Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Dungeons & Dragons

The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Adventuring with Avatars

Chapter 4: Revenge on the Illithids

Beta:


Using Falgrim and Taana's map of the local Underdark, now updated with information scavenged from the ruins of the settlements the party had sacked, locating the likeliest source of the Illithid attack was easy. While there were a handful of the Mind Flayers' settlements in the region, there was one reasonably close and was known for its use of Slimes. Considering the Giant Slimes used in the attack, there was little doubt that it was the source. Thus it was that they found themselves hiding behind a rock and under the cover of Gaul's Greater Unknowable as they observed the unassuming crack in the side of a cavern wall that served as the entrance to the Illithid colony.

"I take it they were going for unassuming?" Drau asked with a frown as they eyed the entryway.

Normally Gaul's spell made communication even within those under the same effect all but impossible, but some experimentation on its parameters and lacing it with elements of a Message spell by the necromancer had allowed them to at least hear each other. Though only in soft whispers.

"At first at least," Falgrim agreed. "But after awhile they probably got strong enough to stop caring about discretion."

"That would explain why the two Urophions serving as guards are behaving so strangely." Taana said with a shiver as she pointed at the two creatures by the door that vaguely looked like stalagmites but with the addition of numerous thick tentacles, a single milky eye near its top and a horrible circular maw that resembled a lamprey's mouth. Neither of which seemed concerned at all with the discretion their kind normally did and were actively waving their tentacles threateningly.

"Yeah, aren't they usually ambush attackers?" Neia asked with a frown.

"Which is why them giving away their position like this is a show of strength." Gaul explained with a huff. "The Illithids of this colony are so confident in their capabilities that they would rather flaunt their presence than hide it."

"Let us disabuse them of that notion of strength, shall we?"

Drau's rhetorical question was nonetheless met with a chorus of affirmatives.

"Gaul, would you do the honours?"

"Glady. Explosion!"

At his invocation, a powerful explosion ripped apart the entire area of the Illithid colony's entrance. Such was the strength of the blast that not only were both Urophions disintegrated but a good chunk of the entrance they guarded was likewise destroyed, revealing a battered passageway leading deep into the Mind Flayers' settlement.

Already, the first confused and wary squads of defenders, mainly thralls of various races but also the odd Illithid, were spreading out from their wrecked entryway in search of their attackers with even more streaming out from deeper in the complex warren that was the colony.

"Gaul, wait for it." Drau hissed, watching as the number of defenders outside the entryway grew more numerous. When over a hundred or so were outside, she finally gave Gaul the go ahead. "Now!"

"Gate!"

A flat disc of swirling darkness formed at his command right in the heart of the squads of the colony's defenders and from its depths stepped out six Death Knights walking abreast. Their sudden appearance right in the middle of their ranks, stunned the enemy. The undead however had no such moment of hesitation and capitalizing on the defender's own, swung their massive flamberges in deadly arcs that killed dozens before the defenders could respond. A response that was hampered as an army of smaller Skeletons surged forth from the Gate and out from behind the wall the Death Knights' oversized Tower Shields provided to harass them. At the same time, the Skeletal Archers and Mages also poured out of the portal and added their ranged attacks to the fight.

"Is that enough?" Gaul asked as his Gate spell faded. "Or should I Gate in some of the other undead I sent back to Felmid?"

"No, I think that's enough." Drau reasoned. "Besides there is some poetic justice in only using the undead created from the corpses of those the Illithids sent against us to destroy their colony."

"It is just indeed." Neia chirped.

"That's one way to put it." Falgrim grunted. "But let's get going. As impressive as that little undead band is, I dunno how long it'll hold out against a whole Illithid colony."

"Agreed. Let's go." Drau agreed and they set off.

It was difficult going, especially since they couldn't see each other while under Greater Unknowable. But they'd had plenty of time to practice. Gaul could only create three mid-tier undead a day after all, so they had waited two days to allow him to amass his little undead host. Add that to the day or so they'd taken to travel to this place and they'd suitably become proficient in keeping together invisible. It helped that Neia had suggested they all hang onto a rope as they moved.

"Wow. The Illithid are getting slaughtered." Taana noted with awe. "I think there might be more Zombie Squires out there now than living defenders."

