Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 27

It had been about five days since Itami's squad had passed through the Land of Molten Magma. Accompanied by a dozen other soldiers and a few dwarves they trekked through the caves, careful to be on guard for any Quagoa attacks. With the absence of armoured vehicles and the powerful armaments that came with them, the group would be painfully vulnerable if ambushed by a squad of elite Quagoa. Several soldiers in the back carried rocket-launchers to use in case of an emergency, but luckily they hadn't been needed thanks to navigational help from the Dwarves, who led them along routes where they were less likely to encounter Quagoa.

All of a sudden one of the dwarves, a tunnel doctor, held up his hand to signal the group to stop.

He quickly cast a spell, before announcing, "This cave up ahead is the beginning of the Maze of Death. We should activate our countermeasures before proceeding further."

"Affirmative" replied the formation commander. "We will have two individuals up front. A dwarf to lead the way, and one soldier to assist if anything happens. The rest of us will trail 20 metres behind them, unless a situation arises. Pay attention if you start smelling any kind of foul odours, that is a sign that your gas mask isn't working. If this happens you should immediately notify the other team members and then retreat. Are there any questions?"

"Yes, who will be up front?" asked Itami.

Everyone already had an idea of why two individuals would be sent up front. They would essentially act like canaries in a coal mine, where if something went wrong, like if the gases here could make it through their masks, they would be the first to drop, giving the others time to escape. Having two meant that perhaps even if one collapsed, there was a chance the other may be able to drag them to safety.

"Well I'm glad you asked" replied the commander. "I would ask if you would like to volunteer, but you need to lead your squad. Anyone else feel like volunteering?"

In the end, a soldier from one of the other squads, and a dwarf, volunteered to be the vanguard. With that, the group proceeded into the caves.

The area was filled with vents which spewed plumes of poisonous volcanic gases, and fierce winds lashed the passageways of the tunnel.

It took several hours, but with the dwarves' prior knowledge and a bit of trial and error they made it through the maze without much issue.

Once reaching the other side they attempted to radio HQ, but as expected there was no signal due to them being deep underground. From here, after taking a break, they would do a quick survey of Feo Berkana before returning to the main armoured spearhead, which was probably still held up at the entrance to the lava region.

Several hours later:

Perhaps they were near the former Dwarven Royal Capital, but even the naturally formed caverns were easy to traverse. All the stalactites and stalagmites had been cut down, probably for convenience of passage. After walking for some time, they finally spotted a light at the end of a tunnel.

Carefully moving up, they found that the light was coming from an entrance to Feo Berkana. This part of the path was significantly elevated, so rounding the corner, a full view of the city lay sprawled out before them. They could see hundreds, if not thousands of Quagoa from where they stood all moving across the city, seemingly converging upon a central location.

What was most alarming though, was how those Quagoa were moving, or rather being herded. Creatures which could only be described as demonic, brandished weapons or claws, causing the Quagoa to shuffle away in fear.

"What in the blazes is going on here!" exclaimed one of the dwarven pathfinders. "We've had nothing to suggest a demonic incursion could be behind the Quagoas' attacks!"

The formation commander spoke up, saying "It does make sense though. The Quagoa have been very aggressive, charging into battle with disregard for their own lives. Being coerced by an external force might explain that."

The dwarf shook his head. "No, that's just the savage warrior culture of the Quagoa. And as for their organisation, we believe they have managed to somehow unite together. We've never seen any demons aiding them before."

"I see…"

Just as the group was about to start taking pictures and notes of the situation in the capital, a crimson figure suddenly filled their view.

The group suddenly jumped back in surprise, hastily raising their weapons.

Hovering in the air before them was an individual dressed in a bright red suit, akin to something you might see back on Earth. However, the twisted mask, metallic tail and giant bat-wings made it clear that they were dealing with some kind of demon.

