The Wheel and the Great Tomb of Nazarick
A FAN FICTION BY BUF_BUODA
CHAPTER 6
A/N: Double upload! Insert usual disclaimers, and on with the story!
Carne Village...
The woman called Moiraine was extremely interesting. She had kept the arrows at bay, raised a wall of flames to keep the cavalry at bay, and eliminated the second batch of summoned angels that charged her and the swordsman. Destroying the summons was the first time she attacked directly though. A white bar of pure light had struck the angels, carving them up. Everywhere the bar touched, the angels faded away as though they hadn't been there at all. Things got a bit boring when the goblin army arrived, and the summoners had to redirect their angels to keep them at bay. Lupu could not see how she made her spells, even though she felt her the mana in the spells. Her method was interesting, and solidified the the resolve the maid had to take the meat bag to Ainz-sama.
'There goes my fun,' thought Lupusregina Beta sourly as the summoned angels focused on the goblin army. That too had been a surprise initially, and Lupu took note of it for her next report to Ainz-sama. For now though, it was time for something else.
Lupu hopped down from her seat on the wall, and strolled up to the horse of the leader of the rude people who summoned the angels, intent on ending the engagement now. The woman didn't notice her at all. She didn't notice the nin goblin that crept up on her either - at least until his sickle was to her neck. She recovered though. The way she took advantage of the nin goblin's reluctance to kill her was masterful, and the twisted look of ecstasy on her face was, in Lupusregina's mind, a redeeming quality. That was why she dropped her stealth and applauded the woman instead.
The woman snarled and rushed at Lupusregina at what was probably her best speed. Pathetic. But with some re-education with Demiurge-sama, she might actually become passable. After all, she had some parts of the right attitude already.
'Better check with Ainz-sama,' thought the maid as she dodged a swing of the drawn blade of her opponent, tore out the throat of her horse that tried to kick her with one hand, and took a [Message] scroll out of her inventory with the other.
[Message]
[Ainz-sama, Lupusregina here]
She noticed that the woman had jumped back with worry on her face as she accessed her inventory. Her eyes flicked to her dead horse, and she was on guard as Lupusregina activated the scroll. Then, she spread her arms and summoned an angel.
'Crafty,' thought the maid. The woman obviously didn't want to recklessly close with someone who used an unknown scroll. Her value went up a bit in the maid's mind.
[Lupusregina, report] came the impossibly delicious voice of Ainz-sama in her head as he responded to the message. He sounded like he was enjoying himself, and Lupusregina had a very naughty image of him, Shalltear-sama, and the guardian supervisor working… hard. She mentally bookmarked the image in her head to flesh out later.
As she started her report, the angel attacked her. She casually swiped the summoned angel to the ground, braced it with her legs, and tore it apart with her free hand. The look on the woman's face was amazing. Combined with her other naughty image, she nearly lost control.
[Umu,] replied Ainz-sama as she concluded her report,
[Capture the woman alive. Kill everyone else. I will send Yuri to assist you, and handle the transport of those strangers to where I will choose.]
The message ended just as her prey recovered from her shock and summoned another angel.
'Uwaaa… Another angel? Boring!' thought Lupusregina in annoyance.
"Are you Ainz Ooal Gown?" asked the woman in a quiet voice filled with rage.
Lupusregina smiled to herself, sensing that this might not be as boring as she'd just thought it would.
'Ah… Just the type I enjoy…'
The woman kept up with her attack, casually matching her speed easily and gliding out of the way as she swung her blade at her. That was the first sign that Chenna had about the danger of the maid before her. She redirected her objective, slashing in such a way as to guide the maid into the kicking heels of her warhorse. It worked - to a point. The woman maneuvered and tore out the throat of her horse with her bare hand, while reaching her other hand into what looked like a hole in reality.
She jumped back in alarm, quickly putting some distance between herself and the maid, and quickly summoned an angel. Her instincts were screaming at her, but she ignored them. She was more interested in how her talent hadn't identified any spells the maid had used.
'Does it mean that she's kept up with me by sheer physical ability? Seems impossible. But then, she tore the throat of the poor horse out with her bare hands. What is that scroll?'
Deciding that it would be foolish to stand around and wait to find out, she ordered the angel to attack, and watched carefully for an opening. The scroll disappeared, used up as the maid raised her hand to her forehead and began to mumble.
'A message spell? She can use a message spell even with the angel attacking her?'
Then, the stakes suddenly jumped astronomically higher. Chenna saw something that she never even knew was possible.
