Chapter 2: A new goal
Authors Note: Happy to see that people are liking the idea of science or fantasy world. The science stuff will start soon once the plot diverges from the original so let me know if there are any particular tech things you want to see and I'll try to work it in.
Carne village outskirts
Enri looked at the broadsword that was arched over her and her sister. She curled up over her sister in hope that she could protect her but that hope was fading. She couldn't see any hope for them so just prayed for a miracle.
Expecting it all to end, she is surprised to see the knights back stagger backward with worry. She turns and sees a pitch black circle that looked like a hole in the world itself. A bright, almost blinding flash, comes through the portal. Everyone present could only stare in awe, an angel with six white wings, dressed in exquisite white and golden armor floated through the gate and stood in front of the two girls. Enri stared wide-eyed and thought "A miracle."
When Sypher teleported using [Gate], he didn't expect to be met with enemies right after coming through the gate. He figured he would have a few moments to collect his thoughts and put on the appropriate act. That's why he was caught off guard right after teleporting. He had walked in on the middle of two soldiers about to kill a pair of scared, unarmed children. His anger at the situation actually surprised him. He was angry towards the soldiers who would do such unspeakable actions, and sad for the victims as well. Sypher wondered why he felt nothing earlier while looking at the scene through the mirror, but decided it would join the long list of things to ponder later.
He turned to the now cowering soldiers, flaming longsword in hand, and used an item to make his voice sound deep and intimidating. "How dare you brutally and indiscriminately slaughter the innocent. For this sin, you shall pay with your lives!" Faster than any human could see, he swung his sword decapitating the soldiers and half charring the bodies in the process. He turned to the two girls now looking at him in both awe and fear. "Are you alright?"
"Y-Y-Yes, we are fine now", Enri said struggling to speak both from the sight and the pain on her back.
"You're hurt, let me heal you." Sypher held out a hand. "[Middle Cure Wounds]".
All of a sudden the pain on Enri's back disappeared along with any trace of the injury. She and Nemu both stood in awe as the angel turned around and looked at the surroundings.
"So what do we know," Sypher thought to himself. One: the humans of this world are quite weak, probably below level 30 or maybe even 20. Not only did I kill those two in a single stroke, the weak flame enchant charred the bodies. It was mainly meant to be aesthetic since it dealt so little damage to most players. Two: In turn, it meant the skill of any combat oriented NPC or summon from Nazarick could be valuable in this world.
From Enri's perspective, a miracle had just happened and they would be saved. Or so it would seem. The same black portal had reappeared and this time, an undead that was the picture of death and knight in pitch black armor came out of the portal. Enri's heart sank. Or it would have if the angel and undead did not start talking like old friends.
"I killed these 2 soldiers. They were pathetically weak, maybe around 20 as a generous estimate," Sypher said curtly.
"Well that's good, I've been meaning to test out some summoning magic. Summon middle tier undead: [Death Knight]." To the surprise of both players, the death knight spawned by using one of the corpses rather than spawning like normal.
Sypher rushed to jump in before Momonga continued. "Ah wait before you give it orders, I think we should keep the soldiers alive and keep them as prisoners. We can get information out of them."
"Hmm, okay. Death Knight, attack all men in the village wearing armor but do not kill them; just knock them out"
Roaring in acceptance, the death knight rushed off with a wide-mouthed Momonga left pointing. "Well then." Momonga sheepishly turned away.
The angel turned to the two girls again and saw the obvious fear on their faces at the sight of the undead.
"Worry not girls this undead creature is indeed my ally," Sypher looked over to Momonga who gave a polite nod in return. "I'm guessing people are not normally friendly to the undead?"
"Y-y-yeah. They are the enemies of all life," the smaller child said nervously.
"I see. Well, you don't have to worry about that, and to prove it, my friend here is going to cast some protection magic on you."
[Anti-Life Cocoon],[Wall of protection from arrows].
Two green barriers surrounded the children, Momonga also tossed them two items. Sypher knew these were low-level items so he saw no problem with Momonga's actions. "These are two magic items that will summon a goblin army under your command: use them as you need."
As the three figures started to turn away, the two girls suddenly bowed. "Th… Thank you. What are your names?"
The angel stated, "Sypher."
The undead paused for a minute before, almost stammering out, "Ainz. And we represent Ainz Ooal Gown"
Sypher went wide-eyed for a second but decided he would deal with the new issue on the way to the village.
"Really, you introduced yourself as Ainz?"
