Read This! Just a note before you start reading. I will be going back to chapter one(and probably to 8) and changing some things to make it more consistent with what I have planned for the future of this story and just give it a touch-up in general. They will not have been updated until after this chapter is released. Edit includes him not unlocking the Death knight shield and him not mentioning his levels.

Yeah i know I'm six months late, but here it is the wave, finally! It's a bit shorter than I wanted but this is what I've got hope you enjoy it!

I don't own the Overlord(オーバーロードŌbārōdo?) Light novel, manga and anime series created by Kugane Maruyama.

I do not own the Rising of the shield hero (Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari) Light novel, manga and Anime series created by Aneko Yusagi

Chapter 9: The Angel of Death


Lute village outskirts

The day of the wave

In the days since their adventure with the merchant Hickwaal, a change in location was needed as their quiet place in the forest where the fortress had became a point of increasing activity for knights and mages alike. He had left them be and moved to the outskirts of Lute, a small village roughly an hour's ride by cart from the capital, the dense forest was perfect for the experiments that were about to take place. For the most part, his theory about the crystal had been correct if only slightly… safe to say he now had a secure source of - for lack of a better word - grenades.

It may have had something to do with his mana or maybe the number of spells that needed to be infused into the crystal to have the desired effect, in the end, they became volatile and over a very short time would degrade and explode, releasing the spell contained within if the form of pure mana. There was an... accident.

"Suzuki, my arm is still numb," Raphtalia said in frustration, wildly flopping her previously disintegrated arm around as if trying to force the feeling back into it.

"Yes, as I said before that's a side effect of limb regeneration. It shouldn't last more than a few hours."

"I still blame you though…" she said deftly, without any remorse in her words.

"And I will continue to apologize for it," he replied, placing a hand atop her head and shifting it slightly. It was apparent after the incident that the crystal would explode regardless of whether or not the spell stored within was of an explosive nature. Still, it was surprising that the first spell he used - [Magic Arrow] infused with [lesser magic seal] - had caused the damage that it had, catching both him and Raphtalia in the blast.

He had been knocked back several meters but was unhurt. She had not been so lucky. Her broken body was scared significantly with burns up the entirety of it with limbs that were either bent at an impossible angle or missing entirely.

He had quickly made his way over to her, something akin to worry making its way to his unfeeling soul, he was relieved to find that she was indeed alive though only barely and set about healing her quickly and choose to use one of the last remaining [Greater Heal] wands just incase the shields healing ability couldn't regenerate limbs.

After an hour of waiting for her to regain consciousness and then another ten minutes of being berated they set off for home to rest before the wave started.

They both let out an exaggerated sigh and continued to walk towards the tall stone tower they could see in the distance, before the wave had even started, they already felt like they wanted to go home, wherever that may be...

The girl's ears suddenly perked up, her eyes becoming focused, her tail straightening in awareness just as the sound of rustling shrubs began to make itself known. Ainz tilted his head, glancing at the fat green bulbous lizard that made itself known.

"That's a new one." he said and continued walking even as the monster began to spit acid lazily in his direction. There was a distinct, wet "Shink!" and the girl was racing to catch up, dragging the corpse of the lizard behind her with a small victorious smile on her face.

Once they reached the base of the stone fortress Raphtalia dropped the corpse of the lizard with a wet bloody thud and made her way to the massive wooden door, pushed it aside and walked in without saying another word. Ainz stayed where he was waiting for her to leave and for the door to close. He chucked a small paper charm into the air and kneeled down to the corpse and began to disassemble it piece by piece, limb from bloody limb. "Report." he ordered firmly, a moment later the shadowy blur of a hanzo appeared behind, kneeling.

"Yes lord,'' said One. "It is as you predicted, The false king has started displaying an increasing amount of militaristic activity within the city to prepare for the wave."

"It would have been more concerning if he had done nothing at all, though I suppose it won't really matter. Hm, and what of Two? I assume he has something to report…"

"With regards to that matter, my lord Two asks for your forgiveness in his failure. He was unable to find what was asked of him."

"Is that so? If he has failed then he has nothing to worry about. It was simply a point of curiosity I'd had," he said going on to explain "The item known as the Dragon hourglass provides a count down to the start of the next wave of destruction, I was simply wondering what it was measuring to calculate such a time."

"Though the implications of the Hanzo' being unable to detect the cause is troubling in its own right."

"Understood, my lord, he will be most relieved to hear."

