Chapter Sixty-Five

  “We’ve been out here for… how long?” Zesshi asked as the days slipped by.

  Yu Sebius snorted and tossed his latest kill over to her, “A week? You’ve done lots of damage, that should draw him here, all we can do is wait!” He proclaimed, and Dominic cracked his knuckles, what the priest said was true, but the trip here had seen more demonic statues than he cared for, which was ‘any’ but even if he were tolerant of a few, there were many.

  “A demon as a patron deity, it’s madness. Pure and utter madness…” He said, then stopped dead in his tracks as his wayward glance caught distant dots in the sky.

  The area in which the trio stood was near the bright yellow rock for which the Yellow Rock mountain was named, the entire area around the mountain, far from civilization, had been damaged, to include considerable portions of the mountain itself, created by Zesshi on Dominic’s instruction at Yu Sebius’s insistence that loud, thunderous crashes would draw the notice of the Demon Emperor sooner or later.

  Now, it turned out that he was right… “They’re going to land at the other site.” Zesshi said, and looking at her two companions she snapped, “Hurry!”

  “Wait!” Yu Sebius answered, “Let me be sure there is nothing amiss, I’m not far, so just stay back, out of sight, I’ll call for you when I’m sure this isn’t a trap, you wouldn’t want to fail now would you?” He leveled a decisive finger at each of the pair in turn, and despite their differing goals, it was something both agreed upon.

  “I am but a priest of a faithless and treasonous country, my life is expendable, let me go, if nothing else, perhaps I can lure away the Demon Emperor’s companions. And if I should die, it will be a noble death.” Yu said and smacked his chest proudly before spinning around on his heel and heading toward the hill beyond which the trio landed.

  “He’s brave beyond words.” Zesshi said with a slight nod of approval.

  “A man of great faith, deserving of rich rewards… though I expect my comrades will say otherwise since it was me he aided in this. But first he has to survive.” Dominic said, and the two fell quiet while they waited.

  “Lord Ulbert, if we’re going to make camp, I know your world item will allow you to do it with ease…” Albedo paused and cleared her throat, but if I may,” she approached and went down to one knee before him, “it would be the greatest of honors to make camp for you. If I could borrow it for a moment?”

  Ulbert looked at the kneeling beautiful succubus, someone he now thought of as the daughter of Tabula Smaragdina, and hence, a niece in her way, to himself. Her soft face was beautiful, earnest, sculpted with love and care to the highest degree… he almost said no, but he thought better of it. “You know, I was there when you were created.” He said, and she raised her head to look at him, “I remember how proud Tabula was to have made you, he put so much work into creating you in the way that he did, down to every little beauty mark… there were none like you in all of Yggdrasil.”

  “Creating beings… it still seems so… unreal to me.” Torald said with a shake of his head, “But, I couldn’t be more privileged than this… to meet not one, but two beings like yourself, My Lord.” The newly minted Duke bowed his head with humility and watched the tool known as a ‘world item’ pass from Ulbert’s hand to Albedo’s.

  Albedo blinked rapidly, her lips moved but no words came out as she rose to her feet. Ulbert however, had his eyes on Torald who was himself looking around the clearing at the base of the mountain. “There’s a lot of damage here, but, I don’t understand, where is this ‘supreme being’.”

  “Here.” A chattering, almost insectoid voice answered from somewhere on a nearly faceless being with a black robe and a number of dangling white tentacles hanging from around the head. Bone white claws the size of a human torso capped the hand of a slender arm and two long thin legs with a backwards curve stretched out in long strides.

  Ulbert whirled toward the voice, “Tabula?!” He held his arms out to embrace his friend after what, to him at least, was months of absence, ‘Was it the same for him, was he around here for a long time or… so many questions, what to ask first?’ Ulbert realized.

  “Yes, Lord Ulbert!” The voice was loud and clear as a summer’s day, coming as it did from the figure who descended from the gentle slope of a hill, “I hate to ask before all else, but… if you have questions, perhaps,” he pointed toward the sinking sun, “we should make camp.”

  “I gave my item to Albedo to prepare, she’s about to do so now, but… why did you call me Lord Ulbert?” Ulbert asked and cocked his head.

  “A sign of respect, My Lord.” The black clad creature said and looked over his shoulder, “Now.” He called out.

