PSA: Well this chapter ended up being more extensive than anticipated. It's slightly longer than the last one, although I 'appropriated' small parts from the LN, such as certain descriptions to avoid repeating having to re-write some stuff.
I'm now back at uni, so updates may be a little less frequent.
That being said, the next couple of chapters should be pretty interesting so perhaps I'll have more motivation to write them.
Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 12
Itami's group, along with Ainz, Sebas and Nphirea had arrived back in E-Rantel. It was early evening, and if one looked up they would be able to see the stars beginning to appear in the night sky.
Itami carried Kurata on his back as they walked through the streets. On the way back he had suddenly become ill, likely due to their low immunity to the diseases of the special region. Nphirea had given them some medicine to stave off the worst of the symptoms, and advised that they take him to the temples for healing.
They came to a stop just outside the adventurer's guild, which was still open at this hour.
"I'm very grateful your help Momon-san, Itami-san, and everyone else" said Nphirea. "I'll be heading to my grandmother's shop now to unload the herbs we gathered."
"It was a pleasure working with you" replied Ainz. "I'll come help after I register Hamsuke at the guild."
Nphirea then turned to Itami's group. "I would ask for your help as well, but you had better get your friend to the temple as soon as possible."
"Haha, sorry we can't be of help Nphirea-san" apologised Itami, scratching the back of his head. "It's probably all for the best though. I feel like if we were to come and help you right now we would all suffer some terrible fate."
At this, the three parties went their separate ways. Itami had trusted Nphirea to hand in the herbs for their own separate request that they had taken.
After a short walk through the dark moonlit streets of E-Rantel, Itami's squad came to a large imposing stone building with tall ornate pillars.
"Ah, I hope this doesn't take too long" remarked Itami. "We need to get back to base as soon as possible."
After the loud and sustained gunfire they had heard the night before, they were all anxious to find out what had happened. Out in E-Rantel and on their missions they weren't permitted to carry any kinds of devices that could be linked back to Earth, so they didn't have any radios or other communication devices with them.
They climbed the torchlit steps up to the temple and entered through a pair of large decorated wooden doors. Once inside they were hit with the smell of burning incense, and found it was much warmer than the cold night air outside.
"Welcome!" announced a loud voice. Standing before them was a young man, bald and with a strange tattoo on his forehead, dressed in plain brown robes. "My name is Aangle, what brings you here adventurers?"
"Umm, is this the temple?" asked Itami.
The man named Aangle chuckled, covering one of his eyes and striking a pose. He then suddenly burst into a flow of movement, Itami's squad watching in confusion and awe.
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. My grandmother used to tell me stories about the old days, a time of peace, when the four great gods kept watch over humanity. But that all changed when the 8 greed kings attacked. Only the-"
Aangle was suddenly bonked over the head by a middle-aged man, causing him to stop mid-movement, crashing to the ground. His robes were far more refined and looked to be of higher quality.
"Brother, cease your ramblings!" he commanded, before turning his attention to Itami's group. "I must apologise. He is new here and tends to get rather excited. I presume you are here to get healing for your sick comrade?"
"Yes please" replied Itami.
"Very well, come this way" said the man, leading them down the torch-lit hallways to a row of stone beds, which he helped Kurata down off of Itami's shoulders onto.
"I will now begin the healing process" the priest announced. He held out his hands with open-palms, pointing them towards Kurata who was laying on the stone slab of a bed. Some glowing green circles inscribed with intricate patterns emerged from the priest's hands, and Kurata's body began to emit a faint glow.
Kurokawa was observing this process with great interest, which the priest noticed. "Woman with the dark hair, do you have an interest in the magic of the divine?" he asked.
A little startled, Kurokawa replied "Well, yes. You see, back where I come from we heal people using different methods to this. If it wouldn't trouble you, could you please explain what you're doing?"
Aangle had recovered from his injury, and had made his way over to them. "No need, I can explain for you" he said.
Then, as the group watched him intently, he grinned, and proclaimed, "…Magic!".
Kurokawa stared at him blankly.
"Pay no attention to the idiot child" said the priest. "It is not magic, but divine power!"
