Volume 1 Chapter 3
Raven stared at the approaching horde of Grimm; there were around 100 or so of them.
Most of them were beowolves, with some Ursa minors here and there. The Grimm had no concept of infighting between them, so such a sight was the norm.
'This shouldn't take much if I do it, but this can be a good opportunity to train the members….no, I have a bad feeling about this. I'd better do it myself.' Raven concluded as she pulled her sword, jumped off the tree branch, and closed in on the approaching horde.
Usually, the Grimm don't approach the camp, at least not in such numbers, mostly because they are attracted to negative emotions, and although the tribe members can't say they are the embodiment of happiness, their daily routine and visits to the town for entertainment that can't be found in the camp help stabilize their moods.
"Let's get this over with. I have a lot of work to do."
Had Raven's mind not been occupied by her current circumstances, she would have noticed that the Grimm were acting strangely.
To be exact, they were in an odd formation.
The first couple of front lines of the horde were beowolves, which wasn't strange as they were faster than most Ursas. However, they were separated by a small distance, not noticeable from afar but would make someone looking at them up close raise their eyebrows.
but all that was irrelevant to Raven.
It took her a while to reach the horde, as she had decided to intercept them away from the camp to reduce collateral damage, but within a couple of minutes, she engaged the horde.
The first beowolf to enter her range had its body bisected before its claws could even reach her.
Raven changed the trajectory of her sword halfway through retrieving it and moved to a stabbing stance.
While keeping the momentum of her movement, she pierced another beowolf in the head, and immediately after, she moved the edge of the sword to the right when she reached another Grimm, bisecting with ease.
Seeing another group of Grimm approaching her, she increased the overflow of aura in her weapon and moved her sword in a slashing motion.
Those actions caused an overflow of aura within her sword, an excess mass of energy that took the shape of a blood-red wave that Raven let loose on the approaching monsters.
The group of monsters had been cut by the moving wave of energy. This move was called an aura slash; it helps in dealing with multiple enemies in mid-range and close range, but the attack had the downside of consuming a large chunk of aura, and the longer the distance traveled, the weaker the slash gets.
Using it on weak Grimm would end the battle quickly, but it is considered inefficient.
Raven moved to another group, and when she reached them, the Grimm lunged at her.
She jumped and met them halfway in the air, and before they could attack her, she cut three of them with a single strike and used the last one as a platform to get back on the ground without the help of gravity.
Before she jumped, she had turned her body into a lunging motion, targeting an ursa on the ground, and whilst still using the Grimm as a platform, she kicked it with such force that its body couldn't have maintained its form, part of which was due to the aura used in the jump, and the other part was her already impressive physical prowess.
Before the Ursa could even react, the sword had already lodged itself into its skull.
Raven didn't stop and continued to move from one group to the next.
It took her a while to notice, but the battle had been going on longer than she had expected.
Each cluster of Grimm seemed to get further and further away from the other, causing her to spend more time than needed moving between them.
This shouldn't be a problem with her speed, but with those numbers, it would still take time to clean them all up.
Raven wanted to sigh but decided to keep on going.
It took a while, but the numbers started to decrease. When Raven looked to her front, she saw that around 10 or so Grimm were left.
That's when she noticed it.
An Ursa-Major, she didn't notice it before, which is odd as those things weren't known for their stealth.
She didn't pay it much attention and moved to strike it down.
Ursa-Majors can be tough opponents for the untrained; their hides are much tougher than their smaller counterparts, and their large size can sometimes make it harder to take them down.
For the normal bandit and newly trained hunters in training, they are tireless killing machines.
However, those killing machines had a fatal weakness: their necks.
Unlike the tough hide covering most of their bodies, the hide down their necks was, by comparison, much weaker, to the point that even an amateur who only unlocked their aura for a month could chop an Ursa-Major's head off with a single strike.
The older Ursa learn to stand on their feet, and in most encounters, they avoid lowering their heads until their prey is dead to avoid their weakness being exploited.
Raven could have easily cut through the Ursa-Major's tough skin without having to worry about any resistance, but doing so would be pointless.
She was so used to cutting their heads in her early days that doing so became second nature to her.
Raven decided to ignore the weaker Grimm. And target the bigger threat first—well, bigger in the size category, not the threat one.
For veteran aura users, a strike from an Ursa-Major wouldn't be fatal; at best, it could disorient them for a moment and take a medium chunk of their aura, but it wouldn't stop them from continuing the fight.
For Raven, she wouldn't be fazed, and it would only take a small chunk of aura.
However, Raven wasn't in the habit of letting anything hit her if she could help it, and for all their strength, Ursa-Majors were slow.
With a kick to the ground, Raven reached the neck of Ursa. And with a swift flick of her wrist, the head of the beast was flying.
While still in the air, Raven used the body of the dead creature to do a backflip, turn midair, and land with her back facing the monster and the remaining room to her front.
It was then that Raven saw a peculiar sight.
'Why aren't the bodies dissipating yet?'
It was common knowledge that once a groom is killed, it doesn't take long for the body to dissolve into black smoke.
Depending on the injuries sustained, the body won't last for more than a second.
From killing the first Grimm to now, Raven has spent a bit under 3 minutes, and all the bodies of the Grimm killed have yet to evaporate.
Raven found herself distracted by the oddity that she noticed too late—the huge appendage closing in on her. She tried to get her sword up in time, but it was too late.
She was struck by the arm of the headless Ursa and was sent flying to the tree line.
Raven crashed through multiple trees before she stopped.
Once her momentum subsided, she stared at the headless monster. How can an Ursa be that strong? When she checked her aura reserves, she discovered, to her shock, that the blow had only taken away 8% of her total aura.
'What the hell is going on here?' Unlike what someone hearing Raven's thoughts would think, she wasn't surprised because the Ursa had damaged her aura to that extent, at least not completely.
What surprised her was that it had only taken that much.
If Raven let a normal Ursa Major hit her, it would take about 2–3% of her total aura. However, a normal Ursa Major doesn't hit that hard.
The amount of force needed to send her flying and only stopping after crashing into multiple trees isn't small, and it isn't something she could shrug off either. With this much force hitting her by surprise, the damage to her aura should have been at least 15%.
