The wanderer

by Garmadon35

A high school student just wants to live a life in his imagination. But what happens when he becomes his imagination? Sent to an alternate world he must come to understand not only the reality of his situation, but also himself while being hunted down. (self-insert fanfic)

14. Chapter 14

I know it's late but….HAPPY NEW YEAR! XD

Okay everybody, I've read the comments and I have to agree on something that some of you are thinking. I feel like Thousand Leagues Astrologer and Garmadon should ship it in my personal opinion. The more I write this story with characters mentioned in the series but have not yet been given sustenance makes me fall in love with them more and more.

I don't know how, or if it's even going to happen, but I'm going to see if I can ship those two by this stories conclusion. No promises though, I've never written a love piece before, even in school, so I might screw it up a bit.

But without further ado, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 14

Great Tomb of Nazarick

"Do you think this pleases me? Well do YOU?!" Ainz announced angrily in his chair. His head rested in his right palm with his ring and middle finger a top and bottom of his right socket. "Well I'm waiting, what do you have to say for yourself?"

He angrily tapped the arm of his chair to the rhythm of the grandfather clock ticking away in the room with a bone finger.

"…I seriously doubt this will work~," he groaned, stopping his tapping and starring at his own reflection in the tall wide mirror standing opposite him. "The only time I'd use this is if it's totally serious, and I feel uneasy doing this."

Getting up, Ainz moved his chair in an exhausted manner back into its proper position by a nearby coffee table. He'd been in his room for a while practicing poses for certain scenarios involving times where he'd have to react to an unfamiliar situation.

In his past world he was a simple 9 to 5 office worker, sitting in front of a holographic computer screen. He'd given speeches before his time as a true skeleton, but only to people who he could crack a jock with after finding out their sister's voicing an 'R' rated game they bought with blue balls.

'Hhaaaa, good times Peroronchino, good times~.'

When it came to giving speeches on the throne to everyone he'd been relying on that weird… calming force to make him think rationally. In truth, it's saved Ainz so many times it's ridiculous.

Though recently, when he addressed someone other than an NPC of Nazarick in said tomb as the overlord everyone sees him as, Ainz had a little trouble constantly keeping his emotions intact. He almost outright killed the guy….twice.

'I'm grateful for the wake-up call Garmadon gave me, but I really need to focus on the efforts made to uncover the full reason why the animals in Nazarick went berserk,' he thought, gripping the chair at remembering the trouble it took to subdue them without resorting to killing. 'Ahh, so many things so little time. At least I don't need to spend it on sleeping~.'

Earlier, most of the beasts that had weak magical resistance and intelligence under Mare and Aura's care, along with most that weren't went on a rampage in Nazarick. It was soon discovered they were under some form of mind control, the same Hamsuke and the basilisk were under. Though the caster wasn't found to be anywhere near the tomb.

At first he believed it to be the doing of a [World Item], there are those with the ability to make animals one's own allies within a set range. But since he was able to dispel all the affects with 5th tier magic it was chopped up to be highly unlikely.

Dong~…..Dong~…..Dong~…..

Suddenly the grandfather clock, standing tall with a bronze pendulum swinging behind decorated glass rung loudly, signalling it to be 4'oclock.

"Alright then~, time to get back to work," he declared, patting down his pitch-black robes and making sure his golden neck brace was symmetrical with his ribcage before making his way through the bedroom's wooden double doors.

He entered a largely long room on the opposite side with balconies on either side supported by marble pillars. Made entirely of the earth material, the room was lined with ocean blue carpets and fresh green ferns growing from gardens on the sides of balconies. In the centre rested a long coffee table with lavish couches on either side made of fashioned spruce wood and lined with dark purple cushions for back rests and the seating area itself.

At one end of the room where he'd entered sat a wide desk made of dark wood with a large chair behind it elegantly carved from spruce wood. Lined with scarlet cushioning on its armrests, backrest and the seating area, it was something fit for high royalty.

Next to it, bowing with her eyes closed was albedo. Her long raven hair flowed over her shoulders and a bit in front of the face with pale horns protruding from amongst it. Normally a hairstyle like that would be considered messy, but it suited the succubus guardian as if it were something exclusive only to her.

In the eyes of most it just made her seem that more attractive.

"Greetings, Lord Ainz. I hope you rested well~," she cooed as Ainz took his cushioned seat.

"Evening Albedo, I did rest quite well, thankyou."

'Well I would have if I wasn't undead or stressing out~. Actually, I think tea is a great way to calm the mind…..but it'll just go through my bones without me being able to even taste it,' Ainz's eyes dulled slightly at his despair. 'But what about a bath? That might work…'

"~ You would've rested more soundly with me~," Albedo cooed, pulling Ainz out of his internal thoughts to see her straightening up with a blush, a seductive smile on her face with her hip-wings ruffling heavily as if they were trying to cool her down. Clearly, she was imagining a 'what if' scenario. Doesn't take a genius to find out what.

"Y-yes, you're right….. I probably would've," he stuttered in surprise as he looked on trying to find the rest of his sentence.

'Actually, traditionally it's a relaxing custom for a man to rest his head on a women's lap,' he thought, remembering that although he lived a moderate life before he never relaxed in the comforting embrace of another women… except his mother, but that's not the point. 'No-no, get that dirty thought out of your head fool! You may have tampered with her programming before as a joke but that's no excuse to take advantage of your friend's creation, no matter how she may think-.'

Knock-knock.

Before the situation could escalate there was a knock from the door at the other end. Albedo glared at the door as if it were something repulsive, like a human, before taking a breath and returning to her mature demeanour with a smile.

"Enter."

The double doors were opened from the other side by a pair of long blonde-haired maids walking beside them to let a tall figure pass through. He was dressed in an orange and white striped suit with a metal spiked tip tail swaying behind him with each stride.

"Demiurge, excellent timing," Ainz welcomed, internally thanking his arrival. "Tell me, how goes the investigations and preparations for the lizardmen operation?"

With a small stack of papers held in one hand, Demiurge's diamond eyes flickered first to Ainz, to Albedo then back to Ainz. "Did I interrupt something, My Lord?" he asked, stopping a metre from his desk.

Albedo's eyes flared seductively as the fantasizing smile returned. She giggled a little as her golden cat-like eyes rolled towards Ainz. The very action startled Ainz for a moment, even though he's undead and this was probably the third time it's happened today. Dunno, he stopped counting ages ago after it became a daily thing, but it got him every time…...

"Oh-er…No-no, it's quite alright," Ainz assured, raising a hand as though to stop the weirdness. "cough(not a real cough)... back to matters…"

"Yes Lord," Demiurge gave a brief bow. Albedo had calmed down a little but still had a flicker in her eyes. "The preparations for the lizardmen operation are almost complete with Gargantua on standby. We shall send the wraiths to deliver the announcements to the appropriate tribes in the morning when they are more active. As appropriate for cold-blooded reptiles."

"Excellent, if progress is on schedule as you say it is then we can focus a little on other matters. Speaking of …"

"Of course," Demiurge holding up the papers in front of him as though ready to read out a speech. "After extensive research and magic back tracing we've discovered that the mind control only affected low minded animals and was coming from several sources inside Nazarick. All of which were amongst the pets Aura took a liking too from outside the tomb during one of her assignments. One is in a magic sealing barrier while the rest have been exterminated, but the back-tracing magic showed they too were under the influence of another source from outside the tomb."

"Interesting, so the puppeteers were puppets for the real puppeteer," Ainz mulled, stroking his bone jaw as though it were a grown beard.

'It's like a computer hacker bouncing their signal across the world to hide their tracks,' Ainz thought, flashing to all the times he saw the spell in affect. Then he remembered the wyvern after releasing Hamsuke from the spell, raising a bone finger from his stroking hand at an idea. 'The spell could run both ways, meaning that the caster could see through the eyes of the animals. A spell like that did exist in Yggdrasil, [Eyes of nature] it was called, a 4th tier spell druids specialized in.'

"Demiurge, do you think it could be an Yggdrasil player who's responsible. After all, if they were able to infiltrate us through Aura's collection, then they most likely know of us."

'It could very well be the same ones who attacked Shalltear.'

"That is indeed a possibility, My Lord," he replied, pushing up his spectacles. "But if I may be frank, there is another possibility, and we've met him first hand."

"Hmm…ah-yes, Garmadon would be a potential suspect. But he displayed no power of controlling others and is close under our watch."

"Yes, but what if he wasn't the only one to hail from this…'control dimension', and he either refused to tell us or just didn't know?"

