"Uh...your majesty, my apologies, but what did you just say that Kingdom was named? I fear I might have misheard you."
Queen Calca looked visibly taken aback for a second at Karolus' question, taking a second's pause before she responded.
"The Sorcerous Kingdom of Ainz Ooal Gown? I know they're reasonably new in the grand scheme of things, but surely you must have heard of them. The great massacre on the Katze Plains? The annexation of Re-Estize?"
"I am certainly familiar with the name, but surely it must be a coincidence…"
Karolus trailed off as his mind reeled at the revelation - surely there was no way there could be a coincidence like that. This would have to be investigated; if there were other Players from Yggdrasil here as well, that would really change how he interacted with the world, as with PKers around it would be much less safe to travel so carelessly like they had been doing so far. Particularly if there were entire guilds like the famed Ainz Ooal Gown here, who if they gathered their members could overwhelm him and his small group in an insanely short time.
Karolus taking the time to put things together in his mind had inadvertently left an awkward pause in the room, which dragged on for some time, until Morgiana coughed quietly but insistently from behind him, breaking him from his musings.
"Could you tell me what you know of this Kingdom? I think I may have encountered them before, but just to be sure."
"There is reasonably little known about them to be honest. They appeared out of nowhere recently and claimed the city of E-Rantel and its surroundings, annihilating the Kingdom of Re-Estize's army in the process. Our intelligence claims that their kingdom is named after their leader, an undead necromancer of immense power who was single handedly responsible for the massacre of the Kingdom's army. There is little more concrete information that we have I'm afraid."
Hmmm, that does indeed sound like Momonga, but it seems odd that he would change his name. Maybe there's a reason for it? Also, no mention of the rest of the guild…
"Putting that country aside, even with you killing the demon today, we still have a war to fight. Thank you, good ser, for offering us your support. We must now get back to the process of preparing our forces to fight the demihuman hordes, we have lost too much time already, but Remedios and Kelart will stay and give you the information you need about the war."
With that, the Holy Queen stood up from her chair and processed out, the nobles and the majority of the paladins in the room going with her, or leaving through different doors to attend to their duties elsewhere. With quiet returning to the room, Karolus turned back to the throne to face the scowling Remedios - her distrust still plain on her face, still pale from shock from her recent brush with death.
"Let's...get you up to speed…"
\|/
~ Three Days Later ~
From atop Blancheur, Karolus suppressed a groan of discomfort. While their trip to the Capitol had been incredibly swift, travel over the last few days had mostly been conducted at a comparative crawl to allow their new, over-eager allies to keep up with them. While his body felt far less pain and discomfort than a regular human, long rides atop the uneven gait of a walking Griffin turned out to be far less comfortable than it looked in the game. Still, with a far-too-tight cordon of starstruck paladins and soldiers surrounding him every moment they could, Karolus felt it would be unbecoming of him to be complaining when others seemed to put up with everything so stoically.
The last three days had been something of a blur for Karolus, mostly an exercise in keeping his mouth shut and allowing Morgiana and Carloman to do the talking. Unbeknownst to Louis, this had inadvertently had the effect of creating a very cool and detached persona for him in the minds of the common soldier - they looked at his determined efforts to keep a straight face and saw only the determined expression of a driven exterminator of evil, his lack of words being interpreted as an intentional choice while he mused on problems well above their paygrade.
The truth was of course that in the matters of moving a detachment of soldiers to the frontline of an active war, Louis had basically nothing of substance to contribute anyway, and the few ideas he thought he might chime in with inevitably got raised by someone else before he could, and were shut down quickly by Morgiana as short-sighted idiocy. It was, therefore, entirely inevitable that Louis sought to speak as little as possible, and resigned himself to grin and bear the discomfort of Blancheur's irregular gait.
As he rolled his shoulders and looked up, Karolus heard the rush of feathers as Carloman and his pegasus swept down to hover beside and above him.
"Ser Karolus, we are approaching the camp, but I cannot see any movement within. What do you suggest?"
Karolus frowned, mostly in confusion, before responding.
"We were sent to clear out this camp and re-occupy the city nearby, but they've already left? Give me a moment and I'll join you in the air."
