He would have liked to anticipate the help of his men, but magical weapons were necessary to cancel out the angels’ defensive ability. Without being able to use Focus Battle Aura, like Gazef, they didn’t have magical weapons, and therefore even if they could hurt the angels, they couldn’t do fatal damage. That was a problem.
Gazef bit his bottom lip and just kept swinging.
How many times had he made the words death in one blow true? He’d used Sixfold Slash of Light so many times he’d surpassed his previous record.
A warrior of Gazef’s caliber could normally use six martial arts at once. With his last resort in effect, that went up to seven. He was using one to boost his strength, one to boost his mind, one to boost his magic resistance, one to temporarily enchant his weapon, and one when he attacked for a total of five.
The reason he wasn’t reaching the limit was because using a strong art took the focus of multiple normal ones—Sixfold Slash of Light, in particular, took the concentration of three. Even Gazef only had two other major arts, one that used all his focus and one that used the focus of four normal arts.
By making good use of his arts, he was able to easily defeat the angels. But they were only summons, anyway. If he didn’t take out the summoner, there would just be more summoned. Biding his time until his opponent ran out of magic was one strategy, but Gazef would probably be out of energy before that happened.
In actuality, his arms were starting to feel heavy and his heartbeat was becoming irregular. Instant Reflex would take his body thrown off-balance by the previous attack and force it to return to attack stance. That made it possible for him to attack immediately, but the forced posture changes were a large burden on his body.
Flow Acceleration temporarily increased the speed at which his nerves worked, so he could attack faster, but extreme exhaustion was mounting in his brain.
And on top of all that, he was using Sixfold Slash of Light. It was too big a burden on his flesh. But if he didn’t use it, he’d be overtaken.
“As many as you got, bring ’em on! Your angels are nothing, you bastards!” The roar meant to overwhelm them froze the Slane Theocracy side for just a moment. Almost immediately, however, a composed voice broke the tension.
“Pay him no mind! The beast is just barking, trapped in his cage! Ignore it and keep chipping away at him! Just whatever you do, don’t approach—the beast has long claws.”
Gazef glared at the man with the scar. If he could take down that commander, the course of this battle would surely change immediately. The problem was the angel at his side, different from the ones with the flame swords. That and the seemingly insurmountable distance and the defenses that were put up again and again.
He was far away. He was so far away.
“The beast is trying to break through the fence. Show him how futile that is!” The man’s composed voice bothered him.
Even if he’d entered the hero realm, Gazef had specialized in martial arts for close combat, so he didn’t have much of a chance at range. So what? That’s the only path left to me, so I just have to take it. Strength returned to his eyes, and he set off running. But the path was as difficult as he’d imagined.
The angel’s burning swords stabbed and slashed at him. He countered instantly upon evading but was suddenly assailed by a sharp pain, like he’d taken a heavy blow to the gut.
Sensing the direction, he looked up and found a caster casting some kind of spell. “If only you guys used healing magic like priests are suppose—” His words were drowned out by the shock waves that pummeled him to the ground.
He was confident that if there were fewer, even if they were invisible, he’d have been able to dodge them by sensing the atmosphere and watching his opponents’ eyes. But when there were more than thirty, he couldn’t handle them all. It was all he could do to shield his sword arm and face.
A pain so terrible it seemed like he’d never get up ran through his entire body. There were so many places that hurt that he couldn’t tell where, specifically, he was injured. “Gyaghh!” Unable to stand the taste of iron building in his throat, he coughed up fresh blood. The high viscosity caused it to string down his chin.
Gazef was still staggering from the round of invisible shock waves when the angels came at him with their swords. The blows he couldn’t dodge hit his armor and were luckily repelled, but the shock that transferred through still hurt. He swiped sideways at one angel, but it easily evaded his unbalanced attack.
His breathing was rough, and his hands shook. The intense fatigue filling his entire body whispered that he should just lie down and rest.
“The hunt is in its final stage. Let’s give the beast a rest. Don’t let up with your angels—take turns attacking!”
He tried to catch his breath, but the angels surrounding him followed their commander’s orders and came at him swinging. He dodged an attack coming from behind and blocked a thrust from the side with his sword. The jabs from flying angels overhead he took with the harder parts of his armor. He couldn’t attack enough times to keep up with the ones he had to fend off.
The fatigue and his dwindling muscular strength made killing one angel per swing almost impossible at this point. He barely had enough energy to use martial arts.
His men were all defeated, and the enemy was concentrating their attack on him. He couldn’t break through their circle. He could sense that death had sidled right up behind him.
A moment’s negligence would find him on his knees, and he tried to put some fight into his body.
The shock waves pummeled him again as he frantically endured. His eyes swam. No! He put all his body and soul into his back and legs, but it was as if something somewhere were broken—the energy he could have sworn he was putting in seemed to leak out.
Suddenly he felt the prickle of meadow grass on his skin. That was proof that he had fallen. He panicked and desperately tried to stand, but he couldn’t. The encroaching angels’ swords chanted death.
“Finish him. Gang up so the job gets done beyond doubt.”
I’m going to die.