Ainz's eyes lit up at the idea. It was totally feasible, insane in a way but not a total stretch considering everything else.

"Albedo, I want you to assemble a party with those specialized in stealth and back tracing magic. I want this individual found and identified by using the one animal we have left that's still affected by the mind control. What is it, anyway?" Ainz queried, turning to Demiurge.

"A type of griffon, same size as one but has the wings of a bat, the head of a wolf and the body of a lion."

"I want that beast to serve as their guide," Albedo bowed at the order. "Demiurge, get the team you have watching Garmadon to relay any characters he's interacted with that either recognise him or share knowledge of us."

"Lord."

'Oooh, this is a little bit much,' Ainz thought, as Albedo and Demiurge started talking through [message] while the lights in his sockets glowed dimly. 'As much as I don't want to, I'll need to consult this with Garmadon, assuming he isn't working with the puppeteer. We'll see if this played out in the 'anime' he watched, but he probably won't give a straight answer-.'

"Lord Ainz, one of the scouting teams for the lizardmen have just reported back," Demiurge said, interrupting Ainz's train of thought. "There seems to have been a crises."

"..A crises?.."

Before Demiurge could answer, he held his ear once again for another incoming [message].

"…And the recognisance team watching Garmadon, have just reported that the human is…..dead."

Interlude; Slane Theocracy, Harold

It was absolute chaos. Without any warning, earth eaters had burst through several locations around Daigel, allowing battalions of beasts and animals to seep into the town.

Harold's plan to spread soldiers throughout before-hand had saved countless corpses from piling up and with the help of the guards, attempted an evacuation of what civilians they could save. Problem was, was that majority of the guards stationed on the walls had been petrified by basilisks that came out of the nearby forest or flat out slaughtered.

Once all was done, the beasts left over remained outside the walls, ignoring the defensive spikes jutting from the soil to keep everyone in.

The sheer magnitude of this force gave them no choice but to escort everyone into the underground sewage system and try and hunker down until reinforcements arrived. Though more than a few nobles of the area were less than compliant about hiding in the sewage and dirtying their clothes. That was until a half dried out python almost ate one of their faces off before being split down the middle by one of the accompanying guards.

Out the front of one such openings, evacuations were still underway with crowds of dozens of human civilians, young, old, male and female forced to go in single file.

"Everyone, please calmly move in a single file. The gate can't take two!" a guard was yelling by the entrance while waving his hands around to get everyone's attention. "Hey you, no pushing!"

Coupled with the monsters they fended off, it was all the guards could do to keep the people from going into an uncontrollable panic.

"How we doing so far, Harold-dya!?" Nicoli grunted as he skewered a wolf with his sword that leapt at him before using his long shield that went down to his ankles to pry it off. He was clad in a full set of silver armour with a red feather pocking from the rear of his helmet like a pony tail.

"[Hunters intuition]. We've had five of the six parties return with civ-hah!" he stomped at a venomous snake trying to slither between his feet. "[Impregnable fortress]."

Using both swords, Harold blocked a minotaur's fist from crushing him below with his body hardening and jolting slightly from the force. But it wasn't done as it jabbed its other fist into his gut.

"Pluuugh!"

The punch was cushioned by the martial arts, but it still packed enough force to make it feel like his chest would cave.

"[Flow acceleration]," he heavily breathed.

Pushing the fists off, Harold suddenly spun into a whirling tornado of silver and sparkles as cuts all over the front side of the minotaur appeared everywhere until it was cut short by a slashing beheading.

"Huh~dam, these things just keep comin- cough!" dropping to one knee while holding his chest, he stole a glance at their meagre defences.

In the short time they had, their group had set up 18 wooden walls with quick wood work and magic to bunker down, encircling the entrance. Reinforced with magic, spears protruded from the sides to keep the beasts from sliding in while mages used ranged attacks to take out those coming in over the top or healed the ones at the front. One of which was currently healing Harold's pounded guts.

There was the option of erecting a wall of stone around them using the mages, but doing so would seal off those who were still alive and turning against its people is NOT what the Slane Theocracy stands for.

A handful of brave souls stood before each of these barricades to defend from frontal charges. With their backs literally against the wall, all they could do was fight for their lives.

"How long till those reinforcements arrive?" he asked, feeling the strength once more to stand on his feet with only a slight ache in his chest.

"It's been about four hours since the messenger was sent. If we can hold out just a little longer, pray to the gods they'll make it within the hour-."

"BwAAAHAHA-HAHAHAHA~," Haltosis bellowed in front of his barrack, swinging a Warhammer around and smooshing some poor critter with each slam and the cracking of bones underneath.

His usual hefting axe was still useless, so as a replacement they got him the biggest hand weapon they had with the same head weight. A steel war hammer with a large block styled head was acting as the best replacement.

Five centipede monsters with human torsos and fungi coloured nails like claws dripping with hissing poison rushed him.

"[Flow acceleration], coupled with [heavy strike] and [stamina stability]," he chanted, the martial arts taking affect and in an instant all the centipede monsters were mushed by a flurry of hammer strikes. "Haah-haha~! Oh, don't worry. I've still got something for you."

'I can certainly leave him in his element,' Harold mused as the ground was scorched by the mashed humanoid centipede's poisons. 'But I wonder how much we can keep this up, if I take a few more hits like that one before without ample time to recover I'm as good as dead.'

"Sixth group returnin-dargdgdg~," a soldier gurgled as a dozen squirrels with dripping saliva and crimson eyes leaped at him, popping off his helmet after burrowing under it and striking at his face. Some went down his throat, eating him from the inside out and ending up under his chainmail before he slumped to the ground lifeless.

The things looked like they had rabies!

Down one of the less packed streets of monsters shuffled one of the returning parties of three mages and two close combat soldiers packed with half a dozen or so visible people. The mages had erected a blue pyramid barrier around the group which kept monsters at bay.

Though the monsters were smart and specifically struck the peak more than the sides. A couple times the top broke off like glass and the combat soldiers and to fend them off until the barrier fully grew back.

But it proved to be futile as a sudden flock of at least half a dozen harpies swooped from the sky seamlessly out of nowhere and the moment the peak was broken again bombed strait in like nobody's business. With the heads and bodies of females, they filled up the inside of the barrier quickly and forced the casters to lose concentration on maintaining the pyramid.

Everyone could only watch in horror as in an instant the barrier shattered like painted glass and all the monsters around them flooded in.

Coupled by the gurgling screams of anguish, blood belched out like a fountain and spraying all over the place with limbs tossed aside like parts of a doll.

"No…"

"HALT ALL!" someone bellowed from far across the sea of monsters. It was a compelling voice as though amplified by the echoes of a cave.

Completely on que, everything from the harpies in flight, the wolves on the prowl and rats eating corpses, all froze. Harold, Halitosis, Nicoli, everyone with and behind them all froze as well at the sudden command being followed and how earie quiet it had become.

Slowly the monsters all shuffled/slithered back to a clear pathway from the evacuation point to where the party had been. Amidst a bloody mess of mangled flesh and dripping limbs huddled a grown woman with long chestnut hair died in red. Even with the hair covering it, it was clear she had deep running gashes all over her body, even her back as she cuddled something, protecting it.

As though it were in slow motion, she fell, slumping into the pile of gore with a marshy squish revealing a small child with her arms hugging herself so tightly her forearms had gone pale. She looked like she was only 10 with tears running out a traumatised face while she jolted with each pant.

"She's alive," Nicoli breathed, about to make a run to her but was stopped by Harold with one of his swords crossing his path. "What are you doing, Harold? She's a survivor, we need to get her-!"

"Not without a plan," he protested. "We'd be running into hostile territory, and who do you think yelled just then? We will get her, but not alone."

Even with the helmet on, it was obvious Nicoli had a little trouble swallowing his impulse to run forward. But after weighing the pros and cons he relaxed himself a little but remained tense.

"Alright, then let us and a few other guards come with us."

Harold nodded in agreement.

"I think it's already covered," Halitosis spoke up, slumping up from behind with his bloody dripping war hammer held low in both hands, ready to counter strike.

Everyone looked down the pathway to the girl and saw a pair of men dawned in military Theocracy magic caster armoured robes coming out from the monstrous crowd. They both strolled up to the girl, one knelt down to her, taking a glove off before resting the hand on her dirty purple hair.

Still traumatized, the gesture shocked her, snapping round at the soldier at the touch. He said some things that couldn't be heard from so far away before he whipped the tears from her eyes and continued to pet her head. But this just made the poor girl explode back into crying with her face buried in her hands.

