After having consoled Albedo by allowing her to rest in the same hut as Momonga, the two teams made their way to the sole entrance of the Shield Maze together. The entrance, a single stone door in the center of an otherwise unremarkable cave, led into a stone atrium decorated with banners, statues, and effigies. Lit candelabras, both hanging and freestanding, bathed the room in a sinister orange glow.
"Hold up, I think I recognize those symbols." Seelah said, moving to study a bas-relief sculpted into a nearby wall. The artwork showed the head of a goat-like creature with large, vicious horns and razor-sharp teeth. "This, I think this is meant to be the demon lord Baphomet. This isn't just some maze, it's a cultist lair! And right beneath Kenabres!"
"The demon lord of minotaurs and Lord of the Labyrinth. I suppose we should have expected as such from the first mention of mazes. But how incompetent are our city's 'defenders' that they could allow this place to be built right beneath their noses? No need to answer, Deskari already did when he waltzed right into the city, despite the Wardstone's protection." Camellia added, her soft tone momentarily gaining a hint of sharpness.
"All this time we thought the Maze was protecting us from going to the surface before we were ready." Lann lamented. "But it was just some demon's trick to keep us down here?! Damnit all, when I find whatever cultists are down here, I'm going to make them pay for every Mongrel life lost in these caves!"
Wenduag silently observed the others with indifference before turning to Momonga and whispering in a lowered tone. "Master, we should keep going, every moment here gives our enemies more time to notice our arrival and prepare."
"Umu, you're right. Everyone!" Momonga spoke up, drawing people from their thoughts. "Get ready, we do not know what may be further in so expect combat and traps at any moment. Now, gather close, I'm going to cast some spells to enhance our abilities."
Ozrut heaved a large piece of rubble from the top of a pile, finally creating a gap large enough to spy the other end of the hallway. When I joined Hosilla, I was promised revenge against that murderer Hulrun. If I knew I'd be spending my days clearing rocks, I'd have stayed in Lackthroat. The half-orc cultist took a moment to catch his breath and wipe his brow. The recent earthquake having collapsed entire sectors of the Shield Maze had meant most of the residents that hadn't been crushed were forced to clear the rubble.
"Oi, you lot just going to watch or actually help out?" Ozrut yelled at three fellow cultists who were relaxing nearby, watching him work.
"I am helping! Moral support; you can do it, Ozrut! Besides, you're 30 silver in the red from cards, do this for me and I'll call us even!" Zorlius, a young tiefling replied. The man had joined the cult after having run into trouble with his "family", a group of tiefling criminals called "thieflings" and was currently sitting atop a broken statue of Baphomet, something that Hosilla would have severely punished him for, were she present.
"I'm a wizard, my mind is strong… my body less so…" responded Sacria, a human witch who repeatedly tried to convince others she was a wizard, usually with little success. Her fellow cultists weren't certain if she truly believed herself to be a wizard or not but most knew of the treatment of witches in Kenabres and so chose not to inquire too deeply.
"Nah, someone's gotta stay on guard duty, right? Besides, manual labor might lead me to develop muscles and that could turn away some clientele." The final cultist present, Insolia, was a woman who had grown up on the streets of Kenabres after her parents were killed in a demon attack. After turning to prostitution to survive, she had been accused by Hulrun and his inquisition of being a worshiper of Socothbenoth, demon lord of sexual gratification, and sentenced to burn. After managing to escape into the sewers, she had been found by Hosilla and quickly joined the cult as a means to survive.
"Fine! Fine!" Ozrut dismissed, having already anticipated their answers. "But I expect you all to do something for me in turn."
"Oh? And what could you ~possibly~ have in mind?" Insolia asked with feigned innocence, giggling as her question turned the green half-orc a deep shade of red.
Though their flirting was brought to an end as Zorlius grabbed his crossbow that he'd laid nearby and put a finger to his lips to motion the others to silence. Ozrut reached for a nearby piece of rubble that he could use as a club, not wanting to make his way to his axe in case his movement generated too much noise.