And yet. Raven can feel that half of the damage to her aura came from hitting the trees as well as being hit with the paw of the Grimm.
'This doesn't make any sense; is it strong or weak, and how is it still moving without its head?'
Raven's mind processed information at an outstanding speed and couldn't reach a valid answer to her questions, but that didn't discourage her from acting.
Raven was a veteran; she had experienced many things throughout her life and learned to adapt to changes quickly enough.
Raven saw the headless Ursa moving to her location; how it could see her without a head is unclear.
Along with it, she saw the other Grimm moving towards her too—the 10 she had yet to "kill" and, to her horror, the ones she had dealt with before.
They moved; every part of them did; the bisected parts each moved.
Their chopped limbs were crawling to her, and even the heads were trying to move somehow.
The scene was horrific; it looked like one of those illegal movies (according to the laws of some parts of Remnant) called horror movies.
Raven steeled her nerves and decided what to do. She went for the most logical decision that any human being would make in her shoes.
Kill it with fire!
She closed her eyes and channeled the power within her, a power she never would have thought of using on mere Grimm if those things could even be considered Grimm.
When she opened her eyes, they were blazing with an ethereal glow of primordial power.
This is magic, the power of the maidens.
And Raven had unleashed it on the abominable horde.
"hah..hah.." Raven panted, after which she canceled her maiden powers and looked around her.
"This went worse than I expected," she mumbled under her breath.
Raven wasn't tired of fighting; she was tired of using her maiden powers.
When Ozpin spoke about the power of the maidens, he made it sound like an ultimate power without any shortcomings, and yet when she had acquired them, she realized that no such thing exists; like any form of power, it needs energy, and that energy is called magical power.
All magic users had a limited supply of it, and when exhausted, they would have to extract the energy from other sources, like aura, or more dangerously, their life force.
Of course, Raven's magic supply wouldn't be emptied from using one fire attack on those things. That is, if those things stayed in place.
Yes, believe it or not, the supposed fearless Grimm, who in the long history of Remnant never ran from anything, saw her burning the headless Ursa to ashes and ran, well, the ones that could do so, as most of them were incapable of doing so efficiently.
But those were more than enough to annoy her. The beowolvs ran faster than normal beowolvs, each in different directions. She was fast enough to catch up and burn them all, but it took too much time and energy to do so.
She had to turn into a bird multiple times to find the monsters and get rid of them, and as if that wasn't enough, the bastards had to howl and cling to trees, causing them to burn. And because she didn't want the fire to spread to the camp, she had to use ice magic to stop the fire every single time.
She had exhausted around 5% of her magical power in all this endeavor, but it was finally over.
'What even were those things?' Raven wandered. Her best guess would be a new parasitic-like Grimm that took control of other Grimm and had a higher level of intelligence and survival instinct than normal Grimm, which would explain most of the anomalies.
'No point in overthinking it; what matters is that it's dead. I should get back to the camp. I'll deal with the shitshow of that idiot later. I need some rest now.'
Raven wasn't physically exhausted, but her mentality needed so much rest.
'Checking up—I mean, spying on Yang and Tai should do the trick, she decided as she moved back to her camp, only to hear the sound of fighting in the distance.
'It's coming from the camp!' With this revelation on her mind, she immediately transformed into a raven and took to the sky beyond the tree line.
In the distance, her worst fears came true.
The camp was under attack by another horde of larger size; smaller Grimm aside, it consisted of 4 Ursa-Majors, 5 Alpha Beowolvs, 2 King Taijitu, and one Death Stalker.
A thought came to her mind as she used her semblance to reach the camp. The whole situation seemed off; the actions of the Grimm were anything but normal; it looked more like a trap set for her and her tribe.
Raven's mind halted at that thought.
The Grimm can't make complicated plans and ambushes, but someone can direct them to do so; only one person can do so.
Salem, she can control the Grimm after all—well, most of them at least. It wouldn't be hard for her to prepare an ambush for Raven to take her out of her tribe to conform to whether she was a maiden or not.
'No, that wouldn't make sense; I already used the maiden powers; if Salem had been observing me, she would have already sent her henchmen to capture me. Attacking the camp would be counterproductive, knowing she would take the tribe as hostages to have me join her side.'
Raven concluded, refusing to believe that the whole thing is a trap.
'If the worst comes to pass, I can always open a portal and run away'.
Raven reached the camp and immediately saw the horror of the attack. The Grimm had broken through the walls of the camp and were fighting with the tribe members; some were holding on well, but some had already fallen.
Those things were unnatural. Although Grimm didn't feel pain, that didn't make them invulnerable; a fatal attack would be enough to take them down.
But those wired Grimm didn't follow that logic; no matter what happened to them, they would still move and attempt to kill anyone who got close to them. The worst part is that they are stronger than the average Grimm.
Thankfully, Raven already knows how to deal with them.
"USE FIRE DUST; IT'S THEIR WEEKNESS!" She shouted and went for the attack.
"This is getting too annoying." Raven immediately engaged with the closest Grimm she found, intending to use rage as a motivation to push through the situation.
It is not that Raven couldn't make schemes or plans; it is just that she preferred a more straightforward approach. When engaging the enemy in a battle, just push through with strength; scheming and plotting mid-battle is the sign of the weak.
With the knowledge of fire being the perceived weakness of the odd Grimm, the bandits didn't waste any time and utilized fire dust in their attacks; it helped, but not by much. The numbers and power of the Grimm were overwhelming.
The tribe had around 70 members, excluding the non-combatants, 30 of whom had been taken by Bross, which left 40 members with Raven to defend the camp as if she needed more reasons to want to kill the idiot.
The tribesmen were by no means weak; they were not huntsmen-level strong, not even huntsmen-in-training level, but they were trained and should have been able to handle a Grimm attack.
However, those things were no ordinary Grimm; they took more damage, and even with the help of fire, it took a while to take them down.
