'Alright…' Momonga picked up something after casting wave after wave of [Widen Magic: Detect Life] spells to make a radar of sorts. 'The mana cost seems fairly negligible, even though I used a modifier, which pretty much tells me that my spells have remained as they were in terms of taxing my mana pool… I'm glad I extended that so many times…'

Momonga had used the time to rummage through his Inventory and cataloging items from 'useful' to 'mementos', and had more or less pushed the 'mementos' to the back of his inventory 'slots'. 'I'm skeletal so I don't need food or drink, not that I could do that anyway since that one stamina biscuit I tried to eat just ended up crumbling and falling through my jaw to my lap… Which makes sense, I guess… So all that is relegated to 'memories from YGGDRASIL' status, and I can't actually use swords or some such…'

Momonga tried to suppress the embarrassing memory of him grabbing the Death Knight's sword and trying to swing it around a bit, which had ended up with him sprawled all over the ground and the sword flying clear off his hands. 'I think part of that was me lacking technique, but I'm fairly certain I felt that the weapon rejected me… Or rather, slipped off my hands.'

Momonga contemplated the problem, and decided to try again after reading up on proper sword footwork and grip. 'It'd be somewhat inconvenient if I was limited to just staffs and wands… Eh, then again, most of the actually powerful weapons of sword and blade variety are… were left… in Nazarick. [Ginnungagap] could have been useful, since I can use it in it's staff-form… That World-class item specializes in area deletion so it might be good for clearing battlefields for proper sightlines if I get ambushed in close-quarters battle, since most of my spells work best at medium range…'

He cleared his head as he noted that a 'life-sign' roughly matching a group of fairly average-health humans approached him at a height of a mile or so. Or at least 'average humans' if he assumed the people in the 'dungeon' earlier had been average humans.

'Hm… Looks a bit ancient… Twin-propeller hoverjet… no, it has those spinning blade-things, erh… Helicopter, I think? They fell out of favor after the nuclear war since they would spread contaminants all over just by moving over something with rotor wash, not to mention that any smart weapon system would be able to home itself into something making such a massive ruckus, distortion air and sound… And with the proliferation of multi-stage high-explosive armor-piercing ammunition, even infantry were able to shoot down helicopters with ease…' Momonga recalled what he had learned of weapons during his Chuunibyou phase, when he had studied the Euro-Arcology wars where old and new weapons clashed after the nuclear war, and had ended up in a massive loss for the old tech. 'It feels almost nostalgic to see one of those things in use with my own eyes… Well, sort-of eyes…'

Momonga kept sitting as he reconsidered his earlier counter-ambush plan, mostly because he had fought similar low-level enemies in the dungeon from before, and felt somewhat confident that he could fight the helicopter and it's occupants- Or failing that, throw the [Undead Army] at them and flee through either [Perfect Unknowable] or [Gate], depending if the group managed to jam outgoing teleportation and actually proved to be a threat.

The transport came to land in the massive clearing that had been left behind when Momonga had brought out the 'S2 engine'-item from his inventory, which incidentally had caused a lot of the forest to flatten under the outright massive building-sized item.

The people in the helicopter disembarked, and the soldier-looking humans had their weapons pointed towards the ground even if they were shaking all over.

Momonga kept sitting while preparing his options, and used a wordless master-summon communication to tell the Death Knight hidden in the underbrush to start circling behind the helicopter to cut off the retreat of the now-approaching humans, just in case.

It looked like they detected the hidden death knight, and one of the soldiers in old-looking armor motioned towards the bushes with his rifle… And a man in a somewhat out-of-place outfit grabbed the soldier's weapon's front and pushed it down.

Momonga wasn't sure what kind of outfit the man in black was supposed to have, as it seemed to be a combination of a comfortable-looking neck-high red sweater under a bluish long coat that had gold and green angular lining. 'Some sort of commander? Probably not, they would have fairly matching outfits to the soldiers in order to not get picked off by snipers… It's almost like he's a CEO or boss of some sort, those kinds usually want to stand out… I'm pretty sure he's also the commander of that bunch, since that soldier didn't object to him grabbing the gun and pointing it down.'

"...So there's more than one of you here, hm?" The man walked in front of the group, although in a way where the soldiers were just behind him with an opening among their ranks, allowing the man to withdraw at a moment's notice. "You wanted to talk. So talk."

