Disclaimer: A majority of the first half of this prologue is a summary of certain events which take place in Overlord Volume 10, as well as other spoilers up to that point
The innermost reaches of the Slane Theocracy. Very few people were allowed into this inviolable sanctum. The first was the highest-ranked member of the Theocracy: The Pontifex Maximus. Next were the Cardinals, the appointed leaders of the sects devoted to the Six Gods. Each Cardinal was a candidate to be the next Pontifex Maximus.
In addition, there were the heads of the Judicial Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Executive Branch of the Theocracy's government. There was the head of the Magic Research Institute. Finally, there was the Grand Marshal, the man in charge of the military.
These 12 people comprised the highest authorities of the Slane Theocracy and they sat together at a round table. And their topic-
The advent of the Sorcerous Kingdom, led by the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. Just a fortnight prior, the Kingdom's Fortress City of E-Rantel and its surrounding areas were seized and made into the heart of the Sorcerous Kingdom.
Few people knew the details of the situation. Most of what they knew was little more than hearsay. For starters, they knew that the Sorcerer King was an undead creature, that he was an extremely powerful magic caster who had obliterated the Royal Army, that he controlled an army of undead, that there was a Death Knight among those undead, and so on. Indeed, the people in this room had assembled to hear the details of what exactly had occurred.
But now all they could do was clutch their heads under the weight of despair.
What they discovered exceeded their imagination, like a nightmare born in hell had wormed its way to earth.
Feeling that this could not be allowed to go on, Ivon raised a question:
"I see, I see. ...You were afraid our hearts would stop if we saw this first, right?"
"Not really."
The organizer of this meeting, the Cardinal of Earth, Raymond Zag Lauransan. After receiving the report from Thousand Miles Astrologer, he had hesitated to share the unabridged details of it with the others.
"Your hearts are strong enough to sprout hair. I was simply afraid that if I opened with this, none of you would believe it."
Ivon nodded, unable to refute that.
"It's true that we would have doubted this if we had seen this first. We would not have believed it at all. But after understanding the reality of the Sorcerer King's army, we have no choice but to believe."
"Still… I don't want to believe this. With just one spell, he killed over half of the Royal Army. During this battle, the Kingdom mobilized 260'000 men. Half of that would be at least 130'000 people, right? I heard the Royal Army was defeated, but this…"
"Only she saw it, right? It's not uncommon for death tolls and casualty counts to be exaggerated…"
"Even so, the description of wiping out an entire wing of the Royal Army with one spell means over 80'000 deaths. And then there's the hideous monsters summoned from those sacrifices…"
"I can't deny what she's seen any more. This is magic of the gods. 11th tier magic, I believe? That should be it."
"The advent of the gods."
"What's written here is similar to the description of that god… is it possible He has descended from the heavens once more?"
"Impossible. The oral traditions state that the God of Death, Surshana-sama, was slain by the damnable Eight Greed must be something else. And if Surshana-sama had actually descended once more, that person would surely have told us. After all, that person is Surshana-sama's first follower."
"Then, it's come at last?'
"Probably, yes. After 200 years."
"It should be correct, judging by the oral traditions. It might appear somewhere on the continent."
"Their national power increased so slowly because those piles of trash messed up so much of the plan."
"Those idiots in the Kingdom…"
Everyone had looks of hatred in their eyes as they heard those words.
The Kingdom was the most geographically secure country of all. It was for that reason the Slane Theocracy assisted them, in hopes that the Kingdom would become the nation which would save mankind. By breeding large populations of humans on safe and fertile land, many talented individuals who could be groomed into heroes and resist non-human invasions would appear.
However, peace and prosperity had bred degeneracy, and the Kingdom rotted from within. Even more troubling was how they produced narcotics and exported them to the other promising country, the Empire.
Thus, the Theocracy had changed their plan.
Their backup plan was to allow the Empire to devour the Kingdom, and then educate the talented individuals of the Empire. The reason why the Theocracy did not conquer the Kingdom themselves was because they would then be neighbors to the Republic, which might foster a dangerous movement in their people to destroy the Republic.