Kurokawa was still lost, but just as she was about to ask a follow-up question a breathless man burst into the temple.
"Are there any capable adventurers here! The undead are breaking out of the graveyard and are threatening to destroy the city!"
"Yeah, what do you need us to do!" called out Kuribayashi.
"Thanks goodness, please head to the graveyard. There will be people to help direct you from there" he said, before swiftly departing.
"Sister Agnaea!" called out the priest.
"Yes?" answered an elderly lady, also dressed in high-quality robes.
"Take care of this man. I will be heading to the graveyard along with these adventurers to cleanse the undead with holy fire" he declared.
"Alright, lets go!" exclaimed Kuribayashi, dragging Itami and the others along with her and leaving Kurata behind.
After they had all left, the old priest called Sister Agnaea began casting a similar spell from before on Kurata again.
"By the way," she said. "This isn't free. Do you have the money to pay?"
Kurata suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. "Ah, the others have the money with them. They'll pay for me once they get back."
"I certainly hope so for your sake" she replied, leering slightly. "The church doesn't take kindly to overdue payments."
Ainz and Sebas, now accompanied by Lizzy Baleare made their way over to her shop where they would help Nphirea unload the herbs. However, as Lizzy took out her keys to unlock the door, it swung open without any resistance.
"What? How careless of him" remarked Lizzy. "Nphirea! Momon-san is here!" she called out.
However, the shop was silent. "Trouble," said Ainz.
Sebas led the way as they advanced into the store, clearing the rooms one by one. However they found nothing.
"Hold on a minute!" exclaimed Lizzy. She snatched a note off the counter and looked down at it. "The sewers? 6-9?"
"Hmm" thought Ainz. "A taunt, or a diversion?"
"Aaah, where could he be!" cried Lizzy in despair.
"How about hiring us?" said Ainz coldly, sensing a possible opportunity.
"Wha?" said Lizzy.
"Isn't this something you should hire an adventurer for? You are a very lucky woman, Lizzie Baleare. At the moment, I am the strongest adventurer in this city, and the only one who can find your grandson. If you hire me, I will accept your request. However... the price will be very high, because I am fully aware of how troublesome this task might be."
"That, that's right... if it was you... the one who possessed that potion... and with the Wise King of the Forest... then there's no doubt about your capabilities... I'll hire you!"
"Is that so... are you prepared to pay a high price for this?"
"How much will it take to satisfy you?"
"—Everything."
"What?"
"Give me everything you have."
Lizzie's eyes widened in shock, and her body trembled violently.
"Everything you have. When I safely return Nfirea to you, give me everything you have."
"You..."
Backing away in fear, Lizzie muttered "When you say everything... you don't mean money or rare potions... I've heard that demons will grant any wish in return for men's souls. Are you a demon?"
"Momon-san…" said Sebas.
"Sorry," apologised Ainz. "I should've clarified what I meant. When I said, 'give me everything you have', what I actually meant was could you please help develop potions exclusively for me?"
"Oh…" replied Lizzy, "Well, that should be ok..."
"Very well, the pact is sealed" declared Ainz. "Then, let's not waste time. Do you have a map of this city? If you do, lend it to me."
Lizzy handed over a map of the city to him.
"Then, we shall find Nfirea's location next."
"Can you do such a thing?!"
"Only this time. Just this one time, I can. I don't know if the enemy was stupid or..." Ainz's voice trailed off halfway. "Then, I shall begin the search. I would appreciate it if you would look around in the other rooms for any clues while I do this."
With Lizzy gone, they could safely continue.
Ainz began pulling a bunch of scrolls out of his infinite back-pack, laying them on the table. As he did so, he began rambling to Sebas about how to properly use divination magic. When he was finally done, a huge stack of scrolls lay upon the table. He then began picking them up and reciting the names of the spells inscribed upon them. As he did so, a heatless flame engulfed the scrolls, consuming them within seconds and releasing the magic locked within.
Only after using all the other scrolls, sheathing himself in a ridiculous amount of defensive spells, did he finally cast 'Locate Object', visualising Nphirea's bowl-cut in his mind.