Raven managed to kill the bigger threats, but it wasn't easy; those things worked together and coordinated their attacks, something that most Grimm are not known for, and the problem with them is the fact that they won't die unless fire is used to burn them completely, and although Omen's fire blade mode made it easier, Raven's aura still took some hits here and there.
As for the camp, it was practically destroyed; the tribe had suffered many losses and was left with fewer combatants. They would need a lot to recover from this.
It had taken some time, but the horde was destroyed.
Raven checked the losses and tightly held her blade; this was just too much damage to be considered a normal Grimm attack.
She had expanded 30% of her aura throughout this whole ordeal, some from taking hits but most from using specialized aura attacks to finish the fight quicker and reduce the damage to the camp.
"Vernal, what are the damages?" she commanded. She can't let the tribe think she's lost her cool because of what happened.
"Chief, the Grimm are all burned; they wouldn't stop moving otherwise; most of the tents are destroyed, but the armory and supply tents are intact; thankfully, the Grimm didn't target them; 12 members were killed, 24 were heavily injured, and the rest only suffered minor injuries."
'This was worse than I thought' Raven lamented. Dead combatants for a bandit tribe were a common thing, but usually it came from the involvement of huntsmen; rarely ever did it come from Grimm, and never in such a large number, especially for their tribe. Raven was notorious, and not many could afford to cross her, which led many to avoid dealing with her tribe; the less they invoked her anger, the better.
But there isn't much that can be done with a Grimm attack.
'Could this day get any worse' Raven should have known not to tempt fate.
A great howl reverberated throughout the forest close to the destroyed camp.
Looking up at the source of the howl, she saw the incarnation of violence approaching.
'What type of Grimm is that?' she wondered as she took a fighting stance, preparing for the coming fight.
The "Grimm" in question looked nothing like a normal Grimm; it was bipedal; it held a twisted sword in one hand and a giant tower shield in the other; it wore black armor with sharp spikes all around it; and the face of the monster looked like a rotten corpse felled with hatred for the living.
The monster looked nothing like a Grimm; it was more akin to a mockery of the human body and soul, embodied with a never-ending lust for death and violence.
Raven tried to not let the creature's appearance affect her, but she wasn't that successful.
Her fear forced her to take a breath and calm her nerves; she couldn't let the tribe see her in such a disgraceful light.
So, she decided to observe her enemy for any apparent weaknesses.
The body of the monster is tall, surpassing 2 meters in height, which could mean it is slow, with the fact that it revealed its presence with the howl indicating an inability to concisely sneak up on someone.
The body under the armor looked somewhat thin with its whole body taken into account, which could mean it is not as strong as it might appear.
'No, looks can be deceiving; I should take it seriously'
Raven was confident in dealing with any threat under the disaster class Grimm, and those Grimm were rather known throughout the kingdoms.
Although some disaster-class Grimm might remain unknown to the world, the odds that this thing is that strong are low.
'Besides, bad luck is Qrow's thing, not mine; if things get ugly, I can just use magic, and if worse comes to shove, I'll just open a portal and take the survivors with me; the camp is destroyed anyway, so not much is lost'
Unbeknownst to her, the reason she was making all those assumptions was her subconscious mind warning about the monster in front of her.
As to why she didn't consider the implications of fighting such an enemy without prior knowledge of its power, there were two reasons for such a choice: the first is simple overconfidence on Raven's side, and the second is a skill of the death knight that attracts the hatred of the target, forcing them to attack it.
Raven didn't want to have her tribe get caught and die as collateral damage; better let them support her from the back in the off chance she struggled with the monster.
And with that, she took her stance and attacked the monster.
Ainz observed the fight between the death knight and the masked woman; from what he had observed from her in the previous fight, he estimated her level to be around 30 to 35, level 20 or 25 as a physical warrior, and 10 levels as a magic caster. So, a split build with stats that match her level as a human.
However, the lack of level-appropriate skills was apparent. Someone at that level should have more versatility in their combat; of course, she could just be hiding her real skills for a much more dangerous opponent, which would mean she is a very tactful warrior.
'Although she did use that skill before—that slash skill—the damage it did would make it a skill gained in the early 10 levels. Even if she was trying to hide her power, using such a low-level skill wouldn't make sense.
As a human, she should have more skills from her job class in comparison to a heteromorphic character, unless she's not trying to hide anything and is just conserving energy. Ainz analyzed the fight and attempted to get an accurate estimate of the woman's power.
However, there was one thing that put his analysis of her level into question.
'What's wrong with her HP?'
Ainz was surprised when he used [Life Essence] to see the woman's HP. Instead of the expected green aura befitting a level 35 with 25 levels in a warrior-oriented class, her HP was extremely low; it was barely equivalent to that of a level 10 human.
And that wasn't the only odd thing.
Surrounding her HP was another aura, a dark red one that was much more impassive than her HP; it was equivalent to a level 35 warrior.
Ainz theorized that this is Aura, the force that protects the huntsmen. In a way that would make sense outside of being able to use aura and some physical enhancement from training, huntsmen and huntresses are mortals; their vitality shouldn't be affected that much by using aura.
"Or maybe it is the reliance on aura that led them to neglect their vitality."
Ainz didn't worry about anyone hearing him, as he was using [Perfect Unknowable] to hide himself as well as [Fly] to gain a better view of the battle.
'I should stop using game knowledge in this world, but the fact that I have my powers with me means that, to some extent, the game knowledge is applicable, well, for the most part.'
The other thing Ainz found out is that this woman called Raven is a magic caster.
Well, this is the world's equivalent, at least.
The magic spells she used were odd, to the point where Ainz wasn't sure they could be called spells to begin with.
To understand this, it should be noted that Raven had a decent pool of mana for her level, but when she cast her fire and ice spells before, the spells showed power equal to a 1st-tier spell or a 2nd-tier spell, yet the amount of mana consumed was proportional to a 3rd-tier spell for each spell she used.
This mana-to-effect ratio was too inefficient.
'It could be due to the difference in our magic systems. I didn't hear the name of the spell she used; did she use [silent] meta-magic? Do they even have meta-magic here? No, if she had it, she could have used an area of effect fire spell to kill all the Grimm zombies, followed by the [Widen] meta-magic for an ice spell to take care of the fire. It would have been more efficient, even with her increased use of mana. This is intriguing; I need more information.'