"Please excuse my servant. He feels a bit protective of me." Momonga bought time with the casual dismissal and redirection of blame towards the undead, who he ordered to stand out in the open with his mental link to the minion-undead. "Do not be alarmed. But indeed, I invited you here to talk."

''You wanted to talk', so in other words, he managed to decipher my meaning quite easily… Hm. This might be somewhat inconvenient…' Momonga had hoped that whoever was spying on him would have been a dumb, barely-sentient sack of meat that he could interrogate to his heart's content. Mostly since an actually intelligent foe would send someone a bit less intelligent than themselves to ensure a good deal with the 'target', and also ensure that if the opposing party got rowdy, there was an 'instant retribution' somewhere nearby to dissuade violence. Mostly in the shape of a massive bomb or a sniper.

Momonga wasn't particularly worried about either of the latter possibilities, as he had contingency plans for both scenarios, but he couldn't rule out that the opponent had some other means to affect him that he didn't know about. 'Come to think of it, one of the soldiers in that dungeon threw a bottle of milk at me… At the time I thought it was quite comedical, since calcium reinforces bones, but… It might also be a covert way of figuring a weakness in my skeletal nature by prodding it's strengths… Like seeing that a fire damage strengthens a fire elemental, and thus deducing that ice weakens it…'

Momonga felt his paranoia increase as he contemplated the ease of the assault on the 'dungeon' in different light, considering the chance that while he had breezed through the 'dungeon' with ease without thinking all too much outside just what was needed to progress, the masters of the 'dungeon' would have compiled all of that combat-data at the same time in order to figure out Momonga's strengths and weaknesses, and use that to build a hard-counter for him. 'I don't think I used death magic all that much, I was mostly just using basic first-to-sixth tier spells to clear blockades and whatnot, so my main specialization is most likely still a secret… No!'

Momonga remembered too late that he had ordered his Death Knight to come forward in order to put the human delegation at ease.

The massive undead creature rustled the underbrush and came into the open at the same second as Momonga finished his contemplation.

The man in the 'CEO-suit' turned his head to give the undead creature a glance. "I see."

'Dammit, he found my specialization out!' Momonga cursed inside his head while he kept his face in tranquil serenity. 'Death Knights are unique to necromancers, so that cat's out of the bag… Damn…

Momonga resisted the urge to cover his face with his hands and have a resigned expression. At Least as far as he could have facial emotions anyway, his face being a crooked skull.

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Gendo was feeling a bit shaky, but such a feeling was easily crushed, suppressed, filed under the category of 'useless', and forgotten about. 'So, the Angel is capable of speech, knows who I am since it invited me here, and is also capable of making copies of itself. I'm guessing that the copies are not truly 'Angels' as they lack a visible S2 organ, but something only vaguely similar…'

Gendo saw the similarity between the Second Angel and it's 'copy', and contrasted it to the similarity of 'Yui Ikari' and 'Rei'... And did not like the skeleton's non-verbal implications, specifically considering that the 'copy' was wielding a sword and a shield- A direct implication of what Rei was to Gendo. And the rotting visage… 'How much does it know? Even SEELE doesn't know the truth about Rei's…'

Gendo realized that the skeleton must have breached Terminal Dogma, yet in a way where their sensors haven't been able to pick up. 'It must have breached Terminal, and seen Rei's… In other words, that display is it's reminder of our respective positions.'

Gendo also realized that the skeleton was still sitting and looking up at Gendo, whereas Gendo was looking down on it from his position roughly twenty feet away. 'Ah, so it's gauging me, wondering what I'd do when my sins are known…'

Gendo promptly sat down in a similar pose to the skeleton and rested his elbows against his knees,and rested his chin against his hands, bringing the two to eye level with one another. "I see. I understand."

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Momonga stared at the man who had sat down. "I see we are of one mind."

He had no idea what the man had 'understood', but Momonga was not going to reveal his ignorance in front of a potential enemy.

It looked like the man had drawn some sort of conclusion based on the Death Knight, and Momonga was not going to indulge the man by blurting out more information for the man to use against him- At least correct information. 'Dammit, bringing the Death Knight out was a mistake… Haa… Well then… If he's gathering information, I'll just have to be as vague as possible and mislead him a bit…'

"My name is… Ainz Ooal Gown." Momonga told the man. 'I already announced it back during that fight, so it's not like it's a secret anymore… Moreover, if any of my friends ended up here as well, they'd eventually come across that name and come searching… Although, we also had plenty of enemies… But if they approached me, they wouldn't instantly know which member of Ainz Ooal Gown I was until they established a visual contact- Or in the best case scenario, assume that the entire guild was present and not attack at all.'