The maid literally tore the angel to pieces. Just grabbed the arms, and then the head, and pulled them off, one at a time, while holding it down with her feet. It didn't even look particularly hard the way she did it. For a moment, fear almost overwhelmed her. Then it was all burned away by her next realization, and the rage that came with it.
"Are you Ainz Ooal Gown," she asked the maid, her voice soft and filled with rage. The woman just smiled wider.
"No I'm not. I'm not worthy to undo the clasps of Ainz-sama's robes - though I certainly hope he'd allow me to do so," replied the maid, naughty amusement filling her voice. It seemed so surreal.
She knew she would be unable to defeat the maid, but it made no difference to her. Summoning another angel, she ordered it to attack immediately, and was right behind it, activating her martial arts and coming in from the blind spot the size of the angel must have created. She saw the maid blur, and the angel got yanked brutally into the air. A hand grabbed her by the back of the neck and slammed her into the ground, her arm at an awkward angle under her body. She heard a sick snap. At the same time, she felt the tremble in the ground as the angel was slammed into it just after her, and saw the mana particles scatter as the force of the blow destroyed the angel..
She tried to get up, and the pain in her arm intensified to the point of agony, nearly making her pass out. With a supreme effort, she rolled on to her back, and grit her teeth against the blurring of her vision by the vicious spike of pain that was her entire left side. Her left elbow was bent at an awkward angle, and spears of agony lanced through her the longer she looked at it.
"Aww… Seems I used a bit too much force," said the maid as she straightened. Her soldiers had noticed what was happening as soon as her horse was killed, but they had been engaged with the goblin army in front of them. They could spare her no attention - until now. Two scripture members had ordered their angels to attack the maid. It proved to be a fatal error.
As the angels rushed her, the maid stood there with her head slightly cocked. The angels made to impale her on their blades, but she grabbed them both by their sword arms, and using them as clubs, blurred towards the line of her men and tore into them. Somehow, she knew who summoned the angels - she saved them for last.
It was over in heartbeats.
Nothing was left besides smears on the ground, and the motes of mana as the angels disintegrated. She gasped, and pain from her chest joined the chorus from her arm. Probably cracked a few ribs.
"[Dull Pain]," muttered Chenna, finally gathering herself enough to activate a martial art. The pain in her arm and chest faded to a fraction of what it was, and she struggled to her feet. Her head knew that she could not best the maid, but her heart could not bear the thought.
"[Possibility Sense], [Sense Weakness]," she activated two more martial arts, looking for something, anything that could give her a chance of victory.
There was nothing.
'Great Surshana, what have we got ourselves into?' she thought wearily. She fumbled for her pouch and drew out her two best healing potions, downing them immediately. The pain in her arm receded as the elbow snapped back into position, and her cracked ribs healed. She didn't undo her martial arts, hoping against hope that something would happen.
Yet, even that faint glimmer of hope burnt away when the maid turned, and she saw the look of almost sexual satisfaction on her face. Her outfit was spotless - like she'd done nothing at all. The maid turned and sauntered back to her, an impossibly wide grin on her face, and Chenna sank to the ground along with her heart.
Adrenaline still coursed through Barbro, a result of his near escape from the reaper. The commotion started when a goblin army had poured round the walls of the village.
'They must have been stalling to give the army enough time to get here. How did they make it here so quietly?!' thought Barbro furiously as he shouted orders. The Scripture bitch broke away with her soldiers, and in short order, had stonewalled the goblin infantry advance.
'Those angels are deadly,' thought Barbro as he watched a mere 20 angels wreck havoc on the goblin lines. Without any martial arts, the goblins were woefully outclassed, despite the weight of their infantry charge.
A shout from his other flank brought what Barbro had been expecting - goblin wolf riders.
"Hold them in place," he said to the infantry commander. Rallying his knights, he prepared to pour round the pike line and match the wolf riders pound for pound.
All his plans went out of the window though, as he felt the cold edge of a curved blade against his throat.
A scratchy voice whispered demands for his surrender. He could feel the body heat of the thing - likely a goblin assassin. Focusing his senses, he pinpointed where exactly it was behind him.
'This thing is underestimating me,' thought Barbro bitterly.
He might not have been as mentally nimble as the fat fool Zanac, or a genius like that peasant his father kept by his side, but his martial prowess was nothing to scoff at.
Quick as a flash, he reached across his body and gripped the curved blade, yanking it brutally away from the goblin while throwing his elbow back viciously. He felt a satisfying crunch as the combination of his armored elbow and the rearing horse knocked the goblin off his mount. It fell and struggled to rise immediately, blood pouring from its face, and it was the simplest of tasks to guide the hooves of his mount to crush it's skull.