That was part of the reason Ainz had the Death Knight engage Raven in a battle; he even ordered it not to use its zombie squares and to prolong the fight as much as possible.
It had occurred to Ainz that his behavior could be considered inhumane from a certain point of view, but it didn't bother him at all.
'Is this a side effect of becoming undead? I don't feel repulsed by the fact that I'm in essence slaughtering all these people; if anything, I just want to gather as much information as possible, but still, is all my humanity gone?'
All of a sudden, a green aura, unseen by anyone other than Ainz, washed over him.
'It doesn't matter; I'm in an unfamiliar world with unknown dangers; survival should be my top priority; besides, they're bandits that had no problems attacking defenseless villages; from a moral standpoint, killing them is not wrong.'
Just then, the death knight's sword had slashed Raven, and she couldn't completely dodge it and therefore paid in aura.
Ainz never stopped watching the fight, even when his mind wandered. It seems the bandit queen is struggling to keep up with the death knight, which would support Ainz's assessment of her build.
'Then again, she has yet to use magic against the death knight, so it's too early to say for sure. It could be that she knows I'm watching and is waiting for an opportunity to ambush me when I least expect it, and her dead henchmen are a small price to pay. This Raven could be dangerous.'
Ainz had prepared countermeasures for such a case, but it would be better to be safe than sorry.
The Death Knight had managed to land a solid hit on Raven, and Ainz noted an immediate loss of a large portion of aura by [Life Essence].
'This confirms it; she didn't use [False Data Life] to hide her HP, so that leaves her magic to be confirmed.'
After concluding with this, Ainz sent the death knight another command.
Raven was losing; she didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't deny it any further.
She dodged another charge and tried to attack the opening presented to her, but the monster blocked it with its shield and struck again.
She barely parried the sword to the side by empowering her swing with a burst of aura, but she didn't try to press the advantage; it would be meaningless if she tried to do so.
Before, the thing didn't try to defend itself but used the chance to strike her with its sword. The monster took her fire-imbued sword and didn't even flinch. The same can't be said for her; she had lost 20% of her aura from that strike, and that monster didn't look worse for wear. So, she didn't want to take her chances again.
'Where did this thing come from?'
Raven's thoughts were logical; this monster was not only keeping up with her but was also pushing her back; she only had less than 15% of her aura left, so she entered the red without question, and she couldn't risk her aura breaking now.
Not only would that make her easy prey for the monster, but she wouldn't be able to use her semblance to escape with the survivors of her tribe.
'There is no helping it; I have to use magic; this thing is as strong as a Disaster Class Grimm' It was a somewhat accurate assessment from Raven.
Disaster Class Grimm was the highest classification that a Grimm could reach.
As the name would imply, disaster-class Grimm are Grimm that are considered natural disasters wherever they go.
One is capable of destroying a whole kingdom on its own, not without resistance, but eventually, it would lead to the destruction of the entire kingdom. Whether the kingdom's army managed to rebel against the Grimm or not is irrelevant, as the damages incurred would lead to the fall of the unfortunate kingdom.
Usually, they don't attack and simply stay in their territories, but every century or so, they wake up to destroy a huge statement and go back to sleep. Some are also more intelligent than normal Grimm and can make strategies and plans, but nothing too complex.
And lastly, most of them are extremely large, to the point that you can't miss their approach to any kingdom.
Except for the last one, all of those fit the description of the thing in front of her.
Raven was one of the strongest huntsmen in all of Remnant; the only ones who could keep up with her were Qrow and Ozpin without magic. As an S-rank hunter, she is considered the peak of the power ceiling of hunters.
All of that was before she got the powers of maidens; now she can be considered one of, if not the most powerful, of all humans in Remnant. However, she wasn't confident she could slay a Disaster Class Grimm; she entertained the idea before but never had the chance to act on it. She used to believe that if she got the chance, she could probably pull it off.
And yet, now that she is facing such an adversary, she knows the meaning of hubris.
'No! I'm killing this thing, even if it means I'll have to destroy this whole forest to do so.'
With all of that on her mind, she activated the maiden powers and decided to hit this thing with all she had. There was a limit to the amount of magic she could conjure at once, but it should be enough to take this thing down.
With her eyes radiating power, she launched herself into the air and conjured multiple fire spears, all of which, upon her command, left their positions and attacked the enemy faster than dust rounds and much deadlier.
The thing managed to react to the oncoming bombardment, but instead of dodging, he raised his shield to block the spears, which weren't effective against the monster.
But they didn't have to.
They were only meant to distract it from Raven.
The monster felt someone behind him, but before it could react, Raven, who was faster than him, had already hit him with a fire sword she had conjured. The attack was fast and powerful, and it launched the monster into the air.
Technically speaking, the attack shouldn't have knocked the monster so much into the air, but Raven had used magic to control the gravity around the monster, reducing his weight, which made launching him into the air a matter of swinging her sword upward to the sky.
But she wasn't done here.
She flew to the back of the monster and hit him with the sword again, which launched him further up.
The monster being in the sky reduced its mobility, which made dodging his attacks much easier for Raven, especially with her flying.
Each of her strikes sent the monster hundreds of meters into the air, increasing the height of his soon-to-be fall.
Raven decided not to kill the monster by bombarding it with magic while flying; in the off chance it survived, she would have lost the fight.
but if she bet all her magic on this plan, she would have a higher chance of success; after all, unlike most Disaster Class Grimm, this one had a manageable size.
She didn't know how many times she hit the monster, but she stopped when she could barely see the ground.
She was so far away that breathing became hard for her, and her aura was having trouble protecting her from the decrease in temperature. She only stopped when her instinct told her that going any further would kill her.
Had Remnant's research on the subject of meteorology been intensive, and had Raven cared enough about it, she would have known that she had almost reached the tropopause.
'This should be high enough.'
Raven's plan was simple: in essence, get the thing high in the sky and let gravity do the rest. A fall from this height would kill anything.
She didn't have to worry about the impact of the fall killing the tribesmen, as she had moved the thing far away from the camp.
