It was a tough night.
The Swords of Darkness group had their client abducted by two mysterious people. One pale zombie-like magic caster man and a sinister warrior girl to be exact.
The group tried their best to evacuate both the client and themselves from the shady people, but they were overwhelmed and the client, Nfirea Bareae, was taken away.
The Swords of Darkness were lucky to be still alive after all that. The sinister girl had been there fully intending to kill all of them. It was thanks to the efforts of two tag alongs that they had managed to stay alive.
Ryu the magic caster and Lily the warrior. They were still Copper rank, but their capabilities were on par with at least Mithril, maybe even Orichalcum.
As the leader of the Silver rank Swords of Darkness team, Peter felt ashamed of his weakness. If he and his partners had been stronger, they would have been able to hold off on their own. Ryu wouldn't have to keep being concerned about them, and he and Lily would be able to concentrate on facing the sinister girl.
Peter looked at Ryu and Lily, who were sitting on the ground and resting, leaning to Nfirea's wagon wheels. They seemed to be fine, but he could notice a lot of blood stains over Lily's right leg. She must have gotten wounded during the fight.
He then looked the other way. Ninya was still unconscious, but Dyne said that she would be fine thanks to Ryu's healing spell. Both Dyne and Lukrut were sitting down on the ground just like him and everyone else.
Peter pondered on the fact that Ninya turned out to be a girl. For himself, it was no problem. Ninya was still Ninya after all. But why did she hide the fact? Was it because of Lukrut's frequent remark of girls causing a lot of problems in their team?
"Lukrut"
"...Eh?"
"What do you think of Ninya, now that we all know it?"
"... No different than before. Boy or girl, Ninya is Ninya"
Lukrut's answer was straight. However, his expression was pretty gloom and out of character for him. Can't blame him, though. The current situation was indeed depressing.
Peter looked back at Ryu and Lily. They also looked pretty depressed.
"Ryu-san"
"Yes?"
"Like I said before, you did great and thanks to that we are still alive. Please don't be so hard on yourself"
"I guess that's one way to see it..."
"Lily-san"
"Hmm?"
"That's a lot of blood. Are you all right?"
"Ryu-san healed me so I'm fine. Don't worry about it"
"How did that happen?"
Peter asked out of curiosity, but soon he realized that it was not a proper thing to ask.
"Sorry! Never mind. I didn't mean to make you remember the pain"
"No worries, Peter-san. I only got kicked with a sweeping kick and then when I was down she impaled my thigh all the way through"
Lily used some hand signs to illustrate what had happened. Her mood seemed to brighten up, even though only a bit.
"Lily. I'm sorry"
Lily was surprised hearing what Ryu just suddenly said.
"W-what? Sorry for what, Ryu-san?"
"I should have not asked you to face that girl alone"
"You did nothing wrong! Like Peter-san said, you managed to keep everyone alive!"
"But you had to experience such pain. I underestimated that girl's combat skills. It was a big mistake"
"Ryu-san. Look at me"
Ryu seemed a bit startled hearing Lily's words. He looked at her anyway, looking confused.
"I'm all right. Everything has already happened. There is no use regretting it. What you should do is learn from it and do better in the future"
Ryu was speechless for a good few seconds. His mouth was slighly agape.
"Yeah... you're right. What has gotten into me? You're totally right!"
Peter, Lukrut, and Dyne chuckled a bit seeing the recent interaction. The wise-looking magic caster getting somewhat lectured by a cute, lively warrior. Shouldn't the roles have been the other way?
Ryu was embarrassed. He had just been lectured by Lily, whom he had been presuming more as a daughter than a partner. Now he really wanted to dig a hole and bury himself, because the three still awake Swords of Darkness members definitely had heard everything.
Still, the fact that Lily was capable of doing that gave a sign that her personality might not be merely of a summoned creature sworn to loyally serve him until death. Well, that fact still remained, but lecturing him like that might mean that she had a certain degree of free will.
"Ah, you are all here. What happened?"
The sudden voice made everyone present looked at the source. Their face became hopeful because the one they had been waiting for had arrived.
"Momon-san! It's terrible!"
Peter was the first to speak out. He stood up and rushed to approach Momon.
"Hmm? Calm down, take a deep breath, and explain. Though, where is Nfirea?"
Peter wasted no time telling everything that had happened. Momon and Nabe calmly heard him out, while the old lady, who were introduced midway through as Nfirea's grandmother, showed disbelief hearing that her grandson had been abducted.
"I see. His particular talent has attracted a wrong kind of people"
"Nfirea! My grandson! Please take him back!"
