Space travel. The act of departing from your planet's atmosphere and voyaging through the endless space of the universe. Naturally, Ainz knew that it was theoretically possible. After all, it has been proven over and over again during his human life. The first object left Earth's orbit well before even his grandparents' grandparents' time. A few years later dogs and other animals were launched into space in crude spacecrafts and not long after humans followed their example, all in order to pursue their race's never-ending thirst for knowledge regarding the unknown. The 20th and 21th century were widely regarded as the prime time of space exploration, as in the following years human society nearly collapsed and life was on a severe downwards trend, which resulted in governments redirecting their attention towards the events occuring on Earth, leaving little to no funds for the still barely explored vast unknown.
Ainz's robes fluttered from the night's gentle gusts. He was lying down on his back on top of the Great Tomb's above ground rooftop with his bony arms placed comfortably under his head as if they were makeshift pillows. His gaze wandered towards the giant round object which illuminated the dark sky. The overlord lifted his right arm from under his head and reached towards the Moon. "So close yet so far…" He muttered. Naturally, he couldn't grasp the object of his adoration in his palm.
Before the harsh reality of life crushed Suzuki, he had childlike wonder like all youngsters. Some of his friends wanted to become sports stars, others wanted to become actors, some even dreamed of becoming superheroes. He wanted to visit the Moon more than anything. When he was five years old his mother gifted him a picture book for his birthday. This book was filled with pictures taken by astronauts as they detailed their journey to the Moon. It also explained some of their experiences in written form, such as how they had to sleep in sleeping bags strapped to a heavy object so their bodies wouldn't be thrown all around the spacecraft due to the lack of gravity in the cabin. It fascinated the young Suzuki like nothing before, and nothing after. For years he told his friends that he would become an astronaut, how he would plant his very own flag into the Moon's surface and do backflips in the atmosphere that had a lot less gravity than Earth. Even now, he could still remember his mother's cheery smile as she told him "I will wave at you from all the way here, my little explorer."
Though life would find its way into crushing his hopes, starting with his mother's early demise. Since then his dream crumbled into nothingness, forgotten. Even after becoming a mighty ruler, it took him years to remember. But in the end he did remember. And since then he couldn't extinguish the idea. "I can do it. I am in a position to do so." He muttered inwardly.
Despite knowing that space travel was possible, Ainz had to start from scratch. How couldn't he? The New Worlders were a technologically lacking, medieval society. They were still at the invention of the wheel, castles and cannons. Commissioning the creation of a spacecraft was out of the question. He chuckled to himself as he imagined a scenario where he detailed to the dwarven craftsmen his request for a vehicle that weighs hundreds of tons and travels faster than tens-of-thousands of horses combined into one superhorse, launches vertically towards the sky and can fly.
Even if he aggressively invested into the study of space-sciences it would take hundreds of years at the minimum, with possibly never culminating in the ability of space travel. After-all he and most of Nazarick could not contribute much knowledge in this area, it would mostly depend on a select few geniuses butting their heads together and experimenting tirelessly. Demiurge could lead such a science team, he thought suddenly. Though, the devil already had a lot on his plate, and such an endeavor would likely waste his talents as this was far from his field of expertise. He shelved the idea in his mind as swiftly as it had appeared. Even if Ainz could create a team of scientists made up of New Worlders he was hesitant. He knew first hand how devastating technology could end up being in the wrong hands. This planet was simply breathtaking. Once he compared his current view of the starry night sky to the apocalyptic view of the Earth that reminded him of humanity's rapidly approaching doom he didn't need to think hard; he would be very careful with introducing technology to this World and its inhabitants.
There was, however, something Earthlings didn't have; magic and magical beings. He had to come up with an unprecedented, untested method of space travel, one where the driving component wasn't technology but the supernatural. He contemplated flying into the sky, just leaving on a whim. Why couldn't he? He was the strongest being on the Continent, possibly in the entire World. He was made of extremely durable bones, his constitution that lacked organs and flesh was basically made for the intense cold and radiation of the pressureless space outside the planet's protective atmosphere. If there was someone, anyone, that could travel through space without technology it was him.
He then imagined the tearful expression of the Guardians as they frantically searched for him far and wide. The last Supreme Being left them to sightsee the universe. How grim. He couldn't do that to them. And even if he could, it would be extremely stupid to do so. it was way too dangerous to personally take the first step outside the planet's atmosphere and just fly around in space.
