Updated (minor corrections and reviews at the end)

January 22, Sunday

Breathing heavily, Taylor did her best to gain back some strength. To her irritation Ainz was just casually reading a book nearby, paying no attention to her suffering. She had really imagined training going differently after the fun time she had flying on Wednesday. Not these grueling hours of doing her best to block a skeleton trying its best to hit her.

Ainz just explained that she needed to first get used to her new strength and stamina, but more importantly learn to avoid hits. Where is the magic, the great explosions, anything would be better than this.

Getting back up, she got ready to do her best to avoid 10 angry-looking skeletons.

January 30, Monday

Seems her luck finally ran out.

"Hey Taylor, that is some nice jewelry you have"

Emma had finally cornered her alongside her usual crewnies.

"Did you steal them, Taylor. I'm disappointed that you would do something like that, what would Annette think knowing her daughter is a little thief". Really was Emma using her mom against her, she didn't think Emma could get worse but it seemed she had thought too highly of her.

"Not going to say anything, I guess we will need to take them off you. It would be rude to let you keep wearing them after all, they don't even look good on you. Don't you think they would look better on me Taylor? Why don't you hand them over"

'I need to get away'. Waiting for help would be stupid and she knew the trio would steal her things without a problem. She was going to be a hero, she was working out, and she was a cape surely she could get away from a few girls. Apparently, a week wasn't enough since her inner thoughts distracted her from Sophia who used them to grab her from the back.

"Ok let's see, open your hand Taylor" Emma smugly said

"Emma stop, just leave me alone"

Emma was attractive. Something she used to keep everyone in line and remain the most popular girl in school. Luckily for Taylor, what she lacked was strength as she was failing in forcing her hand open. Seemingly embarrassed by how weak she was, she decided to slap Taylor to deflect her failure.

"Stop acting up, just open your hands and give them to me".

"Let me try", as if Emma hadn't been bad enough Sophia let two other girls hold her so he could try. .'no, no, no ' I can't let them take them. Struggling as best she could she got one arm free. Before she could even attempt to use it to punch, Sophia kicked her in the stomach hard, slamming her against the locker.

"Fucking bitch just doesn't give up, what a loser".

'Damm that hurt, she had gotten used to feeling strong while wearing her costume even when struck they never felt this bad almost like something was decreasing the force, something she currently wished she had.

Grabbing her hand, Sophia worked at forcing it open.

"Just give it up already, these things ain't yours anyways"

"Haha, how would Taylor even afford rings like that"

"Maybe she sold herself. You know the only way she could make money"

"Yeah but even then, who would pay for her? She is just so ugly after all"

She tried to block them out, but the words hurt her. She didn't think she was pretty beyond her hair and a part of her agreed someone like her wasn't worthy of the items Ainz gave her. But she wouldn't let him down by letting them get taken. With the last of her strength, she kicked hard. Instead of pushing Sophia off or hurting her, Sophia just dodged it before retaliating with a punch to the face.

"Haha, she really is pathetic. Now let's get these off …hmm let's try this one ..what the fuck, I can't get them off". Taylor felt the tugging, it made her want to scream with how her fingers felt ready to get ripped off.

"Shit these things are stuck on there,...did she really put on rings too small for her." Looking closely it was noticeable to the girls how the rings were smaller than her knuckles.

"Wow Taylor were you that desperate to try on nice things"

"What a loser"

Finally giving up the girls left her laying against the wall.

Once everyone left, she took a look at her hand. Grabbing her ring she went to remove it, only to watch it grow enough to slide off. "Ha magic rings" placing it back on a bit more confident no one could get them, she lifted herself up.

January 31, Tuesday

Running in the morning had been a pain the first week, but she was starting to enjoy the activity. At first, she had just wanted to gain stamina, something Ainz's weekly training sessions wouldn't be enough for. Now she did it since it helped relieve stress from school and provide her with a sense of self-accomplishment. Everything with Ainz felt like charity on his part, power and knowledge were just him helping her as his own necessity. She wasn't even sure how much he cared. For all she wanted to believe in him, he had admitted from the beginning that he just wanted to keep her safe to insure his own life.

February 3, Friday

"Oni Lee?"

