AN: If you intend to leave a review complaining about OCs without offering a specific criticism that might help expand them or improve the writing…then don't bother. If you're going to spam reviews demanding the story you want while saying nothing of value of the one you're 'reviewing'…I'll write a one hundred chapter Demiurge x Vanysa romance story before I go back to God Rising. (Or maybe not, but I really don't like entitled brats sooo...maybe)

And…

If you want early access to all published stories without the choosing beggars, you can find them on the 'Overlord Fanfiction' Discord Server.

…Kami Miyako…Climb's 'Quarters'…

"Ouch." Was all Climb managed to get out for several minutes as Aorli, or 'Meat' cleaned him up. "What happened?" He asked.

"What do you remember?" Aorli asked him as she rung the cloth out and wet it again.

"I remember a group of guards approaching, I fought them, I put down a few…I think, before I was overwhelmed, then…lots of hitting, then blackness." He said.

"OK." She said, and she began to wipe the blood from his chest. "After they knocked you out, they hit you for at least a minute, they were going to kill you, then I told them that you were a special prisoner of the cardinals, and they might not have believed me, but an…older woman, someone called her Berenice, showed up and confirmed it, she had me bring you up here and told me to take care of your injuries." She said, sounding somewhat relieved as she relayed the story.

"And those?" Climb asked as he slowly raised a very sore arm and pointed with his fore and middle fingers at her two eyes.

"The guard you knocked out…he woke up, told them why you'd hit him, so they decided you needed to be punished by more than just beating you. They figured that the best way to do that was to render your actions worse than pointless…they held me up and made me open my eyes, then this eye was hit with the butt of the same spear they used on you," she pointed to the eye that had been completely shut, "then they punched me once in this eye." She pointed to the other eye, "they said it was the price of failure, and told me to tell you 'if' you woke up, that hadn't you been foolish, I'd have only been hit once today instead of three times." She said, keeping her voice carefully neutral, while obviously shaking and in considerable pain.

"Did the one called Berenice see?" He asked curiously as he remembered the name as belonging to one of the Cardinals.

"No, she wasn't there when I was hit." She said with a slow shake of her head.

Climb lay looking up at the ceiling for a moment. "I'm sorry." He said softly.

She shook her head again. "No, you were trying to help. Just know now that you can't. Nobody here can, and nobody here will, and don't do that again." She said with a little catch in her voice.

"Don't do what again?" Zesshi said as she walked into the room.

"Nothing of importance mistress." Aorli said deferentially, falling to her knees when Zesshi approached.

Zesshi reached down and put her thumb and forefinger under Aorli's chin and tilted her gaze upwards.

"Who are you?" Zesshi asked, "And why are you here?"

"This slave is named 'Meat' mistress, and she was sent to provide the prisoner with food, and then…to take care of him while he recovers." Aorli said meekly.

Zesshi turned Aorli's face so that it was canted first to the left, then to the right, as she noticed the bruising on the elf slave. "Did he do that to you?" She asked curiously, without saying what it was she meant, Aorli did not have to guess.

"No mistress, a guard hit me…and when the prisoner found out he hit the guard and knocked him out in reprisal…then some others showed up and did that to him, then they hit me twice more to punish him for it." Aorli said, she kept her voice even, but it was impossible to fully disguise the pain she was in.

"To punish 'him'?" Zesshi asked, prompting Climb to interject.

"Yes, since hitting her bothered me, they beat me up, then hit her twice so that I'd know that 'I' was to blame for her getting even more injured than she already was." He said dejectedly.

As he explained, Zesshi nodded, "That makes sense, you were weak, they punished the one you wanted to protect in order to further punish you." She said looking over the battered and bruised up Climb with a neutral expression.

"Well Meat…they worked you over pretty hard, sure it was only twice they hit you?" Zesshi said, and she reached down and touched the girl on her side, just under her arm, prompting her to wince.