Ainz had a sudden idea. He cast the spell "[Gate]" while chiding himself for not thinking of this method sooner. He could see the surface of the Moon therefore theoretically he could open a [Gate] there straight away, completely circumventing the need for space travel. How easy life would be. But no, life wasn't that easy; the spell failed. The mana cost got withdrawn from his reserves but the [Gate] Didn't manifest on the Moon's surface. He distinctly remembered that he did open [Gate] in the sky before, but just to make sure he cast the spell again. The first [Gate] appeared vertically at his feet while the other appeared exactly one hundred meters above him in a horizontal position, all according to his design. "[Magic Arrow]" Ainz cast the simple spell lazily while remaining on his back, as he pointed towards the convulsing door at his feet with his pointer finger. He hit exactly in the center of it, and as expected, the projectile exited just above from the other end of the [Gate] spell, then it swiftly hit him in the stomach area. His natural defenses completely negated any damage he could've taken.
"It functions as it should. Is the destination simply too far away? I didn't know the spell had a distance limitation, but to be fair the Moon is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away I would assume. Perhaps I just don't see the surface clear enough to open a gate. I never attempted to cast this spell at even a hundredth of such a distance before." Ainz contemplated out loud. "I have used this spell to traverse over multiple countries before, so at least this much should be possible. [Gate]." This time he aimed to spell into the distant sky.
It failed once again. Ainz spent the next thirty minutes attempting various methods to achieve his idea, with little to no success. The conclusion he arrived at is that without anything solid to place the [Gate] near, it created dramatic limitations on the distance of its maximum cast range. One question remained in his mind though; if he personally traveled to the Moon, could he cast the spell successfully back to the surface of the New World? Probably not, he guessed. That meant that if Ainz wanted to bring others with him, or he wanted to take something back with him that didn't fit in his inventory his life would become quite complicated.
One thing was clear though; he needed test subjects, and he already knew who his first volunteers would be.
"Wake up, sleepyheads!" A cheery shout awoke Kilistran Denshusha. It was the voice of someone the mother frost dragon was awfully aware of; Aura Bella Fiore. Trusted aide of their monstrous oppressor, despite her unassuming appearance, the dark elf child herself was of gargantuan constitution herself, betraying all understanding Kilistran had of her species. She knew first hand how terrifying even a flick of her finger could be, evidenced by the limp that followed Cryomar'ith for months after he didn't want to follow the elf's orders.
With grim expressions her and her family members left their lair. Getting called was never a good sign, it was the sign of change and dragons hated change. "Why the sulking faces? Well my news will certainly brighten your expressions; Ainz Ooal Goal calls for your immediate attendance." Despite the girl's acclamation, their mood turned even more sour. Dealing with her was a thousand times easier than with the dreadful undead. She saw multiple of her kin shiver in terror as the name left the elf's lips. She understood them wholeheartedly. None of them could surpass Olasird'arc, and this monster killed him effortlessly with a single spell with a supposed tier that was straight out of myths and legends. Kilistran was certain; they got enslaved by the God of Death personally.
Aura was waiting for the dragon family outside the entrance to their newly constructed lair, which was assembled after their new master decided that they would become delivery animals. The job wasn't hard per say, but for the ever proud race to service lesser beings was demeaning beyond anything imaginable. Well, it was still better than death. The dark skinned girl didn't seem to care that they weren't cheerful despite her previous statement. She approached Kilistran and hopped onto her back effortlessly even though to jump on the dragon she had to leap many times more than her own height. "The rest of you follow us." She commanded.
Aura gave the dragon mother directions for the next few minutes, until they arrived at an empty clearing far from any towns or villages. As she began descending Kilistran noticed a figure standing in the middle of the field. It was the skeleton. She braced herself mentally for what was to come, whatever that was, and she landed a respectful distance away from Ainz Ooal Gown. Her family members followed her example. "Welcome, frost dragons." He said in his regal albeit nonchalant way. "I'm glad to see you, Your Majesty." Kilistran and the rest replied, accompanied by a bow of their head.
The skeleton seemed to be examining them, although as he lacked eyes the dragon couldn't be sure. "Umu. It has come to my attention that perhaps I've been a bit too harsh on you. Well some of you did attack me in the cave back then, but we should let bygones be bygones I suppose. I have an offer for you; I am in need of an assistant in a project of mine, whoever volunteers will be provided with their very own frosty mountain range and will be freed from their postal duties. It shouldn't take more than a day at most."