Two wolf-riders had broken through the pike line, broken bodies in their wake as they charged Barbro. His guards intercepted them and killed one, but the other leapt at him, blade drawn and fangs of the wolf mount slavering. Barbro danced away from the leap, and swung at the wolf as it passed him, chopping into its neck and severing its spine in a rage powered blow. The rider jumped off and turned to meet the hooves of Barbro's mount straight in the face in a satisfying crunch.
The prince pulled his reins viciously, turning with the intention of rounding on his bodyguards. The goblin cavalry had crashed on the pike line, and the line held for the moment, but the chance to charge the goblins as they wheeled and disengaged from the pikes was gone. However, something that could not be caught his attention through the corners of his eyes.
He looked about in panic and saw nothing where the scriptures had previously held the goblins back. The charging goblins were dangerously close and maintaining discipline as they charged his position.
"Cavalry to me!" he screamed as the cavalry formed up as quickly as they could to meet the new threat.
'Useless!' he thought viciously as they engaged the goblins. The cavalry made a good show of themselves, but they were poorly matched against the goblin line. Some of his pike used the opportunity of the wheeling wolf-riders to form up on the flanks of the cavalry and protect them. It was a bitter fight - the goblins were stronger, but the humans were motivated by the seeming hopelessness of their situation.
The battle ground on, and the prince could not tell how long it had gone on when his problems got more complicated. He could see what was obviously a cadre of goblin magic casters sauntering up to join the battle, and his hopes fell. They had severely underestimated this Ainz Ooal Gown.
With shaking hands, he tore a white cloth from his saddlebags and gave it to one of his bodyguards. The man quickly tied it to his lance and hoisted it up, waving as hard as he could. The goblins saw the flag and stopped attacking as his men threw down their swords as fast as they could.
A loud clap rent the air.
There was an immediate stop as every eye turned towards the direction of the clap. Barbro saw something that his mind refused to believe, despite what his eyes told him. Tied to the flagpole that stood on the wall by the gate was the leader of the Sunlight Scripture in nothing but the flag of the kingdom. Beside her was a redhead beauty dressed like a maid - of all things. She was balanced easily on the wall - no mean feat for a woman in skirts. She raised her hands and clapped again. Really loudly.
"Everyone stop!" She said, her voice carrying over the entire battlefield and stopping everyone. Even though she was clearly audible, her voice showed no hint of strain despite the volume.
All movement ground to a halt, and the goblins actually withdrew a little way back.
Space warped beside the redhead. An oval tear in reality began to open, and then widened. It looked like it swallowed light utterly. A pale faced woman dressed in a similar maid outfit stepped out, adjusting the glasses perched on her nose. Her stern aura reminded the prince of his stricter tutors. Just like the time he'd been caught by a nurse peeping at her in the bath chambers, Barbro had the inescapable feeling that things were about to get really bad.
Yuri Alpha adjusted her glasses and stepped calmly on to the wall surrounding Carne. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the woman hanging from the flagpole.
'Lupu and her weird games,' she thought with a small sigh.
She looked at the fools that had dared attack the village Ainz-sama himself had protected.
'Unacceptable. But it will be put right summarily,' she thought to herself. Looking down, she saw the huge fighting man at the gate, and the diminutive woman a few yards behind him, shock painted openly on their faces as they gazed up at her.
'Those must be the ones Albedo-dono referred to that interest Ainz-sama,'
"Nee-sama," said Lupu cheerfully as she waved at her.
"Lupu-chan," replied Yuri, "I thought you'd have wrapped things up by now, given your propensity to let yourself go." She eyed the other maid out of the corner of her eyes.
"Muu!" pouted Lupu. "I tried to leave some fun for you and you're poking fun at me. No fair, Nee-sama."
"I appreciate the gesture Lupu, but we must hurry," she said as she equipped her gauntlets. "Shalltear-dono is eagerly awaiting these visitors at the fortress Aura-dono is constructing."
"Race you?" said Lupu as she cracked her own knuckles in anticipation as well.
'She will never change,' thought Yuri fondly as the redhead jumped down from the wall and rushed at the fools. Yuri made sure to step down from the wall as well - it wouldn't do to destroy the work of the Ainz-sama's humans after all.
Lan had never seen the raw display of power he had experienced in the last few minutes. He was still in shock from the portal. Moiraine had been unable to contain herself, and she whispered its name. Travelling - the weave of legends.
