Chapter VIII

Taking up about quarter of E-Rantel's outermost walled area in a huge block, occupying most of the western district, there was E-Rantel's Public Cemetery. Of course, other cities had cemeteries too, but none as gigantic as this one. They needed it to prevent undead from spawning.

How the undead spawned was still a mystery in many ways, but they often appeared, with their impure "life," in places where a living thing had met its end. If the people had died a tragic death or went unmourned, the chances of them coming back up from their own resting places were much higher. Which is why it was very common for them to spawn in ruins or places where battles had been fought.

Since E-Rantel was close to the sites of the many battles with the empire, they needed to build a huge cemetery, a place to mourn so that their dead wouldn't turn undead.

This went for the Empire as well, so both sides arranged it so that even though they were at war with each other, they would always make sure the other side could properly mourn their dead. Even if killing each other on the battlefield, it was easy to agree on the point that that the undead who attacked all the living out of hatred were the common enemy of humanity.

There was another problem with undead. If left alone, the chance that stronger undead would spawn skyrocketed. That's why adventurers and guards swept the graveyard every night and took out any possible undead while they were still just lower tier skeletons or zombies.

The graveyard was surrounded by a wall. It was the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Measuring about four meters, it was not as tall as the city walls, but it was fairly thick, it was possible to walk along the top and its few gates were sturdy, too. All this as precaution against the undead that spawned inside.

Flanking the gates were simple stone staircases leading to lookouts. Five men up there exchanged yawns while keeping watch.

Although it was nighttime, posts illuminated with Continual Light kept the place of death as bright as possible. That said, there were still pockets of darkness here and there, plus countless gravestones impeded visibility.

One guard wielding a spear gazed absentmindedly out over the cemetery as he said to the fellow by his side, "Quiet night." Then he yawned.

"Yeah. Just those five skeletons so far? Seems like the spawning rate went way down all of a sudden."

"Yeah. Maybe everyone's souls were called to be with the Four Gods. If so, we lucked out!"

The other guards joined in. "As long as it's skeletons and zombies, we can handle 'em…although skeletons are a pain to get with spears…"

"The worst one I ever saw was a wight."

"Mine's a skeleton centipede. If an adventurer on guard nearby hadn't run over I'd a been a goner."

"Damn, A skeleton centipede?! Those ugly ones only come out if you overlook the weak. Just wipe 'em out while they're wimpy, and we won't have to deal with the strong."

"Exactly! I never want to go through an ordeal like that ever again."

"But when you think about it like that…doesn't it kinda give you the creeps that nothing has spawned lately?"

"Why?"

"Well, like, maybe we're missing them or something…"

"You worry too much. Supposedly there aren't usually that many to begin with. There's talk that the reason we had such a high rate of appearance was because we were burying people who died in battles against the empire. In other words, maybe this is what it's like when there's no fighting."

The guards nodded at one another. Villages buried people just like they did, but they'd never heard of a place with so many undead.

"Supposedly the Katze Plain is just a mess."

"Yeah, the undead that spawn there are on a whole 'nother level."

The plain where the kingdom and the empire clashed was known as a region with frequent undead outbreaks, so adventurers requested by the kingdom and knights from the empire worked, each in their own sector, to clean it up. Sweeping the area was so important that the kingdom sent goods to maintain a little town built out there to support the people suppressing the undead. The Empire had built a wooden fort where many knights, usually the most restless and those who needed a little punishment, were detached.

"I heard a rumour that—" one of the guards started to say and then closed his mouth, staring at the cemetery.

One of the others got anxious. "Hey, if you're trying to scare us—"

"Quiet!" The one who had closed his mouth was looking toward the graveyard as if he could pierce the darkness if his gaze was hard enough. Everyone else followed his line of sight and looked, too.

"…Do you hear something?"

"Probably just your imagination."

"Nah, I don't hear anything, but it smells kinda like dirt. Like when we had to dig that one time? It smells like that."