"Which is exactly what we want." Drau said as she tugged on the rope to signal a stop as they reached the breach they'd blasted into the Mind Flayer colony. "Hug the wall."

The party had stopped just in time. As moments before they'd all come to a halt and got out of the way, a large contingent of heavily armed thralls and their Illithid overseers marched past them to confront the growing undead army. There were so many of them that they had to wait for a good five minutes or so before they all finished streaming out and into the fight.

"Alright, the coast is clear." Drau said as she pulled on the cord to get everyone moving again.

"Think that was their main army?" Neia asked as they stepped over the rubble they'd created and into the wrecked entryway. All along the walls of the long hall carved from the rock was a strange organic growth with the occasional orb like growth that gave off a bioluminescent glow that served as lighting.

"Judging by their equipment? I'd say it's at least a portion of it." Falgrim opined.

"Let us hope that it is the bulk of them." Yorha chimed in. "The less enemies inside this abominable place the better."

This was met with murmurs of agreement from everyone as they cautiously made their way down the hall towards a spiral staircase at the far end. Every so often they paused and hugged the wall to let another squad of thralls and overseers rush out to meet their doom against their undead distraction. However, by the time they actually reached the stairwell there were no longer any more slaves running down the stairs or Illithids levitating down the extra large opening at the center.

"That seems to be the last of the reinforcements." Drau noted. "I'm not picking up any more coming down the stairs on my suit's sensors at least."

"Considering the fight outside looks like it's still in full swing, we might have actually drained their reserves." Yorha said, sounding optimistic as they began climbing the stairs.

"Maybe." Drau said consideringly. "But let's not make assumptions."

"Or they'll be the death of us." Gaul agreed. "By the way, I think we're high enough."

"Alright then. Gaul do your thing."

"With pleasure." The necromancer said with such sarcasm that it wasn't hard to imagine him rolling his eyes. Despite his annoyance, the wizard nevertheless played his part. "Triplet, Maximize Magic: Stone Blast!"

Drau knew that the spell Gaul was using this time was generally a weak Tier 3 spell and one of the alternative element variants of the Fireball spell. However, with a little metamagic and creativity it would do exactly what they needed. Whereas a more powerful spell might have caused an uncontrolled cave in that would have brought the roof in the whole area crashing down on them, this weaker, more controllable spell allowed their resident armored Wizard to fill the entryway with chunks of rock he'd ripped from the very walls of the stairway. These weren't small rocks either but huge boulders that would take the Illithids and their slaves outside hours, if not days, to dig through even if they managed to survive their battle with the undead.

"Good job, Gaul. Now let's go."

"Lead the way." The necromancer said sincerely, causing Drau to smile. She was getting through to her ornery brother after all!

Setting aside her joy for later, she pulled on the rope they were using to keep together and got going. They had an Illithid colony to ransack.


Half an hour, five dead groups of guards and innumerable sentries later, the party long since free of the invisibility offered by Greater Unknowable in lieu of being able to see each other in a fight explored the many winding passages and cavernous rooms of the Illithid colony. Something which also allowed them to see how unnerved by the plethora of alien, fleshy constructs all over the place such as what looked like brain matter serving as controls for their sphincter like doors made everyone. As if the aberrations' strange taste in decor wasn't bad enough, the damned things had to riddle their settlement with passages only accessible by levitation. Without Gaul's magic and the mapping software built into Drau's suit the party would likely be hopelessly lost.

"Are all Illithid settlements really this- I'm at a loss for words to describe it actually." Neia said as she put an arrow through the skull of a Dwarven slave while Drau took out his partner, a Drow, with her sniper rifle. Both had been standing outside a door to what the Paladin could only assume was somewhere important and were just turning towards the sound of her voice before they were taken out.

"Disgusting?" Yorha suggested helpfully as they moved over to the door they were guarding and with a look of disgust squeezed the brain and caused the muscles holding the door closed to react in just the right way to open it.

"That works." Neia agreed as she kept Ultimate Shooting Star Super at a ready to shoot anything that might lunge at them in the room. Instead of danger they found a short corridor leading to another door for some reason. It lacked any visible control mechanism however, which was why Drau was staring at it intensely trying to puzzle out how to open it.

"If they have the time to redecorate then definitely." Falgrim informed her. "They like to make things look like home I guess."

"Their home must be a revolting place then," Gaul observed.

