Momonga tugged a little at his clothing at the waist, 'Always too tight unless I get it up just right.' He rolled his eyes at his vanity as soon as he completely stepped through the gate.

The smell of death hit his nose immediately and, even though he had little enough experience with it, he did have some, recalling the stench of the homeless dead outside his apartment that would occasionally reach him when he left before the morning collection crews came by.

But this was worse. The homeless mostly buried the odor of death with their own lingering body odor from lack of self care, but this? 'Blood. So that's what blood smells like. Blood and voided bowels…' The urge to retch began, and he shifted his human stomach out of existence to get rid of it.

The corpses clearly died kneeling, wounds on the back or partially severed necks were abound, the brown dirt around them was overshadowed by the spreading crimson carpet that was their place of extermination. 'They died without so much as a fight… hoping for mercy, and getting none.' He shook his head, 'I arrived too late-' The thought was interrupted by a woman's scream.

"Just let her live! Just don't hurt Nemu! Can't you even spare one little girl?!" The scream was close, and the armored men who froze when Momonga stepped into view were starting to move again, to respond to his presence, their sword points were leveled at him.

"Who're you?!

Are you reinforcements?!

Are you with the Scriptures?!"

The need to answer their questions was cut off when a second gate opened up beside Momonga, and a dapper Sebas in his trim black butler outfit emerged. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting, My Lord."

"Not at all… but handle them, would you?" Momonga gestured to the knights as another scream ripped through the air, and the clang of a fist on metal was joined by a man's cry of pain, and a little girl's scream.

"Enri!" A shrill voice went up.

Zolik grunted as the peasant clawed at the dirt, her fingernails popped away from her fingers with her desperate effort at clinging to one thing or another in the pathetic house, but much as it hurt her, it only gave him satisfaction. 'The scratches this bitch left on my face won't vanish for weeks.' He cursed and rubbed his face with one gloved hand, staining the leather with the blood she'd brought into the open air. 'And I think my nose is broken.' He thought and touched it. 'Crooked. The bitch broke it with that last punch.' He hocked snot and blood into the back of his throat, and spat on her back with an audible slap, tugging on her ankle, she was almost dragged from the house.

A few feet away, a little girl lay sobbing on the ground, grabbing her sister's wrist and struggling to pull the blonde woman away from him, instead? He now simply dragged them both. A bruise forming on her face was a testament to both her resistance and his annoyance. "Just give up already, it'll be over and you'll both be with the gods, it's for a good cause you ungrateful peasant trash!" Zolik shouted over their screams.

He was so caught up with the struggling peasant creatures that he noticed nothing else until the shadow covered not only himself, but the pair in the dirt as well.

"That is such an ungentlemanly thing to do, don't you know that you never strike a lady's face?" Momonga asked, and Zolik turned around, still clinging to the woman's ankle, he had a moment of time.

A moment to attack.

A moment to run.

A moment to surrender.

A moment to say something.

Anything.

But when he looked up at the tall slender human magic caster who had one hand on his hip and one outstretched as if to grab Zolik's throat?

Zolik just let his mouth drop open in an 'almost' pout at the bizarre statement he just heard.

[Grasp Heart] The stranger said, and to Zolik's confusion, a translucent heart that pulsed as if it were alive, hovered in the air, clasped in the human's open fingers.

The human squeezed.

The heart exploded like an overripe tomato squashed in a fist, and Zolik felt himself fall… but never felt himself land.

Enri looked over her shoulder just in time to hear men scream, and the sound of bones shattering, metal crunching as if some monster of unrivaled power had found the soldiers and made them prey.

Nemu was whimpering a little, but the sudden silence of her sister ended her struggles as well, and she managed at least to ask, "Who're you… mister?"

'A little theater couldn't hurt in making an impression here…' Momonga told himself and slapped his right hand over his heart, "I am Momonga, leader of Ainz Ooal Gown… a magic caster… and…" He stopped, 'Man of culture, taste, and style is probably over the top.' He realized, and quickly added in its place, "And I saw your village was in trouble, so I came to help."

"Y-You did? But…" Enri spoke up while Nemu stared up at him open mouthed as if she were seeing a living god. "H-How… why… am I, are we all that's left?" Enri asked, and touching her face, she winced, squeezing her eyes tightly shut as she rose up to her knees and began to quietly weep.

"Th-Thank you… thank you whoever you are and whyever you came… I wish it wasn't so ungrateful sounding… but if only you'd come sooner…" Enri bit her lower lip to try to keep at bay the urge to sob, at least until Nemu wasn't awake.

"It is unfortunate, but I can at least treat your wounds." Momonga said and reaching into the air, a little black circle appeared, his hand disappeared, and a moment later it emerged holding a glass vial of red liquid. "This is a healing potion, use it." He said and held it out between two delicately placed fingers on the narrow neck of the vial.

Enri accepted it with hands that trembled in pain now that the rush and struggle were over, "Th-Thank you, My Lord." She said, then stiffened when his hand reached out again. 'Is he going to take it from me… is this a trick?' She wondered as the number of men's screams began to diminish just out of view.

But her fears were baseless, his two delicate fingers plucked the glass top free, and nothing more.

"I will go see to the last of your invaders, join me when you are ready." Momonga said, looking away when her wide blue eyes turned into pools filled with tears of gratitude. He could hear the gulping noise behind him still when he came into view of the town square.

Sebas landed another blow at an unfortunate, shattering his leg and sending the human toppling to the ground. "Money! I'll give you five hundred gold coins! I'll give you everything if you'll just-"

The promise was cut short with a finishing punch to the face and a wet spray of blood and brain that scattered into the dirt, briefly kicking up dust as the brain bits bounced away. Only eight human knights remained alive.

"That is enough, Sebas." Momonga said at once and placed both hands on his hips, feeling the skirt material beneath his robe. He leveled a stern gaze at the quivering men in armor that clinked in time with the tremors of their body.

"As you wish, My Lord." Sebas said, straightened his back, and gave a slight tug on the lapels of his unstained uniform.

"The rest of you, go back to your country, wherever it is, and tell them that if I see this ghastly behavior again, I will come for the heads of your rulers." Momonga leveled a dramatic finger in a random direction and shouted, "Run!"

They were but tiny dots still scrambling for their lives when the two surviving humans emerged around the corner and fell back to their knees again, clinging to one another as they beheld the carpet of red and corpses. "We're all that's left… we're all that's left…" Enri whimpered and clung to the little auburn haired girl's shaking body as tightly as she could.

"Where can we go… what's going to happen to us… big sister?" Nemu asked, but the answer, whatever it was, was cut off by the noise of approaching thundering hooves.