  Ulbert knew something was wrong, something… somehow… when he saw a figure on the hill clad in a familiar white outfit. ‘World item…’ He acted, he charged, Ulbert might not have been a warrior in the old world, but he was a player and he knew a threat when he saw one.

  ‘Tabula’ however, got in the way, but was not Tabula. “Pandora’s Actor… why…?” Ulbert’s bright yellow eyes widened as he felt the strength of the doppelganger grasp and hold him in place as the white light dominated the world.

  “Ulbert!” Torald had begun his own actions before words left his lips, “No!” His limbs were in full motion, his legs pumped and every martial art he knew was martialed to the moment, his hand reaching for his sword, the whole world seemed to disappear as the light blinded him, but he was not slowed even in the slightest.

  The white light began to fade, and… Ulbert was still there.

  “Zesshi! Here’s your chance, crush him!” Dominic bellowed, and the white armored warrior shouted with glee as she charged over the hill at their agreed upon cue.

  ‘Why isn’t he moving?’ She wondered as her scythe came down.

  “No! You can’t!” Torald shouted, everything was happening so fast, every second seemed a millionth of one, first he was going to meet a supreme being, now… Ulbert wasn’t moving, and there was a white warrior coming to strike him down…

  “I won’t let you!” He screamed and held his sword out in front of the body of his friend, “I won’t!” He gritted his teeth, and felt the mountain slam into him, his arms cracked and so did his ribs, his body flew back so hard that he and Ulbert were bowled over, and while they tumbled, Dominic blinked, the one named ‘Yu Sebius’ was nowhere to be found, instead there was a faceless man in a yellow uniform with a very nice, stylish hat on his head and a pair of high, thick brown boots.

  The beautiful succubus at least he knew, but also, he recognized the man he’d ‘killed’ before. “Slave! Kill everyone here!” Dominic commanded, it was an impulsive decision, but either Yu had been killed while scouting and that thing had taken him, or that thing had been him all along. Either way, with the power of a demon god at his disposal…

  Zesshi glared at him once with a lingering look of hatred. But Dominic brushed it off. ‘With the power of the Demon Emperor at my disposal, we don’t really need her, she can’t be controlled, if she kills him, I’ll make sure she’s dominated next, if she fails, then we’ll keep this demon creature in her place. Either way, nothing is really lost.’

  With that thought fixed in his mind, he gave her a cruel smile and said, “Good luck, halfbreed.”

  “It will be done.” Ulbert vowed, and then, a look of horror on his face as he realized what he’d acknowledged, “Why… I… I don’t want to do this… Torald! Run!” Ulbert gave the order to his companion.

  “No!” Torald cried again and rose to his unsteady feet, though whether his ‘no’ was a refusal to leave or a denial of the horrific situation, Ulbert did not know. He didn’t get to ask.

  ‘I can’t leave…’ Torald thought, whatever was happening, this was his place of duty, to protect his master. His resolve was poor armor, and he was stopped in it by the feel of the penetrating knife fingers of his master stabbing him in the back. His flesh ripped, his heart was pierced through and through, and he looked down at the blades which emerged out the other side…

  “I’m sorry… I can’t… I have to… I must obey… this is not my will…” Ulbert let out a baaa like bleating wail as he saw what he’d done, the sticky wetness of Torald’s blood ran warm and full of ebbing life down the length of Ulbert’s hand. ‘He’s so warm… even though he isn’t a demon…’ It was such an out of place thought for the moment, and the body of Torald spasmed as if trying to resist the certainty of his death.

  Until he went limp… and with a yank of Ulbert’s arm, Torald was sent flying, tumbling, and crashing until he smashed against a mountainside, and ceased to move entirely.

  “What have you done?! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” Ulbert roared, but he could not even conjure up a spell against that clear foe. “Help me! Albedo! Pandora’s Actor! I’m under his control! Call Ainz! I don’t want this!” Ulbert waited for them to cast a message spell as his new enemy closed in…

  He could hardly believe it when he heard Pandora’s Actor utter the words… [Dimensional Lock]

  Zesshi fell upon the Demon Emperor at once, her scythe striking at his body, only for the claws to come up and stop her cold. Inside her helmet, her heart lit up with delight. ‘Finally! Finally! Finally!’ Then to her surprise, the Demon Emperor began to cast spells.

