The last living man in Wenmark was Sudaj, who without arms or legs, could not move beyond a wiggle, all he could do was lay there under the sun as it burned his face and naked body, until at last someone came to retrieve him, of all things, it was a dog woman, and she was...much to his surprise, very gentle. "W-water" he begged and she gently hefted him up to let him drink from a water skin. He had the good sense, or warped decency, to thank her for it. And he was taken from there to Nazarick, fear was the first thing he knew from the moment he entered the gate, and it did not fade as other monsters eyed him like a meal, mutilated version of a human though he was, he had no wish to die. When he was delivered to Demiurge however, that quickly changed when the demon said, "I wonder...if you cannot piss yourself, how much water would you have to drink before you rupture from the inside out and start to die? And come to that...what if you cannot relieve yourself from the other end, I wonder how long it would take for that to kill you...oh we have so very many wonderful experiments to run." He said with a sadistic grin on his face, as Sudaj managed to get out, "Where...am I?"

"You're in my happy farm, your new home until I run out of experiments for which you are useful." Sudaj swallowed hard, and over time, he forgot what it meant to wish to be alive.

The guardians had a habit of meeting privately after Ainz had undertaken important actions or done something significant, and this occasion was no different, Ainz had utterly destroyed a city, an entire way of life had simply ceased to be at his pronouncement. "Truly the excellence of our lord is beyond our reckoning, and with such expertly undertaken skill he has completely won over one of the most powerful human teams in the world. No matter what I do...I cannot seem to catch up to him." Demiurge said with equal parts frustration and admiration.

"I know, its true for all of us, but what has he got planned now?" Shalltear asked.

"I believe I know." Sebas said, though not an official guardian, he frequented these gatherings because of his close affiliation in service to Lord Ainz, and he was respected for his intellect in his own right, even if they seldom agreed with him. "I believe it hails back to something he said when we first began to exact his will, to win the world in such a way that they wish to be ruled over for all time. By destroying this evil city, he wins both elves and good humans to his banner, or will, when it is revealed that he is the one who did it."

Albedo clapped her hands in giddy display, "Of course! I had been turning this over in my mind as well, but hadn't considered this, by freeing the elves, the story of that cities behavior will spread, it will be condemned, it will be hated, the old gods will be disgraced.

"Have we stumbled upon one of his plans then?" Aura asked brashly.

"M-maybe?" Mare said tentatively.

"His plans are deep, there must be more we do not see yet." Cocytus added.

"Maybe, but I believe Sebas has hit upon a key point." Demiurge said, inclining his head towards Sebas Tian, "Therefore we should ensure we carry out his plan and make the story of their abuses widely known, leave the city intact for others to see, so that they can come and know the evils of the people there, and our lord's righteous wrath, this will make the elves reluctant to fight against him, as he comes to them as a savior."

"Marvelous my beloved Ainz!" Albedo added...

Wenmark...

Wenmark burned for days on end, and when Remedios returned to the city with her army, she expected a warm reception for her heroic slaughter of the escaping elves, what she was greeted by was silence and fire, there were no guards on the walls, seemingly not even an attempt at putting out the flames. "What the hell...?" She asked Yuri, and the woman sitting next to her shrugged.

"I don't know. Lets get a closer look I guess." Yuri replied pragmatically. As they drew closer, she saw that the drawbridge was down, but there were no guards, nobody to meet her, nobody challenged her, it was silent as the grave, it was eerie, haunting, terrifying in a way that pitched battle was not.

It was when they went in to the city that horror greeted them. Every brick had ash on it, buildings were fallen down left and right, there was nobody anywhere. As they approached buildings, they found that inside many of them were bodies, some burned, some boiled to a thick soupy state, some killed by swords, but all were scorched by flame, the only question was whether they had been killed before or after the fire, and there were clearly many cases for both. It was when they reached the city center that the scale of the horror became clear, as they found the mass of bodies burned inside their own armor, someone had been boxed in, and killed everybody with ease. Remedios ordered the army to break up into teams and search everywhere for survivors, and for hours their voices rang out. "Hello! Is anybody alive out there?!" Stones fell as soldiers pushed them over to check a corpse, beams were broken as they lifted them out of the way to check a cellar that had been buried by debris.