"Okay, not funny. Cut it out."

"…Huh? Ah, hey! Look over there!"

One of the guards pointed out into the graveyard. Everyone turned to look.

Two guards were running frantically toward the gate. They were both breathing heavily, eyes wide and bloodshot, hair plastered to their foreheads with sweat.

The guards in the lookout had a bad feeling. Patrols went out in groups of at least ten. Why were there only two? Running desperately with no weapons, they could only be fleeing from someone. Or something.

"O-open up! Open the gate!"

A guard ran down the stairs in response to their panicked screams and opened it. The pair tumbled out of the graveyard as if they couldn't wait for the door to open. "The heck—?" the guard started to ask, but the patrollers, faces white as sheets, interrupted him, shouting with what little breath they had left.

"C-close the gate! Hurry!"

Frightened by how upset they were, all guards helped shut and bar the gate.

"What happened?! Where are the others?"

The guard who looked up to respond had sheer terror written all over his face. "Th-they were eaten! By the undead!"

Learning that eight of their comrades had been killed, the guards looked at their squad leader. He responded with orders.

"…Hey, someone go look from up top!"

One of them sprang up and started running up the stairs but froze partway.

"Wh-what's wrong?"

Trembling uncontrollably, the guard screamed back, "It's the undead! A huge mob of them!"

If they listened closely, they could hear a kind of squirming noise coming from the other side of the wall. Everyone followed the first guard, and one by one they were rendered speechless by the view.

A number of undead for which there were no words was coming across the graveyard, heading straight for them.

"What the heck? How are there so many…?"

"It's not even a hundred or two… There's gotta be…at least a thousand?!"

There were so many even just in the areas the light reached that they couldn't count them. Figuring in the human shapes wriggling in the darkness, their number was unfathomable.

The undead shuffled their swaying way to the gate in a horde, accompanied by the smell of rot. Among them were not only skeletons and zombies but also stronger undead, though not as many, like ghouls, ghasts, wights, swollskins and worse.

All guards were shaking now.

The proper city was behind another wall, so unless that too was breached, no residents would be attacked. But they weren't sure they could take this mob, even if they called for a general mobilization of all the guards. They may have been called "guards," but they were just burlier versions of regular citizens. They weren't confident they could subdue this many undead.

And some undead possessed the ability to turn anything they killed into the same type of monster. One wrong move and they'd be getting attacked by their undead comrades. On top of that, there weren't any flying ones now, but they knew that if they didn't wipe these out soon, some fiendish fliers would show up, and that terrified them even more.

The flood of undead reached the wall.

Bam-bam…

Undead with low intelligence made use of their inability to feel pain to beat on the gate with all their might. They must have known they'd get to attack some living things if they broke it down.

Bam-bam…

The repeated pounding sound, the squeaking of the hinges, the moaning of countless monsters.

They didn't need a battering ram. The mob of undead that rushed the gate without even considering if they could break it or not performed as well as any siege weapon.

The cold sweat that drenched the guards' backs when they saw that was like a bucket of ice water. "Ring the bell! Get help from the garrison! You two, alert the other gates this is an emergency!" The squad leader returned to his senses and started commanding. "The rest of you, use the spears to stab the undead near the gate from above!"

His voice reminded the guards what they were supposed to be doing, and they began plunging their spears into the throng of undead below. There were so many they couldn't even see the ground. They could stab at random and still skewer one. Thrust, wind up, thrust again.

Murky blood spilled, the reek of decomposing bodies numbed the noses of the guards and the repetitiveness of their frantic motions made them feel almost like zombies themselves. Several undead lost their un-lives, tumbled to the ground, and were trampled by the ones behind them.

"Since they were so lacking in intelligence, they didn't even give it a try to counterattack. Lulled by the repetitive task, the guards gradually began to relax.

But just as if the monsters had been waiting for that to happen, someone screamed, and when the others turned to look, one of their companions had something long wrapped and wriggling around his neck.