  [Great Disaster][Wind][Flame][Acid] And a whirlwind appeared that rose clear up to the sky. Had she not been a Godkin, it would have been her end, but though it pulled and slashed with wind, tried to melt her with acid and burn her with flame, she dove through it. Her kicks were batted aside by the blade hands and to her disbelief, the Demon Emperor continued to hammer away at her with magic while fending off her physical blows with ease. “I don’t know who you are? But you had a hand in this! I will crush you for it! That command I am delighted to obey!” Blue glowing lights and wide circles spun within one another as the World Disaster turned his wrath on the companion of the one to work his body like a puppet.

  ‘How is this possible?!’ She cried inside her head as she, Certain Death, could not seem to land a blow, no matter how fast she went, it always seemed faster than she, and then there was the matter of those other two. The man in yellow who had no face, and the demoness carrying a wicked looking bardiche and wore black plate armor. ‘She was definitely the one with Ainz Ooal Gown… but isn’t Ulbert a friend of his… what have I gotten sucked into here?!’

  Was it a trap for her? The Slane Theocracy, the Demon Emperor, Dominic himself? Zesshi couldn’t be sure, but with the battle joined?

  The questions were hopelessly unanswerable, at least just then. Worst of the lot though was why the other two hadn’t so much as engaged yet, even though Dominic had ordered the demon to kill them in turn. There was one obvious answer to the question however. ‘They set this up… I’m the fodder to burn out the magic on… and they believe they can win after I’m defeated…’ She gritted her teeth to deny it to herself and redoubled her efforts, activating more martial arts until she felt the flesh begin to burn in her body as she rose beyond her limits.

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  Zesshi’s wounds continued to pile up, and her first blow finally connected… the tip of her scythe struck the demon across the cheek… only to fail to penetrate all the way. The only evidence of damage was a red streak of blood in his fur.

  “You can bleed! You can die!” She bellowed and charged in again as the Demon Emperor began to keep her at a distance, the world around them began to shake, and clouds began to gather, whatever spell he was using, the sheer quantity of blows in the form of earthen strikes, lightning, and acid were taking their toll. Her armor could not stop everything…

  Her breath was racing and her pulse raced with it as the battle went on and on, and still the Demon Emperor only continued to batter her with magic while his supremely swift hands batted away most of her blows, though the damage she did in return began to add up. He had red streaks on his belly, his arms, his face, and still he showed no sign of caring, while still the other two stood idle.

  “She won’t be enough, will she, mein frau?” Pandora’s Actor asked.

  Albedo tapped the butt of her bardiche on the ground, “No, definitely not. He would have ended it a dozen times over if he were at his maximum skill, even as he is though… she will die shortly.”

  Zesshi’s heart raced. ‘I long to be defeated… I would have a child with anyone or anything that could give me that sensation…’

  She recalled the fantasy of a lifetime, how many times she’d imagined bearing a child to some overwhelmingly powerful being, how she’d dreamt of the day she could finally meet someone whom she couldn’t just squash like a bug.

  Now she had.

  And they were mocking her for it. She clenched her jaw, growled, and continued to attack as she began to realize the true distinction between fantasy and reality. And for the first time in her life, Zesshi felt her heart beat in raw, unbridled fear.

  Ulbert realized it not long after Zesshi did. Neither of the pair had used a spell, nor were they coming to his aid. ‘They set this up! This was their doing!’ He cried out in his mind as he tried to recall their stats… “Traitors! Traitors! You’re both traitors! I’ll call Ainz myself!” He shouted.

  “You will not call for aid!” Dominic shouted the command, and it was as if the spell was shut down in his own mind, locked away.

  “Still, he has used up much mana, it should be no problem after this.” Pandora’s Actor said glibly.

  ‘Why aren’t they running?’ Dominic wondered as the tide began to turn against Zesshi, she screamed as a burst of burning black acid got inside her helmet.

  “Why would you do this?! How could you do this?!” Ulbert shouted as he began to press the knight harder, his wrath seemingly adding to his strength as she reeled and bounced head over heels over the ground before she sprang up and attacked again, blood however, seeped out from beneath the helm.