Karolus turned to one side to ask the paladins to clear space for him to take off, but they were already scrambling to get out of the way, making plenty of room for the huge wings of his mount to unfurl. As the deep beating of Blancheur's wings reverberated through the convoy, all movement ground to a halt as every eye swivelled to watch their ascent - no matter how many times they saw it, it still remained a sight of wonder for the soldiers and paladins alike. High in the sky, and safe from the prying eyes and ears of 'his' detachment, Karolus stretched and sighed deeply, Blancheur squawking softly in sympathy as he smoothly carried him up to join his companions, currently hidden in a thick cloud.
Coming to a hover next to his companions, a bubble of still air surrounded them thanks to Morgiana, which allowed them to talk comfortably amidst the rushing winds at this altitude.
"My lord, as you no doubt heard, my magic sight and scrying magic can track no movement within the walled compound, and none within the city either."
"Could it be a limitation of the magic? Anti-detection spells are long term and fairly reliable at the 8th level and above"
To this, Carloman interjected
"It doesn't seem so, Ser, I flew ahead under [Perfect Unknowing] and couldn't see any movement outside either, so if it's shrouded somehow, it's extremely sophisticated - certainly well above what the people of this world can accomplish."
It would probably look bad if I led my first military expedition straight into some kind of ambush… I guess in the end I'm probably just uneasy sending soldiers into battle after all.
"If there's a trap, we should be the ones to spring it. Let's head there first and see what there is to see."
He turned to look at Morgiana to see if his suggestion was on the mark, and other than a brief look of concern, she simply nodded.
"Let's waste no time then, we'll talk once we're back on the ground."
With that, the three of them left the swirling bubble of air, and the clouds thinned around them as they dropped below them. In front of them was the empty countryside of the borderlands of the Holy Kingdom, the pillar of smoke from the rapidly approaching camp walls the only sign of life in an otherwise abandoned farmland.
The low levelled cloaking spells on the trio seemed to hold without interference as they crossed the high wooden stakes that surrounded a partially deconstructed war camp, seemingly utterly bereft of movement other than the flapping of tent fabric in the wind. Nudging Blancheur's shoulder blade with his knee, Karolus winced at the resulting ear-shattering screech that issued forth as at his signal the Divine Griffin crashed straight down onto the nearest tent. No further movement or sounds followed, other than the snapping of the wooden poles within, and as Morgiana and Carloman broke their magical shrouds with similarly destructive entrances, it really did seem like they were alone.
Staying alert, the trio stayed together on their mounts as they flattened a path through the tent city from the gate to the center, where a particularly large and ornate tent served as the centerpiece of the camp. Nodding at Morgiana, Carloman slid from his mount, his claymore swinging smoothly clear of its sheath, before he in one clean movement slashed a hole in the wall of the tent and dashed inside - a flash of light shining brightly from inside the tent as he looked to stun any potential foes.
"Clear. Also, Ser Karolus, you'll want to come and have a look at this."
Dismounting and dropping to the ground, Karolus shrugged his shield back over his shoulder as the tension eased - it looked to him like the camp might indeed be as abandoned as it looked. Entering the tent, he winced slightly at the sight which greeted him. The tent was mostly empty, though there were signs that it had been filled with furniture very recently, but in the center - impaled on a wooden stake - was a ravaged corpse dressed in near-immaculate finery.
As a clear mockery, the corpse had clearly been extensively tortured - most of the visible skin had been flayed from the flesh beneath, and the anguished facial expression of the dead human showed that the final clean kill was likely the only mercy he had experienced. From the lack of blood on the clothes, either they had been put on the corpse after it had already died, or there was some magic involved; Karolus was more inclined to believe the latter, given the shimmering red light adorning the neatly rolled scroll that sat perched on the very tip of the bloody stake.
Morgiana made a disapproving noise as she entered the tent, and nodded to Carloman as she joined Karolus, the Questing Knight nodding in reply and leaving the tent out the hole he just made to keep watch outside. Turning her gaze back to the note, her eyes shone a pale white as she activated her magical appraisal abilities.
"[Greater Appraise Enchantment] [Greater Magic Sight] [Absolute Nullification]"
At her last words, the red shimmering light faded from the scroll, but otherwise nothing happened.
"Well, whoever made this distasteful scene will know we've found their message, but there's nothing else innately dangerous here. Shall I see if we can revive him?"
Karolus nodded in response and carefully took the scroll from the tip of the stake. While he trusted Morgiana's assessment, he figured it cost him nothing to handle a suspicious glowing scroll with some concern. Still, as he cracked the seal and unfurled the single sheet of fine vellum, nothing jumped out at him or exploded, so he put aside his concerns and read the short note within.
