Chapter Forty-Five

  Watching the thousand surviving beastmen limp around cutting out eyeballs and hands and throw them into bags which they in turn threw into wagons, turned into watching them cut off feet, or tails, or whatever survived of the corpses that they could manage.

  The creatures, mostly of the hardier boarmen, lionmen, and bearmen and a few of the tigerman varieties… the rest… those had not fared so well. But hardy or not, their spirits were hollowed out of their bodies, removed like the innards of a nesting doll with nothing at the center.

  They were little more active than golems, and just as oblivious, performing their actions in a steady trudging, mechanical fashion. The noise of claws sinking into flesh to pluck away what was needed, the sticky sound of bits tearing away from bits, and the noise of splashing as they trekked through red pools of their comrades blood to search for one more body to drive the point home to those they were expected to meet… these were the only sounds the thousand made.

  They said nothing to each other, nor did they even trade glances in one another’s direction, each one silently judging themselves the coward and the failure for surviving where their brethren died noble deaths, blank faces and eyes devoid of life staring up in judgment at those who would now live ignoble lives.

  It went on all through the night, and while it went on, Demiurge and Ulbert shared in tea sent specially from Nazarick along with the battlemaid Solution Epsilon. It was a little table, round and with a white stone surface, enough room on there for a tray of silver and two cups with cream and a little jar of sugar cubes.

  Solution, of course, acted as the servant, silent and patient while the pair talked.

  “Father, if I may be so bold, what is your intent, true intent, with the Draconic Queen?” Demiurge asked.

  “She is a practical woman.” He said and tapped his hoof on the ground while he sipped, after half finishing his cup, he held it out to Solution, who dutifully filled it while he spoke, “Why, are you worried I will replace you with a sibling?” Ulbert chuckled, but Demiurge said nothing.

  The goat-headed demon paused, Demiurge looked toward the distant beastmen soldiers instead of at Ulbert. ‘Oh.’ Ulbert realized. “Demiurge, I have no plans to go anywhere. I swear it. And you can never be replaced. You were my creation…you are my creation. That makes you my son in principle if not in nature. With the woman, she won’t replace you either. You are irreplaceable to me.”

  “Father…” Demiurge said softly, turning his crystalline eyes away from the sight of the broken warriors and their work to focus on his maker. “You created me as a servant. All of us are to serve Nazarick, but I admit…” His tail lashed behind him, “I am unsure of how to think of any child you may have… would they too be of Nazarick?”

  “They would be of the Odle line, so, yes. If you are my servant, then serve the line of Odle, and be a good steward to my house, and all those in it. If you are my son, then protect your father’s house as your father would.” Ulbert drained his cup a second time, set it down, and spread his hands out in front of himself.

  “No matter what you are, the answer changes nothing. A son protects his family, a servant protects his house, and the House of Odle will always be part of Nazarick, even if we’re ruling somewhere else. It might not feel the same as it used to in the old days. But it is still the place my friends and I all built together, and like Ainz would say if he were here, ‘There is nothing replacing that.” Ulbert leaned toward the archdevil and put his hand on Demiurge’s shoulder, “So be at ease, my son. There is nothing to worry about, and as today showed, there is nothing really that can hurt us.”

  Demiurge bowed his head, “Regrettably father, I must tell you about one thing that can…” That had Ulbert’s full attention, and he listened to the story of the world item that could control even Shalltear.

  “Ainz didn’t mention that…” Ulbert shuddered.

  “Our leader is very sentimental about us all, it is very difficult for him to speak of having to take her life with his own hands.” Demiurge explained, “I’m sure he would have told you eventually, or more likely, he intended me to tell you as it was still too painful for him. As always, the Guildmaster is beyond incomprehensible with the depth and foresight of his plans.”

  ‘Momonga… Ainz? Really? Alright he’s a capable planner and he’s smarter than he thinks, even Touch Me said privately he suspected that Momonga was an untaught genius after he memorized all those spells and world items and rattled off the endless variety of strategies…’ Ulbert could accept that, but then Demiurge threw him for a loop.

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  “No doubt even this was part of his ten thousand year plan.” Demiurge added.

  “Ten thousand years?” Ulbert asked as if he were heavily impressed, he sipped deeply from his freshly refilled cup, “Impressive. As expected of Lord Ainz.” He added with mock seriousness.