"Peter, Lukrut, Dyne. Take Ninya with you and rest. You have done enough"
"But we want to fight too! It was our fault that Nfirea-san was taken away and we want to make amends"
"Answer me on this. If you fight those two people again, will you be able to not get in my way?"
"Tch..."
Peter seemed upset. Momon's words were harsh but true. His team was too weak to fight a person of that level. They would just become a burden to Momon.
"Alright, I understand. But we still want to be useful in some way, so we will warn other adventurers in case an undead army will really come"
"That would be good. However, will they take you seriously? While not the lowest, Silver rank isn't really that high"
Peter was speechless. Momon had a point. There was no definite proof at all and the whereabouts of the undead army was still unknown. It could be the city's cemetery or the nearby Katze Plains, maybe even somewhere else. Nobody would take them seriously at this rate.
"That is why you should just go home and rest. You are all definitely exhausted from our trip and the recent fight"
"It's upsetting, Momon-san. But you are right. We will go home and rest for now. Thank you for your concern on us"
Peter bowed in respect, and the Swords of Darkness group left the place with Dyne carrying the still unconscious Ninya on his back.
"Now then, let us find out where they have taken Nfirea. But first..."
Momon looked at Nfirea's grandmother.
"I would like a proper reward for rescuing your grandson"
Ryu was quite surprised. Isn't this a bad time to talk about such thing? But since Ryu knew that opposing Momon would be a bad idea, he just kept silent.
However...
"Momon-san! This isn't the time to talk about that!"
Lily ended up the one voicing it out.
"Yes, this is the time. From your stories, this matter is likely going to be large scale battle. My mission will be to strike at the very core where the most dangerous enemies are residing. I will be risking my own life, and I want to make sure the reward will be worth the risk. Is there something wrong with that?"
Lily was speechless. Ryu couldn't help but agreeing with Momon's explanation. He knew that if Momon fought the enemies as Ainz there would be no risk at all, but right now he was Momon the warrior adventurer, not the mighty Ainz Ooal Gown. Ryu still had no idea if Ainz could freely switch back and forth between his Momon persona and his original self.
"Let's not waste any more time. What is your answer, Lizzie Bareae?"
"I-I will pay any price, even if it is everything I have! Please save my grandson!"
"I have seen your resolve now. Alright, do you have a map of this city?"
"I-I just happen to have it right here!"
Lizzie handed a large scroll of paper to Momon. Momon then went to the house entrance, and Nabe followed.
"W-what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to have Nabe cast a locating magic. Leave us alone for a few minutes"
Out of a bit of curiosity, Ryu spoke out.
"May we come along with you?"
"Alright, but your partner should stay out and guard Lizzie-dono, in case they return"
Ryu nodded and turned to Lily.
"If you notice them coming again. Alert all of us right away"
He then leaned over to Lily and whispered something
"Also, try to strike some conversation with her. I want to talk to Momon-san about a topic that requires secrecy, so I want you to distract her a bit"
"Leave it to me, Ryu-san!"
Ryu then followed Momon and Nabe into the room behind the entrance. Momon cleared a wide table off and spread the city map scroll on it.
"If they are going to raise an undead army, the cemetery is the most sensible place"
Ryu looked at the city map. Thanks to Alice's help this afternoon he could read all the writings, but since the map had recognizable symbols he believed Momon could locate the city's cemetery too.
However, E-Rantel's cemetery was huge, taking most of the western outer ring. Searching all over the cemetery would take too long.
Momon then conjured a backpack out of thin air.
"Momon-san!"
Nabe looked surprised, looking back and forth between Ryu and Momon. Ryu caught the drift and spoke out.
"I already know since the first time I met you. Don't worry, nobody else knows. Even my partner. I plan to keep it that way"
Nabe looked a bit relieved. Momon then took out a bunch of scrolls from the backpack and gave Nabe a lecture on what the scrolls do and how she should use them in order. Ryu totally failed on understanding most of them, so he just stayed silent.
"We are working on assumption and educated guess, but the enemy is likely to be right in the middle of the cemetery, probably this chapel to be exact"
Momon pointed at the map. Indeed there was a symbol of a chapel or such in the middle of the cemetery.
"Nabe, now do as I said"
Nabe then threw one of the scrolls into the air, and it was consumed by a flame. She continued with more scrolls until there were only two left.
[Clairvoyance] [Crystal Monitor]
Nabe used the last two together, and a floating image appeared above the map. The image showed a legion of both human and inhuman figures walking straight and stiff. Definitely an undead legion. Right in the middle of the visible crowd was a standing still man. There was no mistaking it that the man was Nfirea.