"Hm…" The bearded man kept staring at Momonga with his glasses turning opaque from the sunlight glinting on them.

Momonga was glad that he couldn't sweat.

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'Ainz Ooal Gown… 'Nine's Own Goal'... One possibility is that it's implying that it's SEELE's pet angel, who had come early- That it is the entire SEELE council's goal, the Human Instrumentality Project made manifest, ready to trigger the Third Impact on their command. However, the more likely case is that it's not SEELE's Angel, since it has 'Own' in the name, implying that SEELE's goal is their own and not the Angel's… … Or in other words, 'Nine's Own Goal'... SEELE's goal, yet not it's. In other words, the Second Angel is independent. The number doesn't quite match, as SEELE has fifteen seats as far as I know, but in retrospect I have never seen all of them 'present', so that number may be a ruse...' Gendo thought furiously about the hints the skeletal Angel gave. 'How and why exactly did he arrive during the First Angel's attack? I doubt I'll get a straight answer if I just ask, so… Hm… At least it might be able to give me another hint.'

"What do you want?" Gendo asked, never breaking from his stare into the Angel's eyes.

After all, the skeleton had not broken his stare either, and Gendo would not be the one to submit first- Even if his opponents had no eyelids to blink with.

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'Huh, rude. I figured he'd introduce himself as well…' Momonga fumed a bit, but put it past him as it was a minor issue. 'What do I want… Hm… So we're haggling already, eh. I suppose I gave them a good show a couple of days back, so they are going for a non-aggression deal, which tells me that this group is likely in 'same faction', so to speak, as the people in that 'dungeon'… That being said, I should first aim high and put out some unreasonably high demand, and that way we can haggle to a rough midpoint…'

"You know what I want. I want it." Momonga didn't know what it was, but since he felt like he was dealing with a somewhat intelligent person, he used the bearded man's intelligence against him. After all, Momonga felt that asking for 'the world' or something like that would be almost embarrassingly chuuni, and so let the bearded man come up with a suitably overblown demand by himself.

Of course, the man could just turn around and give Momonga a blade of grass or something and then tell him that he had given Momonga 'it', but based on the devastation Momonga had wrought two days back, Momonga was confident that the man probably wouldn't try to powergame his implications.

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'I see…' Gendo saw as the picture of the skeletal Angel's true goals was starting to form, and the strategy of just asking questions had proved fruitful as the Angel just blurted what it wanted without further ado. 'I see now why it fled from Central Dogma. It actually managed to enter the Terminal Dogma, but didn't find IT there, because IT is still in transit to Tokyo-3… How fortunate that this Angel attacked early. Just a month forward and it would have found Adam… But the skeletal Angel didn't find IT, and instead backtracked to Central Dogma, made it's ultimatum in front of Ritsuko, and is now giving us demands.'

"I cannot give you that." Gendo was quite aware that he was treading on thin ice by flat-out refusing the Angel's demand, but at the same time, the Angel seemed to be somewhat intelligent, if exceedingly straightforward, so Gendo banked on the probability that the Angel would try to negotiate further instead of killing him.

"I see… That is disappointing." The skeletal Second Angel sighed and made to stood up, and Gendo lifted his hand to stall it.

"Let us negotiate. I propose a ceasefire between us." Gendo offered in turn. 'I need to buy time for the Evangelions to be repaired, and Shinji to find what remains of his spine so I can crush it until he is in depths of despair, and thus Unit-01 can wake up properly to fight the remaining Angels…'

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'Jackpot!' Momonga thought as he sat back down. "Hm… In that case…"

'Honestly, the ceasefire without further reparation demands is a really good start. I'm guessing that my walk-through of that dungeon must have impacted them harder than I first thought, so they aren't even going to try to haggle about peace. That gives me quite a bit of wiggle-room for reparation demands of my own for those two cash-shop items I used… But I shouldn't push my luck too hard.' Momonga was quiet while thinking about what he wanted. It looked like the soldiers behind the bearded man were quite nervous as Momonga scratched his chin with one of the joints of his bony forefinger. 'Asking for a bunch of space to experiment in, hm… I suppose I wouldn't really need to ask for that, there's plenty of empty space it seems… Some people to experiment on would be a good start for my research on the world's functions, but it's not like I need permission to grab some homeless people off the streets and experiment on them, or at least the corporations in Neo-Japan didn't need permissions for that…'

He realized something as he thought. And also noted that the bearded man had the tiniest bead of sweat on his forehead. 'I have the full 'backstory' of that S2 engine, but no idea what the math behind it means, nor what most of the stuff making it's structure actually is. Not to mention, I need to find out more about what kind of place this world is, what it's history is like, so… That seems like an appropriate thing to ask for, if I seek information and knowledge.'

