Apparently I've also been spelling Nfirea's name wrong as well, so I'll be fixing that from now on
Everything was going into place. Khajiit had been preparing for this for nearly two years at this point, and it was almost complete. He already had a large amount of undead under his control, but with the help of the [Crown of Wisdom] allowing him to cast the legendary [Undeath Army] he would have more then enough to complete his goal. All he had to do to complete his plan was kidnap Nfirea, and use him to cast the spell
Despite that, for the last two weeks now, whenever he so much as thought of his plan, a chill ran down his spine and the air seemed to get heavier. At first he thought it was just nervousness, but when he went through his daily process of creating new undead, a chunk of marble crushed all of the new ones he had just created. It also nearly killed him, and the only reason he didn't was because Clementine had been under it as well
Thinking sabotage, he had looked for who might of done it, but he couldn't find anything. If it was someone then they had been perfect in their coverup
But no matter. Today was the day that his goal be completed, and nothing would stop him from achieving it
'Life is pain.'
Tabula had been complaining about not getting to go to Nfirea's lab for 20 minutes at this point. When they arrived in E-Rantel the Supreme Beings and Swords of Darkness decided to spit up, with the Swords of Darkness taking the herbs they had gathered back to Nfirea's shop, and the Supreme Beings taking the newly named Hamsuke to be registered with the adventurers guild, much to Tabula's dismay
'It's not that bad.' Yamaiko said, vary much done with his constant complaints
'Not only did you all just go with the dumb name Momonga came up with, but you also made me come with you, instead of going to meet with a famous alchemist!'
'First of all, if we let you name her you would have taken hours, second, we already have more then enough similarities between our personas. We don't need them to be almost exactly the same.'
'You know, you two sound a lot like Touch Me and Ulbert." Peroroncino compared
'Whatever the drawing's done.'
To register a creature into the adventurers guild, you needed a picture of them. You could get said picture by drawing it yourself, or by paying them to use a camera-like magic time
The Supreme Beings, being cheapskates add strike through pragmatic, used Tabula's artistic skills as an excuse to not have to pay
'That was like 10 minutes...' Momonga said
'Actually it was closer to 6.' Tabula corrected
'… I'm beginning to think that our transformation improved more then just our what our YGGDRASIL avatars were good at.'
'Oh most definitely.'
The Supreme Beings had arrived at Nfirea's home/laboratory. Seeing that all of the herbs they had gathered were already stored, they knocked on the door and waited
…
Silence
No sound came from the inside, no shifting of chairs, no footsteps, no voices
'Did they go somewhere?' Takemikazuchi asked
'No, not without telling us.' Touch Me replied 'Something's wrong. Momonga.'
[Silent Magic: See Through]
[See Through] is a 8th tier spell that, as the name implies, allows the user to see through objects and illusions. The first property was rarely used in YGGDRASIL because of how easy it is to block, but Momonga doubted that someone would take measures against it here, with how high tier it is
'They're fighting a necromancer and a mobility-based warrior. Dyne is down, and the rest are heavily injured. We-'
Before he could finish, Touch Me burst through the wall. Seeing the warrior Momonga was talking about, he rocketed towards them, at a speed most wouldn't be able to react to. Swinging upwards he nearly hit them, however at the last moment their body jerked to the side, just barely dodging his attack
The woman, as he could now see, had a face that clearly showed her surprise, but nonetheless, she moved without hesitation. She launched herself towards Nfirea, carefully weaving between the Swords of Darkness. Seeing that she was faster then he had expected, Touch Me activated one of his abilities
[Extra Attack]
The momentum from his swing immediately disappeared, and he was ready to attack again. However his opponent had positioned herself in a way that made it impossible to attack her without hitting one of the Swords of Darkness. She was clearly an experienced fighter
By YGGDRASIL standards however, something like this was fairly standard. As a result there were many way to get around this. One such way was a high level enchantment present on both of his swords, called [Phantom Blade]
Said swords came rocketing towards her, and Peter. A sadistic smile spread across her face, which immediately disappeared when she saw that both blades had become slightly translucent, and fazed through Peter without harming him
She tried to bring her Stilettos up in time to block, however this swing was faster then before. The great sword hit the armor covering her shoulder, but that made little difference as the armor parted in the face of Touch Me's weapon. At least at first. Soon after it was hit, the woman's armor seemed to become extremely hard. Not hard enough that Touch Me couldn't break it if he use his full force, but strong enough that his attack instead ended up launching her away from him
Using her momentum his opponent grabbed Nfirea, weaved through the rest of the Swords of Darkness, (much less gracefully then before) and landed next to a pale, sickly man.