"They are aberrations." Taana pointed out with a roll of her eyes.

Thankfully, Gaul didn't see it. He'd likely take offense and they really didn't need to be fighting among themselves whilst inside an enemy base. Then again Taana knew that too.

Don't tell me she was being cheeky precisely because she knew he wouldn't see it? Neia thought to herself with a grin. My, my, our little Shadar-kai is growing up isn't she?

"Guys, ideas?" Drau said at last. "I think the inner door of this airlock is designed to be opened via a telepathic command or something."

"You're probably right." Falgrim agreed as he finished his own examination of the inner door. "We'll have to blast our way through."

"Gaul. Do the honours."

Taana pouted at that, probably wishing she'd get a chance to use her magic. She only had a fixed number of spells prepared for use though and thus had to keep them in reserve until they were needed. In contrast, Gaul, operating under the YGGDRASIL system as he was, could use his magic as long as he had the magical power for it. Something he could replenish easily enough with mana potions if need be. He was thus much more liberal with his magic.

"Stand back." The armored wizard said and everyone scooted away from his target. He waited until everyone was behind him, before with a subverbal incantation and a gesture he sent a Fireball slamming into the muscular door. The spell detonated in a small explosion and left a nice sized hall in the charred flesh.

Through the opening Neia's keen eyes saw a room full of various test tubes full of strange liquid and floating amorphous shapes that had to be a lab of some kind. More urgently in the center of the room were what seemed to be a group of adventurers in a cage about to be fed to a Gelatinous Cube that filled a large pit that was reaching up at its meal with hungry looking pseudopods.

"Help us!" The adventurers shouted even as the pair of Mind Flayer in the lab retreated while sending a tide of Green Slimes at the party.

Drau made quick work of the fleeing Illithids with shots to their backs even as Neia took out the Slimes with a Mass Lesser Cure Wounds.

"Please, oh please, help us!" The caged adventurers cried out desperately and Neia almost made a move to aid them when Drau raised her hand to signal her to stop.

"You know you can stop pretending." Drau said with a sigh. "My suit's sensors can tell what you lot really are perfectly fine."

What in the Nine Hells does Drau mean by that? Neia wondered even as she brought her bow to bear against the adventurers.

She'd barely managed that when they dropped their disguises and leapt out of the cage at the party, the gelatinous masses of their bodies easily squeezing through the bars to allow them through.

Caught by surprise by their unexpected nature as Slimes, Neia couldn't prepare a spell in time and had to fall back on a trusty Explosive Arrow to reduce the mace wielding 'adventurer' into inanimate, smoking sludge as her arrow exploded upon contact with the target.

"Bloody hell! What are these things?" Taana shouted in shock even as she dodged a punch by one of the formerly caged 'adventurers'.

"Oblex impersonations." Drau said as she took down a sword armed 'adventurer' with a burst from her carbine. The superheated plasma bullets, as she called it, of her weapon searing deep into her opponent.

"I take it these are too?" Falgrim asked gesturing to the dozen or so other 'adventurers' who were suddenly advancing on the party from the lab's shadows.

"Yes."

"Their main bodies are at 3, 10 and 12 o'clock. 100, 70, 90 feet." Drau shouted. "Take them out!"

"Help me! They are too far apart to hit with a single mass spell. Greater Cure Wounds!" Neia cast as Yorha parried a thrust from a rapier by one of the impersonations aimed at her heart.

Her spell easily took out the Oblex on the right. Meanwhile, Gaul heeded her request and took out the one on the left with a Vermillion Nova spell that engulfed the blood red slime in a pillar of flame.

"The last one is fleeing," Drau commented as she sprayed the remaining slime impersonators with deadly plasma fire.

In the distance, Neia could see a large ooze that was such a dark red in colour that it was almost black making it hard to spot in the dark lab as it tried to slither away out of some passage on the other side of the lab.

"Not on my watch." Neia shouted. "Exact bearing?"

"Still 12 o'clock. 110 feet and moving away."

"I've got it. Greater Cure Wounds!"

The Oblex let out a cry of a thousand tormented souls as it died as the positive energies of Neia's healing spell burned away at its vile necrotic energies. It only had to suffer a moment though before the agony proved too much and it died.

"Clear." Drau announced as she nevertheless swept the room one last time with her carbine poised to shoot anything remotely hostile.

