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The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown
Book : Realmfall
Chapter 6: Invasion
Beta:
A week after the eventful meeting with Asmodeus and the local gods, Ainz was in the Amphitheater on the 6th Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick experimenting with his new powers and magic working to move their use from the instinctive activation he had largely relied on up till now to a more conscious and purposeful tool when he sensed a host of powerful beings attempt to teleport onto Felmid.
So they have come at last. The Overlord thought to himself as he redirected the teleport into one of the killzones he'd prepared for this much anticipated invasion. Knowing that when the attack came his forces would likely be hopelessly outnumbered, he'd ordered his subordinates to construct fortified defenses around a number of sites across Felmid where it was hoped the invaders could be contained and destroyed through the crossfire from the surrounding defenders.
Argh! They are resisting me!? I suppose I should have expected this.
The Master of Felmid had intended to send the invaders to one of the killzones further away from Nazarick such as the one in the Eurasian Steppe or in the Amazon Basin, but the collective might of his opponents were too great. All he managed was to shift them away from appearing directly in front of Nazarick and to the killzone on the blasted remains of the Kanto Plain instead. As the nearest killzone to his seat of power it was hardly ideal but it was all he could manage.
Beggars can't be choosers.
"Mare!" Ainz barked as his mental struggle with the invaders continued as they still sought to teleport closer to Nazarick.
"Y-yes, Lord Ainz?" The nervous dark elf druid said as he set aside the notepad he'd been using to record the results of Ainz's experiments as he'd been tasked. His twin sister, Aura, who was seated next to him and assisting him by using her keen senses as a Ranger to pick out details Mare might have missed likewise sat straighter at Ainz's sudden interruption.
"The invasion has begun," Ainz told him bluntly, the strain he was under made him sound harsher than he wanted to be. "I've redirected them to the Kanto Plains. Use Message to inform our forces and have them reposition according to Demiurge's plans."
"A-At once, Lord Ainz!"
"Aura!"
"Yes, Lord Ainz?"
"Gather your strongest beasts. You will escort me as I head into battle." Ainz said as he summoned the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown to his side. The Guild Weapon teleporting from where it usually rested in the care of Aureole Omega down in the Cherry Blossom Sanctuary on the 8th Floor. He was loath to bring it into battle, but he had no choice. If he was to face multiple divinities than he'd need its power. It had, like him, changed with the transition and he could only hope that meant its destruction, should such occur, would not destroy Nazarick like it would have back in YGGDRASIL.
"At once, my lord." Aura acknowledged with a hasty bow before she let loose a sharp whistle that summoned a pack of her beasts.
Ainz waited a minute or so until she gave him a nod to signal her readiness before he used the Gate spell to create a portal to the command center of the Kanto killzone. Allowing Aura and her beasts to precede him, he stepped through.
Into the fire I go.
"What is this!?" The lich that was the Vecna, God of Destructive and Evil Secrets hissed in agitation as he and a host of demons and evil gods appeared on a blasted plain somewhere on the upstart Ainz Ooal Gown's homeworld. "Why are we here? We should be outside the seat of his power!"
"He redirected us obviously," The demon lord Orcus said as he swung his fabled Wand and cast a powerful barrier over himself and his allies as artillery of various types and sophistication began falling on their position, blasting big holes in the ranks of the minions they'd brought with them. Not that the demon with the head and legs of a goat, ram-like horns, a bloated body, bat-like wings, and a long tail cared. Their ranks were refilled almost as quickly as they were whittled down as the various divinities simply pulled more of their subjects to this place to replace their losses.
"I am more concerned with how he is trapping us in our avatars and limiting our powers simply by being on his world. To have such power as to impose such rules even on other gods," Ilsensine, the patron deity of the Illithids in the guise of its favored form of a glowing disembodied emerald-color brain that trailed countless ganglion-like tentacles, said to the assembled deities. "He must be dealt with now or his power will soon grow to the point of being uncontrollable."
"Yes, which is why we are here." Orcus reminded his allies even as their hordes finally meaningfully engaged the defenders as they swarmed the admittedly well built fortifications they'd built around the location where their master had funneled his enemies. "Now let us dally no more. We have an upstart to kill."
"He might be an upstart Orcus, but he is not without allies." A deep cultured voice boomed across the battlefield.
