CHAPTER TEN: Permadeath
Mare checked his stuff, making sure his slaves brought all the supplies they would need for this trip. The trip itself would be short, they would spend less than a week or so traveling, and that was due to design. It would be easy enough to simply fly or even teleport most of the way there as Demiurge had paid them a visit during his time as Jaldabaoth, as such, could offer places to teleport to. But Lord Ainz had said something about the spirit of adventure and how it was a way to build up bonds, it was true he was looking forward to spending some time with Bella, his newest twin sister.
"Master Mare are you here?" A female voice called out, a cute elf that was dressed the same as he came around the corner, it was Nissa, and she seemed to be hanging around him more and more.
"Yes Nissa, I am almost ready, just double checking everything... um... is everything okay?" He asked, she smiled.
"Yes, Master, I was just wondering why that half-elf has to come, she's the one that hurt you and Aura!" Nissa said with a displeased look about her, Mare just patted her hand.
"Zesshi feels out of place here... well actually I thought that, but it seems she and Albedo are hitting it off really well." He said with a cute smile. Nissa did not look happy still.
"I do not trust her, she is only after you!" Nissa cried, she took mares hands and held them to look him in the eyes.
"Don't do anything with that woman, okay Master Mare?" Her ears bounced a tad. He looked at her confused, he didn't know what she really meant but he gathered she was just worried about him, he liked having her and the other around, they were nice.
"By the way, Nissa, has someone told you about..." He began.
"Bella and Aura? Yes, Master Mare, they came by together to explain the confusing ordeal, we understand that we have another mistress now," She smiled. She said that but Nissa never even tried to help Aura with anything, she followed mare around everywhere he went, even the other two would take time to themselves, especially Wins, she was hardly ever anywhere to be found.
"Just so you know, I'm told we will not see him, but A dragon lord will be high above us keeping watch as well, so if you see a big black dragon, it's okay," He explained. She giggled and kissed his cheek.
"You are always so kind to us Master Mare!" Nissa said as she followed him out to join the waiting group. In all the travel group consisted of Mara, three high-level Hanzo mercenaries, Shalltear, Zesshi, Nissa, Wins, Kali, and Elder Coffin keeping an eye from the air. Fast moving, high stamina mounts were summoned for everyone who wished to ride one. While most took their own mount or one provided, Nissa asked to ride with Mare. Shalltear noticed how often Nissa would cling to Mare. It wasn't hard to guess what Nissa was after.
"So, back up shrimp, what's the plan?" Bella frowned, Shalltear really didn't hold back.
"What plan? You're the one who's going to stop her from getting close to Mare... I should be asking you that question," Shalltear just giggled as she looked at Zesshi who was getting hugged by Albedo, she was telling her to be careful, but in the gear, Zesshi had been given, not much would hurt the newest adopted member of Nazarick. She had asked that the gear be made to look like the old clothes that she wore back int eh black scripture tower, right along with the giant scythe she had on her back. Albedo also packed her 47 different dresses, none of which were made for open road travel. but her long white shirt and black pants were her preferred style anyway, and with the data crystals Albedo used to buff them, she was in very well made gear, not as powerful as the kind mare or even Bella wore, but still very good.
"Well I do have something, but it's a little cruel, so it should be perfect, i just need to get her alone for a little bit," Shalltear said with a wicked smile hidden behind her cute one. Bella looked like she was gonna be sick.
"I, don't want you to kill her or anything crazy like that you know!" Bella reminded Shalltear.
"Don't worry second place shrimp... I'll play dirty, but I won't harm her, don't worry." Bella mostly believed Shalltear, still, it might have been a mistake to take her up on her offer. But she said she would not hurt anyone, so it should be fine... right? Bella jumped up on her doppelganger Fenrir and ran off to talk with Mare.
"Okay Mare, you have everything you need?" She asked as a big sister would. He hugged her and laughed.
