GATE OVERLOW

A/N: I'm speeding things up since the re-zero ark is dragging itself and i'm not writing enough to compensate for that lol.

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His training with Elsa was going well, both with daggers and with stealth. For the for former, he would constantly spar with her while lowering his stats to just below her. And for the later, he would try to sneak up on her and then they would play hide and seek.

Breathing, sounds, intent, the beating of his heart. He would constantly improve everything to make it the more inconspicious possible. After almost two months of it, he had all but mastered the ability. Though still not to Elsa's ability. Same thing with his dagger mastery, he was the equivalent of of someone having average talent having trained with them for decades. Something that was still beneath Elsa's own skill.

To surpass her, he suspected training wouldn't be enough. And that he had to use his newly obtained skills and sharpen them in real situation to progress further.

As such, he had made it an habit to hide weapons of a similar make that Elsa normally used beneath the luxurious deep blue mage robes Roswaal had commisioned for him.

Feeling underequiped and with an embarassinggly low amount of personal effects, he had asked for a of bunch money from his clowny sponsor and went shopping in the capital. A place easy to travel to when you could fly a couple of times faster than sound. Upon reaching there, and constating that his money was quite not enough to buy the crop of the top of what the city had to offer in term of clothing articles and armaments. In answer, he may have went on a heist or two, or ten, against the local nobles, putting Elsa's teaching to good use.

As such, he had now a respectable wardrobe worthy of a king, a new shiny sword. A staff made of twisted black wood with a topaze atop it who strengthen yang magic. And plenty of fantastical and beautiful jewelry like rings, bracelets and necklaces of all sorts. One such pink silver necklace sporting a sizable pink gemstone as its pendant he had gifted Ram, who he suspected still had not given in to his advance because of pettyness and bad sportmanship.

The necklace had been given with a cheeky smile, and had been received with a hard-won and reluctant slight blush. He also had a matching blue piece that he intended to gave Rem when the time came.

Of course, his exploits in the capital had not went unoticed. But he didn't care, wealth was conveniant, and it was power. It just happen that stealing from rich folks was laughably easy for him in this world. It's not like they could catch him either.

On another note on the deal stricken with Beatrice. He had spent much time reading the books in the library and catching up on his theory. As well as making quick stride in his Yin magic.

Overall, the past month and a half he had been allowed living in the mansion had been a blessing. Allowing him to improve significantly on a lot of aspects. Notably his mastery of his EC and his PoD, as he had all the time to practice and experiment with them as he wished.

But perhaps, the most precious aspect of his time after waking up from his week of coma was the peace it gave him.

It may not seems like it, but it hadn't been much more than 2 months and a half since he saved Issei from Reynare. Yet so much happened in that period of time. And chilling with a couple of cute girls and a sexy assassin in a mansion while going at his own pace was pretty therapeutic.

for him, it was a well appreciated break. For everyone who stood on his path in this world, it was the worse possible hand fate could have dealt them.

Because, in the grand scheme of things, 1 months and a half was very little.

But for him, it may as well be an eternity.

—————

"At the last second, the knight lady unexpectedly dodged. The three slashs sent by the ronin, coming from outside time and space, proved themselves inefectual against the supernatural premonition of the woman opposing him. Taking advantage of the surprise of her opponent at his failed trump card, she bursted forward and fell him swiftly with one slash of her sword. The obstacle in her way taken care of, she began anew her ascension of the stairway to the shrine above." Julian retold to Emilia, using magic to animate his story.

"Amazing, she's really determined to fulfil her duty. Julian-Kun, where do you get all of these great stories from? If you don't mind me asking." Emilia asked with curious eyes.

"I'm simply retelling events that really happened and that I'm aware of."

She seemed pleasently surprised by this. "Really? Does this mean I could meet this Artoria one day?"

Julian pursued his lips. "She lives outside of the waterfall. But who knows? Nothing is impossible." He smiled.

The pair became silent as Julian was distracted and Emilia seemed unsure, and began to fidget in response.

His attention brought back by the movement, he asked. "Something on your mind?" He guessed. "The selection?"

Letting out a deep breath, she nodded. "What if they don't take me seriously? If my ressemblance to Satella... Make me lose right from the start?"

"Politics is all about faces and manipulating the public. For them to take you seriously, there's only one answer: power. However unfortunate it may seems, good intentions and a good speech mean nothing if you don't have the power to shake things up. Power is the foundation of your face, your reputation is seen as lesser if you don't have it. As for your ressemblance to Satella, you'll have to prove that you are the farthest thing from the witch of Greed by your action and your words. Honesty can also be a form of manipulation. Speak, and act from your heart, and only the true fools or those who wish to undermine you will use this argument." Julian explained succintly, ruffling her hair at the end.

"Also, don't worry about things to much, I'll be your knight. And I'll not let them step all over you, after tonight. Nobody will be able to stand against me, let alone you."