"Alright, we struck gold on the guessing game"
Momon said that calmly. He then looked at Ryu.
"Ryu-san. As planned before, I will break through the undead horde right into the source. What are you going to do?"
"I'm sorry, but I failed to catch your drift"
"You can either come with me to the source or hold the line along with other adventurers"
"Oh..."
Ryu finally caught what Momon meant. It didn't take him long to decide.
"I will stay behind and hold the line. I believe I will just get in the way coming with you"
"Alright then"
The floating image disappeared and Momon walked to the exit door. Ryu and Nabe followed him.
"Lizzie-dono. The undead army is already on its way in the graveyard. There are thousands of them, if not more"
"What?!"
"No need to be shocked. We intend to cut a path through them. The problem is that we can't guarantee that undead army won't escape from the graveyard. You need to tell as many people as possible to hold the undead back if they see them spilling out. There's no proof, but I'm sure that a lot of people will be willing to listen to a big name like you rather than a bunch of Silver or Copper ranks. If the undead ran wild and there was nobody stopping them… that would be troublesome, no?"
"I and Lily will hold the line in the meantime. Please gather the people as fast as possible"
Lizzie was speechless hearing Momon's confidence.
"Do you have a way to break through that army of the dead?"
Momon looked at Lizzie, and then pointed to the greatswords on his back.
"Don't you see it right here?"
The four Copper adventurers then hurried to the front gate of the graveyard. Since Ryu had no idea which road to take, he just took a ride on Hamsuke along with Lily. Both Momon and Nabe ran so fast that it would have been impossible for Ryu to keep up on foot. At this point both Momon and Nabe were already far ahead and not within sight anymore.
"Thank you for letting us on, Hamsuke-san"
"This one only let you because this one's master ordered so"
Still, the ride was bumpy and the body structure of Hamsuke made it even harder to keep balance. Both Ryu and Lily had to hang on tight or they would just fall down.
Later, the front gate of the graveyard was within sight. Ryu could hear alarm bells ringing, telling that the guards were already aware of the impending doom.
"We will come down and stay here to hold the line"
After saying that, Ryu jumped from Hamsuke and Lily followed.
"Then this one will follow milord!"
Right after saying that, Hamsuke charged forward and jumped over the graveyard wall. Ryu could notice some guards had their mouths agape.
Ryu approached the gate and spoke to any guards listening.
"What's the situation here?"
One of the guards then nervously approached Ryu and told everything he had just seen. From his story Ryu could conclude that Momon and Nabe had already broke through the undead army, and now the horde was lured to his group. The gate wall was peaceful at the moment thanks to that.
"Other adventurers will come to help hold the line soon. Anyone injured here? I can cast healing magic"
"The ones still alive are uninjured..."
The guard's nervous speech while looking behind him made Ryu caught the drift immediately. Right now the guards stationed here were either uninjured or already dead.
"I see"
The peace lasted for about ten minutes, but it was just a calm before a storm. Soon, the alarm bell rang again.
"More undead! Incoming!"
Ryu climbed the stairs next to the gate and looked at the graveyard field behind the wall. Indeed a horde of undead were advancing towards the gate. The distance was still a bit far, but they definitely would reach the gate within minutes.
"Where are the reinforcements!?"
One guard shouted in panic. The only reinforcement coming so far was a small group of guards equipped with simple spears and some others equipped as archers. Without more reinforcements they would not last long.
"Calm down! Archers, fire at will! Spearmen, form a line and stand by!"
One guard who seemed to be the captain shouted orders and the others complied. Ryu immediately stood next to one archer, who was frantically spending his arrows, and took his Weddle Park. He then charged photon and casted a tech.
Foie!
A fireball as big as himself came out from his weapon and flew fast towards the undead horde. It hit the front of the horde and incinerated at least twenty undead. The fire spread to more, and in the end the single cast took out about forty to fifty before the crowd spread out to avoid the flame.
The guards had their mouths agape seeing that. The Copper rank adventurer they had pretty much been ignoring had just casted a fireball. Within their knowledge such spell could only be casted by at least Mithril rank.
Rafoie!
Ryu pointed at one group consisting of about thirty zombies with his weapon, and an explosion happened right there. All of the zombies within the group were wiped out.
"W-what kind of spell was that? Who are you?"
One guard next to Ryu asked nervously.
"I'm just a traveler who arrived in this city a few days ago. The name's Ryu and this is my partner Lily"
There was no time for further talks. There were many undead creatures still advancing towards the wall.
Nafoie!