The Demon lord and a good number of his allies looked up at its source to find no less than Asmodeus himself standing in the air ahead of a series of widening portals from which legions of Devils were pouring forth. Orcus growled at the sight of the Archfiend, his natural enemy and long time foe in the unending Blood War, and flapping his wings surged into the air to confront him.
That this dispelled the barrier that kept Orcus' allies safe from the defenders' artillery bombardment was immaterial to him in that moment. Summoning the Orcusword, his trusted demonic greatsword, he brought it down in a mighty overhead cleave on the Archfiend only to have it be deflected by Asmodeus' Ruby Rod.
"Go, you fools." The Demonic Lord of the Undead shouted to his allies below. "We will hold the devils at bay. You lot go kill the upstart."
"Eager for a fight are we?" The devil said with a taunting sneer. "Well, I'll be happy to oblige. But as for killing Ainz Ooal Gown? You really shouldn't entrust something so difficult to such weaklings."
"Quantity has a quality all its own," Orcus retorted as he shot a blast of raw chaotic corruption from his wand at Asmodeus who just casually batted it away with his rod.
"Yes, but quality is quality. And when the difference is as great as it is today, no amount of quantity will make up for it." The Archfiend said as he shot a stream of hellfire at Orcus that the Demon lord dodged with an agility that belied his rotund size.
"We shall see which outcome prevails today, won't we?"
Shaking his head as if express his pity and setting his Demonic ichor boiling, Asmodeus launched into the attack with a barrage of various spells.
"Yes, we shall." He said in agreement as he teleported close under his spell barrage and engaged Orcus in melee. "We shall indeed."
Ainz watched from the command center as Asmodeus preoccupied Orcus and his Archfiends did much the same with a number of other demon lords. In one corner of the sky, Dispater was facing off against a humanoid with avian feet, four feathered wings, and a bird-like beak Ainz thought might be Pazuzu. At the same time, some distance away on the ground a pair of sensual humans with small horns and glowing red eyes fought a gigantic Minotaur with coarse black fur that covered his body. There were other duels afoot between the Devils and Demons but the flurry of action and titanic spells being tossed around made it difficult for even Ainz to fully keep track.
That's the Demons settled. I hope. The Overlord thought as he surveyed the rest of the battle with dismay. Even with the Demons now largely countered by the arrival of his Devilish allies, the enemy host was still vast and unending. He was rushing reinforcements in from across Felmid but despite the swelling numbers of his own forces, his troops were still greatly outnumbered.
"My Lord, the second line in Sector 3 has just been breached!" The Momon in command of the killzone reported with a pinched and worried expression. "They report that the forces in the area are being led by the god Talos himself."
Sector 3? Ainz thought as he tried to recall the layout of the defenses of the Kanto killzone. That's pretty close to the entrance to the cavern where Nazarick is. If it falls then they'll have a clear run to the Tomb.
"Let the defenders in Sector 3 know that I-"
A collection of power reaching across immense distances of time and space touched Ainz's mind. Allowing them passage onto Felmid, he smirked even as corrected himself.
It seems like my outreach to the Primordials has borne fruit after all.
"Let the defenders in Sector 3 know that help is on the way."
At Sector 3 itself, Enri Emmott pulled her legions back in as orderly a fashion as she could as the one eyed god ravaged their retreating ranks with all manner of destructive forces. The Destroyer truly lived up to his name as with every gesture he unleashed storms, huge blazes, earthquakes, or tornadoes against her troops.
Things had been going so well at first too! The Momon bemoaned as she pulled a tank battalion back before it was washed away by a tsunami sent its way by Talos.
Against her legions armed with the advanced weapons of Felmid, the one eyed god's army of ravagers, raiders, looters, and brigands armed with medieval weapons and armor were no match at all. They were thus able to mow them down by the thousands. And then their god had come and with his power tore their carefully constructed fortifications apart and destroyed their well ordered formations with casual ease.
"Are reinforcements coming?" Enri asked the Elder Lich that served as her adjutant as she saw Talos literally rip a whole fort made of concrete that must have weighed tens of thousands of tons out of the ground with his bare hands and tossed it at an artillery battery in the rear of her lines.
"High Command reports that they are on the way, my Lady."
"Yeah? Where is it?"
To this the Elder Lich just pointed into the sky above them where a large portal was forming. From it stepped out a vaguely humanoid figure made entirely out of swirling clouds who with a wave of her hand sucked Talos into the air in a tornado. The god resisted trying to blast his way out with bolts of lightning and bursts of his own winds but whoever this new arrival was, it was clearly more powerful.
