“Hey there. If we had just kept sleeping, we would’ve lost our edge, so we asked Captain Stronoff to bring us along!”
“We can fight.”
That can’t be true. Combat immediately following resurrection was in no way advisable. It was normal to rest until one became accustomed to the gap between one’s current and former ability, and in the first place, they should have been totally drained. Despite all that, they stood to join the fray because they knew how important this battle was.
They were here to back up everyone who had fought so far.
Lakyus prayed with all her heart—that Momon would defeat Jaldabaoth and that he would drive the demon mob out of the city.
5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:46 AM
“There he is.”
Ahead of them was a square, and the masked demon was standing imposingly in the center of it, making no attempt to hide. They didn’t see any other demons in the area, but Evileye wasn’t stupid enough to believe they weren’t there.
Their opponent registered their rapidly approaching presences and gave an elegant bow. There was only one thing that could explain that confidence.
“Is this a trap…? What should we do, Sir Momon?”
“No matter what’s waiting for us, our only option is to fight our way through.”
“You’re exactly right.”
Evileye figured that Momon’s more relaxed way of speaking to her was a product of their relationship deepening as they worked side by side, and she began to speak more like her normal self, too. If she concealed her true self for too long, it would lead straight to a breakup if their relationship got serious. It was still too early to reveal her actual identity, but she judged that talking in her normal manner was fine.
“Seems like they started on schedule.”
They could hear the beating of drums and courageous battle cries from the rear. Momon figured the offensive had begun diminishing the enemy’s defensive force so he could fight Jaldabaoth one-on-one. They had one shot at this operation. There would be no second chances. The only way to save the kingdom was to defeat Jaldabaoth now.
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ve entered the final phase of the operation. Sir Momon…Nabe and I will handle any supporting enemies. You can concentrate on Jaldabaoth and not worry about anything else.”
“Got it. You’ve been with me every step of the way. I hope that after we beat Jaldabaoth, we make the triumphant return together! Nabe, fight alongside her. Know that my wish is for all three of us to make it home.”
“Understood, Mr. Momon.”
The three landed before Jaldabaoth. Evileye scanned the area and noticed a maid coming out of a building adjacent to the square.
She was wearing the same bug mask as before, with its fixed expression, but Evileye could feel the loathing coming her way from beneath it.
She can’t be the only one.
Between the bug maid and me, Jaldabaoth should know who is stronger. And since this time, Nabe, who is probably as strong as me, is here, too, there’s no way he would have the maid fight alone. He’s either going to put the pressure on with numbers, or he has another subordinate of similar rank standing by. Just as she had assessed the situation, something cold crept up her spine.
Behind the bug maid were others, all wearing the same mask as Jaldabaoth.
They were each dressed in a different maid uniform.
There were—
“Four of them?!”
—a total of five enemies with combat ability comparable to hers. In a two-on-five battle, the difference between their abilities would be huge. It was a gap that meant their chance of winning was as good as nonexistent.
“Shit! We underestimated Jaldabaoth’s force!”
At this rate, they would be outnumbered, and the enemy would interfere with Momon and Jaldabaoth’s battle, which should have happened on even terms.
If even a little backup arrived during an evenly matched fight, it was very likely to decide the outcome—just as the tables had turned in Evileye’s earlier fight with the bug maid.
“Okay, I’ll leave those five to you,” said Momon, and he walked toward Jaldabaoth at a natural pace with a sword in each hand.
Watching his sturdy figure move away, her lack of confidence tormented her. How much less anxious she would feel hidden beneath that flowing red cape!
Nearly reaching out after him, Evileye chided her weak heart.
She had come here prepared to die. Just because there were more enemies than she expected didn’t mean she could resort to pathetically crying for help. Plus, he had to have said that because he believed in her. Otherwise he would never have turned away so bluntly. He’s a decent man.
Thinking about it again, she became convinced that was what his receding back was saying to them: You and Nabe will be able to hold them off until I win.
Passionate flames blazed deep inside her.
“Okay, here I come, De—demon!” Momon raised his voice and sliced at Jaldabaoth. The fierce battle had begun. Perhaps in order to not involve the other two, Momon kept pushing Jaldabaoth, moving their battle away.
“Okay, if I take three and you take two, is that all right with you?”
“Are you sure? I’m fine taking three!”
She had the feeling Nabe suppressed a laugh. “You’ll take two and I’ll take three.”
Evileye grinned. She felt like she’d grasped a part of this woman’s personality.
Frankly, she’d taken a liking to her rival for Momon’s affections.
Sheesh. With Momon and Nabe, I feel like it might be okay to take off my ring and show them my true form… Well, if we make it back alive.
“You’re a stubborn one, huh? Okay. Then I’ll polish mine off quick and back you up! Just hold them off as best you can without dy… What?”
She realized that everyone—the five maids and Nabe—was looking at her. It was so creepily synchronized it could have been prearranged.
“Nothing,” Nabe replied coldly and slowly walked off to the side. “Okay, I want three of you to be my opponents. I’ll leave it up to you who comes with me.”