"In any case, I'd like for you to continue with the plan we previously discussed, pick four death knights to send towards the village and herd it's occupants into the forest by any means without killing anyone."

For the most part, this trick worked when it came to gaining trust in new regions in his world, he or one of the Guardians would create an artificial threat through summoning or mind manipulation - ogres, trolls, and goblins more often than not, demons if he was having a bad day - and send them into a village, he'd arrive to save the day soon after, usually after there were a few casualties.

"Understood my Lord, but if you would allow this lowly servant a small inquiry. What will you do with the remainder of your undead? We do not expect the insects to stay idle after this event has ended. Will they not go looking for the source of the disturbance?"

"I doubt it, I plan on killing all of them and it is unlikely that the villagers will assume there is more but just in case, remind me what is the highest tier illusion spell you can cast?"

"My kind is not proficient in magic casting my Lord, but we have talismans inscribed with the weak sixth tier spell [Chameleon wall] if that is your will."

"That will be fine for now, have the remainder of the death knights moved to the most secluded part of the mine and cast the spell in the most optimal spot to avoid discovery."

"It will be done my lord, but there is also the matter of the church."

Ainz waved at the Hanzo to continue before returning to feeding the shield. "It seems as though the church is making plans for further conflict with your glorious self. The shadow demons inside indicate that Cardinal Biscus is looking for something called the Four Weapons Replica, based on what has been said by the gnat, we believe he intends to use it on you and your pet, my Lord."

"Threat assessment?" he asked.

"Unknown."

"I see. Order the shadow demons to do nothing for now, continue to follow the Cardinal and his upper echelon closely. I want to know the moment they find this replica and what it's capabilities are. What of the other line of inquiry?

"Yes, I am happy to announce that it has borne fruit, the shadow acted cautiously at first but after some time they met with another of their kind which eventually lead down a tree of branching intelligence networks coming to a head in a country called Siltvellt, a human woman in her late thirties; with the information currently available to this one we believe her to be the Queen Melromarc. We have also left four demons with her as instructed."

"Good, after the wave ends tell them to keep trailing her. I want to hear her reaction to the events that are about to take place. After that I will choose whether or not to make contact with this woman in person." he paused. "Though I doubt she will hesitate to do the same."

"As you wish my lord, do you require anything more of this humble servant?"

"Yes, after you have completed the tasks I have just given you, hand these to Ehrard the blacksmith inside the city." Ainz said, getting up off his knee and pulling out a small bag of gold coins. "Inform him you are there on my behalf and that this is the last of my debt."

"I'm just glad Hickwaal came through on the first payment."

"Your will has been heard my lord and this one shall dev-" the Hanzo disappeared in a blur as the wooden door was slowly dragged open.

"Were you talking to someone just now?" Raphtalia asks, rubbing dry the last of her wet ears and hair.

He nodded. "Yes, one of the queen's shadows dropped by to inform me of some recent events, it seems the king is mobilizing for the wave."

"Oh," she hummed. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Why would I be otherwise, the only thing I have to be worried about is how much XP we will get after it is over," he said, casually waving away the concern and receiving a pout for his trouble. "In any case, can you go out into the forest and find me a monster of some kind, anything will do."

"I've just bathed, can't I sit down for a few minutes?"

"Unfortunately, no." He replied seriously. "That will have to wait until after the wave, and before that begins I need to test some of my newly acquired shields, then gather some supplies."

The girl released an exhaustive sigh, turned, and went upstairs to get her things. After properly equipping what she needed, a sword on her belt and a shield on her back, she set off back into the forest with a frustrated expression.

When he sensed she was gone, he made his way into the fortress, closed the door, and began summoning undead, as with normal shields a certain condition needed to be met before progressing to a higher tier, the Yggdrasill shields were not absolved from this rule.

He started with a simple skeleton at first then a giant skeleton and moved through the list until he reached the last of prerequisites - elder lich.

He had commanded it to remove several of its own body parts and it had complied without any disagreement. All of them sacrificed to the shield.

As the last of the bones entered the emerald green gem at the centre of the legendary weapon something odd happened. The shield seemed to distort and rapidly change its form, speeding through all of his unlocks until suddenly, it stopped and the room - the whole tower exploded with purple light.

After a few seconds, the light faded and he could finally make out the new shield tree that appeared below the original one. Even before he could get a proper look at it several notifications appeared in his HUD.

