She is OVERLORD
Three
The Chief of Carne village quaked in fear as the armored soldiers gathered the villagers in the town square. The soldiers had appeared with almost no warning, encircling the village then attacking. They herded everyone there, and the Chief felt certain they were going to be killed. He tried to seem un-threatening as he listened to some of them talk nearby.
"The western squad hasn't reported in yet. Lazy bastards," the commander of the soldiers cursed, looking sourly around them.
"Lord Belius, I'm sure they're coming," the black haired man answered.
Belius scoffed, "I saw them chasing girls, Londes. They're probably messing about."
Londes Di Clamp kept the pure contempt that he felt for his leader off his face. Barely. Only a corrupt noble like this could imagine such a thing. "Should I send someone to go look for them?" he asked neutrally.
"We'll need their lazy asses when it's time to finish this," Belius sneered.
Londes started to reply when two unfamiliar figures appeared in the west side of the square. "Who...," he blinked.
The woman wore light armor and a winged helm, and her sword was still sheathed at her side. Beside her was a mild looking but finely dressed older man. Both seemed strangely weak, but somehow also gave off a dark aura. The two village children were following them, a bit behind.
Belius instantly decided that the two strangers were 'enemies' and ordered his soldiers, "Squad one! Kill them!"
"Sir!" Londes started, sensing something was wrong, but it was too late.
The five men were big, armed and dressed in portective armor. The woman hadn't drawn her weapon, and the old guy was CLEARLY not much of a threat.
They were a bit confused by her ordering the other man, "Don't kill them. We need captives for questioning."
"Yes, ma'am!" the old man agreed.
The five soldiers spread out, unaware this was actually a bad idea. Not that any option was necessarily good, but spreading out just meant they could be picked off one by one. Which was exactly what happened.
With absolutely inhuman speed, the man just popped up in front of the soldier. "You aren't dying because my mistress commands," he noted, then struck him twice. With no resistance, the soldier just fell over.
The woman casually blocked a sword swing on her arm-guard, then punched the man out. She then grabbed another man, and calmly head butted him into unconsciousness.
"What in the world..." Belius muttered, stunned, as they defeated the remaining two men with frightening ease. The pair casually let their opponents fall to the ground unconscious, then advanced on the ten or so remaining soldiers.
"They're... incredibly strong," Londes realized. They had defeated their soldiers without even drawing weapons!
Belius put himself behind Londes as he yelped, "Protect me!"
Londes rolled his eyes at his leader's sudden cowardice, but he drew his sword as the pair came up to them.
"Put your weapons DOWN, surrender and tell me who sent you," the woman growled out, "because I am not interested in playing with you."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Kobayashi was actually a bit surprised at how angry she felt. Moving through the town they had seen a LOT of dead bodies, people cut down presumably because they had resisted. So many lives, needlessly lost. Such a waste.
The lead soldier was a cut above what they had faced so far, but that didn't mean that much. Her levels were clearly much higher than his. In fact she was tempted to let him hit her, just to see if automatic nullification of low level attacks was working as expected.
"Aaaah!" he yelled as he swung.
Kobayashi casually grabbed the blade in her gloved hand, stopping it cold.
"Wha...," the solder started before she ripped the weapon away, then punched him in the face.
Sebas quickly and efficiently dropped several other soldiers, while Kobayashi finished the rest. "Nicely done," Kobayashi nodded to Sebas.
"Thank you, I am just a humble servant to the great ones," Sebas replied modestly.
Kobayashi and Sebas advanced on the commander and his remaining few bodyguards.
"Protect me!" the leader squealed. "I'll pay whatever you wish!"
Picking up a discarded sword Kobayashi easily bent it into a u shape, then casually tossed it aside.
The soldiers looked at the bent sword, put their weapons down and surrendered. "No, you cowards!" the leader yelped. He tried to bolt, but Sebas intercepted him.
"Please come quietly, the great one wishes to speak with you," Sebas said.