Once in the air, it lunged at Talos manifesting a pair of scimitars of howling winds. The Storm Lord sent a bolt of lightning right through his attackers torso, blasting a hole through the mass of clouds but the woman was undeterred and bisected the god, even as her wound closed as clouds streamed in to fill it from the air itself.
Seeing their god fall, Talos' troops lost heart and began to rout. Even more so when a host of Air Elementals and flying monsters of all types poured from the portal the cloud woman had arrived through and fell upon them from the air. Rallying her own troops, Enri was more than happy to help this along.
"Death to the enemies of Ainz Ooal Gown!" Enri shouted, spurring on her troops. Her cry quickly picked up by the various sapient undead under her command in a chant that echoed all around them as they hurled the enemy back.
It was to this rout of the dead Storm Lord's host that Ainz stepped into as he stepped out of his Gate into Sector 3 flanked by Aura and her pack of beasts. He'd sensed Talos' death, having absorbed the god's essence as he was slain along with the others who had died elsewhere. Out of all the Sectors, this was the most vulnerable. With its lines all but fallen, it was only wise to reinforce them a little. Besides, he needed to greet his newest allies.
"Meteor Fall." Ainz cast absently, causing a falling meteor to fall from the sky in a trail of shimmering light. It blinded many in the surrounding battlefield, especially among the mainly humanoid ranks of Talos' worshipers, and left them unaware as the piece of falling celestial rock smashed into the heart of their clustered, fleeing ranks. The explosion caused by its impact flattened everything for a good distance, killing many thousands of the enemy.
"Impressive," Akadi said as the primordial of air and goddess of elemental air said as she drifted over to Ainz's position. "For a mortal caster."
"With Talos dead, they are simply mortals. No need to waste any more power than necessary dealing with them." The Overlord told the cloud woman. "Thank you for coming, Akadi."
"Think nothing of it." The primordial said with a shrug. "Gods massing to attack a lone primordial? To stand aside would set a dangerous precedent. If they could kill you, then what's stopping them from killing me next?"
"And the chance to kill some gods had nothing to do with it?"
The primordial woman's only response was a sigh. "That did not factor into my thinking but I cannot say the same for the rest of our fellows."
Looking out into the distance, Ainz could only agree as in the distance the armies of the primordials Grumbar, Istishia, and Kossuth wreaked havoc throughout the ranks of the invaders. The primordials themselves had even squared off against a god or two. Grumbar's mountain sized golem form - which bore an uncanny resemblance to Gargantua now that Ainz thought of it - was caught up in a wrestling match with a 25-foot tall hill giant, wearing several belts of woven dwarf beards who the Overlord thought was likely the Giant god Grolantor. Istishia taking the shape of a sentient tsunami that swept to and fro across the battlefield was in an almost friendly competition with the pillar of flame that was Kossuth as to how many of the intermediate and lesser deities they could kill. Ainz wasn't exactly keeping count on who was in the lead but he had absorbed the essence of a dozen of their victims already. Normally such a move would have likely caused all the gods on the field and elsewhere to gang up against them, but the gathered gods had another target.
"It appears that the gods have sensed your presence." Akadi told him as she drifted up into the air as a group of gods marched towards him. "I will hold off as many as you can."
"You have my thanks," Ainz told her absently as he prepared for battle. "Aura, do not engage the gods. They are mine. Deal with their followers."
"As you command, Lord Ainz." The Dark Elf said with clear reluctance as she backed away even as the floating emerald brain that was Ilsensine and a massive green serpent with red floating orbs floating in empty eye sockets with feathery eyebrows that was the Yuan-ti god Zehir closed.
"Die you undead abomination!" Ilsensine screeched as it hurled a massive bolt of raw telekinetic power at Ainz.
How plebeian.
"Widen Magic: Mirror Alice." Ainz cast lazily using metamagic to widen the scope of what the spell could affect to include psychic attacks and redirecting the attack at Zehir who had lunged at him like a viper. The telekinetic blast caught the serpentine god mid lunge and tossed him into the air where he slammed into Sseth which had taken on the form of a winged version of one of the yuan-ti and had been dueling with Akadi.
The blow distracted Sseth and his head was cut off by Akadi's scimitars but this move left the primordial open to a bite from Zehir though the Lady of Air escaped harm by simply casting aside the part of her body the Master of Poisons and Shadows had sunk his venomous fangs into.