ATTENTION! Material analyzed: Yggdrasil series recognized!

ATTENTION! New shields unlocked!

-(skeleton)Bone shield +1Def

-(Giant skeleton)Heavy bone shield +3Atk

Lich bone shield +3MP rgn, equip effect Negative field

Elder lich bone +5MP rgn, equip effect Jaws of bone

Death knight tower shield +15def, equip effect Zombie Squire

Warning! Litch bone, elder Litch bone, and Death knight tower shield will cause adverse effects to the user when using shield skill's. (Negative energy infliction: minor)

Attention! New items recognized!

(Momon's StarSilver armor)

(Unknown ring x9)

Attention! Unknown item !&%^#$* analysis in progress: 0.13%

After staring at that last notification for far longer than he probably should have, Ainz set off in the direction of his party companion. He found her elegantly fending off the attacks of a Porcupine-like creature.

He watched for a few moments before he chose to speak. "Raphtalia, disengage when you're able and retreat behind me, I do not know what this will do."

"Yes sir!" She said, landing a direct hit on its soft unprotected belly with the spine of her short sword, it flew back tumbling over itself, and landed near the base of a tree. She then quickly moved behind him while the creature was trying to recover from its downed position.

{Litch bone shield} the Overlord commanded, with a bright purple flash, the shield on his left arm began to take a new shape.

It widened out and extended diagonally, becoming almost as large as his torso. Then, as if to accentuate the sheer horror of the dark monstrosity this shield was derived from, it began to develop teeth, eyes that glowed a faint red and formed a head. The purple gem at the center moved up until it was sat upon the forehead of the skull.

When the creature got to its feet it looked to its assailants and backed away slightly, then growled and sprinted towards them, its spikes standing straight up in a defensive manner.

{Negative field} instantly, the shield emanated a deathly black, and the area surrounding the monster in a medium radius, died, all but shriveling up, trees began to wither and leaves began to fall. The monster at the center of it all began to convulse and vomit blood then died with a small horas 'gak', falling limp and rapidly starting to rot away.

"T-that seemed a little too effective," Raphtalia stated nervously. She hadn't seen the shield do anything like that before.

"Indeed, but it has the drawback of dealing a portion of the negative energy dealt to the opponent back to its user."

"What is negative energy?" she asked with hints of concern.

He hummed for a moment, looking down at the corpse then at her. "You may think of it as an opposite to life energy of which you are composed, as are all living things. While negative energy is a product of the undead and is what gives them unlife. It can do many things to the living but its effects vary depending on the dose, for example, if you were to come into contact with a small amount of negative energy, the most that would happen to you is the feeling of being drained and a rash forming at the point of contact. But it gets worse the more you receive, for example, our friend here." He pointed to the black sludge, now spreading across the dead ground.

"Oh, are you ok?" she asked, looking at him, her face worried.

"I'm fine, it was only enough to give me some minor discomfort. There is no need to worry," he replied, trying to give the girl some assurance. "In any case, I'd like to test it more thoroughly but we do not have the time, the wave will be starting soon and I'd like to buy some things before it starts."

"Okay, where should we go first then?" The girl asked, staring up at the slot in the Overlord's helm.

"Lute." He replied.

"Didn't we just come from there, why didn't you do it then?."

"May I remind you that you're the one that wanted to clean up as you put it." He stated, opening a gate and stepping through.

"Hahhh… that's because I got dirty when I almost died!" She exclaimed and walked through the portal.

"Ahhhhhh!" That was the first thing she heard when she stepped out of the gate. Around her, numerous people were fleeing in different directions - down the main road or into the dark forest that surrounded the village.

"Hey wait!" she called out to one of the people closest to her, the man stopped and turned around unsteadily.

"What are you doing we need to ru- wait aren't you? You're with that shield guy, right? He went to go kill those monsters that came from the mountain. I've never seen anything like it. We have to get away from them or it'll be the end of us!"

"I um... I see." she stuttered, thinking the man had gone a bit crazy.

("Raphtalia.")

("Suzuki? What's going on?")

("Never mind that. I need you to gather all the people currently spreading through the forest to the large cliff overlooking the village. Do whatever you need to get them there, it is important.")

("For what reason?")

("I want them to see something. For now, I'm going to go battle these monsters. Make sure you don't come into the village, these things are far too strong for you.")

("But…")

("Raphtalia…")

"Yes sir."

