Fortress City of E-Rantel
3 days before the Kingdom's army arrives at E-Rantel

The meeting would take place in an abandoned building near the outskirts of the city. Demiurge had carefully prepared the protections of the room that would ensure they would not be overheard as he mentally reviewed the his report while prostrated, waiting for Lord Ainz to arrive. He waited over an hour before the scheduled time, in a display of obedience in case the master might test his loyalty by arriving early, before the image of his Master's magnificence appeared in the tell-tale flash of a teleportation spell.

"Demiurge..." he started as he noticed the, admittedly, poor imitation of throne of skulls that Demiurge had carefully constructed to imitate the throne of Nazarick. His lord looked at it for a moment before clearing his throat and remained standing as he continued to speak.

Was it displeasing? Demiurge wondered. No… perhaps I should have used all known races to construct it instead of mostly humans. Yes, I see now - if Lord Ainz had sat down now I might conclude he was satisfied with merely ruling over certain races. Maybe I should have used a Dragon's claw for the base instead? Lord Ainz, your wisdom is truly amazing.

"I should thank you for your good work." Ainz continued. "Your reports have been most excellent and even with all the work I give you with the research into magic, subjugation of the demihumans near the Holy Kingdom, as well as gathering intelligence - you still are adamant it's not enough. You've earned yourself a reward after this is over."

Demiurge prostrated himself even further. "You are too kind, Lord Ainz. I am merely doing my duties as a floor guardian should require."

"Hmm…is that so? Well hard work should still be rewarded, in any case." Ainz said agreeably. "That's enough bowing, stand and make your report."

Demiurge straightened. Truly there is no such other generous master in the entire world... "My lord, as stated in my report, E-Rantel is infested with undead that seem to be barely controlled and we know of the culprits as well as how, but not why. We have a shadow demon following one as we speak. Their forces move like normal undead and are attracted to the living but occasionally they will move in complete unison showing some semblance of being directed."

"I see." Ainz said. "What of the surviving populace of E-Rantel? Have you been able to follow my instructions?"

"Yes. To the letter, my lord." Demiurge confirmed. "Shall I bring the other one in now?"

At Ainz's nod, Demiurge clapped his hands twice. Another masked figure entered the room and silently prostrated themselves.

"Entoma Vasilissa Zeta, I have a task for you." Ainz said.

A high-pitched child-like voice filled the room in admiration, "I live to serve, my lord. Tell me your will and I shall carry it out."

Demiurge got the feeling Lord Ainz was smiling. "Entoma, while this is a task of great importance... I want you to revel in their suffering as a reward for helping Demiurge monitor the situation here. It is the responsibility of the hunter, after all, to enjoy every part of the hunt of their prey and to make sure nothing goes to waste."

Entoma voiced Demiurge's thoughts in a gushing voice, "You are too kind, Lord Ainz!"

"You were selected to bring Nazarick's retribution upon a certain someone - for the individual in question is guilty of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable." Ainz continued.

Demiurge and Entoma both stiffened as Lord Ainz' eyes filled with a deep red flickering flame. Surely one wouldn't be so stupid as to…

"They tried to force Ainz Ooal Gown to bow to them." Ainz said with no small amount of fury, confirming Demiurge's thoughts.

Entoma was drooling uncontrollably already in a mix of fury and glee at the unimaginable honor. With luck, it might be a big strong male she privately thought for I do love how their meaty, stringy arms taste.


E-Rantel Cemetery Shrine
3 days before the arrival of the Kingdom's Army at E-Rantel

Khajiit Dale Badantel - one of the Twelve executives of Zurrernorn, a cult dedicated to the worship of death, was in an almost permanent state of euphoria due to the state of recent events and grew closer with each passing day.

5 years… 5 long years… and it's almost complete!

