The Synod: The Book of Black Justice
By AtheistBasementDragon
Edited by The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots
Chapter 20
...Nazarick...
Demiurge handed the saw to his winged assistant, and she began to clean it off, her talons clicking on the floor in eager excitement while she began to scrub. "Today is the day, isn't it?" Vanysa asked with a bizarrely perky voice that was delightfully and utterly at odds with the gore coated saw in her hands and the blood that stained her golden fingers.
"Yes. Truly that one was the most useful tool he's ever given to us." Demiurge remarked as he sat down at the desk in the lab and began to record the latest test results.
"Tool?" Vanysa asked curiously as she flicked a bit of intestine that was caught in the saw teeth, free of the instrument and into the sink. "You don't like her?"
Demiurge didn't look up from his writing, "I don't hate her. But I don't really know her either, I know enough to know she's absolutely loyal... like myself, or Albedo, or Sebas, or you. Incapable of betraying him. That makes her a curiosity. Much like her abilities. But she's still a human, 'liking her' isn't 'in the cards', as Lord Ulbert once said." He set the quill aside.
"You liked me a fair bit at least, before I got..." Vanysa looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling and tapped her talon on her cheek, "would this be an upgrade? A promotion?"
"Remade, I think." Demiurge answered, "And no, I just enjoyed your work and we made an excellent team."
Vanysa shrugged that off, "Sounds the same to me." She rolled her eyes, "Men. All the same, no matter your species." She set the clean saw aside and Demiurge threw the bloody hammer in her direction, she caught it easily, snatching it out of the air without looking, and set to scrubbing.
"But you know I like her, right?" Vanysa mentioned casually as the hunks of bone came out of the metal and the hair stuck to it began to wash off.
"You'll like her more when I'm allowed to work with her corpse. After what Sebas told us from his duel with her in Wheaton, I believe that not only can we make more like her one day, but that we can increase their power tremendously by the same kind of magic that was used to create you. I think she'll make an excellent Demon Empress. I wonder if she'd take on the role of the Erinyes of Wrath. The one sometimes called 'Nemesis' on First World." Demiurge rubbed his hands together excitedly.
Vanysa's fangs flashed as she smiled in a demonic version of the toothy way she once did as a human girl. "Only one problem, my dear Archdevil." Vanysa said sweetly as she set the hammer aside and went behind where he stood and caressed his back.
"Oh?" He raised his eyebrow archly.
"Yes. Furies come in threes. If I am Murder, and she became my sister, 'Wrath'... who will be our sister in Jealousy?" Vanysa asked with a sadistic smile, "Have you considered the available candidates among our master's women followers? Enri? Zesshi? Leinas, Lakyus, or Skana? He has a wealth of wonderful choices." Vanysa giggled as she rattled off the veritable harem of loyal and dedicated women.
"That remains to be seen, but if this one is killed, or kills herself, I am sure our Lord will permit her to be restored to a state of glorious demonic form. Then... maybe I will like her quite a bit. It isn't often I run across a human that is so creative in destroying her enemies so utterly. And... against my will I admit, it is a suitable reward, after all, because of her efforts, I shaved decades off the plan to deify our Master in the eyes of the continent's populations." Demiurge rubbed his hands together greedily.
"Are we going to watch the voting?" Vanysa asked eagerly enough that she could barely restrain the urge to hop up and down with the abundance of energy rising through her golden form.
"Yes, right now actually, I just finished. Let's go watch our master take his proper place as god over this corner of the world, before we prepare to give him the rest of it." Demiurge laughed happily and made no objection as his assistant snatched his arm and shoved herself close to him, and they departed to the recreational room where the mirror of remote viewing was set up.
"I assume we're going to take the names of those who vote 'against' this measure?" Vanysa remarked casually as she folded her hands behind her head while she fell in beside him.
"Of course." Demiurge said without flinching, then after a pause, he glanced sideways at the slender golden fury. "That doesn't disturb you? There are only so many reasons to record such names after all."
Vanysa laughed in her charming way, like the beauty of a light breeze through wind chimes. "Who will not support the master, will betray the master. Of course I oppose seizing them... too soon. We should watch however, watch and wait, when the disloyal find the disloyal, they breathe treason like air, and when they do..." Her left hand shot out from behind her head and hovered in front of her face, and she clenched her fist with a demonic snarl. "Then we crush them. Even traitors have a use." Her voice snapped to calm and her hand returned to its casual position behind her head.