In response, the bug maid, a maid with braids, and a maid with rolled curls walked after her. The two who remained to face Evileye were one with her hair done up and one with long hair.
“My name is Alpha, and this is Delta. We’ll be your opponents.”
“I see. How polite you are! My name is Evileye. I’m the one who will defeat you!”
She didn’t feel like chatting to buy time. Thinking like that only got one overwhelmed and killed. All she could do was keep pushing.
“Oh…? How frightening.”
Evileye used her ace move as her first—a skill that sent all the negative energy flowing through her body into a rage, imbuing her magical energy with it to strengthen her attacks.
“Here I go!” she barked and cast a spell.
5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:59 AM
“Don’t underestimate me!”
The crystal pellet of negative energy shot into the maid—Alpha—running toward Evileye. The physical attack, a combination of battering and stabbing, plus the negative energy, ate into her life force…
Or rather, it should have. But she didn’t seem to feel anything and just kept running.
“Kgh!” Evileye flew into the air. Having an enemy close was an extreme disadvantage for an arcane caster. She had a better chance of winning if she kept some distance.
The moment she floated up, something burst before her eyes. It seemed her Crystal Shield had deflected an enemy attack, and the sparkle of the fine particles surrounding her abruptly dimmed.
The shield must have neutralized a fairly powerful attack, but she felt lucky to have blocked anything at all. Crystal Shield could defend against attacks of only a certain level or lower; any higher and they would pass right through.
“Again?”
The maid in the rear, Delta, was using firearms. Every time Evileye tried to fly up high,
she got shot at.
“Ha!” Pumping herself up, Alpha launched a fist at her.
Evileye clicked her tongue loudly.
She had never recognized anyone who fought with their fists as a real opponent. After fighting Alpha for a little while, however, she learned that she’d just been arrogant—she had only ever encountered those weaker than herself. Alpha was a formidable opponent. Whenever Evileye put distance between them, her opponent closed in several times faster, and she broke the caster’s slapdash barriers with single strikes.
The two of them felt slightly weaker than her, but she couldn’t lower her guard for so much as an instant. She was always walking a tightrope.
What made them especially tricky was their perfectly harmonized movements. When adventurers cooperated, their fighting power got a huge boost, so she figured these two had surely increased theirs quite a bit.
Shit! Monsters teaming up and cooperating…? That doesn’t make sense!
But she realized she was in no position to talk. The other members of her team were human, but she was undead. She was in the same position as the maids.
A bang rang out, and the Crystal Shield around her weakened. It was as good as gone.
Cursing, she frantically took some distance from Alpha, who was in front of her throwing a punch. Evileye was a vampire and possessed physical strength that defied common sense, but Alpha’s surpassed it. The only reason she couldn’t catch up was Fly.
Concentrating on casting magic always made it harder to move around and keep a good distance. It threw off one’s depth perception, and it was also hard to focus while running. That was why casters always stopped to launch spells. Evileye was making the mobile battle work by simply taking care to Fly and put distance between her opponents and her. That didn’t make her special—pretty much any caster had trained with this strategy, although how well they could execute it depended on their individual ability. In that sense, her ability was first-rate. She had the flight powers of a vampire and two hundred and fifty years of practice.
Even Evileye, with all her know-how, had to focus to escape from Alpha. She was moving laterally in a huge circle around the entire square, but she had two opponents.
With a hard bang, her barrier completely disappeared.
She had the feeling she wasn’t getting her money’s worth out of Crystal Shield if it disappeared after a grand total of three hits, but considering the level of her opponents, it couldn’t be helped.
“Sand Field: All!”
Sand spread throughout the area, trapping Alpha, but it didn’t reach Delta. She couldn’t use this wide-ranging area-of-effect spell when fighting with her team for fear of affecting them, but it obstructed enemy movements with the sand clinging to them. It also had the secondary effects of blindness, silence, and distraction. Not only that, but thanks to her ace move imbuing the sand particles with negative energy, it ate away at the maid’s life energy.
It was a tier-five spell of her creation, one of the strongest cards in her deck.
But Alpha’s movements didn’t slow, and she didn’t even seem to be taking any damage.
“What the heck?!”
She appeared to have perfect resistance to both travel obstruction and negative energy.
“I applaud you! You certainly have your resistances all set!”
Instead of returning the compliment, Alpha blurred. Her kick flew at Evileye’s face as if she’d performed a short-distance teleport to appear right in front of her.
As her mask crumpled with a screech, Evileye was knocked far back.
After bouncing along the ground—thud, thud—and finally coming to a stop, she shook her spinning head and stood up. By then, Alpha was already practically on top of her.
“Crystal Wall!”
Alpha’s fist collided with the barrier of crystal in front of Evileye with a thunderous bang. Lines radiated out from the impact as if her protection had been struck with a wrecking ball.
With a grunt and the thud of a foot striking the ground, a shock went through the radiating cracks, and the wall shattered toward Evileye.
