Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for editing, Hakon!

Part 1

As Aisul flew through the hallway, he took note of his surroundings. Aisul seemed to be underground by the lack of natural light, but that could just as easily be caused by the opaque nature of the doors which appeared to alternate from his right to his left every ten meters, and on the walls at flying height rested enchanted sconces which lit the corridor. But Aisul could not afford to dwell as he came to a T intersection in the corridor.

Peeking around the corner, and looking to his right. Aisul saw a corridor that seemed to stretch on as long as the hallway he came from. Looking to his left, Aisul saw a staircase manned by 2 guards who stood at the top of it.

'Shit! …I don't have a choice do I? I've got to get out of here...' Aisul thought to himself.

As a follower of Surshana, Aisul had no desire to needlessly take human lives. The doctrines of which he followed would not allow it. But the followers of death are not as harmless as this makes them sound. If it would serve their goals, then they would do as their teaching taught them and bring death to the world. So knowing he had no other choice, Aisul raised his palm towards the top of the staircase and cast.

"[Maxamize Magic - Fireball]"

The guards for their part, when they noticed, immediately turned towards the voice while putting a hand on their sword. It was too late for them, however. By the time Aisul's fireball reached them, the guards had just started to evade, but they were too late. With a flash of heat and a rumbling aftershock, the knights fell dead in a pile of sizzling flesh.

'Alright, let's go,' Aisul calmly thought to himself. Flying to the top of the stairs Aisul found himself in a short corridor that ended at a spiral staircase.

Little did Aisul know, he had just won the lottery. If he had taken a right instead of a left at the intersection he found himself before; he would have only crawled deeper into the bowels of the Ministry. However, on the path that he was on, he would easily be able to fly straight up and out of the ministry's most inner sanctum, but there was a problem.

"It should be around here somewhere!" A voice from somewhere higher on the staircase reached Aisul's rotting ears.

"Remember, Fluder-sama wants it captured! Don't kill it!" another voice added.

'They're on to me! Shit!' Aisul began to panic before calming down.

'There's nowhere to hide, but wait… they want to capture me hm?' Aisul thought while raising the bag of Magi-Quartz he was holding onto.

Retrieving two pieces of Magi-Quartz from the bag, Aisul held both the neck of the bag and the two pieces of improvised explosives in his left hand to keep his right hand open for casting magic. The chunks of Magi-Quartz he retrieved out of the bag were not the largest pieces, but seeing them in conjunction with the bag would surely be enough to dissuade anyone from vaporizing him.

Before Aisul could completely ready himself, a group of three magic casters led by a middle age man flew straight down the center of the spiral staircase. Seeing him, the leader called out, "Stop right there, Lich!"

"Kaha, haha, You don't have the balls, human!" Aisul said while raising the explosives that were enough to blow the foundation of the ministry into dust.

Seeing what was in his land, the leader of the trio with a startled expression, took a step back; prompting the rest of the team to follow.

"That's right! I'll not let you capture me alive! …Well I'm undead… But that's not important!" Aisul began before continuing, "I'm getting the hell out of here, and none of you can stop me! If you try, you'll kill us both! Kaha, hahaha!"

"Balian-dono, what do we do?" The man in robes in the back left corner of the formation asked.

"There's nothing you can do! I'm leaving!" Aisul quickly interrupted before immediately taking off towards the top of the spiral staircase.

"Damnit!" Balian roared before yelling, "Chase after him!" prompting the team that had previously followed him to take the lead.

[Message]

"Fluder-sama, it's getting away!"

…

"It's holding a bag of Magi-Quartz, Fluder-sama. We can't!"

…

"Yes, understood, Fluder-sama."

And with a sigh of relief, Balian started to fly after the lich who was well on his way to freedom.

—-

As Aisul soared into the air, rising through the spiral staircase at a rapid rate; he was elated.

"Yes!" Aisul shouted as the air whistled past his face. But he was drawn out of his elation by the sound of the humans chasing him.