Khajiit had once been a young boy with the gift for magic among one of the Theocracy's smaller outlying villages. Through the discovery of his gifts his family had celebrated their good fortune, as in the Theocracy - if you registered your abilities with the nation you could be paid for offering up the information and possibly even be considered for recruitment into one of the scriptures - money equivalent to 1 month's work of labor; which for Khajiit's poor family was no small amount. Khajiit, like any young boy, had deeply loved his mother and he to this day still remembered the feeling of the knowledge of his gifts - how they had made her happy, 'See? It's not just I that sees you are special, Khajiit.' She had once told him with a smile. His family had been happy for a time after his schooling of magic had started.

That was when tragedy struck.

His mother had gotten deathly sick over the course of a week through an unknown illness. Khajiit felt powerless despite is considerable gifts that he could not heal her - and in the middle of the week that he was locked up looking for a cure, Khajiit would find out later that she succumbed to the illness. He had raced home immediately and 4 days later managed to place a newly-learned [preservation] spell on the body in secret, without telling his other brothers and father and hid her remains in a meadow by their village, her favorite place.

During his brief magical instruction, Khajiit had found he had a gift of the magic of the dead, Necromancy, and hoped to find a way to revive his mother - who he knew would not survive the normal resurrection of the priests of the church. To his intense anguish, he soon found that higher resurrection magic still required a body that was freshly dead and not over 3 days old.

He had missed the deadline by one day.

When he returned home one day to his family he had found his father had found his mother's body and after a family argument, disowned Khajiit for desecrating his mother's body and turned to burn the body to give the woman's spirit rest.

Khajiit in a rit of rage and knowing if her body was damaged even the highest resurrection spells in existence wouldn't return her to life - slew his father and brothers on the spot with his gifts.

Much time later, as a member of the black scripture, he had learned of the group known as Zurrernorn - a death cult, that destroyed an outlying city and one of the members had been turned into a lich - a being whose knowledge over death was unrivalled. Feeling that his knowledge over death might help him still resurrect his mother - he began working in secret with them. To his dismay the first lich that was one of the members of Zurrernorn was almost immediately slain after the transformation and it took many years for Khajiit to piece together how the process was completed.

A process I am now but on the cusp of finishing. He thought, as he stroked the coffin in the E-Rantel cemetery that contained the still preserved body of his mother.

"Khajiiiit~~! Where aaare youuu~~?" came the sing-song voice of his… regretfully, much-needed co-conspirator. Khajiit ground his teeth. What a loon, I'm glad I got out of the scripture before she joined…

"What do you want, Clementine? Don't you have something to do besides bother me all the time?!" he ground out.

The woman, Clementine, whose face and blonde hair was styled curvy and wide enough to resemble a cat's, looked bored as she inspected some of the coffins in the cemetery. "I'm bored."

If I could kill her right now… he thought. "Then go somewhere else and find something to do."

"There aren't enough people to kill." she said in a nasal-y, whiney voice. "...you keep taking all of THEM-!" she growled as she turned towards Khajiit and threw one of her four stilettos at him quickly.

"[Bone Wall]!" Khajiit intoned as a solid wall of bones at least two feet thick and 8 feet long appeared in the path of the weapon flying at him as it rebounded off of it with a 'CLACK clack clack', bouncing off the floor.

Khajiit was livid. "Are you out of your mind?! If you kill me, how am I supposed to COVER YOUR ESCAPE?!" he reminded her.

Clementine put a finger up to her mouth and looked up in thought, "Oh yeaaa~~... haaa~ I forgot."

I had no children specifically for this reason, and yet I must still babysit a rampaging psychopath. Khajiit thought.

"But it's no fun anymore… all that's left are copper, iron, and silver plates." Clementine whined again.

"...and? … That's what most of your armor is anyway, what's a few more?!" Khajiit said, trying to get her out of his hair. I swear I will tell you a cliff has a copperplate if you would just jump off it and leave me alone.

"Khajiit~... have you been looking at my armor? You are a nnaaauuuughty~ boooyyyy~." she sang for a moment. "It would totally mess up my color scheme." she continued seriously.