With Akadi taking over the task of dealing with Zehir, Ilsensine became Ainz's only remaining opponent. Seemingly realizing this and the disadvantage this put him in, the emerald brain tried to retreat but the Ruler of Felmid would not let him escape so easily.
"Triplet Maximize Magic: Reality Slash!"
At his invocation, three attacks that cleaved through the very fabric of space cut into the cephalopod-like mass of the Illithid deity leaving deep gouges in its flesh. The greater deity howled in unfamiliar agony, but Ainz had no mercy and prepared to deal the coup de grâce. However, moments before he could he sensed a presence nearby and redirected his attack at the interloper.
"Fallen Down!"
A huge pillar of blue light slammed down from the sky onto what appeared to be empty ground. Though the cry of pain that emerged from the center of the target zone revealed it was far from empty. As the light faded, it revealed a smoking, indistinct but clearly feminine figure wearing a tattered cloak emblazoned with a large stylized raven's head.
"The Raven Queen?" Ainz asked angrily, even as he allowed the grievously wounded Ilsensine to escape by teleporting off Felmid. "How presumptuous of you to come here and play the vulture, to belittle this struggle with your opportunism. You will pay for that."
The Raven Queen tried to get away, shifting its shape into a large raven and trying to fly off but Ainz had no mercy for carrion eaters like her.
"Triplet Maximize Magic: Obsidian Sword." Ainz cast, launching three swords that gave off a black light at they shot through the air at his fleeing target like missiles. Homing in on their targets, they detonated with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon and vaporized the wouldbe soul stealer.
Even as he dealt with the Raven Queen, he sensed Akadi's essence enter his grasp.
She fell!? Ainz thought as she spun around to see if he could spot her killer, even as he gathered her essence and metaphorically put it to one side so he could revive her later.
In the distance he saw Aura, Mare and Cocytus fighting a god in the shape of a dragon made entirely of darkness and was tempted to go assist. However, before he could he found Akadi's slayers advancing on him. One was the familiar but now wounded Zehir whose form was covered in many slash wounds undoubtedly courtesy of Akadi's scimitars. He was however joined by a god in the guise of a Lich which didn't take Ainz much effort to realize was the infamous Vecna.
Ainz ground his teeth and prepared to avenge his fellow primordial when suddenly the ground shook violently. Throughout the battle, tremors had been common as the various beings capable of such caused earthquakes or simply from things slamming into the ground with great force however this quake was different.
Ainz, Zehir and Vecna all spun to its point of origin and were quite shocked to see a large chunk of the earth had been disintegrated, exposing the cavern that contained Nazarick. Standing triumphantly at the edge of the crater he had created, stood the one eyed orc that was the chosen form of the orc god of war Gruumsh.
Ainz moved to intercept the orc god but Zehir slipped in front of him.
"Out of my way," the Overlord of Felmid hissed.
An unfamiliar rotting spell of some type slammed into his side courtesy of Vecna but Ainz paid it little mind beyond retaliating on instinct with a Maximize Magic: Vermilion Nova that proceeded to set the Maimed God ablaze in a pillar of fire. Instead, he focused his attention on Zehir and getting him out of the way.
"Triplet Maximize Magic: Reality Slash!"
At his invocation, three tears in reality tore the serpent god into pieces that Ainz absently pushed aside even as the essence of the god that once animated the corpse flowed into his being. The delay caused by Zehir and Vecna's distraction was minor but it was enough for Enri and a small contingent of her army to throw themselves at Gruumsh in a futile attempt to stop him. Even as her troops were slaughtered by the war god, Ainz sensed that Victim was carrying out the orders he'd been given.
Committing suicide, the misshapen pink fetus of an Angel unleashed his special ability causing all the foes of Nazarck, of Ainz, to become bound by chains of holy light. At the same time, an army of Nazarick's myriad NPCs surged out of the Great Tomb led by the hulking mass of Gargantua via its main entrance and a massive portal. Ainz saw little of this, his attention was on Gruumsh who effortlessly shattered Victim's chains and thrust his spear through Enri as the Momon charged at him in her true form with a magically enchanted cavalry sabre raised over her withered body.
