Anomalous Solutions to Magical Problems

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Overlord or Tales from the SCP Foundation, and I earn no profit in writing this. It's just for fun.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I got a comment from a guest reviewer asking what inspired this story. Anyone who reads my work knows I like crossovers, the stranger the better. As to this one? I had been thinking about a new Strange Days chapter and this occurred to me. Too long for a Strange Days fic, and I just started to write. Took a while to get it right, and I hope my efforts are appreciated.

A

Chapter 7

He waited and waited, knowing eventually that his host would grow bored waiting for Ainz to continue to entertain him. To all outward appearance, he seemed to be sitting peacefully, untroubled by his surroundings. He was casting every detection spell he knew and conserving his energy otherwise. The struggles so far had taxed his magical reserves; however, he was far from depleted and his magical strength returned quickly. If his host waited long enough, he would face Ainz Ooal Gown at full strength.

Sadly, the next attack came before he had finished laying his planned array of detection spells. There was barely any warning as a hand reached out of the ground, gripped his ankle, and yanked hard. He landed almost immediately, but with a force that he would have expected to experience after falling for several minutes.

Pulling his leg free from his attacker's grip, he rolled to his feet to find a withered undead in ragged trousers and an open vest. The toothless mouth seemed to grin at him as the sunken yellow eyes watched him closely.

"Are you the master of this place or another tool sent to irritate me?" As he asked, Ainz assessed his status. He had taken impact damage from the fall and burn damage to his leg from the thing's grip. Its skin seemed to secrete a powerful corrosive. Even as he regenerated the damage, Ainz made note of the new threat's nature and mode of attack. It had manipulated reality with an impressive precision to accomplish that attack, causing a brief fall to cause that level of damage.

He had little doubt that he now faced the master of this place.

The thing made no answer, but moved to engage directly, apparently aiming for a contest of brute strength. Ainz met the rush with a magical shield that dealt damage to the attacker. The undead, which looked more like the week-old corpse of an old man than any kind of credible threat, was catapulted backwards and landed a short distance away in an undignified heap.

"Do you really think I'm foolish enough to grapple with an enemy that secretes acid?" Ainz asked as he unleashed a powerful energy blast that curved away from his foe, which was annoying but not overly surprising.

There was no answer to his question as his enemy sank into the ground. Ainz cast additional spells intended to counter attacks from below, ready for the next attack. They didn't help. Gravity suddenly reversed itself, and Ainz found himself falling into the sky.

He quickly cast spells to slow his fall and to reinforce his body in several ways. As before, they ate up more magical energy than they should, but his reserves were still within an acceptable limit. He couldn't see what he was falling towards, but suspected it wouldn't matter. The reality could change at a moment's notice to suit his host's whim.

As he fell, he took stock of his own condition. He had healed the impact damage without issue, but the acid damage was slower to respond to his magic. There were creatures and substances that were naturally resistant to magic, and it seemed his host and the corrosive substance he secreted were among them. There were ways around such things, though. Most involved using brute force, but that wasn't really an option. The best approach seemed to be countering its nature at a fundamental level. He almost had enough information about the creature to make such an attempt. Knowing his enemy's basic nature and how his magics held the undead form together should allow him to disrupt those magics, but they seemed quite different from the magics that held his own bones together. Still, every encounter taught him more.

The impact came, eventually, and the spells he had cast saved him from the most serious damage. Like virtually everything else his foe had done, the fall taught him something new about his enemy's abilities and limitations. Ainz could tell he was forcing his adversary to exert himself in ways he normally didn't. How far the strange master of this place would or could go to kill him was still unclear, but Ainz was beginning to see a way forward.

There were patterns, and that meant potential weaknesses to exploit. Using the environment seemed to be the primary form of attack. Direct physical assaults were limited to grappling, apparently. The nature of the changes his host had made suggested either limited ability or limited imagination. Ainz wasn't sure which.