"Yeah I thought so." Zesshi said knowingly, "You were lying to Climb to keep cherry boy from feeling worse, weren't you?" She asked, to which Aorli responded with small and nervous nodding, and Climb tried to sit up in alarm.

"Well not to worry, you got lucky, I grabbed a few healing potions in a bag rather than just one." She said, and she put her pack down on the table and began rustling through it.

"Her name isn't 'Meat'" Climb said.

"What?" Zesshi asked.

"I said…her name is not 'Meat'. Her name is Aorli." He replied firmly.

Zesshi looked down at the wide-eyed elf girl on her knees and at the bed ridden Climb.

Aorli turned her head away from Zesshi to look at him, 'No' she mouthed silently.

Zesshi looked at Climb's struggle with some amusement. "I'm afraid I can't hear people who are defeated and on their backs because of a few bruises, It seems that you'll have to stand up so I can make out what you're trying to say." She said.

'No.' Aorli mouthed again while Zesshi ignored them both and went back to rummaging.

Climb groaned and managed to swing his legs over the bed, one of them was obviously broken, and the other didn't have a place that wasn't bruised. He let his feet fall to the floor and sucked in his teeth as the pain struck. The fact that he had nothing on at the time and so his body revealed numerous injuries, seemed not to bother Zesshi in the least, nor did he seem to be embarrassed to be wearing nothing but bruises and blood.

Aorli looked up at Zesshi as the woman ignored all this and pulled out a small sack. "Please, mistress he shouldn't stand, as this slave said, her name is 'Meat', just call her 'Meat', just don't make him…" And then Climb forced himself up to a standing position with a cry of agony, before almost immediately toppling over on his side and then fell over the rest of the way onto his back in a heap as his legs gave out.

It was at that moment that Zesshi pulled out two healing potions and set them on the table.

"Well that 'was' standing up, not quite for as long as I would have preferred, but…good enough, I heard you." Zesshi said and approached the pair, she handed two healing potions to Aorli and then returned to sit at the table.

"Use one of those on him, Aorli." Zesshi said, using the elf girl's name, and prompting Climb to grin from the floor. "He did win one fight for you today at least." Zesshi said with a wry bemused grin.

Aorli gave her a flash of gratitude as she tilted Climb's head up and helped him to drink. A moment later he was restored, and Aorli consumed the other to restore her eyes.

"So, you've been busy Climb." She said when the blonde young man stood on his feet again.

"Seeing the ugly side of this beautiful city, all from right here." He said regretfully.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked Zesshi as he gestured for Aorli to sit at the table.

"Is it a stupid question?" Zesshi asked him.

"Maybe?" He answered uncertainly.

"Ask it." She said.

"How do the cardinals treat the slaves here? I met Raymond, its…I just can't see him throwing someone like her," he gestured to Aorli, "screaming into some brothel. Or backing that guy…what did you call him Aorli?" Climb asked.

"Justicar." She said in a voice of ice. "He wasn't the only one," she said, "He was the pioneer though, we were all trained for different things and marked accordingly. His system had me trained for…household tasks." She lifted the sack that served as her clothing and exposed the brand on her left thigh, so if you're going to ask that question, you should probably ask about all the different forms of…use we're put to. There are many 'Justicars'" She let the sack fall back down again, and it looked as if she were about to start crying, when Zesshi spoke up.

"Well if it makes you feel better Aorli," Zesshi said, "Justicar, the one you call 'the great breaker' is dead."

Aorli's eyes glazed over. "How?" She asked in surprise, he had seemed almost divinely powerful when she'd looked up at him before.

"His eyes were gouged out of his head, which was then severed from his body and nailed to a village gate with a note of warning. I don't know what it said, but the killing was done by an organization called 'Black Justice' run by Neia Baraja."

"When…" She gasped in disbelief.

"Oh this happened awhile ago, several months in fact." Zesshi said casually.

"How wonderful…" Aorli said wistfully.