"You don't have to worry, we'll be fine, most of the travel will be in The Katze plains anyway... when we get to the Slane Theocracy boarders we'll use magic to get through without them seeing us, it'll be easy," He giggled, reassuring his big sister.
"Oh, I will [GATE] you to the art gallery before I leave, I was told Lord Ainz and Demiurge wanted to talk with you and Aura." Bella nodded, she had also been informed about this.
"Sure, whenever you're ready then, looks like most of the people are almost ready anyway... okay I'll talk with you when you get back." She said giving him a hug and kiss. He made the portal for her and she walked through waving.
While this was happening and as everyone was basically ready to head off. The group that was sent to E-Rantel to get Soul Eaters to carry a carriage that Shalltear had requested for herself and her brides had just returned.
"Hey, Zesshi come help me over here would you?" Shalltear whispered to Zesshi from behind the large carriage they had just acquired, a little confused, but willing to help out Zesshi followed Shalltear.
"Uh, how can I help Lady Shalltear?" Zesshi asked, she was aware that they were alone and far away from the group.
"Hey, do you still have that amulet that lets you cast [GATE] once a day?" Shalltear asked. Zesshi nodded and showed it to her.
"Pretty neat, can I see it?" Zesshi immediately thought this was odd, but one of her standing orders from Mistress Entoma was obeying any reasonable request or any direct order given. So, as she had to, Zesshi removed her amulet and handed it over to Shalltear. As soon as the pendant Shalltear smirked.
"Listen, i just want you to know, this is personal... you hurt Mare and Aura, and while they are good people and would never want to do you any real harm... I view those two as my siblings as well... and I am not a good person," Shalltear said with a cruel look on her face, she moved to where Zesshi had come from, she was blocked off the alleyway they were in was cut off by the carriage, and Shalltear stood between her and the other exit. Zesshi immediately realized she'd walked right into a trap.
"[SINGLE HOLD SPECIES]" Shalltear cast just as Zesshi was realizing the bad position she found herself in. Shalltear put her hand roughly over her mouth and made a "shush" motion.
"Now... luckily for you I agreed to not hurt you, shrimp basically made me promise... if not for that..." She laughed evilly, the fear in Zesshis eyes made Shalltear a bit excited.
"But I'm going to send you on an... undercover mission," She snickered.
"However this is a secret mission as i am the only one who knows about it... she traced her finger playfully across Zesshis face.
"Now, I'm sure you can cast [MESSAGE] so, to make sure there is absolute secrecy..." Shalltear said and held up a different amulet.
"That shop had some neat stuff. This is a cursed item..." She threw the amulet over Zesshi's neck. Shalltear chuckled to herself.
"SO! Here is the deal... you can't use any spells from tier 4 and below, so no [MESSGE]. Now, removing this would simply need someone to cast a break magical item spell. Where we come from even a local vendor could do this, not a real big deal... I'm guessing you can't cast that right?" Zesshi shook her head, as she had to answer truthfully.
"Good, then you should have lots of fun where I'm sending you!" Shalltear smile wickedly and a [GATE] appeared.
"Now... I've never been where I'm sending you, luckily... YOU have, so the spell will work... see ya!" Shalltear said waving then roughly kicking Zesshi through the [GATE] portal, then closing it. Shalltear poked her head around the opening to see if anyone had noticed her [GATE] spell, but everyone was preoccupied with their own preparations. She'd gotten away with it... Zesshi would never be seen again and whatever happened to her was technically not "Shalltear hurting her", so it would be fine, she'd leave that to the Elf King.
"Maybe Lord Ainz would not approve of this?" She thought for a second. No, she was only still considered an agent, not a true member yet, and where she sent Zesshi was a place Shalltear was asked to... soften up, eventually. She'd left Zesshi with a large arsenal of offensive magic and her weapon... she saw the Scythe on the ground, Zesshi must have been reaching for it and dropped it when she was frozen. Okay, so no weapon, she shrugged. So this was just Shalltear, sending in an agent to help with a place she was asked to attack after this trip to The Dark Elves anyway. So she was just acting preemptively, and not even using a valuable asset to boot.