The moment the war god's weapon pierced through her body, Enri's body disintegrated and a fury that Ainz didn't know he could feel surged through his system. Suzuki Satoru was no stranger to death. As a child he'd been the one to find his mother's dead body and in the dystopia of his Earth he'd come across more than one over time. And in his short time as Ainz Ooal Gown he'd seen plenty of death. This battle alone, he felt the death of many thousands, maybe millions, many of whom he killed himself. Yet, till now he'd not seen someone he knew and arguably liked die, and even though their association was short he was fond of the Momon. It reminded him that this was not a game. That people could die. That he could get people killed.
This realization should have scared him. But it didn't. It instead made him angry beyond words. All his life as Suzuki Satoru, his life had been a plaything for his betters. To them he was a cog in the machines they built for their own success. Even in YGGDRASIL, his only point of joy in his dreary life, he had been used in a way by his friends. He, the guild they created, Nazarick, to them it had been nothing more than a fun distraction even as he put his heart and soul into it. He didn't fault them for it, not really, but there was resentment there. And an unconscious oath to himself that he would never be like them when given the chance. That he would never see others, be they his peers or his subordinates as anything less than treasured partners in his endeavors. Yet, as he saw Enri die for him, he realized he'd failed.
No! I will not fail! NO! Ainz roared in his mind as his soul burned with a fury that the emotional suppressor that came with his new undead existence could not even hope to restrain.
Raw emotion and immense power flowed from the very depths of his new strange being and burst out of his body as a pillar of darkness so dark that it drew in light from the world, bleaching all color and reducing everything to shades of grey. An effect that spread across all of Felmid instantly but rapidly propagated across all of Realmspace. In all the places it touched, all color vanished. Only three points of light remained. Ainz's eyes and the orb in his torso, which all glowed with a malicious, furious red light.
Behind him, he heard Vecna curse and toss a barrage of unfamiliar spells his way to cover his escape before teleporting away realizing like Ilsensine before him that continuing this fight was suicidal. Despite the spells splashing annoyingly but harmlessly against his aura, Ainz let him. He was no longer concerned with the so-called Archlich. All his ire was focused on the pathetic god before him.
To Gruumsh's credit, he didn't flinch even as Ainz leveled the full weight of his fury at him. Bravely he stood his ground, his spear held at the ready and his muscles tense for what he must assume would be the fight of his life if the eager grin on his face was anything to go by.
"Fool!" Ainz said, his voice booming through the very souls of all of Realmspace's inhabitants. "Do you think I'd give you the satisfaction of a fight? No, you do not deserve it. Die! Die, like the worm you are!"
With that command, Ainz exerted his will like he had previously only done against Shar. But where in that case he'd been cautious and held back, here he had no such reservations. With the full weight of the formidable power granted to him by Nameless and now bolstered immensely by the divine essences he'd collected Ainz Ooal Gown pressed down on Gruumsh and his spark of life. It burned like a blazing inferno as befit a greater deity but Ainz's power was like an ocean of darkness as it swept the orc god's being into its depths and smothered it.
To the outside observer all this played out rather anticlimactically but no less shockingly. One minute Gruumsh was standing defiantly against the released power of Ainz Ooal Gown and the next he simply wasn't there. Every piece of his being had disappeared from Creation, leaving nought behind but memories that would soon be forgotten.
Ainz saw this and was left unsatisfied. Yes, Gruumsh was dead. But there remained plenty more enemies that threatened his people, threatened to make him even more of a failure than he already was. Slowly, ominously, the Overlord of Felmid turned to face the enemy armies and their divine leaders.
Even his allies flinched back from his gaze but they had nothing to fear. Only his enemies did. And fear they did. All of them, without exception turned to flee, rightfully trying to escape from his deadly wrath but this time Ainz would not let them. God or Demon. None of his enemies could escape, no matter how hard they battered at the metaphysical restrictions he placed on the area that trapped them in so many different ways.
"Ainz Ooal Gown, that is enough." Lord Ao said, appearing suddenly, putting a hand on Ainz's shoulder even as the world lost the last of its color and was replaced with a familiar void.
Ainz turned to the Overgod and glared.
"Do not let your emotions get the better of you," the more powerful divinity told him sternly. "Preventing such was why Nameless made sure you had that emotion suppressor in the first place."
Ainz just continued to glare at Lord Ao.
The Overgod just sighed.
"I understand your anger at your failure. Your shame. I have been in your position before, so I know full well how you feel."
"Then how can you ask me to just calm down?" Ainz demanded.