  ‘It’s clear my new slave is going to win… it’s madness to think they can stand up to a god…’ He frowned. It ultimately didn’t matter to him, but even so…

  “When it is your time, we will tell you, Lord Ulbert.” Pandora’s Actor promised, and still they did nothing as the battle began to wind down.

  ‘No! No!’ Zesshi howled in her head as the weight of her scythe began to grow with her injuries and exhaustion. She brought it up and attempted to bring it down with both hands, only for it to be stopped in one, grabbed in a waiting palm that was too fast for her. “Raymond!” She screamed for the only handler she’d cared for in a hundred years as the knife fingers pierced her armor, her chest, her heart, her back… the scythe slipped from her fingers and fell with a thunderous slamming noise to the ground.

  A second set of claws joined the first, and Zesshi screamed in pain a second time as her lungs were rendered worthless. ‘No…’ She thought of her father escaping the punishment he so richly deserved.

  Of her friends in the Black Scripture, of her handler, her leader, the only man whose orders she would truly obey… Cardinal Raymond Zarg Larrenson… she thought of her mother, dead for many years… ‘Do halfbreeds go to the same heaven as humans…?’ She wondered for the first time in her life, and felt her body rip vertically in half as the claws rent their way out, her eyes blinked once up at the gray sky where black acid fell from, she had only one brief burning sensation in her eye as a drop got through…

  She had a moment to envy the pair who might seize victory, standing outside of the area of the fight, they were fresh, and she… ‘I’m done.’ She thought with time enough for a pang of regret in her heart.

  And then?

  Zesshi Zetsumei was dead.

  “Now the rest of them!” Dominic ordered.

  The Demon Emperor went on the attack, but in that instant, Ulbert realized something was wrong. ‘They were going to kill me even without him, I have no choice regardless… I can’t call for help, I can’t even run away as he’ll just make me stand still if it comes down to it…’ It was a most unpleasant thought, but in a way, the dominator who used the world item on him was almost sporting.

  Ulbert had already drained much of his magic, ‘Damn it, if I had time to prepare, or if I’d memorized their stats and traits like Momonga did… if I weren’t such a glass cannon…’ There was nothing else he could do.

  He charged.

  ‘The spells he used before, he’s not using them…’ The demoness’s bardiche began to rip up the ground with gravity impacts, smashing over and over again into the Demon Emperor while the faceless man was now replaced with a giant black slime that slithered along and grabbed the demon’s whole body, creating a tar-like effect that burned where it touched.

  “Hero-Hero… you don’t deserve to wear his form!” Ulbert bellowed as his toxic acid began to eat away at his body. It hurt. A lot. But it was immediately obvious that the form Pandora’s Actor took didn’t have the full range of abilities, everything was somewhat ‘nerfed’ compared to the real thing. ‘I see, he can’t make a perfect copy, only about eighty percent of their strength… but then, he can probably do all of us. Even me if he wants to.’

  Even so, he felt sure he could have handled Pandora’s Actor on his own, even without magic…

  But Albedo too?

  The truth was evident to Dominic within minutes. The bardiche was being swung by a warrior whose strength somehow far exceeded that of the Demon Emperor, sending him tumbling head over head, and the slime was gone, being replaced by a white armored archer whose arrows shot across the gap like lightning strikes, piercing the body again and again.

  ‘The Demon Emperor isn’t even a warrior, he is a magic caster… he has no support…’ Dominic’s heart raced as he watched the raw impossibility of two ‘not demon emperors’ crush a demon emperor whose evident feats surpassed the demon gods of old… and if he were honest, the feats of the six gods he knew.

  Thunderous crashes came down as the demoness flew through the air and stopped dead above the goat headed demon, striking again and again, she began shrieking. “You won’t hurt him again! I won’t let you! I won’t permit it! You have to die! I’m sorry! You have to die! For Momonga!”

  Ulbert felt the burning bile and heat of blood as it poured out of his broken face, its warmth staining his fur as it slid through his thick fur, he struggled to rise, his body shaking, but he could rise no more.

  “As zie frau says, for mein vater.” The male now had the appearance of a giant beastial creature, complete with drooling fangs and thick dark fur, broad body and arms bigger around than three humans pressed against one another back to back.

  “Wait… why… just tell me why?!’ Ulbert pled, hurt deeper than physical pain etched in his bright yellow eyes.