He needed more information about his enemy, and decided that giving the creature what it wanted and grappling with it might be the best solution. Once in physical contact, he could examine the enemy's composition and the nature of its power more easily. The downside was the risk. The creature's touch was corrosive and even Ainz' ability to regenerate himself had limits.

This is going to hurt, he concluded, after examining his current options.

He was deliberately slow to rise from where he had landed, giving the impression of being hurt far worse than he was. The ruse worked and his enemy moved in to engage directly. The grip on his ankle as the creature rose out of the ground was the first clue that it had worked. Ainz was yanked off his feet and thrown hard against a stone wall. Then, the enemy was on him.

Each touch did damage. The corrosive substance it produced was capable of eating through metal and could even dissolve Ainz' bones if allowed time. Were it to touch his heart, it might well end him, but Ainz knew by now that his enemy was too cruel to end any fight quickly. This gave the sorcerer king the advantage. He took the damage willingly, studying the effects of the corrosive substance and the forces that animated the creature he struggled with.

It took considerable strength, he quickly learned, to do any damage to his enemy, and that damage regenerated quickly. It was, Ainz realized, on par with his own regenerative ability. It was clearly not used to physical combat, but was doing its best. As its touch was enough to kill, his enemy had never bothered to learn to fight properly.

This, too, was an advantage that Ainz was happy for and exploited to minimize the damage he took, as he studied his opponent. Damage of different types all regenerated at the same rate, and the creature didn't seem to have any special immunities beyond being exceptionally tough. Gaging its strength was a simple matter now, but he quickly realized that while he was stronger, applying that strength long enough to do damage injured him as well. It quickly got to the point of diminishing returns.

There was a way to win, but he would need to push himself to the limits of his endurance. He needed to use spells that would attack his host's very nature, breaking him down on a fundamental level, what he would have called in his original world a molecular level. This could be accomplished in several ways and he would need to experiment a bit to find the most effective. First, though, a distraction might be nice.

Attacks intended to damage the mind; everything from inflicting confusion, panic inducing terror and mind-bending hallucinations rolled off the creature as they would off Ainz himself. It had to be tried, though.

He began by channeling an electrical current through the creature, not enough to make it warry, but enough to tell if he was having an effect. The result was encouraging, but he realized that it would require the equivalent of multiple lightning strikes to destroy his enemy. While doable, he decided it was best to keep looking.

He tried extreme heat next and found it next to useless. Temperatures that would cook human flesh barely got the creature's attention. Producing higher temperatures was possible, but his magic had limits, and the time necessary to do the requisite damage would exhaust him before his enemy was destroyed.

Each attempt, however, taught him more and brought him closer to victory. His enemy's reaction to intense cold followed by heat sufficient to reduce human flesh to ash provided the last puzzle piece. He needed an almost new spell.

There was, in his repertoire, a spell meant to break down an enemy's armor regardless of how tough it was. In the original game, it had been known as 'Armor Eater.' It acted to reduce the durability of an opponent's equipment. The game, of course, hadn't been specific as to how it was done, but experimentation in the new world had shown it ate away at a material like acid, without the use of chemicals. It was never intended to work on living creatures, but he was fairly sure that his current foe didn't qualify. The spell would still need to be tweaked, though, and it would take a lot of his magic to completely destroy his enemy. To add to the complexity of the situation, he would need to interweave the new spell with one that would disrupt his foe's magic.

He was unsure what effect that would have beyond interfering with the creature's ability to heal itself. It was a risk, but a necessary one.

He set to work on the spells as he did his best to buy time, trying and deliberately failing various 'low-powered' options to hold his enemy's interest without wasting too much of his limited magic.

A bright flash of light to blind his enemy and a powerful kick that would have killed many creatures was largely ignored, but it bought Ainz a little breathing room to concentrate on his new spell. Conjuring a shield that fit like skin as he grappled with the thing bought him more time, and he made sure to let the shield 'fail' before his enemy decided to back away.