"Now as to your question Climb…I don't really know. I'm in an isolated sort of position. But…I will ask." Her eyes narrowed and a dangerous energy permeated the air around her. "I have some…questions…for them." She said and lowered her head, her face bore the fury of a jungle cat, and it moved her hair a little as she did so, exposing her half elven ears.

Aorli involuntarily gasped and covered her mouth, her eyes widened as she saw the impossibly distinctive feature.

"You're…like me." She said in surprise.

Zesshi shook her head. "No, I'm not." She said.

"But your ears…" She said.

"Yes, I'm a half elf, but not by choice!" She snapped and gave a glare at Aorli.

"The king of your country raped my mother to produce me, I abjure my father and everything he was! I'll kill him when I get the chance." Zesshi added with bloodlust in her voice.

"Do that, and we will hail you as a hero for all the generations to come." Aorli said in a reverential whisper. "I believe him to be my father also, yet he threw me into a fight I wasn't ready for, now I'm a slave and a plaything to a jailer, I'm more imprisoned than any of the humans with bars on their doors." She said bitterly. "That half of yourself that you hate might be a monster, but what makes the half you embrace, any different?" She asked.

Zesshi did not show that she was in any way affected by the half-starved slave, but only said softly…

"I see…so you might be my half-sister." She looked at Aorli contemplatively, "How…interesting." She said softly.

"Climb, you might have lost down there…but…I'm impressed by your victory." She said. "I had wanted to beat the ever loving piss out of you again today…but I am afraid I could only stop in for a short period, I have some…urgent business to tend to again today."

Zesshi stood up and nodded politely to Aorli, "And you…try not to get him into any more trouble, he's reckless you know, weakness and recklessness are not a combination that tends to lead to long lives. Have a nice night." She said before smiling slightly and walking out.

When Zesshi was gone, Climb & Aorli looked at each other in confusion.

"Do you know what she was talking about?" Climb asked.

"I don't. That was…strange." Aorli replied.

"Very strange." Climb agreed.

Zesshi, when she left, went straight for Berenice's office.

There was a guard at her door, that was more or less the norm even here, or one might say 'especially' here in the seat of government. Zesshi however, did not need to worry about guards, she was of the Black Scripture, she was humanity's trump card, she was not going to be questioned.

Still, this time, as she approached the door, the guard stationed there told her, "Cardinal Berenice is meeting with Cardinal Dominic at the moment, could you wait for a few minutes?" He asked politely.

"No." She said and opened the door to walk in on the two.

She strolled in and closed the door behind her.

"I have a question." She said, interrupting the pair.

"Not now Dominic said in annoyance. "We're busy. We've got to settle on what to do to bring Re-Estize over to our side, I don't know what it is you want to know, but it will have to wait."

"Well it won't, so you'll have to." She said.

He was about to sputter out his anger but she cut him off, "Shut it." She said bluntly in a voice of ice. Zesshi was naturally direct, Zesshi was often indifferent, but she had never spoken to any of the cardinals…not even Cardinal Dominic, whom she disliked very much, like that. It was enough to close his mouth in surprise.

"I want to know something and you are going to give me the answer." She said.

Berenice smiled in her matronly way and said, "If it is so urgent that you must interrupt this, then…please ask."

"Do you know if there are any of the elf king's children among the captives that have been taken over the years? And if so, what are you doing with them?" She asked.

Of all the questions she could have asked, this was the last one Berenice expected. In all her time in the Slane Theocracy, she'd never shown any indication that she gave a damn what happened to other elves, all she wanted was to fight, kill her father, and find someone who could defeat her so she could have the victor's children.

"I…ah…" Berenice's matronly face became uncomfortable.

Dominic however, only laughed. "That monster fucks everything that moves on two legs and is female…and he's been doing so for centuries, what do you think? Honestly Zesshi, stick to being a battle maniac, leave the thinking to us." He said arrogantly.