The kneeling soldier moved in and embraced her before getting back up with the girl cradled in his arms. They both made their way to the evacuation point, with all the beasts watching them with a mix of tamed hunger and recognition.

"….Well done," Nicoli breathed in relief to the casters as they came up to them. "I-."

Before continuing, the other caster raised a hand to stop him.

"Please don't congratulate us," he said, Harold's ears snapped at his voice. "For we are simply believers in the one true god of all, our father in heaven and thus we've been chosen to live."

"….Excuse me?!"

Harold pointed a blood-stained sword at the magic caster's head.

"I'd hold my tongue if I were you," he spat. "Don't go spouting that Christianity tripe in the kingdom of the gods. You were the one who ordered the beasts to stop, weren't you?"

The Christianity religion wasn't at all favoured in the Slane Theocracy, despite this though it's proper etiquette to teach children many topics during their upbringing. But when it came to religion, only the surface of others are taught.

Suddenly the ground began shacking violently, and a humongous pillar of vines exploded from the ceiling of the nearby church before sprouting two ways out either side. It was a giant cross and it was…..being coloured? Flowers bloomed all over it, colouring the towering monolith in a variety of colours like a rainbow.

"That I am," he began before yelling over to the crowd who were still in shock. "And if you all want to survive, you'll will pray to our father in heaven, those who do shall be sparred-!"

He raised a hand, ready to snap his fingers on a command.

"-AH…MEN-!"

Ddtg-fgh

In a sudden flash of blue and pink, the casters' head rolled off backwards before squirting blood like a champagne bottle. Kneeling in front of him with her estoc outstretched after the swing was Laurissa. She spun round to stab the other one in the head, making sure to avoid hitting the girl in his arms.

"[Aura armour]."

A bright brown glow with a triangular pattern surrounded the caster and Laurissa's strike ricocheted off, but the force managed to knock his helmet off. The action surprised him a bit, clutching his face while still holding onto the girl.

But Laurissa wouldn't have it and struck again at his arm holding her. With his concentration split the casters armour shattered allowing the blade to run through its target, forcing him to release the girl.

In mid-air, Laurissa retracted the blade and caught the falling girl before jumping back next to Harold who stood a little surprised.

"..Why you little….," the caster hissed with anger with a glowing blue eye glaring through his fingers.

"Everyone, please continue evacuating underground for your own safety!" Nicoli Howled, getting everyone back into reality.

As the remaining half dozen people outside the gate made their way in, Laurissa and Aurita came leaping from the nearby roof tops and landing next to everyone else.

"What took you all so long?" Harold asked.

"Sorry, we got held up big time," Aurita answered, turning to the rogue Theocracy magic caster with a drawn sword.

"Yet you've arrived in time for all your funerals!" the caster yelled, raising a hand ready to snap his fingers this time. "May god grant you pardon in peace for I shan't,-."

Snap

"Ahmen!"

It was a mad rush, suddenly all the beasts that've been on standby suddenly rushed in like crazy. Everyone braced their ground, even Laurissa with the child-.

"AaaRRghgh!" Thousand Leagues was screaming her head off while she made a bolt for the gate. There weren't any more civilians going in through it, and seeing as they didn't need to buy any more time everyone, even Halitosis saw that that was the better choice.

While everyone ran, Harold sheathed his twin swords then grabbed one of the wooden barracks and broke off a plank. As they all got through the gate, Halitosis slammed it shut with a loud clang. Just before an oncoming wolf slammed its weight against the bars, Harold wedge the plank against the floor and the gate.

A boar slammed into it next, the gate held as it slumped to the ground with the wolf but was quickly followed up by everything else. The force bent the gate inwards, snapping the plank at the middle proving to be effectively useless.

"What did you think that was going to accomplish?" Halitosis asked.

"I was being optimistic," he sped.

A pair of mages moved up from behind them and took casting stances with their feet apart.

"[Crystal wall]," at their chant, a pale glittering wall erupted in front of the gate and another in front of the first in the tunnel.

"That should hold them off for a bit," one of them said.

The pounding went on and cracks snacked on the wall with each.

"Maybe we should go in further," Thousand Leagues remarked.

As they went down a narrow corridor to a mass of drifting murmurs, where the civilians were, Harold turned to Thousand leagues behind her.

"How'd you know those two caster weren't on our side before? Does this have something to do with why you all left without a word?"

"We left because we wanted to show Garmadon the town and try and get him onto our side," Thousand Leagues answered, falling behind on account of not being very athletic. "[Levitate]," she quickly rose off her feet and began flying through the air above everyone else. "It somewhat worked, after running into his brother he agreed to help us to some extent, so I'd say it was a success."

"He has a brother here in the Slane Theocracy?" Harold said surprised. "Speaking of which, where is that patronizing heretic?"

At the question, Thousand Leagues face went grim, everyone slowed down to a walking pace upon coming up to a large circular stone cavern with dozens of people inside and eight other passages around the outside. The room was lit up by blazing torches lined across the wall, and though being part of the sewage the smell of waste was ever present, but not too potent.

Thousand Leagues floated down landing next to Harold, deactivating her [levitation] spell.

"That's just it, after we found out the brother is behind this attack we tried to make our escape but Garmadon…..melted to death along the way," she said, her face turning sickening at remembering the blood and organs she saw melt before her eyes.

She almost threw up.

"But the scariest thing we learnt was that the brother, Alex, has the ability to effectively brain wash anybody he wants just by touching them."

"He can do what?! That power shouldn't be possible."

'It actually is possible,' Thousand leagues thought. 'The Black Scripture has the secret power of the gods; [Downfall of Castle and Country]. But he doesn't need to know that.'

"…"

"…..…"

"Then we've failed our assignment," Harold breathed lightly, but he showed hardly any expressions of emotional grief. He didn't even look that sad. "If his body was still intact, [resurrection] magic could've been cast on him in the capital. Oh well, never liked the kid from the moment we first met him. One less problem for the Theocracy."

At that remark, Harold went over to the passage they'd just come from where a group of mages stood by casting more crystal barricades down the hallway and swapping out with other casters who used reinforcement magic on them. It was a good idea in terms of defence and magic reservation.

"Excuse me?" Thousand Leagues said, grabbing his shoulder. "What do you mean 'problem for the Theocracy'? I know he bad mouthed our kingdom a few times, but he did change in the end. He said so himself that he was going to help us-."

"And you believed him? Seriously Thousand Leagues Astrologer you need to open your eyes more and see that not everybody is as straight forward as the Black Scripture that you're always surrounded by. People have good and cruel sides, or don't you remember what Clementine did?"

Thousand Leagues cringed slightly in disgust at the mention of the women's name again.

"You need to see the bigger picture and understand that not everybody believes in the same ideals we do."

"So we just kill everybody who doesn't agree with us, or think the same way we do?"

"…If it comes to that then yes. The needs of the many out way the needs of the few. Right now and forever more humanity is that many."

"Even if the few are also humans."

Harold just stared at her with a stoic expression, which was all the answering she needed. While she stood completely dumbfounded, Laurissa came by still hugging the young girl who was now hugging her back.

"Hey," she spoke up.

"…..You can't be serious," Thousand Leagues breathed, clearly ignoring the pink haired girl and completely infixed with her argument against the silver haired Clear Water scripture member

"Hey!" Laurissa said louder.

"What!" they both said in unison.

"Listen~," she pointed to the mossy stone ceiling.

Everyone went silent, except say for literally everyone else in the room and the rumbling of the beasts above ground. Very faintly, a vibrating rhythm was beating the air and was getting louder very quickly.

As though it ran right up to them, the sounds of hundreds of slicing blades drummed the air. It was coming from outside, but the tunnelled environment bounced the sound off everywhere, forcing everyone to plug their ears to the dreadful racket with fear of their ears exploding.

The rumbling of beasts above died down a bit but was quickly added by another racket.

Badadadadadada~!

Even with her ears plugged, Thousand Leagues recognised the sound. It was the same made by the weapons Garmadon wielded before shooting Laurissa in the leg, but it was like hundreds were going off at the same time. She remembered he called them 'guns'.

A tremor boomed through the area and dust sprinkled down from the ceiling. The three of them looked up and saw that an area in the ceiling above had been cracked.

"I can't take this anymore!" one of the guards near them yelled, tearing his helmet off clanking to the ground and trying to block out the sound while stumbling over himself.