He pointed to a location on the map. He couldn't read what it said, so he held his gauntleted finger there awkwardly as he pulled out his pair of magic glasses.
"The graveyard huh. So it wasn't the sewers after all."
He then activated two more scrolls, 'Clairvoyance' and 'Crystal Monitor'. A floating screen appeared, displaying Nphirea dressed in a questionable outfit surrounded by a bunch of undead.
"What is your plan of action Momon-san?" asked Sebas.
"Hmm, I'd like to collect more information, but there isn't any time. Let us head to the graveyard, and save Nphirea in a flashy a way as possible so we gain credit as adventurers while doing so."
Over at the graveyard, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. Countless skeletons scaled the walls World War Z style, using their sheer numbers like a ladder while organ eggs shot out lengths of intestines to pull unlucky guards from the walls.
"Well," said Akira, "The situation looks pretty dire. What are you orders commander?"
Itami spoke, saying sheepishly "How about we hang back a little. We should wait until more capable adventurers show up."
"Sasuga Itami-sama" laughed Akira.
Kuribayashi however wasn't so pleased. "Are you kidding me, why are you always so pathetic?" she yelled. "Let's get in there and show those undead what we're made of!"
Off in the distance they could hear the yells of the priest from earlier. "Send them back from whence they came!"
"See, he gets it" said Kuribayashi.
As Itami paused to formulate a counter-argument, they were greeted by a welcome sight. A warrior in dark full-plate armour rode atop a large magical beast, an iron-faced monk with grey hair at his side.
"Momon-san, Sebas-san" thank God you're here cried out Itami.
The warrior nimbly dismounted the beast. "Sebas, my sword."
"You'll want to look behind you and see this" he said.
Itami's squad turned to look, and saw a shape which was taller than the four-meter-high walls. It was a Necroswarm Giant, a gigantic undead creature made of countless corpses.
"Holy shit" exclaimed Shadu.
The warrior raised his sword in a javelin-thrower's stance, before hurling it with unbelievable speed. The Necroswarm Giant, that vast, seemingly invincible undead creature, staggered back like it had been hit in the head by an even larger foe, before collapsing to the ground like a puppet who's strings had been cut. A thunderous crash provided the proof that the gigantic creature had been knocked down.
"Damn son" said Akira.
With that, the dark warrior drew his other greatsword and advanced. "Open up" he commanded, pointing at the gates.
"Hey Momon-san, I'm not sure that's such a great idea" said Itami.
"...Well, if you won't open up, it can't be helped. I'll go over there myself." The warrior broke into a sprint and kicked off the stone floor, vanishing over the other side of the wall. He had leapt over a four-meter-high wall in a single bound, and while wearing full plate too. It was a scene that barely seemed real at all. The monk followed after him in a similar display of athleticism.
"A moment please! Please bring this one with you!" cried the beast, bounding up the stairs and hopping across to the other side.
There was the sound of crunching bones and smashed flesh, and the wails of the undead suddenly became far quieter.
Ainz and Sebas fought their way through the graveyard. Even with the two of them fighting it was a fairly slow process. Long ago they had ditched Hamsuke in a tree because he was too scared of the undead and wasn't helping. They would probably come back for him later.
After some time they finally reached the chapel that lay in the centre of the graveyard. A bunch of sussy individuals stood around in a circle conducting some ritual. One of them who didn't have his hood up stood in the centre.
Since Ainz was roleplaying as a warrior, he boldly strode over to the group instead of hiding, flanked by Sebas.
As they approached, one of them said to the man in the centre, "Khajiit-sama, they're here."
Khajiit looked to the man as if to say 'bruh', before calling out to Ainz. "Who are you, what are you doing here?"
"I'm an adventurer on an assignment, looking for a missing young man... I trust you know who I'm talking about, even if I don't state his name?"
"Just the two of you? Where's the rest of your party?"
"Yup, just the two of us. We flew over here with a flight spell."
"You're lying, that's impossible."
"No, not really. But anyways, if you let the boy return home safely, I can spare your life. How about it, Khajiit?"