"I had a thought but didn't get the chance to ask you. What if we weren't the only ones transported to the world? I figured if we spread the name of Ainz Ooal Gown then if our guildmates are here they can join us."
While there were several questions, he couldn't see any major flaws in the plan so he let it slide with a brief nod. "I suppose I'll call you Ainz from now on too then." He continued, "Oh yeah, you should probably hide your inhuman nature since people don't take too kindly to the undead. Weirdly enough, those two were fine with angels though."
"Got it," Ainz said, while equipping a mask and gauntlets.
To their surprise, all the knights were already defeated by the time they got to the village and the death knight was dragging their bodies into a pile. Surprisingly, most of them were still alive. However, all the villagers were still petrified of the zombified monster in front of them. When Ainz introduced Sypher and himself as the masters of the death knight, they were aptly shocked that an angel and human came to save them. Sypher opened a [Message].
"This feels pretty awkward. You think if I offer to heal their wounded it would be good"
"Worth a try," Ainz replied cutting off the [Message].
"As a show of good faith, we can heal all your wounded," Sypher said in a loud voice.
The crowd was still apprehensive so Ainz tried another idea. "Of course all this isn't free we do request compensation. Also, don't worry about the angel; he is a companion I summoned to assist me in my journey."
When Ainz said he wanted compensation and the Angel was serving him, they were still shocked but accepted him more for some reason. I guess they trust an explanation they understand rather than divine intervention, Sypher thought. He proceeded to heal the wounded with low and middle tier magic easily, further confirming his suspicions about their power in this world. When the pair was invited into the chief's house for their reward, Sypher morphed into a human but looked like his angel form without wings. While this was poor for combat, he felt this would be better so as to not accidentally destroy something with his wings and make the chief feel more comfortable.
The goal of the conversation was to be quick and efficient. While Ainz did most of the talking, Sypher would occasionally interject with a question and be blunt as necessary, that way it would not reflect poorly on Ainz since it was a summoned creature merely assisting.
In the end, Sypher was disappointed with how little they learned. While they learned about the surrounding countries and a rough gauge of their political situation nothing was concrete and the village only had some crudely drawn maps. If nothing else they got 3 pieces of information. 1: Their money was not the same and would need to be remade to fit this worlds coinage. 2: Most countries operated on a feudal system and judging by their tech levels, this world is probably similar to the dark ages of our world, just with magic. 3: The most powerful nation in the surrounding area were human supremacists. Meaning they would be enemies to Nazarick
[Message]. "Ainz can you hear me?"
"Yeah."
"I think the Slane theocracy is definitely someone we need to look out for. Also, I'm going to take over the conversation for a bit, just follow my lead." Sypher said mischievously smiling on the inside.
"R… Right", Ainz said with a confused and worried glance.
Sypher steps forward to the table and looks at the chief "So chief if you have lords and villages, does that mean slaves are also a practice in this world."
The village chief looked nervous but swallowed and said "Yes. I mean The Kingdom recently outlawed it but I imagine that the Empire and Theocracy still have it. I haven't heard anything about the southern or northern land to say."
Both Ainz and Sypher frowned, but due to their disguises were not seen. Sypher continued "And I'm assuming the lords can demand as much as they want for protection that may not always arrive?"
"Y Y Yes that is correct." The chief said, clearly sweating with nervousness.
"Can we be left alone for a few minutes?" Sypher asked.
The village chief and his wife nodded then left. After casting magic spells to ward against detection, Sypher started "I'm sure that despite your evil alignment you still felt bothered by the existence of slaves in this world."
Ainz nodded in approval. "Yeah". Both of them had numerous friends and family suffer or worse at the hands of the sweatshop conditions that existing in their world.
Sypher continued, "The way I see it if left on its own this world will become the same hell hole our is now just with magic to better exploit the common people like the villagers here." He paused to take a breath before dropping his big plan. "We could become kings here. Not just any kings, but immortal god-kings that would guide humanity and all the other sentient races in coexistence to a true utopia."
All Ainz could do in response to this was stare blankly at his friends as his emotion suppression kept kicking in.
"Now now now, I know the idea sounds crazy but hear me out. In our world, the dark ages happened for 600 years where humanity regressed to a feudal dominated society, the church had an iron grip on free thought, and freedom was limited. If we didn't have that we might have developed differently and been in a different better future now."
