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

The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Adventuring with Avatars

Chapter 9: The Might of Ainz Ooal Gown

Beta:


Another day and the party was ransacking another slaver settlement.

Having destroyed one of the largest Drow cities in the Laerakond Underdark last time, the party had decided that this time they would go for broke and take out the dark elves' biggest city this time. That this would be a fitting continuation of their revenge against the blasted deep elves was just icing on top of the cake.

It was thus that Taana found herself in the city's streets fighting in the thick of a melee between a horde of Gaul's undead and a squad of Drow Fighters. Parrying a slash from her current opponent, a male Fighter, with Stormslash, she let the electricity coursing through her sword thanks to her active Lightning Strike spell shock him and leave him open for her to use Joltfang to slit his throat. She didn't fully manage to cut it completely open before he recovered enough to pull off a hasty retreat, but the deep, long gash would kill him nonetheless.

Which is nothing less than an evil slaver like him deserves.

She was just searching for a new opponent, thinking it was time to let loose some supporting magical fire when she was unexpectedly hit by a Fireball. Instinctively, she activated her new Iron Body spell with a fragment of Falgrim's armor as catalyst to minimize the damage, temporarily transforming herself into living iron. This combined with her dragonhide armor's high resistance to fire damage allowed her to escape practically unscathed. Her opponent however could not say the same if the scream at her retaliatory Lightning Bolt was anything to go by.

The flames however consumed the various bags of supplies and extra equipment she was wearing and rapidly pulling them off her body, she patted them down against the ground.

"Shit," she cursed as she ducked down to check the damage thus signaling her escorting undead to form up around her in a defensive formation. "There goes most of my supplies. Drau is gonna scold me for having to get it all repla-"

Her rant was cut off when her survey of her ruined equipment reached the Runic Compendium Taana inherited from Falgrim. It shouldn't have been possible. The book was protected by runes that enhanced its durability but the proof was undeniable, it was badly scorched.

"No, no, no!" The Shadar-kai cried out as she carefully tried to flip the pages of the damaged book. The fire damage was extensive indeed, with many of the pages completely illegible. "T-This can't be happening! Why would the runes fail now?"

Around her, the Drow seemed to sense her distress and were pressing an attack against her position. Something which suited Taana just fine to be honest. For she was not despairing over the lost. If anything, the damage to her Master's priceless heirloom had stoked her murderous rage towards the Drow to greater heights.

"Die, you Drow scum!" Taana roared to her oncoming attackers, even as she readied her magic. "Arc of Lightning!"

Mentally setting the start and end point of her spell at either end of the Drow line, Taana watched in satisfaction as a bolt of electricity arced between both points frying the entire first rank of the Drow force in front of her. She wasn't done however.

"Charge!" Taana screamed at the undead around her. "Kill them all!"

They weren't her minions, but their master had instructed them to obey her commanders thus at her orders the undead, a healthy mix of various Skeletons, Zombies, Death Knights and even a few spectral monsters, surged into the already ravaged Drow force. What followed could only be called a massacre as the undead slew the slavers with the methodical precision characteristic of the unliving.

Taana however paid it no mind, too busy salvaging what she could of Master Falgrim's Runic Compendium as she could and gingerly placing it into a pouch she unceremoniously pulled off the corpse of a Drow she'd killed early. Strapping the new pouch and its precious contents to her chest, she swore to herself that she would take better care of it from now onwards.

The familiar hissing report of Drau's sniper rifle told Taana that some of her party members had arrived to check up on her. The party having split up to lead separate assaults as they often did when assaulting a city, Taana had been operating alone up till now.

"Taana," Neia cried out in alarm as she ran over, casually shooting a quartet of arrows at the enemy as she did and not once breaking stride. "Are you alright? We heard you cry out."

"I'm fine." The Wizard reassured the Paladin. "I just got careless and Master's Compendium got hit."

Neia gasped, but it was Drau stalking over now with her sniper rifle raised and occasionally taking shots into the far distance that asked. "Is it intact?"

"It's badly damaged." Taana confessed.