Flanking it on either side were two huge, roughly three metres tall demons. Their muscular bodies were covered in purple-coloured reptilian scales, with tails that resembled snakes. Their heads were goat skulls, and their eyes were beacons of bluish-white fire in empty black sockets. In their mighty arms they each held a gigantic maul, and sprouting from their backs were gigantic bat wings, each flap sending waves of freezing air cascading across them.

At this sight the squad of soldiers was filled with terror, the malice from the demons boring into their very souls. Just as they were about to either open fire or run, a commanding voice washed over them.

[Kneel!]

The group instantly collapsed to their knees, finding themselves unable to reach for their weapons.

"Hear me, lower life forms." The central demon spoke, his voice steeped with cruelty and sadistic pleasure.

"I am Jaldabaoth. The city of Feo Berkana is mine now, and soon the rest of your insignificant empire will be as well. In a short time, I will be launching a massive invasion. If I were you, I'd run while I still can."

"W-what? Why are you telling us this?" gasped one of the soldiers.

All of a sudden, the soldier's throat burst open as if torn apart by sharp claws, causing him to splutter and choke until he suffocated in his own blood, slumping to the ground like a puppet who's strings had been cut.

A chill ran up Itami's spine. He hadn't seen any of the demons make even a single movement, and yet they had somehow killed that man in an instant.

As if nothing had happened, Jaldabaoth responded. "Why am I telling you this? Well, it wouldn't be much fun if you lost too easily now would it?"

All of a sudden, Itami and the rest of the soldiers found themselves able to move again, and quickly stumbled to their feet. Itami raised his rifle, quickly firing off a burst of 5.56 x 45mm from his rifle at the demon.

However, the bullets simply bounced off of Jaldabaoth's suit, losing all momentum then harmlessly falling down to the city below.

'What the hell! Is he using some kind of magic?' he thought.

Unfazed at Itami's attempt to kill him, Jaldabaoth simply cocked his head to one side, that twisted smile on his mask seemingly giving off a mocking expression.

"Well, you'd all better get going now shouldn't you?" the demon smiled.

Seeing their weapons were ineffective, and that they could be killed in an instant, the group needed no further prompt. They hastily scrambled to their feet and sprinted off back the way they came.

It was in the evening, around 7pm, when reconnaissance aircraft flying over the Azerlisia mountain range spotted something unusual. A bright glow had begun to illuminate a portion of the mountains in a roughly circular pattern. It looked a little like the aurora borealis if anything.

However, before a team could be assembled to go investigate, lookouts spotted a mysterious figure advancing towards the outside entrance to Feo Jera. Based on their descriptions, the appearance of this subject matched that of someone they had been close to coming into contact with in the past. Ainz Ooal Gown. However, there was one key difference. The villagers at Carne had only seem that magic caster while he was wearing a mask, but now that mask was gone, exposing a skeletal visage beneath.

A delegation of two dwarves was quickly dispatched, meeting him at a small distance from the fortress on the outside entrance to Feo Jera.

"Undead, why have you come here to the Dwarf Kingdom?" Asked one of the dwarves cautiously.

The dwarves in the delegation hadn't been informed of Ainz Ooal Gown identity or abilities, just that they should treat him with care and respect, regardless of his appearance. The JSDF would've preferred to send out members of their own, but currently they were masquerading as a trade organisation, so sending out their own delegation to meet Ainz Ooal Gown while in the Dwarf Kingdom would've seemed unusual.

"I am the magic caster Ainz Ooal Gown. I have sensed the appearance of a demonic incursion here, and wish to aid you in defeating it."

The delegation looked at each other in confusion. "A demonic incursion? What do you mean? Is this a trick?"

"Ahem… There should be some lights appearing in the sky above the mountains. Those are an indication of a demonic presence."

"I suppose something like that has been spotted. But as I said before, we haven't heard any reports of demons."

"I understand. However, just know that there is an invasion coming. I wish to help you prepare."

"We don't want any of your help, please leave."

"Very well then. However, if you wish to contact me again, just light a signal fire here and I will come."