Although nothing would survive the force of such gravity, that doesn't mean she can't help gravity kill it better.
Raven changed Omen to the gravity mod and overcharged it to the maximum. She had to time this right.
With all her might, Raven hit the monster beyond the troposphere and into the stratosphere.
She watched the monster rise until he reached the peak of his flight, and then she conjured a huge hammer using magic and hit the monster back to the ground with all the force it could conjure, but that wouldn't be enough to satisfy her, so the moment the hammer hit the monster, she reversed the effects of gravity on both the dust still attached to the monster and the magic affecting him.
Raven couldn't even see the monster falling to the ground; the speed of his fall was so great that even the air displaced from its fall affected her flight and almost knocked her out. But she can't fall; now she needs to get down to the ground before her magic runs out.
She can't fly down due to her low magic, but she never planned to fly down from the get-go.
With a swing of her sword, Raven opened a portal back to the camp to see the results of her work. And see them she did, or more like felt.
The ground rumbled, an earth-shattering wave swept across the land, and all felt it.
Raven felt proud of her achievement; it didn't take the thing 5 seconds to reach the ground. A fall with that speed would kill anything, even a Disaster Class Grimm, which that thing surely was.
The rumbling of the earth lasted for a bit, and after it subsided, a powerful wind came and broke the remaining walls in the camp. Everyone held onto something to remain on the ground, but most got swept away by the wave. Raven, who had struck Omen to the ground to withstand the pressure, felt her aura finally break. But luckily for her, the wind subsided just as her aura broke.
Holding on to her consciousness, she looked in the direction of the impact with glee.
She did it! She really did it! She slayed a disaster-class Grimm on her own. an achievement never before done by anyone throughout the history of Remnant.
Those who had been created to have slain a Disaster Class Grimm were considered heroes—individuals with a level of power that surpassed the norm.
and even then they couldn't do it on their own; they always had help and support from a kingdom or an army of hunters.
But she did it on her own, without any help.
Raven felt like laughing but held herself back. She still had to check on the tribe and relocate; they couldn't stay here any longer.
Just as she was about to turn away, she heard someone clapping.
"Well done! well done! That was quite the show you put on."
The speaker's voice was calm and deep yet carried with it a mocking tone, as if all the struggles Raven went through in that battle were nothing but a funny play for his entertainment.
Raven turned to look at the speaker and was shocked.
He was tall, around two meters tall, wearing an immaculate robe made of the primal night itself, and his face was that of a skull—not a mask skull but a real one; it didn't look like a human skull, but one made of a pure marble-like substance.
The creature looked powerful—not in the way a hunter would be, but in the way a natural force of the cosmic would look for the unsuspecting mortal gazing upon it.
Above all else, he was terrifying. Raven had seen many things that would break the minds of weak individuals and had discovered will-shattering truths that would make the naivest of heroes lose hope.
But she had never seen or witnessed something that would send her to the edge of fear like the creature before her; not even the revelation of Salem's immortality scared her like now.
It was illogical.
"Well, as fun as that was, I think it would be rude on my part not to introduce myself. I'm Ainz Ooal Gown, and it just happened that I was passing by a village when it was being attacked by members of your tribe, and after saving the village, I decided to annihilate your tribe for your reprehensible actions." The now-named Ainz said it with the calm and easy tone one would use to describe the weather.
Raven didn't understand everything he said, but the point of the speech was connived, and with her mind going a mile a second, she tried to stall for time so her aura would replenish enough to use her semblance.
"Were those Grimm and that monster sent here by you?" She tried not to sound scared, but her tone barely kept from breaking in the end.
Ainz looked at her, or at least it appeared as if he had, as the lack of eyes didn't help determine his gaze; the only thing she could see that resembled eyes were two red flames in his eye sockets.
After a bit, he answered.
"You mean those, oh well, they did a well enough job, didn't they, and to answer your question, yes, the Grimm were sent by me, and so was the Death Knight. I wanted to send two of them at first but decided against it as it turned out that was the right thing to do."
The content of his words froze the sweat on Raven's back, but soon she regained her composure.
'He must be lying!'
"Your lying! There is no way you have two monsters like that thing!" Raven didn't want to shout, but her voice couldn't be contained. At this point, her mind needed to know that his words were lies.
One person can't have control over such monsters. Even Salem couldn't control Disaster Class Grimm. How can some unknown individual do something like that?
Ainz didn't look offended; on the contrary, he seemed to expect such a reaction.
"How rude of you to call someone a liar on your first meeting, but I guess it can't be helped; you did struggle to kill one death knight after all. Anyway, you're not wrong; I don't have two death knights."
Raven didn't have time to feel relief before Ainz's voice continued.
"I have more," he said, saying that he snapped his fingers.
Raven didn't question how that was even possible with only bones, as all around her and the survivors of the tribe, from the thick tree line, shadowy figures started to move.
She didn't want to look at them; she already knew what they were, and the sound of their movement was something she would never forget.
She now knew they were called Death Knights and that this Ainz wasn't lying; he had more of these monsters.
Raven's mind almost went on fire with all the stress she was feeling right now, but she forced herself to calm down.
'Just a bit more; I almost have enough for one portal'
"Now, are you done stalling for time? Creating a portal won't help you; there is no escape for you." Ainz said it as if stating a fact.
Raven froze, and her mind did so as well.
She didn't know how long she froze for, but a voice got her out of her stupor.
"Protect the Chief!
It was Vernal's voice, her loyal subordinate; her courage brought Raven some hope of survival, but Ainz decided to snuff that flame.
"[Death]" was all Raven heard, and the next thing she saw was Vernal's body hitting the ground—no blood, no sound, and possibly no pain. She just fell with her eyes still open, radiating the bravery she showed before her death.
"How rude of you; we were just having a conversation." He said, sounding bothered as if a man would be when dealing with a fly.
Raven didn't even know what happened next; all she thought of was the fact that this Ainz could kill someone with just a word.
Had she been calmer, she would have tried to analyze the situation to see any path of survival, but she wasn't, and the only thing she thought of now was escape.