An perfectly round ball of fire energy came out from Ryu's weapon. It moved as if it was a ball thrown by a person. Soon, it hit the ground without hitting any undead creature and disappeared, and in its place appeared a huge firefield in a cone-shaped area starting from the point where the ball had landed. The fire field wiped out about half of the undead horde within sight, which counted to at least one or two hundreds.
It seems I was right.
Ainz glanced behind him as he quickly advanced through the horde of undead. If the ones holding the line were only the puny guards, Ainz would advance slowly, luring the undead horde to him to make sure they would be alive to tell the tale of a mighty adventurer breaking through an undead horde and cleared the matter. However, since Ryu was present, Ainz could leave it to him on keeping the guards safe. This saved a lot of time.
[Create Low Tier Undead: Wraith]
[Create Low Tier Undead: Bone Vulture]
Ainz exhausted his daily limit of creating low tier undead creatures. He summoned the creatures to keep reinforcements from entering the graveyard and hindering him from gaining all the fame. Also, with these creatures he assumed that Ryu would also gain a certain degree of fame as well for defeating them.
Ainz specifically ordered all the creatures he had just summoned to chase away anyone entering the graveyard while not killing the guards. Adventurers were fair game, though.
Still, he had to be quick. Ryu would likely wipe them out pretty quickly and the interfering busybodies would eventually come.
"Flying undead incoming!"
The guards panicked seeing the new type of foe arriving. Indeed there were several skeletal creatures with the shape of vultures flying to the gate, and along them there were a number of ghost-like creatures. They were pretty spread out so it was impossible to kill all of them with one spell. The undead horde on the ground also needed to be taken care of.
Ilgrants!
A bunch of light sparks came out from Ryu's weapon. The sparks left multiple light trails, making them looked like a bunch of snakes made of light. They all homed in to the nearest skeletal vulture, and when they touched the vulture they made light explosions, and the vulture disintegrated.
Ryu charged his weapon again and casted the same spell on one of the ghosts. The same thing happened and the ghost disintegrated.
Ilgrants turned out effective against the vultures and ghosts, but it had the downside of having a longer charge time than most techs. If Ryu kept using it on the aerial forces the ground forces of the undead would break through the gate freely.
"I need to keep the walking undead away! Please cover me on the flying ones!"
Ryu shouted, hoping that any of the guards would hear him and understand.
"I can't! I'm out of arrows!"
"Me too!"
"Where are the reinforcements!?"
Ryu was starting to get overwhelmed. All the techs he had casted earlier had begun to take their toll on his body, but he had to keep going or else the undead horde would be too close to the gate, raising the risk of friendly fire from his fire techs.
At this point, he could no longer use Nafoie since the energy ball had to hit the ground to create the fire field, and apparently roasted undead corpse didn't count as ground.
Rafoie!
Rafoie!
Foie!
Ryu kept casting his fire techs on the ground forces. Strangely, the skeletal vultures and ghosts seemed to be not interested in flying over the gate. All of them seemed to be just flying round and round like they were patrolling.
Lily couldn't contribute anything currently because none of the enemies were within melee range. She just stood by next to Ryu, who was beginning to sway.
"Ryu-san! Stop! You need to rest!"
"I know very well, Lily. At this rate I only can cast one more spell"
Right after saying that, Ryu jumped off from the wall to the graveyard grounds.
"Wha.. Ryu-san!"
Lily immediately jumped off to follow him. The undead horde approached him steadily. Lily stood in front of Ryu, intending to guard him with her life if need be. At this moment one vulture did a sharp dive to attack with its talons, but Lily parried the attack and did a vertical slash, slicing the vulture in half.
"Get behind me, Lily"
"But, Ryu-san..."
"I know what I'm doing. Just get behind me and defend me if any more of the vultures attack"
Lily complied, moving behind Ryu but keeping her defensive battle stance so she could jump into action if something wrong happened.
Ryu charged his weapon, but he didn't cast anything. He waited as the approaching horde got closer and closer. The guards watching from over the wall had no idea what he was doing.
"He must be crazy!"
That was likely the sentence present in most of the guards' mind. At this point the horde was less than ten meters away from him, and some of the skeletal vultures were right above him, as if they were waiting for a perfect moment to strike. Meanwhile, the ghosts stayed further behind for some reason.
7 meters...
Ryu still waited.
5 meters...
Two vultures attacked. Lily jumped ahead and did a wide slash with both swords, once again slicing the vultures in half
3 meters...
"Get behind me now!"
2 meters...
Lily jumped back and landed one meter behind Ryu.
Gibarta!