Suddenly a louder explosion sounded followed by the guns stopping and the air cutting blades became erratic, growing louder. Just as it sounded like it was right on top of them, the same guard accidently bumped into the four of them still clutching his head in pain.

The roof above caved in, but it wasn't they who were in the way, the guard that pushed them was immediately caught underneath the rubble. Blood splatting from underneath as the sound of metal grinding against stone echoed throughout the room, like a wheel running over a tomato.

Atop the rubble was a long rectangular object wider than a bar table reaching all the way out past the hole and was painted bright red one side while the other had a large curved glass pane open and half shattered. Under the glass inside the cone was a black leather seat with hundreds of glowing lights.

The air cutting sound was more clear but just about dead coming from the machine in front of them. Then quickly as it had appeared, the object disappeared into a small vortex of blue pixels numbering in the millions.

"…It can't be-," Thousand Leagues murmured.

Booom!

NunnngnungnungnungNARRRRNNNGGGG!

Gagggrrrrrghh….

She was suddenly cut off by a series of explosions, and now something like metal chains wiring at high speeds ripping into hardened flesh.

"ArrghhGH-haha! Fear meeee~-HAHAHAAA!" someone bellowed outside. "Get over here basilisk, I'll show you what's means to be stoned!"

Everyone underground was now trembling, even the nobles, one of whom stumbled from the crowd with trembling lips and snot coming from his nose. Looking to be in his late 40s', he was a little on the chubby side with black hair topping with a sickly twirl just above his forehead.

"…D-do something, save me~!" he slurred, grabbing on to Harold's armour and literally dragging him down with his own weight. "I have money, I can pay you handsomely. Get out there, do something~."

As the rumbling went on a minotaur fell through the hole in the ceiling and crunched onto the rubble, squirting up some blood. But this time it didn't have the same insanely wild look it had before, instead it was terrified. Attempting a frantic scramble, a hooked kunai on chain snaked after it and skewered into the minotaur's back before being pulled taught.

The minotaur gripped onto the ground with all its might.

"Don't think you're gonna get off that easily, brute," the voice came again from above. The chain was being pulled tighter now, the minotaur was gripping on but a chunk of its back where the kunai was hooked began tearing and bleeding.

In the next moment a chunk of its spine hooked by the kunai was pulled out strung in dripping veins. The minitour howled in pain, its cries echoing throughout the room before its grip weakened and was hoisted back out the hole like a fish being reeled in.

"It looks like someone's got it covered up there, sir," Harold remarked, taking the sobbing nobles hands of him. "Please go back with the rest of the people."

"I need to see what's going on. [Remote view; medium range]," Thousand Leagues chanted covering her eyes with her palms.

The [remote viewing] spell is a 3rd tier spell that enables the caster to view the space around them, regardless of physical walls. The spell itself maxes out at 100 metres, but if Thousand Leagues uses her red liquid she can amplify it to 2 kilometres.

The sound of flesh being torn to shreds came, blood rained from the hole and the minitour's head tumbled back in. That just made onlookers even more scared as they all tried huddling together away from the dead-eyed drooling bull head.

"You think it's the reinforcements?" Nicoli asked, coming up to Harold.

"Seriously doubt it," he answered, listening intently to the rumbles then looking at Thousand Leagues. Even with her hands covering her eyes, the expression she gave just made him think the possibility was even more plausible. "But if it's who I think it is we might not need those reinforcements."

Soon the tremors, the explosions, howling's and fighting topside calmed and all that could be heard were a few frightened murmurs amongst the room.

"….What's it looking like up there~?" Halitosis whispered to Thousand Leagues, the almost eerie silence getting to even him.

Duhg.

At the sound of stone breaking, everyone looked up to see an icicle poking through the ceiling. Clear as pure water, a streak of blood ran down it before dripping off the tip like a stalactite from a cave.

Thousand Leagues slowly removed her hands from her face with a shocked expression. It was like she was almost traumatized by what she saw with her spell.

"It's clear, all the monsters are dead~," she monotoned.

It was a little bit concerning, the look she gave and the way she said it. But regardless, the coast had been cleared so after Laurissa left the frightened girl with a couple, the six of them and a few guardsmen ascended out the hole in the ceiling. Most climbed while Thousand Leagues lazily floated by them like a bubble causing Harold to scoff slightly at how she was cheating her way up.

When they all got to the top, the surrounding area was an absolute disaster zone. Every building in the nearby vicinity laid in absolute ruin with thick plumes of smoke rising from littered fires. Along with impaling icicles of all sizes and frozen areas, the bloodied corpses of boars, bears, wolves, minitours, humanoid centipedes and countless other varieties of beasts laid strewn everywhere.

The giant cross that'd grown from the church was now ablaze and crumbling to ash. A member broke off and crashed into the earth, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke as it laid to rest with another quacking thump.

"Wow, this is certainly something," Halitosis marvelled in awe. "Anyone have any ideas on what could do this?"

"I have a few ideas," Laurissa said, letting out a little excitement out in her voice before pointing to a pile of corpses. "But one comes to mind right now."

Standing atop the corpse pile, left leg and right arm gleaming metallically stood a heavily breathing teenager. He was dressed in blue chequered shorts and a grey shirt.

In his left hand he held the weapon he called a 'shotgun', in the other was an orange box with a thick blade wrapped by a toothed chain along its edge protruding from one side of it. Both were smeared in blood, but the bladed box was chugging away in his hand as though it were alive.

After they spoke, Garmadon turned to them with a lightly exhausted look on his face. His right eye was leaking blood, but he was clearly happy, giving a cheesy grin of delight and dropping his gun to give a thumbs-up.

"I-impossible," Harold stuttered, utterly shocked by the surrounding gore everywhere and the lone giggling kid. There were well over two thousand to begin with…..what the hell happened?!

Suddenly from amongst a hill of corpses to Garmadons side, a basilisk erupted from it, howling in both agony and anger. Its eyes had been gouged out leaving bloodied sockets, it was missing five of its eight legs and along with deep slash marks across the entirety of its body its bottom jaw was completely missing.

"JjjjjjjyaaARRGH!"

As though on que, a screaming warrior fell from the sky and completely pounded into the overgrown reptile's skull with a long-handled mace, killing the beast instantly. Normally something traveling that fast would've gone splat too, but before contact he'd used martial arts [boost] and [impregnable fortress] to cancel the impact recoil done to his own body.

It was a surprise to everybody, but after un-wedging the spiked mace he explained that he was part of the Holocaust Scripture. Halitosis knew him, and it was laid out that the entire scripture that'd arrived will assist in clearing out the remaining monster invading the town.

Not that there were any still left alive.

Turns out, Garmadon had been trying to find Thousand Leagues and the rest with an x-ray aspect his eye had. Meanwhile, unexaggeratedly butchering every single monster he came across. Most had been diced, some exploded, frozen, burnt, impaled and few so horrifically turned inside-out it frightened them to even think about the method.

It took longer than was necessary, but everyone found it easier to breath with the lack of impending doom bearing down on them. Because of that, the rest of the evening soundly ticked by, despite the disappointed reinforcements that'd shown up.

After a full sweep with the help of Thousand Leagues Astrologers surveillance magic, the officials declared the town to be safe. Completely bloody and in ruins, but safe. Surprisingly, Thousand Leagues couldn't find Alex anywhere during her search, which was concerning.

But turning from one missing brother to another, Thousand Leagues pounded Garmadon with questions on how the heck he was still alive after he turned into a greasy pudding puddle. He was a little hesitant at replying, probably from divulging too much info on his powers, but said it was probably better he didn't worry her.

It turns out the rejecting shard really did kill him, but once he died the melted shard merged back into him and completely regenerated himself. Downside was only his body had been restored, he was still very much dead.

Though the energy used to recreate his body had left some residue power, particularly in his brain which managed to send off some electrical signals throughout his body which set his heart, now housing the shard, on a single beat and his lungs a single inhale. Since his blood was fresh and more than oxidized his entire blood circuit flowed just once, oxidizing his brain, muscles and setting off a chain reaction effectively jumpstarting his entire body.

When he came too he was… in less than a decent state, being but naked on the tiled roof where he was left. Not only that, but his old clothes would've taken forever to clean even after being reformed. So on the flip side he made himself some new ones, common clothes from his world.

As informative as his explanation was, Thousand Leagues had to check his heart beat a few times to make sure he wasn't a reanimated zombie or anything. It would be a real issue if he was reanimated by a necromancer to be their puppet spy. Or a corpse that'll explode when it gets close enough to a cardinal. Stuff like that has happened before in the past, as ridiculous as it sounds. Most of them were mail-men.