He was still not entirely sure his plan would work, but there was no time to try anything else. Each new and ineffective tactic was just a delaying action, and while he took some damage, he was able to minimize it while seeming to struggle with his foe. Fortunately, his foe seemed unaware that Ainz' struggles were at least partially feigned, but his time to act and finish the fight was quickly running out.

By the time the spells were ready, his magic was starting to wane. He still didn't know what killing his enemy would do to the subdimension, but there was no real choice. One of the biggest problems was that it required him to hold his enemy still while the spell worked, so he could make any adjustments necessary on the fly. It was not ideal, but it was all he had.

Immobilizing the creature as best he could, he cast his spells. First, the one to disrupt his enemy's magic, followed instantly by the new spell so there would be no time to react. The nature of its struggles changed dramatically. Instead of trying to overcome Ainz' defenses and damage his bones, it began to struggle to escape. The production of the corrosive substance it sweated increased, but the spell to interfere with its magic kept the extra from doing as much damage as it normally would have.

It still increased the level of damage he was taking, but it was bearable, as Ainz could tell his enemy was suffering as well. Ainz began supplementing his magical attack with physical attacks as his foe began to weaken. Breaking one or both of its legs forced it to divert energy to repair the damage. Gouging out its eyes was also effective.

Although the very act of doing so hurt him badly, he was able to keep his opponent close and give the spells time to work. Gradually, the new Armor Eater variant wore away at his enemy's body while the spell to disrupt magic kept him from repairing the damage nearly as quickly as it once had.

Ainz found that he couldn't spare the concentration to reinforce or regenerate his own body and realized this was to be a war of attrition. Which one could outlast the other? He drove a knee into his enemy's gut and felt something give. This was a first, and he took it as a hopeful sign. To balance that hope, he could actually see the bones of his hands growing thinner as the enemy's corrosive fluid ate away at them.

When his left hand crumbled, he made use of the sharp points at the end of what had been his wrist and drove them as deeply as he could into his opponent's eyes and pressed farther into the thing's brain. However alien the creature's physiology might have been, it still apparently used the brain to think and plan. The sharp bones driven into its gray matter seemed to inhibit those processes.

This bought him time as his foe stopped struggling for a precious moment, and Ainz repaired some of the damage his body had taken before refocusing and pouring everything into his efforts to end the thing before him.

It began to move and struggle again all too soon.

Ainz couldn't tell how long it took. Time seemed almost meaningless in the creature's strange pocket dimension. At the very least, he had no way to measure its passage. Finally, though, his foe's regeneration slowed and ultimately failed. It took still longer to inflict enough damage to kill it, but eventually it stopped moving and its form began to decay rapidly, almost melting before his eyes, until there remained nothing but a scattering of timeworn bones.

"It seems that time catches up with all of us," he mused. Then, he stood, though somewhat shakily. That was not the last challenge he would face, and Ainz knew it. Gathering the dregs of his magical power, putting aside the regeneration of his injuries for the moment, he reached out with all his magical senses, seeking an exit.

At first, he found nothing. The place was beginning to slide into chaos, that much he could tell, but he didn't see a path back to Nazarick. In places, the structures he could see and even the landscape were beginning to melt.

He reviewed everything he knew about sub-dimensions, pocket dimensions, and alternate realities. Anything that might help. He knew that when a bag of holding or similar storage device was destroyed, everything inside it was lost, but nothing living could be stored in such a device, so that wasn't terribly helpful, as no one knew what such a collapse looked like from inside the bag. He could think of experiments to run that might answer that question, but it had honestly never occurred to him.

Had I known I would someday be trapped in a collapsing pocket dimension, I would have prioritized such research, he thought ruefully. All he had, though, was speculation and the observations he could make at the moment. He could sense the place coming apart at a fundamental level. That didn't help, as he needed to see what was beyond. Lacking any better ideas, he began to dig. The spell he used was meant for destroying enemy fortifications, and it took a fair amount of effort in his current state. It seemed to be getting him somewhere, though.