Momonga leaned forward, causing a second bead of sweat to form on the bearded man's forehead.

"I wish to enroll in a high-school."

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Gendo instinctively cursed inside his head as the skeleton revealed it's trump card, making Gendo realize that he had danced to it's tune by giving it the upper hand in the negotiation and falling for the first ruse of a request by denying it outright. 'The request for Adam was a ruse, it knew I wouldn't agree to it. In other words, this request was it's actual request… And if I refuse it again, it'll assume I am not willing to actually negotiate and it will become hostile…'

Indeed, Gendo saw the skeleton's plan to approach the Third Child and the First Child- Shinji and Rei. And possibly the Second Child as well, once she arrived in Japan. Perhaps even try to approach the candidate for the Fourth, or Fifth if her training and EVA were ever completed and sent to Japan. 'But for what reason… It could have easily gotten its hands on the Children when it ransacked Central Dogma, and it did get its hands on Rei… I could just try to enroll that thing in a different school, or send it overseas, but the 'high school' specification is a direct implication that it is trying to contact the Children, so trying to game the request on technicality won't end well for us…'

Gendo realized that he had no choice but to go with the skeletal Angel's demands. But he still had a chance to further rein the Angel in, at least until he could extract more information from the Angel and come up with a way to either defeat it- Or control it, like how he had used Rei to control Shinji.

"Agreed. We will provide housing, clothes, equipment, and other needs to accommodate this request. You will use them." Gendo countered. He knew the Skeleton was intelligent enough to see the counter-demand in the concession- That it would confine itself to NERV-controlled locations… And thus let Gendo constantly track it's movements. "Moreover, you will need a way to blend in with humans."

The skeleton seemed to think for a while, and Gendo pressed the advantage.

"Ritsuko, my head of scientific affairs, can construct some sort of biological padded epidermis for you, since you will cause a panic if you try to take a class in your current… Appearance." Gendo offered a disguise for the Angel, knowing that Ritsuko would be able to take a deep-scan of the Angel's biological makeup while fitting the flesh-coating. 'I imagine she'll be able to take some of the spare Rei's and cobble something from them…'

"I see. In that case I'll take you up on that offer." The skeleton agreed too fast, making Gendo suspect foul play. "I'd like a disguise with a fairly average-looking male appearance, if you won't mind."

'So it knew the disguise would have been female, in which case he knew I'd have used the spare Rei's… Hm…' Gendo thought. 'Ritsuko will have a few sleepless nights over rewriting the genetic code, but she should be able to do it…'

Gendo sighed to make it look like he was defeated, even while he was already thinking of his next scheme. "Very well. You'll also need a human-sounding name. Ainz Ooal Gown, if that is your name, is… too flagrant" 'And will instantly alert SEELE, because they will have informants in the school- Even outside the ones that I know of.'

The skeleton seemed to think for a while, and seemed to rapidly phase though a few moods based on a fairly ominous aura that came off of it. But it finally calmed down. "I see… In that case, I'll take the name of Suzuki Satoru. That is Japanese enough, yes?"

"Agreed." Gendo got up, grabbed a radio from one of the soldiers, and tossed it in front of the Angel. "I'll contact you through that when your epidermis is ready. Stay here until then and try not to attract attention."

He tried to give the Angel orders, just to see if it would counteract them, as Gendo was well aware that the balance of power between the two was definitely on the skeleton's side. However, the skeleton didn't shoot his orders down, effectively letting Gendo know that the commander of NERV was in 'charge' right now- After all, the Angel could have just told them that it was going to board the helicopter with them or decide to go and wait in Terminal Dogma, and Gendo would have no way to stop it.

"Ah, before you leave… Let's sweeten the deal a bit." The skeleton told Gendo after it got up as well and the rotting 'copy' of the Angel shambled to pick up the radio.

Gendo froze as the skeleton had likely seen through his little test.

The Second Angel pointed it's bony finger at one of the soldiers… And the soldier's head exploded.

The headless body flopped down against the ground, and the rest of the soldiers instantly raised their weapons- And Gendo stepped between the Skeleton and the soldiers while pushing the rifles to point back down.

