Intermission 1
Far away from the Slane Theocracy, in a castle that was thought to be abandoned by its last lords decades ago, a nefarious group of people sat in a circle in one of the rooms of this keep. Twelve beings had been gathered in this place where the lords bedchambers had once been. Now it was a cold dark room with mold on the walls as time had long begun to take its toll upon this place. But the twelve figures that sat down in this place had even darker and colder hearts still.
"Did you all see that?" the robed man almost shouted as his question echoed through the room only to be met with deadly silence from the other eleven members present.
The spectacle that they had been allowed to witness could only be described as mind-blowing.
As a group they had been credited with causing disaster after disaster in the name of their cultist beliefs and as such they had grown well accustomed to watching horror, gore and carnage unfold before their eyes. But to see something as one-sided as this struggle was baffling to say the least.
Hundreds of years ago, when the great demon gods descended upon the continent and threatened all life, people could but cower in fear and pray that they would live to see their children grow up healthy and strong or take up arms and fight against this calamity themselves. These had been the only two options…
Until a certain group of humans came up with a different solution.
A human that is not properly buried or dies with regrets could sometimes come back as a lower level undead. Throughout hundreds of years this fact had been the continuous cause of unimaginable grief for hundreds of thousands of humans who were forced to kill their loved ones or see them die a second time after they had turned into undead. But one group of humans came to view this curse as a blessing instead. An existence as a being that did not fear death or feel hunger or sadness or pain; wasn't that kind of life better than to live in constant panic while every day could be the day you were eaten by a demon god?
Thus an organization was formed that dedicated itself to the zombification of the entire human race, a fate that they still considered to be better than life in a world of danger and injustice. Thus Zuranon was born.
It consisted of hundreds of branch members all over the continent, many of which wielded a considerable amount of power and influence in their own right. Amongst their ranks were not just human cultists but even liches and non-human creatures along with other types of undead, all these types of creatures had come together and had been working secretly for many years to accomplish their goals.
Of all these members, there were only twelve who could truly be called the leaders of this organization. Three powerful mages from various human nations, four noblemen who each could summon a mighty army of banner men from their lands, a priest from the Slane Theocracy, a human scholar who was said to be one of the few people with a working understanding of wild magic, two brothers from the famous assassin guild Ijaniya and of course their leader who was an existence that was worth a bounty of several thousands of gold coins if one could deliver its head to an adventurer's guild.
None of the members present were usually talkative but at this moment they could do little but try to collect their thoughts as best they could. Only one of their members could muster up the courage to speak as little as these few words.
"Ainz Ooal Gown. Truly powerful…"
The only one who spoke up was a youthful man no older than twenty wearing a blood-red robe with a strange bone necklace that made a clattering sound whenever he moved. He stood up and continued to look at the image that was being displayed
In the center of the room stood a golden basin with strange ancient markings etched into the side that glowed with an occasional glimmer of red light. This was an ancient item known as a Blood Pool that worked following the wild magic system and consumed many hundreds of liters of blood in order to work. Even Zuranon, to whom it was a small feat to make people disappear off the face of the earth, did not dare to use this item carelessly as the amount of people that had been sacrificed for it to work today was enormous to say the least.
In exchange this blood pool provided them with a vision spell that could not be detected nor blocked by anti-detection magic from the ten tier system. The fact that the Sorcerer King had not noticed their spying proved that even he did not possess a counter against it. They had gambled that today Ainz Ooal Gown would show up and attack the capital and to their great delight he had and displayed not only his own power, but the power of his subordinates as well.
"To think that he was this strong!"
The one who spoke was the youngest member of the council and one of the three mages. His age was extremely misleading, however, as his talent for necromancy outstripped what the other two mages were capable of at that age by a large margin. He was said to be a likely future successor of the leader's will and a person capable of even surpassing him.
"Whatever do you mean, Heckar-san? Today we didn't even get to witness the power of the magic caster, instead all we saw was how his two subordinates eviscerated the Black Scripture as if they were fighting children."
The one who addressed the youngest member of the council was a scholarly old man wearing a pale white mask over his face. This man was one of the few humans who had an expertise of ancient or wild magic and had once lost a considerable portion of his facial skin when dabbling in these old arts as a price for this dangerous research, which had left scars that could not be healed even by divine magic casters. He was not the most hideous member of the council but preferred to wear this mask to not accidentally have to look at his own horrendous appearance.
Although he still had trouble finding the right words it would be a little embarrassing if only the youngsters could find the courage to speak at such moments.
"Regis-san, even you can surely see that if his subordinates are this strong that one can only imagine how strong the master is. We already know how powerful Ainz Ooal Gown is after learning about the events on Katze Plains, but now we know that even his subordinates completely leave the elite of the human world in the dust."
Regis closed the eyes behind his mask as he contemplated what the best course of action would be.