"Grrr, who are you anyways and how did you find us!"
"It was that iconic haircut of his that led me to you."
A look of confusion came over Khajiit, but Ainz did not intend to explain himself.
"Sebas, deal with the other men. I'll take Khajiit."
"Wait, hold on a sec!" cried a voice from within the chapel.
A female figure emerged from the darkness. Every step she took was accompanied by the clattering of metal against metal.
"Forget about me?" she said, tilting her head with an unsettling smile.
'What, who's this?' thought Ainz, breaking out into an imaginary cold sweat. Stuff like this was why he always preferred to gather more information.
"May I know your name? Ah, I'm Clementine. Pleased to meetcha~"
"...Well, it's kind of pointless to answer your question, but I guess I'll tell you anyway. My name is Momon."
"Hmm, I've gathered information on all the high-ranked adventurers in the city, so how is it I've never heard of a Momon among them? Anyways, so who am I going to fight?" she grinned.
Ainz paused for a moment. Khajiit had the appearance of a necromancer, while Clementine seemed to be an assassin type. He didn't think that Sebas or himself would have much trouble handling either of them, but since the woman had chosen to reveal herself of her own volition, she was probably more dangerous, or at least more confident in her abilities.
"Sebas, deal with Khajiit and the other men. I'll deal with this woman." With that, he quietly warned Sebas to watch out above.
"Understood."
Sebas stood before Khajiit, who was in a group surrounded by his fellow mages.
"Well then, shall we get started?" announced Sebas.
Khajiit grinned. "Kill him," he ordered his subordinates, causing them to raise their staves and begin chanting spells.
However, this confidence was short-lived.
Khajiit suddenly felt a sudden intense feeling of dread. This sensation was so strong that it caused him to drop to one knee out of shock. The whole world seemed to collapse in on itself leaving only himself and the figure before him, the incarnation of terror itself. The feeling soon passed, leaving Khajiit dazed and in a cold sweat. It had been just a few seconds in real life, but had felt like an excruciating hour. Regaining his senses he looked around him. Many of the other necromancers had simply collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut. Some didn't even seem to be moving. Khajiit could hardly blame them.
'Wait, where did that monk go!'
To his right he saw a blur of movement. A bloodied fist suddenly emerged from the back of one of the other mages. Khajiit suddenly came to the realisation that Sebas had punched a hole straight through the man's chest.
The monk withdrew his fist, shaking the blood free before moving to the next target, this time cleanly snapping his neck in a single movement. He gave them no time to react and recover from the crippling fear that had just wracked their bodies and minds. Khajiit watched, entranced, as Sebas moved from mage to mage like this, before snapping back to reality.
He raised the orb in his hand, causing his fallen disciples to climb back to their feet like puppets whose strings had been re-attached, emitting shaky erratic motions.
Sebas stopped for a moment to observe the reanimation of the fallen necromancers. "Hmm, this makes things a little more complicated."
Just as Khajiit was about to celebrate this small victory, he was cut short by what he saw before him. With knife-hand chops, Sebas swiftly cleaved off the heads of these newly reanimated corpses, causing them to slump to the ground once again like puppets who's strings had been cut.
"Well, that's enough!" declared Khajiit, lifting the dark orb he held up to the sky. "You've taken in more than enough negative energy!"
Sebas stopped what he was doing and prepared to move to target Khajiit when he sensed something was off. Remembering his master's warning from earlier, he rolled off to the side, narrowly avoiding a massive creature that flew past. It then hovered for a moment before landing to the right of Khajiit, who quickly ran to position himself behind it.
It was a composite entity that stood three meters tall, made of countless human bones. It was designed to resemble a being with a very long neck, wings, and four legs — a Dragon. Its tail, also made from innumerable bones, lightly thumped the ground. This was the monster known as a Skeletal Dragon.
Sebas didn't consider monsters of this level strong, and it didn't have any traits that would be particularly dangerous to him. Thus, he strode forth, closing the gap between them in just a matter of seconds.
The Skeletal Dragon swiped its forepaw in response, but Sebas nimbly evaded its attack. The wind of its passing tossed up his robes as he rushed in at one of the Skeletal Dragon's back legs. He would use its huge size against it.
