I'm not dead, just brain dead. Broke my computer so that was fun. I'm writing on the school issued laptop rn. Also genshin on mobile is not as fun for some reason. I struggled to come up with an idea for this chapter but I think I got it now.


Cardinal of Sin, In one of the side - intermission - stories, they go over the cults reactions to Ainzs moves. I recommended this story too many times already.

Valkyrie's Shadow, the author really likes to jump plot threads, but there was a part where the mc had dealings with Zurrernorn. It was more down to earth than my version tho. Recommended.

So you know that text post that went around a long time ago(like 2 years) where it highlighted death as a character being a gatherer not a hunter as so many villains claim it to be. That's what I'm thinking for this. Hopefully it comes across well.

He looked around, mind racing, this was far beyond any of his previous notions of power. Before him and the rest of the Zurrernorn council was the avatar of death. While he himself was not as strong as some of the other council members, their strongest asset as a group was their collective and individual knowledge and connections. He especially was renowned in Zurrernorn for his knowledge of the occult and undead in general, while he hadn't become a night liche, he was the smartest liche here, maybe the smartest to ever exist. But right now his esteemed knowledge was failing him and all he could tell about the entity in front of him was that it was the sorcerer king and far past the their expectation and ability to manipulate or even coexist with. They would be trampled or be slaves, the best they could do was help it and hope to garner some good intentions.

She was a member of the most feared cult in this world, she knew secrets about the world that only a handful of people alive knew, she knew the weakness of humans. The council knew about the players and how they appear every 200 years, they knew the greed kings were players and -most likely- so were the gods of the theocracy. They knew of yggdrasil and the power of beings and items from there, but also knew of the fallacy of them. They never came to exterminate, all races were accepted as long as they were under their rule. Zurrernorn knew that undead were the true masters of the world, a testament to the endless and infinite power of death in the face of a fleeting life. They seeked to undermine the powers of those from yggdrasil because their need to rule over took any other trait of their race. Sushara was, when he first arrived, their greatest hopes realised, a powerful undead who could turn the world upside down. But for whatever reason the previous councils failed to get him to act on his hatred of the living. She had scorned her predecessors for that. And looking at the figure in front of them, she couldn't even fathom how it hadn't released death upon the world already. This was a being on par with Sushara, perhaps even more powerful. Both are so much more powerful than her, that it is impossible to discern any real difference in power, but instinctively, she felt that despite only having glimpsed Sushara before he died fighting the greed kings and, trully, before she had amassed any real motive or power.

Ainz - for once since he arrived - was feeling smart, and while he knew it wouldn't last, he knew better than to worry about it before the other shoe dropped. Indeed, he would savor this as one of the few times he was really in control. After remembering that the orb of death exists, whose existence he luckily managed to hide his blunder from Demiurge and Albedo. Using it he had managed to put together a reasonable image of the cult, and when it had questioned him on his reason for not killing indiscriminately he had accidently turned on his natural undead abilities(such as negative touch and despair aura). Then the orb went on a scarily Demiurge - esc monologue, detailing all the intricacies of his "obvious plan and reasons". Having such a perfect plan set up, Ainz would be a fool not to - for once - take the initiative and start and complete a loose thread by himself.

After informing the necessary Guardians and NPCs, he made for their meeting. Apparently their high council only meets very rarely but recently with his activities they had been meeting every month. Going around most of the defenders, using gate to arrive just outside the meeting room, he double checked his notes. Barraging in he casted an appraisal spell, he was surprised - while they weren't strong by his standards and their was nothing unexpected, most of them were strong by new world standards(lvl 40+ in my headcanon). Well, it doesn't make a difference in the end and its better to get this show on the road. He was genuinely excited for this, like a kid before their kindergarten play.

The being in front of them, in a casual display of its magic, summoned an opulent throne to sit in before turning to them and giving them its ultimatum, "I'll give you one minute to give me a good reason to not kill you and your whole organization". The rich voice of the Overlord ran over them, chilling them to the bone. There were peperations to ensure they were never fully wiped out, but against such a being there were no guarantees. Thinking fast they all looked at the newest member of the council - although newest was a misleading term, she was alive to witness the Greed Kings.

She(this is the she from before, if that wasn't clear) went to the front of the group and knelt before the throne, and while she knew the others had picked her as a sacrificial pig, she was thankful for the chance to distinguish herself. Not that that meant that she would be doing them any favors, but she couldn't imagine a situation where she would fail. Although it hadn't made any overt moves to slaughter the living, just by being in its aura all her doubts were removed. Surely it had only held back because of some grand plan she couldn't begin to grasp, or maybe it simply lacked information. Either way their connections and knowledge wouldn't fail to be useful. All that remains is to make her pitch, she just had to be respectful and she would leave those musty liches with her on the council in the dust. Gathering her thoughts she started with some flattery, "Oh great overlord of death, Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, we know of the futility of life, the supremacy of the undead in death. We are prepared to offer all of our knowledge of this world to prepare it for the coming death. Anything we can do to start the end of life we would, to that end we offer all we are to you".

She paused, and although she didn't need to breathe, she waited with baited breath and she expected so was the rest of the council. In front of her, Ainz Ooal Gown waited, seemingly bored, looking down at them while resting his head on his palm(think sukuna's pose in jjk).

"Let me ask you a question, my dear liche" he began, his voice dripping with disdain and venom.

"What makes you think that, of all thing, you were to bring the end of all life"

"I am Death, I am Enivitable, I will enjoy the struggles of heroes and all my citizens to counter death"

"To think you could do my job, such Insolence!" the voice of death slowly rose in a crescendo, coming to a booming finale.

"To think you would be so foolish as to take my precious toys, to rush me!"

"For that sin alone you will die" and as he spoke so it happened, as before their very eyes she turned to dust and then into nothingness.

Feeling the cold, burning eyes of death turn to them, they struggled to find a way to live for even in their undeath they struggled for life. But alas none escaped death forever, except by his admission, and they were not one of the chosen few.

Or so they thought, but before their eyes the smartest of them rose up, stood against the gaze of death. Preparing to make a deal with the devil to save them


So… I haven't been doing much this summer. But I finally came around to finishing this chapter. IDK if anyone could tell but I wrote the first part like a month ago, and finished the second half today? Idk if I got all the major beats of the whole death is a gatherer thing, if anyone remembers it could you tell me if I missed smth. Also I think that the undead, especially liches, don't have genders and were going to use they/them for the council members, but it was confusing, so I used gendered pronouns. Just so you know ig.