Turning to face the door that led to the Maze's atrium, Ozrut prepared for what may come. Mongrels looking for their kin or cave-dwelling creatures were all not uncommon, but one thing he did not expect was to see the door flying towards him at high speed.
The array of spells Momonga had cast on the group had only been the basics since putting a dispelling trap near the entrance to a Guild Base was a common tactic to catch players unprepared before a tough fight but even with only a handful of buffs applied, the four natives were taken aback by their new strength.
"Well, I'll be. I feel like I could wrestle a hydra and tie knots with its heads. Er- not that I'd actually do that, of course." Seelah, the paladin was idly swinging her sword, admiring how little strength she needed to put behind a swing to cut one of the demonic statues in half.
"This power… I knew following you would grant me strength. Thank you, Master." Wenduag purred, the final words whispered as if in prayer.
"This is quite the powerful enhancement, I see you're no common mage, Lord Momon." Camellia said as nonchalantly as possible whilst staring intently at the caster as if trying to bore a hole through his mask.
"This is something alright. Even without the angel's sword, I feel like our victory is certain now."
Umu? None of those spells were higher than 5th tier, I was going to use those spells to make anyone inside who might recognize them believe we were low-level but is this whole region low-level? No, I can't afford to think like that. Even if these four are low-level, doesn't mean there's nothing here that can't pose a threat to Nazarick.
"It's good my spells will prove useful to you, but we must remain cautious and not let overconfidence blind us to any threat. Sebastian, can you detect anyone in the room beyond?"
"Yes, Momon-sama. I can sense four living creatures, three of which are eight meters from the door, the third is twelve meters away."
"In which case; everyone, get ready. On my mark, Sebastian will blow open the door and charge the furthest individual. Aurora, Cotsuka, and Seelah will engage the nearest three and tie them in melee. Camellia, stay behind those three and heal if anyone becomes injured. Wenduag and Lann, the two of you engage any targets you have line of sight on and I shall do the same." Momonga's serious taking of leadership elicits nods and affirmations from the rest as the group gathers near the door, preparing to breach.
Sebas laid a single hand on the door and took a deep breath. With a one-inch push, the heavy oak door flew off its hinges with the force of a cannon, impacting against whoever had been at the far end of the room and carrying on to crash against a wall of rubble, crushing what had once been a half-orc into a thin, red paste.
The three designated front-line fighters charged in, though to Seelah it appeared as if the other two had simply apparated in front of the cultists. A cultist holding a wooden staff and wearing robes did not have a chance to begin chanting any spell to indicate whatever type of caster she may be as Cocytus' halberd bisected the woman vertically. Another cultist, one wearing leather armor, fared no better as Albedo's battle-axe decapitated the woman before she could realize what had happened, her head continued to look around in confusion as it fell to the ground.
The final cultist, a tiefling had already trained his crossbow at the door in the case a foe entered and so managed to get off a single shot at the heavily armored woman charging straight towards him. The bolt ricocheted off her shield, splintering as it did so, though before he could load a second bolt, the woman had reached him and, with a single swing of her blade, ended the life of the cultist.
"Hah…hah…" Seelah huffed to catch her breath. The magic Momonga had cast on her was ensuring she was not feeling true fatigue, instead, she was feeling the end of an adrenaline high. "You two are fast. You probably could have killed this one before I was even halfway."
"Dishonourable… Fighting. As. Comrades. Means. Sharing. Glory." Each word of Cocytus blew cool air over the heated paladin.
"Ah, I feel better already. Don't suppose you'd mind me giving you a hug after every training session, do you?" Seelah joked, standing upright and double-checking her equipment.
"The earthquake has collapsed part of the Maze. This hallway used to be longer." Wendaug indicated towards the wall of rubble that now had a red stain on it. "It's not the whole hall that has collapsed, I can make out noises on the other side."