"Stop where you are!" a foolish human wearing a dark robe told him.

"Fools! Why would I stop!" Aisul mocked as he narrowly dodged between the railings of the staircase. With the humans in dark robes following close behind.

"Fluder-sama is waiting out there for you! You won't last 5 seconds, lich!" a more distant voice reached his ears.

'Damnit! Why!' he thought in a panic before calming down.

"I have no reason to fear him, human! He will not allow me to atomize his research! Kaha! Haha!" Aisul continued to mock, but this was a front. In truth, Aisul was scared. Aisul knew that if he was to be captured again, he would not have another opportunity like this one; and even if he did go out with a giant explosion, that would be it. There would be no recovery from turning to dust.

Continuing his ascent, Aisul could start to see light coming from the ceiling of the tower. But Aisul could not tell where the front door was. From the stairs, it seemed to Aisul that every floor was the same, but he could tell one thing. As he continued to ascend, the walls, the stairs, and their railings were closing in on him.

'Damnit! This place is a maze!' Aisul thought to himself, and he was correct. This staircase was specifically designed to confuse those who would try to break in or escape. From this staircase, there were no identifying marks on what floor you arrived at; those who knew, knew, and those who don't, don't.

"You have nowhere to run, lich! You passed the entrance long ago!" The human at the back yelled at him.

Seeing that he had no choice, Aisul had come up with a plan. A simple plan, but a plan nonetheless. Slowing his ascent, as he was nearing ever closer to the roof. Aisul looked behind him and raised his right hand.

"You leave me no choice, Take this!"

"Get under the stairs!"

[Fireball]

As the Fireball flew toward the human magic casters, they all successfully evaded; taking cover behind the solid stone stairs; the fireball hitting the railing of the stairs below. One might consider this a failure on Aisul's part, but Aisul's goal was not to hit the people following him but to distract them instead.

[Lesser Strength]!

'This is it! This should be enough!' Aisul thought to himself while taking the bag in his right hand and throwing it straight into the air, on course to hit the roof of the staircase. As Aisul saw that the course of his bomb was true, he immediately raised his hand back into the sky, casting.

[Fireball]!

As the fireball flew, catching up to the bag that was mear moments from hitting the roof; Aisul sought cover in the same way as the human casters did before. Moments later, both the ball of fire and the bag of explosives rendezvoused with the roof. Creating an explosion that could be heard from the closest village to the capital; causing the roof of the Imperial ministry's innermost tower to collapse.

As the roof of the tower collapsed, the ruble started to fall down the middle of the staircase, making anyone following him from inside the tower struggle to keep up.

"You bastard! You'll pay for that!" The burly voice from earlier reprimanded him.

Aisul spared no time to listen to him, however. This was his chance, and he was going to take it.

'I Just gotta get the hell out of this teleportation ward!' Aisul thought in a hurry while flying through the hole he created in the ceiling.

Breaching the hole in the roof, Aisul was in the open air for the first time in weeks. But he had no time to waste.

'According to that human, that old man will be around here somewhere,' Aisul thought while turning his head while flying straight towards the perimeter of the complex he found himself over.

'Come on! Just over the wall and ten more seconds before I can do that!' Aisul thought to himself while bracing to use the strongest spell he could use. Ordinarily, Aisul would be able to cast the spell twice in a row before running out of mana, however, he had just spent a majority of his mana escaping.

As Aisul flew, he saw out of the corner of his eye the silhouette of a man in a flowing robe flying after him. Luckily for him, however, Aisul had quite the head start on the man who he assumed to be his jailor. But what Aisul did not anticipate was for the man who was chasing after him to teleport behind him and raise his hand. Quickly though, in retaliation, Aisul raised the remaining crystals in his hands in the air while continuing to fly and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Wait! You want to capture me, right! You can't do that if I'm completely dead!" Aisul pleaded while flying ever closer to the wall.