"We'll get it fixed. Somehow. I promise." Neia offered as she squeezed the Shadar-kai's arm reassuringly.

"Yes, and in the meantime we have a battle to win. Are you okay to keep fighting?"

"Yeah. I'm fine Drau. Just pissed." Taana assured her leader, before something caught her eye. "Uh, Drau, did Gaul say he'd be summoning more reinforcements from Felmid?"

"No. Why?" The Dragon asked and Taana just pointed behind them.

Her two partymates spun around and were greeted with the sight of multiple Gate portals opening to the rear of their advancing lines from which poured forth an army. It consisted of people from all manner of races that ranged from Humans to Elves to Dwarves to Lizardmen and everything in between, but regardless of race they moved with the cohesion of a well trained army. Armored in lighter versions of Drau's powered armor and armed with various exotic looking guns, these soldiers advanced into the Drow city under the command of a host Momons each of which weren't even hiding their horrific undead form.

"W-What the hell?" Drau asked, shocked speechless.

"We have come to assist, Lady Drau." A Momon wearing an ornate military uniform over its skeletal body and the withered plant like material that passed for its flesh. "We and the slaves you've liberated that we have been given the honor to command. By order of Lord Ainz himself, we are at your disposal."

Neia's eyes lit up at this and barely kept herself from squealing in joy. Taana herself smirked as she shared the Paladin's enthusiasm. With an army equipped and trained by Felmid at their backs, she could only imagine the amount of hurt they could cause to the slavers of the world.

Drau however was still too shocked by the development to manage a response.

She was saved from her lack of a reply turning awkward however when with the sound of cracking glass, the view of the cavern ceiling suddenly shattered and was replaced by a portal to a plane of rocky gorges and covered with many pits and craters. The petrified corpses of giant spiders and webbing littered the landscape which was illuminated by a distant red sun.

From this portal floated out three terrifying figures. On the right was a Drow Lich and on the left was a Drow male Fighter, both radiating obscene amounts of power. Standing between these normal sized figures was a familiar looking massive Drider avatar of Lolth herself.

"Looks like Lolth is back." Neia said with a frown. "And she's brought Kiaransalee and Selvetarm with her this time."

"Three divine avatars?" Taana breathed fearfully as the Drow gods began descending to the city, singling out their opponents. "This is bad."


Some distance away from Taana's group, Gauldoth Half-Dead hadn't heard the Shadar-kai's rather understated description of their situation. If he had, he'd probably have called her out on just how much of an understatement it was. Sure, they'd survived encounters with divine avatars before but in both those cases there had only one been of them and it had mostly been because of Drau's insane power. Now though, Gaul found himself having to face off Kiaransalee, the Drow Lady of the Dead, all on his own and was struggling just to survive.

A whole legion of his undead died acting as his shields from the Drow goddess of necromancy's shadow bolts as they bought time for Gual to cast his spells.

"Maximize Magic: Vermillion Nova! Triplet, Maximize Magic: Reality Slash!" The armored wizard roared as he set his opponent alight in a pillar of flame and sent three tears in reality at the target, intent on cutting her to pieces.

Not that either spell did any good. The Vermillion Nova did indeed surround Kiaransalee's Lich avatar in flames but they never so much as touched her, instead flowing off the aura of darkness she'd wrapped around herself like water off a duck's back. Similarly his Reality Slashes merely struck the same protective barrier to no effect.

"What intriguing spells you have, mortal." The Drow goddess said in an intrigued voice. "I wonder if I dissect your corpse and soul, will I be able to learn their secrets?"

"You'll have to kill me first." Gauldoth shouted defiantly as he pulled another group of his undead in front of him to serve as shields for the goddess' inevitable counterattack.

"Oh! That is exactly what I intend." Kiaransalee said with a chuckle that sounded like nothing less than the reaper ringing his bell for Gaul's demise. "Now then, time to die little mor-"

The Lich goddess was unable to finish her sentence as she was suddenly impaled by a giant, bizarre-shaped dropper shaped spear. Its wielder, a beautiful silver haired woman in a ball gown materializing a second later behind the shocked Drow Lady of the Dead

"I'm an idiot, but even I know not to get distracted in a fight." The new arrival taunted, speaking in a normal voice unlike the Drow goddess' avatar despite the clearly divine power radiating off her. "You? You're really a fool aren't you Lich girl?"