"Sensible. After the vote, let's bring out Philip and Astraka, we can give them the news, and have a concert. Beethoven's 9th, I think befits the occasion." Demiurge said with the easy contentment of the inevitable victor.
Vanyza pranced a few paces in front of him and walked backwards, "An excellent choice. But... Can we move faster? I want a good seat."
"Yes, yes we can." He replied, and soon she had to run to keep up with his walk, but she wasn't one to complain about that.
...Illyana's House...
"You're... not coming?" Skana looked at her in shock, her mouth opened and closed several times.
"Must I... must I say it again?" Neia asked as she finally blinked. "I can't go."
"Wh-WHY?!" Lakyus asked as she held her arms out to her with her mouth agape and her eyes wide, "You've worked so hard! You did all this for him! You don't need to fear failure! There's no way we can lose! I'm voting for his deification, it's true there are those who will say no, but they are few! This is your moment, 'your' moment! You have the right to be there for it!"
Neia smiled softly, her lips curled just enough that it was present and she looked up toward the false sky. "No. This is his moment. It is true, I won't deny that I dreamed of this day, that hour after hour, my thoughts were filled with a longing to see him standing before the great priests, to see them hail him as the god he truly is." Her lip quivered slightly, but she went on in spite of herself, "I wanted it for him, but also… so I could look back at all those who died bringing this moment about, and say 'we did it'. I won't deny that."
She took a long, deep breath, "But I... realized something last night."
CZ cocked her head to one side, "What?" She asked in her near monotone.
Neia turned her sky blue eyes over them all, touching her hand to her chest and flinging her other arm out wide at her side, "That I matter, too. My health matters, my life matters, and that I should have a chance at one, and I have to take that seriously. I ground myself down for so long that I started to hate myself, I listened to that voice that told me I was a monster, I listened to that voice who told me I was going to fail, that I was going to get in the way of my lord... that I... that I was going to either get you all killed, or kill you myself. I don't want to be that way anymore! I don't!"
"The incident with Tuare, do you remember me telling you about it?" Neia asked as she faced them again. When they nodded, she went on, "I remember seeing a painting on the wall, a little place, the sort of little house I wanted with… with you Skana." She shifted uncomfortably. "When I walked away from that, I felt like I was walking away from a future life, because how could I hurt a girl like that, and not be a threat to anyone around me? Or… remember the day the Overseers were brought to us outside of Wheaton? How I took their hands and allowed the slave owners to be beaten to death? Do you know what I said to the young of that vile couple?" They shook their heads doubtfully.
"When you're willing to bear any consequences, you can do anything. I abandoned my life a long time before it was obvious to the rest of you…" She closed her eyes and brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tight against herself.
"I thought… I didn't have, or deserve, a future, because of what I did, sometimes I still think I don't. But I 'am' alive, and as long as I am… I have a choice about what to do with that life. No matter what that terrible voice cries in my head!" Neia's voice was emphatic, but almost completely broken, and finally her terrifying eyes broke open to reveal watery blue pools.
Her friends, her wife, all went still. "I want to get better! I know father… father wants me to be better too! He said so often enough, he didn't pull me back from the brink of death and despair to throw me away! He didn't pull me back just to see me throw myself into oblivion! You all didn't go so far with me because you were afraid of me! Or even because you believed in my cause... though I know you did. You came this far, because... because you care about me, and if you all do, then why shouldn't I care about myself? Yes, I could stand up now, go with you to the Synod, see that triumphant moment with my own eyes, it would be a treasure like nothing else."
Her eyes were misty enough that she could not see their faces through the water in them, but it did not slow the flow of words from her lips. "But I want my life too! Going to that and... blowing off my session, would just be repeating the same pattern that nearly destroyed me... that nearly... that nearly killed three out of the four people on this blanket! If I want to get better, if I want to be different, I have to make a different choice! A choice to get better! A choice to work on myself! In sum... that choice begins with this one." Neia's passionate voice had not one iota of the power of the evangelist in it, yet despite all that, it was impossible not to feel as she felt, and see as she saw.
"Father... didn't call for me, did he?" She asked with sudden timidity.
"No. You know why, don't you?" CZ replied.