"Aaaah!" the panicked man swung his sword.
Sebas slapped the weapon away, then smoothly restrained him. "Do not struggle," Sebas ordered, "I could snap your arm by accident."
"eeep," the leader moaned.
Meanwhile, the village chief introduced himself timidly to Kobayashi. "You... you saved our village. Why?" he asked.
"That's what you do when you see someone in trouble," Kobayashi shrugged.
The older man just kind of... stared at her in shock.
Kobayashi watched a little sadly as the villagers welcomed back the two kids. From Enri's excited gestures, she was probably telling them about her rescue.
'I hope she doesn't remember me splashing her with blood,' Kobayashi thought.
Sebas returned from where they had corralled the soldiers. "I was able to use my 'Hand of the Puppeteer' skill to make the leader talk," he said, "they are undercover operatives from the Slane Theocracy. They were sent to draw out forces from Re-Estize Kingdom, so they could be trapped and destroyed."
"Huh. Do we know why?" Kobayashi asked.
Sebas bowed as he explained, "They wish to encourage the war between the Empire and the Kingdom, then swoop in once both are weakened."
"Lovely," Kobayashi muttered.
'Master' Albedo's impatient voice came through on the Message skill, 'do you need reinforcements? I and a dozen Eight Legged Assassins are ready to assist.'
Kobsayashi thought about it, 'Come via gate. Deploy the Assassins around the village. We may need to move out, and I want it safe.'
'Yes, Master!' Albedo answered enthusiastically.
The villagers screamed in fear as the magical gate opened, and Albedo emerged in her full armor, a ominous figure in grey, despite her visibly womanly figure.
"Hmm?" Albedo looked around, frowning.
"Be calm, please. She is a friend," Kobayashi quickly reassured them.
The crowd relaxed a bit at that, while Albedo looked mildly amused. "Will we be fighting more of these soldiers?" she asked, looking towards the miserable captives in disdain.
"Were going to find their allies and stop them," Kobayashi said firmly.
"Why?" Albedo wondered mildly.
"They might stumble upon Nazarick. It's best we stop them before they do," Kobayashi said.
"Of course, Master," Albedo agreed.
The village chief had been lingering nearby. "Uhm... I have not heard of this Nazarick," he ventured nervously.
"Of course a human would not have...," Albedo started harshly.
Kobayashi cut her off with a gesture. "It is the capital of the Empire Ainz Ooal Gown. But we will speak of that later."
Albedo looked thoughtful, as if the word 'Empire' had triggered something.
"We are taking the soldiers," Kobayashi said thoughtfully, "we should be back in a day or so..."
The older man just blinked in confusion.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"The raider unit hasn't checked in," Nigun Grid Luin muttered.
The blond haired man was frowning as he studied a map of the region. His hair was trimmed close to his scalp, and he had a slightly hawkish look to him. He and his troops were all dressed similarly in semi-military gear, along with cowl equipped capes.
"They may have raided another village after Carne," his assistant noted.
"Hmph," Nigun grunted.
They were out there in the forest, hiding and waiting, as part of a larger plan. The raiders, disguised as Empire troops, were destroying villages to draw out Gazef Stronoff. They had arranged so he would be without his magical weapons, so once they had him, they would eliminate him. The strongest warrior of the Kingdom would be dead, AND they'd blame the Empire, both of which would benefit the Slane Theocracy.
"We should send a magical scout to Carne," Nigun decided after a moment. "Something feels wrong about this."
"Sir! Someone's coming!"
Nigun hurried to see what the scouts had reported, then froze in surprise. Three figures were leading the raiders, who were all in chains. And they clearly knew where the Sunlit Scripture was.
"Hiiii!" the woman in the lead waved. "I think these belong to you."
At that moment all Negun could manage to say was "What."
To be continued...
Notes: I always wondered why Ainz never questioned the soldiers in the first battle. They had various mind control magics, they could have found out they were from the Slane Theocracy.