It had a slimy pink gleam to it: intestines. At the other end there was an egg-shaped, yet human like corpse with its front split wide open vertically. Inside the gaping cavity were more entrails than one person could ever possibly have, writhing like parasitic worms. It was an undead called an organ egg.

The squirming intestines yanked on the guard. "Yaaagh!" Faster than anyone could move to save him, he yelped and fell forward in the undead mob. "Help! Someone! Aaarghghyaa!" he shrieked at the top of his lungs.

The other guards had no choice but to witness their comrade's fate. Zombies piled onto every part of his body and began to eat him alive. The armour which protected his torso and the efforts he made to protect his head only prolonged the brutality. First his fingers went, then his calves, then his face was chewed apart…

"Fall back! Retreat behind the wall!" ordered the squad leader, seeing the organ egg's innards were wriggling again as if it was ready to attack once more.

Everyone rushed down the stairs. All the pounding behind them grew stronger and the screeches made it plain the door wouldn't last long.

The sense of tragedy gradually mounted. It didn't seem likely that the situation would turn around unless reinforcements arrived quickly, and the undead that appeared would only grow stronger. If the gate was destroyed, a tide of death would come flooding out and who knew how much damage would be done?

The moment all the guards' faces had turned a sickly shade of despair, a metallic clank sounded. Everyone instinctively turned to see where it had come from.

It was a warrior in full plate armor astride a magical beast with a pair of wise black eyes.

"H-hey! It's dangerous here! Hurry up and—" Having said that much, the guard noticed the metal plate hanging from the warrior's neck.

An adventurer!

But when he saw that it was copper, his slightly raised hopes deflated. There's no way an adventurer of the lowest possible rank will be able to turn this situation around! Disappointment shone in all the guards' eyes.

The warrior sprang lightly off the beast, as if he didn't weigh a thing.

"Didn't you hear me? Get away from here!"

The warrior drew a great sword.

"Hey, look behind you. Better watch out!"

The guards whipped around as if repelled by the sound of the warrior's voice and faced what they thought would be their end.

A shadow loomed taller than the wall. Countless corpses had gathered together to form an undead titan, a necroswarm giant. "Wahhhh!" As the guards yelled and went to flee every man for himself, an unexpected scene unfolded before their eyes.

The warrior held his sword like he was about to throw a javelin.

To do what?

The next moment answered that question. He threw it and at an unbelievable speed. Turning quickly back around to watch where it flew, they saw something even more unexpected.

The necroswarm giant, a colossal undead monster they never thought could be beaten, got knocked back as if it had taken a blow from an even bigger giant: it was defeated. As proof the colossus had fallen, a loud thud sounded over the squirming noises.

"That thing was in my way," was all he said before striding forward with his other sword drawn. "Open the gate."

For a moment the guards didn't realize what he'd said. They blinked a few times, and the warrior's words finally sank into their brains.

"D-don't be stupid! There's a huge mob of undead on the other side!"

"Oh? I'm Momon, that is not a problem for me?"

The guards were all overawed by the black warrior's overflowing confidence and couldn't say anything.

"…Well, if you don't want to open the gate, I guess I can't blame you. I'll just let myself in. The warrior took a running start, kicked off the cobblestones and vanished over the wall. He'd leaped ove wall in a single bound wearing full plate armor.

Am I seeing things?

Unable to process what had just happened, they all stared gape-mouthed at the space where no one was standing anymore.

A voice called out, though late, to stop the Dark Warrior.

"Please wait, that I beg you!" The voice's owner was the robust magical beast the warrior had been riding. It sounded as dignified as it looked.

"Away to my master's side I go! Master, wait for me, that I ask!" The magical beast scampered past the guards, agilely ascended the stairs and then jumped down to the other side of the wall.

After that, silence quickly spread.

It was as if a typhoon had gone by. How long did they stand dumbfounded in there? Then one guard realized something and said, his voice trembling, "Hey… Can you hear it?"