"Wh-" before the man could properly react, she had pulled out a small blue crystal
Realizing what she planned to do, Touch Me quickly made his way forward, but with his considerable bulk getting through the cramped room as fast as she had was impossible
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Takemikazuchi shooting forward, his long blade glistening with frost as its enchantments we're activated. Just before his slash connected, the woman crushed the crystal in her hand, disappearing as the spell stored within took effect
…
For a second, nothing happened
…
Two
…
"What the FUCK was that!?"
Yamaiko's enraged voice shouted out from outside the house, as she and the other Supreme Beings entered
"They were in trouble!" Touch Me shouted back
"So you just rushed in, without having any kind of plan!? Now they've gotten away, and taken Nfirea with them!"
"If I had waited to act, then they might have died!"
"So you couldn't even take the half second to tell us what you were doing?!"
"Not if it means that I'm going to lose someone else!"
The words hung in the air. They all knew what it was like for him in their old world. They all ranted about their IRL jobs in YGGDRASIL, but Touch Me's were often some of the longest. He talked at length about it, watching people die who he was supposed to save. And then seeing their killers run away scot-free
"…you still can't save anyone, if you rush in without any kind of plan."
Touch Me looked like he was going to retort, before Momonga stepped in
"With all due respect, I believe we have more pressing matters."
The other Supreme Beings quickly realized what he meant, and turned to look at the Swords of Darkness. Peter was nearly unconscious, with deep gouges throughout his body, and Lukrut was nearly mummified from Negative Energy. Ninya was in the best condition by far, but even he had several cuts, and looked noticeably thinner. Dyne was lying on the ground, and there was a sickly trickle of blood going down his cheek
With on last glare towards Touch Me, Yamaiko went over to help with their wounds
"[Empower Magic: Mass Cure Light Wounds]"
The positive energy from her spell washed over the Swords of Darkness, closing their wounds, and restoring their energy. Despite this however, Dyne remained on the floor
Yamaiko moved to help him, when Peter stoped her
"He's dead." He said simply
Peter and Lukrut looked away from the corpse of their friend, while Ninya tried (and failed) to stop himself from crying
Yamaiko looked back at the other Supreme Beings, the unspoken question passing between them
'All in favor of reviving Dyne?' Momonga asked
'Me.'
'Yes.'
'Of course.'
'What do you think?'
'Worth a shot.'
'How did you get him killed this quickly?!' Bukubukuchagama cut in from Nazarick
'Later.' Momonga responded simply
'So you just expe-'
[Message end]
"I can revive him."
The Swords of Darkness turned to look at her in shock
"W-what-"Peter began
"I can cast the spell [Raise Dead]. With it I can revive him."
"B-but, doesn't that spell r-require a large amount of gold?" Ninya said, just barely stoping himself from breaking down in tears "I don't-"
"It's alright. If you can't afford it, we will pay for it."
That did it. The weak dam that allowed the Swords of Darkness to keep from braking down crying broke. Tears flowed from their eyes freely, as they sobbed their thanks
Look at the scene in front of him, Takemikazuchi felt thankful that someone else would not have to grief today
"Now that we have that sorted out..." he began, turning around to look at the massive crowd that had formed around them "We should sort this out."
Tabula pinched the bridge of his nose (or were it would normally be) "We just keep getting more and more problems to deal with, don't we?"