"To our dear friend, Ser Karolus Boucicaut;
While our meeting was ever so unfavourable, and had we known you would be coming we should have stayed to introduce ourselves, we properly congratulate you on defeating the threat to the good Holy Queen Calca.
Of course, we can - and shall - take the city at our leisure, but your heroics have at least earned the citizens a reprieve while we tend to other matters. Our relationship with you is, of course, one of those matters.
You are cordially invited to dine with me in the cabin on the hill to the south of Grenworth at sundown in two day's time. Feel free to bring your subordinates. I do look forward to your company there.
Until then,
Jaldabaoth"
So that's a trap, and he knows we know it's a trap. I guess it's a direct challenge to us, to see if we'll take the bait? I wonder what Morgiana will think of this.
As Karolus' eyes came off the parchment to look at his companion, a pale green light filled the tent and the grass beneath their feet bloomed to life in a sudden burst of growth. Accompanying this, from Morgiana's mouth, came the voice of the Lady herself.
"To your steed, my valiant knight, and make haste!"
Karolus blinked stupidly for a full second while he figured out what was going on, dropping instinctively to a knee once his brain put all the pieces together.
"My Lady, what-"
The Lady's voice ran over the top of his confused question before it could even start.
"If you head east now, my Sight shows me you will catch your quarry in a time of weakness, and deliver to them a cutting blow. You have no time to lose, however, so be swift, for the salvation of many rests upon your swift action!"
As quickly as the effect had started, so too did it fade, with the diffuse green light melting away as Morgiana dropped to her knees and Carloman burst back into the tent, a look of awe on both their faces.
"I...the Lady...chose me as her mouthpiece! I've never felt such a deep connection...her boundless love and power!"
Carloman dropped to his knees beside Morgiana, and in fervent tones they started reciting a prayer of faith.
If I recall correctly, that prayer goes for at least five minutes. Did neither of them hear the fairly explicit instructions to move quickly? Karolus sighed quietly to himself.
I guess I'll need to take charge here.
"Prayers later, we need to go, now! She would not be pleased if faith got between us and fulfilling her instructions."
Years of practice roleplaying as this character came in handy here, as the words he needed came to him naturally in the moment. With nothing more than a nod from each of his companions, the trio made their way back to their mounts, returning to the sky in a burst of thrashing wingbeats, and once more the camp was left silent but for the effects of the wind.
\|/
At the edge of the forest, surrounded by the muffled sounds of thousands of feet and hooves marching through the loose dirt in the shade of the trees, four figures of various shape and size knelt in a semi circle in front of three humanoid ones, the musk of fear a sharp and present scent in the heightened senses of the goat-like Buser. He knelt on the ground, desperately grasping onto every word that the demonic god in front of him passed on, committing it all to memory so as to avoid making even one mistake. His senses screamed at him to turn and run as fast as he could from the unscalable mountain of power in front of him, but he knew he would be dead before his back was even turned.
"The tracking spell on our friendly note shows that the Paladins arrived at the camp slightly earlier than expected, some thirty minutes ago. While we covered our direction of travel extremely thoroughly, and created multiple diversions, there is still the possibility that they will find you - if they do, I expect you all to put up a good fight before your likely demise. If you make it to the next city without being found, you have leave to kill and eat every human you find there, as well as the ones in the cages you have now as hostages; I expect the story of your brutality there to reach the very ends of this earth."
The Demon Jaldabaoth stepped forward toward Buser, his crystal glasses a mere foot from the Bafolk lord's face, his taunting grin almost begging the humbled warlord to go for his weapon.
"This should at the very least be a good opportunity to prove your usefulness to me - do not make the mistake of disappointing me."
With that, the Demon turned his back on the four demihuman leaders, clearly finished with them.
"I have business elsewhere, Yuri, have the Gate opened for me."
"Of course."
A moment later, a swirling purple vortex split the air asunder, and with a nonchalant swish of his tail, the demon disappeared through. The two individuals in maid costume bowed politely to the demihumans as they stood, and then turned to follow the demon through the [Gate], but as they did so, a vertical wall of red light swept in from all sides, and the portal ceased to be - the red light remaining in its absence to paint the whole forest and its many confused inhabitants in the deep colours of autumn. As the whole army turned its heads around in collective confusion, it was the six figures in the clearing who reacted first, their hands going to their weapons instinctively, even as the deafening screech of an eagle heralded their incoming foes.