"Then let's mark this place to check later." Falgrim said as he glared down at the imprisoned Gelatinous Cube and the half digested remains of a Dwarf floating inside its translucent mass. "I don't think we should get started with the looting until after we've cleared the whole place of enemies."

"Right. But one thing first." Drau said as she came over and unloaded a whole energy cell worth of plasma bolts into the Cube, killing it. "Now let's go."

Falgrim shot their leader a grateful nod and they made their way further into the labyrinthine depths of the Illithid colony.


"This is it?" Gaul asked irritably as the party stood in front of a pair of massive mithril doors connected to large masses of flesh that had to be the muscles the Illthids used to open and close them. "The leader of this colony is inside here?"

"We've pretty much mapped out the entirety of the complex. So yeah, I think so." Drau said with a shrug. "So let's blast it open and-"

Before their leader could finish, the doors swung open forcing them to scramble back a bit. Inside was what appeared to be a chamber built around one of the many small spring fed pools that dotted the Underdark. The walls of the natural cavern that housed the pool had been smoothed and covered with the fleshy constructs that dominated Illithid construction. But the chamber itself was not what caught the party's attention.

That honour went to what stood at the center of the shallow pool. Standing with water up to its elbows was a massive dragon with a squid-like head with white bloated eyes above the four tentacles drooping from its head. It had a body covered in small purple scales and wings that were little more than fleshy flaps of eldritch skin. And it was glaring at them.

If they were made of weaker stuff, the intensity of the glare alone would have them flinching back in terror. Much to Yorha's pride, none of them so much as winced.

"Just our luck, a Brainstealer Dragon," Falgrim groaned as they charged the creature. "I'd honestly thought that these things were mere horror stories and now I'm fighting one of them."

"I am a horror story Dwarf! A real life one!" The monster roared out, only to blink in seeming confusion when nothing happened.

"Expecting something?" Drau asked as she took a shot from her sniper rifle at the Brainstealer's eye only for it to move one of its wings to block the shot moments before she pulled the trigger. The shot nevertheless caused an explosion of the creature's ichor and shredded its wing but it did manage to save its eye. "Do you think we're stupid. We knew we were going to be dealing with Illithid. Of course, we went out and bought us some Rings of Psionic Immunity."

It was truly an inspired move to get Gaul to buy them for those of us who needed it when he went shopping for supplies on Felmid. Yorha thought as she used the distraction created by Drau's shot to close with the Brainstealer. Behind her she could hear both Gaul and Taana unleash their magic and Neia her skills, whilst Falgrim kept them safe.

Unfortunately, it seemed they'd underestimated their opponent. Yorha was moments from getting into striking range when suddenly a eight feet long, yellow-green lobster-like creature erupted out of the shallows of the pool. It had four long legs, two large claws, a sturdy looking exoskeleton covered in a slimy mucus, a fan-like tail, and a mass of tentacles around its mouth.

I don't recognize it. I'll have to ask the others if they know what it is later. The swordswoman though as she used the holofield built into her dress to distort her shape to aid her in evading the monster's relatively clumsy swing of its right claw and launched into an attack of her own.

"Mancutter Blade." The android whispered under her breath as she lashed out with her blade. The Masamune-class was already in heat blade mode allowing it to cut through most armor like butter and deal fire damage with every contact, but her skill poured her energy into it and made it even more deadly. As a result it cut through the chitinous armor of the creature with ease and bisected it.

Sadly, there were seven more where that came from and Yorha found herself forced back as another of the crustacean like monsters surged towards her.


As Yorha found herself caught in a fight against the Brainstealer 's more melee focused guards, Taana and gang found themselves having to deal with the pair of orb-shaped beings 6 feet in diameter, with a large central eye on its body, ten smaller eyes on stalks emerging from the top and a maw reminiscent of a lamprey surrounded by four large octopus-like tentacles that created an antimagic field directly in front of them. A field that easily negated the spells she and Gaul had sent the enemy's way. Fortunately, Neia's Monster Slaying Arrow struck true and tore off the Brainstealer's undamaged wing when it used it in an attempt to protect itself from the shot.

"Mindwitnesses and Uchuulons now?" Falgrim asked. "It's like you guys scare up the worst nightmares to fight."