Sypher continued like an excited child. "Now look at this world. I think it's safe to assume they are in the same kind of dark age that we had, but the existence of magic is equalizing the playing field a little bit for commoners. Now imagine if this world develops industry and electricity hundreds of years earlier than ours with magic to support it and greatly accelerate the process. We could guide humanity into the future while making sure they act responsibly and preserve the world they live in for millennia to come." As a mechanical engineer in the real world, Sypher could barely imagine all the technology that would be more efficient and easier to develop with magic. "It would also serve Nazarick in a number of ways."
Ainz had been in a daze up until now at his over-eager friend but came back to reality at the mention of Nazarick "Oh? What do you mean"
"Well, we have 3 main objectives right now. Strengthen Nazarick, learn more about this world, and spread the name of Ainz Ooal Gown. Right?"
"Yes", Ainz said as he gestured to continue.
"Well by absorbing more of this world into a nation of our own, we can gain more forces and bring to light all the possible enemies we have in this world. Also by having a large nation, we can more easily mask the location of the real tomb of Nazarick. Furthermore, by absorbing more of this world's population under our banner then we can learn more to ensure there are no threats. Finally, with the name of Ainz Ooal Gown as the king, the guild's name will spread like wildfire compared to use slowly building up fame."
While Ainz was processing all this information that his friend just dumped on him, a fervent knocking came from the door. Ainz opened the door to panicked village chief and Albedo standing beside the house as she was when they entered. "Sir Ainz more riders approach from the same direction."
Before Ainz has a chance to react, Sypher messages him "If you have any interest in my plan I would suggest you play the hero card and step in to save them.
While Ainz was not a 100% on board with Sypher's plan he did want to protect Nazarick. Ainz walked out of the house and said "Don't worry I'll take care of it, move all the villagers to a safe location. Village chief please come with us, worry not we will protect you it gets dangerous."
"Right". The chief said with a smile.
"Albedo, Sypher with me."
With that, the 4 figures stood at the village square waiting for the riders. While they were armed, they did not seem openly hostile. After conversing with them, they had been the force sent by the Kingdom to deal with the bandits terrorizing the villages. After finding out that it was a platoon of armored knights, the soldiers were shocked.
"I cannot thank you enough for saving this village, Sir Gown," Gazef stated while respectfully bowing.
Continuing the hero act, Ainz said: "No worries, after all helping someone in need is common sense." The image of Touch Me suddenly popped in Ainz's and Sypher's minds.
Suddenly Ainz got a message from those monitoring the village from Nazarick. "It appears more people have circled the village. The weird thing is that seem to have summoned archangel flames from Yggdrasil."
Sypher went wide-eyed from the mental communication as and Ainz thought, why are there monsters from Yggdrasil here. While there were a few goblins in the forest, the archangel flames proved that magic from Yggdrasil. "Ainz, I think we should take them on, prove our strength even more."
"I'm not sure. I mean I'm still not completely onboard with your plan."
"Still it would be worthwhile to at least save the village, with how weak these humans are, the angels might be enough to overpower them.
"Fine. Although let's make sure to hold back a bit." Ainz replied, seeing a bit of demiurge's personality in Sypher.
"Alright". Sypher replied before turning back to Gazef and the chief, noticing that Gazef had been talking to his own subordinate.
Gazef spoke up "It seems that we are surrounded and the enemy appears to be a special ops unit of the Slane Theocracy"
Sypher replied this time, "Indeed do you know why this might be, Sir Stronoff?"
"If none of you have an idea then they are probably after me."
Sypher thought for a minute before smiling internally and responding. "Then I have a proposition. We three will go fight off the intruders."
"I couldn't allow you to fight my battles for me!" Gazef exclaimed trying to uphold his honor.
"I assure you it will be fine and you will not be running away. If you and your men go out to face them, you will lose." Sypher stated coldly and continued before Gazef could protest. "While I am sure of your strength there are simply just too many enemies. Now here my plan out. If we go out there, the enemy will assume that you are in the village. As such they will send some of their forces to try to go capture you. If you and your men prepare for the ambush and pretend to be unaware, we will be able to effectively split up their forces making it easier to handle. Understand?"
Gazef thought for a minute and begrudgingly agreed. Although he was worried about the villagers' safety.
Sypher continued "Worry not, one more of our allies will arrive to provide you with support and scrying magic to monitor our situation so you may assist in case it looks bad.
"Understood", Gazef still amazed at the power this group Ainz Ooal Gown claimed.
"I hope that in return, we can count on your support as needed in the future," Sypher said while offering a handshake.
"Of course", Gazef replied as he returned the handshake.