“Fa Jin?!”
Just then, only briefly, she sensed the tremor going through the ground as she was using Fly to get some distance. She couldn’t tell where the earthy rumbling was coming from, but she knew one thing straightaway: It was because of the other two battling it out.
“They’re still fighting…? But maybe they’re headed for the climax. Don’t mind if I buy some more time, then!” Evileye screamed and charged at Alpha, who was heading her way to attack.
She would devote her body and soul to buying just a little more time. Her special attack was born of that determination.
Alpha’s hands traced circles on their way into a fighting stance to intercept.
Evileye felt like an impregnable fortress was towering before her, but she didn’t stop…
5 Late Fire Moon (September) 3:53 AM
Ainz dove into a house in a tangle with Jaldabaoth.
He slammed Jaldabaoth against the door, and it shattered in a spray of splinters.
The room was dim and cramped, with no lights—not an easy place for Ainz to swing his swords, which put him at a disadvantage.
He ignored Jaldabaoth and walked farther in. Jaldabaoth followed him an instant later. They entered a different room and found a small table. And two chairs. And Mare.
Mare pulled out a chair and Ainz sat. Jaldabaoth—Demiurge— asked permission to sit across from him and removed his mask. Then Ainz asked him, “First, is this room safe?”
“Yes, it is all in order. There is no one who can eavesdrop on us here.”
“I see. And then… Oh, before that, I’d like to ask you a favor. Don’t let any more harm come to the soldiers on the route I arrived by. In E-Rantel, it just happened by coincidence, but it seems that saving people in a tight spot is really good advertising.”
“Understood… I sent a mental order, so they should be all right now.”
“Great. Now tell me your entire plan.”
When Narberal had Messaged him, he’d said he would explain everything when they met up, so Ainz hadn’t heard anything yet. Because of that, Ainz was a little worried that he’d messed up the plan and was in for some complaining.
“There are four benefits to my multistage plan.”
“Oh? I had thought three…but there are four, huh?”
Demiurge smiled—displaying an expression of great satisfaction.
“I feel as though this is the first time I have won in a battle of intellect with you.”
Ainz waved him off. Of course, he had no idea what the three benefits would have been, so Demiurge’s remark made him very uncomfortable.
“You’ve always been ahead of me. Up till now has been nothing more than a fluke.”
“What are you saying? No need to be so modest.”
“No, really…ngh. So tell me about your four merits.”
“Sir. The first is that we gain wealth by attacking the warehouse district and taking everything to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. To that end, all the resources in the warehouses have been transported via Gates that Shalltear created and are being managed by Pandora’s Actor.”
That is an extremely good benefit. Ainz gave Demiurge the highest praise in his head.
The royal capital, having lost all their resources at once, would be in dire straits, but what did Ainz care about that? He was just relieved that he could take a break from worrying about money.
“The second is to make it look like we were not involved in the raids on the Eight Fingers. As I’m sure you have realized, if we had only attacked Eight Fingers bases, people might have begun to wonder. If we weren’t careful, someone might have found their way to Sebas, so I extended the range of the damage to make it look like we had a different objective.”
So the best place to hide a broken twig is in a forest?
“Is it that easy, though? What are we supposedly after?”
“Take a
look at this.”
Demiurge made a signal and Mare, who’d been standing by, brought out a bag and opened it.
Inside was a statue of a demon. Its six hands were each clutching a jewel, and they were pulsing with a strange brilliance from within.
“The spell contained within these jewels is Armageddon: Evil.”
Armageddon: Evil was a tier-ten spell that summoned a demon army. It could summon a large number, but individually they were not so strong. Also, unlike angels, demons would sometimes go on a rampage, so the spell was problematic. Its practical uses were rather limited. Often, casters took advantage of the fact that the demons weren’t allies and used them as sacrifices for ritual spells or special skills.
This use of the spell was similar to the way Shalltear had killed her kin with the Pipette Lance.
“This is an item Lord Ulbert made. Should we make use of it here?”
Considering the level this world’s tiered magic was at, it certainly wouldn’t be strange for the demon Jaldabaoth to attack with this item as his target.
Then Ainz remembered what his teammate Ulbert had been like during their guild’s heyday.
One of the World Items allowed its user to summon an unlimited number of demons, enough to bury the world in them. It caused a huge mess, and when Ulbert heard about it, he merrily created this item in imitation of it. Of course, all it could do was cast six spells at once, and he lost interest in it upon completing it.
There was a clear sense of regret hanging around Demiurge. He must have been reluctant to expend something his creator had devised.
Ainz reached into space and took out the item he had in mind.
“Demiurge, you can put that away. Use this instead.”
The item Ainz took out was similar to Demiurge’s demon statue but had three fewer jewels, and the overall quality of the statue was inferior.
“Ulbert made this item, too. It was just a test, so he was going to throw it away, but I thought that was a waste, so I had him give it to me. You can use this, right?”
“I could never use one of your items, Lord Ainz!”
The Men of the Kingdom Part II Page 25