However, Ainz wouldn't even let her entertain the thought any longer.
"[Mass Hold Species]" With that, Raven felt something holding her body in place; they were odd-looking seals that rotated around not only her but also the other members of the tribe. She could still move somewhat, but she couldn't even bring up her aura to defend herself from what was to come.
"All right, that should be enough playing around Raven Branwen; your time has come." Ainz said as he approached her with slow steps.
Behind her, she can hear the sound of her tribesmen screaming and the death knights approaching them.
Ainz had reached her, extending his bone hand to her.
Raven finally understood that she was going to die.
There was so much on her mind at that moment—who the hell is this Ainz? Where did he come from? Is he with Salem? Did he come for the maiden's power? What is the power he used to control those death knights? What did he do to Vernal? All those questions went through her mind to no avail; she knew she was going to be killed by this monster.
He didn't leave her with any hope for survival.
As she accepted her fate, her last thoughts were of her brother Qrow, her teammate Summar, her husband Tai, and finally her daughter Yang. She knew what the implications of that were, but she couldn't help it.
'I'm sorry, Yang; even as I die, I can only leave you with problems.'
She smiled bitterly as a tear fell from her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said, closing her eyes and accepting her fate to the sounds of her tribe being butchered in the background.
The last thing she heard was Ainz's voice.
"[Sandmans's Sand]"
And with that, she went to a very long sleep.
Ainz looked at the sleeping form of Raven and removed her mask to see her face.
'Who would have known so much power could reside within someone so fragile-looking?'
She did indeed look fragile, not in the way a glass is fragile, but in the way a thin rapier would seem weak and breakable from a quick glance only for its real power to be recognized by those in the know.
Ainz's previous compliments to her were not made out of mockery; he truly believed she had put on an amazing show of skills, strategy, and outside-the-box thinking.
'Although she did underestimate the mobility of the death knight.'
It is true that a death knight isn't as agile as his other counterpart, the death warrior, and that sending him flying even with the help of that anti-gravity magic is an impressive feat for Raven's level.
But the death knight could still move his body in the air and retaliate somewhat to Raven's attacks; all it would take is him disturbing Raven's momentum for the whole plan to fall apart.
The reason it worked was because Ainz ordered the death knight not to retaliate; he wanted to see the full capabilities of the bandit queen; after all, she is the first magic user he meets in this world. So, with the help of [Undead Slave Sight], he observed the fight and made a good estimate of Raven's magic prowess.
The first point is damage-wise. Ainz was correct about his previous assessment of her; she really was comparable to a level 35 with a split build, but her versatility of spells made up for her lack of power and consumption of mana.
Most of the spells she used were unknown to Ainz; in a way, he knows certain spells with similar effects, but the mana consumed and the way they operated made them different than the ones he knew of.
The second point is her mana regeneration; it didn't scale with her level as a whole but only with her magic level.
In Yggdrasil, the only way to replenish mana is to rest or wait, as something as convenient as a mana potion doesn't exist. But the replenishment of mana was reliant on three aspects:
The first is the mana pool of the player; the bigger it was, the faster the mana regeneration became.
The second is the level of the player; the higher the level, the better it was. Having non-magic-based classes didn't stop the increase in mana regeneration, but it would be less than a specialized magic build.
And the final factor is equipment. Some items and equipment can increase mana regeneration, but they usually come with certain penalties when equipped.
Raven didn't have a fast increase in mana regeneration; of course, her equipment was not magical in any way, so all her regeneration increases would come from her level, and yet the rate of mana regeneration was equivalent to that of a level 10 magic caster with a specialized build.
'I guess different worlds work under different rules. I should stop taking the Yggdrasil system as the end all be all for magic.'
The final point he noticed from the death knight's fight with Raven was that dust could be used in a variety of ways, providing the huntsmen with more options in battle and, to a small extent, covering their lake of level-appropriate skills.
Raven's use of her dust and magic helped her bridge the gap between her and the death knight; she had managed to cause enough damage to the death knight that it had to use its special skill to survive any attack with 1 HP left to survive the fall. (But not the bounce.)
The whole fight brought a lot of information to Ainz, both on this new world and on how Yggdrasil mechanics translate here.
'But I still lack a lot of information; how can she use magic if the previous information indicated that magic doesn't exist in this world? What exactly is dust? How powerful can it be? How common is it? I need more information, so let's see what you have, Raven Branwen.'
Ainz moved his hand over Raven's head and activated his spell.
[Control Amnesia]
With that, Ainz accessed Raven's mind, and through her memories, he needed to focus on the important information about the kingdoms, the powers that be, and what common knowledge Remnant has.
The things Ainz avoided were the personal details of Raven, not out of some gentlemanly code of conduct but simply the fact that this type of information is useless for him now, although he did see a couple of faces here and there by accident, as this is his second time using the spell in this world.
After a while, Ainz gained a lot of information about dust, Aura, the kingdoms, huntsmen and huntresses, and some common knowledge about Remnant, but it was when he learned where Raven got her magic from that he had the biggest revelation so far.
He learned about all the information Raven had on maidens, magic, Ozpin, Grimm and their origins, Salem, the relics, and most importantly, the brother gods.
Ainz felt his [emotional suppressor] kick in, preventing him from panicking too much and accidentally deleting Raven's memories of how to breathe.
Ainz stopped digging for information and started thinking about the information he just got.
Gods existed in Yggdrasil; they were considered an integral part of it too, from interactable NPCs to event bosses. The player had a lot of contact with gods in the game.
If asked how powerful the gods were, then the answer would vary.
Some gods were considered to be level 100 NPCs; others were considered bosses that would take a whole party of six players in the 100th level to take out; and some god bosses were strong but could be dealt with by a 100th level player with a good build and strategy.
Ainz himself, even with his RP build, has the confidence to slay some powerful god bosses on his own with the right strategy and equipment.
However, all those gods were in a game, and there is no guarantee that the brother gods would be of the same power level. And even if they were, the fact that there were two of them put the odds of Ainz's victory in the best of circumstances at an all-time low.
The only reference Ainz could pull for how powerful they are was the fact that they had created Remnant by themselves.