Grasping the leg with both his hands he used his enormous strength to throw it backwards in and RKO, causing the dragon to fly through the air before landing heavily on its back in an earth-shattering crash.
Khajiit's jaw dropped as he stared. Skeletal Dragons were made of many smaller bones, and they certainly looked light. However, they only appeared to be so. It would take a huge amount of strength to pull off a move like that.
Khajiit once again hurriedly fled behind the Skeletal Dragon's vast body, and then he shouted "—You, who are you? A mythril... no, an orichalcum-ranked adventurer?! There shouldn't be anyone like that in this city; did you pursue Clementine or myself to this place?!" Khajiit grit his teeth in agitation.
"No, it's nothing like that" stated Sebas calmly, brushing the dust off of his robes.
"Then… what?" Khajiit called out in a strangled cry.
"I'm merely a humble monk who just happened to be a little stronger" said Sebas, holding out his thumb and forefinger with about a centimetre of space between them.
Khajiit was speechless. Crafting this Skeletal Dragon had required two months of elaborate rituals and an immense quantity of negative energy. How could it be beaten so easily? He had worked and planned many years for this.
The Skeletal Dragon creaked as it slowly got up. There was a massive fissure in the bones which formed its spine, which spilled bone fragments as it moved. It could not take another hit like this.
"No! I won't! I won't let you! 'Ray of Negative Energy'!" A beam of black light shone extended from Khajiit's hand and touched the Skeletal Dragon, quickly healing its injuries. He then continued casting spells. "'Reinforce Armor', 'Lesser Strength', 'Undead Flame', 'Shield Wall'." He cast buff after buff on the Skeletal Dragon. Now the Skeletal Dragon's bony body was sturdier, stronger, and wreathed in life-draining black fire. It even had an invisible barrier in front of it which acted like a shield.
Perhaps out of courtesy, Sebas cast a buff spell of his own. "Iron Skin."
At this, the dragon moved in to attack, winding-up a forearm for a swiping attack.
Sebas intercepted the attack with his hands, turning the strike against it by pulling the dragon off balance into the air once more, where it came crashing down on its side.
However, Sebas furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
The dragon had quickly gotten back to its feet, the attack not being nearly as damaging as before. In addition, his hands were now wreathed in the black flames from Khajiit's spell. They didn't hurt at all, but were a little distracting.
"Ray of Negative Energy." Khajiit healed the Skeletal Dragon's wounds with a magic ray.
This was also one of the reasons why Sebas was frowning. No matter how much damage he did, Khajiit the backliner immediately healed it all. He knew he had to attack Khajiit first, but the Skeletal Dragon between them did not permit him to do so easily. From now on, he would have to switch to using direct attacks.
A white object suddenly filled his field of vision. In response, Sebas took a fighting stance, and punched.
The skeletal dragon's tail, which had been aimed at him in a swipe was smashed in half, and the broken off piece sent tumbling across the ground.
The skeletal dragon roared, and Khajit cried out in fury. "Acid Javelin." Khajiit launched a green, spear-like object that streaked towards Sebas' body. The javelin, which should have dealt him acid damage, stopped several centimetres away from his body as if splattered across some invisible shield.
"...A defensive spell? How annoying" complained Khajit.
"Is that so? How about coming out from behind there and facing me fair and square?" offered Sebas.
"And why do I have to come out?"
"Doesn't staying here ruin your plans?"
"...It can't be helped."
After making his decision, Khajiit clutched the strange sphere and raised it to the heavens. "Now behold the power of the Orb of Death!"
The earth trembled, and Sebas' body shook as well. This was a sign that something big was coming.
A massive fissure appeared in the ground, and a white monster slowly revealed itself.
"Another one" remarked Sebas.
"Hmph! The negative energy's depleted now, but after I kill you and your friend, I can spread death throughout the city and recover it all!"
Khajiit's shouting was angry and emotional. This was in contrast to the calm and composed Sebas who stood before him, his hands wreathed in dark fire, with his dark grey robes rippling in the rush of wind caused by the second dragon's appearance.
