Author's Note:
I'm really sorry for the lengthy gap between last chapter and this one, been busy getting university and work sorted. I had hoped to have written more but I struggled to finish this chapter so I'm just going to end it on a good note so I can start the next one at an easier point.
Brain was surprised at the lack of emotion displayed by the maids after having beheaded what he assumed was their leader. A shiver ran down his spine as the decapitated maid caught her head in her hand and turned it so that it could look back at him. Her mouth was shut tight and her eyes bore straight into his.
"Humans are so simple." she huffed, placing her head back into place. Brain struggled to stay on his feet at the monstrous sight in front of him. A metallic echo rang around the room as his katana clambered to the floor. Without his prized ability to defend himself with, Brain made a ragged dash for the exit but tumbled to the ground when two small wires hit his back and emitted a painful electric shock. Shizu stood unimpressed, a small, black gun in her hand. The wires lodged in Brain's back were connected to the gun and vibrated softly.
"What do we do with him?" asked Entoma. Yuri took the two wires out of Brain's body and picked him up by the back of his shirt, slinging his unconscious body over her shoulder.
"We find Sebas-sama" she said, leading the way to the bottom floor where Lupusregina and Narberal had gathered.
"Meet us on the bottom floor Solution"
"Yes Yuri-neesama"
Sebas strolled past the waves of undead that were forcefully pulled into Shalltear's [Gate]. Some of them scratched at the dirt, trying to find some purchase. Occasionally some of the stronger ones would resist the suction and leap at Sebas. He merely batted them aside and watched as they disappeared into the darkness.
Sebas looked up at the sky and frowned, it would be dawn soon. He had wished to finish this much earlier. A short walk later and Sebas came across the destroyed graveyard wall. Pieces of it lay strewn around the area and blood covered the floor. A few undead were lapping at the substance and looked up at Sebas with annoyance. He sent a burst of killing intent at them and they scattered.
Stepping over the discarded armor that the guards had been wearing, Sebas entered the graveyard. Rows of empty graves and fallen tombstones littered the way to the center and there was still a large amount of undead wandering the graveyard. Sebas honed his senses and could see a gathering of people at the center, dressed in robes. Magic casters perhaps. One of them seemed to have noticed Sebas approaching and whispered in the ear of the middle one, his robe colored red.
When Sebas stood in front of the group they spread into a line to meet him.
Khajit held an dark orb in his hands tightly and smiled crookedly at the butler. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by his blonde associate. Clementine poked her head around the corner of the central building and smiled at Sebas.
"Come back so soon?" she giggled. Sebas quelled the urge to murder the lot of them on the spot. He was under Albedo's strict orders.
"I've come for the boy" said Sebas. Though it was only partly the truth. Albedo was more interested in the group's ability to raise such large numbers of undead, Sebas was to secure as many of them as possible, with the one in red robes as the highest priority.
"Ah, Sebas-sama was it? He called for you until I cut his tongue out" she said nonchalantly.
Sebas took one step towards the magic casters but halted in place as he felt the ground tremble. A sudden crack emerged from beneath and a large skeletal hand shot out, gripping the earth to pull up the rest of the body. As more bones flashed past his face Sebas realized it was none other than a Skeletal Dragon, one of the less impressive dragon species. When the beast was fully emerged from the ground, the crack in the earth slid back together, leaving no trace of disturbance.
"Fearsome, isn't it! A dragon with complete magic resistance!" Khajit rasped. Sebas looked through the gaps in the dragon's bones at him and sighed. Albedo would skin him alive if he killed an undead as strong as this.
Khajit raised his hands with the orb in them and another skeletal dragon broke through the surface beside the first. Clementine had said the butler was strong, he wasn't going to take any chances. This plan that had taken so long to execute was not about to be stopped by a mere butler. Khajit had already come so far.
"Kill him!" he shouted. The dragons roared in response and began to charge Sebas.
Before the dragons could take a chunk out of Sebas they froze in place, their head resting in front of him. Sebas had his hand raised to their snouts and he whispered words unfamiliar to Khajit.
"What are you doing?" Khajit screamed, his hands beginning to tremble. The two dragons slowly turned their heads away from Sebas and looked back at Khajit. The red glow in their eyes signifying his control was instead radiating blue.
"Sebas" came a message from Albedo.
""Yes Albedo-sama" he replied.
"Bring back the orb that human is holding back to me. It seems to be the source of the undead"
The connection to Albedo was cut off before Sebas could reply, leaving him with his new orders.
Albedo watched as the torrent of undead flooded out the gate and were pushed against the first floors walls. A few of the stronger undead tried to attack Albedo but found themselves blown apart before they could even reach her. The other undead seemed to have realized her power and remained on the floor in front of her.
"How many more are coming?" Albedo asked Nigredo who sat beside her, peering into a floating mirror. It showed a live feed of the graveyard in E-Rantel, where undead were still being sucked into the portal.
"We're about ¾ done" said Nigredo. Albedo smiled and turned her head back to watch the undead coming through.
"Can you feel it Momonga-sama? The raw stench of death in the air." Albedo whispered to herself. Shalltear stood on a platform floating just in front of the gate she had summoned. Through her full focus was on maintaining the gate, she could not help but get excited by the smell of the undead beneath her, it was too much like Momonga-sama.