Kilistran's danger bells started ringing in her head instantly. When something is too good to be true, it usually is. "May this lowly one ask what you would require of us?" She inquired. Before the skeleton replied however, Cryomar'ith, the teenage son of Mianatalon spoke up. "I will do it!"
His mother, who similarly to herself must've realized the approaching danger shouted; "No! What do you think he needs your help in, you moron? It is suicide!" Despite his mother's reasoning he was adamant. "I don't care. I can't continue living my life the way it is. I will follow my father and brother into the afterlife if that is what it takes to be free…" He was afraid, of course he was, but she also understood where he was coming from.
"It's always reassuring to see that the next generation is ready to take action when it is needed, isn't it? Alrighty then." He pointed upwards. "I want you to fly as high as you possibly can."
Instead of asking for more details, perhaps as a way to prevent himself from changing his mind, the young dragon didn't hesitate and took off instantly. He could hear his mother's weeping less and less as his wings took him further away from his family.
"Can you hear me?" Ainz inquired through the [Message] spell, which he cast on the ascending dragon. He instructed the rest of the dragons to return to their jobs, though the volunteer's mother pleaded with him that he allow her to stay as well which he did, so only the two of them remained on the field.
"Yes, Your Majesty." The reply was curt. Ainz could hear his volunteer's excitement and worry in his tone.
"How high have you flown before?"
"I don't know the proper number measurement, but I've seen the top side of the highest cloud!" The young dragon was audibly proud of his achievement. Going into the clear sky that is residing above the clouds might be something akin to a coming of age ceremony for them, the overlord thought.
Despite it only being a few minutes since his departure the dragon was rapidly decreasing in size in Ainz's eye. Perhaps due to his smaller frame compared to the other dragons he could reach higher than average speeds. He was certainly faster than the overlord would be if he himself used flight magic. Knowing that this exercise would take some time he summoned a makeshift throne upon which he seated himself. The mother dragon sensing that she would be here for some time laid herself down on the ground. Ainz summoned a novel from his inventory which he began reading to pass the time more pleasantly.
A few hours later the young dragon's voice was heard once again. "I've reached the last cloud. How much higher should I go?"
"As high as you physically can. Do you notice any changes?"
"Yes, my body feels lighter, much lighter than when I'm on or close to the ground. The temperature also feels a lot more pleasant." Of course, the colder weather in the skies would sit well with the frost dragon.
"How much lighter? Are you able to reach speeds several times your normal one when you fly at a lower altitude?" At this point the dragon was so small that he had to focus to even see him.
"Yes! I'm flying about five times faster than usual." The youngster audibly started to get excited at the prospect of reaching such altitudes.
"Alright, keep me notified if you recognize any strange particularities." He attempted to cast [Gate] once more, near the dragon. The spell failed once again. At least not all spells had such an annoying limitation, the overlord supposed, as the [Message] spell still functioned without issues.
After a couple more hours a loud, exhilarated voice rang in his head. "Why have I not flown this high before?! I am ripping through the air as if I'm in a dream!" Cryomar'ith exclaimed excitedly.
"Focus. How many times are you flying faster than usual?" Ainz calmed the dragon, he had data to collect after all.
"At least ten or even fifteen! When I reached the last cloud I was already really fast, but now I barely feel any weight to my body!"
"You must be really high up. I can't see you anymore. You've reached heights very few managed to before you. Keep going and report to me if you notice anything different." Ainz instructed.
After an hour Ainz heard the dragon's voice in his head once again. This time his thrilled voice was replaced by one of terror. "I can barely breathe! I have to turn back!"
Oh. Yeah, the dragons had lungs that needed to be filled with air. This little detail might have escaped the all seeing all knowing ruler. He didn't need to inhale oxygen for many years now, therefore he may have forgotten in the heat of the moment that other creatures have such annoying limitations. "Calm down. You have big lungs, you will be fine. Keep ascending. How about the temperature? Is it still pleasing for your body?" The overlord attempted to divert the dragon's attention from the fact that he was slowly suffocating by changing the topic of the his focus.
"... Did you send me here to die?" Naturally, the fact that he was losing oxygen was hard to ignore. "No. You will survive. Now, answer my question." Ainz knew he only had a very limited time now to collect his crucial data.