The basic tenet of the Theocracy was that humanity was chosen by the gods. All other races were to be exterminated.
Thus, they inculcated an attitude in the people that they were surrounded by enemies and that they had no choice but to work together. This was the only way they could focus their national power and become a strong country. However, if they became neighbors with the Republic, there was a chance that their very philosophy might herd them towards a dangerous direction.
Everyone here understood that charting the future of the Theocracy hinged on knowing the strength of their country, the strength of the others, and the matters to prioritize. However, the citizens would shout for war with the Republic in a crusade against the enemies of mankind.
That would be disastrous. The Republic was very strong.
To be precise, the danger lay with one of the councilors of the Republic, the Platinum Dragon Lord and child of the Dragon Emperor. If they did battle with him, the mightiest of the Dragon Lords, they ran the risk of their country being reduced to scorched earth.
But what of the people who were ignorant of that? What would they think?
They would see vermin to crush, yet all they could do was bite their nails and wait.
Of course, everyone here could easily quash such resentment through force, but the backlash from that would weaken their national power. In addition, there was a real possibility that war might break out anyway.
Thus, the Theocracy could not share a border with the Republic, nor could they directly control the Kingdom. Even if they wanted to rule from the shadows, the Kingdom was too large.
"Let's consider the Sorcerer King first. To begin with, he should have been the one who destroyed the Sunlight Scripture, some time back."
The air seemed to crackle and freeze.
"A magic caster with that name appeared in a nearby village with that name at almost the same time. I don't think we're mistaken, are we?"
"What about the vampire that the Black Scripture encountered, Honyopenyoko? A minion of the Sorcerer King?"
"It's very possible, but I think it's more likely that it was a being on the same level as the Sorcerer King, just like those people. Otherwise there's no way to explain that power."
"Indeed, so since we're on the topic of multiple appearances, Jaldabaoth ought to be such a being, right? That would explain the power he wielded in the Kingdom, as well as the reason for a monster with that sort of power appearing all of a sudden."
"Then how about Momon?"
Momon the Black. A warrior in black full-plate that wielded twin greatswords and the leader of Darkness, the Re-Estize Kingdom's third adamantite ranked adventurer party. He stood against Jaldabaoth, who turned part of the Kingdom into a pyre of hell, and Honyopenyoko, the vampire strong enough to kill a member of the Black Scripture in one hit.
"Could he be an awakened God-kin? That would also explain why he was as strong as Jaldabaoth. The question is whether or not he's truly an ally to the Sorcerer King…"
On the first day of the Sorcerer King's rule over E-Rantel, a small child had thrown a rock towards that undead ruler. Just as the boy was about to be executed, Momon had stepped in the way. But in order to protect the people of E-Rantel, Momon had agreed to serve under the Sorcerer King as his enforcer. In effect, he was collateral exchanged for a reign of peace.
"We need to think about making contact with him, find out where his loyalties lie, and then pull him over to our side."
Everyone else nodded. If Momon was truly a God-kin, they had to win him over by any means necessary. In the Theocracy, the God-kin were considered demigods who carried the bloodline of the Six Gods within their veins. Even if they had the blood of others, the beings known as 'players', each God-kin possessed incredible power and could be considered a national treasure.
With the Kingdom as rotten as it is and the Empire's allegiances in doubt, the Theocracy now had to seriously consider how to cut Momon away from the strings of the Sorcerer King.
"What if we used the people of E-Rantel? If we incite a revolt, we could-"
"That's dangerous, far too dangerous! If it goes poorly, we'll make an enemy of Momon and the Sorcerer King at the same time!"
"You're right. As it is, we've taken considerable losses. We need to avoid opening up two fronts at the same time."
"Then what if sent a request through the Adventurer's Guild? We could fabricate a scenario that only Momon could tackle and use our agents in the Clearwater Scripture to deliver the details to E-Rantel."
