Chapter Thirty-One

  It wasn’t even slightly difficult to reach his destination. But more importantly, it felt… fantastic. To fly through clean air and hear it shooting past, his wings were singularly powerful and, much to his delight, every bit as easy to use as he imagined they would be, even at high speeds. The ground far below was shooting past like a crossbow bolt, and the people he saw were like tiny ants to his eyes.

  There was little connection between himself and them, ‘If one stopped moving, would I care?’ Ulbert asked himself, but he already knew the answer. ‘Maybe I really am becoming more of a demon… or maybe I’m just getting used to the idea of being a King.’

  Neither was as upsetting a thought as it should have been, and he quickly lost himself in the pleasure of chasing the far horizon, the anticipation of seeing Momonga once again, and the anticipation of his future.

  As eager as he was to see Momonga, the journey itself was so enjoyable there was almost a little regret that his journey went as quickly as it did. Almost.

  “Momonga!” Ulbert shouted as he came roaring in close, Demiurge and Pandora’s Actor quickly moved aside from where they hovered in the air to avoid being barreled over… but there was no need.

  He stopped abruptly just before striking the skeletal body of the guildmaster, then held out his arm. Momonga grasped Ulbert’s forearm and the two leaned close, wrapped their other arms around each other, and patted one another’s backs. “My friend. My friend… it’s so good to see you. But it’s not Momonga anymore, I am Ainz. It will help everyone find me, if of course, there is anyone left to search for.”

  “Alright ‘Ainz’. I’d say you earned the right to use the guild as your name for any reason or none.” Ulbert said as they broke one another’s hold and separated. “As for whether there are more…” He spread his hands at his sides, “I don’t know. The truth is, we got your email, and other than Bellriver, we were all in agreement that we’d come back for the last day. But… I don’t know? When we logged back in, we weren’t in the guild, I got on the comms offline and confirmed with everybody on a group chat, but the in game messaging system was done. We ended up scattered all over the map. I ended up next to a World Item, and I couldn’t resist picking it up, even if it wasn’t going to be useful. Some of us weren’t too far away, so we,” he pointed to his goat hooves, “hoofed it… to Nazarick as fast as we could. The next thing I know, I ended up alone in a field here in the Draconic Kingdom, close to a village under attack. That was about three months ago now, I guess. I’ve seen neither hide nor hair of anyone since. Then the other day, I found out about you. Now here we are.”

  Ainz didn’t bother to hide the range of emotions he felt, and cursed the suppressor that was trying to bring him back down from them, “They were coming back… so it wasn’t for nothing… and…” He stopped.

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  “Three months ago?” Ainz asked.

  “Give or take a week.” Ulbert confirmed, “I haven’t really bothered to keep track and I didn’t exactly have a calendar handy.”

  “No, right… but I’ve been here for three years now. And I arrived in a place called Re-Estize, a Kingdom well away from this one. So it follows that…” He didn’t have to finish his statement, just like old times, Ulbert finished it for him.

  “...They could appear at very different times and very different places.” Ulbert completed Ainz’s thought, and the two rubbed their chins as they considered the implications of that.

  “The Great Gods worshiped by the human Kingdoms seem to have been ‘players’. Additionally, there are legacy weapons and equipment of Yggdrasil, the magic includes familiar spells, and others, such as the Greed Kings and Demon Gods, seem to have been either players or NPCs.” Ainz added.

  “You can add the Elf King to that, he’s definitely an NPC, I even killed him once in the game, before I joined Ainz Ooal Gown. He’s a level ninety-five elf monk written by someone so pervy that even Peroroncino would tell him to tone it down.” Ulbert added.

  And Ainz followed up with another question, “Did you get the World Item from the Elf King when you beat him?”

  “No. The World Item Drop rate for him was very rare and my party was too large to qualify for it. So as far as I know, he still had it when the game ended. His ‘bodyguards’ were too tough for most small parties to handle.

  “I see. So I and Nazarick came here with World Items. You found a World Item. The Elf King may have still had his World Item. If the Six Great Gods, Greed Kings, and Demon Gods also had world items… I would say we have a good amount of evidence that it is the presence of World Items that pulled people and NPCs here when the old world ended.” Ainz guessed, “And if they were with you, around you, then that means the others may either already be here, somewhere else in this world. Or it means that they will be some time in the future, maybe in the next few years, maybe in hundreds of years. Luckily, we’re immortal.” Ainz said with glee.

  “Yes indeed. Speaking of mortals,” Ulbert pointed down at the city, “there are humans down there now. I suppose the prisoners I set free chose to stay, that or some others have moved in to occupy the place. But our targets are that way.” He pointed off to the east. “We’ll be exterminating beastmen, now… we don’t have to kill them. Just drive them away, I figure if they run, they’ll cause more problems where they end up than if we just left the rest of their country alone. Besides, survivors spread fear, and that definitely has its use.”

  “So the Quest is to destroy enough that they run, but not so much that the place they go to thinks about coming back?” Ainz asked and Ulbert gave a little half bow.

  “That’s our Guildmaster.” Ulbert said and clapped his hands together once and then turned to look from Ainz, to Pandora’s Actor and Demiurge, “What do you say, do you two think you can keep up with your fathers?”

  “Ja! Mein Vater will be pleased!” Pandora’s Actor cried out and thrust his right hand up toward the sky while the left was pressed over his heart. It wasn’t lost on Ulbert that Ainz drew his hand along his face and sighed at the outburst.

  Demiurge simply bowed at the waist, “While I am no match for the Supreme Beings, I will do my best to bring pride to my maker and the master of Nazarick.”

  And that…

  They did.