"..." The dragon sighed. "Now that I think about it, the weather is really starting to get cold. It is still bearable for me, though." Naturally, a frost dragon, while not totally immune to cold, could tolerate a temperature of -100 degrees Celsius (-148F), the overlord thought to himself. "Only my kind could thrive in such harsh conditions!" Even while being on the brink of losing consciousness, the dragons' characteristic pride managed to shine through. Indeed, Ainz supposed, he chose the best test subject of his living possible candidates. Even if he had other kinds of dragons in his service, chances are they would fare much worse at such temperatures.
"How many times higher are you than the highest cloud in your estimation?"
"At least six." Ainz remembered from his space travel fanatic days that the highest clouds formed were around 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Assuming the same was true for the clouds of the New World, and the dragon's estimate was somewhat accurate, he reached an altitude higher than 60km (37.3 miles). Ainz had to validate such a claim or otherwise any such data he acquired would be near meaningless.
"I want you to focus your eyes. At the height you are, you should begin seeing smaller meteors, rocks that fly towards the planet's surface." If the New World functioned similarly to Earth, the thin atmosphere at this altitude should offer little protection from smaller space debris, which would only disintegrate once the planet's protective layer strengthened.
"I can't! I must turn back now! My body is starting to burn too!" At this point the dragon was close to disobeying him. Even if one accepted death mentally, a living being would naturally fight it with all their power.
"Not yet. I want you to take a deep breath, the deepest you've taken in your entire life, then close your mouth and don't open it until I tell you to. You will survive." He instructed. They were at the most crucial point of their experiment, as the dragon was close to breaking. Even with the lacking amount of oxygen there, if he manages to inhale a good amount his large lungs should keep him conscious for a few more minutes, the overlord guessed. As for the burn the dragon mentioned, it must be from radiation that is caused by the lack of atmospheric protection at that height. The sun or even other stars must be cooking him alive, he supposed.
"...Alright."
"Now focus your eyes and tell me if you notice any objects in the air."
Ainz wasn't certain how sparse space debris would be. Maybe the dragon was lower than he estimated, or debris was rare? Perhaps he was wrong in his assumption that debris would not yet be disintegrated at that height. Or debris didn't even exist in this universe… It was difficult to work with so many uncertainties, but to be fair the overlord wasn't that knowledgeable in this field to begin with. Despite being interested in space travel as a child, the amount of information one learned and memorized at such an age was scant to say the least.
In a few minutes however, he got his answer. "I can see it! A big rock coming straight towards me in the distance!"
Yes! Ainz shouted inwardly. Not all his knowledge was meaningless after all. "Alright. I want you to move out of its way. At the speed both you and the rock travel towards each other you will soon collide."
"Understood." In the next few moments however, the [Message] spell stopped functioning. "Damn!" Ainz shouted, stirring the mother dragon from her slumber. The message spell coming to a sudden and abrupt end could only mean a few things. One, the spell did have a range to it, which the dragon went out of. Two, he decided to rebel and severed the connection himself.
Three, and most likely considering the circumstances, he finally lost consciousness. Which would mean that the young dragon was descending towards the planet helplessly at an alarming speed. While frost dragons were light compared to some other members of their kind, they still weighed several tons, which meant that the gravitational pull could increase the force of his mass to staggering amounts.
The loss of a frost dragon didn't particularly concern Ainz but he wasn't done with this experiment yet. He needed to see the results that going that high into the sky had on a body made of flesh. A lot could be learned from it for future reference. He approached the alarmed dragon. "Your son is in danger. Will you help me rescue him?" The overlord asked.
She didn't hesitate. "I will." Afterwards Ainz could hear some quiet mumbling; "I knew it was a bad idea…" He elected to ignore her. A worrying mother's disrespectful words wasn't something he couldn't overlook. Luckily for her Albedo wasn't present to unceremoniously behead her either.
Ainz levitated himself onto her back and they took off. He soon realized how uncomfortable their journey would be as they were flying vertically towards the sky, which meant that gravity desperately tried to pull him off his ride. He quickly cast [Reverse Gravity], an anti gravity magic spell on both himself and the dragon, which alleviated some of his troubles as well as helped her increase the speed at which they ascended towards the sky. The issue of his uncomfortable angle at which he was positioned remained, and he started deeply regretting that he didn't strap himself to his ride with something before they took off, although he still managed to hold onto her back in the end.