Little streaks of water ran out of the eyes of terror and down her pale cheeks. "I do." Neia answered, "Because... because he feels the same! He is putting me first! That's the kind of god I serve! That's why I love him as a father, because what father could be better than that?! He wants me to get better... and he understands that if I don't make the choice to start now, I might never make it."
Skana crawled over the blanket on all fours, slowly, feeling the grass bend beneath her weight on the blanket, her one green eye inches away from that of her wife.
"There will always be another moment, another service, another task to serve the king... another time to make this choice, but if I don't make it with this one, why would I make it with the next one? Or the one after, or the one after...?" Neia said in a hushed voice that carried with it the first real sense of hope that any of them had heard out of her in over a year.
"Neia... my wife, my hero, my friend... I'm so... very, very proud of you." Skana said and pushed herself forward across the bare gap of space between their faces touching her lips to those of the woman she loved. It was not a fierce, passionate kiss that would ascend to wild throws and torn clothing. Instead it was simple devoted affection, though CZ and Lakyus had the good manners to look away in some imitation of privacy for the couple.
When the kiss broke, and Skana sat back down she took Neia's hands up from the woman's lap and held them between the two, a small bridge between one body and the next.
"You do what you have to. Let me handle the Synod for you, we're a team, all of us." Lakyus said with the brash confidence of an adamantite adventurer.
"We'll be waiting. Always." CZ said the four simple words with the near monotone that only they recognized as the surface ripples that hid a tumultuous depth.
She then took something in her hand, and pushed it to Neia's forehead. "Cute." She said simply.
"I'll leave that on, until you can replace it with a new one." Neia grinned and wiped her eyes clear so that she could see their faces again.
"You wait here, my love, take care of yourself, let us handle the world for a little while, we'll be back for you, when you're ready to rejoin it." Skana said with a gentle voice as they stood and CZ gathered up the empty boxes and they moved off the blanket.
"Thank you... for everything, for coming to see me, for sticking by me, for wanting the best for me, for trying to help me... for everything." Neia swallowed hard, and hugged them each, one by one. "I'd better get going now, I want to get ready to go to my first session."
"You've got this." Lakyus said confidently, and winked at the broken Demon of the West as she went to go put herself back together again. "We'll get that!" She added jabbing her thumb behind her, to where the gate opened, and with lingering and loving looks behind all four of them, they parted ways again.
...Former Slane Theocracy...Forlorn Fortress...
Tekton loaded up his cart with supplies. The sacks were heavy, his bones ached. He wiped his brow and sighed heavily before running his hands through his gray hair. "Come on Cata! We've done all we can here." Cata jogged over, her long brown hair hung down to her waist, he wondered idly when the last time was that his daughter had cut it except to snip a broken end. Her tan, freckled face was split by a wide smile as she waved goodbye to the fortress.
As she came over to her father, she grabbed his priestly robes and asked, "How'd we do?!" It was a blunt sort of question. But as he thought it over, she'd always been direct, he wondered if it ever wouldn't catch him off guard.
He rubbed his wrinkled face, "You're your mother's child, that's for sure." He said, She scrunched up her freckled face and glared at him a little.
"Father, it's a practical question. With all the real temples of the," she hesitated and looked around anxiously, then whispered very softly, "theocracy" then continued normally, "shut down for their 'investigations' into temple roles in the northern rebellion, this is the only way to serve the Six."
"I know, I know. But still, you make it sound like a business, how we do is not measured by how many relics we sell or the tithes we collect, it's measured in the wealth of those who listen to our message and find catharsis from the horrors of the war and dread for the future." Tekton said, wagging his gnarled old finger at the teenager as he spoke.
She folded her arms in front of her and turned to one side, partially away from him, and pouted. As her eyes closed with annoyance she muttered, "Not goin to spread any kinda message if you don't have food to get you from one town to the next, that's all I'm saying father."
Tekton went to the donkey that was to pull their cart and gently stroked its nose. "I know, I know, but between me and the others who have taken to the roads, we'll do what we can, as long as we can, and as far as we can, through all the provinces of our conqueror, and pass the test the gods have imposed on us, to endure... endure..." He covered his face with one hand and started to shake as tears born from brutal memories hit him again.