Khajiit briefly wondered if his teeth might break with how hard he was grinding them. "Fine!" he said. "I'll help you eliminate one of the pockets of resistance still left and then you leave me alone for a while, got it? Will that satisfy you?"

"I knew you liked me under that big, old~, wuff~ extheerrreer.~~" she happily chirped at him, exiting the shrine of the cemetery

Are you really baby talking a man four times your age? He thought as he too exited, after manipulating his undead though the boy with the Crown of Wisdom upon his head, Nfirea Bareare.


Somewhere in the city of E-Rantel
3 days before the Kingdom's Army arrives at E-Rantel

"[Magic Arrow]!"

There was only one thing Ninya of the adventurer's group known as 'The Swords of Darkness' knew right now, as her spell slammed into one of the countless walking corpses that slowly shambled toward their group.

That was that her home, E-Rantel, had swiftly turned into the domain of hell from her nightmares over the course of almost a week.

According to reports from the city guard, the infestation had started at the cemetery. No one knew the how or why's, as the few Adventurer's teams that were within the city at the time were hard at work doing what they could to protect the citizens, much less investigate… but Ninya knew the truth. There was simply too many undead to deal with. The Guild Building had been swiftly overrun by the shambling corpses since most of the 700 adventurer's in the city were iron, copper, and silver plates and to cover the area the size of the city they would need far more.

As a result of this, Ninya and the rest of the Swords of Darkness, were currently trying to find survivors that had hold up in their homes to try to wait out the undead storm that was approaching - and to bring them to the Governor's mansion, one of the few areas of the city that had been suggested to turn into a stronghold. Being a walled, fenced-in area, it would be difficult for simple zombies and skeletons to get through… that was the reasoning, anyway.

The leader of the group, Peter Mauk, stepped in front of Ninya protectively as another of the undead wave of monsters appeared in their path trying to get through back to the governor's mansion. "Dyne!" he said.

Their druid, the friendly bear-sized man Dyne Woodwonder, nodded his head. "Got it." he said as he crouched and placed one of his hands on the ground, which lit up as he said, "[Twine Plant]."

Though it was a city road and plants were sparse in the area, a few roots did manage to sneak through the cracks in the cobble-stone road and at the edges of the road where weeds were more plentiful and several of the zombies were grabbed by the offending plant life.

Lukrut, their ranger, proved his marksmanship as the taunt string of his bow came to life with a sharp 'twang' as his physically-launched arrow collided not long after Ninya's magically enhanced one - into the head of the closest body that fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

Several 'thud's followed as the well-coordinated team of the Sword of Darkness dispatched the remaining corpses with precision and teamwork. As the last body fell, Lukrut finished scouting the area before finally Peter turned behind them and shouted, "Ok, the path is clear! Move on up!"

The Swords of Darkness team were the frontline of their group. Each adventurer team left within the city was led by a leader of at least mithril rank, as the guild had made the decision to even out the ability of the teams rather than have only a few mithril teams and risk the strongholds around the city from being overrun because of weakness.

The Swords of Darkness's Mithril-ranked leader was a man named Igvarge. His position was to watch over the civilians and to ensure they didn't get cut off and surrounded. He came closer to them with the twelve people they had managed to rescue so far.

"Nice work." Igvarge said. "Let's finish getting these people back to the mansion, it shouldn't be that far ahead."

Lukrut ran forward on ahead, before peeking around a building at the street ahead. Ninya from her position could see him stiffed, before he slowly creeped backwards to them. "This is bad…" he said in a whisper. "There's a horde that's gathering all around the mansion and even more in the street. They have it complete surrounded, I don't see a way inside.

Igvarge furrowed his brows at the news. "It's almost nightfall… if we can't get inside before the sunlight, which is weakening the undead, ends then…"

"Things will be much worse." Peter summed up.

Ninya noticed Lukrut suddenly turn his head off in a direction, "... we have company… I can't tell what but whatever it is it's big."