"W-what the hell are you doing?!" he flustered, pushing Thousand leagues hands out from under his shirt.

"Thi-this is something that must be done. Now hold still while I feel your chest," she protested, shoving her hands back under his shirt to feel up his front.

"Wow, hey context. I can see Laurissa doing this, but not you!"

"Shut up!"

Feeling his chest up a bit she pressed lightly, softly feeling a warm quick paced heart-beat, followed by a light zap to her fingers.

'Dah.., okay this is definitely the reaction I got from the first time I held the shard, the feeling of a mass of lives…..This….is the first time I've…touched, a boy ….like this…!' she thought, blushing at the realization of what she was doing.

Faster than a martial art chop, Thousand Leagues ripped her hand right from under his shirt and clasped it low to her waist with her head staring down. The brim of her black large witch's hat blocking her view of Garmadon and his of her face.

"…."

"….."

"It's ummm…cuh..…cuh...it-it's okay..~."

Daring a look from behind the safety of the brim, she saw that Garmadon was in a slight state of his own distress. Turned side on with eyes closed, a metal hand holding his chest while taking slow, deep breaths to calm himself down.

They stood there in for a few moments, the silence they were giving off just made the whole situation a little more awkward. Internally, Thousand Leagues was praying to the six gods that something, someone would break this awkward silence.

"Heh, lucky higher-ups," Thousand Leagues snapped in the direction the voice came from, a little surprised and confused. A little to her left, a pair townsfolk were passing by on either side of a charcoal furred boar corpse, holes in though its belly but not dripping as much blood as one would expect.

They both seemed to be in their late 20's, both in bloody dirty clothes but one was a slick man with short oily hair while the other was a woman with dirty blonde hair in a messy state. For them, it was grotesque enough to hide in the sewers and then clear out the entire town of corpses, beast and human alike, but seeing higherups just stand around while they did all the work was just plain insulting.

"They get to play hooky while we do all the work….gruh~," the woman grunted as she shifted her hold on the corpse with a look of disgust. "Dam pig…."

As the pair passed by, Thousand Leagues couldn't help but feel a little down by the insult. It wasn't uncommon for officials to be hated by the people they protected, most saw them as very strict parents who'd reprimand them for misbehaving. In a metaphorical way.

Click-clock….chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu~.

"….daghhh…~?"

Suddenly there was series of rapid air bursts after the sound of metal clicking together before the two passers collapsed onto the ground, unmoving. An array of very small cylinders with red feathered tails were sticking out of their backs.

"Oh my go-are you okay?" Thousand Leagues panicked, rushing to one of the sprawled unconscious bodies she grabbed one of their shoulders and shook them slightly. There wasn't any response and their eyes were unresponsive. Her eyes trailed to the multitude of cylinders protruding from their back.

She moved to pluck one out and upon inspecting knew it was some kind of dart on account of the needle at one end. But this was more refined than the wooden blow darts assassins are known to sometimes use. Expensive too.

"What the-?"

"Don't worry, there not dead if that's what you're thinking," Garmadon said walking up, in his right hand, he held a gun with a large clear barrel under its belly wider than his fist housing a countless number of the needles. "They're just sleeping."

Still standing above the bodies, he went to tinker with his mechanism, clicking pieces of metal pieces that made up the gun.

"What did you do?"

"Hmm? They were bad mouthing us and complaining about being saved at the same time. Now I know what you're going to say; 'don't harm the citizens, humans must work together in order to make the world a better place'. Or something along those lines," he cocked, clicking the back of his gun forward and pointing the end at the unconscious bodies as though to gesture. "So in that regards, I hit them with a couple of tranquilizer darts. They should be awake in a few hours…."

The number of darts in both the backs were more than just a few. There were like a dozen in each of them-!

Chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu-chu!

A series of air bursts from the gun lead more darts to be sticking from the back of both the bodies. they numbered in the 20's on both backs at this point.

"…..Maybe half a day~," Garmadon corrected, grinning slightly and dropping the gun. The mechanism disappeared into blue pixels before even hitting the floor, the darts disappeared along with it, but the two remained unconscious. "Dunno, this stuff is potent enough to take down a rhino."

Since Garmadon hadn't actually harmed the pair, Thousand Leagues couldn't really hold him responsible for bodily harm this time. Unlike a certain bar fight, both were still alive, so after securing both of them outside so they weren't in any danger, Thousand Leagues and Garmadon had to help in to make up for the lost man-power.

She was not impressed.

As countless corpses continued being taken out the town to prevent an epidemic, a new issue arose. It was late in the evening, almost nightfall and nobody had any roofs to cover their heads, let alone beds to sleep in. Even the store houses merchants use had been totalled.

Just when sleeping underground was being shot down on account of attracting potential disses from all the faeces, Garmadon came by to lightly offer the entire towns restoration. And the offer really was lightly, almost like someone was painting a fence and their friend comes round to offer help.

"Why would you help us further? Let me guess, it's for your own otherworldly entertainment, right?" Thousand Leagues asked, both annoyed and a little insulted. He clearly said it himself, he only wants so save them so that they can fall to someone else, this 'Ainz' person.

The others were a little confused by her statement say for Laurissa. She knew, but because of everything else hadn't told anyone yet.

Garmadon quickly got anxious, grabbing Thousnad Leageus arm and pulling her away from the rest of the group so as to not be heard.

"Ow-ow-ow, hey you're holding me too tightly," Thousand Leagues wailed, franticly patting the mechanical hand that gripped her upper arm in a vice grip. Once they were a distance away from the others, Garmadon released his hold.

"Look, I'm sorry I blurted out in front the pub, and I'm sorry I made you think I'll help you only so I can watch you fall again. But…..until recently I thought this world was nothing more than just a figment of someone's imagination. You are real, you're all real and right now, I just want to help, not for a means to an end, but because I generally want to," he said, his voice sounding almost as genuine as the expression he was giving. "And I also stayed because…. I ….care about…..you…guys."

He said that last word in an oddly panicked manner, almost as if he wanted to draw attention away from something else.

Interlude: Garmadon

'Holy crap, I can't believe I almost slipped up on that,' I mentally panicked. 'Calm down, calm down~ I just have to think of it asssss~ the icing on top from what I said. I mean I really do care about her-THEM, people, but at this point it doesn't really matter what I do. If I find a solution to fix this anime from the very get go then me and Alex's involvement would be erased entirely from all this. I'm just..….spinning wheels until I reach that junction and clearing my conscience along the way. Hopefully I can find out what Vosdulite is really after and get my brother back. Hea, hea, actually, it could be a fun trip~.'

Interlude: Thousand Leagues Astrologer

Thousand Leagues blushed a little at his reasoning, thinking otherwise if he what he meant wasn't entirely what he said.

'What….what's this feeling in my heart? It aches a little, but I don't think it's magic at work.'

She looked at the boy's face again, who was also having an internal struggle before looking at the surroundings around her. His expression seemed similar to after she ended up fondling his chest while checking for a heart-beat. Then went ahead and shot some people….again.

"Okay, we'd appreciate all the help we can get."

Upon accepting him, a smile spread across Garmadon's lips and said he'd be needing some help, buckets and barrels of water. Lots of water.

"Do you really think we have barrels or buckets that aren't in pieces? Use your head, even if we did we wouldn't just fetch them for you," Harold hissed at the list. The guy still hated the teenagers guts.

"Well damn," Garmadon huffed, folding his arms as though going into thought. Quickly he broke his pose slapping a metallic fist into a his palm in a 'eureka' moment before shacking his hand in pain. "Aahhhh…. Okay, then what about mages that can control water and do something like make it flow like tentacles across the ground."

Gesturing with his hands he made a spider, wriggling his fingers as though its legs.

"We can, but what do you plan on doing with them?"

Garmadons face grew into a twitchy grin, giggling lightly.

"Ngu-ngu-ngu. The complete restoration of this entire town in a manner that would completely mess with your understanding of realityyyy~….guh-uh-uh-uh~."

Everyone hearing the conversation got a little weirded out by this. Evil giggling plus kid that committed mass murder never really settled right with people. It took a bit of arguing, but eventually a few dozen of the surviving military casters were assembled and placed in key locations around the towns boarders with six lines of them running to the centre like some giant clock face.

The helping hands were a little sceptical when they learnt Garmadon's method didn't involve any miracles of the gods. A certain someone almost lost their marbles because of that.