"While it is true that this Ainz Ooal Gown is powerful, extremely powerful even, he's still an undead; if we take into account the immense hatred that undead creatures usually have for the living we can accurately predict his next moves. Controlling him to a certain extent or even using his name to gain strength may not be out of the question."
Heckar frowned upon the statement of his colleague as he expected a man who gave off such an academic aura to have a bit more common sense.
"That's too careless, Regis-san! That lich has demonstrated a power that far surpasses what human sorcerers are capable of. To speak of matters like using his name for our cause or manipulating his actions, aren't you being too naïve?!"
"If we're measuring strength of liches than please don't forget who we have as our leader. While we may lose in destructive power there's no way that Ainz Ooal Gown is more cunning than-"
"Silence!"
With a voice that carried a deep dark chill, the two executives were silenced immediately by the only one of the twelve figures that still had not removed the cowl of his robe from his head. From beneath it glowed two dark red eyes that stared at the other executives with malice that would make even the bravest warriors shudder.
Unrazon, also known as the calamity of Arautum city. This being was the de-facto leader of Zuranon and one of the human world's elite magic casters. He had been the first human ever to voluntarily ascend to an elder lich. He had succeeded in what Khajiit Dale Badantel had attempted to copy in E-Rantel and slaughtered an entire city in order to harvest a large amount of negative energy that he used for his transformation. Now he was immune to the passing of time and had used his immortality to research all kinds of forbidden and dangerous magic all in order to pursue his dream of gifting all of humanity with the blessing of being undead.
On top of being capable of performing magic up to the fifth tier he also had a more extensive grasp of necromancy and the undead than probably any mortal, even more than the famous necromancer Rigrit Bers who was once one of the thirteen heroes.
"This undead is not so weak that we can call him an elder lich. Even though I still can't get a full grasp on his power I can feel a presence far surpassing my own. The only fitting title for this being is truly 'God of Death'."
The other executives gulped as they heard this, their master who could be called one of the strongest undead in existence called his own rank weak compared to that of Ainz. The fear that they felt for this creature became greater and greater every second.
"Whatever the case may be, what will we do now, ascended one? This sorcerer already demonstrated that he himself possesses incredible magic power, but now he didn't even need to use it. Instead his subordinates simply crushed a foe that the former executive Clementine said we would need to use our full force against in order to stand a chance."
Unrazon looked towards one the corners of the room, and there he saw a figure standing motionlessly and in a slightly crooked manner. A sorry sight considering that this person was once one of the strongest human warriors and an executive on this very council. The Former ninth seat and hero level warrior Clementine was lifelessly standing in the room.
After the events in E-Rantel where two adventurers had magnificently thwarted the plans of one of Unrazon's twelve disciples', Zuranon had invested a considerable amount of effort to retrieve the two corpses for questioning and revival.
To their great dismay, the corpse of Khajiit, who looking from a rational perspective was much more valuable to Zuranon, was damaged too severely to even attempt a resurrection. The only choice was to resurrect Clementine who - although proved valuable with a mountain of intel that was provided by her about the inner workings of not just the Slane Theocracy but also the Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize kingdom, Draconic Kingdom and even the reclusive Aggrand Council Alliance - was an enormous pain for Zuranon to properly keep in check.
What's more was that one could but imagine how horrible a death she died as not only was her body badly damaged, but her soul refused to be resurrected as if afraid to return to the same plain of existence as the one who killed her. Considering her personality it was frightening to think who could instill that kind of fear into her soul all the way to the afterlife. The organization thus decided to use a special spell on her corpse that brought only the body and mind back to life, without the soul. It was a forbidden spell that bordered between necromancy and divine magic. Although her speech was blurred and incomplete they were able to make out quite a bit through her fractured babbling. One word in particular came back dozens of times. Skeleton.
After thorough investigation it was discovered that Momon the adventurer didn't exist. A man with enough power to duel Clementine could not have been living under a rock his whole life, but after using all of their connections in all the lands where humans could survive they still could not find his name or someone like him being mentioned a single time. It was as if he and "beautiful princess" Nabe had simply appeared out of thin air. Clementine's fractured story checked out; Momon was actually an undead posing as an adventurer and they were probably the only ones that knew.
They had not been foolish enough to actually approach Momon as his allegiance and stance towards Zuranon was unclear and they did not know who else was watching him but the reason behind him posing as Momon had become clear to them after the battle of Katze Plains when Momon became the new caretaker and enforcer of E-Rantel in order to lessen the chance of rebellion. A move that showed the highest of tactical wit and incredible foresight that allowed for the complete control of an entire city despite being an undead.
Now thanks to the Blood Pool they had also been allowed to witness the strength of not only the Sorcerer King but also his servants. A sight that threw quite a wrench in their plans as initially they had hoped to become the arms and legs of this undead magic caster.