"I don't know who you are but you'll pay for this insult." Kiaransalee shouted as she conjured hundreds of shadow lances around her which she promptly sent shooting towards her attacker. She was so confident in her attack that she didn't even bother to attempt to free herself from her impalement.

This overconfidence was shattered and her eyes widened in horror as her attack literally bounced off the silver haired woman's newly materialized set of crimson colored full plate armor with a swan-shaped helmet decorated with plumes of avian feathers attached on both sides and chest and shoulders styled into the shape of wings.

"Done?" The armored woman said. "Then it's my turn. Purifying Javelin."

Whatever she'd used, a skill or spell Gauldoth didn't know, caused her lance to grow brilliant white with holy energy and literally burned Kiaransalee's body to ash even as the Drow goddess screamed in what must have been absolute agony.

By the Nine Hells! Just who is this goddess to so effortlessly defeat Kiaransalee like that?

"So easily defeated? Pathetic." The unknown woman said as she shook her head and stepped over the defeated remains of the drow lesser deity's avatar.

"Greetings Gauldoth Half-dead." The woman said with a curtsy, her armor having been replaced by her elaborate dress once more from one instance to the next. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine." Gaul said warily. "But you have me at a disadvantage."

"Ah! Apologies. Where are my manners? I am Shalltear Bloodfallen, Nazarick deity of blood and mayhem."

Gauldoth immediately fell to one knee. He knew full well who Lady Bloodfallen was! He might not have been a particularly devout adherent of the gods but he'd listened to enough of Neia's sermons to know he was now before one of the Supreme One's consorts.

"Hail Lady Shalltear!" The armored Wizard said with all the sincerity he could put into his words. "It is my great honor to be in your presence. My deepest thanks for-"

He stopped himself when he felt unnaturally soft hands caress his face, on the twisted undead side no less, despite the fact that his helm was firmly in place. Looking up, he saw Lady Shalltear had moved to stand right in front of him and her hand was phasing right through the visor of his armored helmet.

"Of all of my beloved's children, did you know Gauldoth Half-Dead that I like you most?" The Felmidian goddess said as she continued to caress his face like she was her precious child. "That is why when your Father asked us Guardians to come assist you and your siblings against the Dark Seldarine, I immediately volunteered to come to your aid."

She speaks as if I, and the party, are children of Lord Ainz? Is that a figure of speech or… A faint suspicion Gaul had been harboring since he'd first met Drau and especially since he'd first seen the Dragon's true power in the Kuo-toa city stirred to life. Could it be, could we be… No. Now isn't the time for such ponderings.

"You honor me, my lady."

"Nonsense. It is the least I could do." The vampiric goddess, for Neia had been clear that Lady Shalltear was some breed of Vampire, said as she leaned down and completely ignoring the existence of his helmet kissed Gauldoth's forehead. "And it was my pleasure, our good boy."


While Gauldoth was having a motherly audience with Lady Shalltear, Yorha and Kuro found themselves locked in a losing fight with the Drow god Selvetarm. Armed with a mace and a longsword, the self-proclaimed Champion of Lolth had launched into a full on attack the moment he'd spotted them and the swordswoman was increasingly hard pressed to hold him off.

His blows came so fast that Yorha was barely able to keep up with his sword and had to leave the defense against Selvetarm's heavy mace entirely to Kuro and his pseudopods. Her holofield, her primary defense, was useless. The lesser god clearly able to see through the illusions created by her device entirely. Worse, he kept speeding up his attacks! As a result, slowly but surely the Drow god was pushing Yorha back.