"Alright, we're in position. Everyone ready? Begin!"

In a booming voice that echoed like the crowds of a rock concert.

"[Water wall]."

Normally, the [water wall] spell is used to defend against fire related onslaughts, but in this case hundreds of them were erected along the same lines as the casters acting as a giant water pentagram. The outskirts had become a swirling barrier.

"You know you don't have to be here, right?" Garmadon said in the town square, the very centre of where the walls of water converged.

"I'm afraid that's yet to be seen," Harold said, crossing his arms. "Frankly speaking you're still under our jurisdiction, and I don't care what Thousand Leagues here says, I'll be watching this with my own eyes. Why are you here anyway, you could watch this with your surveillance magic?"

"Well if you're going to be here then so am I," Thousand Leagues resented next to him. "And after what you said in the tunnel, I wouldn't be surprised if you tried to kill him."

"Oh please-."

"He said what?" Garmadon questioned in surprise. "If you wanna fight then bring it on. I'll rip you a new one while keeping you alive before turning you into a living popsicle stick with a uranium stick shovelled right up where the sun don't shine~."

He bounced on the spot while taunting with his fists.

"D-don't bother. Now hurry up, those casters don't have the magic to keep this up forever. You have about a minute or so," Harold said, a little confused by the terms Garmadon just used.

"Heh, chicken~," he mocked, walking up to the waters converging point, plunging his metal hand into the water.

Red lightning surged around his fingers before small bubbles started racing up from his palm. What he was doing was increasing the water temperature in the somewhat cold liquid and forcing it off down one of the walls. This created a current which reached out through every wall it was connected to before racing right back to the centre.

"This isn't gonna be pretty~."

Wincing slightly, Garmadon dove his other arm into the current. Red lightning surged across his other arm before coming apart at the seams. Chunks of his arm began falling off with blood leaking out before being repaired by his reaction healing.

What was happening was that Garmadon was tearing the molecules in his arm apart which made pieces of his flesh lose their hold. Since he was also tearing at the nerves in his arm, the pain he would've felt was practically non-existent, the loose pieces of flesh turned to ash.

The blood seeping out was swept away through the artificial current. In a matter of moments thin streaks of the blood came rushing back along the currents in the other walls converging at the centre around his arms.

"~Here we go~. REST-!"

Suddenly the water walls lost their form, flushing down with a splash and flooding the grounds just under ankle height. Garmadon stood their with both arms stretched out but his left was still falling to pieces and leaking blood.

"Oh….guess the casters have run out of mana-."

"Oh no you don't!" Garmadon dove into the water with thin streaks of blood still in it. "RESTORE!"

For a few seconds nothing happened, say for a couple of red sparks. Suddenly a red static pulse rushed through the waters like a drop in a pond from where he was before the whole place lit up in red lightning chasing after the pulse, running across the trails of blood.

This surprised both the scripture members and watched in absolute aw as hundreds upon thousands of wide lightning arcs were formed from the ground and the debris around them. It didn't take long for the first roof tile to shoot out the water and hang dripping in mid-air before being quickly followed by literally every other piece of rubble flying off in random directions and halting in mid-air.

It was like nothing they'd ever seen, time seemed to be rolling back with chunks of rock flying through the air as buildings were re-built without so much as a crack in their windows. Foot path blocks slid themselves into place like a giant picture puzzle.

It reminded Thousand Leagues of the rubix cube back at the Theocracy.

After a couple of minutes or so the entire town stood reassembled. Say for the splats of animal blood drifting in puddles it was almost as if there was never an attack in the first place. Garmadons blood streaks had somehow evaporated also.

"..N….no way….!"

"And that, ladies and gentlemen..," Garmadon boasted, standing tall while swaying a bit as though a little dizzy. "…Is a wrap~."

Interlude: Garmadon

'Oh man I'm feeling that dizzy spell like before,' I thought as my vision filled with numerous stars for a bit from the excessive blood loss, I stopped focusing on my arms so my left had begun growing again. 'I'd hoped to avoid passing out from blood loss like before in Nazarick by diluting the blood I extracted. Guess the plus side on this is that I won't be passing out this tim—oh wait, is-is that? Nah I'm good~.'

Starring at my hand, which looked three at once, I tried focusing on it to get my bearings back.

'At this point, I should be a little more concerned about how much energy I have left in my philosopher's stone. The fight with those monsters coupled with that rebuild and my own resurrection should've cost about as much as fixing Nazarick did. But if I just make a few hundred more icicles like I did in my killing spree I should be back up to full power…I hooo-wo-pe~.'

While my vision spun like some freaky mental merry-go-round, the townsfolk moved back in. But while I did reconstruct the town on the outside, stuff like beds, dishes and chairs were still in splinters. I felt a bit bad about it, but if that did happen then quite possibly all the bodies would've been re-made as well, both humans and monsters. I haven't tried if reconstructing a dead body with my philosophers stone would bring it back to life, but sure as HELL don't want to find out now.

But hey, I wasn't the only one who could do [reconstruction] magic, though the mages who could do it ended up having…shaky results. Just how? I thought this was a kingdom of advanced magic, or are they too focused on combat magic and spells to win wars than improve businesses and lives?

Though there were several carpenters who were more than insistent on making beds with their own hands. I couldn't figure out why, but I guess it must've been a matter of pride for them. In that regard, I understood all too well with my own pride in the Lego constructs I made.

As for us, the original plan was to just pass through, but due to the recent events, that obviously wasn't the case anymore.

The six of us, including all 150 disappointed back-up Holocaust Scripture soldiers that'd come completely rented out a few whole hotels just for the night. I've honestly never seen such a migration into buildings like this before.

Since there were six of us, one room for three seemed appropriate with girls in one and boys in the other. Although when I saw the bed I'd be sleeping in tonight, I was more than a little disappointed with how it been reconstructed it was.

I mean, I know it was probably in splinters, but the whole thing looked like it was made from splinters. The legs had toothy splinters sticking out across it swiss cheese holed legs that were a bit crooked to say the least. As for the mattress, it had holes in it the size of bowls. BOWLS!

"…They cannot be serious…," I gawked at the mis-shaped bed in front of me.

"Hey it may not be ideal, but it's the best this place has to offer," Harold remarked unamused as he dropped a bag by his own bed that looked far more whole than mine, Halitosis was doing the same but also had his borrowed war hammer rested up against a wall. "We're just here to drop off our stuff and then we'll be….what are you doing?"

In the moments while he was talking, I'd moved to the opposite side of the bed and was doing a little weight lifting with it, pulling it up and down before resting it back down. "I'm testing the weight of this thing, just to see how much 'umf' I should give it."

Standing straight I planted my prosthetic left foot on the beds edge before charging my leg and blasting the bed out the wall with a crash. Planks tumbled everywhere as the bed flew through the air before smashing into the ground in the streets below.

"Hey, hey, hey what was that for?"

"Oh don't worry, I'll take care of the wall," I said, bracing both hands on either side of the hole. Red lightning sparked and instead of the planks below flying back up, the side I was holding onto just started growing and did so until the wall of the room was back in place. "But I just didn't like the bed they were presenting me."

"That's just cruel, the casters worked hard to remake those beds."

They really didn't. The whole thing to remake the beds was a rush job and none of them were carefully taken care off like what the carpenters did with their beds. Guess pride in ones work really does make all the difference.

"And I thank them for that, but I have an alternative that would work muuuucchhh better," walking back to where the bed was, outstretched my hand and focused on a new bed. I didn't put much thought into it when I made the Lego bed for one of my minifigures, a modern-day king-single with black steeled frame, white dressed mattress complete with a purple pillow and park blue covered duvet.

'…..haa~. This bed certainly won't be as comfortable as the one I rested in back in Nazarick, but it will totally beat sleeping on something that's literally full of hole,' I reminisced, materializing a knife then slicing my palm to bloody a steel leg while thinking about what I woke up to after passing out from blood loss in Nazarick. 'Hmmm, so comfy…Actually that reminds me, the guardians are thinking that Ainz is gunning for world domination. So…..what if, just hypothetically, I were to give them a little hand.'

Harold and Halitosis had both stopped showing much disgust in what I did at this point and were instead making their way to the door. We were all going to have dinner in the mess hall downstairs, I mean I don't mind having middle era food again, but how do I know there's anything to eat in the first place. As far as I know the beasts would've trampled and or eaten everything in town.