"While it is true that this undead seems to have his own agenda he is by nature an undead like me, that means that although manipulation is out of the question it is not impossible to take advantage of his existence. A being this powerful will be both feared and revered; such is the nature of humans. We will exploit that for our own purposes. But first we must establish ourselves as allies or at least a neutral party if we are to do so without incurring his wrath."
Hearing this, one of the four nobleman who was secretly one of the executives of Zuranon, raised his hand. He was one of the lucky nobles to survive the purge of Emperor Jircniv and thus had allowed the organization to retain a foothold inside the Baharuth Empire which had become the nation where Zuranon had its base of operations. Therefore his position could be said to be somewhat higher than the other executives.
"Ah, about that, ascended one, it seems that a couple of our lower branches in the Baharuth Empire caught wind of Ainz Ooal Gown's true identity and have secretly formed a sect worshipping him as their god. This had led to an increase in kidnappings for sacrificial purposes along with some becoming uncontrollable mass murdering lunatics. To be honest it has put me in a bit of a bind as some of them can be traced back to me."
The leader did not seem surprised as he heard this news, he had long expected some of their followers to be influenced by Ainz, and this was inevitable. The most important thing to do now was to streamline the belief and conviction of all the members of Zuranon in order to avoid causing internal conflicts.
"I had hoped we could have waited to address this issue until after our preparations were complete, but it seems we will have to be the ones to approach him first this time. Having said that, it would be too much of a waste if we were to be deemed dangerous or unworthy of serving him and wiped out as a result. Therefore we will need to bring along our trump card."
Heavy murmuring started amongst the other members of the council, besides all of them being capable warriors or mages their organization also possessed various precious artifacts from old ruins which they used to perform all sorts of dark rituals but their greatest weapon was a being capable of destroying nations with the downside that it a dangerous thing to unleash even for them. To bring it out as an insurance policy instilled great horror as to how dangerous Ainz must be.
Nonetheless there were no members who dared to refute this statement. Ainz had proven to be powerful and cunning, adding to that the fact that they now knew that he was also surrounded by powerful subordinates he could be said to be invincible.
"Ascended one, what about the branches who have started revering him? If we don't pull the reigns on them soon they might secede from us entirely."
"Leave them for now, if all turns out well than we can openly proclaim to all branches that Ainz Ooal Gown is our new god of death or something like that. We may not even have to lie if it turns out he actually is a god of death. For now it is necessary to obtain his favor and ride on his momentum in order to strengthen our position in the world."
The other members nodded as the leader stood up and left the room leaving the other executives behind.
It was not until the leader had left the room that the noble from the Baharuth Empire dared to speak again.
"Still, with those groups acting so rowdy it won't be long before they attract too much attention from the Empire and draw a punitive force towards them. When that happens they may spill a little too much information about our inner workings, no matter what the leader says we must address this issue now before they go completely feral."
The others looked at the nobleman awkwardly as contradicting or disregarding the words of their leader was a strange and controversial thing that was akin to heresy even.
"Phalfurt! Do you intend to disobey the words of our leader? If so I will kill you right here depending on your answer."
The mage was visibly shaking with anger as to him the leader of Zuranon was more divine than any god that humans prayed to.
"Not at all, Heckar-san, I merely wish to assure that should talks with the Sorcerer King fail that we are not sieged on two fronts. If the branches are caught alive or at least are still able to talk then the chance of this location being found are quite high. Or do you suggest we move our operations to the Slane Theocracy?"
At this Heckar became silent as shivers crawled over his spine just thinking about moving to the Theocracy. The Empire would condemn any members of Zuranon to death if found but that was merciful compared to what members of the Firefly Scripture did to necromancers in the Theocracy. Death would be a blessing that their victims would yearn for. Moving themselves into their grasps was something that none of the members present would want.
Seeing that the others had realized the importance of their base in the Empire remaining a secret the nobleman stood up and he likewise left the room whilst chuckling a few words as he walked.
"Looks like I'll also have to set up some preparations, huhu."
Author's afterword:
Behold the walking corpse of my intermission. I was going to post one in between chapter two and three but it was initially going to be a flashback of when Demiurge approached Renner, then after writing a couple of lines I realized the hell I had gotten myself into as trying to write a scene between those two is a nightmare and one I'd rather not have so I just dropped it and focused on writing chapter 3 instead. Anyways bad news is that there's talk that Vol 10 is going to get delayed AGAIN as writer is too busy with writing BD6 or so I've been told, so Instead of my usual blessing, here's a prayer I found on 4CHAN dedicated to our lord Ainz.
Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, let me read volume 10 in peace.
Where there is hatred, overlord,
Where there is doubt, overlord
Where there is despair, overlord
Where there is darkness, overlord
Where there is sadness, overlord.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much
read summaries as read content,
not so much be spoiled as spoil
not so much rage as love;
for it is in giving links that we receive likes,
it is in not trolling that we are not trolled,
it is in being patient for translations that we awake to see the whole volume translated.
Ainz Ooal Gown banzai.