They all fell silent as after a few seconds there was a distinct the 'clash, clash, clash' of the sound of heavy armor before it grew louder… and louder…

"It's coming right for us!" Lukrut said, backing up to protect the civilians, though they did not know what it was yet.

Ninya had wished the situation had stayed that way.

Because from around the corner on the other side of the street, a monsterous form of an undead in heavy, black armor and reddish, dessicated skin appeared with a shield and twisted, snake-like sword larger than Dyne Woodwonder, their druid… and was headed right for them. Ninya backed up in disbelief as Peter and Igvarge moved forward to protect the group.

"We need to get out of here!" Ninya said in a panic. What kind of undead is that? I've never seen one as big as this before, it's the size of an Ogre!

"We can't." growled Igvarge. "We have kids and civilians back there. We need to destroy this thing together and retreat to find a place to stay until daybreak."

They all felt the slight shake of the ground as the monstrous form of some sort of twisted, ogre-sized knight continued towards them. Lukrut pulled his bow back from his shoulders and readied another arrow that released with a 'twang'. It bounced harmlessly off the creature, Lukrut cursing under his breath, swapping his weapons to favor his shortsword, as the creature was moving towards them so fast he wouldn't get another shot.

clash - Clash - CLASH - CLASH -CLASH

Ninya's eyes widened as it approached within the range of her spells. Though she had used most of them, she still had one left. "[Reinforce Armor]!" she cried as Peter was bathed in a soft green light. Ninya saw Dyne grip his mace tightly.

Igvarge growled, changing his stance to give him some stability to take a blow. "Get ready, Peter!" he yelled as they both raised their shields. The creature was upon them, it's sword swung out, as if to cleave them both in two.

"[Fortress]!" Peter cried.

"[Aegis]!" Igvarge growled.

Ninya had shut her eyes in prayer, as exhausted of spells as she was there wasn't really anything else a caster like her could do, as she felt something warm splatter against her face.

SPLAT

"AAAAAHHHHHH!" she heard the cry of Peter in anguish.

Ninya opened her eyes to see the bisected body of Igvarge, his intestines spread over the ground as his blood spread out like someone had dropped a bucket of red paint on the ground.

The same blood that had splashed on Ninya's face.

"PETER!" Lukrut cried.

Peter Mauk was still standing, but his shield had been split in half and the undead's Sword had cleaved into his side. The sword was coated with blood and Ninya wasn't exactly sure if it was Igvarge's or Peter's. The creature violently jerked the sword out of Peter, Ninya again getting sprayed in the face with blood - this time her friends'.

Peter fell immediately to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut, still screaming. "AHHH!" Ninya felt powerless as she watched her friend start to bleed and die in front of her as she saw his face was already losing color.

As the creature raised it's sword or finish Peter off, they all heard a sound off in the distance. Ninya realised with a start what it was, as the sound had accompanied the coming of every night for the last several days.

The cry of a skeletal dragon - a warning to the living that night was coming. That hell was just beginning.

The creature had froze mid-swing for several moments, before it suddenly turned away from them and began to run away. Ninya felt it wanted to gather with it's fellows and go after bigger fish to fry… more souls to slaughter than their measly 15 could provide.

"Dyne!" Lukrut yelled as he grabbed Peter's hand trying to urge him to stay conscious, "Help him!" His color was fading fast and his entire body was shaking as if someone had dunked ice-water on him.

"[Healing Light]!"


E-Rantel
Kingdom Army's Arrival
Command Tent

Crown Prince Barbro sat viewing the map of E-Rantel with his trusted advisors, making plans on how to deal with getting into the city. To his dismay, the Chief Warrior and Chief Wizard both entered the room.

"So, Crown Prince... What's the plan?" Gazef asked.

One of Barbro's advisors, Marquis Boullope, father of the woman the Barbro was supposed to marry once he took the crown of Re-Estize, spoke up. "The gates to the city are locked. We will need to prepare siege equipment to get into the city."

"And how long will that take?" Gazef asked.

"A day, maybe two." Boullope replied.

