Chapter 3

Interlude: Slain Theocracy

The slain theocracy. An entire kingdom that believes humans to be the dominant species above all others. Under the teachings of their six gods they duties to maintain an iron fist on the population of other races while maintain their own power, both in military and political. The church of this kingdom governs this territory, led by six arch bishops; Yvon Jasna Dacrowce, Ginedire Delan Guelifi, Dominic Ihre partouche, Raymond Zary Lauransen, Maximillion Oreio Layier and Berenice Nayua Suntini, the only female amongst the six. This group is lead be the high priest Pontifex Maximus. Recently they received intel that an immense magical energy was condensed into a single spot on their borders. Then later heard reports of a single man slaying a griffon.

Within a conference room of the six gods, these seven individuals were seated at a round table. All of which were deep in though. Words being exchanged here and there.

"How do you propose we deal with this?"

"If this person really did kill a griffon by himself and grew someone's arm back without the use of a potion, then he may be an awakened dragon-kin."

"We don't know all the details about that incident so we can't make that decision just yet. Could've been simply dumb luck that the beast was killed and the farmer was probably seeing things when he said he had his arm bitten off."

"What about observing him? The windflower scripture already has spies in the R-estize kingdom, so get them to verify this individual in question."

"I've already sort to it. I've told them to look for a man in a black coat with a metal arm and a peculiar right eye."

"And how long will that take?"

"Who knows."

With that response, the room fell into silence. Suddenly the doors burst open as a single man in light leather armor passed through.

"News from the wind scripture spies your excellencies," huffed the spy as he knelt before the table.

"Proceed. What news is there that would be so important you'd interrupt a meeting of the Archbishops!" yelled Maximillion.

"Apologies your excellency. The take away restaurant has been found and they do sell noodles of a wide variety. Also, the individual that we were sent to find has also been located," replied the spy.

"Perfect. Now tell us, has he displayed any signs of power that is worth recognizing?" questioned Berence.

There was a moment of silence before the spy responded. "He-he is without a doubt a powerful being. He displayed incredible agility without the aid of a martial art skill and magical power. He wasn't only able to cast powerful fire and lightning magic, but was also able to create weapons that he didn't have before and heal without chanting a spell. He managed to slaughter a gang of bandits that were from Brain Unglaus's group without breaking a sweat. He spared one with a serious burn on the side of his face."

The entire council was speechless. All of them starring at the lone spy on the ground.

Domonic broke the silence soon after. "Is there anything else about this individual? What's his name and where did he come from?"

"He said his name was Garmadon, but I don't have any information as to his origin. But I can say that he is heading to E-Rantel."

Responding to these words, Genidine rose from the table. "We need to bring him in and possibly recruit him! Lest we lose a powerful warrior to the Re-estize kingdom."

"You fool! If we recruit people carelessly we won't know who we can trust in our time of need. We're not sure if he's even human and bringing in anything else into our kingdom would be to tarnish the teachings of the gods!" protested Maximillion.

"Why don't we just ask him?" questioned Yvon. "Send out some soldiers and attempt to contact him."

Maximillion just stared at him. "And should he resist?"

The room went silent once more.

"It has been decided then," boomed Pontefix. "We'll have a few soldiers from the clear water scripture and black scripture head over to the Re-estize kingdom. Have them find Garmadon and attempt to bring him over to the Slane Theocracy. Should he refuse or be inhuman," he paused to take a breath. "Eliminate him."

"Now, what shall we order in terms of noodles?" asked Yvon.

Soon the entire council fell into silence as the question was deeply thought upon.

"So they really do use straw for their mattresses," I murmured as I inspected the lone bed in the room.

Recently the sun had gone down, so I had rented a room at one of the hotels in E-Rantel with the coins I had raided from the bandit corpses. With a fair amount of currency left over I didn't really know what to do with myself. Soon I found myself inspecting the middle-aged room.

"Huuuuuuuu. Looks like I might hit the hay for the night," I chuckled to myself while yawning. Killing 13 bandits in one day really does a number on one's body.

After getting undressed, removing my leg and standing in my boxes, I found myself in a slight predicament. 'Should I sleep with my arm on, or try and take it off?' Inspecting my arm, I noticed that I couldn't see any obvious signs of removing it. 'I don't think I design this arm with any means of taking it off like a normal prosthetic,' I sighed.

So, I crawled into bed and laid there while waiting for sleep to overcome me. "Ah that's right, Mommon should be facing the horde of undead tonight and Clementime if the timing is accurate. I would love to watch the spectacle, but I'm far too tired to even be bothered." As I said that, I yawned again. Soon sleep began to overcome me.

"Shall we take their bodies back to Nazarick for testing?"

'What was that? A women's' voice? It sounds so familiar, and why can't I see anything?'

"No," replied a much gruffer voice. "We need to hand them over to the authorities as someone to blame for all this. We'll just take their equipment this time."

"As you wish, my master."

Soon I could see who was talking as the darkness began to dissipate. There were two individuals standing outside a giant tomb looking structure, behind them was a giant hamster that appeared to have been hammered into the ground. Surrounding them were a pile of smoldering corpses dressed in dark-blue robes. One of the two in question was a woman with black hair tied in a ponytail by a white cloth. She was also wearing an outfit that seemed to be crossed with a maid costume and light silver armor.

'She looks pretty cute.'