Oni Lee is a member of Azn Bad Boys, a cape with the ability to teleport. Each time he does, he leaves a clone that can keep fighting for a short time"

"Good" Ainz nodded. "Now what countermeasures could you use when fighting him?

This had become a daily part of her life with Ainz, apart from training on the weekends. He expected her to study and plan against capes.

"Well, he is hard to track once he is active, but before that using invisibility combined with a sleep spell to knock him out"

"Not bad, but I recommend only using it while flying, invisibility won't remove any noises made when walking. Now what If he is already using his power, what would you do".

This usually becomes the hard part, certain capes had been easy to plan for. Rune could be distracted by her summons and shot down. Alabaster could be avoided by flying and then taken down with her summons who could easily overpower him. Shame Ainz liked to mix and match empire capes as he knows they rarely act alone. Oni Lee, on the other hand, has a tricky power and experience to match. He could easily avoid her skeletons and moved too erratic to make shooting him easy.

"I can stay in the air to limit any attacks, then ..uhm. I can try to use a fireball to get him in the wide area of attack". Even as she finished she realized she messed up.

"When facing a teleporting foe like that, the last thing you want is to be in an open area like the sky. Sure you can limit his attack time, but it's not worth it when you allow him every angle to attack from. Oni lee can only appear in his eyesight, use that to narrow his movements and have a spell ready. While I enjoy a good fireball, I was under the impression killing was something you wanted to avoid. But in all honesty, Oni Lee is known to kill his enemies unlike other villainous capes in this city, his death would help save those he would target later on".

"Ahh yeah, I don't want to kill… wait, how do you know about his eyesight, I've been researching all week and no one had anything like that mentioned on Pho"

For his part, Ainz just smiled. " I have good sources of information" as if that made her feel any better, all she has ever seen him talk to were undead and she didn't want to know where he had been sending them to.

"Now what about the undersiders"

"Shit", she knew she needed to look into them 'ahh I'm about to get another lecture'.

February 3, Friday nighttime

"Ahh, why do they keep bringing me more" Ainz wanted to slap his head against the wall, but only the worry of damaging Danny's house kept him still. "I can't even tell them to stop, they looked so proud, I never should have asked for it in writing". To his regret, he asked his Hanzos to report their findings, the act became tiresome very quickly, standing over 4 admiring faces going over every detail " I felt so awkwardly, I'm not even going to try and figure out how they can be so expressive with those mask on". Then he had come up with a solution and at the time he thought it was perfect. He had told them to write it all up, then send it to him each night. Picking up a new one, he tried to continue.

-8am, lung rose from his bed in the company of 3 female humans.

-8:10 am lung released urine, then proceeded to clean his teeth.

-8:15, lung took a shower

"Why, why are they all like this". Picking up the next One.

-8 am oni lee stared intensely into a mirror

-8:10 am oni lee stared intensely at a mirror

….

…

9 am oni lee stared intensely at the mirror

…

10 am, oni lee was called away from his intense staring by lung.

"Ok, now that one was weird, but yeah anyways I can't keep trying to read these. I'll need to figure out a way to get them only to send me important information "

February 4, Saturday

She loved the magic staff, she somehow knew all the spells she could cast while holding it and by saying the spells out loud she could use them, it hadn't even required any training to use. No hour-long session to feel the magic, no studying the magical formulas, or anything else you would think when you were told to study magic, just aim and shoot. As cool as all that was, training for it was still needed. A point she learned instantly when she excitedly decided to cast a fireball while aiming down, had her ring not teleported her she would be ash right now. Ainz had quickly forbidden her from casting a fireball until that ring recharged. So that is why she was practicing shooting far off-targets with the spells that Ainz said have no area of effects, like a magic arrow. So far she found out spells varied in how fast they traveled and by how accurate they are. Magic arrows can be pretty accurate over 50 feet and move as fast as a regular arrow would. Apparently, Ainz's end goal is to have her shoot accurately over multiple moving targets, taking into account each spell's velocity, accuracy, and area of effect.

February 11, Saturday

"Hey Ainz, do you enjoy reading that much" she had grown curious as aside from training her, It was the only other thing he did.