After a few moments of consideration while chasing the lich who seemed to be pleading for its un-life. Fluder made his decision and said.

"That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

[Dragon-] But as Fluder started to cast his magic, Aisul started to cast his own.

While Fluder was making his decision, he allowed the lich in front of him to breach his wards. What he failed to take into account is the existence of meta magic. Fluder assumed the lich in front of him to be a fourth-tier caster by looking at him with his talent; meaning that Fluder could simply follow after the lich if he was to teleport away with dimensional movement. But this was not the spell Aisul was going to cast.

[Overmagic - Teleporation]!

The lich cast as he disappeared from Fluder's sight, causing him to blankly stare where he used to be. Fluder spent some time like this in silence before speaking to the air. "I'm such a fool…."

Taking out a notebook and enchanted pen from his robes, Fluder made two entries into his research notes.

A lich who is recovering in its phylactery can revive itself in four days or potentially even less.

Store the undead, and explosive materials in separate rooms.

Interlude

"Ready your swords!" Gazef Stronoff shouted at the recruits that made up his warrior band.

With the rustling of chainmail, and clanking of the few plates they wore. all fifty of Gazef's troops did as he said, and raised their swords. Gazef did not consider the men in front of him to be the finest troops. But they were all resilient and good men, ready to lay down their lives for the sake of the Kingdom. Even if they didn't have the best equipment or skills, they were all worthy of being called warriors in Gazef's eyes.

"You know the drill by now! I say one, you raise your sword, I say two, you swing! Now go! One! Two! One!..." Gazef began, continuing to instruct the soldiers on their drills.

By now, all of Gazef's men were sick of training. This could be easily seen by their glistening faces and tired expressions, but Gazef didn't care. The upcoming war with the empire would not allow them to rest. Gazef knew that the empire's knights were not pushovers. With each one of them wearing enchanted armor, an enchanted weapon, and years of training to match them. Gazef knew the average conscript would stand no chance, their only recourse would be to fight together against a single knight, or get a lucky stab of their spear or pike to a gap in the enemy's armor.

Gazef's troops were not simple pikemen, however. Each one of them was equipped with a metal round shield and an enchanted steel bastard sword, and a basic mace on their side. The equipment might not have been the best, but it was roughly equal to the equipment of the empire's knights, and compared to the conscripts, each one of them had talent; in time they will be fine soldiers. For now, however, they still have much training ahead of them to reach that point.

"You're all still sloppy!" Gazef shouted after twenty swings.

After a groan of dissatisfaction from his men, Gazef started commanding them once more. "Stop your complaining! Twenty more! This time with more than just your arms!"

"Yes! Chief-Warrior!" Gazef's ragged men shouted back in unison as they readied their swords once more.

"Good! Twenty more! One! Two! One!..." Gazef barked as he allowed his mind to wander.

'These men are better than the conscripts, but hell… compared to an adventurer they're no better than silver plates, and we only have 4 weeks until the battle…Well, they're better than nothing,' Gazef concluded his thoughts while yelling at his men once more.

"Good! Again!" Gazef shouted as the pale orange glow of dusk took hold of the sky.

Part 2

As Jircniv's day of preparations ended, he relaxed in his chair. Recently, Jircniv had to divert a significant amount of funds from the state's treasury for several things; causing him to not be in the best of moods.

Jircniv was a man who knew the value of gold. Each gram of that dark yellow soft metal was enough to have a significant impact on just about any aspect of his nation. If put towards the people, his reputation could be improved. If the gold is spent on a noble; connections could be gained. But this time Jircniv received none of those things.

This time, Jircniv was forced to spend an incredible amount of gold to have the ministry repaired. When Jircniv had first heard the event of what happened in the ministry, he was furious. Jircniv found Fluder's experiments questionable in the first place, but to store an undead that had previously revived itself in front of his eyes, with explosives, was the most foolish thing Jircniv had ever heard of. So much so that Jircniv came to refer to the escape of that lich as Fluder's biggest defeat.