'But there is the whole 'my brother will destroy all theocracy and deliver a fatal blow to the anime'. And I don't want….some people to die just yet. Actually…..yes, YES, right after I keep Alex off the Theocracy's back this one time I'm heading straight over to Nazarick. It's a long shot, but Ainz might be able to help me put an end to all of this. That, or he'll just rage kill me. I can still imagine the guild master still being a little pissed at the one who react his guild base~.'

During my little internal monologuing, the three of us had left the room and were making our way down stairs to the mess hall through corridors, but it was pretty obvious when we were getting closer. There was laughter and chanter practically booming through the air.

Rounding a corner, we came into a bustling long room with wooden tables and chairs in ridicously long rows of four with people sitting either side. A line of food ran down the middle of each table with cauldrons and large oval wooden plates of food that were in no way mushed or leftovers.

Honestly, it was a surprise at the quantity, how fresh and crisp even the chicken looked.

It wasn't long, but we quickly found the other girls stuffing their faces with salads, roast chicken and mashed potatoes. Well, I say stuffing but it was really more elegant than that. Everyone else were the ones stuffing their faces like the food was going out of style.

I could hear soup being loudly slurped and food smacking in chops.

But I really couldn't care less, I hadn't eaten nearly anything all day and was starving so much my stomach hadn't stopped growling since smelling the roasted meals.

My philosophers stones' healing capabilities could restore any energy I've lost simply by absorbing the kinetic energy of the surrounding atoms. But it could never quench the feeling of a truly empty stomach.

Taking one of the vacant seats opposite the girls next to one the of the soldiers with Harold and Halitosis seating right of me. An empty wooden bowl laid in front of me with the three utensils next to it, also made of wood.

"No, no no no no no~," I repeatedly mumbled, staring intently my cutlery as people shovelled food from plates along the middle of the table onto their own before proceeding to devour it all. "I've never once used wooden cutlery before and I don't intend to start now."

Snatching a fork with my mechanical arm and activating my eye, I used the magnifying aspect it had to zoom in on the fork on a quantum level. Each individual atom became clear as day, though since this was wood, an organic material, it had a mixture of different elements like nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, iron and a bunch of other elements I couldn't make out right here and now.

I tried using my meagre knowledge of chemistry to remember what the chemical composition of steel was. Oh wait, but steel is a composite material, made up of other elements. As much as I wanted to practice ionic ponding to make steel with my transmutation abilities, the food was disappearing faster than the Sunlight scripture's opinion of Ainz being a meagre magic caster.

'Okay, most of these elements have a low atomic number, so I could break some of the atoms with less number of electrons and what not to make other low atomic numbered metal atoms. What else is lowww…..~ how about sodium? An atomic number of 21 so it should be good, and this fork already has traces of that element to begin with.'

Focusing on the lower level atoms I broke them apart and transferred the leftovers to the other elements until I managed to turn the top part of the fork into the rare earth material. Just as I transmuted the metal, I realized that the plated food closest to me was completely gone with bare chicken grease and crumbs of a salad and near dry soup cauldron next to it.

'How much time did I waist?' I panicked, noticing that everyone else were busy eating their own plate falls. 'Oh no, oh no, no, no-.'

Standing up and glancing around, I saw that all the other food stations were bare and the kitchen didn't look like they had the resources to make anymore. Suddenly my eyes caught a glimmer of hope in this merciless terrain. Far to the other side of the hall laid a couple of drumsticks, half a quarter of a cauldron and what I saw were two slices of bread.

"Food~."

But I wasn't the only one going for it. While I was formulating a route, I noticed Laurissa also making her way in that direction.

'But wasn't she juist….?'

I glanced as to where she was just a moment ago in my time to where she was now. She'd almost made it to the remains. Just how much time did I spend focusing on that stupid forks make-up?

"Like hell I'm starving to sleep tonight," I hissed measuring the distance of the three locations. Right now, Laurissa was but half a dozen or so feet away while I was at the other end of the hall. Easily over 20 metres with 3 tables to the fourth and people at every square inch of available seats. "No sweat."

In an instant I maxed out my eye's motion analysis and accelerated the molecules in my muscles, increasing my reactions to just about the same when I fought Albedo and Shalltear. Granted I didn't fully remember my characters abilities until near the end of my fight with Shalltear.

In the next moment everything, and I do mean everything slowed down to a drop. The hungry soldiers nearly froze with food before their mouths, tripping drinkers (in both the common senses) had the contents of their flying mugs halt mid-flight.

It was exhilarating, the charge my muscles were under had left me with practically the ability to movie in a world where time had halted. But in actuality I was approaching the speeds incomprehensible to most humans, but to a guardian it might as well be a morning jog. The two Ainz craving guardians more than proved that to me.

Climbing onto the table, I bounced onto Halitosis head, just missing the mohawk, and jumped onto the next head. After hoping from one pedestal to the next I in no time made it to the prize with Laurissa now also at the food but frozen in place.

"Eyea-hea-hea-hea, to the victor go the spoils~," I chuckled, grabbing the cauldrons deep spoon and shacking out the frozen liquid contents into the bowl. I was just about to go for some bread and chicken, but stopped when I saw Laurissa.

Her expression was as shy as it normally is, composed facial structure, thin frown and shoulders neither sagging with sorrow nor raised in excitement. But was really standing out was her eyes. I've heard eyes being windows to the soul, Laurissa's eyes looked like they were…more than a little hungry.

"…..tch….dam my sentimental side~," I grunted, glancing from the food on my plate, to the one's not on my plate and the petit pink haired girl before me.

Suddenly there was a jolt through my body, not the nostalgic acceleration jolts I get from using my powers, but more of an actual muscle jolt. Next thing I knew the silence that had come with moving and perceiving the speeds I was moving at shattered with the commotion of the mess hall once again roaring to life.

"Ahh, my neck~."

"What the hell, it feels like my head just got kicked by a horse!"

The people I'd stepped on to get here started wailing in annoyance, some more than others. Guess that'd happen when a foot steps and leaps off your head at speeds more than mark 20.

'Ahh, I lost focus on my speed. Now I'm moving back at normal speeds again,' I internally complained a bit until realizing who was still in front of me.

"Oh, umm…..would you like some as well?"

After the little stunt, the pair of us managed to divide what was left of the food without much complaint, though I think Laurissa had more to say than she let on.

Now finally, the time had come! I could finally eat some food after a near entire day of absolutely nothing! Grabbing my half wooden sodium fork I shovelled it all in, savouring the juices as they seeped onto my tongue. Tearing at soup-soaked bread, roasted seasoned chicken and creamy salad.

This food was nothing compared to what I had at Nazarick, but in the face of overwhelming hunger I just didn't care. Shockingly, I even found myself gulping down a bit of halbrim beer.

Honestly, I was a little hesitant having beer again considering what happened last time. But it wasn't so bad once you drink a lot, don't focus too much on the taste and haven't eaten in ages.

Plus side no-one died with a hammer to the head this time.

Part way through I had to go take a leak, and on my way back I ran into someone that surprised me to the point where I was almost surprised to death.

"Wooh, stomach's empty. Let's go for another round," I said excitedly as a I jogged down the corridor.

"Glad to see you're having fun, Garmadon," said an all too familiarly stern voice behind me that sounded formal. I froze in shock on the spot. "If I'd known you were having this much fun, I would've asked Albedo to come and lighten the mood even more~."

Cranking around, I came face-to-face with a tall standing figure in an orange and white striped uniform. He had pointed ears with a pair diamonds sparkling behind spectacles and a metal looking scaled tail behind. A malicious grin on his face.

"Ehehe…-cough-Well if it isn't Demiurge," I half laughed as I tried regaining my bearings before the floor Guardian. "Haven't seen you since-."

"-Since the meeting you had with Lord Ainz before you fought Shalltear and after completely decimating the 6th floor amphitheatre," he finished, keeping his composure while saying it but with a hint of malice in his voice. "You're right it's been too long~."

'Oh-ho-ho, he's still so pissed about that. No doubt.'

"Yea," I turned the other way down the corridor where everybody else was before turning back. "You should've really chosen a more convenient location. The people at the other end could come through at any moment, speaking of how'd you find me?"

'I know I was never being watched with a surveillance mirror Ainz uses. I would've seen it.'

"No need to concern yourself with that," he pushed back his spectacles, clearly enjoying my ignorance. I know that denizens of Nazarick tend to act that way towards beings lower than them, especially humans. "While you were busy I had a sound barrier erected around us to keep any noise from getting out and if anyone comes round, they won't be able to even see us."