"Probably should have given her official orders then?... Nah... She'll figure out what needs to be done... one way or the other... Crap! Does doing this override Lord Ainzes order?... NO! It was Mare who requested the agent, so it was fine." She said out loud but in a low tone. She had followed her orders... as she understood them. Satisfied she climbed into the carriage. Before not too long the group began it's goodwill mission to The Dark Elf Kingdom. Zesshi, on the other hand, found herself somewhere very different.
About an hour into the trip Mare turned to look at the group, he did not see Zesshi.
"Has anyone seen Zesshi?" He asked around. One of the Hanzos pointed at Shalltears Carriage.
"I believe she may be with Lady Shalltear, I heard Shalltear call to her," he said
Mare moved his mount to the side of the carriage and knocked on the door, they were moving at a leisurely pace so this was not hard to do. The door was opened by one of Shalltears Vampire Brides.
"Yes, Mare? What is it?" He scanned the inside of her carriage, he expected Zesshi to be there.
"Where is Zesshi? I wanted to talk to her..." Shalltear just smiled.
"Oh, right I forgot to tell you, I sent her on a mission before we left," Mare looked confused.
"A mission? But I requested her as a guard, Shalltear."
"We don't need her for this as just a guard, I sent her on a mission more fitting her... position. And I'm afraid it's secret so I can't tell you where she is. And do not contact her either... she is my agent as of now, we talked about how to use the new agents right?" Shalltear asked, she was right, they were to be used freely after their mission in The Draconic Kingdom, and guard duty wasn't that important. He'd just had a personal reason for her to be here... but as Shalltears was official sounding, it would trump his request, he had to admit she was in the right here. He would give it no further thought, he could talk to her when both their missions were finished after all. The convoy of goodwill continued it's trip to The Dark Elf kingdom.
Bella walked into the Art gallery. Aura was there with Demiurge, they were talking and pointing at a portrait, when they saw the gate open they walked over to greet her.
"Hey Aura, so what's this meeting about Demiurge?" She asked, Aura shook her head.
"He won't tell me either, I don't think it's good though," Aura whispered to Bella, the look on Demiurges face confirmed this... the news wasn't good.
"Okay, we can go talk now, come this way please," Demiurge said forcing a smile, he opened a door that usually a maid would open, the Elf sisters looked at one another and followed. As Expected Ainz was sitting behind his desk in an official manner, two chairs had been pulled out.
"Please girls, take a seat," they did. Ainz crossed his fingers and thought for a second.
"I am sorry, but after talking with Demiurge, we've decided that do to the recent appearance of another floor gardening..." he nodded to Bella.
"And do to that nature of how she came to be..." Aura and Bella both realized Lord Ainz was putting off what he wanted to say, this made them both nervous. He realized he wasn;lt getting anywhere so just decided to come out with it.
"...Okay sorry, I'll just say it then... Aura and Bella, I no longer feel it to be safe to let either of you leave The Great Tomb of Nazarick," He said seeming a tad distraught.
"Okay... for how long?" Aura asked, there was a long pause.
"As long as there are there two of you," They looked a little confused.
"Aura, Bella, if an NPC from Nazarick dies, we can simply revive them yes?" Both Girl Nodded.
"But... given your particular situation... if one of you were to die, how would we resurrect them? Our system would just register one Aura, who is alive, the way it was always meant to be. There is a large chance that the first of you to die... will never be able to get revived, it will be forever." He said gravely, Demiurge nodded to confirm this suspicion. Both girls thought and seemed to be shocked, neither had thought about this before, the thought of permadeath was just something NPC's did not consider.
"What about a wand revive? Would that work?" Ainz shook his head.
"I was told that this method would not work when we created Victim, based on that I assume this also would not work on either of you, even if it did, we'd need to recover the body, not something always possible. Both Aura's sat in silence.