"I can get the gate open in far less time, if you will allow it." Ainz said.

Boullope glared at the man, "Under the authority of the King, it is the Crown Prince leading this force, wizard. Not you."

"Crown Prince, we don't have time for this." Ainz said. "Our people are dying on the other side of those walls every day. If we can save even a single person sooner, we should take that option."

Gazef nodded his head in agreement.

As much as I don't want to agree with you, wizard… you are right. There will be far greater glory in completing this quickly. When I am King I will personally have you arrested for talking back to me and if your girl is lucky, I might use her as my plaything before I strangle her with my bare hands.

"See to it then." The glory will be mine.


Outside the City of E-Rantel

"Why did they tell us to gather here? We should be building the siege equipment right now…"

"Who is that?"

"Is that our new Head Wizard?"

"That's Sir Ainz! He saved my brother a month ago..."

"They say he's as powerful as that wizard from the Empire…"

"My father told me his mistress says even dragon's fear him…"

"So calm! He must be helping to soothe the troops in the face of such evil we're about to witness in the city..."

Arthur Peddington, one of the common soldiers that made up the army, watched as the Chief Wizard, the man known simply as Ainz, slowly walked up to the gates of the Fortress City of E-Rantel as whispers from the other soldiers broke out all around Arthur from the other soldiers as the man passed them. Arthur noticed the Head Warrior, Gazef Stronoff, in all of his battle-attire afforded by the Kingdom - was walking with Sir Ainz. They seemed to speak to each other before Gazef stopped and turned back to the group of soldiers that made up Arthur's company.

"You there," Gazef point at their unit. "You men all need to step to the side. The Chief Wizard needs space to work his magic."

We are already 30 feet back, how much more space does the man need? Arthur thought as Gazef herded them to the side. One soldier next to Arthur even had the courage to say those exact words to the Head Warrior. Gazef gave the man a hard look.

"Though I'm not sure of the details, myself." Gazef admitted as he supervised the repositioning of their unit, "But, I have no doubt that you will remember this day for what is about to happen... When Sir Ainz the forces the gates open, we are to charge."

"When he forces the gates open?!" a soldier asked incredulously, "Master Gazef… we haven't even begun building the siege equipment yet!… How..."

The wind started to howl and blow so roughly it drowned out the rest of what the soldier had said, as the capes of some of the officers and Gazef, along with the robes of Sir Ainz flapped powerfully in the wind as Arthur saw a flash of gold appear in Sir Ainz' hand and Arthur realised he must be clutching his magician's stave, a common staple among magic casters. The wind died down as the entire clearing slowly fell into silence, enough that Arthur could make out the words of the Chief Wizard, Sir Ainz.

"[Force Explosion]!" the Head Wizard intoned as Arthur saw the very air in front of the caster distort, not unlike it sometimes did during the hot days of the summer, as a visible rippling wave of power radiated out from his form and swiftly approached the wall.

BOOM!

The very gates of E-Rantel, fortified with thick iron plates and at least 8 feet thick blocks of wood, as well as the frame of the gatehouse itself, shuddered as though it had just been struck by a catapult - as bits of stone and wood separated from the structure. Arthur noticed several figures on top of the battlements were thrown from the wall as large amounts of dust and dirt from the surroundings created a cloud so thick it took a moment to dissipate. When it had cleared there was a man-sized gash cut deeply into the wood across the front of the gate.

"[Piercing Magic: Death Dragon's Bone Lance]!" the wizard said as something ripped from the ground beside the caster to hover in front of him, pointing directly at the gates of E-Rantel. With a start, Arthur noticed it was the body part of a creature descended from the myths from stories of his village's priest.

Namely, the 15-foot long slightly curved form of the rib of an Elder Dragon, nearly as thick as a horse.

It hovered in place for a moment when suddenly it shot forward, so fast that Arthur had trouble following it with his eyes, with a slight 'swish' through the air as it impacted against the gash in the gates from the explosion before.