She couldn't last forever but it wasn't her who faltered first. It was Kuro. The Slime misjudged the strength of one of Selvetarm's blows and put too little of his mass into the pseudopod he used to block the strike, allowing the heavy mace to smash through his attempt at a shield entirely and slam into the side of Yorha's hand. The force behind the blow was tremendous and sent the android flying into a nearby building, bringing the whole structure crashing down on top of her.

If she was Human as she outwardly appeared, the blow would have knocked her head off or the impact with the building would have crashed her. As it was, all she'd suffered as a result of the blow was a little disorientation from her processors being banged about. Though even that cleared by the time she finished pushing her way out of the rubble of the ruined building with her robotic strength and a little help from Kuro's corrosive power. Thus she had her full faculties as she emerged only to have Selvetarm's longsword leveled directly at her throat.

"Time to die, automaton." The god said with a bloodthirsty grin before he lunged forward in a thrust.

So this is how I die. Yorha thought as she prepared herself for her end.

She was saved however when an odachi parried the attack and sent Selvetarm skidding back in a single powerful swing.

"I. Do. Not. Think. So. Drow." A stuttering, coldly furious voice said as a enormous four armed bipedal insectoid that was a fusion between a mantis and an ant with a tail twice as long as its height and covered in sharp spikes like icicles faded into view from nowhere.

"Who are you?" The Drow god hissed as he tensed into a battle stance.

"Cocytus." The insectoid said as he brandished his odachi in his top right hand, a gleaming silvery halberd in its left top hand, and a pair of long daggers that radiated malevolence in his lower pair of arms. "Nazarick. God. Of warriors and honour."

One of the gods of Nazarick! Yorha thought, her eyes widening in wonder. I was just saved by a god of Nazarick himself.

"A fellow god? Killing you will indeed be glorious." The Drow god crowed as he launched into an attack.

Yorha opened her mouth to shout a warning about Selvetarm's speed and skill. But as Lord Cocytus met the attack head on, meeting Selvetarm blow for blow, she realized it was unnecessary. Even as the attacks moved so fast that everything mixed together into an indecipherable blur even for Yorha's skilled eyes, Lord Cocytus held his own or better.

The fight was moving so fast that the android swordswoman was completely unable to see the exact exchange that ended it. All she saw was the Drow god suddenly freeze as his body collapsed as his head was separated from his shoulders before the remainder was cut to pieces by the Nazarick god.

Wow! Yorha thought, awed by the display.

"Are. You. Alright. Young Lady Yorha?"

Young Lady? Why is he calling me that? Yorha thought as she fell to her knees.

"Thank you Lord Cocytus for coming to my aid. You have my deepest thanks."

Kuro nodded along, imitating her gesture of thanks as best he could.

"It. Was. My pleasure. To. Aid. My Lord's daughters." The god said in his stuttering way. "Now. Are. You. Well, Young Lady?"

"I am. As is my pet, Kuro." Yorha reassured the insectoid divinity. "Thank you for your concern."

"Good. Good." Cocytus said, clicking his mandibles in what Yorha thought might be a gesture of satisfaction. "Now. Only. Lolth remains. Young Miss Drau. Seems. To be. Handling. It. Well. Though. A little. Help. Will. Not. Be. Remiss."

Looking over to the fight between Drau and the avatar of Lolth, something Yorha could only really afford to now, the android couldn't really share the god's opinion. By her account, her leader needed a lot more than just 'a little help'. While it seemed she had Lolth on the run, she wasn't able to score even a decent hit!

As she turned to tell the god as much, she was surprised to find he was already gone.


To no surprise to Drau at all, Lolth singled her out as her opponent. Thus as the Queen of Spiders and her cadre dispersed to pick their opponents, the leader of the Dark Seldarine's Drider avatar leapt directly at her. Reacting quickly, Drau used the skills of her Shapeshifter class to transform into one of her draconic forms.

Taking on the form of an albino dragon with a snake-like head, with a bulging middle body that did not seem to fit with its comparatively tiny bat-like wings and vertically-slitted blood-red eyes, Drau used her long snake whip-like tail to scoop up Neia and Taana and deposit them as far from her as she could. She didn't want them caught up in the fight to come. At the same time, she took advantage of Lolth still being in the air from her leap to launch into an offensive.

