It had been a few days from the hostage crisis and the announcement of the 'Black Nights' of justice, so the most current operations were just supply operations to get organized as more people joined their cause. So things were still easy going with nothing too critical going on. Zero would stop by every afternoon to double check the paperwork and the supplies, trying to account for the excess spending. Ohgi had mentioned to him that there was something important he needed to discuss with everyone, and he needed Zero to be there. It was only the next day, but everyone had gathered in the main room of their mobile base. Ohgi stood by the door as he waited for everyone to come in, after a while when it looked like just the core members had gathered, Ohgi collected his nerves.

"Ok, I think that is everyone one." Ohgi rubbed the back of his head as he headed to the last open spot at the table. Zero being the mastermind that he is, was quick to progress the conversation.

"Alright, Ohgi, now that we are all here, what is it you wanted to discuss? You made it sound very important."

Ohig nodded. "it, it is. It's about our supporters."

Shinichiro Tamaki (annoying, dumb, but passionate redheaded guy) was quick to interrupt "Eh? What about them. People love us!"

"I'm not talking about them, I am talking about our unspoken sponsors."

Kallen Kozuki, their best warrior, also pitched in. "Like the Kyoto house?" Everyone looked to Zero, worried about the major funding Kyoto had recently given them. Zero, in turn, responded without missing a beat.

"The Kyoto house were very generous but asked to meet us. This should already be worked out, has something change, Ohgi?"

"No, I mean yes, no I uh. Nothing has changed with the Kyoto house, this is about something else."

"Oh?" Zero mused, no longer slouching.

"We, we got another similar request."

Shinichiro interrupted again with enthusiasm, "Really? Sweet! Who is it this time?!"

"I ah, I don't know yet."

"You don't know!? Then how do you know we can trust them?!"

Kallen scoffed at Shinichiro "Well that was a quick change of opinion."

"Eey, shut it!"

Zero was interested, his authority was enough to silence everyone as he continued the question at hand. "You don't know? What do you mean? And what is concerning you, it sounds like you're thinking of other things."

"Sorry, it was last night. I didn't get much sleep. It, it was a late call."

"From these unknown supporters?"

"Yeah, they made a very, very generous donation."

"Did they have any demands?"

"They wish to organize a meetup, or a possible joint operation."

"Joint operation? So something like the Japanese Liberation Front?"

"I can't say, but I don't think it's them."

"Why do you think that?

"Well, their donation wasn't normal."

"How so?"

Ohgi paused for a bit, and swallowed, it looked almost as if a bead of sweat ran down the side of his face.

"T-t-ten-"

Ohgi got ready to try again, but Zero thought he heard enough and started asking. "Tennn? Ten thousand?" Zero paused, but decided to push it a bit further by suggesting something a bit silly, "Ten mill-"

"Billion, t-ten billion, sir!"

The room went quiet. Ohgi could feel everyone staring hard at him. No one knew how to respond. The first one to break the silence was Zero. "Billion? How do you-"

"It's not just that sir, but there's this. They somehow manage to sneak this into my room the other day."

Everyone was on the edge of their seats as Ohgi pulled out the envelope from under his shirt. As Ohgi got close and stretched over the table to hand Zero the envelope, everyone's eyes were on it to just get a look at first, but without too much effort, everyone was fixated on it as the gold trim, the art, and the jewels caught their eyes.

Zero held it in his hand for a bit before turning it over a few times, reading out loud the few words on it, then putting it gently down. Everyone continued to gawk at it and people started to talk while Zero brought up a hand to think.

I've never seen a letter like this before. I don't think I've ever seen royal letters or decrees as decorated as this, what kind of organization is this? Did they really give us 10 Billion!? Very few companies and fewer nations could afford to just give that kind of money away. There aren't any major Japanese companies that could do this without being noticed, unless they were just about to fold. Perhaps they wish to offer us their services. But, what if it's just Britannia. A trick to lure us out? That wouldn't make sense. Sure it is plenty of money to twist our hands and make us have to meet with them, but no way could someone other than the king be permitted to allow for the sacrifice of so much. And we couldn't have gotten that much attention from the empire already, so much that they would feel the need to prioritize our extermination. It just doesn't make sense! And then there is this letter! Above and beyond! Not to mention they could manage to sneak it in, that means they know how to reach or hurt us, the bastards! But... I don't have enough information, this letter is the key... But it could be a trap. Poisoned perhaps. No that would me they wasted all that money... unless the wanted to make sure the letter would be opened.

