Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Dominic didn’t know how much time passed, the cell remained cold, the cell remained damp, the breeze through the little window never ceased to blow, and he remained without visitors. The guard shifts seemed sporadic at best, but the priest who came to him with the promise of aid in killing Demon Lord Ulbert had yet to reappear. In time, as his beard grew and his blood debt remained unpaid, the Cardinal of Wind wondered two things.

  ‘Have they chosen to abandon me?’

  And…

  ‘Did I dream the coming of that priest?’

  He’d heard of people going mad in isolation before, creating entire lives, families, friendships and experiences, none of which actually existed, and yet were real in the minds of those who lived them out. ‘Get it together, Dominic.’ He told himself, he knew he hadn’t been forgotten, the food was certainly always delivered, but that time too seemed sporadic, he couldn’t really tell what if any routine there was to be had in these deep depths of the Draconic Empire dungeon.

  Exercise consisted of squats and jumps, and pulling against his chains, anything to break the monotony of it all. ‘Trying to kill Torald was a mistake. I should have made sure I succeeded…’ Dominic critiqued the kill as a mistake made in a heady moment of outrage, but it could have been worse. “Had you lost your temper in front of them, you might already be dead.” He said to himself out loud.

  That too was no routine, there was nobody to talk to down here, nobody at all.

  Not unless he counted the source of the occasional squeaks. Rats in the Draconic Kingdom tended to be small, much smaller than in the Slane Theocracy, but they were savage little things, always tearing at one another over the smallest scraps. He reached down to a piece of bread and tore it free, he flicked it away from his fingertips and it landed between two of the little squeaking, screaming creatures.

  They fell to squabbling over the scraps of his stale meal almost immediately. Their little war cries were accompanied by the smell of blood as they bit and tore at one another, little rat paws and little rat teeth flashed and wiggled as they rolled around on the floor until the bottom rat got the upper hand and brought his jaws under his enemy’s throat, chomped down, and with one single cry it was over.

  The rat on top went limp, blood gushed and stained the victorious rat’s fur and the old stone around it, but for his prize of victory the winner received both a feast of bread and of meat in the form of his fallen foe.

  “Good fight.” Dominic praised the victor as a brutal smile traced over his face, he then brought the lion’s share of his bread to his mouth and tore a large piece off. It wasn’t ‘bad’ it was just ‘nothing’. Stale. Flavorless, much like whatever interminable existence his life was now reduced to while he waited for rescue.

  ‘Could it have been a taunt, or a plant to keep me compliant and in place?’ He wondered that too.

  But he doubted it, the faithful of the six would not lightly accept a demon as a god, not even here, he was sure of that much.

  All further reflections were thrown aside when he heard the skittering feet of a human rushing over the stone floor. Dominic raced to the little gap that let him look beyond his cell and true to the wild hope that sprang up in his heart, the young man, Yu Sebius, appeared, and he was holding something.

  “You have news?!” Dominic hissed the question and stuck his arm through the window, the firm hands of the young priest clasped his briefly before being released.

  “Yes, forgive my absence, Cardinal. Getting the chance to come here again, I had to wait till the time was right, even though I had the means to get you out, I can’t just wander around without cause in a place like this… I had to wait till it was my turn to offer prayers to the imprisoned…” Yu Sebius’s apology was meaningless to Dominic, he waved it off.

  “It doesn’t matter, you’re here now, but what do we do?” Dominic hastened the young one to the point, and the ashen face held up a scroll.

  “A teleport spell, I can take you to a place you’ve been before, get what you’ll need… then to an ambush site, one we know that demon will go to.” The jingle of keys echoed as the priest spoke and he sought the right one.

  “How did you get the keys?” Dominic’s eyes widened.

  “I will need the forgiveness of the gods for it, let me leave it there for now, Cardinal.” Yu whispered as the magic lock responded and the blue glow pulsed while the magic tumblers were unlocked one by one.

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  “Forgiven, whatever it was, it is forgiven!” Dominic whispered as the door clicked and began to swing open.

  Free of magical interference, the priest smacked a scroll into Dominic’s hand. “Use this, and get as close to the weapon as you can.” The priest urged with a grim look down the long hall. “Hurry!” He urged as if the coming of the next minute of life was in dispute, let alone tomorrow.