"Soulbreaker Breath!" She roared as she shot a malignant beam of sickly green colored energy from her mouth. This was arguably one of, if not the most, powerful breath weapons available to Drau across her various forms. The Soulbreaker Breath being an irresistible attack that consumed the soul of anything it touched.

Perhaps sensing the danger or merely learning from the experience of their last encounter not to underestimate her, Lolth wisely did not seek to take the attack head on. Instead, shooting webbing from the abdomen of her arachnid portion of her avatar, she swung out of the way of the beam of energy. She did not however fully evade the attack, and it struck the spider legs of the Drider avatar along its left side.

"What is this nonsense!?" Lloth shouted, sounding flabbergasted as she tried to stand but found the legs that had been struck by the Soulbreaker Breath were completely unresponsive. "How many deadly Dragon forms do you have!?"

"Enough." Drau said as she coiled her neck to line up another shot, only for Lolth to grow a fresh set of legs to replace her disabled ones and leapt away. "Hold still!"

"And let you destroy another of my avatars without a fight? I think not." The Drow Dark Mother retorted as she sent various bolts of dark energies flying at the stationary Drau.

"Wall of Divine Protection!" Neia suddenly shouted, conjuring a wall of translucent shimmering energy in front of Drau with her newest spell that blocked much of Lolth's barrage. It shattered fairly quickly but a determined Neia simply cast another one each time that it did.

Thank you, sister. Drau thought as she fired her Soulbreaker Breath letting the beam cut across the cityscape as it tracked Lolth as she jumped around like a massively oversized jumping spider to evade it. Though this was made difficult as a barrage of various lightning spells dogged her as Taana drained her store of spells in a bid to pin her down. An effort soon aided by the armies of freed slaves which shot everything they had, guns, magic, heavy weapons, anything, to trap her for just a moment and allow Drau to finish her off. It was sadly to no avail.

"You'll have to do better than that mortals." Lolth taunted as Drau's breath attack ran out of steam and she finally stopped.

Shit! It'll take some time for my breath to cool down. Quick, I have to think of some way to keep her occupied before she launches her counterattack.

"Now it's time to see just how much of a failure you really are." Lolth said, as she begun to shift her till now unabated bombardment of Drau unto the army of freed slaves.

At least she tried.

"G trian ge harm a mortals droln further. Ol trian ge allow t. (You will not harm the mortals any further. I will not allow it.)" An elephant sized bright pink fetus with an angelic halo above his head and featherless stick-like wings on its back said in an incomprehensible tongue as it appeared out of nowhere.

"Sacrificial Bind!"

Despite being unable to understand the strange being, that Drau belatedly realized was an avatar of the god Victim, was saying, the effect of the skill he activated was obvious to all. At his invocation, his body exploded in a shower of gore. However, in defiance to gravity the blood and viscera did fall to the ground. Instead, they became ribbons of sanguine power that proceeded to wrap themselves around Lolth's avatar and pin her to the ground.

"What is the meaning of this!" The Queen of Spiders howled as she struggled desperately against the strange bonds that trapped her and held fast despite her best efforts.

"Your defeat." Drau told the avatar seriously. "Soulbreaker Breath!"

This time Lolth could do nothing as the Dragon daughter of Ainz Ooal Gown's deadly breath struck her restrained avatar dead on and burned through the goddess' connection to it at the level of the soul, rendering the monstrous avatar inert and burning the greater deity's very soul in the process. It was thus with a howl of rage and pain that Lolth's presence was sent hurtling back to the Demonweb Pits.


"You sure you don't want to help us set up the ritual?" Neia asked Taana in the aftermath of the battle as they sat inside a tent the Momons had set up to house their operation cataloguing the spoils of their victory.

"Maybe later," the Shadar-kai hedged. "I really want to finish this first."

As she said this, the young wizard gestured to the pair of books she's set out on the table before her. One was the damaged Runic Compendium that she'd inherited from Falgrim and the other was a Tome of All Runes they'd discovered inside the vaults of the destroyed Drow city. The Shadar-Kai was determined to use the latter as a reference to recreate her Master's work.