"What?" the man asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Oh um, I need your help, could you do something for me?"

"I don't… what do you… I'm not helping you if it involves those monsters, you can fuck off if that's wha want."

"No, not that," she said calmly while a nerve began to pulse visibly on top of her forehead. "I want you to help me gather the villagers to the cliff at the edge of the forest, the one that overlooks the town, the shield hero is going to keep the monsters in the village so you don't need to worry about them."

"But why? The capital isn't too far from here, why not go there?"

"I… the wave is about to start and the Shield hero thinks it will take place over Lute, you won't make it there in time before it does." She lied, of course, she had no idea where it would start but he didn't need to know that, the wave was still forty-five minutes away, but by the time they were all gathered to the cliff it would already be too late to retreat. She just hoped her teacher was doing the right thing.

"The wave... Alright, I'll help, what do you need me to do?." The man questioned with determination in his tone.

"I'll go into the forest on that side," she pointed to the right "and tell everyone I meet to head towards the overlook, you head in the opposite direction and do the same, alright. We'll meet up later."

"Ok I'll do my best!" he exclaimed and ran into the forest, Raphtalia quickly doing the same.

...

(A/n: fight scenes are complicated…)

Ainz was enjoying his current predicament, well as much as one could have while fighting one's own summons. He'd turned off all of his passive protections - with the exception of his observation protections - so the four level 38 death knights could now harm him as well as giving himself the restriction of only using the abilities of the shield.

The memory of his fight with the war troll Go Gin flashed through his mind for a brief moment before he was shield bashed through a house by one of the knights. When he landed, back first he heard the large dominating footsteps of another rolling toward him like thunder would roll over a mountainside in the middle of a storm.

Ainz quickly rolled out of the way before the shield of the monstrosity could collide with his head. He attempted to counter with a punch to its ribs only to find he was flying through the air after a third drew an upward slash across his back sending him skyward in a small arch.

"Honestly, I feel a bit like a ball in a game of catch." He thought as he came down into the house he was bashed through earlier; collapsing the roof and propelling a small grey dust cloud into the air.

He pushed the rubble off himself and went further into the house to wait for one of the undead to draw closer. He could hear them moving about with slow methodical footsteps; surrounding the decimated building, finally one of them had moved close enough to the destroyed section that it was now faced to face with him, standing on the very place he had fallen to just a moment ago.

Ainz stared at the knight and the knight stared back, there was a feeling in the Overlords mind, like a presence in the back of his skull, through the link he shared with the creature it was trying to ask something, words teetering on existence "Are you done yet?" he heard them say. Ainz changed his shield and responded by casting the ability of his other newly acquired shield {Jaws of bone}.

The shield shone in a black-purple light and it wasn't long before the ruble the undead was standing on began to shake wildly, bits of rock and splintered wood trickling down its surface; from beneath it as a massive set of black bone jaws appeared closing around the knight and cutting through the tall metal shield, then the knight's neck in a single motion as if it were butter, releasing its head from its body. The jaws clamped shut and swiftly sunk back into the earth, taking the body of the death knight with it.

Ainz paused momentarily in observation of the ability. "Interesting, it negated the special ability of the death knight… no it technically attacked twice, first the shield then its neck"

A loud crashing roar suddenly ripped through the atmosphere before a death knight - after having sensed the loss of its ally - charged through the wall to his right, knocking him through the one on his left. The house he was in simply couldn't stand the harsh treatment any longer and collapsed entirely under its own weight.

"I should probably take this to a more open area." The Overlord stated aloud and shot off towards the most open area he could see, a large open and flat piece of ground that sat in front of the village chapel.

The remaining three roared and charged after him down the main street. Once they caught up they wasted no time in simply standing still, they just attacked, all at the same time, all three swords slashing down at once.

He met them with his shield, catching them mid-air. His knee met earth as he struggled under the weight of the attack. He recalled that when he started the battle he'd also disabled [Perfect Warrior] rendering him a weak - in terms of physical strength - mage.

Under the blades of the knights, he ordered the shield to take a different form. It obliged and the {Porcupine shield} quickly appeared on his wrist, long brown spines grew in the places around the three swords and exploded off its surface towards the knights like harpoons. Impaling them in various locations over their body.

Two of the knights stumbled back slightly reeling from the blows, while the last one dropped its sword after its wrist was torn off by the barrage of spikes. That didn't stop it though as it went in for an attack with the stump of its arm making contact with Ainz' hard armoured shell pushing him backward with enough strength to leave two-foot trails in the dirt below.