His muscular arms trembled like jelly, and he couldn’t even lift his sword. But he couldn’t give up. He clenched his teeth so hard they made a horrible grinding sound.
He wasn’t afraid to die. He knew that just as he had taken many lives along the way, one day he, too, would die in battle.
As Ainz said, he’d made enemies. Their hatred had turned into a blade that one day had to be thrust into his gut.
But he couldn’t accept this, this attacking of multiple villages and killing of innocent people who had no way to fight back. All that just to trap him? That made him sick—he couldn’t lose his life to people like that. And he couldn’t stand not being able to save himself.
“Grahhhhh! I’m not that easy!” he screamed and gave his body all he had. Drooling a mix of spit and blood, he slowly got to his feet.
The determination of a man who shouldn’t have had the power to stand, standing, caused a momentary retreat among the angels who had closed in.
“Ahhhhgh-ahhhgh.” Just standing had Gazef out of breath, made his head spin; his body felt like it was made of lead. But he couldn’t lie down. It just wouldn’t do.
And it wasn’t that he sympathized with the pain of the villagers who had died. “I’m captain of the Royal Select! I love and protect this country! I can’t lose to bastards like you who would defile it!” Gown will protect the villagers. So my job is just to take out as many of these guys as possible to reduce, even just a little bit, the chance that more people meet this fate.
He would protect the future of the country by protecting its people. That was all.
“It’s precisely because you spout fantasies like that that you’ll die here, Gazef Stronoff,” the enemy commander taunted. “If you had just forsaken the people in this borderland, this wouldn’t have happened. You life is worth more than several thousand villagers’ lives. Surely you must realize that! If you really loved your coun
try, you would have left them to die.”
“You and I…will never see eye to eye. Let’s do this!”
“What do you plan to ‘do’ in that state exactly? Quit your futile flailing and die quietly. I’ll take pity on you and kill you painlessly.”
“If you don’t think…I can do anything…then why don’t you come over here…and take my head? In this ‘state’…it should be pretty easy, no?”
“Hmm. So you can still talk the talk, huh? You seem to want to fight, but do you stand a chance?”
Gazef just stared ahead, clasping his sword in trembling hands, focused on his hateful enemy even as his vision seemed about to blur. He was so focused he couldn’t even see the angels surrounding him ready to attack.
“…Such a pointless endeavor. You’re just too foolish. After we kill you, we’re going to kill the surviving villagers. All you’ve done is bought them more time to be tormented by fear.”
“Heh…heh-heh…,” Gazef laughed in response, a grin spreading across his face.
“What’s so funny?”
“Gah… The foolish one is you. There’s someone in that village who is stronger than me. His power is so unfathomable I’m not sure all of you would be enough to take them… There’s…agh…there’s no way you’ll be able to kill the villagers if he’s protecting them.”
“Stronger than the kingdom’s most powerful warrior? You think a bluff like that will work on me? That’s the height of stupidity.”
Gazef smiled faintly. What will Nigun look like when he meets Ainz Ooal Gown? That thought would be a good souvenir for the next world.
“Angels, kill him.” The beating of countless wings sounded over his heartless words.
As Gazef was about to make a run for it, prepared to die in the process, he heard a voice right next to him:
“Seems about time I swap in.”
The scenery before Gazef changed. He was no longer on the crimson-dyed plain. He was in the corner of some kind of humble dwelling with perhaps a dirt floor.
His men were scattered around him and villagers were there, looking at him with concern.
“Wh-where am I…?”
“This is a storehouse that Lord Ainz put a magic barrier over.”
“The headman…? I don’t seem to see Sir Gown…”
“No, he was here up until a moment ago, but you appeared right where he was.”
So it was your voice in my head…
The tension he’d been desperately trying to maintain went out of his body. He’d done everything he could do. The villagers rushed over to him as he collapsed to the ground.
The Six Scriptures… Even the kingdom’s strongest warrior couldn’t beat them. But no one thought Ainz Ooal Gown would lose.
Chapter 5 | The Ruler of Death
1
No traces remained of the deadly battle that had just occurred on the plain. The blood dampening the grass was hidden by the setting sun, and the scent of it was dispersed on a capricious wind. There were two figures standing there who had seemed to come out of nowhere.
Captain Nigun of the Slane Theocracy’s Sunlit Scripture turned to look at them, bewildered. One appeared to be a caster; he concealed his face with a strange mask and wore unrefined gauntlets. As if to prove his high status, he was wrapped in an extremely expensive-looking raven-black robe.
The other was completely covered in raven-black full plate armor. It was a magnificent suit, not one a person could find just anywhere. He could guess from looking that it was a first-class magic item.
The newcomers had appeared in the place of Gazef right as Nigun and his men had had him cornered. And now, Gazef and his men were gone. It must have been some kind of teleportation magic, but Nigun couldn’t think what spell it might be. Two unknown individuals using magic he’d never heard of—he couldn’t be too careful in this situation.
Nigun had all the angels fall back and form a wall to protect him and the others; they took a bit of distance from their new adversaries. Then, he stayed on his guard to see what they would do. The magic caster took another step forward.