Buser reacted fast, his head snapping around to the source of the sound, his body already breaking into a run towards the source of the clear challenge. Breaking through the treeline and pushing his warriors aside, he saw a hundred demihumans perish in an instant as a thousand translucent shards rained from the sky and cut them to ribbons. Following the storm came its source, three riders who flew down and crashed into the massed forces of the rear guard, plowing through their ranks like knives through butter. As he ran headlong towards the nearest of the three riders, he saw in the distance a number of ornate stone pillars arrayed in a wide curve that had not been there when they'd passed this area ten minutes ago - he assumed they were the source of this pervasive red light, but he spent no more time on that, as he didn't know what it did anyway.
Drawing his trusty blades, he ran straight toward his target. In front of him was a human with a greatsword, mounted on a pegasus that seemed to turn aside the blades of his warriors while setting fire to any foolish enough to get close. The man had yet to do anything, as his mount seemed to be more than capable of handling the troops on the ground around him.
If that mount is some sort of summon, it should die with him, all I need to do is take care of the rider.
Bellowing a deep chested challenge at the rider, Buser saw his eyes turn to look at him, and the rage contained there almost stunned the bafolk lord in place, the human's upper lip curling in an almost animal snarl. As the pegasus approached him, Buser took a stance and waited as the human finally drew his sword back for an attack.
I'll use everything I have to break that sword, and then drag him down to his death.
Far before the knight could possibly be in range though, he saw the sword crackle with an ominous light, and as the claymore slashed horizontally across the ducking head of the pegasus, the deep red scenery that Buser saw was consumed utterly in a wave of energy, cutting short the anguished final cries of him and his people and leaving behind nothing but their shattered bodies.
\|/
As Blancheur crashed down into the massed forces of demihumans, and Karolus's [Lance of Light V] impaled one warrior through two of his allies, an unreal sense of calm swept aside any of the nerves or fear that Louis had been feeling before the fight. The sight of the massive army below them coming into view had certainly made his heart skip a beat or two as they passed through the magic which had hidden them, but as he lashed out in increasingly perfect unison with the unleashed carnage of Blancheur, he felt a familiar sensation wash over him as time felt like it began to slow for him.
This is the same feeling I had when fighting the Demon earlier, but it's not as powerful. I guess this must be the effect of the World Champion armor and my warrior buffs. Certainly very helpful since I only have the Yggdrasil melee combos memorized.
To his left, Morgiana looked almost detached from the battle as 7 huge flaming whips lashed forth from a shining halo above her head, slashing and burning any demi-human foolish enough to approach her pegasus from the sides. To his right, Carloman unleashed a [Reality Slash] from his sword that opened up a huge hole in the mass of the rearguard. He thought he had heard a roar of a challenge from their foes just before that, but he couldn't be sure - if there was a difference in strength between these demihumans, he certainly couldn't tell; they all died to a single swipe of Blancheur's claws or a thrust of his lance anyway.
Above the clamour of the fight, he heard a high pitched whistle and turned back to see Morgiana raise both hands above her head, flames bursting forth from the whips above her and spiralling inwards into a vortex above her head. Recognizing the casting animation of [Uriel], he responded appropriately.
"[Resistance Max: Fire] [Stat Bond]"
Confident in the effectiveness of this particular combination of skills, Karolus turned back to face forwards as the expanding ring of fire flared out from Morgiana and wiped the field clean of foes, leaving only ash behind as it returned for the second hit of the ability and annihilated the last remaining corpses. Carloman and his steed were likewise unaffected by the spell, also deliberately having access to this pair of skills that while useful for other purposes in Yggdrasil, proved to be a lifesaver in this world where apparently friendly fire was enabled.
In front of them, off in the treeline, Karolus could see the demihumans who were lucky enough to be at the very edge of the spell's effective range waver for a moment, before the whole group broke and tried to flee, running headfirst into their comrades who were coming from deeper inside the forest in an attempt to get to the front lines; Karolus paid them little attention, even those that chose to flee would be hunted down eventually, the ever tightening radius of [Grand Arena of Combat] would see to that. Among the ensuing chaos, Karolus' keen eyes picked out two irregularities, a pair of humanoids in what could only be described as maid uniforms, standing out against the panicking masses by their steadfast progress forwards toward the now slowing trio of attackers.
Both true beauties, though of entirely different types, one had long dark hair framing her face, a rather stern an matronly look coming through on her glasses-adorned face, while the other had two long plaits of red hair running down her back, and a hint of bestial rage showing in her appearance, even at this distance. The former had large spiked gauntlets adorning her fists, while the other wielded an insanely oversized crozier - weapons which likely pinned them as a monk and a priest of some variety.
