PSA: It's a big one boies.
I appreciate all the discussion about how the magic systems/etc would work and how strong certain characters would be in the comments/reviews section. It's something that I have been thinking about as well.
I was also wondering whether I should continue doing full introductions for characters that you guys are probably already familiar with. I could try and make them more interesting in future by adding memes?
Steel and Sorcerers - Chapter 4
It was the morning the day after Itami returned to Japan. Construction workers were hard at work expanding the base to accommodate the new troops and equipment that would be arriving in the next few days. Trees came crashing down, and the roar of chainsaws echoed out through the forest.
The current defence of the base was composed of three layers. The innermost being the compound itself, the troops within it and those manning the walls. The second layer were guards just under 50 metres away patrolling the outer perimeter, and the final layer were sentries spaced out at regular intervals as far as 300 metres out, holed up in the trees. Due to the dense forest, vision was limited. Thus, the use of radios was essential for communicating information. On that fateful morning, the forces stationed there received one such critical radio report.
A group of two guards were patrolling the southern perimeter of the compound when their radio suddenly crackled to life, "Urgent message! Large unidentified creature approaching at high speed from the south-west! Repeat! Large unidentified creature approaching at high speed from the south-west!"
At this, the guards broke out into a sprint back towards the compound gate, as was protocol in such an event. This would enable them to cooperate with the forces within the compound to eliminate the threat more effectively. However, they were just barely too slow.
Just as the gate was in sight, they felt the ground beginning to shake beneath them. Looking over their shoulders as they ran, they spotted a huge rodent-like creature burst forth from the trees. As the soldiers manning the walls opened fire, in a flash of movement one guard saw the other suddenly pulverised, his corpse collapsing to the ground like a puppet who's strings had been cut. Looking back at the attacking creature, the last thing he saw was a flash of green as his chest was crushed by its giant whip-like tail.
The creature moved from soldier to soldier desperately trying to enter the compound, instantly killing them one by one with its elongated tail which it used like a giant whip. Rifle and machine gun fire harmlessly bounced off its fur, which seemed to be as hard as steel. A glowing symbol lit up on its chest, and one of the soldiers mounting a heavy machine gun clutched at his eyes, yelling that he couldn't see.
By now the single Type 89 IFV present at the base had been fully manned, and roared to life, heading out the south gate to engage the creature before it began attacking the troops up on the walls in earnest. The Type 89 was a tracked vehicle, painted grey, and armed with a 7.62mm machine gun, 35mm autocannon and two ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles) which were mounted on the sides of its turret.
As the vehicle exited the base and turned towards where the beast was fighting, the gunner engaged the thermal imager on his gunsights. The green and brown of the forest was transformed into a sea of black and white. This infra-red imaging system was currently set to white-hot mode, so objects with higher temperature would show up as white. He engaged this system because the beast was currently chasing after soldiers who had fled into the forest to escape, where it was more difficult to see.
His vision panned as the turret rotated, scanning the tree line. Panicked radio reports seemed to indicate that it was somewhere to their right. He suddenly saw a flash of white in the trees. It might have just been his imagination, but he swore he saw some kind of large eight-legged insect jumping from tree to tree before it disappeared from sight. "Did you see that!" he exclaimed.
"See what!" shouted back the commander. The inside of the vehicle was quite noisy due to the sound of the engine, so it was best to shout or use radios to communicate.
"I saw some kind of massive spider jumping between the trees!" he replied.
"What! I didn't see anything! Probably just a bug on the camera! Focus on looking for that giant rodent!" shouted the commander.
A few tense moments passed before they received a radio message from HQ, saying "The assailant should be heading towards you guys now from the east! It could appear at any moment so be ready!"
In accordance with the report, they swung the turret around to face the eastern region of forest. They also turned the hull of the vehicle to face the same direction. This way their strongest armour would be oriented towards the enemy. Not that it would do much though considering how lightly armoured they were.
After a few tense moments of waiting the gunner spotted a flash of white amongst the grey of the trees. There was a loud crash as the vehicle was struck by the creature's tail, causing it to violently shake. Re-orienting himself, he put the autocannon's crosshairs on the target and squeezed the trigger.