But this was not all Jircniv had to spend gold on, and this led to the events of Jircniv's evening. Ever since the discovery that Ainz, with his talent, could make the equipment of the knights better, Jircniv had approved of having a trial run of these improved swords, but the process was quite costly. To enchant a standard knight's sword, one would first need to spend upwards of sixty gold, on a good day, for reagents in the enchanting process. Then an enchanter would need to be hired to perform the enchantment, and If said enchanter is hired from the ministry, they too would take their cut.

'

One might wonder how the empire was able to afford so many of these swords if their enchantments cost so much. But the truth of the matter was that the military's supply of equipment had been steadily built up over the past century with the support of many of the empire's most influential elites, the dead ones Jircniv killed on his way to the throne included. The empire did not equip all eighty thousand of its knights overnight, after all.

This time, however, the price would be offset by Fluder and the gold he had managed to collect over the years. After his colossal screw-up, Jircniv would not allow the old man to go unpunished. So to serve as punishment, Fluder would be the one to pay for the fifty new swords made by Ainz, and Ainz's payment. At first, Jircniv had considered this punishment to be far too light. But hearing what Ainz was receiving for his payment, Jircniv had no complaints. Although the item that would serve as payment had been in Fluder's possession for quite some time, this did not take away from its value.

"Are you sure you want to give that away to him, Fluder? That ring is worth a fortune, no?" Jircniv while reaching for a nearly empty glass of red wine. Finishing the glass, a maid walked forward and took it from him.

"I am quite sure, your majesty. There is no way that he will be able to resist the path of a magic caster after he uses it," Fluder said with mirth in his voice.

The Item that Fluder was going to pay Ainz with was an item called the Ring of Flight. A ring made from Mythril with two sky blue opals set within its top. The ring in question was enchanted to give its user two uses of the Flight spell per day at no cost to the user.

"Hm, alright then. However, I have my concerns… If Ainz continues to receive magic items at the rate he is. He will soon become the world's deadliest seven-year-old by the time of his birthday…" Jircniv spoke his worries to the air but no one seemed to take him seriously, as the occupants of the room: Fluder, Nimble, Loune, and the Maids, all began to laugh.

"I was… Nevermind. Just don't go overboard with things, Fluder." Jircniv said with doubt in his voice.

"Of course, your majesty," Fluder said with a bow.

"Speaking of his birthday, Loune, have we received a response from the theocracy yet?"

Hearing his liege's question, Loune started to rustle through a folder that contained various envelopes and paper. After looking through the folder for some time he found what he was looking for and spoke. "Yes, your majesty. This came in just this morning."

Accepting the letter from Loune, Jircniv opened the letter and unfolded the paper within, reading it to himself.

After reading the letter to completion, Jircniv sighed and spoke. "I see. As expected," handing the letter to Fluder.

Fluder, accepting the letter and reading it closed his eyes in disappointment and spoke. "To charge us to give them information is quite the insult to injury."

"Indeed, no doubt this diviner in training will relay everything they learn to whoever wants to know," Jircniv spoke while accepting the letter back from Fluder.

"Well, it's not like I have a choice. Look's like I am spending even more gold than I expected," Jircniv spoke resignedly.

For a few moments, Jircniv lounged in his chair with a disappointed look on his face until eventually breaking the silence by asking Fluder, "Old man, what's Ainz up to these days? Has he learned any new magic?"

"Unfortunately not, your majesty. To my knowledge, Ainz in his free time is reading books from the library. Although I have heard from Olivia that Ainz is trying to make something he found in one of the books he's read," Fluder mentioned while stroking his beard.

"Hm? And what would that be, Fluder?" Jircniv questioned while raising a brow.

"I don't quite recall…" Fluder began, trying to remember what he had heard from Olivia. "I believe it was something called a gear, your majesty."