"Well this and saving Nfirea is probably the last of it." Momonga said, trying to comfort him
"What is going one here?!" A voice shouted out from the crowd
Looking other to were it came from the Supreme Beings saw a short old lady coming out of the crowed. Someone who they recognized as Lizzie Bareare, Nfirea's grandmother
Momonga could could feel Tabula's glare even through both of their masks
"S-sorry."
Momonga, Touch Me, and Tabula calmly walked through the graveyard, while a mass of undead parted around them
If one were to wonder why these mindless undead were clearing the path for them, they would be soon answered, as a skeleton was pushed too close to them, and promptly evaporated. This was because of Touch Me's [Aura of Good, a Paladin and Cleric ability that would normally lessen the effects of evil-aligned spells, attacks, or other effects within its radius. However, with their arrival in this new world, it gained the effect to actively purity sufficiently weak creatures, areas, and objects
When combined with the extreme difference between the power of most of the beings in this world, and the Supreme Beings, and you end up with him evaporating most undead when they get near him
As one might expect, these three were going to save Nfirea, and dish out some revenge (albeit for vastly different reasons between the three of them). Takemikazuchi and Yamaiko meanwhile were dealing with the rest of the undead, and healing the few injured
Reaching the center of the graveyard, the Supreme beings found a group of men in black robes, chanting, and grouped around each other. Spying the man from earlier among them, the Supreme Beings made their presence known.
Spotting them in turn, the man clicked his tongue "Tsk, you're here. I had hoped my undead would have killed you."
Touch Me drew one of his greatswords, and pointed it at the man "Where are they?"
"Over here."
The women who had attacked the Swords of Darkness stepped out of the mausoleum and into the light. The gouge along her armor mysteriously gone
"What have you done with Nfirea!"
"Oh I just have some fun with him!" She brought out one of her Stilettos and licked the blade "His screams were so nice."
"Why you-!"
"Oh cut the crap!"
All of the heads in the cemetery, snapped to Tabula at the excitation
"If you went through all of the trouble to kidnap an important figure like Nfirea, then it wouldn't just be to torture him. If you two want to have your kiddy fight, then do it somewhere else, so my ears don't bleed at all of your cliché lines."
"…"
"Let's fight over there."
Without waiting for an answer, Touch Me begin walking away from the group
"Oh you're no fun." The woman pouted, "Save him for me will you?"
The man was about to answer, before Tabula replied in his stead
"I could say the same to you."
"Oh~? What's that supposed to mean?"
"I was thinking about taking a Martial artist to do some experiments with, but now I don't even really need to bother. I just need to fake your death, and kidnap you."
"Ohhh! Pervert~!"
"…"
"Great now I have two insane people to deal with." The man groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose
"Hahaha." She chuckled, before joining Touch Me
As the two walked away, the remaining group began eyeing each other up
"I don't believe I've gotten your name, I am Momonga, and this is Tabula."
The man scowled at him "If you must know, my name is Khajiit. However that won't matter after I kill you."
"Well that's unfortunate. Tabula you may sit this one out. I know how much you like 'metaphors' or whatever this counts as, and no, I won't kill him."
The hidden tentacles on Tabula's face shifted into his equivalent of a smile "you know me all too well."
Khajiit clicked his tongue "Idiots." The group of men surrounding him began to chant their spells, before they were all stoped by Momonga
"[Maximize Magic: Fireball]"
A gout of flame sprung into his hand, before being launched at the group. When it reached them, it exploded into a ball of brilliant fire. When the flames receded, they revealed Khajiit, minor burns layering on his skin
Momonga was confused for a second, before realizing what happened. [Protection Energy - Fire]
Khajiit's scowl only deepened "How annoying. Let me show you how pathetic what you're doing is."
"[Fly]"
A [Skeletal Dragon] descended from the sky. It swiped its claw at Momonga, but before it could hit, he use the magic of his spell to move out of the way
"If you think that this is all it will take to guaranty your victory, you will be disappointed."