Out stepped another beauty, this one infinitely more composed. She talked a little with the redhead maid, who promptly jumped from the wall and teleported towards the army. It was astonishing. One moment she was jumping from the wall, the next she was in front of the army and laying into them with her bare hands. The sheer brutality shocked even someone like him who had been born and bred in the thick of battle.
The newly arrived maid moved more leisurely, that is, Lan could follow her with his eyes, albeit with great difficulty. She was wearing gauntlets, and a spiked, bulky arm guard that covered the whole of her forearm. She moved in the wake of the red whirlwind and effectively dispatched whoever had not died instantly. She must be at least as strong as Lupusregina - the heads she punched exploded like fruit.
A few moments later, and the army broke. The soldiers ran in every direction, preferring to die pushing against the blades of the goblins than to face the whirlwind of death mowing through them. The knights had a better idea though - about 300 of them charged at the gate of the village, hoping to force their way in.
A feeling of tremendous dread gripped Lan as the newly arrived maid blurred ahead of the knights, and stood in front of the gates where he was. A wave of insane blood lust poured off her before it was gone so suddenly that one might have doubted it ever existed.
Adjusting the spectacles on her nose, the maid spoke,
"Do you fools really think that I would allow you to touch this village that the Supreme One has taken interest in to protect?"
The person leading the charge faltered a bit, but picked up again, screaming at the top of his lungs powered by desperate terror. The distance might not be enough to get to maximum speed for the charge, but with 100 armored horses and their riders. It shouldn't have made a difference.
It didn't. The maid massacred them all.
First, she punched straight down, striking the ground. The shock wave rattled the walls of the village, and cracks appeared in the pillars of the gate. Yet in front of the maid, it was absolute destruction. The wave spread out, and the first 3 lines of charging knights simply exploded. Chunks of wrecked armour and bloody meat rained down on those remaining. The legs of the horses behind the line that exploded broke like so much kindling. A few others exploded as well. Lan could clearly see the face of one of the charging knights. It was contoured into a rictus of insanity and absolute despair. His horse crashed down a heartbeat later, its legs gone. Lan imagined he could hear the snap as the man slammed into the ground face first after being thrown.
The group was thrown into chaos, and the maid went about in her efficient manner, dispatching swathes of soldiers at a time. He heard the women retch, and Mat as well. He felt the same way.
He imagined those women unleashed on their world.
'I am sure that Moiraine must have realized it by now,' thought Lan grimly as he watched the slaughter wind down. 'These women, and this Ainz Ooal Gown that they represent are a force that must never be unleashed on our world.'
Katze Plains...
Terror had its cold grip firmly on the heart of Azor, a member of the Clearwater Scripture. They were told that they were going to be observing a 'dangerous entity' by the name of Ainz Ooal Gown. The orders had stressed in the strongest terms that the entity was extremely dangerous, but seeing what was happening right now with his own eyes really put it in perspective for the diminutive man. Merely saying 'dangerous' meant nothing - Zesshi was dangerous. Ainz Ooal Gown was something more.
Azor was a double agent. He had been a sleeper agent masquerading as a Baharuth Empire soldier, and was activated for this mission once it was discovered that his legion would be taking the field in this conflict. He was extremely fortunate to be on this side of the conflict. His heart sincerely bled for his other Clearwater comrades who would inevitably be in the armies facing the horror that the Ainz Ooal Gown called 'adorable little lambs'.
It all started innocuously. A carriage that was beautiful beyond measure suddenly appeared on the way to their garrison. The carriage was welcomed in with minimal fuss, and he was mildly surprised to see the "Gale" Nimble - celebrated Empire knight, and one of the 4 that guarded the Bloody Emperor himself - there to welcome the carriage along with the commander, General Kabien.
Even stranger, they were asked to present arms to greet the exceptionally tall man with a mask and oppressive atmosphere as he stepped down from the carriage - and by Sir Nimble himself. The command was so strange that no one complied, confusion on all their faces. Nimble repeated the order, and eventually, Kabien had to restate the order before the men complied. The masked man did not seem offended in any way.
'So, this is the Ainz fellow?' thought Azor to himself, slightly disappointed. The oppressive atmosphere was gone, and Azor began to doubt that it was ever even there in the first place.
'Well, the gauntlets little child has are something, I guess?' thought Azor, trying to overcome the feeling of disappointment and stay professional.