"Because if you keep this up then you're likely to restart the Dawn War and that will mean more deaths among your loved ones, more failures." Lord Ao told him bluntly. "Is that what you want?"
Ainz recoiled at this.
"No. Of course not!" His anger bleeding out of it as horror set in at the realization that the Overgod was right.
"Good. Then let me handle things when we return."
Ainz merely nodded and suddenly they were back in the battlefield on Felmid. His aura had faded though and the world was back to normal. He suspected it would appear to onlookers as if Lord Ao had used his powers to restrain his own rather than just pulling him aside and talking him down, which was probably wholly deliberate on the Overgod's part. Not that such thoughts occupied much of his attention. The majority was centered on feeling guilty over what had transpired, at his failures whilst the remainder was devoted to hearing what Lord Ao had to say.
"Orcus, you and your allies are to return to your domains at once."
Not waiting for any response, the Overgod flexed his powers and forcibly teleported the Demon lord and his many allies away.
"Are they to escape punishment, Lord Ao?" Asmodeus asked, sounding a cross between polite and scandalized.
"Of course not." Lord Ao said with a slight glare for the Lord of Lies' impertinence. "But their punishment has already been exacted from them."
"I don't understand." Asmodeus said, blinking in what might have passed for genuine confusion if not for the subtle amusement he radiated.
"They have, all of them, have lost much today. Either their lives and their divine essences with them or the lesser essences of the many followers they led to their deaths. All of those are now forfeit." Here he turned to look at Ainz. "And has been claimed by Ainz Ooal Gown as his rightful spoils and which he may distribute as he sees fit."
"You have my thanks Lord Ao for letting me keep this bountiful harvest." Ainz said, sketching a polite bow. He might still be somewhat shaken by his emotional breakdown earlier but he wasn't about to embarrass himself in front of the Overgod and his divine allies.
Fake it till you make it. The Overlord reminded himself.
"Distribute it well." Lord Ao said with a nod, before vanishing as abruptly as he'd come leaving behind a Felmidian Kanto Plain that was even more ravaged than it had ever been.
It was an hour or so after the conclusion of the battle and Ainz sat on the Throne of Kings in Nazarick's Throne Room while his allies sat on various thrones that his homunculus maids had moved out of the Treasury for them under Pandora's Actor's direction.
"I can understand resurrecting myself or your subjects." Akadi said with a frown as she gestured towards the newly resurrected Enri who stood respectfully but in a place of honor in the further sections of the expansive hall where the divinities' various lieutenants were respectfully observing their superiors' conclave. "But why resurrect her?"
"I must agree with the Lady of Air on this, Ainz." Asmodeus said seated at the throne closest to the dais as befitting his first ally. "The Raven Queen is not to be trusted. Her motivations and everything about her really is too enigmatic. It will be difficult to engender anything worthwhile from such an act of mercy."
"Being merciful is not about being rewarded." Ainz said as he began gathering his power and causing a cloud of dark energy to begin coalescing at the foot of the dais, in front of the Throne of Kings and between Asomedues and Akadi. It took a few moments but eventually, the darkness formed into the indistinct, feminine shape of the Raven Queen complete with the cloak that she wrapped tightly around her body to further obscure her figure.
"Why?" The mysterious deity of the Shadar-kai asked in a barely audible whisper. "Why did you revive me?"
"As presumptuous as you were Raven Queen to attempt to steal my spoils during the battle, you were at least not an enemy."
"That did not stop you from killing me."
"I do not suffer vultures." Ainz reminded her sternly.
If the Raven Queen was cowed by the rebuke she didn't show it.
"What do you want from me?" She asked, in her unchanged whispering voice.
"An Oath of Friendship." Ainz said, "And a promise that you will not try to circumvent it by looking for loopholes in the Oath. At least not without giving me fair warning in advance."
"How generous," the Raven Queen said sarcastically.
"Would you rather I kill you again?" Ainz asked, lifting the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown and pointing it at her meaningfully.
"You'll have your Oath." The Raven Queen spat. "By my name, I swear that I will henceforth be a friend to Ainz Ooal Gown and his children. I also promise that I will not seek to break the spirit or word of this Oath. This I all solemnly swear."
Ainz nodded in satisfaction.
"Then with your permission, may I leave?"
Ainz's only answer was a small activation of his power as he banished her back to her Home Plane of Shadowfell.