"It's Master Falgrim's legacy and I don't want to lose it. And-"

And we all know how important he was to you. Neia thought. It was no secret that the Shadar-kai thought the world of her Master. Even seeing him as a father figure of sorts. Considering the almost neglectful attitude her own father had towards her in Taana's stories of him, which was apparently normal for Shadar-kai, Neia was immensely glad Taana had found a better role model in the Dwarven Runesmith. Thus knowing that the wizard was doing something to honor the man's legacy, she could only support her in her efforts.

"Say no more." Neia said raising her hands placatingly. "I was just checking."

"Oh!" Taana said, blushing in embarrassment. "Sorry. But yeah. I'll come over once I'm done."

"Sure. The ritual this time is hugely complex, at least based on the revelation Lord Ainz sent me it is anyways, so I'm sure there'll be plenty for you to help with even after you're done with repairing the Compendium."

"You can count on my help." Taana assured the Paladin.

"I'll help her with the book." Gaul said suddenly, breaking the silence he'd maintained while watching the two women from the shadows the whole time. "It'll speed things up."

In other words, leave her to your care huh? Neia though, parsing out what the abrasive Wizard really meant.

Alright, you big softie. Neia said without words as she nodded and sent him a meaningful look. But you better take good care of her. You know she is fragile right now.

Gaul's return nod was a silent acknowledgement that he understood.

"Thanks Gaul," Taana told the necromancer, her eyes shimmering with tears of gratitude and completely unaware of the unspoken conversation between her two friends.

"Then I'll leave you two alone." Neia said as she turned to leave. "Don't take too long alright."

"We won't." Taana shouted at her reassuringly.

Neia was sure they wouldn't. Gaul would make sure of that.

As she stepped out of the tent however, she had to shelve such thoughts for a moment as a Momon with a clipboard came over. Dressed as she was in what Neia had taken to understand was called a skirt suit on Felmid, the mighty undead was some kind of bureaucrat back on the holy world and had been sent over by the gods of Nazarick to assist her with the upcoming ritual.

"Lady Neia, all the prisoners have been prepared in the city's squares as you requested. It's a little cramped though, so we've had to make use of whatever open space we can find but we've managed."

"So long as it's open air, such as that is here in the Underdark, it should be fine Renner." Neia waved the concern away. "Have the executioners been selected?"

"They have." The undead in the guise of a young human girl with silky smooth and supple golden hair that draped over the back of her neck and vibrant, dark blue eyes that shone like sapphires said. "We had no shortage of volunteers among the troops."

"I imagine not." Neia said with a chuckle. Considering the troops were all former slaves, it would have been a surprise if they hadn't been eager to kill a slaver. "And the rest of my family?"

"They are in the main square helping oversee as my colleagues set up of the main altar."

"Let's join them." Neia said with a decisive nod and walking over to a waiting pair of Soul Eaters. "I'd like to make sure the altar is to my exact specifications as well."

"Of course, my lady."


Momonga sat back on the Throne of Kings within the Throne Room of Nazarick and watched through the Mirror of Remote Viewing as his daughter Neia led the faithful she and her family had amassed in his name through the ritual murder of the Drow prisoners from their latest conquest.

"My love," Albedo asked from her customary place at his right. "What do you intend to use the power granted to you by the sacrifice of the ten thousand Drow for?"

"Watch." Momonga said distractedly.

Normally he would never be so curt with his Guardians, much less one of his Consorts but he was too enthralled by the magic his daughter was working at his command to measure his words like he usually would. Not that Albedo or the other Guardians watching the scene playing out in the Mirror blamed him even if they could bring themselves to think anything remotely negative about the Supreme One. The sight of rivers of blood flowing up into the sky and forming into a portal was a quite impressive sight. Especially for being the work of a mortal, even one that was a daughter of their Lord.

"Behold a portal to the Demonweb Pits." Momonga said as he stood and walked towards the Mirror. "One that is just waiting for me to use."