The council chamber was no better off, the beautiful intricate work that Remedios knew by reputation to have contained great works of art showcasing human superiority, had been burned away to nothing as if to destroy something wicked or blasphemous. The council members were still in their seats...or their bodies were, burned in their very chairs.

When they reconvened hours later at the city center, the only place not burned, Yuri said, "Did you notice anything unusual?"

"Of course I did! Everybody is dead and everything is burned!" Remedios snapped.

"NO! Yuri said, "I mean two things...they're all ADULTS...and as near as I can tell...they're all HUMAN."

Remedios let out a dullards, "What?" her confusion evident.

"The children are all gone!" Yuri snapped, and while we know many elves had to have been killed, all their bodies are missing, even the ones you killed outside the city, except for those you pursued back towards the advancing main force, all the elf bodies are GONE!" Yuri's voice contained a rare sense of urgency.

"Where are the children?" She asked the dullard she followed, and she saw the lights gradually go on in Remedios's eyes, and when it did, the woman lost it, she began to wail and rage at the uncertain fate of the Lost Children of Wenmark. Her great height of joy when she thought she was accomplishing something great, had plummeted to a new low as she saw this as another failure to exact her queen's will for the safety of her citizens. She immediately isolated herself, took out her sword, and begged in futile desperation for her queen to speak to her again...

In the years to come the Lost Children of Wenmark became a popular story, with most of them to young to even know what city they came from, they were scattered to the orphonages around the Sorcerous Kingdom, the few who did know were so few and far between that they were seldom believed when they said they came from there, and as a result virtually overnight the city's entire population ceased to exist as a culture. The small population of pregnant women who were counted as a result of Ainz's spell effects, had their memories erased or sealed so that they did not know who they were or where they'd lived...perhaps that was kinder. They could start new lives without fear. Some citizens survived who had been working on docks far from the city, or in distant mines, many of these would go on to be hunted down by Black Justice members who lead bands of escaped elven slaves, the extermination was so thorough and so brutal that those few who did still live, only did so because they changed their names, abandoned their homes, and traveled far away and never revealed to anyone where they had come from, and not a one of them did not spend every day to their last day in fear of being found by a vengeful elf...so one way or the other, Wenmark's people vanished into history.

The city itself...or the ruins of it anyway, became known as the City of Lost Children, as other visitors came to it and found the bodies of adult humans, sans any children, and it was long said that the city was depopulated entirely as a result of elven rebellion, the mistreatment of elves in the dead city was well known in much of the South, and such was the horror of the extermination of Wenmark that forced labor began to lose favor with all but the most reckless in the Southern Holy Kingdom.

...Outside Western Prart...

The funeral for Illyana was held on a beautiful day, sun in the sky, green rolling hills somewhere in the west of Prart, a gentle wind blew both Neia & Skana's hair whimsically, as if it was being caressed by some gentle spirit. was attended by CZ, Tinamoc, Skana, and Neia, as well as many members of Black Justice, and a number of female elf survivors of the brothel that was the Golden Roan, who had survived because Illyana bought them a few moments to run or to hide when the trap was sprung. While there was a 'chance' at resurrecting her, Ainz had informed Neia that failure would turn her body to ash and dust, and Neia could not imagine that Illyana would have wanted to risk having her body further mutilated...not even by good intentions, so she was laid to rest, the seed of a great tree was planted where she was buried, so that it would draw nourishment from her form and give life to something that would grow for many generations. Neia was the first to speak.

"When I met Illyana, she was everything nobody should have been, abused, broken, living in fear, but as soon as she had the chance, she ignited that spark of self respect in herself, and regained her dignity, she found her courage, she grew more in a handful of days than many do in a lifetime, and in a sense, she left this world as a free person, just as she'd come into it. She chose in the end to fight, to resist, to let nobody take from her without consequence, she found her justice, all on her own, and died defending it, like Gascon before her."