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM
The 35mm cannon on the Type 89 had a firing rate of 200 rounds per minute. The resulting cannon-fire was deafening, as he unloaded onto the target before it slipped away. The cannon was currently loaded with DM13 armour piercing high explosive shells, which were each capable of penetrating 25-65mm of steel at these ranges and contained 37g of TNT equivalent explosive. He would've also liked to have fired an ATGM, but the creature would've been far too agile to guarantee a hit.
"Good effect on target!" shouted the commander. The crew would've cheered, but they weren't sure if it would come back yet.
After a few minutes of waiting however they received a call from HQ. "It looks like it's retreating! Good work men, you've saved us all!"
Upon returning to base, they were treated like heroes, but a sombre mood still hung in the air. Many soldiers had died today buying time for them to eliminate the threat, and there was still the chance that it could be coming back. Their IFV had taken a hit from that creature, and inspecting the damage they could see a deep dent in the front of the hull, but thankfully none of the crew or vital components had been damaged.
With the new support arriving that evening they hoped such an event would never need happen again. This attack strengthened their view that this new world was a hostile environment, and showed just how foolish and unprepared they had been. From here on out, they would use the new resources at their disposal to take a pro-active and yet covert approach, gathering intelligence while striving to ensure that information about their location and capabilities remained a secret.
There was a large circular room. It was illuminated by a small number of exquisitely crafted chandeliers and candelabras. These lighting fixtures, no, they were more like works of art, each no doubt priceless to an ordinary observer cast light upon a single large wooden desk. The desk too was beautiful in its own right, intricate patterns and gold trimming coming together with the dark wood to create a sense of elegance, yet purpose and practicality. The desk itself was situated near the back of the room on a slightly elevated section facing the entrance. The slight incline to this section divided the room in half, and stairs allowed one to ascend the half a metre difference in height. On the lower side of the room in front of the main entrance were a table and chairs.
On the lower half behind these furnishings stood a young dark elf, with short golden hair and heterochromatic eyes. Like everything else in the room, their clothes were of the highest quality. They wore a reddish-black dragon scale leather top covered by a white and gold vest embroidered with a certain sigil. Below this, she had a matching set of white trousers and gold-plated shoes, and around her neck was an acorn necklace emitting golden light. At her waist, a whip, and a giant decorated bow on her back. Putting a gloved hand to her chest and standing to attention, she addressed the being who sat behind the desk.
"Ainz-sama, I have returned with information regarding the suspicious individuals spotted to the north of Carne village."
The one she addressed put a hand to their chin, as if contemplating something. It was a skeletal being. Its hand, like the rest of its body was a porcelain-white surface of bone, devoid of skin or flesh. The undead being wore an elaborate jet-black academic gown adorned with golden and violet edges. Just below its exposed ribcage floated a dark-red orb, emanating a feeling of dread. In each of its empty eyes sockets was a tiny red glowing pinprick.
Stood beside him was an impeccable beauty with long and lustrous dark hair. Her eyes had golden irises with vertically split pupils, and protruding from her left and right temples were two thick horns. On her waist were a pair of black angel wings, which protruded from a pure white dress. Silky gloves covered her slender hands, and a golden spiderweb necklace covered her shoulders and chest. She stared adoringly at the skeletal being as he indicated for the dark elf to continue.
'Uwaah', thought Ainz. He was beginning to realise just how little he knew about this new world. Just before Aura had arrived, he had been discussing with Albedo how they should approach each of the different nations that they had learnt about from the village chief. That conversation had then transitioned into how he had changed her settings just before the server shutdown, and then Shalltear had briefly showed up to announce she was departing on her mission with Sebas. But what Aura had just informed him about was probably the most puzzling matter yet, second only to how Nazarick was transported here in the first place.
When he was saving Carne village from the knights, a number of NPCs and minions including Aura had been placed around the village without his knowledge, ready to assault the area at a moments notice. He had only found out about it after he had defeated the initial attackers, who were the theocracy soldiers disguised as empire knights. He wasn't sure how they had reached the conclusion that he wanted to attack the village, but at least some useful information had come of it.