Placing his book down he seemed to think over his response

"In truth, before now I never had the time, my world was one where free time was seen as a luxury".

"Yggdrasil " she had heard him mention it a few times.

"Ahh yes there, My time was spent trying to keep our land from invaders and the only reading involved documents with information over enemies or nearby threats". Not a lie. Aside from working and hunting, he spent most of his free time looking through online sites about any Yggdrasil news.

"Which is why I'm trying it out, it has been a decent way to pass the time here. It's not like I can just go out."

"Why not"

"I'm" he hadn't thought about it, he had just fallen back on his fear of players attacking a non-human. "I'm actually not sure" he admitted," I guess I had just decided to wait till you were ready to debut".

Thanks" she smiled up at him, it was warming to know he was waiting just for her to be ready, but she didn't want to control him. He did so much for her, now she wished for him to enjoy things himself. "But you can go out on your own."

"Hmm, I might do that, I have been curious to see more of your city. My only concern is the PRT trying to pressure me into joining them. I'll really need to prove myself a hero before they can corner me"

He wasn't wrong, if the PRT was anything like school, they would use their authority to force him. If he could get famous then people wouldn't so easily believe them.

"Then just prove you are a hero" he looked down on her and she tried to remind herself that it was literally, not that he saw her opinion as something to look down on.

"I mean you can go do heroics to prove yourself before you run into them, so the PRT can't label you evil".

Ainz stroked his boney chin

" I might have a good idea".

February 14, Tuesday

The bedroom light peaking through the cracked door failed to illuminate past the first steps, leaving him there staring while knowing Ainz lurked down there. It had been weird enough getting used to Ainz at first but recently he started to put together what lurked behind the mask. The thought came on Saturday, he had decided to watch Taylor's training to make sure she was as safe as Ainz said. On that part everything was fine, he had been frightened seeing her fight skeletons but calmed down when he realized they hadn't been using their weapons.

'Yeah the training wasn't so bad, Ainz seemed to take Taylor's safety very seriously

Training aside his current problem was he had gotten thirsty 'ahh here I go' walking down into the darkness, he reached out knowing where the light switch was.

"Fuck"

"Ohh, sorry to frighten you, Danny?". Taking slow breaths and regaining his calm, he looked up at the source of his fright. In his living room was ainz sitting on that ebony chair he seemed to create from nothing while holding a book in his right hand he had obviously been reading.

"Ahh, it's fine. I just wasn't expecting to see you there" A lie, he had. Yes, what frightened him wasn't Ainz it was the idea that he was the same thing as those he summoned. He had woken up enough times at night to realize Ainz never slept and did god knows what in his house

"Just coming down for some water"

"Let me get you some, least I can do" before he could protest, Ainz just slide his hand into a void pulling out a pitcher. Staying quiet he waited for ainz to pure into a glass he retrieved in an equally absurd method.

"Thanks and good night"

He tried not to think about where the water came from, how Ainz was reading without light, or the high likeliness an undead monster was casually sitting downstairs. He just focused on the mystery of how water could taste so refreshing and went back to sleep.

February 20, Monday. Brockton bay central library

Ashley had taken this job 5 years back and hadn't enjoyed it, it was just that Brockton bay just had a way of forcing people to grasp onto any available job and fight to keep it. Organizing the discarded books, arguing with people who didn't want to pay late fees, and doing her best to keep the likely gang members quiet, were all expected when in Brockton bay. She had pushed through the fear and kept a stern face to all of it, a face she was pretty sure she had lost right now"

"May I check these out?" Said the cape holding three books in one hand. Yes, his tone was kind, but her mind pointed out he had just appeared exactly when no one else was around.

Seemingly those five years paid off because her mouth responded while her brain argued to give the imposing figure anything.

"Sure, do you have a library card" 'fuck, of course not, a cape doesn't have a library card' One needed a name and address to get one, she was pretty sure in the united states only new-wave would hand out that information.

Seemingly the man agreed because he just seemed to laugh before saying no. He had a strong attractive voice that commanded respect, one that reminded her of legend those times he spoke on tv. "I wonder if he is gay as well…no focus, don't get distracted and answer him.