What Sypher had not mentioned was that some of the stealth forces from Nazarick would circle the enemy after they made their attack so no one would be able to reach the village. From what he understood, magic casters were highly respected in this world. Thus, the clairvoyance magic and them utterly destroying the angels would be enough to showcase their power to the rest of the world. They had people on standby to stop any detection off course but for now, Sypher figured it would be best to let it play out.
"Hey, Sypher?" Ainz asked using [Message]
"Yeah?"
"I've thought about your proposal and while it is risky, the benefits are substantial. Count me in."
Sypher cracked an evil looking smile, "Good. Now mind if I take over for a bit?
"Go ahead."
"Cool. You are still our leader though so you will be doing most of the talking. I'm going to have Mare come here and project scrying magic of our battle to the village and have some Eight Edge Assassins surround us once it starts." Once Ainz nodded in response, everyone started to go about their respective tasks. Gazef and his men were surprised that the ally mentioned was a small child. But were too nervous about the battle to question it. With all the preparations in place; Ainz, Sypher, and Albedo walked out of the village to the enemies.
The trio approached the soldiers circling the village. "Greetings people of the Slane Theocracy. We are Ainz Ooal Gown. I recommend you surrender and tell us everything you know about those monsters and magic and we might let you live." Ainz's voice boomed across the plain.
The man who looked to be the captain responded "You dare to mock us by calling the Angels mere monsters. They are the messengers of the 6 gods and are proof of humanities greatness. Fools like yourself should offer up your life without resistance."
"Ahh right, they are religious fanatics. Well, this could work to my advantage." Sypher thought as he decided to transform back to his angel form. "This ought to mess with them."
As one of the people standing in front suddenly started to sprout wings and an angelic glow, the Slane theocracy soldiers started to step back in fear. Their captain, Nigun Grid Luin, was shocked but quickly came back to reality. He had never seen an angel like that before, one only slightly larger than a human but with 6 wings. He figured it must be some monster impersonating an Angel.
"Do not falter. It is merely some shoddy imitation of a true angel. Have the angels attack them!" Nigun ordered towards the soldiers.
Sypher smiled "Exactly according to plan." Right about now the Eight Edge Assassins should be surrounding them and Gazef and the villagers should be watching this fight. Estimating the angels to be about level 25 meaning that he shouldn't even need to use a skill. He pulled out the flaming sword from earlier and began with a twisted smile.
Nigun couldn't believe what was happening in front of him. All the angels that were sent were being cut down like grass against this fake angel. "All angels fall back and regroup." He frantically ordered, but it didn't end. The monster in front of him flew forward faster than he could see and destroyed all the angels in a flash of light. Nigun just stood there speechless as everything started to crumble around him. Who are these people? Trying to clear his mind he commanded. "Principality of Observation, attack!".
As the large angel behind Nigun started to move, Sypher decided to pass the baton. "Ainz it's your turn. Have fun."
"Right". Ainz said as he rolled the red dots that were his eyes. He could feel the grin on Sypher's face. He looked to see the faceless angel barreling at him with a mace in hand. The Theocracy soldiers were expecting the angel to smash them into the ground, but to their shock, Ainz stopped the attack single-handed.
"Pathetic. Here is a real attack, [Hell Flame]" Ainz said as a small ball of flame left his finger.
To the shock of the soldiers, the angel burst into a ball of red and black flame and vanished. After seeing the high-level angel fall to a single hit, half of them passed out while those still conscious were on their knees.
"Th-th-that's impossible. In a single hit." Nigun stammered on the ground. After regaining his composure, "Men protect me, we will summon the highest level angel!" He pulled out a blue crystal that caught the attention of Sypher and Ainz.
"Ainz do you see that?" Sypher asked.
"Yeah, it looks like a sealing crystal for anything but top tier magic. Be on your guard."
"Right. Albedo, I apologize for asking this of you but prepare to defend us if needed." Sypher said towards Albedo.
"It is my purpose to serve the supreme beings, your apologies are wasted on me." Albedo replied while getting into position.
The crystal continued to glow until it enveloped the area. When it cleared, a massive angel easily over 30 feet in height appear. "Behold Dominion Authority!"
Back in the village, Gazef's soldiers and the villagers were watching the magic screen with awe. They watched as hordes of angels were cut down with ease while their defenders remained unscathed. Gazef watched with both awe and respect of the three that had gone to protect them. Both he and his men were shocked to see that Sypher had actually been an angel but more so when they considered how strong a man Ainz must be to use such incredible magic as well as command a powerful angel with ease. He was also wondering about the armored companion. She hadn't done anything yet, but if she is with them she must be powerful. When it seemed like they had won, a blinding flash appeared from the projection, and another angel stood once more. However, this one looked far more powerful than the previous ones. Even Gazef didn't think he would be able to stand against it while equipped with the Kingdom's treasures. The entire village sank as they awaited their doom.