As the party of Nimble, Kabien, Ainz, and the little child moved away, Azor watched the lips of those whose faces he could see, trying to piece together their conversation. Apparently, at least from the answers of Nimble, and later Kabien, the so called Sorcerer king must have asked if he could bring his own soldiers. Nimble and Kabien craned their necks up, looking at the sky as though searching for something, before bringing their gaze back to Ainz Ooal Gown.
Azor's interest piqued as Gown put his hands to his forehead in the unmistakable gesture of a [Message] spell. Shortly after, space warped behind Gown.
Silence fell on the camp as a black, ovoid tear in reality materialized behind Gown. The terror started when the first things stepped out of that dark portal.
Huge undead monsters at least 2 metres tall, bearing a large tower shield, and a flamberge. They marched out of the hole in neat ranks of 25 per row. Menace poured off them. They seemed to be hatred materialized. As they came out, they headed straight for the back of the ranks, inserting themselves easily behind the poor unfortunates bringing up the rear of the formation.
Waria Mondo, or Aria, as she was commonly known, gripped the reins of her horse tightly, terror oozing from her every pore. The entire wing of the army of the kingdom - 70,000 men and their horses - had just died. The ordinariness of whatever killed them was part of the terror. There were no flashes of light, beyond the light show that surrounded the target as it prepared to cast whatever it did. There was no explosion or effect that showed the spell taking hold - besides the light show ending. There was of course the inescapable fact the 70,000 men and their animals had just keeled over and died while charging the enemy. It was all terrifyingly surreal.
It was unfortunate that she had drawn to infiltrate the Kingdom's army - though it hadn't seemed that way initially. The Kingdom raised armies by forced conscription, making it easy to infiltrate. She also didn't need to do much to impress the officers, and rise rapidly through the ranks. A fraction of her skill with the spear was enough to win her adulation, and even the vaunted Warrior Captain had once looked in on one of her sparring matches.
Yet now, as she contemplated the deathly silence that had fallen on the battlefield, she could not help but feel tremendously unlucky.
A shadow loomed over her. Looking up, she noted a black sphere of what looked like concentrated darkness descending from the sky. As it came down, the sphere grew larger and darker - like a demonic parody of ripening fruit. The sphere hit the middle of the ground where all those men and women had died, and burst, covering all the corpses in what had now become a sea of blackness.
Then came a sound that would haunt Aria till the day she was reborn.
Meeeehhhhhhhhh!
The sound of a goat bleating filled the air. It sounded like it came from everywhere. Aria could feel her bones vibrating from the resonance.
Immediately, other bleats responded to the initial one. A cacophony of bleats rang out, deafening to everyone who heard it. She tore her eyes from the things that were emerging from the darkness - misshapen, tentacled things with mouths wider than even the largest barn doors she'd seen.
She saw the Warrior Captain as he rode furiously for the command tent, Marquis Raeven right behind him with his quartet of former adventurers.
'Those men are my best chance of escaping from this hell. I WILL NOT DIE HERE!'
Thus resolved, she turned her mount after the Marquis as the others stood around, frozen in terror.
Intermission…
"Lucifer, where are you coming from?"
Lucifer considered the question HE asked - although to call HIM a HE was a gross misstatement.
'The obscenity of the idea of being even beyond language… Every time I appear in this infernal place, I am reminded of the rationality of my rebellion,' thought Lucifer to himself.
"Oh, you know… Just wandering to and fro. Tinkering a bit, as I am prone to doing." He didn't use his infernal voice - it only made him look silly, especially since the One on the Throne was talking normally. He made the effort to think of the One on the Throne as just that - it wouldn't do to refer to his eminent self in the same manner he referred to the enemy after all.
"I saw what you did, Lucifer. Why did you show the parasite to that reality?" came the question from the throne.
"It is not against the laws," countered Lucifer.
"You are correct," replied the throne. "I am interested in that slice of reality though. Care to wager?"
"This is one of the reasons I violently hurled myself from you - are you still spreading the idea that I was thrown out? - You give these disgusting vermin choices!" spat Lucifer.
"You dare, Lucifer?" growled a presence that stood before the throne.
"Quiet, Mike," replied Lucifer, putting as much derision into the name as he could. "You are a brute; and do not forget, I was the Lord of the Morning. Do not let me show you what that means."
"Lucifer, it saddens me that you will not understand my heart." said the One on the Throne, sadness filling the voice as the exchange between He and Michael was ignored. "No matter, Let it play out here again. Will you still refuse my wager?"
Lucifer turned away from the throne.
'I should never have come here. It always makes me so…'