It isn't any different from the gods of Yggdrasil; lore wise, most of the gods of Yggdrasil resided in planes of reality created by them, and some of their abilities reflected their power of creation, so creating a whole planet is not something above the expected power of a god.
The second feat of power that he got from Raven's memories was the destruction of the moon. The destruction of a celestial body is no simple feat, and it goes to show the level of power those gods hold over the worlds they inhabit.
However, by itself, it is not an impossible task for the gods of Yggdrasil; not all of them but a portion of them could achieve a similar feat, and even some players theoretically, if you take the lore of abilities and spells into consideration, could do so if they were specialized in AOE and environmental destruction.
The destruction of the moon doesn't present an accurate impression of the power of the brother gods to a level 100 Yggdrasil player. After all, environmental destruction does not equal damage done to a target.
'Best case, they are equivalent to Yggdrasil bosses; worst case, they are world enemies.' Ainz concluded after much thought.
One would consider Ainz's assessment of the brother gods to be inaccurate as he made the ceiling of power to be the World Enemies, but those who know what it means to be a World Enemy would find this assessment to be fair for a being of ultimate power.
The concept of a world in Yggdrasil didn't simply mean a planet; it was more appropriate to call it a reality, a cluster of dimensions that had their own rules, laws, and cosmology.
In accordance with the lore of Yggdrasil, the world's enemies were beings that could threaten the very stability of any reality they were put in.
Their powers were uncontested, and it would take a whole raid of 30 level 100 players, fully prepared and well organized, to have a chance at defeating a single world enemy.
Their attacks were capable of bypassing racial immunity and effects, so one could say that they didn't follow the laws and rules of the world.
Ainz had no confidence in dealing with a single possible world enemy, let alone two, so it would be best to avoid that encounter.
'If Raven's memories are accurate, then it would be best to get one of those relics and hide them somewhere where no one would be able to reach them to avoid having to deal with those two gods, and luckily I just got a maiden to unlock that vault for me.'
Ainz started to draw up a plan while looking at the sleeping form of Raven when an idea struck him.
'She can unlock more than just a vault for me, can't she?'
Ainz had come up with a very dangerous thought: all one needed to get an aura was a soul. Well, even if he was undead, he still had a soul, according to the lore, at least.
'I have to hurry; all that commotion would have attracted attention by now.'
Under different circumstances, Ainz would experiment on another undead before doing so on himself, but with the revelation of the existence of the brother gods, he would need all the power he could get as fast as possible just to be safe.
Ainz didn't question the fact that he was being hasty with his actions; maybe the possibility of obtaining more power in his time of need pushed him to make such a decision, or maybe something inside him pushed him to do so.
In any case, Ainz used his spell on the sleeping Raven.
"[Dominate]"
Qrow Branwen always considered himself a reckless rouge, someone who doesn't follow the rules yet gets the job done, not in an immoral way but more in the "jump in the danger before listening to the "professionals" and saying you just forgot to" way.
However, he wasn't stubborn when it came to his job; he knew how to listen when the stakes were too high or when he was dealing with something outside his field of expertise.
With that in mind, he tended to avoid trouble when doing his jobs; the last thing he wanted was to hear another lecture from Glynda about keeping a low profile.
But sometimes it was necessary to get involved with the troubles that came his way; after all, he knows two little girls who would like to hear a crazy but age-appropriate story from Uncle Qrow.
So, approaching the commotion that was occurring at the gate of the walls in the town he was staying in, he was shocked to see what was under him.
"Everyone, please calm down; those are summons, not Grimm; they were given to us by a huntsman after we were attacked by bandits to help us reach the town safer."
A young girl who was leading a group of what looked like survivors of the supposed attack was trying to de-escalate the situation with the guards on the walls, to little avail, as they were still pointing their weapons at the group while shaking.
Well, to be more precise, they were pointing it at the four huge humanoids looking Grimm that the girl was swearing on everything she knew was not.
Those things looked dangerous; even a veteran hunter like Qrow had his instincts screaming at him that fighting one of those things was suicidal.
And yet the fact that they haven't attacked so far lends credence to the girl's claim.
Qrow looked at the group of survivors and sighed.
'Yeah, they don't look like bandits at all; most of them were children clinging to their mothers, and the rest look like they could barely hold a knife, let alone a sword.'
After his conclusion, Qrow decided to interfere before things got out of hand.
"All right guys, how about not trying to provoke the scary summons? You're scaring the children," he said while pointing at the survivors.
The guard, as if only now seeing the group, seemed to reach the same conclusion as Qrow and lowered their weapons. Some still looked hesitant, but the word of a huntsman carried weight.
The girl seemed to relax after that and wanted to lead everyone to the town, but Qrow had to stop her.
"Actually, can you leave the summons outside? For now, it would be best to not make the other town residents feel scared." Qrow didn't want the previous situation to repeat itself.
The girl and the survivors seemed reluctant to do so. Qrow saw that and attempted to persuade them.
"You don't have to worry; it's just temporary until we get everything clear. My name is Qrow Branwen. I'm an S-Class hunter based in Vale."
The mention of his name made the survivors stop in their tracks; it took Qrow a moment to understand why and put two and two together.
'At least, I now know the identity of the attackers.'
Before Qrow could explain himself, the leading girl beat him to the punch.
"I've heard of you huntsmen; you're very well known in Vale, amongst the top of the S-Class hunters. My name is Jade Lapis, head of the Lapis Mining Corporation."
The words of Jade calmed the survivors somewhat, and they also helped Qrow know who the girl was.
The Lapis Mining Corporation, or L.M.C. for short, was one of the biggest ore mining corporations on the face of Remnant; their business at one point even rivaled the Schnee Dust Company.
However, the two companies were on good terms, at least when Nicolas was in charge. The president of the L.M.C. was a close friend of his and was a part of his team when he was a hunter.
But all that changed after Nicolas' death. The new president of the S.D.C. didn't like the fact that his company had only one monopoly in Remnant, so he decided to expand his ventures, and the L.M.C. became a victim of that expansion, as unlike the new head of the S.D.C., the new head of the L.M.C., who was Jade's father, wasn't a fan of underhanded tactics.