"So you see where this is coming from? I only wish to keep you both safe, and losing either of you forever, is simply not something I'm willing to risk, I am sorry..." Both girls remained silent.
"As such... I am relieving you of your duties as floor guardians, not officially, but... should you ever find yourselves in conflict, you are to use your pets to escape not fight... and never under any circumstances are you to ever directly engage any enemy... am I understood in this? This is a direct order from your Leader." They both nodded, understanding the situation, but neither agreed with it.
"Now come here..." He offered his arms, they both jumped up and leaped into his arms hugging him. They both felt lucky to have a supreme being who cared this much for them, and dod not view them as simple tools that were expendable. Demiurge smiled as he looked at their smiles.
Many miles away however Zesshi was feeling very expendable. By the time the spell had worn off the [GATE] portal was gone and she realized that she was somewhere not the Dark Elf forest. But she was in a forest. Zesshi only saw trees fro as long as she could look in either direction, she'd have to get to the tree top.
"[FLY]..." She cast but nothing happened. She looked at the amulet that Shalltear had forced on her. It was glowing with a weird energy, and she could not take it off either, it was like it was fused to her skin when she tried to remove it, yet would dangle naturally and move normally when she was not touching it.
"No magic 4th tier and below huh? That will make things tough, she looked at the ring Albedo gave her.
"At least I won't need food or water, so supplies are fine... no way to heal, however." She was running her options in her mind, and trying to figure out what she needed to do. Was it possible the necklace had something to do with her secret mission? Zesshi thought harder, she'd have to move eventually to figure out where she'd been sent to, but right now required deep planning, running around would just mean she'd be surprised.
"Some mission... what the heck are my orders?" Zesshi spat, she felt for her weapon but it had fallen from her hands. She cursed her own luck.
"Secret huh? So secret I can't even be told?" This seemed unlikely, that vampire had said some pretty threatening things. She sighed and leaped up a tree, the tallest one she could find, it was easy enough to climb with the strength increase from the new gear her "big sister" had made for her. When she got high she could see lights not too far off, it was a city on the edge of a giant forest and next to a giant lake.
Her stomach immediately became sick when she realized where she'd been sent.
"The Elf Kingdom..." She muttered. But there was something wrong. The whole eastern side of the city was destroyed or burning, it was hard to tell from this distance but she was sure that was The Slane Theocracy at work. the western half. the one she was on seemed to be in a little better shape, but still not very healthy. There were lights but they were all grouped in various sections, like war tents or even camps maybe. She could make out what looked like snipers posted along the tree line, she was behind one, about a half mile away and he hadn;t noticed her as he seemed to be looking into the city, and not the forest she was hiding in.
"Eight in all huh? She spotted them, oddly enough they were not concerned with hiding, but were taking the best offensive positions, offering them the best range or offer up a good kill box. This was clearly a city under daily siege. her eyes finally landed to a castle on the very edge of the tree line, the castle where her father most likely was, as it looked untouched. If he was still alive, she wondered why the city was under siege. From what she'd been told, it would take the entire black scripture (as well as her) the sunlight scripture when they were still lead by Nigun to fight him... even still it would need to be in a favorable position for them... her father was power and held many items of extreme power.
So this meant for whatever reason he'd not chosen to participate in the fight... lucky for The Slane Theocracy soldiers. This probably meant two things... her mission was to assassinate her father, and that he'd be at full strength when she tried to kill him.
"Well I don't mind the mission, but some help would have been nice," Zesshi thought, her partner Clementine would per perfect to wear down the enemy lines for her, as it was, stealth was her main option, and also not her strong point.
"Okay, so first, need to get rid of these snipers... find a weapon good enough to kill the king... and... then what? She had no way to cast [MESSAGE] or [GATE]. She would probably die, even if she accomplished her mission once she was caught, even [FLY] was off the table, making a possible getaway no longer an option. She stroked her chin, thinking.
"Pretty tough puzzle... I'll be lucky to get even one side to match." She said clicking her tongue.