"What?"

"The noises the undead were making."

Even if they strained their ears, they couldn't hear a sound; all that silence had swallowed them up. No more pounding on the door.

Awestruck, the shivering guard murmured, "Wow, can you believe it? That one warrior…went in there against all those undead…and he actually broke through the mob…and is still going."

The guards were overcome by amazement and admiration. The reason the noises had stopped was that all the undead in the area had been drawn away by a new target. And the reason the noises didn't return was that the battle was still ongoing inside the cemetery, so the undead hadn't come back.

The guards ran to the top of the wall in disbelief. Could this be real? And then they gasped. "What…! That warrior, what the…?"

There were so many corpses lying around the guards couldn't see the ground. Some of them, weakly twitching, hadn't completely lost their negative life, but none were able to fight.

As they gaped, the sounds of a far-off battle drifted over on the putrid-smelling breeze.

"You gotta be kidding me… how is he still fighting?! He made an enemy of that whole mob… and broke through?! No way…"

"Who the heck is that guy?!"

"…He said his name was Momon, right? That copper plate has to be a mistake, right? He's gotta be one of those adamantite plates you hear rumors of, don't ya think?"

Everyone nodded to someone's muttering. There was just no way that was a copper-plate adventurer. He was a hero who had to have the highest-ranking plate. That was all they could think.

"We may have just witnessed the birth of a legend… The Dark Warrior… No, the Dark Hero…"

The others all nodded in agreement.

Every time his right arm moved, undead went flying. Every time his left arm moved, undead were sliced in two.

Momon had advanced like a tornado of one-hit death, but now he stopped. "You guys are such a pain." Holding both the great swords he'd remade with magic, he scanned the crowd of undead surrounding him with fed-up eyes. He addressed his sword, grimy with bodily fluids, to the monsters.

With a flurry of flinches, the undead tried to squirm away from him. Undead shouldn't have been able to feel fear, but they sure seemed scared of him now.

"…I apologize for the trouble, that I do." The voice came from above Momon—quite a ways above. The Wise King of the Forest was floating floppily, four legs splayed, in the air. Her hair drooped and her voice was cheerless.

"I'm sorry, that I am…"

The lower-tier undead with their subpar intelligence didn't immediately treat Momon as an enemy. Their senses were keenly attuned to life, so they took the one inside the armour to be one of them.

But they weren't going to miss the living Wise King of the Forest. As a result, Momon was drawn into a brawl, and to avoid the albeit medium-low possibility that the beast would be injured by so many undead, he had to quickly toss a an item at Hamsuke. It was a necklace with a bird wing charm, but with the Wise King of the Forest not having a neck, the hamster bore it as a bracelet. Still, it worked just fine keeping the magical beast in mid-air, safe from all the bony foes. But the gigantic hamster was sorry about inconveniencing Momon, also it looked a bit worried as flying for the first time made it uneasy.

Momon took one step forward and the mob took one step back: the distance between them didn't change one bit and the circle remained intact. The many undead around moved according to how he moved. They seemed to be looking for openings to attack, but if they set one foot inside the circle, they would be destroyed in one hit. Which is why they simply encircled him and none were attacking. It was the result of the low-intelligence monsters finally learning, after a ridiculous amount of repetition, that they'd be annihilated if carelessly approaching the Dark Warrior.

"I'm not going to get anywhere at this rate…" Momon was grumbling about the annoying amount of undead still remaining. If he were to make a real attempt at getting by, he'd plow right through this mob. But if he barreled ahead and the undead spread out, the guards back there might be killed. If that happened he would lose the sole witnesses who would testify he resolved the incident; to minimally guarantee their safety, he needed to draw off at a good chunk of the monsters. It did slow his progress, though.