He was a good man, as Ozpin described him, but a good man like him wasn't suitable for the dirty world of business in this world.
It didn't take long before the company fell; it became a shadow of its formal self. From cooperation to espionage to assassination, the sway of the Lapis family started to wane within the company. With the death of Virdis Lapis, the troubles of the company fell on his oldest daughter.
The company still had a lot of mines in the kingdoms, some even in Menagerie, but the lack of machinery, manpower, and funds to make use of those mines made it impossible for it to rise again.
Qrow took another look at the young girl, and a feeling of pity reached his heart.
'Someone her age shouldn't worry about all that shit.'
The girl certainly didn't show any pitiful outer appearance; if anything, she showed confidence and a great sense of leadership. Had her circumstances been any better, she would have had a bright future.
Qrow got those thoughts out of his mind. The girl looked like she had a strong personality; his pity would be the last thing she would want to see.
After a bit, every survivor entered the town with one of the guards leading them to continue the procedures.
Qrow approached Jade and her sister and started conversing with them.
"By the way, kid. Do you mind answering a couple of questions about this incident? There is a nearby café that makes killer hot chocolate."
Qrow offered to the both of them; he didn't want to sound crude, but he wasn't used to all that fancy talk.
"I have no issues with that; if anything, Mr. Qrow, there is something I need your help with regarding this incident." The girl said it in a polite tone.
"No need for that, Mr.; it makes me feel old," Qrow said jokingly.
"But uncle, you are old," the little girl holding onto her sister innocently said.
Qrow's eyes twitched at that but didn't say anything to it; all he could do was give a defeated sigh and a small smile, getting his mind back to the important subject at hand.
'At best, this is a raid gone wrong; at worst, Raven is plotting something; either way, I should prepare for a family reunion.'
Ainz finished his preparations and decided to go through with his plan, as to what that plan was.
He was planning to have Raven unlock his aura; if all one needs to have an aura is to have a soul, then he fits the requirements.
While normal undead don't have souls, the exaptation of wraiths, who by definition are souls twisted by necromancy,.
Overlords, and some other high-tier undead creatures, are the exaptation.
In Yggdrasil's lore, overlords didn't just have souls; they had extremely powerful souls called Dark Souls. Game mechanics wise, this granted the overlords immunity to soul manipulation, attacks, psychic attacks, polymorphic effects, and many other penalties and effects.
However, the lore presented it as a very powerful state of existence, so having it manifest as a power would in theory present Ainz with a new powerful energy and a possible unique skill, and in the long run, it will help Ainz integrate better in this new world, as it would be odd not to have his aura unlocked if he wants to continue pretending to be a huntsman.
In the worst case, Ainz had summoned multiple undead to hide and protect him in case anything was to happen to him in the process; he even summoned a high-tier undead mage to use [Control Amnesia] to wipe Raven's memories in case of a retreat.
"All precautions were taken; now, Raven Branwen, unlock my aura!" Ainz commanded with a powerful voice.
"Yes." Raven's voice sounded hollow, as did her eyes. But that didn't matter to Ainz, as she moved her hand and put it on Ainz's chest, or more specifically, his rips.
"For it is in survival that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of power and glory, rising above all, infinite in distance, and unbound by others. I release your soul, and by my shoulder, I empower thee."
At this moment, Ainz felt an energy attempting to reach something within him. He could have resisted it, but something within his mind told him to let it be.
After that energy reached what it was looking for, the world fell into darkness.
Ainz could feel something within him releasing an unbelievable amount of energy. The feeling of power clouded his mind, and his emotional suppressor could barely keep up with his change of emotions.
Raven was knocked out at this point. The wave of power had thrown her away from Ainz; she would have been crushed by the force had one of the undead not caught her on behalf of Ainz's previous orders.
Ainz felt as if his body was about to explode with all that energy, but something unbelievable occurred within his vision. An icon appeared; it was an icon that he knew about but never thought he would see here.
The icon meant one thing to Ainz's mind: one word.
{WORLD}
And the light came back to the world.
The whole process would remind someone of one thing: an eclipse descending on the world.
AN: well, I didn't expect that much support, but it is appreciated, thank you all for the feedback and support. I was planning on posting this chapter much earlier in the week. However, I got sick so it got delayed to today, the update for the chapters will be weekly.
Now I will respond to some of the comments that caught my eye:
Some1call4MR-E: Is Nazarick here too, or is it only Ainz/suzuki himself, for the time being? Ainz Ooal Gown in RWBY has been done many time's before, however,
they practically follow the same path. Ainz has no idea what he's doing, and all of Nazrick goes out conquer Remnant for him, while he travels along with it.
A: For the time being it is only Ainz.
linkjames24 : No of course you can't massage the GM! It's illegal! And lewd! Illegally lewd!
Have you tried messaging them, however?
A: Wow! I didn't even notice that, but you know what. I can tell you that I'm not going to make that mistake again. The mental image of a terrifying skeleton giving a massage to some guy in an office will never leave my mind.
six samurai of dragon order: Good story, and looking forward to more. One thing I find old is Momonga casts a resistant to fire spell, and right after it says his equipment gives him complete resistant to fire. Not a big deal and I am likely reading to much into it.
A: Maybe I didn't word it right, the reason Ainz cast a fire resistance spell even though his equipment provides him with immunity to fire-based attacks was to give anyone who had somehow managed to break anti-espionage defenses false information, if they thought he cast the spell to protect himself from fire-based attacks then he must be weak to fire. He also cast a holy resistance spell with the meta magic of silence to hide it.
Rameramean: Salem CAN control disaster level Grimm just take a look at monstra, monstra is a disaster level Grimm, please change this, the RWBY verse already so much weaker than overlord, please don't weaken them further.
A: You're right, she can, but that part of the chapter was written from Raven's perspective, and she didn't believe that Salem could control them, I'm going to elaborate on the Disaster Class Grimm in the future and what to expect from them, in this chapter Raven believed the death knight to be equivalent to a Disaster Class Grimm but there is more to it than her opinions as she never faced one before.