The other knights didn't let up either after their stumble and were immediately on the offensive, slashing down again and again in quick succession, seeing this Ainz dodged just as quickly, avoiding each attack by a hair's breadth, some even managed to scrape the metal of his armor leaving long silver gashes along the lengths of his shoulder plates.

Ainz quickly backed off several meters and shot another barrage of spikes towards them, impaling the bits of dead flesh that couldn't be blocked by their tower shields, taking off whole sections of body parts; leg muscle, shoulders and feet alike.

The death knight that had its wrist torn to bits shifted into its mist form and moved behind Ainz only to then punch him straight into the small wooden church, straight through the wall just beside the open door, and into several lines of carved wooden pews coming to rest at the raised dais.

Through his link with them, he could tell they were laughing at him.

He was getting a bit sick of this, he ordered them to attack him, to be as hard on him as they could, how that translates to "knock me through every building you can" he couldn't quite surmise.

Ainz sighed and got back onto his feet, grabbed one of the seats and walked back outside; through the door.

The fight was back on. Two of the knights charged him while the other sat back, Ainz ducked under the first one's shield as it swung for his head and smashed the knight away with the pew, sending it on a small fight through the air.

The end of the pew that made contact with the knights' ribs exploded into a shower of splinters leaving Aniz an almost too convenient wooden stake that he promptly drove into the chest of the remaining knight that had charged him, it collapse to the ground like a puppet that's strings had been cut, killing it then and there.

Not wanting to give him any time to think, the death knight that had sat back and watched its comrades get taken out turned into its mist form again and went in for the punch in an attempt to send its master through the church once again.

Ainz had other ideas… he ducked to the side of the stump and said. "My turn." while casting [Perfect warrior] he sent a fist at the knight's chin and made contact with such force that he felt the bones inside its jaw crunch and then shatter, it subsequently turned into a blur as it flew upwards, disappearing into the white clouds above with a sonic boom.

"Just one knight left." he thought, disabling [Perfect Warrior] and bringing his shield to bare. The knight did the same. They lowered their center mass and slowly - almost painfully so - walked towards each other.

The people now on the cliff watched - metaphorically on the edge of their seats - with undivided anticipation for the final result of the fight. They hadn't seen anything like it before; metal versus metal, fist versus fist. Blow for blow the two continually struck each other with thunderous clangs of strength that rang through the valley and reverberated in their ears for two minutes straight until… silence.

A dead quietness hung in the air around the villagers as they waited impatiently for the dust to settle around the two warriors, the tension was palpable - unbearably so. "Why is it taking so long?" They asked themselves.

Finally, after an agonizingly long couple of seconds, the dust began to clear and the result was clear… the Shield Hero had won!

It took a few minutes for Ainz to reach the top of the cliff, as soon as he did he was set upon by the small crowd with words of appreciation and thanks, kids grabbed onto his arms often saying something along the lines of "that was awesome mister!" or "it was so cool!".

Just as quickly as the children latched on to Ainz, their mothers latched onto them, dragging them away while praising them and apologizing to the hero. Soon the crowd moved aside and let Ainz approach the two people waiting for him at the edge of the rock face.

The first to move was an elderly man dressed in a rather high-quality black suit. Approaching slowly, he held out his hand and smiled in a friendly manner.

Ainz returned the gesture and shook lightly before they let go and made their way to the overlook.

"I am the lord of Lute, you have my thanks Sir shield hero."

"It was no problem at all, elder. It was a good thing I was close by, preparing for the wave."

"Yes, the wave. While you do have my thanks for the monsters you defeated, I hope you will forgive me for my reservations. The waves are known to be random in appearance, why would you think it would appear over Lute?"

He paused and turned his head to Raphtalia, she simply gave him a small shrug.

"You may call it a hunch, we will know shortly regardless. If nothing happens you may go back to your homes and I will make my way to the waves' true location. But, if it does, I'd ask you to tell your people to do as I say, if it does no harm will come to you."

The old man looked at Ainz with copious amounts of suspicion and inhaled deeply. "Very well, and how long do you think it will be before it starts?"

"Three minutes… roughly."

"Roughly?" the old man asked incredulously.

"I have a timer." the Overlord replied flatly.

The old man scoffed, "It seems we don't have much time then. Michaile!" he yelled.