Chuckling at his joke, the Overlord teleported himself with an application of his divine will from his Throne Room to just before the portal his daughter had opened for him. Turning to his children far below, he gave Neia a nod of gratitude before facing the portal once more and stepped through.

The moment he entered the 66th layer of the Abyss, Momonga found himself standing before no less than the entire gathered might of the Dark Seldarine excepting its lone white sheep Eilistraee.

"My, my, what a welcome." Momonga said with a chuckle as the Drow gods charged or began flinging magic at him. Flaring his aura, he let it easily deflect or absorb the flurry of desperate attacks as he calmly prepared his chosen spell. "Mass Death Thorn Bind."

At his invocation, five shining roots of necrotic energy erupted from the earth beneath each of the various Drow gods exceptiing Lolth and proceeded to entangle them all. They struggled of course but that just caused them more pain and humiliation as the spell shocked them with bursts of Momonga's power with every attempt, pulling more than one pained scream from their lips. Deciding to add insult to injury, he exercised his will and caused the very webbing that was omnipresent in the Demonweb Pits to suddenly come to life and start cocooning the Drow gods.

"H-How?" Lolth cried out as she retreated in terror.

"Do you know what my greatest power is, Lolth?" Momonga asked conversationally even as advanced on the Dark Mother of the Drow unhurriedly, walking through the forest of bound forms of her pantheon.

"What is it? What foul magic is your great power?" Lolth hissed, hurling bolts of shadow magic at the Supreme One of Felmid.

"My greatest power, Queen of Spiders, is that I carry a bit of my world wherever I go. Wherever I set foot, I impose my will. Wherever my power extends, unless specifically countered, the place comes under my dominion. Such is what is happening to your precious Demonweb Pits."

With that the webs of the Pits shot at Lolth and began to wrap around her in a bid to restrain her. She struggled shifting from humanoid to Drider and everything in between to slip out of them, even as she blasted the webbing apart with all kinds of magic. The webs just kept coming however.

Her efforts kept her so distracted that she failed to notice as Momonga teleported the remaining distance and appeared right in front of her. She only realized her enemy was close when his skeletal hands wrapped firmly around her throat and began to squeeze. Lolth grabbed at his hands, pulling desperately to free herself but the primordial's hands were unmovable. Her efforts were further hampered when the webbing of the Pits took her preoccupation with struggling against Momonga to snag her arms firmly in their grip and pull them away where they swiftly bound them to her side.

She was on the very verge of death, the last of her breath spilling from her lips when Momonga abruptly let go.

"W-Why? Why d-did you stop?" Lolth asked, through big gasping pants as she struggled to regain her breath.

"This is much more effective than simply killing you." Momonga told her, leaning down so his skeletal face loomed over her fleshy one. "By defeating you and your whole pantheon but not killing you, you'll be cowed for a thousand years. At least."

"You think showing us mercy will cow us?"

"Mercy?" Momonga asked with a laugh that sent a shiver down Lolth's spine. "Do not mistake this for mercy, Lolth. This is pragmatism. Killing you and reaping your divine essence is a great reward but demonstrating how easy it is to do so… Tell me would you dare risk my wrath?"

Lolth opened her mouth with a defiant look in her eyes, but Momonga simply reached out with one hand, gripped her throat and squeezed.

"N-No!" Lolth choked out instead and Ainz let go. "I will never risk your wrath again."

"Not anytime soon at least." Momonga acknowledged. "Which means I've gained an ally. And I always need more of those."

The Queen of Spiders just nodded dumbly, as if unable to comprehend what had transpired. That was fine, she didn't need to know how stretched thin he was processing the gains he'd made since his arrival in Realmspace so far and how he'd much rather a cowed and potentially treacherous ally than having to incorporate more conquests into his domains. The chaos caused by the influx of slaves freed by his children had been bad enough.

As such he merely smiled in satisfaction and turned to leave the Demonweb Pits walking once more though the forest of its restrained gods. He was just about to step through the portal back to Toril when he turned to look at the still bound Lolth in the eyes again.