Zesshi kept her face carefully neutral and focused her eyes on Cardinal Berenice. "Are there any measures that prohibit the behavior that created me?"

"Measures?" Berenice asked.

"Laws, rules?" She asked.

Dominic snorted out a laugh, "We want more like you, why the hell would we create rules against it?"

Berenice shot him a disgusted look and then turned to Zesshi.

"No, none." She said honestly.

Zesshi looked at her curiously, "You're OK with that?" She asked.

"I don't need to be, I just have to live with it, it's the reality of war and we're fighting for the future of humanity." She said.

Zesshi carefully kept her face neutral, "I suppose that makes sense. After all, they're weak, who cares what happens to them, and of course…what does it matter what people do to elf bitches? Especially if it makes more weapons like me? It is a small price to pay after all, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically.

Berenice nodded with some discomfort, and Dominic snarled out, "Of course, now could you excuse us please, we have things to go over."

"So if we can ally with the Elf King and bring that idiot…what was his name…Philip, to power, that will give us a considerable military force and make the Sorcerer King fight on two fronts…just how much money do we need to send that idiot this time?" Zesshi overheard Dominic say as she casually walked out of the room and then out of the building. There was somewhere else she wanted to be.

She went to the treasury, this was the place she knew best, she worked alone there, nobody ever bothered her, she could linger in quiet, in the past, she'd all but hidden there while she fantasized about what kind of man might defeat her, she'd even reveled in delicious safe terror of telling herself wicked tales about some monstrous evil figure defeating her, and thinking of how strong their children might be.

Now she went there for a different reason. She wanted to be alone to voice her own thoughts, she had never been much for the gods, but in the tranquility and silence of the treasury, among those powerful relics, it was an almost religious experience, not least because it was the only place she'd ever been in all the world, that reminded her that there were other beings more powerful than she was, and that was what she needed to help her think right about now.

…Kami Miyako…Climb's 'Quarters'…

He'd lost track of the days, but Zesshi hadn't come back in at least two, not since meeting Aorli, but she had returned to tend to him in Zesshi's stead on the second day, and she seemed considerably happier. "I didn't expect to see a smile on your face today Aorli." Climb said as he got up from doing his morning pushups. "What would be the reason?" He asked.

"The jailor here is dead." She said grinning. "His wife killed him and then hanged herself." Aorli said with a grin.

Climb looked at her in surprise. "That is a sentence that in all my life I would never treat as 'good news'…but I do." He said.

"Oh and in case you'd like to know, I overheard a few others talking, and that squadron of guards who beat the piss out of you…you won't be seeing them anymore." She said with a smile.

"Why not?" He asked curiously.

"Because they've been transferred, all the way to Ikari City, the place that'll be on the front line in the war against the Sorcerous Kingdom." She said. "They'll be lucky to stay alive."

"Well no wonder you're in a good mood." Climb said with a grin, and Aorli set a tray on the table and sat across from him.

He scooped some of the food onto his plate and then slid the tray over to her. She could smile at him now without fear, nobody had ever shed blood for her before, or shed their own. She remembered looking over his naked body as he collapsed, he'd been a mass of pain that stood for a second, bruises, breaks, ugly purple marks…it had been an even more brutal beating than she'd realized. Even the one he called Zesshi, the half elf, had looked at him with some surprise.

They ate in amiable silence and Aorli told him about her brothers and sisters, while Climb told stories of the amazing golden princess he served, and when she left, Climb was in a profoundly good mood. He wondered if princess would be able to visit him today.

He was still wondering that when he looked out the window that evening and saw the bright orange glow of a very large fire.

AN: Well this has been an interesting chapter to write, quite frankly some of it was unpleasant. I'm trying to write Zesshi Zetsumi as accurately as possible. MOST fanfics only have her written as some kind of a battle maniac, one dimensional, a mere weapon. But I want to write her properly, so a lot of work is going into this one. You'll understand more as the story unfolds.