Perhaps it would have been better to wait until the undead had breached the gate and racked up scores of human casualties, to then avenge them together with Oshiku-san, but I am not so well informed as to the aim of the enemy, the war potential of this city and so on. It's also possible that another team would swoop in to steal the show while I was just standing around. But now I need someone to keep the mob busy…

Momon whipped around to see how far from the gate they had come and to check if the guards could see them. Luckily, the wall was distant enough and most of the Continual Lights in the area had been destroyed by the mob. Good…"Time's short. I'll have some guys deal with them for us."

He unleashed a power. "[Create Middle-Tier Undead: Jack the Ripper], [Create Middle-Tier Undead: Corpse Collector]." As the skill was used, two monsters appeared.

One wore a trench coat and had its face covered with a laughing mask. Its fingers turned into oversize, sharp scalpels partway through.

The other had a robust enough physique, but its body was covered in pus and all wrapped in yellowed bandages. At the ends of chains anchored to its flesh by several hooks were moaning skulls.

"Get 'em."

Taking his order, those sprang at the surrounding mob. There were only two of them, but their power was overwhelmingly superior. While the Jack the Ripper sliced off limbs with its scalpels and the Corpse Collector ripped off heads with its chains, Momon took an added measure.

"Those plus these should be good. Create Lower-Tier Undead: Wraith, Create Lower-Tier Undead: Bone Vulture." He summoned a few of each and gave them all specific orders. "If anyone tries to enter this graveyard, chase them out. If they persist, you can injure them, but no killing."

The wraiths drifted into the air and the bone vultures flapped their bone wings. Ainz chuckled to himself in satisfaction that his preparation was complete. He'd dispatched the lower-tier undead to make sure nobody stole this great job out from under his nose to swoop in and defeat the ringleader.

"Now, then, shall we?" Thanks to the Corpse Collector and the Jack the Ripper, the mob now had fight them and Momon was left alone despite the squirming hamster.

"You can get back down, Hamsuke. And be ready to fight."

It obliged and happily went back with his paws on the ground with a sigh.

Momon gripped his swords and walked forward.

Accompanied by his new pet, Momon reached the mausoleum farthest back and saw a group of suspicious-looking people doing something in a circle outside. The black robes concealing each member were not dyed very well, so there were patches of lighter and darker areas. Black triangular caps covered their heads except for the eyes. A strange pattern was carved into the ends of the wooden staves they held. The many figures were all different heights, but judging by their silhouettes, they were all males.

Only one, standing in the middle of the circle and looking a bit like an undead himself, had his face uncovered; the impression he made was not so shabby. In his hand he clutched a black stone, and it seemed like he was focusing his spirit on it.

The wind carried the sound of undulating murmurs to where the two stood; sometimes high-pitched, sometimes low. The harmonizing undertones sounded almost like a prayer, but this was no solemn service for the dead. It was more like some kind of blasphemous, evil ritual.

"Should we launch a sneak attack, master?" Hamsuke agitated his tail as it spoke softly so that only Momon could hear, but he shook his head.

"That won't work, they've already noticed us." Because neither of them had stealth skills, at least on open ground, they walked right over. They'd avoided the few lights, but if their opponents had Night Vision, they'd be able to spot them as if it were the middle of the day. And in Momon's experience, there was a mental connection between summoned monsters and the summoner. There was no way their approach hadn't been sensed after they'd killed that many.

There were actually a few people looking right at them. Ainz guessed the reason they didn't attack immediately was that he wasn't the only one who wanted to talk, so they walked straight toward them.

When they reached the light, the members of the group braced themselves, and one of them spoke to the man in the center. "Lord Khajit, they're here."

Well, now I know they're idiots… Or I guess it could be a fake name. I'll take it with a grain of salt.

"Hello there! Don't you think it's a waste to perform a boring ritual on such a beautiful night?"

"Hmph, I'm the one who decides what night is appropriate for a ritual. More importantly, who are you? How did you break through that mob of undead?" The man in the center of the circle—Khajit, if it wasn't a fake name—did seem to be the highest-ranking one among them and addressed Ainz on behalf of the group.