All of these thoughts happened in a split second, and Zero continued to analyze the situation from a thousand different angles. Only a few seconds it took, but nothing, there was far too many contradictions to figure out if it was a trap or not.

Meanwhile, an overlord mage was simply trying to figure out how to trick a demon god to repeat himself, trying to understand the explanation of these Knightmare Frames.

Eventually Zero figure his best bet would be to open the letter. As he came to his senses, Zero realized there was yelling going on.

"What's all the commotion about?"

Shinichiro being the loudest was the first to dominate the crowd and respond to the question. "Zero! This letter is bad news man! I took out my phone so I could get a picture of it, it being cool looking and all, but it's like a ghost man! It doesn't show up!" By this time other people had their phones out and were also confirming and discussing the phenomenon. Zero panicked mentally for a bit, forgetting he had his own phone he reached out for Shinichiro to hand over his phone so zero could see himself. Behind his mask, Lelouch's eye went wide as he held the phone's camera point blank at the letter sitting right in front of him, and on the screen, he saw only the table. Not even a shadow of the letter showing where it may have been laid. Curious, just testing the water, Lelouch took a picture. The click sound caught everyone's attention to see what Zero was doing. A moment later the screen went dead, electricity surged all around the device as it was fried. Surprised by this, Lelouch flinched, tossing the phone over the table. There, in mid-air, the phone slowed down as if time itself had stopped. It was as if it was just floating for a second in front of everyone there, before a black orb with a purple tinge erupted from the center of the phone, swallowing it before holding its shape. The lights in the mobile base flicked for a bit as the orb continued to float mid-air, pulsing as if desperately containing explosions, while a cosmic belt of purple lightning flicked in and out of existence around the orb danced around it just as lighting would if it was shorting itself out. After a second, the ring of lighting collapsed, and so too did the orb, with nothing left, the phone was no more.

The lights of the mobile base returned to normal and everyone was frozen, unable to speak after seeing something so bizarre. Shinichiro was the first to recover. "What the hell was that!? That thing took my phone!" Despite standing up, yelling at the empty space the phone once occupied, everyone else was still frozen for a while longer. A second passed and an idea popped into Lelouch's mind, and he turned his gaze to look at C2 who was watching from above. To his surprise, she too was stunned, mouth hanging open, and eyes narrowed. (anyone noticed the pun, lol, I'm a horrible writer)

She seems just as clueless as the rest of us.

Zero coughed to get everyone's attention. "Sorry about that Tamaki. We'll get you a new phone since it seems like our budget can afford it." Zero double checks himself by turning to look at Ohgi once again, who nods in confirmation.

Shinichiro had another outburst. "Afford it?! Hell, we could by our own nation with 10 Billion!"

Kallen, getting her mind back working order was able to respond. "Yeah, but if we blow all our money on a nation, we won't have any more to fund our army, and Britannia will just conquer us all over again."

Shinichiro deflated a bit, seeing how big of a hole his idea had, only to be saved by Zero.

"I think we should open and read this letter. Does anyone object?" No one objected. "Could we get a recording going, I am going to read out parts of the letting that I think are safe to read."

It took only a minute, but soon they were ready. While Lelouch would normally slip a knife under the edge and cut right through the ribbon, the value of the envelope made him handle it with care, first picking at the wax seal, a challenge with gloves on, but no one else wanted to take the honor. As soon as he was able to get a nail under the wax, it popped off with surprising ease, almost jumping off. It may have done just that, because the ribbon instantly undid itself and fell to the table, and the front popped open. Everyone jump as a voice came from what sounded like the letter spoke. It was the voice of a young cute girl in Japanese.

"Timer Started!"

Everyone was almost caught off guard by the oddly cute voice, but was woken up went the same black orb had returned to confiscate their tape recorder, adding a creepy tone to the start of the letter from having the light flicker off just libe before. They couldn't delay and Zero began to read the beautifully written and decorated letter out loud, no time to marvel at it.

"To Zero and The Order of the Black Knights,"

"On behalf of the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, we hope this letter finds you well. We wish to congratulate you on your recent achievements, the public announcement of your order, and we applaud you for taking the first few steps into becoming something bigger."