"I guess we do." Drau agreed with a shrug even as they all scattered as the Mindwitnesses began shooting their eye rays all over the place. "Neia, you take the one on the left!"

"Gotcha!" Neia shouted back as Taana, feeling useless tried to make a break for the fight between Yorha and the Uchuulons. With her magic cancelled, that's where she'd be of the most help.

A spire of rock suddenly thrust up to her side and saving her from a Disintegrate ray that reduced most of it to dust had her flinching back.

"Don't be rash. Stay away and wait for your chance." Master Falgrim chided as he picked her up even as Gaul cast a Rock Wall behind her and the Dwarf, creating another defensive barrier. The spell was interrupted midway as one of the Mindwitnesses shifted its anti-magic field. But it had already done created a low wall that shielded them both from said monster's other directly deadly eye rays.

The hiss of Drau's rifle firing echoed through the room and Taana chanced a glance its direction even as her Master tossed her behind a large rocky outcrop Gaul had created. She saw as one of the Mindwitness was cored by the shot, a large gaping hole appearing in the centre of its mass. Despite that though, the damned thing was still alive and raked its eye rays over Drau's position forcing her to use some fancy moves to avoid getting killed.

Neia however had more luck. She might have taken a little longer to line up her shot but her Monster Slaying Arrow took out her Mindwitness in a single hit. Though by the time that happened, Drau had also finished hers off with a few bursts from her carbine.

Seeing the Mindwitnesses dead, the Brainstealer changed tactics and breaking off four of the five surviving Uchuulon from where they'd been trying to box Yorha in, it sent the monsters after the rest of the party instead. Did the idiot honestly think they were going to be enough?

"Now you can join in." Master told Taana as he charged forward to intercept the nearest of the Uchuulons.

"Gladly." Taana said even though her Master was too busy dancing around his monstrous opponent's grabbing claws to hear her. "Moonbow!"

Conjuring three glowing motes of electricity around her, Taana sent them hurtling towards three of the Uchuulons. Killing one that was already peppered by fire from Drau's carbine and stunning the ones headed for Neia and Gaul.

This gave the armored Wizard the opening he needed and he shot the small flame that was a signature of his Hell Flame spell at his opponent. This ember immediately latched onto the twisted crustacean and quickly grew into a raging inferno that proceeded to reduce it to ash in a burst of black flames. Neia in contrast dealt with her stunned opponent with another Monster Slaying Arrow, taking it out with a single arrow.

Meanwhile, Yorha and Falgrim had defeated their opponents through pure martial skill. The latter decapitating her opponent with a graceful swing of her blade whilst Falgrim smashed his to a bloody smear with his warhammer.

Even as Taana observed her teammate's victories, she did a quick tally of the spells she could still cast. I'm down a Lightning Bolt and a Moonbow. Between the Mage Armor I cast before we entered the colony, I've used up one cantrip and two spell slots. There's plenty left to wreck this dragon!


Seeing as its guards had all been defeated, the pained Brainstealer Dragon finally managed to work through its agony enough to attempt to flee. With its wings ruined, the dragon had to resort to somewhat more esoteric methods and prepared to planar shift.

Oh, no you don't! Gaul thought.

"Anti-Magic Cocoon!" The armored necromancer cast over the whole room, effectively effectively negating all magic, by YGGDRASIL standards, attempting to move in or out. Including the Brainstealer's Plane Shift ability.

The abomination looked around in confusion, unable to comprehend why it could not escape.

"Just something to keep you in place so we can kill you." Drau said with a smirk in her voice as she fired her sniper rifle and took out one of the dragon's eyes.

The Brainstealer released a howl of agony that Gaul suspected would be much worse if he could actually hear the damned thing's telepathy. Fortunately, his undead nature made him immune. It would be a pain to have to fight with his opponent's pained cries ringing in his head. It was annoying enough having to hear its audible cries.

Sadly while its psychic attacks were unable to affect them thanks to their racial immunities and items, that immunity did not extend to their surroundings and the reeling Brainstealer began telekinetically ripping whole chucks out of the walls of the chamber to send flying at them. This was mixed in with liberal attempts to capture and constrict them with its tentacles and rake them with its claws, though its uncoordinated, pained movements made those physical movements easy to dodge for the only one within range, Yorha. Even the flying masses of earth were barely a hindrance to the swordswoman as she gracefully jumped through the storm of boulders without much difficulty while everyone hunkered down inside the dome created by the Wall of Protection from Arrows spell that he cast.