  “Yes, he is truly fit to lead, though I am sure my own creator could do so as well.” Demiurge said with pride as he drank, “And rest assured, father, I will ensure the House of Odle always has its Guardian, and I will always be whatever it needs.”

  “I am sure you will, my boy, I’m sure you will.” Ulbert replied and then turned his attention across the field. It was deep into the hours of darkness now, but it posed no trouble to the slime, nor to the two demons, and by the same token, it was no trouble for the beastmen.

  They continued their trudging, pushing through their exhaustion, each one seeking to fill their own sacks with ‘proof’ of the slaughter that had consumed them all.

  And as they worked, the demons chattered amiably about their many doings and thoughts on the future, continuing until dawn broke and reflected off the bright red and dull brown hellscape, and the rising sun glinted against the pure white of the endless teapot.

  It was then that Demiurge said…

  “You know, father, we could have just summoned some demons, or asked Lord Ainz to send a messenger, that would have been more efficient.” Demiurge said when the beastmen loaded the last sack in the last wagon, and the broken shells of creatures that would never be themselves again, began to pull a burden heavier than the supplies they left behind could ever be, toward an uncertain hope that they could get some of their people to act rationally and survive the coming horror.

  “Perhaps.” Ulbert admitted. “But then I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to spend time with and get to know my son. That’s worth a little time watching ‘that’.” He waved a dismissive hand toward the retreating survivors.

  “I truly am a lucky son.” Demiurge said with pride, “More tea, while they take their head start?”

  “If you don’t mind having some more with your ‘old man’?” Ulbert retorted with a little huff.

  “Father, it would be my pleasure.” Demiurge said, and the two held up their cups to Solution one more time.

  Albedo sat across from the Sorcerer King, sitting with him in these hours was one of her favorite things. Her wings twitched with glee as they went over the recent events of the battle. “I have no doubt that the beastmen will never think to meddle in lands protected by your esteemed self, My Lord.” Albedo said with a warm and happy smile.

  “I expect not.” He said half jokingly, in a way, the beastmen had proven even easier to handle than the humans at the Katze Plains, there was no strategy to speak of, just charge in and hit things until they stop moving.

  “They’re so used to being the strongest, they don’t know what to do when they encounter real power.” Albedo said, barely suppressing her delight, her bardiche had by itself claimed no fewer than ten thousand lives, perhaps more, and they could not so much as muss her feathers.

  “Most likely you’re right,” Ainz said, “but you didn’t ask to see me just for this, did you? I was going to leave all this to Cocytus as part of his training as a General of Nazarick’s army.”

  “No, My Lord. It’s just… Lord Ulbert arrived at a time of great massacre. We also arrived here in this world at a time of great massacre. I cannot help but wonder, could these things be connected?” Albedo leaned forward across the desk.

  “What if massacre is what summons the Supreme Beings?” She asked.

  Ainz couldn’t frown, but he replied, “These ‘advents’ only happen every hundred to two hundred years, according to what we’ve heard.”

  “What if they only think time is involved, but instead it is the loss of life?” Albedo proposed and bit her lower lip, she was leaning so close that Ainz could smell that faint perfume she always wore.

  She continued, “Over two hundred thousand and some beastmen died, what if this called another Supreme Being to this world, shouldn’t we at least check to see if it’s possible?”

  ‘She has a point… we assumed time was the variable, but then again, the advents all happened in times of chaos, many were dying. What if the rules of this world call down players when chaos gets too great?’ He rubbed his jaw and hummed a quiet, “Hmmm…”

  Finally he nodded. “What do you propose?” Ainz asked.

  “Let us send scouts farther afield, fliers, demons who can go very far, very fast, and search for any sign of the others. If it fails, we’ve lost nothing but some summoned creatures. If it succeeds… we find them.” Albedo whispered the reverent words, and Ainz searched for downsides until he was satisfied that he’d found none.

  “Alright, Albedo. Do it. And inform me as soon as you’ve found something.” He gave the order, and Albedo nodded, stood, and bowed toward him.

  “Of course, My Lord. All that I do is for your service alone. Your will be done, in all the world, as it is in Nazarick.” She said with a sweet, radiant smile, her bright yellow eyes aglow with delight, she straightened, and left the leader of Nazarick alone.