“How do you do, people of the Slane Theocracy? My name is Ainz Ooal Gown. Feel free to call me Ainz.” His voice crossed the distance on the wind. When Nigun didn’t say anything, the stranger Ainz continued. “And behind me here is Albedo. First of all, I’d like to make a deal with you, so might I trouble you for some time?”
Nigun searched his memory for the name Ainz Ooal Gown, but nothing came up; it was possible it was fake. For the time being, he decided to go along with their story and get some information. Having made that decision, Nigun gestured with his chin to continue the conversation.
“Marvelous… It seems as though you’re willing—thank you. Very well, there is one thing I must say up front and that is you cannot win against me.”
His tone of voice contained complete certainty. He wasn’t bluffing or talking crazy; Ainz believed what he said from the bottom of his heart.
Nigun furrowed his brow slightly.
This wasn’t the kind of thing one would say to Slane Theocracy elite.
“Ignorance is a pitiful thing. You’ll have to pay for yours.”
“Hm, I wonder about that… I’ve been watching the whole fight. The only reason I came is because I was absolutely certain I’d win. Don’t you think I would have forsaken that man if I thought I couldn’t beat you?”
He makes sense.
A caster should have other ways to approach the situation. Arcaners, sorcerers, and wizards generally wore only light armor. For that reason, they had a better chance of winning if they avoided close combat and used Fly to shoot Fireball or some other spell from a distance. So for him to come and meet them face-to-face meant he must have some trick up his sleeve.
How did he interpret my silence? Ainz continued speaking. “Now that you understand that, I have some questions. First, a little something I’m curious about: The angels with you appear to be tier-three summons magic flame archangels—is that right?”
Why are you asking if you already know?
Paying no attention to Nigun’s bewilderment, Ainz went on. “It seems like you’re summoning the same monster as from Yggdrasil, but I’m curious if you call it the same name or not. Most of the monsters in Yggdrasil have names from mythology; I’m pretty sure many angel and demon names are from myths. The most common source of angel and demon names is Christianity. It feels very unnatural for there to be ‘archangels’ here when you don’t have Christianity. It would seem to indicate that there are others like me in this world.”
I have no idea what he’s going on about. Annoyed, Nigun countered with a question of his own. “That’s enough talking to yourself for now. Time to have you answer a question of mine. What did you do with Stronoff?”
“I teleported him into the village.”
“…What?” He hadn’t even been expecting a reply and the confusion showed in his voice—he realized why. “You fool. If you lie, all we need to do is search the village an—”
“It most definitely is not a lie. I just answered when you asked, although there is a reason I told the truth.”
“To plead for your life? If you don’t want to waste my time, I’ll consider it.”
“No, no, you misunderstand. Actually, I was listening to your conversation with Captain Gazef. You guys have a lot of gall.” In reply to Nigun’s ridicule, Ainz’s tone and vibe changed. “You declared you would kill the villagers that I took the time to save. Does that strike you as a very nice thing to do?”
Ainz’s robe flapped dramatically in the wind. The same gust maintained its force and blew through Nigun and his group as well.
The wind blowing over the plain had just happened to come from Ainz’s direction, that was all. Feeling the chilly wind all over his body, Nigun cleared away the thoughts that had popped up in his head. That wind didn’t actually smell like death… It was just my imagination.
“That’s some big talk, caster. And what about it?”
Although he was feeling a bit overwhelmed, he maintained his taunting attitude with a sneer. The commander of one of the Slane Theocracy’s ace special-ops units, the Sunlit Scripture, Nigun, was not going to be fazed by one guy—no—he couldn’t afford to be.
But…
“I mentioned a deal before. How it goes is you surrender your lives without a fuss, and this won’t hurt a bit. If you refuse, the penalty for your foolishness is the pain and despair that you’ll die in.”
Ainz took one step forward.
It was only one step, but he looked huge now. The members of the Sunlit Scripture took a step back, overawed.
“Ahh…” From near Nigun came a handful of hoarse voices—they were scared.
This presence was unbelievably overwhelming. Nigun himself had never been so overawed, so he could understand his men’s fear. Even the courageous Nigun, who had made it through many a life-or-death situation and taken countless lives, felt like he was going to be crushed by the pressure exerted by this unknown caster, Ainz. It probably affected his men even more.
Who the heck is this guy?!
What is this caster really? What kind of face is under that mask?
Ignoring Nigun’s panic, Ainz’s ever coolheaded voice continued. “Here’s the reason I told you the truth: I don’t care if I tell you because you’re going to die anyway.” He slowly stretched out both hands and took another step forward. He looked a bit like he wanted a hug, but the sinister curve of his gauntlets gave the impression of a magical beast that was about to strike.
A chill ran from the tips of Nigun’s toes to the top of his head. He’d had this feeling before—a premonition of death.
“Angels, charge! Don’t let him get any closer!” Nigun shouted orders in what turned out to be more of a hoarse shriek.
He didn’t do it to improve morale. He was just scared of Ainz Ooal Gown coming toward him.
Two flame archangels attacked at his command. Flapping their wings, they flew through the sky, slicing through the wind. After making a beeline for Ainz, they thrust their swords without a hint of hesitation.
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