Safely ensconced in the spell's protection, they unleashed their fury.

"Electric Orb!"

"Vermilion Nova!"

The lightning and fire of the two casters' spells were joined by the rapid shots from Drau's sniper rifle and a Monster Slaying Arrow from Neia. These attacks had the already wounded Brainstealer writhing in even more torment as it was littered with a growing collection of new injuries. It was thus too addled to even realize that Yorha had gotten above its head. The swordswoman fell with the grace that seemed to characterize her every move and with a mighty swing of her sword cut the monster's head off its long slender neck.

Immediately, the swirling mass of rock that the Brainstealer had lifted into the air as weapons crashed down to the ground almost crushing Yorha but in an impressive feat of speed she blurred into the safety of Gaul's barrier barely avoiding being splattered at least three times in the process.

"Looks like we won." Falgrim said with a chuckle. "We actually won!"

"Did you expect anything less?" Drau asked curiously.

"Maybe a little? Can you blame me? That was a bloody Brainstealer Dragon!"

While Gaul hadn't shared the Dwarf's doubt. In hindsight, he could see his point.

"Well, if we're done clearing the place of its monstrous owners. Why don't we get down to business and start liberating any slaves still alive?" Neia asked, a mischievous look on her face. "Oh! Sorry, and loot the place. I forgot about that."

Gaul rolled his eyes. The Paladin was always so eager about going about their divinely mandated liberating mission that it was annoying. She was useful company though, both in a fight and as a general traveling companion, so he said nothing. No point poisoning their relationship.

"Neia's right. Let's get started." Drau said, before looking over everyone. "Unless someone needs a break?"

A round of negatives had their leader nodding and they set off to do what they always did after sacking a slaver settlement.


"Okay, the Momons are tending to the freed slaves." Falgrim declared as he, Taana and Neia returned from the slave quarters where the undead servants of Ainz Ooal Gown were processing the newly liberated and stepped into the lab from earlier. "Found anything good?"

"Unfortunately not." Drau told him with a shake of her head. "I knew Illithids didn't really get physical and weren't going to equip their slaves with anything all that special but the selection in their armory was just pathetic."

"Anything here worth keeping then?" Neia asked as she skipped around the room examining anything that caught her interest.

The Paladin had been hyper ever since she'd given a sermon about the greatness of her god to the slaves before handing them over to the Momons. Something about how they'd really bought into her message. Falgrim honestly couldn't see it. They had looked as dull eyed and lost after the sermon as they'd been before but the Dwarf wasn't about to burst the girl's bubble. Besides she supposedly had some unique job classes only available in the YGGDRASIL system that allowed her to resonate with a crowd, so maybe she was right after all.

"Not any items." Gaul said from some distance away where he was seated in front of some alien looking lab equipment.

"What do you mean, Gaul?" Taana asked respectfully. As befits the fact that the necromancer had effectively become the Shadar-kai's mentor in the magical arts. It should have rankled Falgrim that his apprentice was essentially being poached, but the Dwarf was mature enough to know that he'd never been able to help the young woman in every aspect of her abilities. As such he was more than happy that she was branching out and finding help in areas he couldn't help her with.

"He means this." Yorha said showing them an amorphous black Slime with glowing red veins running through its mass that was crawling up and down her arm. "I'm calling it Kuro. It means black in the tongue of the Bone Father."

"Fitting." Taana said, eyeing the creature warily. "Are you keeping it as a pet?"

"That's the plan." Drau said, sounding resigned as she gestured at how Yorha was stroking the creature affectionately.

"What is it?" Falgrim asked. "I've never seen or heard about a Slime like it."

"Don't touch it," Gaul said casually reaching out to catch Neia's hand as she curiously reached out to touch Kuro. "It has the ability to consume almost anything."

Neia pulled her hand back like she was burned. "But Yorha-"

"Is immune it seems." Gaul explained, sounding thoroughly intrigued. "Her entire body is blessed by Lord Ainz. It is what allows her to function off Felmid despite the curse that normally destroys all Felmidian technology. This same blessing seems to extend to an immunity to this creature-"

"Kuro," Yorha corrected.