"That's assuming the Guild still even exists by the time the request arrives. You do remember that the Sorcerous Kingdom is using Death Knights as patrols, yes? I bet there hasn't been a new request since the Sorcerer King took power!"
"But then again, Momon is still around. I doubt that the Guild would disband as long as that legendary hero remains in E-Rantel."
There were murmurs in agreement. It was unthinkable for the Adventurer's Guild of a city which housed an adamantite ranked adventurer to disband, at least not in a fortnight. At the minimum, the shell should still be around.
"That's a good point, but what if the Sorcerous Kingdom annexes the Adventurer's Guild? The Guild normally operates under a pretense of neutrality, but the Sorcerous Kingdom might not respect that."
Adventurers were like specialized monster hunters. That being the case, the majority of requests came down to patrolling an area or acting as porters. Without adventurers, human nations would be vulnerable to the various monsters and demi-humans that roamed the continent. Thus, the Re-Estize Kingdom, the Baharuth Empire, and the Slane Theocracy chose to acknowledge the Adventurer's Guild as a neutral entity.
However, that was only the case when guards, who were hired by the government, were weak in comparison. In the Sorcerous Kingdom, Death Knights served as guards, meaning that the nation could provide security against monsters on its own. Thus, there was no need to commission adventurers to take care of them.
This meant that in the Sorcerous Kingdom, the precarious balance between the Adventurer's Guild and the national government was now heavily tipped in favor of the government. There was no longer a problem with antagonizing the Guild, and even assimilation was on the table.
"Muuu… That's true. If the Sorcerous Kingdom does nationalize the Guild, then they could intercept our request before it arrives."
"That would be extremely bad. If we aren't careful, that request could become a casus belli for the Sorcerous Kingdom to invade us!"
Nobody could refute that. Just as the proposal seemed to have been shot down-
"-It will be fine."
Raymond smiled. The others turned their heads and waited for him to continue.
"The key point here is that, yes, the Sorcerous Kingdom can come calling. But, couldn't Momon be considered a part of the Sorcerous Kingdom?"
Understanding dawned on the Cardinal of Water, Ginedine Delan Gwerfe.
"I see… I see, I see! It's simple, we incorporate that into the request. If we make no attempt to hide the request and deliver it straight to the Sorcerous Kingdom's doorstep, we can directly request Momon without it appearing as subterfuge. They can't refuse it either because Momon is officially a subordinate of Sorcerer King. In other words, he has a responsibility to pass along the message."
"Yes… And if they try to send over anyone else, we can refuse by citing Momon's previous feats as proof of his prowess and say no one else will do."
"But wouldn't that mean we'd technically be indebted to the Sorcerous Kingdom? There's no telling what the people will think of that!"
"That's why we have our Adventurer's Guild serve as the messenger. Since the Guild is a neutral political entity, there will be no problems if we write it off as an international request between Guilds."
"Yes, that is an excellent proposal. Then that leaves on question on the table- what should the request be?"
Raymond looked towards his fellows. All of them were at a loss. That was because Momon's feats were easily beyond the realm of mortals and were the stuff of legends. He had tamed the Wise King of the Forest, slew a Gigant Basilisk, destroyed the vampire, and stood against Jaldabaoth.
And now the Theocracy had to prepare a task worthy of these accomplishments, lest Momon pass on the request and send it to another adamantite ranked party.
Thus, whatever task the Theocracy prepared had to be dangerous enough to deter any party that wasn't Darkness but at the same time accomplishable by Darkness alone. It would a disaster if the Sorcerous Kingdom responded with, You seem like you're in quite the pickle, allow us to assist, and then sent over 200 Death Knights.
Then there was the matter of remuneration. In order to make the request as attractive as possible, it went without question the reward would have to be exorbitant. However, it would be too conspicuous if they offered enough gold to build a city. It would have to be subtler.
The Grand Marshal looked around at his compatriots, before he finally spoke-
"…I think I have an idea. It will take some preparation, but I'm confident I can have it arranged."