Cata noticed the way he trailed off, and saw him starting to shake again, her annoyance with her old man melted away and she went to hug him. She held him tight and whispered to him, "Alah Alaf has not forgotten you, or me, or mother." She said it on a loop, until he quieted down and nodded pliantly.
"Thank you, I'm sorry. The memories of that demon... her face, will I never be rid of her? I can't believe they may add a seventh to the pantheon... I just can't." He shook his head vigorously, "Well it doesn't matter what they do or what they say!" He said with gritty determination only lightly undermined by his sniffles, "We will serve the Six and 'only' the Six, forever. Come on Cata, the faithful of the true gods may be fewer in the Draconic Kingdom than they used to be... but we do neither gods nor man, any favors by neglecting those treasured few. Until the gods save us, the world is our temple, and the roads are just the path between pews." Tekton said with confidence, and pointed the way forward as his daughter sat beside him.
"As long as I'm with you, there the gods will be, father." Cata answered and leaned against him as the cart began to move.
...Arwintar...Synod Chamber...
Lakyus took her place in the center of the floor and looked up at the many seats filled with the many great priests of the Six. Northern Holy Kingdom, Southern Holy Kingdom, Re-Estize, Baharuth, Draconic Kingdom, and... what was 'left' of the Slane Theocracy's priesthood.
Her face lingered on those in particular, far from the wrath she expected, they appeared as broken men and women, 'I wonder if it is not better that 'she' be absent today after all.' Lakyus thought as she took their worn, haggard faces, wrinkled despite most of them not being especially old. 'The old ones... they must have been mostly killed off or died during the war, or perhaps... worse?' She wondered briefly at their fates and then cast the matter aside as irrelevant. 'Whatever they got, they deserved, that I'm sure of.' A vindictive sense of satisfaction hit her by surprise, but she clamped down on it and took a deep breath.
"We now have heard the sacred text of the Sorcerer King. His living voice has conveyed the reason for her convictions, we have recited his many deeds, either done personally or by his order. You have all toured the realm to see the peace of His Majesty, and none can deny the truth of his prosperity. We have, for all the hardship of the recent past, seen a renewal of this world, of humanity, under his aegis." She paused to let her words sink in, 'Keeno, Neia, this one's for you both.' She thought, before her voice became thunder.
"We have seen the countless testimonies of the victims of the old ways, we have seen the records from the trials, and some few of you I understand, were not satisfied even by seeing the graves with countless bodies, or the fruit of the old ways in the breaker academies. Yet it is seen, it is known. We also have recounted how the old gods failed to protect humanity from any threat to arise in the better part of a decade! They did not save humanity from the Beastmen... the Sorcerer King did! They did not save Re-Estize from famine! The Sorcerer King did! They did not save the Holy Kingdom from Jaldabaoth or restore the Holy Queen! The Sorcerer King did! I am convinced... convinced that the only reason we do not speak of the gods having failed to save humanity from any threat in the last hundred years, is because we have had no great threat that would require a god to solve!"
She moved about the center stage, her footfalls echoing to the highest seat, "I have long been a faithful servant of the Six, yet in my most dire hour, the old ways failed, and only the New Ways saved one I love. I tell you that if the gods of the past will not aid us now, who served them so loyally, then we must embrace the one that will. I, Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra, cast my vote in favor of adding the Sorcerer King to the pantheon of gods. There are not Six, there are Seven. And there is only One which I will serve from now on. I pledge myself, publicly, here and now, to the one god worthy of following! The Sorcerer King, His Majesty, Ainz Ooal Gown!"
The cacophony was profound, it sounded off the walls with their perfect acoustics with such repetitive vigor that the attendance of the place seemed to have tripled by virtue of the noise. Lakyus kept her smile to herself, she remained a hard and tranquil figure, as she took out the white stone and cast it into the great pot, making hers the first vote for the god of her New World.
She then, as if to further reveal her defiance, removed a magic dye pack, and thrust it against her heart, not coincidentally in the shape of the Black Justice military salute, and the white of her priestly robes slowly became black, in the style of the priests of the new religion.
"Now vote how you want, but whatever your vote, our god is risen over this world, and to deny that is to deny the rain when it is striking your very face, and I will deny no more!" She said passionately, and silence fell as she exited the room.
Outside, the Sorcerer King stood, and Lakyus immediately fell to one knee and bowed her head. "Your Majesty, I am yours, in all things. My debt to you for my sister can never be repaid, but I will try. You are my king, you are my god, who gave my sister a place in this world." Lakyus said formally.