I engaged my eye, feeling it hum a bit and took another look round. He was right, without a doubt there were two clear rippling walls at either end of the corridor. Not only that but both Demiurge and I were covered in an orange aura, probably an invisibility spell.

"As for how I knew, we've had eyes on you the whole time. Not that you ever noticed~," he slightly giggled, obviously enjoying this.

'Wow, he really does think of everything when it comes to strategy.'

"That's pretty impressive and all, but why are you here?" I asked, hoping to get this conversation over and done with so that I can finish the dinner I kicked people in the face for. Their reactions were hillll~arious. "I seriously doubt you're here to say hello to a friend."

"That's rich~. No, I'm here on Lord Ainz's behalf for information on a matter that you'd most likely know more about than we would in this….anime you watched."

"Alright, lay it on me."

"Is there at any point an event where Ainz concerns himself with a tribe of lizard men, and if so what happens?"

'…That's what he came to ask me about? I would've thought that plan was well under way by now, it was like the first arc of season 2. I was half expecting him to ask me if I could make an iphone for Ainz or something, but I guess he wouldn't have sent Demiurge to do that little thing…. Do iphones even exist in the 22nd century?'

"Y-Yeah. At the start Ainz sends some…wraiths… I think they're called to deliver a message to the tribes of their oncoming assault," I began. "For Ainz, it's to kill two birds with one stone. He wants to grant Cocytus the opportunity to think for himself and understand combat situations more thoroughly while experimenting with their corpses. Long story short, everything goes smoothly, Ainz rules over the lizardmen through Cocytus and Shalltear gets her punishment by being a throne for Ainz. Hehe~ that was a funny scene for everyone, especially when Albedo throws her little tantrum~."

"Hmm~, now that would've been a sight I'd love to see~," Demiurge mused quietly. "Thankyou for that bit of information. As compensation I will tell you something. The scenario you just described will never happen."

"…Wai-what, why is that?"

"Because all the Lizardmen tribes have been completely eradicated. There isn't a single one of those two-legged reptilians remaining."

"WHHAAATTT!? Why'd that happen?!"

"Hm, demanding aren't you. While we were observing the tribes all the animals and monster; snakes, average lizards, birds, leaches, insects, alligators, hydras, etcetera went berserk and attacked them. The individual tribes never stood a chance-."

'…Holy hell…Alex extended his animal control that far, and he didn't use a single one of the ones just mentioned in today's assault.'

A quick image flashed through my mind of what might've happened. Lizardmen in the marshy wetlands frantically fighting for survival while being sucked dry and falling to fleshy chunks by clinging leeches, buzzing insects and piranha acting fish.

The white lizard Crusch trying to heal the wounded while the two Shasha lizard brothers and a few warriors swiping at the waters only to eventually be eaten from behind by giant, crunchy bugs.

'Oh jeez, I gotta stop. I don't wanna up chunks right now..~.'

"-So do you have any idea on what could've caused it?"

I'm a little hesitant at answering that question, because if I did I'd have to tell him about my brother and even though I want him stopped I really don't want him to meet Nazarick. He'd blow up within the first 3 seconds, come back to life then diced into chunks in the next, no matter how hard he fights.

"Well um…that's because…"

"Not wanting to answer, then allow me to~," Demiurge grinned even more. "Your brother, what was his name again…..Alex, yes that was it. Alex used his pet's abilities to control every animal in that swamp and used others to attack this town, yes I know about it. Ainz foresaw that there was a chance you'd be an issue, so we've had eyes watching you since your abduction. As expected, you led us right to the individual who had the guts to assault Nazarick~."

'…Oh my god, he didn't…Alex you blithering idiot. But you're at least a determined idiot.'

"Heh, if he's still alive and you're here asking me for help then he's given you guys more trouble than you let on and eludes you even more so. ~Nhehe, if you'd go against him with mere animals they wouldn't be able to even touch him, HoHo!"

"Yes~, we're well aware of that little detail~," he said, pushing up his glasses. "Thankyou for the details, I have all that I've came for. Best of luck in your future endeavours. One more thing, don't tell anyone about Nazarick anymore than you already have, or we will be forced to silence you~."

I gulped as Demiurge was beginning to bow.

"Oh wait, just a quick question!"

"Please make it quick, I need to get back to Lord Ainz now."

"Has Shalltear been resurrected, and how did she react when she was told a human beat her?"

'I know she didn't remember the fight with Ainz, so chances are she doesn't remember me.'

"…"

"…"

"She's obviously been resurrected, that should be obvious for you-."

"Some things are different from what I remember."

"Right~. When she was told of the fight she was utterly mortified. Her pride took a hit from being beaten by you, a human. But since you also bested Albedo those two have another topic they can relate to. They've even talked about going out and killing you to settle the score~."

'…Oh man….'

Somehow I could feel a malevolent force rising against my back and ever growing. It was imaginary I know, but the dam thing…..I can feel the raw hatred in it.

"If that's all, then farewell and I hope we don't meet again anytime soon. [Teleport]."

Suddenly, the formal demon guardian disappeared in a flash of white, leaving me alone in the corridor. Since I had my eye on the whole time, I saw the direction the magic teleported Demiurge was up through ceiling.

'He'd better not set up a surveillance to watch me while I sleep. I'd prefer my own prrrriiiiivacyyyy-Oh f*#k I'm sharing a room with two other guys, that's so not private!'

The rest of my dinner wasn't as fulfilling as it was before after that. The whole conversation with Demiurge seemed to have drained my entire appetite.

After dinner and we'd all gone to our own rooms, I took off my prosthetic leg and went commando in bed with my materialized shirt and shorts on, but again had a trouble taking my arm off. I know I should be used to having a metal arm by now like my leg but come on… it's an arm and I've had a prosthetic leg way longer than this metal appendage.

In the end I just gave up, there was no way I was taking it off. Even if I did it would probably be a bad idea to remove the device which makes all my constructs. I wouldn't be able to make a gun anymore.

Lying down onto the materialized bed I had, I tried clearing my mind, but there was just so many things swirling around up there. Thousand Leagues had cast [phantom restraints] to keep me in the room. That didn't really bother me, broke them before getting into the room by disrupting the molecules holding the spell together.

Magic in this world was so akin to the science in mine. It's like one is the practice of the arts without really knowing its fundamentals and the other is the knowing of the arts fundamentals, but not really knowing how to practice it.

But admits my thought, Demiurges words just kept resurfacing to bite me at the front of my head. 'they're always watching me' and that whole thing with the lizardmen.

'This anime world is changing so much and key events aren't taking place anymore, I don't even recognise it as what it once was. God, I hope Alex is okay~…..why the hell am I praying to GOD!'

Silently cursing my slip up on praying for a god who's deity threw me into this world to begin with, I tried focusing on things that could take my mind off it. Faintly, the other two occupants soundly snored away.

'Like that's going to help.'

Annoyed, I activated my eye and looked around the room. The whole place was clear as day in my vision, coupled with the x-ray aspect I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the room. Extending my range, I accidently saw through the room and into the one next where the girls were sleeping!

They were both under sheets, but it was obvious they weren't wearing any armour and Aurita had such a slender frame. Thousand Leagues' witches hat was perched on the bedside table and her usual long twin ponytails had been undone into long blue hair flowing out all over her bed.

Her frame wasn't as toned as Aurita's in the sense of a warrior, but on the contrary was curved just right without an over-developed chest.

'…..Wow, she actually looks beautiful while she sleeps,' I thought, seeing her silently sleeping face. '…wait, two? Where's Laurissa?'

In the back I saw an empty bed with sheets wide open.

'Maybe she's gone to the bathroom,' I thought, rolling onto my back but freezing upon facing the ceiling. My eye was still active and there was the girl I didn't see.

She'd taken off her armour and was down to a clear nightgown to work her way through the ceiling until she was above our room. Where did she even get that thing?

A board in the ceiling had been removed which served as her little peeping hole, how'd we not hear her?

I didn't know if it was my eye making that gown see-through or not but the pink haired girl wasn't wearing anything underneath!

Feeling my face blush a little and a bulge in my pants, I deactivated my eye.

'Just ignore her, just ignore her~,' I thought, rolling back onto my side to sleep and adjusting my pants. 'I had no idea how much potential for evil this eye really has.'

For those who don't recognise what Garmadon made before, I'll give you a quick run-down: first he made a military helicopter with a red paint scheme, a kunai with chain and then a sawn off shot-gun coupled by a chainsaw.

Please leave a comment in the reviews, I like some more ideas for this story before I get to the grand finally .