"We of Ainz Ooal Gown would like to formally invite you, Zero and your chosen few from The Order of the Black Knights, to a private reception coming this Sunday to discuss the future of not only Japan, but of the world. Since we will be seeing and hearing much of each other in the months and years to come, this will be a great opportunity to get to know each other before the media has a chance skew our perspective of one another. You can expect many benefits beyond imagination should the night go well."

"To attend, you simply must arrive at the old park hidden in the east 24th ward of the devastated cityscape, no later than 7 at night. Food will be provided before talks begin. We hope you and your order will attendant, and may fate be fortunate to you."

"Best regards,"

" ~Ainz Ooal Gown,

Ruler of The Great Tomb of Nazarick,

Leader of the 41 Supreme Beings,

Overlord of Death,

Guild Master of Ainz Ooal Gown."

After reading, Zero remained still for a bit, trying to absorb it all. Somewhere in the distance an overlord mage was trying to suffocate himself in his pillow, ashamed for making such an embarrassing letter, forced to because a succubus and demon god wanted to proofread it.

Zero noticed Shinichiro had started to point at the letter in his hand. Taking another guess, Zero turn the page around. The back was different. Rather than gentle writing and gold fold designs, the black was a mix of black ink and blood, in circles and an unknown rune language. Not only that, but the text and various symbols were slowly turning following the various magic circles. A similar design could be found on the inside of the envelope now that Zero checked on it. Unbeknownst to them, the letter and envelope were repurposed scrolls.

Zero didn't know what to make of it, as he went back to the front, double checking and committing the details to memory. Making note of how formal and polite the tone of the letter was, finding it very professional. The only annoying detail was the letter had a tone that already assumed that he and the order were going to attend no matter what. He wasn't sure if it was because they were confident because of the money, or because of the presentation of this letter, or both. Then there was the last part that that held Lelouch's mind the longest. Lelouch didn't know what The Great Tomb of Nazarick was and found it a bit showy to have a guild in his name. But the other two title had Lelouch and the others really interested. Lelouch could hear others asking and discussing what it meant to be a supreme being, who were these supreme beings, and why were they contacting him. Not only that, but then there is the other title, Overlord of Death. Who in their right mind we have such a title? While no one wanted to fully believe it, nor could they truly understand it just yet, but no one tried to reject it since nothing more realistic could explain the letter, the craftsmanship, or the crazy amount of money they received.

Everyone jumped when the message spoke once again, in the same cute voice of an unknown girl.

"Time's Up!"

And with that, the letter, envelope, and even the ribbon shattered into blue flakes in Zero's hands, floating upwards as the flakes disintegrated into sparks which in turn dissolve into nothing. Once again, everyone was left speechless as now there was nothing left of the letter. Soon only wails of surprise could be heard, as people walked out, trying to clear their minds of the overwhelming experience they all just had. Zero was quick to make clear two things.

"First of all, we do not speak more about this until after the dinner, even with all of us as witnesses, I don't think a single person will believe what we just say today. And second, we are attending this dinner. I don't know what they have planned for us, but we would be fools not to investigate this further!"

That same night, Lelouch started to organize and inform who he wanted to bring, and to send out scouts to locate the park. Still stunned, Lelouch got home too late to be able to take a shower to relax before Nunnally would be there. Once home, Nunnally could sense something, noticing Lelouch wasn't his usual bright self.

"What's wrong niichan?" Nunnally tried to use the new cute honorific she learned to cheer him up. To her horror, Lelouch continued to breathe in slow deep breaths.

"I... I saw something. Something that, that I can't explain today. Do, do you remember, the day you lost your sight."

Nunnally gave Lelouch a worried look. "I do. Why?"

"I, I saw something like that. Something scary. Something, something that I wish I hadn't seen."

Nunnally wanted to push further, to comfort her dearest brother, but before she could think of a polite and supportive response, she could hear her brother shift out of the room. Judging from the sound, Lelouch had bumped into the maid, but didn't apologize as he continued his way to the shower. Nunnally would end up falling asleep before Lelouch would finish hitting the wall and floor of the showing in frustration, the sound being hard to miss. The next morning Nunnally wanted to comfort Lelouch, but it seemed Lelouch had already managed to regain is spirit once again, acting as if nothing had happened the other night and not wanting to make her worry. She was left only to wonder.