Khajiit, who was about to proclaim his victory again, instead looked on in annoyance "Do you really think you can defeat a creature with complete magic resistance? You must be even more stupid then I thought."
Momonga sighed "is that really what you think? Well I suppose that's not too out hard to believe, if pathetic. [Summon 4th tier Undead]!"
In front of him, a plum of black smoke appeared. It coalesced into the shape of skeleton, one wearing a rusted set of steel half-plate armor, and similar conditioned shield and long sword. However the most striking part of the undead, was that its bones, were crimson red in color
It was a [Red Skeleton Knight]
A level 22 undead, [Red Skeleton Knight]'s were mostly used by level 30-35 players, as swarm troops. Through it was also used as a temporary wall at lower levels, if a tank went down, or if they needed to retreat
Seeing the spell being cast, Khajiit realized why he wasn't worried at the sight of his [Skeletal Dragon]. While still foolish, if he could summon enough undead of that strength, he could over power the [Skeletal Dragon]. The problem is if he had the mana to do so
Not to mention Khajiit could cast spells to aid his summon
"[Reinforce Armor, [Lesser Strength, [Shield Wall]." These spells would make taking out his [Skeletal Dragon] far harder, forcing Momonga to summon more undead, or cast spells on his undead in turn
Or at least, that's what he thought
"[Unnatural Power, [Unnatural Vitality]."
Khajiit furrowed his brows at the unfamiliar term. Were they spells he had never heard of before? Or was it something else?
Rushing forward, his [Skeletal Dragon] swiped at its foe, its might seemingly incompatible to the merger Skeleton. However, as soon as it's claw met the rusted shield, it stoped dead in its tracks, the [Red Skeleton Knight] moving but a few feet back. Before the Dragon could recover from its attack, the Knight swung his sword, throwing its attacker back
In truth, both attacks were about the same strength, but due to their relative positions, the [Red Skeleton Knight]'s looked more powerful
Khajiit looked back at Momonga. Whatever he had done was far more potent then the spells Khajiit had cast. Normally a [Skeletal Dragon] would be noticeably stronger then a [Red Skeleton Knight, but whatever Momonga had done, not only greatly lessened the gap, but also did so after the Dragon had been buffed by Khajiit
This would be a long fight
The two warriors walked through fields of the dead, a place tainted by the dead and undead alike, to their battle ground. In most storys, this could only end with them fighting each other in a nail-bitingly close confrontation, inevitably ending with one of them dying in a spectacular fashion
But who ever said this was like most storys?
"You know you really are stupid for challenging me like this. Maybe if you and your buddies switch, you might have had a chance~."
Glancing back at her, Touch Me responded "And why is that?"
A sickening smile spread across her face, "There's no warrior in this country that can beat me, and your buddy's can't win against Khajiit. Though, even if you did, none of you could win against me."
Touch Me was about to reply with one of his usual lines, but then stopped. This wasn't a fair battle, he couldn't lose. If that's the case, why fake a struggle, when all that would do, is confirm her ego. Tell her that she is one of the strongest warriors there is
Why not show her how wrong that is? Why not show her the price for hurting someone who he cares about? Why not show her THE PRICE FOR CHEATING HIM!? FOR Ḅ̴̈̐̃È̵̙̰̓͜T̶͈͍̐R̵̺̉͆͋A̸͙̼̍̽Y̷̨̼̊̾̚I̶͇͇̰͊̾N̵̑̂ͅĠ̶̻̙ ̵͕̏̈́͜͝H̸̨̀͋Ì̵̧̝͝-̷̥̥͑͛
"Hey, are you listening?"
Turning around to look at her, he felt the urge to cut her in half, but managed to simply glare at her
"Oh scary~."
"So you are confident in your abilities as a warrior then?"
"Of course~, what kind of question is that?"