—————

*Tok Tok*

"Yeees?"

Julian entered Roswaal' office and was met by the man idly scribbling away at paperwork.

Closing the door behind him, he smiled at the one who had taught him much in this past two month.

Much, but not enough.

"Roswaal, I'm here for the royal selection tomorow. Is there any last minute news of importance? Something worth changing my plan for?"

The archmage lifted his head and tapped his pencil against his desk in tought. "There are rumors I hold as true of members of the cult assembling in the Capital, but nothing that shooould be threatening to you. Or at least I don't think so. After aaaaall, you are pretty strooong, aren't you, Julian-Kun?" Roswaal smiled slily.

"Depend on who's my opponent." Julian drawled, flexing his magical left arm who was in no way different than the one of blood and flesh he lost.

"Anyway, I still have much to learn. And that's why I'm here, the only thing I need to fulfill my end of the contract is raw power. And for that, knowledge on gates, and more precisely souls is needed. Do you have anything you can tell me on the subject?"

"I am sooorry to say, but I do not." Roswaal immediatly replied with a dark expression, as if he was mad that he didn't have the answers his student seeked.

"I see." His face dropping in disappointement, Julian sighed.

"And here I thought you were eager enough to see her again in the flesh to do anything. I see you're already planning for the future. Not a bad thing to do, but it would have been better nonetheless if you had answered me truthfully."

Roswaal tensed imperceptibly at his words but showed a smile outwardly. "Julian-Kun, I don't under-"

Roswaal cut himself off, his smile froze on his face as he felt something press itself against the back of his head.

Julian was not before him anymore.

"That you do, Roswaal. I'm not a pawn on your board that you can move as you wish, I'm not even a piece on it. I'm the one who bring the board to play."

"And since I don't like to play with Kin-Slayer. You lost from the start."

As soon as Roswaal tried to move, Julian smashed his magic against his mind like one would smash a boulder into a steel wall, stunning Roswaal as he tried to take control of his consciousness.

Though Roswaal extraordinary willpower and his vast magical reserve granted him a strong mental defense. Enough to resist an initial attempt to intrude his head at least, between the potency of EC and the sudden shift in tactic that focusing his assault on a single point of his mind barrier was, Julian swiftly melted through the Archmage's defence. Hereby getting access to his being and knocking him out.

Getting through his defenses was costly, but it left him with enough to read his knowledge about magic and steal some of his experience with it. It also left him with just enough to modify the recent memory of this meeting, or rather, erase it totally.

Placing him back in a proper position, with his pencil ready to fill in paperwork. Julian impassively went through his new knowledge as he adjusted Roswaal's tiny top hat to lay just at the perfect angle.

Nodding once, he sent one last gaze over his work before going for the door and exiting the office. Not once turning back to look at Roswaal while he did so.

The moment the door closed with a *click* the sound of scribbling resumed in the room. Its sole occupant none the wiser to the recent events.

—————

Julian sat crossed legged as he put order to his mind, stealing (copying) memories was not simple, and experiences even less. For them to be usable, he needed to filter and erase the thought and personality and that was not his own. And then he needed to classify them, make them part of himself and place them somewhere accessible. Something that couldn't be done with a chaotic mind.

Hence why he was building a sort of mind palace. It wasn't a technique in DxD or in Re-Zero, but it existed elsewhere. And the ability his second spark of impossibility made it possible to replicate the technique, to however far his knowledge about it went.

It wasn't that hard, in fact. EV made laughably easy to make a space he would remember perfectly in its every details.

For now, his mind palace was a replica of his house. As converting his every memories to a book would take a long time. He opted to instead file the ones that was not in his own into his room.

Of course, it took him the better part of a week simply to do that.

But that wasn't a problem, not anymore.

Right now, with his current reserve of EC, he could speed up the time of his entire being in a efficient manner in a scale to 1:4 second for 3 hours total each day. Effectively prolonging his days to 33 hours instead of 24.

It was important, not only because of his physionomy as a Nephalem. But also because it gave him more time to do things, more time to train by himself, more time to think and more time to experiment.

He had done as such in the past one month and a half.

However, this info was not relevent anymore. At least not after stealing from Roswaal his knowledge about Gate and souls.

Because with it, he had deviced a new technique that he would be able to use only in this world.

Releasing a breath, Julian used his remaining magic to repair the gaping hole that was in place of the Gate that converted the mana of this world to EC and PoD.

And just like that, the world which had slowed to a crawl for an entire week for him roared back to life.

Checking the clock on the wall and noting the time that had passed before he activated his new technique: GATE OVERFLOW. He grinned.

One minute.

He had exchanged 60 seconds against 604 800. Or otherwise said, for each second that went in the world, he would have lived through 10 080s.

His smile became strained as a colossal headache and bone-deeb wearyness hit him at once.

Mana exhaustion? That was new, but not unexpected.

He did deplete his Re-zero Mana reserve after all.