"I'm an adventurer who undertook a request. I'm looking for a certain boy… I'm sure I don't even have to say his name for you to know who I mean." As the members of the group shifted into subtly more defensive positions, Ainz whispered, "Okay, then," under his breath. The possibility they were members of a different group who had just gotten mixed up in the incident vanished.

As Khajit scanned the area, Ainz smiled wryly at him from under his helmet.

"Are you the only ones? Any others?"

Ha-ha, what? Who asks that? I get that you're worried about an ambush, but maybe you should think a little more before you start chitchatting. This guy must just be another pawn. Ainz seemed to have lost interest as his shoulders slumped. Then he replied, "It's just us. We flew in a straight shot."

"That's a lie. That can't be."

Sensing something in those words of conviction, Ainz countered, "Whether you believe it or not is up to you. More pertinently, if you return the boy unharmed, you won't have to die, Khajit."

Khajit glanced at the foolish disciple who'd said his name. "What's your name?"

"Tell me something first. There's someone besides you guys, isn't there?"

Khajit shot Ainz an icy stare.

"We're it."

"It's not just you guys! You must have someone with a stabbing weapon… so you're trying to hide them? Or are they scared of us?"

Suddenly a woman's voice came from inside the mausoleum. "Hahaha, so you investigated those corpses, I seeee. Nicely done." She slowly moved into view, jangling with each step.

"You—"

She heard the harshness in his voice and smiled guiltily. "Ehhh, you've figured it out already, no point in hiding. Plus, I can't use Conceal Life, so I really was just hiding."

Even though Momon had told them what he was after, they were not holding Nfirea for ransom. He was considering the possibility that he had already been killed when the woman spoke to him.

"So, hey, can I get your name, Mr. Guy? Oh, I'm Clementine. Nice to meet ya."

"…I don't think there's any point in you hearing it, but it's Momon."

"I've never heard of him…have you?"

"I dunno him, either. I collected all the info on high-ranking adventurers in this town, but there was no Momon. How did you even find this place? I had left ya those dying words about the sewers!"

"The answer is under your cape. Let's see it."

"Whoa, pervert! You dirty lech!" Having said that much, her face twisted into a grin that sliced across her face ear to ear. "Just kidding. You mean these?"

Clementine flipped open her cape to reveal something that looked like gleaming scale armor. But Momon, and Hamsuke as well, with their superior vision saw what it was right away. Those were not the tabs of metal used to make scale armor.

They countless adventurer plates: copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum. There were even sparkles of mythril and orichalcum among them. These were the marks of all the adventurers she had killed, her hunting trophies.

The rubbing of metal on metal was almost like innumerable resentful voices.

"Those told us where you were."

Clementine pulled a face that said she was surprised, but Momon wasn't in an explaining mood.

"Enough wasting time. Now, let's see if we can end this quickly… Hamsuke, fall back."

The hamster leaped away with great speed and an instant later something was unleashed by the Dark Warrior.

Khajit's underlings were all sprawled on the ground. In front of Momon were still standing two shadows only, both a little shaky. Even if they had items that protected them from [Despair Aura Level V]'s instadeath, the overwhelmingly oppressive wave of dark energy took away most of their courage. Still, they did quickly recover, thinking Momon had used his trump card.

The Dark Warrior spoke, a little satisfied: "Well, at least those are out of the way and now each of us has got one opponent."

While the Wise King of the Forest had his whiskers slightly trembling, Momon told it:

"Hamsuke, you take Khajit. I'll get this lady." Then he dropped his voice and told its pet monster to keep an eye on the sky.

"Understood, master. This one shall prevail or die trying, that I swear"

Khajit's face was something between a bitter smile and a sneer. The Wise King of the Forest shot him a determined look.

"Clementine, how about we go kill each other over there?" He strolled away in the mist without even waiting for her response. He was sure she would not be objecting and the footsteps following leisurely after him confirmed it. She was cheerfully humming.

I'll make you die in despair, Momon promised to himself.