Ainz and Sypher just stood in front of the angel with blank stares on their face.
"Hey this just a Dominion level angel right", Ainz asked not believing his eyes.
"I mean the archangel flames were the same so I don't see why not," Sypher responded.
"This is stupid," Ainz said, now out loud "I'm going to end this." Before he could continue Sypher held out a hand.
"Hold on a second Ainz, I think we should let Albedo handle this." He continued with [Message], "we tested if our abilities work the same but not the guardians. Albedo should be able to one shot this so we can give a quick test. If it gets hairy we'll step in." After an unsure nod from Ainz Sypher turned to Albedo. "Albedo, would you like to step in and handle this enemy? You should be able with your skills."
"Of course my lord. I am overjoyed that you would trust me with such a task." Albedo exclaimed with a blushing smile.
"Ri-Right. Well, good luck." Sypher felt a chill up her spine.
Nigun looked over to the three. As far as he knew, Dominion Authority could use 7th tier magic and surpassed mankind in every aspect. Yet, those three were just sitting there chatting like nothing has happened. "AARRGH. They must be bluffing," he turned to the angel and commanded "Use [Holy Smite]." He grinned as the angel cast the spell and a flood of white light burned down upon the three in front of them.
His smile slowly turned to horror as he saw all of them standing as if nothing happened. Before he could continue, the black knight stepped forward and jumped. Nigun only saw her for a second above Dominion Authority. Before anyone had a chance to react she was on the ground again in a landing pose holding a dark ax. The angel was now an evaporating ball of light.
Once the light cleared, the fighters from the village were still standing unscathed as ever with the Theocracy soldiers on the ground. Sypher sent a [Message] to Mare to cut off the video feed and turned to Ainz with a thumbs up. Ainz silently activated his scrying defenses to block detection from anyone that was watching the fight. It was best that what happened next remained a secret.
"Now then," Ainz said as he stepped forward.
"Pl-Please wait. I beg of you Lord Ainz," Nigun begged on the ground. "Spare me"
Ainz still walking forward "Well I was planning to kill you, but my comrade insists I keep you alive for now. Afterall, you hold knowledge of this world and magic that I want." Ainz removed his mask and revealed his face.
At this point almost the men were unconscious and Nigun was barely holding on. Ainz walked up to him, grabbed him by the neck and ominously spoke: "Know despair."
With that Nigun had collapsed and the three started to move the corpses back to Nazarick for interrogation.
In the village, everyone was in a state of shock they didn't know possible. They had just witness Ainz and his friends take a strike from the heavens that was visible from the village even without the magic display. Not only did they live, they appeared unscathed. On top of that, the black knight cleaved through the angel while it was floating in a single strike. Gazef was generally humble, but he still considered himself among the strongest fighters in the surrounding countries. When he saw the attack, he knew he would never be able to reach that peak in several lifetimes. As Gazef came back to reality he noticed that the child caster and the magic screen had disappeared at some point.
As the villagers were recovering from their shock; Albedo, Ainz, and Sypher were returning to the village.
"So what's next," Ainz asked?
"Well since that's done, now is time to start our empire," Sypher said with an evil grin.
"Right," Ainz half sighed with an uncertain voice. "I'm going tell Albedo to go back to Nazarick and keep it at high alert until we are done here. We did just reveal ourselves as a world threat after all."
"Ok. Meet me at the chief's house after you are done. I'll start discussions"
They nodded and went to their tasks.
"Chief, if I may have a word with you," once he had the chief's attention he continued to speak. " I'm aware we already asked you for information earlier but Ainz and I have a couple more things to discuss with you if that is alright."
"O-Of- Of course, right this way." The chief barely managed to get the words out still recovering from the scene a little bit ago. They met up with Ainz on the way to the chief's house and once inside, Ainz cast a spell to prevent eavesdropping.
Ainz sat down in a way befitting a king with Sypher next to him in an equally intimidating pose. Sypher started to speak, "after hearing of the state of this world and society as well as fighting 'humanity's strongest'. We have a new request from you and this village."
The chief swallowed nervously as a chill ran down his spine. "Wh-What is it?"
"We want everything," Sypher spoke with a mischievous grin on his face.
Hope you enjoyed that chapter. At this point, all the background and characters are setup so the plot will really start to diverge from now on, so look forward to it.