Touch Me took his massive great swords off his back, and threw them to the side. Reaching behind his back, he pulled out a small, curved silver dagger, from his inventory
It was a [Dagger of Wind, a Medium tier item that they had found in the treasury, like most of their other gear. Thinking back to finding it, reminded Touch Me of their colorful encounter with Pandora's Actor {I'll tell you guy about it later}
"Then let me show you how wrong you are."
The woman eyed the dagger, with a scowl on her face. "Do you really think you can beat me, the great Clementine, with that?"
While it was true that it would be foolish to purely think you can beat someone based on first impressions, the idea that someone who clearly had a preference towards heavy weapons could effectively use something so light, was just as silly
In most cases
"Yes." was all Touch Me said. It was all he needed to say
For a second, her scowl remained, before it was replaced with a predatory grin. "Fine then. If you want to die so badly, I won't stop you~."
She lowered herself into a stance that was like a standing runners crouch
She drew one of her stilettos, before rushing forward, like a spring releasing all the tension it held
Faster then what should be humanly possible, Clementine ran at him, and all of the force behind her slammed into Touch Me shoulder
[Quick Guard]
It should have pierced his armor, and shoulder with it, but just before it hit, a strange sheen covered his body for a brief moment. Once the stiletto collated with his armor, all the momentum put behind it disappeared
[Quick Guard] was a rather generic Warrior ability. It could be activated at almost any time, and while it was active, the user couldn't be hurt by most standard (bludgeoning, slashing, or perching) attacks. The downside is that it only lasted for a split-second, and the user would be unable to act for a while if it didn't intercept an attack. Even if it did stop an attack, the user still couldn't do anything for a second, the main exception being…
[Retaliate]
Touch Me's arm shot towards Clementine, made even faster from the enchantments on his blade. Recovering from the shock of her attack being canceled out, Clementine used [Flow Acceleration] to try to avoid the attack
[Precision Strike]
Touch Me's attack, suddenly changed direction, moving in the way of Clementine's doge. It still missed her body, but managed to cut into her left arm. Cringing from the pain, she used [Dull Pain] to decrease it to manageable levels
Moving over his head, Clementine, moved to strike Touch Me's back, but…
[Extra Attack]
Touch Me rapidly turned around, slicing at her. This forced Clementine to fully retreat, but as she did so, she noticed that Touch Me didn't chase after her at all
Finally getting some room to breathe, Clementine inspected her wound
It was deep, and even through [Dull Pain] it hurt. If it wasn't treated with healing magic, she might lose the arm, and it would definitely get infected
"Perhaps you are starting to see the distance between us now?"
She could only glare at him. It was true after all. For someone to be able to land such a hit on her by itself was an accomplishment. To do so while welding a weapon outside of one's specialty is even more so
Despite that, Clementine would never admit to it being true
Taking out one of her potions, she applied it to the wound. It closed immediately, and she felt a soothing wave move through her body. However, for some reason, the wound did not close completely. It should have been gone, like it never existed, but for some reason it was still there. Luckily, it was purely superficial now, and she could play it off as if this was what she expected to happen
"Don't think that hitting me once is all you need to do."
"Ah, you still don't understand do you?" He tilted his head slightly, as if confused "Then I guess I'll have to show it better."
