating in the sky, didn't fare well during his battle. Lots of them were just killed by the monsters as they rained down, some got caught by the laser-breaths, some by magical explosions… The elf in front of him, for all of his displeasure about 'trillions dead', didn't seem to care at all.

Sure, Dennis didn't care that much either, but it was the principle of the thing. This gloomy dude was the High Authority. The villain. And while he was casting his bullshit, he gave Dennis time. All of those conspiracies, great revelations and politics of powers that were basically gods, all of them shared one common trait in his eyes. They didn't matter. He didn't care. He just wanted to be fast and save people.

So, as the elf kept casting, Dennis didn't try to squeeze more knowledge out of the guy or manipulate him into whatever. He now had time. He had enough. Almost a minute, maybe? What was the normal heartbeat for an elf? Dennis sat down on the ground, closed his eyes, and did what he was supposed to do from the very beginning. He dove down into his skill. The true goal was to have the superspeed all the time. For now, it was impossible. The foundation wasn't there. He discarded it.

The more realistic approach was to have the skill work when he needed it. With eight levels' worth of upgrades, he didn't need to look into a way to cheat the skill condition. He could just expand it. Trying to find more targets with Heroic Senses to use them as a boost was a path that he could take, but that was just dumb when he could instead find a way to have the buff on without a need for a target. The obvious solution was to invent an 'abstract' target. It was also expensive as fuck.

Abstract people weren't real. You couldn't save what wasn't real. Dennis took a deep breath, and opened his eyes. The city was a ruin at this point, with almost no buildings left intact. The elf was still playing with his glyphs, whispering something under his breath. A few monsters stood motionlessly here and there. The ground was littered with bodies. Mostly monsters, but there was also a considerable number of people who had… just crashed out of the sky. Dennis didn't need an abstract target.

The blood on the ground was real. Real people were dead, killed by a real person who seemed to not even have noticed that. Dennis couldn't save them, since they were already dead. He couldn't save them before, since he didn't have the means to get up there to move them out of harm's way. But he could prevent more deaths like that. He could prevent a lot of deaths, if he played his cards right. Sure, the High Authority wasn't killing anyone right now. And there wasn't any concrete person who was in danger.

Just a whole bunch of people. A whole bunch of dead bodies on the ground. Abstract right until the point they died. Wasn't that dumb?

"The barrier is lifted," the elf said, and immediately started casting something else.

"I am opening The Road. Put in a good word for me, will you? Tell him that I am still his loyal servant." Sure, the elf maybe killing someone in the future wasn't the same as an arrow flying into someone's specific throat. But was it really? An arrow could miss. Both were a question of possibilities. The foundation was there. He just had to expand what it meant to be a danger to someone. Sure, a group of people was kinda abstract. But he could also see their faces. He could count them, if he wanted.

And wasn't the elf being a danger to a whole group even worse than to individual people? A group was made of individuals. If the skill could target one person, why not ten? Why not a hundred? They were real. To save them all, he needed something just a bit more complex than running towards them and moving them out of danger. He needed to beat the shit out of the High Authority and force the elf to put them all back. The plan wasn't that different from catching an arrow out of the air.

It was the same action, just with a greater degree of complexity. Dennis wanted a lot, but he had a big fucking budget. The conceptual distribution of a skill was modified. Skill description updated. Heroic Dash 79. Passive. Unique. Just save everyone. Maybe apply a bit of triage. Effect: +7 Constitution, +79 Mind, +79 Dexterity while trying to save an ally. Effect: +7 Constitution, +79 Mind, +79 Dexterity while trying to save people. The people were real.

Dennis became immediately aware of every single floating person in the world. Hundreds of millions of them. The danger to them all was also real. It was right in front of him, fiddling with magic. The elf was screwed.