"I'm right here old man, no need to yell." A young man stepped forward from behind the elder. Ainz assumed he was the old man's son or at least a family relation seeing the resemblance of the two.

"Well that's good, it means you heard what was just said. Make sure everyone knows it."

"Right!" He declared and ran towards the group of villagers. A short time later he returned and gave a thumbs up. "They're good to go, I told 'em' to spread the word."

"Good." Ainz said and mentally began to count down in his head.

"5."

("I think that's the first time I've seen you fight seriously. You like to show off don't you?") Raphtalia asked through message with a smile.

"4."

("Sometimes, but there's one thing I want you to know.")

"3."

("And what's that?")

"2."

("You haven't seen me fight seriously yet.")

"1."

SHUUUM! A flash of light radiated throughout the valley and the sky turned a dark blood red as fissures constructed from interdimensional magic opened.

"What the hell?!." he thought, watching as thousands upon thousands of monsters began to filter out. Giant flying insects that resembled wasps or bees turned the sky black with their sheer numbers - inconsistent specks of red peeking through the swarm as they flew down towards the world below.

Undead followed not far behind them, varying sizes fell from the sky unimpeded by the normal limitations of a living body; they reached terminal velocity and collided with the dirt and rock, leaving small craters that didn't stop them from quickly getting up and making their way towards the nearest living entity.

He quickly turned to the old man and held out his hand "[Gate]. This will take you to the inside of my fortress nearby, your people will be safe there."

None of them made a fuss, or even hesitated to step through. Their lives had already been saved once today so there was no reason to doubt him.

As the last one was about to go through, Ainz placed a hand on her shoulder. "Keep away from the windows, and cover your children's ears, they do not need to see or hear what is about to happen." Her face turned pale, but she nodded and stepped through.

[Widen Magic - Mass hold species: Human] Ainz uttered, preventing the three heroes and their parties that had been teleported just below him from moving any further. His preparations were complete and now no one could interfere with what he was about to do.

Ainz waved his hand across the red sky and the most powerful magic known to players heeded his call, a massive dome-shaped magic circle appeared around him; stretching about ten meters in each direction.

It shone in a deep purple with translucent diagrams of characters and symbols of unknown origins that continuously moved and changed with unfathomable speed as they circled around him.

"What are you doing?" Raphtalia asked nervously as she looked around within the circling dome.

"You'll see." He answered in an ominous and flat tone.

"O-oh, ah, what was that other spell you cast?" She asked.

"I'm holding them in place," he replied.

"Who?"

"Them," he said, pointing down as the sphere continued to hum and grow.

She moved closer to the edge of the cliff and looked over the side down to the group below. She took glances at each of them and found that they were not that remarkable, the only one that stood out was a woman with red hair. It wasn't that she was beautiful or doing anything of note - she could only see her back. No, it was because she was in a wooden chair of some kind with wheels being pushed by a Melromach soldier with others like him surrounding her.

"Who are they?" she asked, staring at the struggling adventures.

"They." He paused. "Are the other three heroes and their parties."

"Heh? really?" She asked in confusion. "They seem kind of irresponsible; bringing a disabled girl to a wave."

Ainz laughed heartily at the innocent statement. "They're probably trying to level her up… a smart move all things considered. I'd actually like to see at what level she will overcome the effects of the spell."

"Yes, I suppose they ar - oh, it came back." Ainz said.

"What came back?" Raphtalia asked curiously, wondering why he stopped mid-sentence.

"That did," he said pointing up to the sky. Raphtalia squinted and looked up, at the very edge of her visible range was a black dot that grew in size by the second. Her ears twitched as a familiar guttural roar started to stream in with a quiet whistling of air.

The roaring got louder and louder as the thing fell ever closer to the earth until finally, it got so loud that she had to cover her ears.

-hrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrhrh!"

Boom!

The death knight that Ainz had punched earlier came back down right in front of the frozen heroes hitting the ground at terminal velocity, disintegrating it on contact and digging a crater just wide and deep enough that Motoyasu - at the front - easily fell in, still frozen and unmoving amongst the bits of death knight that survived.

It was unintentional but the moment the knight collided with the ground the casting time had come to an end. Ainz reached out with both his hands as if to praise the sun and finally cast his spell.

