Chapter 8

Albedo ran bare foot through the forest like a wild thing, heedless of the branches whipping her bare breasts or even the small trees that dared to be in her way. The latter were reduced to kindling for their impertinence. As her transformation took hold even the larger trees ceased to be a hindrance, offering no more resistance than fog.

How could she have been such an unmitigated fool! She had betrayed everyone she had ever owed loyalty to and those who were loyal to her. Even humans could spit on her at this point. Her position as administrator for the Great Tomb of Nazarick is obviously forfeit. She couldn't even bring herself to believe she would be granted the mercy of death for her crimes. She had known the last kindness from Lord Ainz that she would ever feel of this she was certain. She cried out anew as the phantom image of the child she would bare for Lord Ainz shattered like glass inside her. But with the pain came acceptance and clarity. Skidding to a stop her shoulder bumped up against an ancient oak sending it crashing to the ground.

[Message] Albedo: "Pandora's Actor recall them immediately."

Pandora's Actor: "Recall who?"

Albedo: "The team charged with finding the Supreme Beings."

Pandora's Actor: "As you wish."

Her task accomplished she relaxed into her familiar administrative form and took a seat on the fallen oak tree. With nothing else to do with her ruined life she contemplated her potential fate. She was figuring it was either down to life as a regenerating food source for the Cockroach King and his voracious family or as a brood mare on Demiurge's Happy Farm when Ainz descended out of the sky, an entrance befitting a Supreme Being. He was once again dressed as he had been on that last day in the old world. The day he had decided to make her heart his own. This act had made her so happy. To think that the God of Gods had found her worthy to love him. Grinding her teeth Albedo again demanded of herself, how she could have been such a arrogant fool to think that her judgment was superior to that of Lord Ainz Ooal Gown? Her shame drove her to her hands and knees. Though she longed to see his face she kept her head down because she felt unworthy to look upon him. So instead she fixed her gaze on the ground and watched her tears fall.

The Skeletal Perspective of Ainz Ooal Gown (Back in the tent)

Did Albedo use teleport? No he hadn't sensed any magic and Albedo was a warrior not a caster like Naberial Gama and himself. The great crashing from outside gave Ainz a clue and so he moved out of the tent. This afforded him a great view of the destruction. "... Damn ... she seems ... upset."

From the back of his mind came, "Ya think?! Oh darling before we make love for the first time I just thought I should mention that, surprise, I'm also your father. Can't see why that would upset her.", Said the voice, sarcasm dripping off every word and puddliing around Ainz's feet.

Maybe I should give her some time to cool off. A decade should do it. A distant roar was carried on the wind. On the other hand if she goes back to Nazarick and tells everyone what a perv I am I'll never be able to look any of them in the eye again. "Damn it this sucks."

Ainz equips his gear and activates [Fly] then sets out after Albedo. The trail wasn't hard to follow. Wow, it was one thing to know the stats for a level 100 warrior with a tank build; it was quite another to see it demonstrated in the real world. From his position in the sky Ainz could tell that this world's sun would soon light the sky once more. Deciding there was no time like the present he descended into the darkness below.

Albedo bowed low as he touched down. No, it was more like she crumpled to the ground. Was she trying to cover herself? God how did I forget that she would still be naked? Ainz reached into his inventory and pulled out a blanket, possibly the same one he had lent to Shalltear upon her resurrection.

"I confess and submit myself for judgment for my crimes Supreme One." Said the cracking voice of Albedo, the once proud leader of the NPCs of Nazarick.

What? Ainz's inner voice gasps as yet another [Peace of the Grave] slams into the aura of life, that surrounds the skeleton, and is deflected. "Crimes?"

Albedo took Ainz's outburst as his acceptance of her offer to confess. "Sedition, conspiracy, treason and Deicide."

After working his way over the last unfamiliar word he was left even more confused. "Deicide? Albedo I'm right here and I'm fine." He could really use a Demiurge explanation right about now.

"Not you Lord, never you. The other 40 Supreme Beings." Confessed the shaking woman in front of him.

"What!?" Negative energy exploded from Ainz's undead form causing a local wind storm and even small tremors began radiating out from his position. The living environment surrounding him began to wither and die. But this was unimportant to the great being of bone. A moment later he had his hands wrapped around the Hell bitch's throat and he was squeezing with all his might. The negative energy radiating from his body was causing the sink of Albedo's throat to necrotize and flake away. But she offered no resistance to the justice of Ainz Ooal Gown. In truth she was grateful that he had decided to show her mercy and touch her one final time.

Boner's Perspective (Yeah I can't believe it either.)

Boner shifted. The Life was dying. Its instinct told it to hide. Its tongue told it a damp cave was nearby. There were only two directions available. A choice where one might well flip a coin to decide but unbeknownst to the barely kindled mind this particular coin had been flipped hours earlier. Boner went in search of refuge.