  Thankfully it was needless, Dominic opened the scroll and mystic blue flames devoured it in the air. He barely had a moment to orient himself before the priest yanked his arm, and they passed through the mystic space to find themselves…

  “Where are we?” The priest asked as they looked around, it seemed not much different than the dungeon they’d left behind in that it was damp, dark, cool, and altogether it blended into a singular dankness found elsewhere.

  “The treasury of the Slane Theocracy.” Dominic answered, then commanded, “Follow me… if you have the courage. If not, you have done enough…”

  Yu Sebius shook his head, “Cardinal, in times like this a man must act or die, and failing to act is a death a thousand fold worse anyway.”

  “Good lad.” Dominic remarked, and down the dark hall they raced.

  Bringing together some of the most important figures of the known world was exceptionally easy when one had access to the [Gate] spell, and as such what should have been months of planning had been compressed to a mere few weeks, with the guests gathered in their respective capitals and then simply stepping through the gate when the spell was activated.

  “Ainz!” Neia exclaimed, gleefully exercising his invitation to call him by his name after his departure from the Holy Kingdom in the previous year, she approached and embraced him warmly. Her face was hidden by the mask that had now become emblematic of her office as the most powerful religious leader in the Northern Holy Kingdom, she savored the feel of his embrace, brief as it was, in return.

  “Miss Baraja, no, Neia, no… Masked Evangelist might be better perhaps?” He asked the rhetorical question and from the bottom half of her mask she wore a clear smile which broke only for her to say…

  “Call me whatever you wish.”

  They were the words he’d given to her when they departed, ‘I wonder if she memorized everything I ever said?’ It was troubling enough to be surrounded at all times by fanatical NPCs convinced he could do no wrong, it would be far more so if the whole world became like that.

  But what could he say?

  He grabbed at the first thing he could think of, “Thank you for agreeing to officiate the wedding.”

  “Yes, thank you.” Ulbert said as he approached the pair, a servant walking past the trio offered up a tray with various glasses of red wine, which all three took with appreciative nods that brought a bright red flush to the face of a servant who would never forget that moment.

  “I worried that finding a priest to officiate a wedding between a Demon Lord and the Draconic Queen might be… difficult.” He finished the word with some discomfort, and tipped his hat to the paladin. “Especially given that it was my own son who brought such ruin to your lands.”

  Neia shook her head, “Your son’s actions are not yours. This will help people understand that truth, Lord, no, Emperor Ulbert Alain Odle. Besides, His Majesty is Justice, if he wished me to do this, it could not be wrong.”

  “You are as loyal as he said.” Ulbert remarked at once.

  The great hall of the castle was filled with people like themselves, Princess Renner acting as a representative for Re-Estize with a plus one in the form of Lakyus, and a slender young blonde bodyguard who followed behind her like a lost puppy.

  The Emperor of Baharuth had come with a handful of nobles though they were giving the towering demon and undead a wide berth. But when they started seeing the servants at ease and the paladin of the Holy Kingdom resplendent in her fine white dress with the blue insignia of her homeland across her small chest, warmly interacting with the two impossible beings?

  Then they began to relax and draw closer.

  So it was with the rest of the party, the Queen and other royal ladies were broken away from the men, and it was moments before Baharuth’s emperor could approach that Torald went up and clapped the paladin on the back.

  “Good on you.” He said, his face already flushed red as the wine in his glass. “I didn’t expect to see someone from the Holy Kingdom doing this, but, I’m a simple knight, what do I know?” He grinned when the masked figure turned around to face him. ‘She has a nice smile. I wonder if she’s pretty beneath that mask?’

  “Ainz,” she beamed when she said his name again, “is a God, I would never disrespect the God I serve to the bottom of my soul. My life, my body, everything that I am, is his to use as he wishes, to be able to serve a God he calls friend and comrade, and bring them happiness, I could not be more honored.”

  Torald heard every single word she said, he felt her words seep into his bones and wrap themselves, no… engrave themselves upon his heart. “If I am half so good a servant to Ulbert, then I will count myself faithful.”

  Mingling of that sort was commonplace, with the Emperor mustering all his courage to speak with the demon who would be a brother emperor in the game of nations and who would share allegiance with the Sorcerer King… ‘So much needs to be known… the world is changing so fast…’ He felt a hair fall loose from his head, and briefly wondered…

  ‘Is there a magical cure for hair loss?’ It was the most lighthearted question of the day, before the wedding would begin.