He bent his knees slightly, moving into a low stance. His dagger held by the bottom of it handle
Realizing that he was going to attack her now, Clementine prepared to put more distance between them. However before she could act, he flicked his wrist, throwing his dagger at her
Seeing him throw his only weapon at her at such long range, she merely moved at bit to the side to doge it. Seeing him open with no way to counter attack, a predatory grin nearly spit her face in half. She was about to rush at him, before the dagger changed it trajectory mid flight
Quickly acting, she activated [Greater Ability Boost] and [Flow Acceleration, and was able to use her stiletto to deflect the blade
Immediately, from the corner of her eye, she saw Touch Me rushing at her, using the distraction of the thrown weapon to mask his approach
She began to move into a stance, only for the dagger imbedded in the ground next to her to suddenly jump back into his hand, causing her to flinch in surprise
[Lunging Attack]
Taking advantage of the opening, Touch Me jumped through the air towards his target, his dagger in position to skewer her. Said target brought its Stiletto up in a feeble attempt at blocking the attack with [Invulnerable Fortress]
[Disabling Strike]
[Holy Smite]
Clementine gasped in pain, as the force of the blow knocked her Stiletto out of her hand. The pain only got worse, as holy energy coursed through her body
[Extra Attack]
Through the pain she managed to make out a mailed fist rushing at her
And she saw black
Both sides had managed to get in multiple hits by now, and were noticeably worse from when they started off. Sections of the [Skeletal Dragon]'s 'scales' had fallen off, and the [Red Skeleton Knight] had obtained several cracks along its exposed head
"[Ray of Negative Energy]!" A black beam of negative energy, shot from the coal-like, onyx in Khajiit's hand, towards his [Skeletal Dragon]. The spell would have restored his creature to peak condition, however before it could do so, Momonga cast a spell of his own
"[Protection Energy – Negative]."
Why he would cast such a spell escaped Khajiit, until he felt a force stop his [Ray of Negative Energy] from fully healing his [Skeletal Dragon]
Unbeknownst to most, if someone has resistance, immunity, or vulnerability to positive or negative energy, the amount that they are healed by it is increased or decreased proportionally
Realizing what he had done, Khajiit began to cast another spell, when a voice sounded out
"Ah, you're not done yet?"
Recognizing the voice, panic shot through Khajiit. He turned to make sure he was right, but that only made him even more terrified. That was because, casually standing in the distance was the paladin who had gone with Clementine. But what was truly terrifying was that next to him, being dragged along in the dirt, was a beaten, and bloody Clementine
"Ah, I thought you'd like more time for yourself, but it seems the opposite is true." Momonga calmly spoke
Khajiit frantically look back and forth between the two, eyes the size of pinpricks. The implications that, not only was this man strong enough to beat Clementine, but didn't even look tired for it, was more then he could handle
"[Skeletal Dragon]! Kill him!"
His frantic mind looked for any saving grace, any way for him to escape
"[Undead Domination]."
But he found none
The creature he had spent months creating, one that should have guaranteed his victory, slipped from his control. It stoped following his orders, and instead turned to face him. It had found a new master
A stronger master
"H-how?" Khajiit fell onto his behind, fear seeping into his voice
"Ah yes, I suppose that's the question everyone is asking?" Tabula said, "Then I think we should reveal the answer."
Taking off the strange metal mask he wore, Tabula revealed his true face. It was a pale blue, with long slimy tentacles dripping down its chin. Its eyes were black and beady, and somehow looked both unfocused, and incredibly intelligent at the same time
Khajiit barely had time to scream at the horrific abomination, before the other caster took off his mask. It revealed a smooth, fleshless, skull, with a pair of twin crimson flames, flickering in its eye sockets
"You- why!?" Among the revelations the reveal brought, so too did it bring a question "Why have you stopped me!? I would have brought death to this city! Why would you, an [Elder Lich, try to stop that!?"
The monster that called himself Tabula, shook his head "Ah, you rash, ignorant human. Let me guess? 'The world hates me, so I shall take revenge on it'. That's your thought process, isn't it? You have no idea what you're really doing, just playing with powers far beyond your competition. It's disgusting really." He started moving towards Khajiit, hand outstretched
"Perhaps you will understand in time, but for now, just [Sleep]."
And he saw black
Happy last day of school! Or belated last day, or early last day. Ether way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because WOW, did it take a while. Most of that was due to writers block, but a good amount was also just me being lazy. Unfortunately, I don't know if summer will give me more time to work on this, or if I'll be so busy having fun that I won't be able to. Additionally, I'm going into high school, so that will almost certainly slow my progress. But do not fear! I will be finishing this story no matter what. That being said, I will be re-writing some of the earlier chapters. However, for now, thank you for enjoying this chapter of World Overlords, and I hope to see you next time