AinZ

The rules of the magical world that had been beating against the shrinking life aura like an insistent woodpecker finally scored a hit. [Peace of the Grave] enveloped the monsters head and slammed the man back in charge, an angry man but one that was at least capable hearing the voice of reason. Albedo could not have murdered his friends. They were presumably back on earth. It would be a double lottery win to find just one of them in this world. Aniz pulled back his aura of negative energy and loosened his hold on Albedo's throat. "Explain." He commanded.

While the woman tried to speak her destroyed throat made it impossible. Ainz realizing the true extent of the damage released her and stepped back nearly tripping over boner that seemed to be nosing around his right ankle. Then pulling a precious red potion from his inventory, Ainz held it out towards Albedo. He was about to command her to drink it but realized the issue with that. Instead he poured half the vial's liquid onto her throat and sprinkled the rest over other patches of necrotized flesh visible across her body. In seconds her body was fully restored.

"Explain."Ainz demanded for a second time.

Swallowing Albedo prepared herself to tell the man she loved more than anything how she had betrayed him. It started in the sixth floor Arena when you were planning to make use of the vile home invaders who had come to murder us and pillage the wealth of the Great Tomb. The blond beetle found and exploited your weakness. The memory of the other Supreme Beings, the ones I had thought had left us behind. The ghost of their memory stayed your hand my Lord. And when you easily pierced his deception due to your forethought in changing your name soon after arriving in this new world you were incensed. If such a tactic had been used by a worthy opponent ... we might have lost you. This would be unacceptable. This combined with the pain the other creators had heaped upon you led me to conclude that they could not be allowed to return to the Great Tomb of Nazarick. I believed that you knew this deep in your heart even if you were not ready to admit it to yourself. Therefore, I requested the right to assemble a special elite team to search for the other Supreme Beings. I chose only those who owed you their first loyalty. Those created or summoned by you Lord. It was then that I betrayed you. The orders for this team were that they seek out other Supreme Beings and eliminate them. It was my hope that in time the others would fade from memory and so remove this pain and weakness from you." Her confession done Albedo fell silent.

A storm of emotion raged in Ainz's stomach while his skull felt like it was made of ice and would shatter at any increased strain. Yet his nonexistent throat was pregnant with one more question. A question he desperately didn't want to have to listen to but he needed to know. "How, many?"

"Lord I... " began Albedo.

"How many of my friends did you murder you damned bitch?!", Thundered the undead caster who had killed seventy-thousand men in an instant at the Katze Plains as the warm up act.

"Zero Lord. The team never found any other Supreme Beings." Her confession complete Albedo waits for her love to decide which Hell to throw her into.

"Oh." Ainz felt a numbness more profound than any imposed by the green radiance. Turning Ainz's body begins to walk down the only path avalible. A concerted search had failed to find even one of his comrades. So it looks like he really was the only one brought over in this final transfer before the game was shutdown. Sigh. He still had the NPCs to keep him company. But how much could he really trust them now? Would he be forever waiting for another knife in the back? Pandora's Actor was in on Albedo's search, no, strike team. This went far beyond my altering her settings and indulging her. Were the five hundred death knights he had created waiting for an opportunity to betray him for his own good? No that way lay madness. Giving himself a mental shake Ainz refocused.

What was he to do about Albedo? On the one hand she had betrayed him and revealed a truth he had wished to stay hidden. Ainz considered it the hight of irony that after having been transported to a fantasyland he was not being allowed to keep his own fantasy. On the other side of the scale she claimed to be doing it for his own good. He also had to weigh the fact that Albedo's conspiracy had in reality accomplished nothing outside of the goal that he himself had approved.

Ainz's unblinking sight caught the flash of black fabric but paid it no mind as he was lost in the inner working of his own thoughts. A moment later it was caught by the wind and launched out into the world on its own adventure.

Time Passes

Ainz's foot falls stop at the water's edge. How things had changed since the last time he had gazed out over these waters. On his walk calm had returned to Ainz's world as the aura of life had continued to bleed power to the natural order of this magical land. Looking at it objectively no harm was actually done. This weighed against how valuable Albedo is to both the operation of Nazarick and the Kingdom. What must be done is clear, I'm just not sure I'm ready to accept it.

One thing has become abundantly clear; I can no longer afford to think of the NPC's merely as the children of my dear friends. They have wills of their own and are far too dangerous to think of them as children. Well maybe not Mere and Aura.

His mind made up Ainz turns around intent on returning to the end of the path to collect Albedo. But he is brought up short when he spies the nude woman still on all fours 12 meters away. From the state of her hands and knees he guesses that she had crawled after him for the kilometres that he had walked while lost in thought. She had done this without complain or sound. Resistances or not that could not have been pleasant. "Raise your head Albedo."

The devastation he saw scrawled across this stranger's face stole Ainz's nonexistent breath. Many human cultures claim the eyes as the windows of the soul. Ainz felt that he was looking through a broken pane into the remains of a burned out home. Is this really Albedo the proud and regal beauty who had stood guard in the throne room? Now her face was covered in a patina of dust from the road they had both traveled. The dirt was a shade darker around the eyes were it had mixed with the moisture of tears. Ainz stared into those eyes for several long moments the guilt and knowledge that he had to fix this gnawing into his very sturdy bones. If only he knew what the right move was. The original story never said Humpy Dumpty was an egg.