Ainz trudged back down the winding mountain paths that led to Feo Jera. So far everything had been going according to part 2 of the plan that Demiurge had outlined in a recent floor guardian meeting. In fact for Ainz, it was going a little better. For his encounter with the dwarves, Demiurge had come up with an elaborate backstory for him in case questioned, but luckily that hadn't been required yet, which should give him a bit more time to memorise it.

During that floor guardian meeting, Demiurge had also told them about the failure to augment the Quagoa. Quite regrettably, the experiments with feeding Quagoa high-grade ores didn't seem to have produced any significant results, with the Quagoa either not being able to process the material at all, or reaching an ability cap. For the inhabitants of this world that ability cap was fairly decent, however it wasn't worth the material costs involved, considering that those ores couldn't seem to be found in this world. Turning them into undead didn't produce particularly remarkable results either.

This called into question the validity of another operation, overseen by Cocytus, to conquer and then build an army of undead from a group of lizardman tribes in the region. Since Ainz had just revealed himself to the Dwarves and JSDF as an undead being, an undead army attacking the lizardmen may be suspected as his doing, causing them to view him in a negative light. Thus, Demiurge suggested that they instead use the lizardmen in a governability experiment. There would still need to be a show of force, but only for a short time, which could be hidden from the JSDF's reconnaissance aircraft with illusions.

Another experiment to help increase Nazarick's power was seeing if various members of Nazarick could learn martial arts. Over the past few weeks, Brain had been instructing Hamsuke, a death knight, and one of Cocytus' vassals on how to use various martial arts. If that experiment ended up being successful, then the power of Nazarick could be increased exponentially.

While Ainz was confident in Nazarick's defences to hold up against an outside invasion, it wouldn't do to rest on one's laurels. Powers beyond his comprehension could reside in this new world, or even something comparable to the one of the Twenty World Items. In addition to that, there was the existence of the gate to Earth, something that seemed sorely out of place in this world of magic and monsters. Getting to the bottom of how that portal came to be was of an utmost priority.

However, even though Ainz had now managed to make it to the rank of adamantite, he was still yet to find any solid information. Every 200 years or so it seemed a great calamity would befall the world, where powerful entities would appear. Ainz suspected these were players, or entities from Yggdrasil, such as himself and Nazarick. However, he had never heard of something like the gate to Earth in Yggdrasil, and efforts from Titus and other members of Nazarick had confirmed that while there was some magic from Yggdrasil present, there was also something else.

Still, his toils as an adventurer hadn't been for nothing, as he had a couple of leads to investigate.

First was a magical phenomenon in the Dolor desert, a region to the far east. A gigantic tornado would appear there every 30 years, and there was a rumour that the cause of this was a failed ritual to create a gateway to another world. However, the next time that tornado should come was in 12 years' time, so it would have to wait.

The second lead was the existence of a magic system native to this world, not found in Yggdrasil. It was known as Wild Magic, and was used exclusively by the True Dragon Lords. In order to find out more about this magic system, he would normally have to seek one out. However, it seems the power could be inherited, since the queen of the Dragon Kingdom was apparently able to use it. It seemed her kingdom was currently under attack by beastmen, so if Ainz were to help her out, it was possible that she might provide him with information about Wild Magic.

If Ainz were able to learn or use this power to create gateways to other worlds… Well. He didn't want to let himself carried away with the possibilities.

Although they were currently busy with phase two of Demiurge's plan, Ainz had brought up the matter with him, so that he would be able to take it into consideration in whatever future plans he had.

Demiurge's response had been somewhat unsettling, spouting lines such as "To think your ambitions were of such an unimaginable scale!" and "You always are at least three steps ahead." Although Ainz was worried he might be misinterpreting something, it was at least a relief to hear the NPC's confidence in his leadership.

Demiurge had also agreed that they should investigate Wild Magic, specifically before phase three of his plans. What that involved Ainz had no idea.