"Banishing her like that. I didn't think you could do that." Grumbar noted from where he sat at the last throne of Ainz's left, as far away from Akadi as possible whilst still being seated with his fellow primordials. "The Raven Queen might not be a god or a primordial but she is still a being of equivalent power. To simply banish her like that is not an easy feat."
"I learned it from observing what Lord Ao did when he banished Orcus and his lot." Ainz admitted, causing the various Archdevils seated across from the primordials to begin exchanging harsh whispers that were swiftly silenced by a harsh look from Asmodeus from his place at the head of their row of thrones.
"Impressive, Ainz, your power grows with every passing day it seems." The Prince of Evil praised. "Soon you might rival Lord Ao himself in power."
"Silence, you fool Devil. Do you want us punished by Lord Ao your impertinence." Istishia took a moment out of his busy comparison of the number of kills he'd made during the battle that he'd been having with Kossuth throughout the whole time they'd been gathered to hiss at Asmodeus.
The Archfiend just smiled knowingly and raised his hands in a placating gesture.
"You know something don't you, Devil?" Kossuth, now sporting the form of a humanoid fire elemental said. "Something about what Ainz Ooal Gown is."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the Lord of Lies said with a straight face.
"Of course you don't." The sea serpent shaped column of animated water that was Istishia snorted. "I can't believe I'm agreeing with Kossuth on anything but you're fooling no one, Asmodeus."
That Akadi and Grumbar nodded in agreement spoke volumes.
"Even if I do, it is not the time to share what I know." Asmodeus said mysteriously. "So let us move on shall we?"
"Very well, Asmodeus." Ainz cut in with finality. "But when the time is right, you will tell me what you know."
"You have my word."
"Like that's worth anything." Grumbar grumbled.
The Archfiend ignored the Lord of the Earth however and addressed their mutual host.
"Tell me Ainz, what was the real reason for your generosity to the Raven Queen?"
"I've killed enough major gods this day already. There's no need to make even more enemies. Furthermore, mercy is as much a tool for garnering support as cruelty."
This tidbit earned some adoring looks and whispers of wisdom from the masses of Nazarick and Felmid denizens that were at the rear of the Throne Room but Ainz ignored it with the ease of growing familiarity. He likewise easily ignored Suzuki Satoru's lament that he shouldn't be getting used to such things.
"Oh, I agree of course." Asmodeus continued. "But are you sure your mercy will yield fruit?"
"In regards to the Raven Queen and her Oath? No, I have no such expectations. They are immaterial anyway. The main goal for my actions is to make an impression on the other gods, those that have not already declared me their enemy that is."
"You wish to appear fair?" Akadi asked, her brows furrowed as she tried to puzzle out Ainz's motives.
"And trustworthy."
"Being lawful is a good way to earn trust." Asmodeus said with a grin. "And you're on the right track there already."
More than one person, Ainz included, rolled their eyes at the Lord of Lies' statement. He was one of the premiere lawful entities in the Realm, yet no one had any illusions as to him actually being trustworthy.
"Setting that aside," Kossuth cut in impatiently. "What do you intend to do with the divinity you still have in your possession? By my count you have the essence of at least two greater deities and a number of lesser ones of various ranks, do you not? How do you intend to distribute it?"
"I intend to use them to elevate select individuals among my loyal subjects to godhood as my subordinate deities."
Istishia recoiled at the announcement and shook his head in disgust. The others though seem darkly amused.
"Gods serving a primordial?" Kossuth said, expressing the majority's thoughts on the matter. "How fitting."
"I thought so," Ainz said with a grin. He did share not share the same reasoning for it as his fellow primordials but the sentiment was there at least and that was good enough for him.
Done!
I hope the large scale battle that dominated much of the chapter was an enjoyable read. I put quite a bit of effort into it. I had toyed with the idea of giving it even more detail by adding in some more POVs from the grunts or at least the Nazarick Floor Guardians so as to give more of an impression of just how chaotic and insane it was but it just felt like bloat. Especially as I would be doing this after I'd written out the main events and would have me then essentially slotting them in rather artificially. So in the end, I decided against it. That this means the chapter isn't too long is a plus.
There are plenty of hints as to what Nameless and Ao hope Ainz will become in this chapter and they are pretty obvious if I say so myself. I won't say what they are or answer the question as to what Ainz will become. That is if you still have any doubts. ;)
Well, that's all for this chapter. Till next time, avisala!