"Ahh don't worry, I can get you one right away, I just need your name and ad…Just your name"

With that, The cape Ainz ooal Gown became a frequent visitor who always appeared out of nowhere exactly when the library was empty. His book varied from scientific research on capes to random sci-fi books. She even once saw him reading a Japanese light novel called overlord, for a figure so large he acted very shy when checking it out. She still has no idea if he is a villain or hero and her search through pho came up empty, well at least it brought some excitement to her job.

February 21, Tuesday

Sleep hadn't come, that is why she found herself at the hospital once more at 2 am. Most would see this as heroic, pushing herself to keep helping and that is why she did it. Not that she enjoyed it, opposite in fact, she had long since started to hate it. Non stop working with patients who treated her like a magic tool, she was panacea after all. Ohh she hated it, but she kept going to prove she wasn't evil, she had to if she wanted aunt Carol happy. But it would seem tonight would be different as she saw a nurse running by scared.

"What happened" surely it wasn't something she couldn't deal with.

For a second the woman looked confused, till she finally took in who she was. "Panacea, we need to get out. I saw a cape, probably a villain, inside room 304. I have never seen him before, but he looked …"

The woman was rambling on, the cape had apparently been just scary to look at.

She started to move forward making her way to 304, she needed to help the patient. Carol would disagree, she was a healer whose role was to stay safely in the back, not rush into combat. But her frustration had been building up, she could fight. She could do more than spend day after day healing ungrateful patients, so she moved to find the villain and finally do something with her power, it couldn't be that hard in a small space.

"Fuck", she messed up, here she was facing the cape and she had the unlucky situation to find one of those rare capes that covered up every part of his body. With a robe that reached the floor, hands covered in some type of metal gauntlets, and she had even spotted a mask when he glanced her way.

Not that she could back out now.

"what are you doing".

To her words, the cape finally decided to turn completely to see her.

"Ahh panacea, the miracle healer, as you can see I'm here to."

he paused in his explanation, suddenly she felt her body stiffening when two flickering red eyes focused on her. "Mai Mai Mai, interesting."

"I had imagined you much differently, someone working to help as many people as possible, someone like a friend I miss very much…." A hint of sadness left his voice, and the pause only lasted a second " instead I find a mirror of my past".

His words irritated her, "Oh yeah, what would a villain know about me." he just shook his head at her comment before responding.

"I'm not a villain" he seemed to think about it "well I'm not really a hero either, but that is mostly because I don't believe in silly titles like that. For now, just say I'm someone doing good. But yes I know that look, it's the one I used to have. Ahh, I never suspected of seeing it here on someone so young. I really pity you. it is hell isn't it" she shook, the words spoken would have been ignored by anyone else, but he sounded so confident, and so sure that she could tell he was honest. Still, she didn't want to believe it or maybe she just wanted the lie to continue. Before she could ponder that, she focused back on what real mattered.

"Yeah right, what could you know. And stop ignoring the question, what are you doing here, and what did you pore on him".

"It's called a healing potion, I'm just doing my best to heal those injured around the city, you see. Very heroic isn't it? Why don't you check, I believe that is something of a specialty for you" he answered.

She did want to but continued to stay still not willing to risk approaching the cape.

"My bad, seems I Frighten you" Seemingly he noticed because he slowly moved away from the patient's bed closer to the window. Cautiously she made her way forward keeping the cape in sight, placing her hand down she was surprised. 'Healthy' she, now that she looked, was in a perfect condition beyond what she did on a normal day. Not that she couldn't heal to this level but that she usually fixed a health issue and moved on. This person though looked to have had each cell healed."

"wait" she shouted as the cape had apparently begun opening the window looking ready to leave. " Are you a tinker, will you be registering to heal with these healing potions?" Putting aside the illegal nature of the act and the likeliness he was using these people as tests. If he could create such potions, then her job. No people would be a lot safer if he worked with the PRT.

Her hope was dashed when he shook his head, "I'm not a thinker, I just happen to have some potions with me and felt it was only right to help those in need with them"

"then could you at least leave one for the PRt to look over?" she tried once more.

Once more he just shook his head without giving her any reason. Her anger returned, he had just brought some hope in making her life somewhat easier just to take it away. He was acting indifferent to it all and yet had the nerve to compare her to him.