[Angel Of the Abyss - Abaddon's Locust!] Instantly, the numerous large magic circles he was surrounded in expanded out and up then flatly dissipated into the ether. Then the wind picked up again and blew a gale with such force that the resulting winds of the wave paled in comparison; branches were torn from tree trunks as they creaked and waned, the movement of the forest began to sound like the world was wailing in despair.

Above the village populated by monsters, a massive portal opened. Looking at it from where they all stood it would have been reminisce of the gates the shield hero had summoned before, but no, it was so much more terrifying, the gate was pure unrelenting darkness that warped the space around it and at its core was a black so dark it seemed as if light feared its very presence.

Then suddenly with an all-consuming screech, the gate angrily shot lighting at impossible speeds towards anything that still moved, undead, insects, etc, it was all the same as it began to fuel the existence of the being that emerged from within.

Malice and pure evil flooded the air, overshadowing even that of the wave as the final monster died and the abyssal gate disappeared. There, floating above the village of Lute was a being like none in this world had ever encountered.

Covered in a shroud of black-grey cloth, its visage would normally remind people of a pilgrim or a mourner who did not wish to be seen but, at twenty meters tall and spouting a set of sixteen coal-black wings any mention of the two could be thrown away, this being, this being was nothing short of death incarnate.

As it turned from the mountains and towards its Summoner, its four massive red glowing eyes shone past the infinite void of its hood and scanned its environment and that of the humans that lay beneath it.

Motoyasu had no idea what was going on anymore… Before the wave started he was excited - hopeful even that he would finally be able to free Princess Malty from the prison she had been placed into and finally get one up on the Asshole of the shield.

No one could do anything to help her, the Church could do nothing no matter what they tried, and any items used to try and remove the effect didn't do anything!

As the wave drew closer he had come up with a way to possibly release her through power leveling, forcing her out of the effect.

Then it all went out the window the moment everyone was teleported to the location of the wave, he didn't even get to take a step forward before he found himself unable to move, Itsuki and Ren were probably in the same boat, he couldn't even turn his damn head!

He couldn't see what it was but he knew something was behind him, the purple glow bouncing off the trees in front of him and the quiet hum of… he didn't know but it didn't sound natural.

After a minute or so of just standing there - he felt so useless - he began to hear something else, it was small at first but it began to get louder until even the thrum of whatever was behind him became quiet by comparison. Then boom! Whatever it was collided with the ground, burying itself deep into the dirt and throwing him off balance. He landed with a thud into the crater with his head looking to the sky, now he was finally able to see what was making the hum.

His eyes went wide as he saw the final moments of it, magic circles like none he had seen before spreading up and out and seemed to fade into nothing, everything went quiet then… no wind, no ambient sounds, nothing.

Almost an instant later the world began to scream as the wind picked up and caught the trees overshadowing even that of the ones from the wave, lightning struck somewhere and then again and again and again until it sounded like the continuous fire of an automatic rifle. Just like the wind, that stopped too and it all went quiet again. Frustration grew as tension filled the air - god he wished he could see what was happening - something moved behind him, whatever it was it was massive as it caused a gust of wind that flowed over him and his party and ripped leaves from the trees.

He looked down and the left and saw Itsuki, his face was locked to one of excitement but his eyes were dead, in fear or horror, one of the two… He looked to the other side and caught sight of Rens through his party members, his was flat, his eyes were much the same as Itsuki with a hint of frustration.

He understood a moment later as Death stood above him and said something... odd.

"Your will, O summoner?"

...

"Kill everything that comes out of the fissures in the sky except for the wave boss, it should be a monster, unique to all the others in this event." Ainz replied, his own voice deep and Regal. "Unless I command otherwise do not kill it. Once the fissures are closed, bring me the materials and body parts of every monster type you slay and deposit them into the shield on my arm."

The angel of death gave a nod of acknowledgment to its commands and spun back around, shaking the air as it slowly reaching for the two sickle scythe's at its sides and brought them to cross just above his chest, the blades facing each side of his neck, then... in one quick motion the angel cut it off.

No blood was shed as Its grinning head slid off its neck and fell to the world below and began to turn to ash while its body quickly began to convulse and expand. With a sick, bloody pop, it burst open like a rotten tomato underfoot and its contents began to flow out in the form of a seemingly endless swarm of locusts that crashed against the monsters of the wave like a tsunami devouring every monster the swarm came into contact with.

The hero's and their parties could only look on horrified as monsters of all kinds were being eaten alive, some briefly screaming in their own way for a mere semblance of mercy before they were entirely consumed. The undead that made up a majority of the wave fared no better, their rotten flesh was consumed entirely by the locust swarm rendering them nothing but unmoving bones.