"That is not an easy thing to declare, a young woman once vowed to repay a debt to me, and though she gave General Enri a city, she came home in a box. Are you sure?" Ainz asked of her, as he privately pondered, 'Why do they sound like NPCs when they get like this?'
"I am." Lakyus said with conviction that seemed as unshakable as the shining sun.
"Is that why you left, rather than wait for the rest of the voting?" Ainz asked curiously.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Lakyus answered forcefully with a hard nod of her head before it bowed again. "I don't care what they say anymore, the truth stands in front of me now. And only to that truth will I ever bend my knee again."
"Truth?" Ainz asked with interest.
"Yes. Neia worships you in the incarnation of strength and justice, her friend Tinamoc followed you as justice, prosperity, and fair deals, but for me, there is only truth. I choose this because my sister had to live a lie, and believed that the only way for me to love her, was to keep lying to me. That knowledge still leaves a deep wound on me that is slow to heal. There is no love between siblings if that love can be shattered by the truth of who we are. I will never leave them having to lie to me again... never..." Lakyus's powerful voice drifted into weakness briefly, and she wiped her eyes fiercely for several moments.
Ainz brought out 'Kingly pose number eight', and placed his skeletal hands on the top of her head as he stood squarely in front of her. "That is a good choice. For now though, rise, we can wait in the park over there, and return when the voting is done. It should only be an hour, shouldn't it?" The Sorcerer King asked.
"Two, I believe they wanted to allot some additional time for a counter speaker after me, and that one tends to ramble." Lakyus said with a roll of her eyes, "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a relief to avoid that."
"I see. I sent Leinas to pick something up for herself to eat a few minutes ago from that cafe. Go find her, get something for yourself, and then rejoin me over there." He gestured to a park bench beneath a few swaying green trees surrounding by a large circle of grass. It was a miniature park for waiting, with pleasant shading and a small protective curve. It was a perfect place to wait to cross the thoroughfare or even eat a meal from one of the many vendors that now populated this area of Arwintar.
He sat on the bench as he watched Lakyus retreat, and found it was not a long wait, she was returning with the larger, fully armored, Leinas Rockbruise. 'I swear, the two could pass for older and younger sister.' He thought to himself, 'I wonder if they're related, I seem to recall that the Kingdom and Baharuth had been united in the past... can we do DNA testing yet? It might be interesting to find out if they're family...' He shoved the thought aside hastily as they came and bent their knees in unison.
"Rise, eat, there is no rank in the mess hall, as a friend of mine once said." Ainz gestured to the trees where they could lean back against, and they opened up their thin boxed meals, small boned meat and vegetables with a lump of round cheese.
As he sat there in the gentle breeze as it caressed the numbness of his bones, and watched the passing living beings who seemed to be enjoying themselves and the feeling of the day around them, he spoke. "If any man ever heard the voice of god, it was in a garden on a cool day."
"Majesty?" Leinas asked as she set down the hunk of cheese she'd been eating.
"Nothing." Ainz waved it away, "Something one of my more poetic friends once said a long time ago. I was just thinking about how different everything is, I've had this form for a long time, and the differences it imposes are beneficial but... at the same time it blinds me sometimes to the nature of my subjects."
"Does that still trouble you, Majesty?" Leinas asked as she swallowed another bite. The white ball of cheese tasted so good on her tongue, and the very act of savoring it reminded her that he could not have that same pleasure.
"You went to see her this morning, didn't you?" He asked as he looked at Lakyus.
"I did, she told me... how you just wanted her to get better, it's why you didn't send anyone to get her, and it's why we didn't bring her with us." Lakyus answered softly.
"She's right. I have many loyal human subjects, yourself, Leinas here," he gestured to his earnest bodyguard, who nodded enthusiastically, "Enri, Calca, and others. But none like her, yet look what happened? She now sits there, struggling to restore her mind because she nearly destroyed herself, and I let it happen, it gives, I think, a new significance to 'The Project'." He said firmly.
"The Project?" Leinas asked.
"Yes. To create an object that would allow me to change out of this form again, it's chief purpose was a body that would allow me to reproduce, to create heirs." He answered as his eyes tracked a human family walking down the street with two small children.