"I see." Momonga spoke, drawing everyone's attention. "In that case, this will be where we split. My team will follow the right-hand wall through the maze and Aurora's team will follow the left." It's like being in Yggdrasil again… Hope the exit isn't in the middle or something like that. What was Trémaux's algorithm again?
"Momong – er, I mean Momon-sama, if I may offer a suggestion; perhaps our team should follow the left-hand wall?" The room seemed to chill and darken as the plate-wearing Albedo began to leak a menacing aura towards the gnat that had the audacity to contradict her beloved. "I mean solely because that is the region I have the most familiarity with and so would be able to offer the greatest benefit to you." Wenduag fell prostrate at Momonga's feet, hoping for sanctuary from an irate Albedo.
"Your suggestion makes sense. Aurora, your team will follow the right-hand wall."
"By your instruction, Momon-sama." Albedo replied with a bow, the oppressive atmosphere disappearing.
Right, I really need to do something about Albedo before she kills an ally. I suppose I should take responsibility for the changes I made… "Aurora, I'm trusting you to lead your team. If you do well, I promise I will reward you my- my love." It's just part of the act… it's just part of the act… Momonga repeated in his mind, though he likely would not feel so confident if he could see the teary face of joy behind Albedo's helmet.
Author Notes:
Hey there, a bit of a shorter chapter than usual but I wanted to split each team's exploration into their own chapter. I'd like to thank all the kind reviews everyone's left, hearing that people are enjoying the story is pretty much the reason I'm making it.
So how would you rank the power of Ainz and other Level 100 characters from overlord compared to Demon Lords like Deskari, Nocticula, Baphomet, Pazuzu with High challenge rating (CR). This is something I actually spent a lot of time thinking about (probably too much time, admittedly) and my first thought was to compare two creatures that are in both series and find the ratio between them. The two creatures I chose were lich (Elder Lich in Overlord) and the dark young of Shub-Niggurath. In Overlord a Lich is level 35 and the dark young are level 90 whereas in pathfinder a lich is CR 12, whilst a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath is… also CR 12. So clearly this method wasn't going to work so next I thought about spells and at what level people acquire them.
A problem here was do I combine level 9 and 10 overlord spells? Armageddon: Evil may be a level 10 spell but in d&d its equivalent is level 9. And what about Super-Tier spells? Are they equivalent to Epic Tier spells? I first checked when both got 2nd-tier spells (Level 8 in Overlord, 3 in Pathfinder for prepared casters) and found 1 pathfinder level to be equal to 2.66. But they don't line up perfectly as 9th-level spells are earned at level 57 in Overlord, and 17 in Pathfinder (1 Pathfinder level = 3.35 Overlord levels). Ultimately, I split the difference with 1 Pathfinder level = 3 Overlord Levels.
What does this mean for the relative power levels? Well firstly, CR indicates challenge and not approximate level, for that, I use the number of Hit Dice a creature has (using pathfinder's Bestiary since in-game stats are difficult to find without playing through the whole campaign every time). Deskari has 33 hit dice, putting him at a respectable level 99 in Overlord standards and the highest on that list is Nocticula at a whopping level 108.
Now, does this mean they're on Ainz's level? Well, not exactly. Pathfinder levels aren't like Overlord levels where a 10-level difference is basically insurmountable. Taking Nocticula for example; her stat block lets her cast three 9th-level spell-like abilities. Wail of the Banshee, Time Stop, and Soul Bind… all effects that are useless against Ainz. Even the rest of her spells are mostly instant-death or mind-affecting. As for her regular attacks? Heavily reliant on poison and energy drain. Deskari's mostly the same; lots of acid, lots of poison, and lots of diseases. And to top it all off, foes of that level are rare in Pathfinder whereas Ainz was dealing with level 100 opponents on the regular.
TL: DR – Ainz doesn't stomp but, barring divine intervention, isn't in for a tough time.