Chapter Thirty-Two

  It did not take long to reach their first target. “So this is a beastman city. You know, I’d been meaning to come out to the Draconic Kingdom soon, to imitate my success with the dwarves. Those who are losing are always grateful to those who help them turn the tide.” Ainz remarked, “But I suppose you beat me to it. It’s just as well.” He then pointed down at the dots down below and asked, “Who goes first?”

  “Allow me. I did call for your help. I should at least get us started.” Ulbert remarked with a casual wave of his hand and began to slowly descend on the city. It had no walls, which was relatively strange to think about, but the buildings were quite large, with wide doors and many windows. Gardens grew freely and trees were on every corner. There were clearly divided sewer trenches and the roads were both clean and clearly well maintained.

  It was the picture of a well ordered, peaceful city.

  As Ulbert came into view, the beastmen below caught sight of the demon, cries of alarm went up, and rightly so as beastmen and humans both considered demons to be potentially very dangerous creatures.

  “I am the Demon Lord Ulbert Alain Odle. This city is now mine, and that makes you ‘trespassers’. I will give you one hour to leave. Anyone who remains at the end of that time will be killed. Time begins… now.” Having said that, he considered drawing from among the equipment Ainz returned to him and using his favorite giant hourglass.

  But instead he reached up and tapped the timepiece on his hat, and a great image of its ticking hands hovered over the city like a sun. Even for those beastmen who had never seen a pocket watch, it wasn’t hard to conclude that the hour of time was that space between two large numbers.

  And equally unsurprisingly, as he hovered in reach of bows, magic, and even stones, those responsible for defending the nameless city were quick in their response.

  Arrows disintegrated as they were too weak to penetrate his defense skill, magic fizzled out like smoke from a snuffed out candle wick, rocks simply bounced away…

  But as the seconds became minutes the assault did not slow down. ‘They are brave, at least.’ Ulbert acknowledged and watched the city residents while casually dusting off his coat and occasionally glancing up at the time, his projected voice announcing the passage of every ten minutes.

  Most of the citizens did nothing to flee, but a handful, after the first half hour of assaults passed against the self proclaimed ‘Demon Lord’ accomplished nothing, began running, to their homes, or directly toward the nearest way out of the city itself.

  After that, every few minutes a handful of others began to show signs of flight, boarmen, hyenamen, bearmen, and a handful of other varieties seemed to show the most sense…

  But few, very few, sought to flee. “Time.” Ulbert announced and picked his spell. [Vulcana] he cast the simple spell, it was an unusual sort of magic, one used to alter the ground of battlefields between guilds, and the way it did this was to give rise to a river of lava that would flow with the terrain. Cast within the city, the clear lines of streets would provide ideal channels that would quickly kill anything in its path.

  It was slow moving, and the beastmen who saw the bubbling red magma flow would be easily able to avoid it… but they would have no chance of stopping it.

  Moreover, those homes it would flow into, would become death traps for those inside, who would succumb to the fumes even if they weren’t burned by the reddish orange and black flow of molten rock.

  Of course… good order was essential to saving lives.

  And when the flow began?

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  Good order was the first casualty.

  Screams went up as beastmen fled in all directions, from above them he could see them scatter like ants whose nest had just been kicked over.

  With no walls, population could flee everywhere, and they knew it, unfortunately they also got in each other’s way, with people jammed together, those who were trampled and suffered broken bones were left lying where they fell, screaming as they were slowly burned alive by the flow and merciful death ended their torment. “I have more cities to claim! But I will give you a head start before the next city dies!”

  His projected voice carried easily to the survivors who fled in all directions, where they would spread the plague of fear to all who heard the tale of the dead city.

  [Detect Life] Ulbert cast the followup spell. A few little glows came up from those trapped in various buildings, but they were rapidly fading and would not last much longer.

  “How long do you think we should give them, and how did I do?” Ulbert inquired of his companions as they descended to join him.

  “Incredible, My Lord. A success befitting a Supreme Being.” Demiurge bowed.

  “Agreed. Well done. Very well done.” Ainz added, “Though now that you say ‘Demon Lord’ I can’t help but think that sooner or later somebody will connect you to Jaldabaoth.”

  “Easy. I’m his father, and he was my wayward son who turned against his fathers teachings.” Ulbert suggested, and Ainz immediately looked at the two geniuses present.

  “A very good story, mein Vater.” Pandora’s Actor said, while Demiurge again bowed to Lord Ulbert.

  “I am moved beyond words, my creator, and will proudly play your villainous son whenever needed.” Demiurge’s voice was slightly cracked, like a bastard child finally acknowledged by a father he’d long wondered about.

  “That will work, now… we’ve had the father, how about the son?” Ainz suggested and waved a hand toward Demiurge. “As to where we go next, if this is the farthest north you go on the western border, let’s go to the farthest south next, that will give the runaways here time to get to the next destination. We can simply hop back and forth from one to the next until we’re done, taking turns until the week is out and their Kingdom is cut by more than half.”

  “An excellent suggestion, my friend.” Ulbert agreed with glee, and then rose high into the sky, well out of view, and went to the city on the southwestern border of the Beastman Kingdom near to the almost empty Draconic Kingdom’s southeastern border.

  Ulbert watched as Demiurge took a somewhat different approach. While he kept the timer, warning the population to flee, his method of slaughter was unique when it began.

  [Traitor’s flame] He cast the spell, and balls of fire appeared over the city. “By the way, you can stop the burning by grabbing someone else, then you will stop burning, but they will catch fire in your stead! Save yourselves, condemn your friends and family!” He laughed at their open mouthed gawking, but their gawking ended when the first of them caught fire, screamed, and immediately grabbed the nearest person, a catwoman who sought to grab someone else, only for all others to back away as she screamed and cried and her tail was reduced to ashes…

  The first of them to suffer burns was covered in marks that would never heal, and he turned away to began to flee, so he never saw the fire rise from the dead catwoman, and chase after someone else in the crowd.

  The deadly game of tag was mixed with hide and seek as fires caught beastmen, who in turn had only a little while to chase down someone else… sometimes they were successful, and died anyway of their wounds, betraying a neighbor for nothing.

  Sometimes they got off lightly. And sometimes their own comrades would kill them so that they could not pass the flame of treason along to save their own lives.

  Bonds of trust built over lifetimes were shattered through the power of agony, neighbor turned on neighbor, father on son, mother on daughter, and the city consumed itself in betrayal, all while at the same time, they tried to flee the city for the relative safety of the forest or the roads…

  It took much longer than Ulbert’s destruction, the flames were few, only a few hundred, and they drew the terror out, but they were inexorable, unstoppable, and as the understanding spread and indiscriminate death moved down every street… minute by minute, the city emptied. It was slow enough that some beastmen even took the time to grab some of their things before they fled, able to carry more than their unfortunate predecessor’s spell permitted.

  But the result was the same. The smell of burning flesh and death from the trampled, the dead… and a silent city as the prize of the new Demon Lord.

  A process that would repeat itself for day, after day, after day… until the very end.