  “Now that it is over. And here is the truth, Lord Ulbert.” Pandora’s Actor said and turned his eyes toward Albedo.

  She held her weapon straight out and spoke as if she were a prosecutor leveling an accusation in court toward a man she knew to be guilty. “You all crushed the spirit of my beloved, crushed the very soul of Lord Momonga when you left him. Every day he came into the tomb and searched for you, messaged you, only to find you were not there… every day he was all alone and we could do nothing…”

  She glared in silence at the Supreme Being that lay helpless and bleeding on the ground. His legs and arms were battered, broken, bleeding, his face, a fractured mess, his body was spasming and shaking from blood loss and shock.

  And she felt no pity, her voice never wavered as she went on, “Even if you appeared here one day, I knew you’d leave him again, think only of yourselves, and bring him nothing but heartache for comfort. And you proved me right, ready to abandon him for a mortal whore… You will never get the chance to hurt him again, none of you. We will not let that happen. We will protect him. He’ll mourn you, but he’ll heal, and then we’ll keep that ache away from him for all eternity. We are all he needs. So you have to die.” Albedo said, and raised her bardiche high overhead at the same time as Pandora’s Actor brought his fist up.

  “Forgive us, Lord Ulbert.” Pandora’s Actor replied.

  He coughed up blood and spat it on the ground, “No. I would give my life for Momonga. Ainz. But I will not give forgiveness to the likes of you.” He laughed through his pain, and Pandora’s Actor addressed him formally.

  “As my Lord would have it. Farewell!”

  Both brutal blows came down, fist at the head, Bardiche toward the torso, and there was a sickening ‘crack’ of demon skull and breastbone, followed by the sight of gore as the bardiche finally pierced deep into the demon emperor’s guts and pinned him to the ground.

  The body went limp…

  And the two stared down at him in disbelief.

  Emperor Ulbert Alain Odle…

  Was dead.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll take over one of them, and have them kill the other.’ Dominic leveled his hand at the one who seemed able to shift forms, the white light pulsed…

  Then nothing.

  “It won’t work, mein gut herr.” Pandora’s Actor said.

  “Wha- you’re lying! Why not?!” Dominic cried and tried again… the light of Downfall of Castle and Country began to glow… only to fade away, the brightness of the clothing itself was rapidly fading away to nothing…

  “We have world items too.” Pandora’s Actor answered and spread out his hands, somehow sounding sympathetic even if his lack of a face offered nothing in the way of expression.

  “Just kill the insect. We don’t need him now. He killed Lord Ulbert, no, the Slane Theocracy killed Lord Ulbert, and they’re the same ones who forced Lord Ainz to kill Shalltear… all we needed, we now have, and then some.” She said with a delighted face that was beautiful and terrible at once in Dominic’s eyes. “It will be reason enough to destroy their country utterly.”

  Dominic tried again and again to use the divine gift of the gods, but while he tried and the white glow failed continuously, he began to imagine what two such beings might do, no, what the Sorcerer King, with his monstrous magic, and all his hordes, might do. “No!” He screamed as he realized he’d been tricked, used, from start to finish… But his ‘no’ was as effective as all others, which is to say, it meant less than nothing. ‘I’ve given them the excuse they need… played into their hands… gods above… have mercy on us all…’ He prayed fervently, and he might have kept it up, but he did not get the chance.

  His end, at least, was swift. He had only a moment to see the fist of the doppelganger closing in, and then his head was a smear of red blood, brain matter, and bone across the shattered landscape of dirt and grass.

  “That was good work getting that one,” she pointed to the defeated white armored bits of knight, “to show up and do most of the work for us. Even if there was one we didn’t expect.” She pointed toward the mountain which had collapsed to crush the body of the Duke under its weight.

  “Since we could not sneak Rubedo out, this was the best option, and of course… we have our scapegoats.” Pandora’s Actor said and pointed to the body of Zesshi and the Cardinal.

  “Yes we do, so let’s take them and return.” Albedo couldn’t help but smile at the pun despite the high treason she committed, a part of her felt a deep sense of loss, and a part of her felt terribly for Demiurge, but she could smile anyway because she knew one thing for sure.

  ‘Ulbert will not be able to harm Lord Momonga through abandonment, ever again.’ And that was of course, the ultimate form of victory.

  -End Novel-