"you really are nothing like me, having something to heal but keeping it to yourself, I bet you were just using these people as test subjects not actually caring about them."

He just chuckled and turned around allowing his gown to twirl majestically. He seemed to pause, his confident demeanor vanishing. The change only seemed to reflect her own somehow. " Day after day moving through life without a shred of hope, every action hurts but you keep going for a single reason, the one keeping you alive. Without it, you would have gone insane, you probably would have jumped out of this window, it is the only light in the darkness".

"tell me does this sound familiar at all? While I agree your actions are heroic, your eyes tell a story of someone who has long given up on everyone. Wait maybe you are right we are not the same, you haven't lost that one thing keeping you living have you?

"How then," she asked

"Hmm" As if he wanted her to explain which part.

"How were you able to keep going after, after losing what you loved? If you're like me, then how are you still acting fine"?

"Ahh, it's complicated with me, At first I kept going hoping to get it back, silly it was, but I kept pushing forward. Then I kept going to keep the dream of it alive, Now I don't know" he looked down ashamed " I guess now I'm a different person than I was then, but those memories keep guiding me forward, I can only hope to make them proud where ever they are". He once more looked right into her tear-stricken eyes. "I do really hope though you don't lose it as I did". with that said, he began to fly out the window, disappearing from sight.

She wasn't sure if she could do it, change after losing her hope. Victoria was her everything and she wanted to believe she would never lose that.

February 24th Friday. Canberra Australia

Stepping out on the porch, he spotted his neighbor Oliver watering his plants, today like every day, he waved "good morning". It was something of a tradition between the two, something he never got a strong response back. At most a nod or a grunt. Not that he took it as an insult, the man had never been too expressive nor rude and occasionally brought over cookies that his wife liked to bake. His attitude wasn't even special Australia had become less cheery since 1998, and the carefree spirit from his own youth died that year.

This is why hearing him say "ahh it's a great morning isn't it", had him stopping, sure he felt today was something special, but what made Oliver so happy? Now looking over, he could spot a smile on the man's lips, shit he was even whistling.

"Damn man, did something good happen, you are looking happy today "

Oliver just smiled wider, " Nothing of the sort, I just felt happy today. If I had to describe it, today just feels like a day to be thankful for."

He just nodded and gave a wave back. Now driving to work, he reviewed the conversation. Strangely enough, he had thought the same while waking up. His own description would be closer to Hope. A feeling like for once, things were going to get better. To this, he smiled and drove on. Unaware of all the smiling people walking on the street or driving beside him. They hadn't realized the feeling originated from having a looming threat, one who was near but had been stopped.

The sun rose on those living in Canberra shining light on the visible happiness seen in every person. It wasn't anything big, nothing that could be proven or noticed if not for the feeling all agreed on. Those asked said "it just feels like something or someone is out there protecting us. I don't know how else to describe it besides today, we should be thankful" a reporter had to ask "are you not worried about it being s master". The man just shook his head " Maybe I am, but honestly it's the first time in a long time I've felt hope, I can't say I'm angry about it". Looking at the camera the reporter continued "you heard it here, while some people are scared, most are saying the feeling is something they are glad for. Who or what is doing it is unknown but for the people of Canberra it's a welcome feeling"

Today was her turn to attack,

She was created for the sole purpose of progressing the plan, In human terms, she was just a puppet who specialized in despair while giving the shard holder a chance to fight. As such she understood everything needed to slowly crumble humanity's spirit. Yet she never foretold a future in which she would feel hopeless, she hadn't even been made with such feelings. Somehow the unknown entity had brought about it, any plan she made couldn't account for its actions, and any attempt to predict it ended with nothing, even her plans using the variables around it only lead to her probable death.

Today she had planned to attack Canberra. Not that it was possible anymore. Any future in which she would stay longer than ten minutes would result in her losing her sight, she couldn't even see how. In such a situation she would have taken the time limit to her advantage or made visits to multiple cities to instill a looming threat to everyone. But that random attack from last month had left her in a devastated state, one she hadn't healed from, her predictions showed being seen and retreating in that time frame would produce hope in humans an action she couldn't make.