Demiurge entered through the shimmering portal and came out on the beach of a large lake. Though it looked like the lake expanded forever, this was also a floor inside of Nazarick. Demiurge made his way over the soft sand until he came to a halt just at the water's edge. A large rippled made its way across the surface of the lake and a groaning sound filled the air. Demiurge felt the rush of air past his face as a humungous golem rose from beneath the lake. It slowly turned its lumbersome body until it was facing down upon Demiurge's small figure.
The golem was Gargantua, the guardian of the fourth floor. It was designed as a trap, to decimate players who made it this far. It laid dormant beneath the lake until the players were far enough across the floor and would strike. Its fists were large enough to cover large stretches of the beach and those caught in the water would receive massive debuffs.
Demiurge had no further commands for the guardian and the golem returned to its resting place beneath the water. As if nothing had happened, a serene calm filled the room again and the water returned to its undisturbed state.
"Demiurge-sama"
"Yes Yuri-Alpha?"
"We're captured a human leading a group of bandits, he seems to be capable of some kind of magic"
Demiurge frowned, "some form of magic" was very vague. Were Yuri-Alpha and the other pleiades unable to determine the type of magic?
"Very well, take it to Neuronist"
Solution entered the barren lower room where her sisters were waiting. She was surprised by the human unconscious on Yuri's shoulder, perhaps they had saved a snack for her.
"We're leaving" said Yuri, interrupting her train of thought. Solution pouted and followed behind her sisters as they filed out of the bandit's cave and into an open field. It was deep into the night and wouldn't be long until the sun rose. Solution had no problems seeing in the dark and stepped over two discarded bodies with ease, one missing all of its limbs and the other was charred black. Lupusregina and Narberal's work no doubt. Though it was disappointed to leave two perfectly good meals behind she had no choice but to carry on. A very small light was given off in the distance and Shizu pulled the sniper rifle from her side up to her shoulder.
The group of maids came to a halt and waited for Shizu to say something.
"Small group, five people" she muttered. Yuri squinted her eyes and looked at them. They hadn't seemed to have noticed anything and continued moving east.
"Do we engage?" Narberal asked, planting her staff into the ground.
Yuri shrugged and continued moving forward.
"If they get in our way, remove them from existence."
Lupusregina grinned from behind Yuri and disappeared, turning invisible. The other Pleiades started moving towards the group at a leisurely pace. One of the group seemed to have noticed that something was amiss and Yuri could hear one of them yelling. The group ahead came to a halt and the light they had was extinguished. Yuri noticed one of them had drawn a bow and had it aimed in their direction, though it was not aimed properly and would fall short.
"If she fires that bow, shoot her" said Yuri. Shizu nodded in response and slung the sniper back over her shoulder, instead drawing two sleek silver pistols and walking with them at her side. When the Pleiades were close enough for the group to see Yuri could hear one of them whisper Maids?
"Who goes there?" the woman with the bow shouted. Yuri stopped just short of the bows probable maximum range and shifted her glasses upwards.
"Yuri Alpha"
Julius and Cecilia stood with the mayor of E-Rantel, Panasolei, on the border of the graveyard. The giant pillars of earth that Julius had seen a butler produce had filled in to become a completely solid wall, denying all access into the graveyard.
"Do we know what's going on inside?" the mayor asked.
Julius shook his head and looked to Cecilia, who had the same response. The mayor stroked his beard and looking up at the giant wall.
"A butler you say." he said. Though the story was absurd, he had no reason to believe Julius was lying.
"The level of magic needed to produce such a wall must be profound. Perhaps exceeding 5th tier spells" The mayor chuckled. Both Julius and Cecilia's eyes widened and looked at the thick stone. 3rd tier spells were uncommon among magic casters, if this wall was indeed the result of a spell exceeding the fifth tier than the butler who casted it would rival that of the Empire's stronger mage, Fluder Paradyne. He would undoubtedly be in the realm of heroes.
"No sense blabbering on about what we don't know! Are the undead outside this wall dealt with?" the mayor asked.
"There's still a few areas in need of clearance but the majority of the undead are either within the walls or have been disposed of, I was just about to head ou-" Julius said, but was interrupted by the mayor.
"You've done enough Julius, Cecilia, go get some rest. The rest of the adventurer's will handle this."
Julius wanted to complain but coughed loudly when Cecilia elbowed him in the stomach.
"Thank you mayor" she said. The overweight man bowed his head to the two adventurers and turned back to look at the wall.
"Many have died today" he whispered, looking down the sides of the wall. The evidence of mass slaughter was still evident. Blood stains splattered the walls and streets and a few dead bodies were still lying around. Guards and lower ranked adventurers ran back and forth, clearing out the bodies to stop any further undead from spawning and helping those who were injured. Panasolei shook his head, though the action was largely invisible due to the copious amounts of fat masking his movements.
"We should get you back to the office Mayor." said Cecilia, drawing Panasolei out of his depressed stupor.
"Yes, yes. Let us hurry back" he said, wobbling back the way towards the center of the city.
Julius looked one last time at the stone wall before following Cecilia and mayor. Had it not been for the butler how many more would have died? Could he had even stopped it? The giant undead that nearly crushed himself and Cecilia was stopped due to the butler's intervention. He would have to thank him in the future.