Ryu pointed his weapon to the horde right in front of him, and a blizzard appeared from it. The blizzard carried a numerous amount of small icicles, puncturing any undead creature unlucky enough to get hit. The freezing blizzard lasted for just over ten seconds, but after it was over the entire graveyard in front of Ryu had become a field of ice as far as eyes could see. All the ground forces of undead creatures were frozen solid.
"Ryu-san! Look out!"
Lily grabbed Ryu and did a dive away from where he was standing. All the remaining skeletal vultures above them had also been frozen solid and they fell down right on top of them. Thankfully, both Ryu and Lily managed to avoid the fall thanks to Lily's diving save. The frozen vultures hit the ground hard but they were still intact.
"Thanks, Lily"
"Anytime, Ryu-san!"
Lily smiled saying that.
"We can't relax just yet, though. Let's go back to the wall"
Ryu and Lily went back to the front gate of the graveyard. The guards opened the gate slightly and closed it again once they passed through.
"Thank you for your hard work!"
The captain of the guard said that with a salute, and the other guards nearby followed.
"No, don't relax yet. The ice will eventually thaw and they will attack again. What I did was just to buy time"
"How long do we have?"
"I can't say for sure. Maybe ten minutes? Probably less"
The captain seemed to be pondering on the situation. But soon the silence was broken by a shout of one guard still standing on the wall.
"Reinforcements are coming! They finally arrived!"
Ryu looked towards where he had come earlier. Indeed, a bunch of lights coming from torches were visible. Soon, he could see that the approaching crowd were a combination of guard reinforcements and adventurers of various ranks, all equipped and ready for battle.
Ryu noticed someone familiar among the crowd.
"Alice?"
Indeed, Alice were walking along with the reinforcements. She still looked as sleepy as before, but her eyes somehow showed that she came here knowing how serious the situation was.
One person, seemingly an officer of the guards, approached the captain who was standing next to Ryu.
"Report the current situation!"
"Yes, sir!"
The captain then tried his best to report everything he had seen, from the moment Momon and his companions went straight into the graveyard, to the blizzard Ryu had just made to buy time.
In the meantime, Alice approached Ryu.
"Hey, Ryu-san. Did you really do that?"
She was referring to the blizzard the captain had mentioned.
"Yes, but now my mana is exhausted"
"Good job. Now leave the rest to us"
"Uhh, no. I didn't cast the blizzard to give time for the reinforcement"
"What...?"
Alice was confused.
"It was to give myself time to recharge"
"Are you telling me that you can refill your mana in minutes...?"
"Uhh, yes. Isn't it just normal?"
Alice let out a small sigh and with a hand sign she told Ryu to lean over so she could whisper something to him.
"If you don't want too much attention you better not tell this to everyone else. Normally refilling mana takes hours of rest, not a few minutes of idle standing like you're doing right now"
Ryu was a bit surprised hearing that. From what Alice had just said, it seemed that in this world regeneration of mana was slow, which was the total opposite of how ARKS operatives could naturally recharge their equivalent of mana within minutes. All the spellcasters he had met in this world so far never had mana problems, so he was totally unaware of the fact.
"I won't stop you if you want fame, so it's your call"
Ryu pondered for a moment. He had been trying to avoid fame so far, but earlier this day he had been thinking that gaining fame might be better. If he climbed high in the adventurer ranks, he might gain easier access to information normally exclusive to the higher ups in the government. While he highly doubted that this world would have anything about outer space, more sources of information wouldn't hurt.
"Thank you for the advice, Liz. But the matter at hand is critical, and I don't want to purposely hold back just to avoid fame. I will go all out and see what happens"
"Like I said, it's your call..."
After the short conversation, Ryu, Lily, and Alice went back to the crowd of reinforcements to join them in the imminent battle.
[Greater Break Item]
With a single cast of the spell from Ainz, the Crown of Wisdom equipped on Nfirea's head disintegrated. Ainz then reconjured his full plate armor to return to his Momon persona, and then he carried the still-unconscious Nfirea over his shoulder.
It seems the Bone Vultures and Wraiths have been completely wiped out. As expected of Ryu.
"Narberal, you better be quick. The adventurers are already on their way here"
Ainz said that as he walked out of the chapel. He had ordered Narberal to loot all the gears she could find from the enemies they had slain.
"It is done, and I have something I want to consult you about, Ainz-sama. But since we have no time I will save it for later"
"Indeed. Now let's take Nfirea..."
Ainz walked past Narberal, who had restored her appearance from Narberal Gamma back to the adventurer Nabe. Hamsuke stood by near them.
"...And return in triumph"
With this chapter, Volume 2 has been caught up. Thank you for those following so far, and stay tuned for more in the future.