Her one purpose was in danger and she frustratingly was unable to solve it. It was like a supreme entity, one that could predict any move she made and plan around it. One whose power or intelligence was so great even her own power failed against it. Her whole existence became void, she had nothing, waiting for when it became tired of letting her despair in space and decided to cut her strings. Had it only hurt her to send a message 'You can be eliminated at any time anywhere, you live because I allow it'?

For now, she could only continue to watch as her brothers in ignorance waited for their turn to challenge the unknown entity, she knew the outcome but they wouldn't listen, they like her had a purpose and unlike her, still believe it was achievable.

Even if she wanted to help, she predicted any attempt by her to view the entity would result in an unknown counter-attack which had a 100 percent chance of killing her. Her last hope was that the entities which created her were able to outpower the grand intelligence living in the city called Brockton bay. Yet to her complete horror, trying to predict that encounter only ended with a strange noise. A "baa"

.

March 4 last training day

"Surround it"

It was satisfying watching her summoned skeletons surround the death knight. At first, it was difficult, they listen to orders well but acted brainless, uncoordinated, and suicidal. Compared to the smooth movements of the death knights they still came up lacking, but now they moved with purpose as extensions of herself. The change she figured came from knowledge, ainz explained that summons spawned with the knowledge from their summoner to accomplish their task. With her training and practice, she could implant certain formations and movements. 'It really explains why Ainz had her fighting those skeletons, without that practice, I wouldn't have realized their weaknesses.'

"Keep it distracted" one moved in to attack, then quickly retreated. As practiced they focused on keeping it in a defensive move but avoiding getting close enough to get hurt.

"Nice, seems your getting the hang of them. But a death knight like any opponent with a semblance of thought would target you in this situation".

Like it was timed to Ainz's words, the death knight swung its sword across forcing her skeletons to move back and then it charged directly at her. Her options were limited as her staff was useless against it and it was stronger than her.

[fly]

lifting off she started blasting it with fireballs. She had fought it enough times that she knew it wouldn't work, her powers were just too weak against it unless she planned to waste hours blasting it. this exercise was just something to get her sued to dodging and retreating from powerful opponents. But she really wanted to win, "summon elder lich, summon elder lich, summoned elder lich".

Even with 3 extra casters, it took over thirty minutes and a few resummons to finally kill it.

The overlord mentioned was just an easter egg. I won't be having struggle with being a fictional character and have a sheet cheat for other people to read.

Last week was a bad one for me, Felt bad after my filling then got a fever on Friday. Pretty bad, spent 12 hours at night staring at my roof on Saturday then Sunday some small food-type illness. Which is why I felt dead finishing this up and had no energy for reviews. :(

But now I'm all good and healthy, my only problem now is the fact my body is slowly degrading with time.

Reviews and stuff.

Arq878- hope I answered this, but it was just a joke when I added him reading it. Kinda why Ainz was shy about reading a Light novel instead of fracking out over its existence.

SpaceMonkey777- Glad you enjoyed it and hope these answer your questions/comments.- Her power is passive and ainz anti scrying is as well. But Im going on the bases that counterattacks require to player to cast beforehand. So while ainz is always defended, he needs to realize his nuclear blast was used and recast that one or a stronger spell. For lung, yeah instant death magic will kill him even drain touch/negative touch would as it proved against the troll to not be affected by regeneration.

Etzine- Thanks again

Dean Hunter- hopefully fixed and really happy you agree. Was worried about that scene but felt that panacea was just too similar to Ainz not to have him notice.

To guest from chapter 6- Yeah coils power would work on ainz. For ainz actions, I see what you mean by him acting like demiurge in his experiments, but Demi does them more for fun while ainz did things for research. AInz fear does have him turning slowly worse in canon but even from day one, he tested his spells freely on people he decided were acceptable. He won't be going around experimenting though, he just didn't want to have Taylor die by using untested gear. For the power, ill admit I didn't finish worm and powers don't make too much sense. What I was going was that shards are power sources that connect to people through the passenger in people. That power in this story is similar to mana while the power is like those of spells, Ainz world item became the shard and is providing power from him. So hope it doesn't destroy worm to much, but Taylor won't be getting the QA or a second trigger as she lost her connection to the space whale.