"Kuro's," Gaul corrected himself. "Ability."

"So besides being to eat literally anything, what can it do?" Falgrim asked, still looking at Yorha's new pet warily.

"Well, if the Illithids' notes are correct it, like a doppelgänger, can imitate other living beings. Though only those it consumes. Those however it can mimic with near perfect accuracy, with the exception of divine favour."

That's terrifying. If the Mind Flayers had something like that… The thought didn't even need contemplating.

"Seems pretty deadly. What's the catch?"

"That my dear Paladin is that Kuro here was simply a prototype. One which was too corrosive and too quickly grew resistant to psychic domination as it fed more and grew stronger for the Mindflayers' tastes. They were working to create something a little less extreme and easier to control."

"Sounds like something they would cook up," Falgrim said with a sigh.

"So how did you earn its loyalty Yorha?" Taana asked curiously. "Do you have some Tamer skills or something?"

"Not at all. Kuro was simply hungry, so I fed him."

"What did you feed him?" Falgrim asked, already having a good guess on the answer.

"The corpse of the Brainstealer Dragon."

Falgrim groaned.

"Cheer up, Falgrim. That means that in a pinch we'll have a Brainstealer to back us up."

"Or turn on us." The Dwarf argued. "One that can destroy almost anything it touches."

"It's fine. I'll keep Kuro in line." Yorha insisted, looking at him with a pleading look.

It looked so out of place on the swordswoman's flawless face yet fit perfectly. It is also reminded Falgrim of long repressed memories of a little girl looking at him with a similar look when she wanted something. Looking away and shoving the bittersweet memory back in the figurative lock box in his mind, Falgrim nodded his acceptance.

"Now that everything's settled. Shall we decide on where we go next?" Drau asked pulling up the map they were using to determine the targets for their raids.

"I vote here." Taana said pointing to the Kuo-toa city about three weeks journey away. "It might be a little far but its the biggest slave trading hub in the region. If we want to step up our campaign against the slavers, we should hit it next."

Falgrim nodded in agreement with his apprentice's assessment. Her strategic thinking is coming along nicely I see.

"Any objections?"

"We'll come back to clean up the slavers we'll be bypassing to hit the city won't we?" Neia asked with a frown as she eyed the various small slaver settlements between them and the Kuo-toa. "Unless you want us to clear them out along the way?"

"That's not a good idea." Yorha countered. "Too much chance of giving the Kuo-toa to fortify themselves. It'll make our job needlessly more difficult. But, like you say, we can deal with them after we finish with the Kuo-toa."

"Then I'm good." Neia said with a slight frown.

No one else said anything.

"Then let's go teach some men-fish a lesson, shall we?"


Done!

Hope you guys liked it.

If anyone's wondering why the Illithids in the chapter have so many relatively rare monsters in their command. The meta reason is that I wanted variety. The in-universe reason is easily inferred. They are a colony dedicated to researching the creation of new forms via ceremorphosis alongside research on Slimes. With a Brainstealer as a leader, it shouldn't be surprising. It's an unusual form for an Illithid, of course it'll be curious if other unusual forms can be created.

So I got a review form Allhailthesith last chapter, my response to which I feel I should share so here's an edited version of it.

Ainz's avatars are not a normal god's avatars. They were created with a specific purpose very different from the norm of spreading their glory. They were created to explore the world as adventurers because that's what Ainz wants to do. It's a oft repeated aspect of his characterization in canon and something that iirc I explicitly stated at least once. Doing to do all this legendary feats? Those he can do himself. The avatars are designed to be an outlet for his adventurous, human spirit.

Speaking of legendary actions, despite the avatars not going out of their way to do such. They are already doing so. Just not on the a cosmic scale. Clearing an entire region of the Underdark of slavers which is their current aim is no small feat. Things will balloon a little from there but it'll never reach the truly cosmic scale. Doing so would be counterproductive to the entire reason that they were created.

Lastly, just to let you guys who were hoping for it know this is not a multi-cross. Ainz will interact with other verses but not in this story. Plus I have no plans to ever describe those interactions in depth. If you want to see what I might do then read my other fic Why Cute Witches Should Deal With Outsiders (And Their Lairs). How Ainz's leaves his mark there is about the extent I would do a cross into a third verse.

That's it from me for now. So till next time xatirgirtinî!