Gendo narrowed his eyes at the skeleton while the professional soldiers reigned themselves in, although only because Gendo had managed to stop them in time.

The skeleton reached into a swirling void, akin to the one which had devoured Unit-01's engine and the First Angel's S2 engine, and it pulled out a small rod-like item.

The skeleton pointed the rod at the dead soldier… And the man got back on his knees, clearly delirious but very much alive. "Ghaaaa!"

Gendo shook, and his eyes opened just slightly against his will out of shock.

"You understand the implications, yes?" The Skeleton told Gendo, turned around, and left.

Gendo fell to his knees as soon as the monster was out of the clearing. 'Yui…'

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Momonga sighed internally as he walked deeper into the forest, hoping that the bearded man hadn't seen past his corny acting. 'High school with all expenses covered, and with a flesh coating so I don't have to worry about someone bumping into me and breaking an illusion I'd have to use otherwise? Sign me up! Not to mention that he basically agreed to sweep the whole incident just earlier under the rug… Not bad… '

Momonga felt like fist-bumping something, so he turned and fist-bumped the Death Knight after ensuring that he was alone.

'People like CEO's are usually super-wealthy and have just about everything they want, but even in Neo-Japan, resurrection was something they couldn't buy with money… Which also meant that most super-rich were so incredibly paranoid that it was really had to even get them to do an interview for the news… Well, as 'news' as 'news' were, more like corporate propaganda, but anyway…' Momonga felt that using [Wand of Resurrection] was a bit of a waste, but he needed to give the soldier-contigent's leader some food for thought- And no-one got a second first meeting, so he needed to front-load that sort of thing. 'Stick works, but a stick alone can't guarantee a fruitful relationship… It needs both a stick and a carrot. A punishment, and a reward. Also, it looks like resurrections do work in this world, and based on the change in that bearded guy's acting, are not at all common… That will give that bearded guy and his boss some food for thought.'

'Although…' Momonga covered his face with his bony hand, feeling a bit embarrassed. 'I'm really glad the resurrection worked, if that guy had just stayed dead I would have looked so foolish…'

'Well, I suppose I have some free time, so I should probably move onto testing my spells… That bearded guy did tell me to keep a low profile, but I suppose some basic spells should be alright…'

Momonga remembered that he had [Undead Army] loaded into his [Greater Seal], and let the spell dissipate. 'I don't think that would count as a 'low profile' spell… Ah well. Can't win at everything, I suppose… Compromises, compromises…'

He ignored the fact that the Death Knight looked somehow a bit depressed that it didn't get friends to play with. Or perhaps that was just Momonga reflecting his own mood through the summon.

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Gendo's legs felt a bit shaky after the meeting, even as the helicopter entered Geofront through an aircraft tunnel, and landed on a landing pad in the massive underground cavern's wall.

"Follow me. Pilot, you as well." Gendo ordered as he stepped out of the helicopter and pushed a button in his cell phone that he had in the pocket of his coat.

The soldiers followed Gendo into the elevator, and Gendo pushed a command code to take the elevator all the way beneath Geofront's surface, instead of taking them to the floor of the cavern.

The soldiers seemed to relax, and Gendo sighed and breathed deep to oxinate his blood. "Helmets off."

The soldiers did as ordered…

Bang. The first soldier fell against the elevator wall with half of his head missing.

Bang. The second soldier had looked at Gendo just in time for the bullet to enter his eye and blow out the back of his head.

Bang. The pilot of the helicopter managed to open her mouth, but failed to let out a scream as the round hit the back of her neck and severed her spine.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The squad of soldiers fell against the walls of the elevator, their heads blown by ten-millimeter caliber hollow-points.

Only one of them was alive by the time Gendo ejected his service pistol's magazine and reloaded it with his usual armor-piercing rounds, and put it back to his coat.

The sole surviving soldier had been the one which had been 'resurrected' by the Angel, and he was on the floor of the elevator with a round in his leg and both shoulders.

The elevator reached the sub-level of Geofront, and Gendo stepped out.

A pair of Section-02 agents in black suits had been waiting, and stepped in to drag the wounded resurrected soldier to Ritsuko's lab to be dissected and experimented on.

'Well then… This will be interesting…' Gendo's lips turned into a small smirk as the whole situation had resolved more or less to his absolute advantage.

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Meanwhile, there was a massive panic in a certain large dark obsidian-made hall.