Lakyus blushed a cherry red shade, "Oh..." She managed to utter after a coughing fit and Leinas pounded on her back a few times with the palm of her hand.
"But as I think about it," Ainz moved on, ignoring the dismay on Lakyus's face, or so lost in thought that he didn't notice, "the true significance of it might be the ability to better rule my people, by being able to experience their thoughts on their level as they do. So that the next time Neia, or someone like her, begins to fray at the edges, I do not underrate what is happening to them."
He took a deep, long, needless breath, and the sideways glances between the two women showed to each other how struck they were by his almost humanlike behavior.
"I am a god. As far as I know, I truly am the only one left in this world. My precious friends, those who left for First World, will never be forgotten, all they wanted was a world worth living in, and that desire drives me still. The horrors of that place will not touch this one, if I forget the wellbeing of those who give their all to my cause, I will in turn, be the cause of those horrors. Not everything I do is going to be 'good', but it is all for a greater end, the security and prosperity of this world. Are you prepared to follow me through all that, as she did, even though you may end up... like her, despite my effort to prevent that?"
He spoke with sincerity, with nobility and he held his hands out as if to take their own, but they could barely move.
'He's never said that before, as far as I know. The last time we spoke of it, he said, 'if' about being a god, but now he declares it to be so... even before the vote, has something changed?' Lakyus wondered in breathless awe as she took in his words, they were weighty ones even without the hefty declaration of his godhood.
She swallowed, she could tell from Leinas's face that a resolution like her own was brewing within her breast.
"Majesty, I am yours, give me the task, and I will carry it out, confident that you act to make this world one worth fighting for." Lakyus replied with abject devotion.
Leinas bowed her head, "My vow remains as it ever was, I am yours, in all things, you gave me back my body when the gods would not, when all abandoned me and my emperor failed me, you supported me. If you order me to carve a bloody path through the very heart of distant Menowa to give you the minotaurs into your service, then it will be done."
"I wouldn't plan on any trips to Menowa, there are 'other' things in the works for that place." Ainz said with a gentle chuckle. "But your vows are well received."
He glanced over and saw the door to the building open, "Oh good, it looks like they're ready." He said pleasantly and stood up.
'Other plans... how far ahead does he think?!' Lakyus wondered as they stood up to follow him.
Into the grand hall they went, and a priest of the Baharuth Empire approached. In the center of the room there now stood two moderately sized pots. He reached into the large one where the common votes had been cast together, and put a white one in the pot on the right. "One for deification."
He reached out again, "Two... for deification."
Each time he reached in and took out a stone, he held it up for all to see, before putting it in the pot on the right.
It was forty five minutes before the first black stone was held aloft. "One... against deification."
A rumble of dismay went about the room as priests and priestesses cast their eyes about, wondering who could have cast a black stone, but down below, the old priest simply held the stone and held his tongue, until the noise subsided and it was cast with a loud echo into the pot. It created such noise that he waited a full minute for silence to descend entirely, thus revealing in the angry throw, where he stood on the matter.
It was another forty minutes before the second black stone was held aloft. "Two... against deification."
The rumble was renewed, but Ainz and his companions stood silent and dignified until silence was renewed, another clang of the stone into the left pot was the only indication of the old priest's displeasure.
"Two hundred and eighteen... for deification." He said solemnly, and placed the last white stone with delicate precision atop the nearly overflowing pot, while it's mate next to it, appeared empty unless one could look straight down within to see the two lonely black stones resting at the bottom.
"Final tally, two hundred and eighteen, to two, in favor of deification. His Majesty, Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King, will officially be added to the pantheon as the seventh god, to every single temple in the empire!" He did not restrain his smile as the cheers echoed up and down the chamber and washed over the chamber like a cleansing rain swept aside the old to make room for the new.
"Well done, Sudon." Ainz said quietly as he approached and put his skeletal hand on the old priest's shoulder, "Your integrity will not be forgotten, in even counting those who stand opposed. You are my true servant."
The old man paled and then his eyes lit up, unable to form words, he bowed, and stepped aside to give the Sorcerer King center stage.
Ainz held his arms aloft, calling for silence from the Synod's attendees.
With a noble voice, he spoke with firmness and fortitude, and his red orbs that served for eyes within the black, seemed to be focused on every person there at once, and he said...
"It is done. And yet, for all that, it has only just begun."