The eight-edge assassins that had been sent to investigate the unidentified individuals didn't seem to have been detected so far, but there was a chance that they had been, and that they were pretending to have not noticed in order to lull them into a false sense of security. In fact as he thought about it, it seemed more and more likely. The individuals that had been spotted were wearing military camouflage clothing, and drove in some kind of vehicles that didn't seem to be powered by magic. Since they were not wearing any power-armour and had patches on their uniforms with the rising sun emblem, they were probably army soldiers from 21st century Japan. He wasn't sure the exact time period though. It was a shame Punitto Moe wasn't here, he might've been able to shed some light on the situation. Ainz felt a pang in his heart at the thought of his past guildmates.
Upon following the soldiers back to their base, which seemed to be located somewhere to the north of Carne village in the Great Forest of Tob, the eight-edge assassin had uncovered a large tunnel-like building. Inside at the end of the tunnel was what appeared to be a black wall or portal that people and supplies moved in and out of. This did lend some credibility to the idea there was in fact a portal linking this world to that of some kind of parallel Earth currently in the past, but this was unconfirmed since he had forbidden the eight-edge assassins from entering the portal, instead deciding to err on the side of caution.
In his opinion, these soldiers and portal seemed like a blatant trap for any Yggdrasil players. People from Earth would be naturally drawn to the site with the promises of returning home, only to be ambushed. Exactly who was behind this site and what their purpose was, was still unclear, but they had to have some knowledge of Earth, and perhaps by extension Yggdrasil. What worried Ainz, and another reason why he hadn't gone there to investigate the area himself, was because there was a high likelihood that this trap had been set specifically for him.
Judging from Aura's report, the compound was only a few weeks old at most, and Ainz had only arrived in the new world just 5 days ago. In addition, what really worried Ainz was its proximity to Nazarick. If this trap was set for him, that meant the enemy had some idea of his whereabouts if not his precise location, and the only reason they had not attacked yet was because he was within Nazarick. Although it was chilling that an unknown hostile entity might know his location, it was at least comforting to know that they were at least dissuaded by the defences of Nazarick. That was of course if external factors did not play a role…
Ainz suddenly became uncomfortably aware that he hadn't said anything for quite a while now, and he felt the gazes of Albedo and Aura weighing down on him. Clearing his non-existent throat, he looked up at Aura, who had a troubled look on her face. Come to think of it, she had been standing to attention in an upright posture like that for a while now. He briefly considered inviting her to sit down with him at the table over near the door, but for now decided such an action might make him look weak.
"What is it Aura?" Ainz enquired. If her back was starting to feel sore he could make an exception, plus it might make her more loyal towards him in future…
Aura looked down at the floor for a moment before continuing. "Please forgive me for forgetting to mention this Ainz-sama, but earlier today the eight-edge assassins reported that the place in the forest was attacked by a large monster this morning."
Ainz straightened up and leant forwards in his chair. "And what was the result, how powerful was the monster?"
"They injured it and managed to drive it off, but the monster wasn't very strong anyway, and they lost a few of their own soldiers in the process" replied Aura, shrugging her shoulders.
'Well that was disappointing' thought Ainz. He had hoped for a better indication of their strength.
Seeing him deep in thought Aura spoke up, saying "Ainz-sama, forgive me for asking, but if these humans are really causing you this much trouble, why don't we just go and wipe them out already? A bunch of their soldiers already died to a weak monster."
Putting a skeletal hand to his chin, Ainz explained to Aura.
"I had considered the idea, but I now think it more likely that this was all an act by them in order to lure us into a trap. It's possible that the attacking creature was affiliated with them, and they staged this mock battle in order to-"
Ainz abruptly stopped himself. He had said too much. He didn't want to talk too much with the NPCs about tactics yet until he had confirmed their loyalty to himself with 100% certainty. Now that he had said that, they probably thought he was being paranoid. However, looking at them now their eyes seemed to be positively glimmering with admiration.
"Sasuga Ainz-sama!" exclaimed Aura, "My own thinking could never hope to match that of a supreme being."
"Indeed" added Albedo, a lustful expression growing on her face. "Naturally Ainz-sama has considered al of the possibilities. I should make sure Demiurge knows about this too."
Ainz felt like this might be contributing to a major understanding, but for now at least this seemed to have worked in his favour to reinforce the NPCs' loyalty towards himself. Anyways, with this new knowledge he would need to make some additional considerations for his trip to E-Rantel.