"One last thing before I leave," Momonga said, trying to sound playful but coming across as menacing even to his own nonexistent ears. "Leave my children alone from now onwards. If not, I will return and destroy you all."

With that he stepped through the portal, leaving behind a terrified and humbled pantheon of gods.


"-can't believe we saw the Supreme One himself!"

That was the first words that Kuro the Blacklight Slime ever heard as a sapient being. For the better part of his life Kuro had been little more than a feral creature with an intelligence and awareness no greater than a dog or cat, but that slowly grew as he feasted on the corpses of the intelligent enemies of his family. Slowly but surely, with each Kuo-toa, Drow, Illithid and other slaver or enemy he devoured, he grew closer and closer to sapience. Not that he even noticed. The whole thing was so gradual that he barely noticed. It was only when he finished digesting the last of the Drow he'd fed on from their latest conquest that he crossed the indefinable boundary between beast and thinking creature. Perhaps it was the vast amount of experience he'd plundered from feeding off the memories of both, but the moment he crossed the line he just knew the difference. Though for the life of him, describing it was beyond him. Just as describing colors to the blind was impossible, so too was describing non-sapience to a sapient.

For Kuro, it was just a moment of profound shock and he froze. His family didn't notice though and continued their discussion around the campfire they'd lit in the ruins of the Drow city they'd just conquered.

"I know, Neia. You've been gushing about it for the past hour. Enough already." Gaul chided the resident Paladin, earning a pout from the blonde haired archer but she nevertheless stopped her gushing.

"A little harsh with the wording there, Gaul. But he's right, please stop fangirling already Neia. Please." Drau added teasingly, causing the archer to pout even harder and garnering laughs from everyone else.

"So what do we do now?" Taana asked after everyone calmed back down. "I mean we have an army at our back now."

At this the Shadar-kai gestured to the legions of former slaves that were camped around them.

"Where do we point them?"

Drau looked ready to launch into a brainstorming session right then, but Kuro could tell everyone was tired. They all tried to hide it but he'd known them long enough and eaten enough experts of body language, mainly slave overseers but he couldn't exactly help his meal options, to notice all their various tells. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one and Yorha quickly cut in.

"We can make the selection tomorrow. For now, we should rest."

He'd heard her voice innumerable times before now and remembered every single instance of it. Yet somehow hearing Yorha's melodic voice as a proper sapient being was somehow different. It was what he imagined hearing the music of the gods would be like.

So entranced was he that Kuro barely registered as everyone agreed with Yorha's suggestion and dispersed to relax or get some sleep. He only came back to himself when the android picked him off her shoulders where he'd been riding and began examining him curiously.

This gives him a full view of the android as well and he suddenly becomes very aware of Yorha's beauty. A fact that left him very confused. He's a Slime! Why would he find a humanoid attractive?

Then again, my sapience seems to be a result of eating humanoids, so perhaps my sense of attraction stems from my food?

It was possible at least.

"Is something wrong?" Yorha asked him curiously. "I can't quite put a finger on it but you're acting strange."

Nothing is wrong! Kuro wanted to form a mouth and scream instinctively but suppressed the urge. Barely. Instead, he just shook his slug-like head in denial.

"If you're sure." Yorha said with a soft smile that made her seem even more beautiful and began stroking his head comfortingly. He leaned into her touch, only half listening as she continued. "But you have to let me know if anything is wrong, alright?"

Her touch is just sublime. Kuro thought to himself as he nodded distractedly, his mind consumed with the pleasure of being in the android's presence.


Done!

Hope you guys liked this rather action packed conclusion to this 'book' of the story. I enjoyed writing it and it is my sincere wish that my readers get just as much entertainment from reading it.

For those of you who get where I'm going with the last scene, which I hope is most of you since I'm not being all that subtle, surprised? I've been hinting subtly at this direction for some time so hopefully it's not too much out of left field. For those who still don't get it… All will be revealed in time.

Speaking of time. That's all I have for this chapter. So till I see you again, la kon!