Sebas suddenly rushed forwards at Khajiit with preternatural speed, catching him off guard.
The skeletal dragons stomped at him, but he nimbly dodged to the side. The one on the left whose tail was still intact swept its tail across the ground like a scythe. As it came rushing towards him, Sebas deftly performed a somersault, clearing the hurdle with athletic precision. Then, the tail suddenly changed direction, swinging down on Sebas who had just jumped clear. He avoided the earthshaking blow, but the Skeletal Dragon on the right swiped its forepaw at him as well.
"Hmph", Sebas raised his arms to meet the strike. Although the paw's crushing pressure was extraordinary, Sebas still stood strong underneath it, and effortlessly forced it away. The right-side Skeletal Dragon stumbled several steps back, causing a brief lull in the action. However, the strike had resulted in Sebas' body now being completely engulfed in flames of negative energy.
"...What are you? Blocking it without martial arts... how did you learn to do that?! And how come you aren't taking any damage from my 'Undead Flame'!?"
"Oh, this?" inquired Sebas, gesturing down at the dark fire that now seemed to cover him from head to toe. 'Wait, actually not all of him' realised Khajiit. While the rest of him was engulfed in flames, Sebas' exposed head seemed to be untouched.
Sebas removed a glove, revealing his hands were also free of the black fire. He then proceeded to shake it vigorously, causing the flames to die out. He then patted down the rest of his clothes until all remnants of the undead flame were extinguished. "There, all better now."
"Are you kidding me?!" cried Khajiit. "Skeletal Dragons, get him!"
The one on the left made a stomping attack with its forearm.
Rather than dodging this attack, Sebas instead took the attack head-on, releasing his fist which smashed apart the skeletal dragon's arm upon impact. Shattered fragments of bone were sent flying in all directions as the maimed creature hastily withdrew.
He was about to intercept the next attack incoming from the other dragon, when a commanding voice range out across the graveyard. "Sebas Tian, show them the power of Nazarick!"
"...Understood." Sebas turned to address Khajiit. "Then, I shall no longer face you as Sebas, but as Sebas Tian."
'What, isn't that just your full name?' thought Khajiit.
The Skeletal Dragons who had paused their attacks now brought their forelegs down, intending to crush Sebas.
"Foolish," remarked Sebas.
There was a cloud of dust and debris as they made contact. The monk should've been crushed flat by such an impact.
However, what emerged from the smoke was something else entirely.
The skeletal dragons roared and withdrew their forelegs from the haze, both having now been reduced to splintered stumps.
As the dust cloud cleared further, what Khajiit saw shocked him.
Sebas stood there firmly and unharmed, but his old monk robes were gone. Instead, he was now dressed in a traditional black butler's uniform.
"What?!"—He exclaimed in surprise.
Although he was annoyed by his nonsensical get-up, Sebas' serene expression filled Khajiit with a sense of danger. He immediately ordered the now fully healed Skeletal Dragons to attack. The two Skeletal Dragons drew close to Sebas with surprising speed, swinging their forepaws, which were made of countless bones.
However, the result was the same as before.
The dragons were sent reeling back, their forepaws reduced to splintered fragments.
"Argh!" Khajit wailed in fury. "Why won't you just die!"
"Trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? The only one you have to blame is yourself" chided Sebas. "Now, I'd better end this quickly. As a butler, I wouldn't want to keep my master waiting after all."
"We'll see about that" cried Khajiit. He brandished his staff, preparing a spell. However, he suddenly became aware of a presence right in front of him. The butler's white-gloved fist. 'What? How?' He had just enough time to register this, before his head suddenly exploded in a shower of gore.
The skeletal dragons crumbled apart as Sebas withdrew a bloodied arm from the place where Khajiit's head had been just a few moments ago. He looked around at the scattered corpses and piles of bone.
"My my, what a mess."
PSA: 'Wow, I cant believe Itami's group weren't all murdered, how lame'.
I'm sorry, but unlike a certain author I don't want to waste time creating characters which get killed off right after they get introduced lol.