He supported the dragon with everything he could think of; he continued to maintain the anti gravity spell he previously cast, then he cast [Flame Resistance] to protect her from getting fried alive, and he followed it up with [Temperature Change] to keep her body at an ideal temperature. He maintained these three spells on the dragon permanently, then he cast [Greater Strength] and [Greater Dexterity] to boost her physical capabilities and furthermore he periodically cast [Heal] on her too just to be safe. He was stumped when it came to supplying her with extra oxygen, but in the end he reasoned that by the time they reach the rapidly falling dragon she should still be completely fine.
The minutes turned into hours as the unlikely pair continued their rescue mission. They left the last cloud behind them a couple minutes ago. Ainz decided that the likelihood of the wind sweeping the unconscious dragon away from his original trajectory was highly likely thus he elected to spend all his daily summons to create twelve elder liches. It was somewhat of a waste as they would cease to exist in a couple of hours since the sky was severely lacking in corpses which they could use as a medium to remain in this plane of existence permanently, but he decided that acquiring the dragon's body was worth the cost. By this point he had so many undead in his army that they could probably overrun the continent effortlessly anyways.
He instructed the elder liches to spread a good distance apart from each other and maintain their positions through the usage of flight magic as they looked for signs of the falling dragon. Doing so drastically increased the party's range of vision.
While they weren't even close to as high up in the air as his young volunteer managed to venture, it was a pleasant discovery for Ainz when he realized that neither he nor his liches had trouble with the cold, the radiation, and, naturally, with the lack of oxygen. Whether it would remain so at higher altitudes was still a question though.
It didn't take long until one of his summons notified him. "I believe that I see it, Ainz-sama." A raspy voice sounded in his head. The overlord instructed his other summons to converge at the position of the elder lich and then he followed their example.
Indeed, a little object was headed their way. Soon it became clear that it was his treasured test subject. He cast [Life Essence] which told him that the dragon had exactly 0 HP, thus he wasn't simply unconscious but deceased. Since he was in a curious mood today Ainz decided that he would conduct an impromptu experiment on the pulling strength of gravity. Instead of slowing the rapidly falling body through [Reverse Gravity] he commanded his twelve elder liches to line up next to each other and catch the dragon with their bodies. Without opposition to his unreasonable command the undead lifted their hands above their heads in an attempt to catch him. They would soon disappear anyways, Ainz reasoned.
The dragon corpse got bigger and bigger as it descended swiftly until it collapsed into the makeshift net made of elder liches. With a loud bang many bones shattered and Ainz got bombarded with notifications of his summon links getting severed one after the other. They offered little resistance against the body which was extremely heavy at this point due to how much of a leeway gravity had to speed up its momentum. Their bones disintegrated as their undead essence left them. "Amazing! These twelve Elder Liches could've overtaken entire nations and they got absolutely obliterated, gravity is one almighty force!" He exclaimed inwardly.
He didn't have much time to wonder about what he had just witnessed however, as although the elder liches did manage to somewhat slow the corpse's descent it wasn't nearly enough. He cast his anti gravity magic on the dead dragon which severely lessened its weight and thus slowed its speed. With a loud slap on the dragon mother's back he brought her back to reality, as she was visibly distraught by the outcome of his previous experiment.
"Catch him." He instructed and she obliged, tenderly grasping her son with her talons. As he was an adolescent his weight was easy to support for the adult mother. "My son!" She cried out. It must've been easy to tell that her child was lifeless. "What have you done to him… Why is his body this hot?!"
"Probably due to the friction with the air caused by his over 50 kilometers (31 miles) long fall. He reasoned internally. "Focus on landing us safely. He will be revived and then rewarded." Ainz rationalized with the weeping mother. While he didn't particularly care about the dragon's life he could understand the pain of losing one's family member well enough. Casting revival magic wasn't a big deal, though if that didn't work out he wouldn't waste a magic item on the dragon. He cast [Message] and instructed Pestonya to meet them at the empty clearing this experiment started at.
He then cast [Gate], while remembering the memory he had of the view of the field in his head, and sure enough, despite them being so far up in the sky the spell manifested correctly. "Huh. Life isn't full of annoying hurdles after all." The overlord mused joyously.