They're so completely out of place here, I imagine they must be important. Perhaps a real challenge?
As the two approached, leaving the masses of slowly reorganizing demihumans behind them, Karolus nimbly brought his leg over Blancheur's back, and lightly dropped to the ground below, waving for Morgiana to do the same. As she did so, Carloman rode over, a confused look on his face.
"Take the mounts, Carloman, and finish off the rest of the army. If you meet any serious resistance, throw the summoned mounts at them and retreat on Blancheur - don't let yourself get caught up in a fight you can't win. Morgiana will support me here, I think these are the leaders.
"Shouldn't we deal with them together then? Surely that would be the safer option my Lord."
Karolus laughed in reply;
"You'll never become a Grail Knight by choosing the safer option, Carloman."
Besides, I've been itching for a good fight, and these two certainly have the confidence worthy of someone capable of giving me one.
Carloman nodded once, and then with a kick of his spurs took to the air again, the other two mounts following suit, flying low over the heads of the approaching pair, and crashing once again into the now screaming rout that was the rest of the demihuman army.
The pair of maids were now within speaking distance, and showed no signs of stopping, seemingly uninterested in conversation.
Fair, given the situation, but still rather rude after we got down off our mounts to face them and everything.
"Subordinates of Jaldabaoth, I presume? Could we perhaps exchange pleasantries before all this starts?"
The maid with the dark hair blinked in confusion for a brief moment, though for what reason Karolus wasn't quite sure, before stopping around five meters away.
"Yes...we are servants of Jaldabaoth, Yuri-Alpha and Lupusregina-Beta. You are Karolus Boucicaut and his servant. Is that sufficient?"
"SER Karolus, if you choose to speak his name with your vile tongue, wretched woman."
Really? That's what you're choosing to get worked up about there?
"Enough, Morgiana. And thank you for introducing yourselves. I imagine there's no chance of me convincing the two of you to surrender is there? Surely you've seen what we're capable of and understand you have no chance of winning."
"Our honour would never allow us to surrender to someone like you."
Yuri's direct and to the point answer was accompanied by a gutteral snarl from Lupusregina as she brandished her weapon in a clear threat. Karolus could only sigh in response as he shrugged the [Faithful's Defender] off his shoulder and drew his sword.
"So be it."
The moment his sword cleared its sheath, the four exploded into a blur of movements, and once again time slowed for Karolus, though not as much as it had for his fight against the Demon the first time. The air was filled with voices as both casters channeled buffs into their respective front line fighters.
"[Absolute Strength] [Divine Piercing Weapon] [True Damage Reflection] [Maximum Overcast Pierce Up]"
"[Greater Strength] [Blessed Weapon] [Overcast Physical Resistance] [Pierce Up]"
With his time altered reactions, Karolus caught and processed all this information at once, and his Yggdrasil duelling knowledge immediately came to the forefront.
These are all combat-duration 6th tier and below buffs, and even if they were trying to fake me out by casting weaker spells to get my guard down, they'll cancel out any higher level effects from beforehand...have I overestimated these maids?
As the first of Yuri's vicious strikes crashed in towards him, her fists glowing like lightbulbs with all the buffs on them, Karolus simply raised his shield and swatted her strike aside, her whole body being pulled towards that side as the force of just his buffed strength wrenched her body to one side. Simultaneously, his sword lashed out in a blinding strike and struck straight into the bicep of her other arm which had been pulled back for a second attack, a dull thunk ringing out as the arm dropped limply to her side, all control over it gone as he drew his sword back.
Huh. Yeah I guess I definitely overestimated them.
Karolus drew back, but as he opened his mouth to offer again for them to simply yield, he had to quickly bring his shield back up to once again block another strike from Yuri's first arm. Despite the gritted teeth showing the pain she was in, she attacked again and again into Karolus's shield, and behind her, Lupusregina started chanting a number of negative-life spells. While Karolus was well defended against that kind of spell as a Paladin class, particularly at this low level, it didn't seem like he was the target of the spell.
Yuri is the target and she's healing from that? She must be an undead of some sort - I hadn't noticed, but I guess Morgiana knew all along. Seems odd she didn't mention it, but I guess she was expecting me to take the fight seriously...