CCCRRRAAACCCKKK - SCREEEEAAAAACCCCHHHHH echoed across the clearing as the sound of wood being forced apart and of metal being scraped against filled the air. Half of the bone was embedded into the gate.

...Gods above...

The some of the soldiers turned back to the caster, wide-eyed, as he did not seem to be finished, for he had raised his staff into the air.

"[Summon: Primal Earth Elemental]!" he cast.

The ground started to shake as the earth trembled in the clearing and several of the soldiers around Arthur had to use the butts of their spears to keep their balance. The ground behind the Chief Wizard seemed to bulge upward as bits of rock and dirt compacted before slowly taking a shape before the army's very eyes. A second passed as it grew and gained more definition and Arthur realised with a start what it was.

It was the powerful shape of an arm - three times the length of Arthur's entire body.

...Is this …

The elemental slowly began to gain more definition as it pulled itself out of very planet itself as it seemed to give birth to a frightening power before the troops very eyes - as if the land was taking its place on their side to end the suffering of their fellow citizens. Seconds of this passed before the hulking 15-meter tall creature, almost as tall as the gate itself, emerged from the ground. It stood on uneven legs and its form was a bit misshapen - as if a child had made a clay doll, though there was no doubt it was imposing, for the flat rock that was in place of one of its hands was at least the length of two men.

The creature seemed to loom over the form of Sir Ainz as its feature-less head stared down at the gate before it - stepped over - the Chief Wizard, who's robes fluttered from the displaced air as the creature only allowed inches of space between them, and started to increase its slow speed as it broke into a run towards the gate of E-Rantel. When it grew close to it, the creature pulled back it's massive boulder-sized rock-hand and slammed it against the rib of bone that was still sticking out of the gate.

BOOM! - SCREEEEAAAAACCCCHHHHH

With one blow, it drove the rib into the door until only the last few feet were sticking out - Three-fourths of the lance were embedded into the gates of E-Rantel. The elemental then grabbed the side of the bone lance and braced against one side of the gates and silently heaved, pulling at the object in a way that Arthur distantly thought might resemble the way one might try to pry open a jewelry box. The effect was immediate.

The was an audible 'crack… crack… crack' of wood groaning and splintering that echoed across the clearing.

...The true power of mankind?...

The sound increased quickly with a 'crack… crack, crack, crack - CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! BOOOOOOOM!

The doors of E-Rantel, the most heavily-fortified border city of the Kingdom, had busted open for them in less than five minutes.

No one moved. Even Gazef, the Head Warrior, displayed some hesitation as he pulled himself together after a moment and gave the order to charge, with a cry of "For the Kingdom!" as he unsheathed his sword so high into the air that light gleamed off of it.

As the troops started to move, Arthur heard a powerful voice emanate from Sir Ainz at his back as he and the rest of his unit ran forward to face the horrors of inside the city as the wizard shouted, "[Widen Magic: Amplification]!" spread his arms out wide, just like the gates of E-Rantel, and continued to speak.

"Hear me and rejoice, surviving citizens of E-Rantel!"

The man's voice seemed to come from all around Arthur and reverberate into his very soul and Arthur realised the entire city must be hearing the man as well - and privately thought Give them hope, Sir Ainz…

"For you are now under the protection of the Greatest Magic Caster this world has ever known. I am Ainz Ooal Gown, Head Wizard of The Kingdom! Help has arrived and your nightmare in E-Rantel is now ending! We are coming!"

A/N: Ainz doesn't get mad, he gets vicious! D
Several more canon characters appear...

I pictured the song 'Vile Tribe' from Lunar: The Silver Star Story playing in the background of the scene of E-Rantel's gate. It's worth a listen on youtube. ;)

Next chapter might take a few days to get out, because of work, but I hope to see you all there!

Chapter 7 has only been out for a less than a day, but thanks to all the reviews so far!
At the time of this writing that is
PervySageChuck
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Awareness Bringer
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Morality is a Spook
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