Albedo's perspective

Master Ainz was truly magnificent; the radiance of the newly risen sun was at his back creating a brilliant halo around the cloaked undead King. Her heart was grateful for this vision of beauty and power personified by her one true love and almost lover. That latter detail would be a thorn in her heart for the rest of her life, whether it be measured in seconds or centuries. She braced herself for the coming blow for it surely must be time for her sentence to be handed down.

"Albedo, Know that I forgive you. However there is a price to be paid for your actions." Spoke the figure whose face was obscured in shadow by the light of the rising sun.

"Huh?!" No, there was Ainz's legendary generosity but this... it was madness. To even consider that she, an abomination, would be forgiven was unthinkable. The other guardians would never be able to accept this. Not fully at least. There was still tension between Demiurge and Sebas even after Ainz had given his blessing to his relationship with the human. However, her crimes, the attempted murder of the 40 Supreme Beings including her own creator were sins from which there could be no redemption. A horrific realization crystallized in her breast, her betrayal would lead to the sundering of the jewel that was the Great Tomb of Nazarick. A vision of Guardian fighting Guardian and floor arrayed against floor as her home descended into civil war violated her mind. It left her feeling unclean in a way that the crawl back to the lake had not even come close to.

She opened her mouth to raise an objection but her words died as ashes on her tongue. Had she learned nothing! The Lord had spoken of a price that was to be paid. She was still presuming to know better than the Supreme Being that had watched over them all this time.

"Albedo go wash your face then come to me on your feet once you have cleansed yourself.", Instructed the Lord of Bones. After that he turned and walked into the oddly small tent leaving Albedo crouched on the shore. The shoreline a boundary between two worlds. Was Ainz giving her a choice? To run now naked and alone or to choose to reclaim her dignity and face the consequences of her own actions? As if there was really a choice when one was under the gaze of the Supreme Being Ainz Ooal Gown and her co creator.

Putting some prismatic steel in her spine Albedo rose and walked into the cool waters. It was time to meet her fate and she intended to make herself presentable.

Splish splash a short time passes while taking a bath.

Her bathing complete Albedo leaps high into the air executing a fast twirl spin. When she landed she was by no means dry but it was a significant improvement over sopping wet. So with her back straight, head held high and tits out she strode confidently into the tent and stopped dead in shock. Ainz was sitting on the bed dressed only in the black loin cloth she had seen him in earlier.

"Come Albedo sit next to me." Ainz said as he patted the bed right next to himself.

Dutifully Albedo plonked her bottom down where indicated with such commitment to duty that Ainz barely had time to remove his hand from said spot. It pleased Albedo that her jiggling anatomy seemed to still be able to distract the Supreme One. But perhaps it was not so pleasing to Lord Ainz as he wrapped his robe around her concealing her charms. She was about to question what was going on when Her beloved leaned in and caressed her head as he laid a gentle kiss against her ear lobe.

The Lord of Nazarick whispered softly in her ear, "Goodbye, Albedo."

"Was that a catch in his voice?", Wondered a confused Albedo a moment before she sublimated into shadow.

Ainz's Perspective

Orange light flared around Ainz's fingertips where they were pressed against Albedo's skull. The delicate tendrils of memory magic slipped through his victim's brain. A tiny rewrite here. Wholesale erasure over there. The snaking tendril sought out every element of Albedo's conspiracy and tweaked them out of existence. He had done the same thing to that village girl so long ago but this was an order of magnitude greater in scope. Ainz wasn't going to kid himself anymore he knew he was killing the Albedo he had known and putting someone new, no matter how similar, in her place. No matter how much he tried to believe it was for the greater good it was probably a good thing that he didn't need sleep.

The woman's eyes fluttered open as he drew back away from her. Her eyes bulged for just a moment. "Oh Lord Ainz you truly are a sly one. Whatever did you do with my panties?", Asked Albedo in a playful voice.

Ainz's jaw fell and the woman took it as an invitation and did her best to French kiss his skull. Her left hand crept down along his ribs. Without warning his loin cloth was sailing through the air. "They say turnabout is fair play Lord... oh my." She seems to have noticed the Bonner Mark V.

Boner rose uncurling slowly. For several moments Albedo stared at boner and boner stared back. Tentatively Albedo patted his head and Boner executed a 740 degree turn. They got on just fine after that.

First some acknowledgement must be given to where I first heard about the fan theory the Albedo Conspiracy. watch?v=rnmcRTnTNC8

I realize that I used some harsher language in this chapter and if I offended anyone I apologize. However, I don't think the language was gratuitous and was actually necessary to communicate the feelings of the characters.

Well that was unexpectedly emotional. Glares at Albedo. But apparently someone had ideas that diverged from my original outline for a funny little story. I know I teared up when Ainz said goodbye.

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