The other was anything but. He was a tall skeleton figure dawned in robes that were darker than the night itself. It had pieces of gold here and there while having two large white spikes resting length ways upon his shoulders. Bellow his exposed rib cage, a red orb resided in his abdomen giving off a crimson glow.

"My lord if I may, I would also like to know what we should do with the human we encountered earlier?" questioned the maid.

"You're referring to the one with the metal arm from the trip? The one who bested you?" asked the skeleton.

'Hang on, is that Naberal? Then that would mean the other person is Ainz Ooal Gown!'

Naberal gave a slight nod.

"Leave him be for now. We don't know how strong he is and considering he knew who you were there's a chance he's a player from YGGDRASIL. As such he may also know who I am. So we will leave him be for now but assign a few shadow crawlers to monitor his movements. I want to know if he's a potential threat to Nazarick."

"Yes, my lord."

And with those words Ainz turned around and began walking towards the temple. As he did everything began to darken and I could no longer see anything

Suddenly, I jolted up panting in my bed. I was sweating while trying to comprehend what I had just witnessed. All the while my right eye was slightly throbbing.

Cupping my hand over it I began to stutter my thoughts. "That that was the graveyard scene form the Overlord anime. That's not possible, right? I was just here lying in my bed. Nowhere near that sight," pulling my hand away from my face I starred at the insignia in the palm. "They said they were going to spy on me. If that dream was any kind of legitimate warning, then I'll need to be more careful from now on."

Starring out the window, I saw the first rays of sun beginning to streak across the sky, symbolizing the break of dawn. 'What did I put in my character description that I cannot remember?'

Rattling my head around I couldn't think of anything related to dreams. After coming up blank I climbed out of bed and got dressed, deciding that it was time to get the day started.

As I walked down the hall I saw someone familiar at the other end and she still had that scolding look on her face as always.

"Hello Nabe, lovely weather we're having."

Seeming that she hadn't noticed me until my greeting, a flash of both surprise and anger appeared on her face. "Yes, it is."

Now it was my turn to be surprised. "You're not going to attack me?" I questioned in surprise. "I would've thought you'd try and kill me after our little fight yesterday. Speaking of which, you seem to have nicely healed from the stabs and kick I gave you."

"I've been ordered by Mommon to not lash out at you without provocation," she replied with the look of disappointment appearing on her face. "As for my wounds, that's something that doesn't concern a mongrel like you."

Thinking of my dream from last night, I glanced around the hallway at the shadows with my right eye active. Turning to the shadow behind Nabe I saw it shimmer slightly with a humanoid figure, not resembling Nabe in the slightest.

'Found you,' I grinned.

"Well that's convenient. Any way I would like to apologize for what I did to you, but you were the one who started the fight," I said while passing her. "Later."

And on that happy note I left her to do whatever it was she was doing.

Later that day I found myself in the local markets and lots of the stuff I saw was pretty cool. Except for the bowls and silverware. That stuff never really interested me much.

"So, will that be one mandarin or two?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Three please," I answered.

All in all, I had managed to fill the bag I got from the farmer. As I made my way through the busy streets I noticed in one of a stores' mirror a group of people eyeing at me from behind.

'Probably just a coincidence. Ainz wouldn't send two parties to spyon me, would he?'

Turning through a wooden arch way in a wooden building, I found myself in wide room with rows upon rows of supplies. In front of the one of them I saw several rolls of paper sticking out of a barrel. Picking out one and inspecting the layout I recognized it to be a map of a vast land.

'Wonder if this is a map of something important in this world. It's big so it must be of some vast plot of land.'

"You got a good eye there lad. That there's a map of the entire continent with both its boundaries and various locations labelled. There aren't that many shops around here that sell the for the cheap price I do," complemented the man behind the counter. He had a dirty red bandana on his head with a shaved face and was wearing a dark green shirt. "4 gold coins for the map."

Starring at the parchment in my hands, I began to evaluate as to how important this map can be for my journeys. "4 gold for it, yes?"

"That's right."

Looking in my pouch to see what coins I had left, I noted that I was running pretty low in turns of currency. "That price is a bit outrageous man. I can get a room at an in for one night with 4 bronze coins. I'll give you 2 pieces, refuse and I can just go looking for a new one."

"Sorry pale, business is business and I can't let you have it without paying the full bill. 5 gold. And good luck finding another that's cheaper"

'Dam that's tough. Time for some word play.'

"Tell ya what. I'll buy it for 1 gold and 2 silver and the rest through a quest. What say you?" that last part I said in a Gandalf voice.

He just stared at me like I'm some kind of idiot. But that only lasted for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"Ha-Ha-Ha-ha. You, on a quest. You're not even an adventurer. What makes you think you can handle a quest?"

"Because I'm a skilled fighter who killed a party of bandits in under five minutes."

The mans' laughter began to calm down. "Alright, sounds like a fair deal. I'm friends with the adventures guild master. I'll ask him to assign you a quest outside the adventures guild and the higher the quest and danger, the higher the discount."

"You're on!" I yelled. As the two of us shook hands we had the biggest grins on our faces.

'This is going to be good. A complete map of the land with a discount and- are those the same people who were eyeing me in the markets?'

Just outside the store, the same group of people who were coincidently following me in the market were now outside standing near the entrance of the store.

'Do they know who I am? Or are they really from Nazarick?'

"So, lets go and organize that quest for you," Havoc interrupted my train of thought.

"Alright, hit me with your bets shot."