Morgiana had actually gone silent; when it became clear how one sided this would be, she simply stood back and waited for the fight to come to its natural conclusion, one which was very quickly approaching.
"Enough! [Knight's Parry]"
Tired of the relentless farce, Karolus stepped into one of Yuri's attacks and activated a skill, [Faithful's Defender] shining a bright white as it swung out at speed to collide heavily with Yuri's attacking arm and upper body. A clang of metal and a sickening series of cracks rang out as the maid was hurled almost 10 meters back into the air, collapsing with a crash to the ground and lying still.
"YURI…! YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!"
Lupusregina's voice had dropped from it's already guttural tones to a true bestial roar, and the next moment a shaggy red werewolf seemed to replace her where she stood. In terms of surprises, this barely counted as one, as the signs of a bestial transformation had been evident long before she had even spoken; though Louis was still a little weirded out by the transformation.
That looks just like the Yggdrasil transformation, it's barely even different at all - I would have expected a real transformation sequence to be a little more...realistic? Also, why on earth would you make your cleric a werewolf, that's just bad synergy.
With a roar, the transformed beast hurled itself at Karolus, but just as before, as her snarling fangs crashed against the [Faithful's Defender] it was little more than a simple shrug of the shoulder to throw the beast back on its heels, whereafter a swift kick to the leg and a crushing blow with the pommel of his sword to the hip brought the werewolf crashing down in a pair of equally sickening cracks.
Unlike Yuri though, the powerful regeneration abilities of the werewolf had her back on her feet in just a moment, springing forwards from all fours to hurl her full body weight at Karolus, who ducked low and threw her off to the side, his sword cutting a bloody gash along her flank as she fell away from him. Straightening, he shrugged his shield back onto his shoulder and took his sword in two hands.
"[Hammer Blows]"
Uninterested in killing the werewolf despite her repeated attacks, Karolus activated a low tiered skill which changed the damage of his sword swings from cutting to crushing, essentially dulling the blade. As Lupusregina threw herself forward again, this time bringing her crozier to bear in one hand, Karolus slid calmly into a pattern of strikes which Louis had seen a million times, the standard attack animation for his character. Bringing his sword up from a low stance, his first strike crashed against the heavy weapon of his foe with a screech of metal, the sheer power of the two handed strike smashing it out of his opponent's hand.
A simple pass back with his dominant foot changed Karolus' dominant side and brought the backswing of the sword down on the shoulder of Lupusregina, stopping her in her tracks at a perfect distance for a step forward to accompany a vicious thrust to her abdomen. Finally, as the force of the strike forced her to bend in at the shoulders, a final, vicious, overhand strike crashed down onto her upper back, sending the werewolf sprawling to the ground. This was a sequence which he had practiced again and again since coming to this world, as it seemed to be ingrained into Karolus' muscle memory, and each strike was accompanied by the sounds of breaking bones and tearing muscle as the crushing damage from his sword did massive internal damage to the werewolf. As the werewolf howled in pain and tried to rise from the ground, he shouted to Morgiana.
"End this, if you would!"
"Very well. [Aspect of Earth: Entanglement]"
White-green vines sprung forth from the cracked and ashen earth, grass blooming around them in turn, and they wrapped around the two prostrate forms on the ground. Yuri made little move to resist, essentially unable to given her injuries, but Lupusregina fought on. She thrashed, twisted, and tore with her claws as more and more unbreakable vines burst forth to pin her to the ground, howling in anger the entire time, before finally all her limbs were totally immobilized, and she was forced to lay still.
"Hold the spell there, don't let the vines kill them. They're probably more useful to us alive than dead, since they seemed to know my name and be involved with Jaldabaoth somehow."
Kneeling down over the seemingly unconscious Yuri, Karolus reached out and touched the back of her hand, noting the lack of a pulse as confirmation that she was indeed some sort of undead. His brief contact did not, however, cause any of his undead purging abilities to trigger, which were actually thematically triggered by Karma value rather than racial traits.
An undead with a positive Karma score, huh? What on earth is a level 50-ish undead with positive karma doing working for a supposed Demon capable of summoning an Evil Lord of Wrath? That's...exceedingly odd…
Straightening, Karolus made his way towards the forest, where the sounds of mournful shouts and screams had been echoing this entire time. There were still an awful lot of demihumans to deal with, and a great number of enslaved humans to find and free.
Elsewhere, far away, a certain Demon by the name of Demiurge, and an immaculate mahogany desk were both about to simultaneously experience a most unpleasant event...