Each monster that died fed its exp to the party of two, as thousands of monsters died, thousands of exp began to filter in, with it level after level was gained, so much so that the dinging of notifications became a single, constant sound that cluttered his field of view with notifications.

After eight minutes Ainz noticed a star symbol appear next to Raphtalia's level indicator and found himself frustrated with the implied meaning of it. "Why would the level cap be forty? I'm at level 55 so it's likely the shield but there has to be a way to get around it, right? Maybe I have to buy an expansion?" He half-joked in thought, leaving the question for Beloukas later.

He continued waiting, letting the wave continue for another minute before he ordered the death of the wave boss, when he did, the millions of locusts that were swarming around it, keeping it imprisoned in a small area, instantly converged on it all at once.

It did not die peacefully… They tore into it, tearing small bits of flesh away, crawling inside through its eyes, mouth and anything else, consuming it from the inside out all while it was still alive.

Finally, a full nine minutes after the wave began, it ended. The swirling vortexes of extra-dimensional magic died and the sky of the world faded back into a serene blue.

The locusts did as they were ordered with the wave now over and the super tier spell coming to its end.

"Shit!" Ainz exclaimed internally, immediately realizing his mistake as the swarm of billions of locusts stopped mid-air, buzzing there as if their time had stopped, then moved as a single entity surging towards him, Raphtalia and the other heroes like a mile-high tidal wave.

[Fly] he cast, rising into the air as quickly as possible in an attempt to get away from Raphtalia and the heroes.

While he may not have ordered their deaths, directly having billions of locusts slam into them would likely if not definitely kill them all.

After flying a far enough distance away so that the swarm had changed course enough to miss everyone, he held his arm aloft and allowed the swarm to start depositing the materials into the shield, often falling in with the material's themselves pushed by the ones on top of them trying to deposit their own loot.

As the wave happened. An entire country away, something else entered this world, forcing itself through the world barrier and into this plane, the item in its four-fingered hand moaning in exertion and glowing a deep blue.

"Ich habe es endlich geschafft!"


Well that's it for now, I've left the ending of Ainz' part open to see what your thoughts are.

This chapter took me longer to write then I would have liked. I have a horrible habit of thinking about something longer than actually writing it. I worked on the fight with Ainz and his death knights for 3 weeks trying to get it right and I had the actual wave written back when chapter 2 came out, but it has been heavily edited since then.

Question. People mainly from the shield hero fandom, how do you think I'm going so far?

I know I've broken a few rules, that much I'm definitely sure of… if you have the time and patience, point them out and I'll try to fix them.


Q&A time

Q. Why does Ainz introduce himself as Suzuki?

not be overly suspicious, that's it.

Q. Ainz can use heavy armor, why?

is a part of his new class [war mage] basically, it grants mages access to heavy armor (ie. Momons armor set) while also limiting the casters' spell selection per level until they have reached max for that job class. If you go back and read the story Ainz has only used only utility and fire spells up until this point. However, if he unequips the heavy armor he has full access to his full arsenal. And yes, [time stop] technically counts as a utility spell since no damage can be done or received while it is active.

Q. Will there be lolis?

may show up as guest party members but won't be a permanent addition, probably. Still not sure about Filo.

Q. Raphtalia's personality is way different from cannon's, how come?

's a bit of a rabbit hole to go down… TL;DR of it is that she is essentially making up for Ainz's lack of one, and the trauma of going through the things she went through wouldn't disappear over the period of two weeks no matter how much she grew mentally, that kind of stuff lingers and affects you to your core. I'll be going deeper on this in later chapters.

Q. Ainz was acting weird in the first two chapters, how come?

could best be described as a case of fucked up dual personalities, apologies for the analogy, hopeful it makes sense… think of a lake (the body of Momonga) and in the center of this lake is a swimmer(Suzuki Satoru), this swimmer is constantly drowning and every now and then a piece of wood( his emotions) will float by to help keep him aloft for a short time until eventually, it sinks to the bottom and the simmer goes back to trying to stay alive.

Q. What's taking so long?

, my will to write has been on a decline for the longest time and I don't really know why tho it probably has something to do with my ADHD and work.


Please leave a review. I would love some feedback on what you thought of the chapter!

I've also started writing chapter 10 so see you in a bit or a while, lol.