Neia began to choke up, she had to swallow several times and wipe her face before she was able to continue, her sharp eyes blurry with wet tears, she forced herself to continue. "She did not go quietly into the fate others decreed for her, but chose to exist this life on her own terms, a free woman whose body and life were hers and no others. She had choice, the essence of justice and freedom and life itself, and if we remember nothing else, we should remember that, and hold to that ideal for ourselves, until it comes to our turn to join her, and to join her on our terms."

She took a deep breath. "May you rest in peace Illyana, nobody can ever abuse you again." Neia stepped away from the place where she stood, and Tinamoc got up.

"I knew Illyana for only a short time, I know nothing of her childhood, family, or life before I entered it, but the woman I knew was fierce, dedicated, and brave to the last, and if those are the only things anyone can put on a headstone, if those are the only character traits known by those who remember us, then we're someone worth remembering. I wish it could have gone differently Illyana..." He said as he looked at her burial plot. "But I hope wherever you are, that you know we won't stop until everyone is as free for all their lives, as you were in those moments before your death when you declared yourself free by striking down those who saw you as mere property."

He too stepped down, and Skana stood up. "I'm not Neia Baraja, I have no gift of voice, I am not Tinamoc, I have no real eloquence to me, and I did not know Illyana longer than any other here, but I knew a woman who preferred to die than live without her self respect or dignity, who preferred to die rather than risk destroying the chance at saving everybody, that's the kind of person we should all be, even if it kills us, because that way we're worth remembering. Good bye Illyana, if you can wait for us on the other side...wherever that is...do so, and next time maybe we'll take you up on your offer." She gave the grave a wry smile as tears ran down from her eyes as she tried to throw a joke at the corpse about her physical offers to the two women.

In her turn, CZ stood up, and said, "She was cute, in all the ways cute could be." And she took out one of her stickers, and laid it over the grave. To most, this was a mysterious and confusing reaction, but to Neia, Skana, and more recently Tinamoc, CZ's actions represented a deep well of affection.

A few of the girls who had known her over time had more to say, but as all things did, the funeral eventually ended, and flowers were laid over the grave around where the tree's seed was planted. Then one by one the attendants began to part, Tinamoc got to the front of a wagon and returned to Prart without another word, lost in his own thoughts. Neia seemed inclined to stay the longest, even the elf women who knew her longest left earlier, having to return to their work, but Neia stayed and stared at the grave.

Skana and CZ remained on either side of her, flanking her silently until the sun began to descend. Finally Skana could bear it no more and she tugged on Neia's arm with gentle firmness and insistence, "Its time to go...OK?" She said, leaning in close, Neia nodded, her head going up and down very quickly.

"I know...just..."

"Illyana, if you can hear this...somewhere...somehow, I promise you I won't rest until every elf is free, then I'll come back here again, and tell you its over, and I'll wager your tree with the blood of their former masters." She swallowed. "I promise you..." She said again, the grave did not answer, graves tended not to do that, except by silence, and that was all she got back.

"OK, lets go. We've got a lot of work to do, and I have a promise to keep." Neia said, her voice regaining some of its strength, she bowed deeply to the grave, then straightened and did an about face, and walked away from it, leaving Illyana alone to her rest.

AN: And that completes the intermission and the epilogue, we're going to enter Part TWO of the story of the growth of the Cult of Ainz and the great war, this completes a huge part of this project, one I've had LOTS of fun with, and I hope you have too, I've seen some ups and downs along the way, lost a few readers due to some choices, gained a lot more I think, and I've seen my long held style shift to something a little different than the way I usually write, and for the better I think. I hope you found all this worth your time to read, and of course if you didn't, well neener neener you can't unread it. ;) And if you did, please leave a review telling me what you thought, I love reading your reviews and trust me, if you write a long one, I'll read all of it, even (or especially) critical ones, though I might not always agree with a criticism, its always worth considering. Thanks for your time, your eyeballs, your reviews, and so on.

SEE YOU ON PART TWO!

OH! And by the way, you're probably wondering why I'm posting both parts now and didn't wait for the reviews to hit 600? Well the answer is that somebody offered to donate $10 to my charitable organization if I released them early. I agreed, they did it, so...here you go. I can never say no to good deeds.