After digging for a time, he hit something the spell couldn't penetrate. It took a few agonizing minutes to clear a large enough area for a proper analysis. While it looked like rock, it wasn't. Far too hard, with a structure that defied the quick and dirty examination he was able to do. Whatever it was, it acted as bedrock for the subdimension, for lack of a better analogy. The only good news was that it was growing brittle and starting to flake in places. The bad news was that it was happening far too slowly for the degeneration to be of any use to him. He needed to speed things up.

His admittedly hasty analysis suggested that the Armor Eater spell would speed things up, especially if he applied some good old fashioned brute force as well. He still didn't know for certain that this was a way out, but it was the best option he had. He cast his spell and began to pound on the exposed bedrock. He had not been able to fully regenerate yet, but he couldn't wait. His bones cracked more readily that the stone, but he didn't stop. Ainz kept fighting to get through the barrier.

When he was forced to pause to heal his injuries, at least enough for him to continue, he examined the subdimension around him. The melting, for lack of a better word, of the subdimension that he had observed earlier had gotten worse. There were now places where he could see what lay beyond, and what he saw was not encouraging.

There was nothing beyond the rents in the fabric of the pocket reality he had been dragged into. A starless void awaited that seemed to tug at his mind. The empty space he could see was, in a manner he couldn't understand, moving. It moved in a way that hurt his brain to look on. There was nothing there, but that nothing writhed and twisted in ways that forced him to look away, lest his mind break. It made no sense, and he redoubled his efforts to break through the rock in hopes of finding something, anything, else.

It took time, almost more time than he had, but finally the rock cracked and light poured through. After the first cracks had formed, it was relatively easy to force them wider, but still took more energy than he liked. He tumbled out onto the barren ground of floor 5. He looked back up, but there was nothing to see. The opening to the thing's sub-dimension, if it still existed, was not detectable from outside. He took a moment to assess his surroundings and his own condition. He was safe for the moment, but he was in no condition to help his people.

His magic was all but exhausted, though it would regenerate more quickly now that he was free of that place. His injuries were extensive, but they could be mended. For the moment, he couldn't do anything to help his servants. His children. That would be remedied soon enough, though. He just needed time.

OOOOOOOOOO

FIVE MINUTES EARLIER

The hill gave a fine view of Nazarick, the Lich's stronghold. Evileye looked to her foreign allies and their odd offering skeptically as they removed it from a colorful and strangely flimsy box.

"This will destroy Nazarick?" she asked, eyeing the strange object.

"It will," Toby assured her. "I've verified that the place's defenses are in shambles. Normally, an attack like this would be canceled out without the defenders doing anything, but the items and creatures we have snuck in have done a lot of damage. This will work."

"It looks like a child's plaything," she observed.

"It is," Jerry admitted, "but the person that made it made a rather large error. It is far more powerful than it was ever meant to be. "This 'plaything' caused a significant amount of damage before the jailers locked it away."

"Jailers?" Evileye asked, before remembering an earlier conversation with the foreign mage. "Ah, yes. You told me about them, although I am not certain I understand the nature of your conflict."

"That's complicated," Jerry admitted. "Let's just say they have a very black and white view of the world where as my colleagues and myself are more… ah, nuanced."

"It doesn't really matter," Toby shrugged. "SCP 4052 will do the trick for you. You just need to activate it."

Evileye removed the covering from the odd-looking container full of sand and watched in bemusement as the sand rearranged itself to mirror the landscape before them. She had seen similar magic before. Some court mages used magic to create topographical maps of enemy territory and fortifications for their lords during times of war, or to reshape gardens in times of peace. The scale, however, was always too small to accomplish the task before her. It would take a massive amount of magic to accomplish what her odd allies claimed it was capable of, and she wasn't sensing any. That meant that this was something besides magic, or the magic being used was utterly alien to anything she knew.

"It may not look impressive or even magical," Jerry assured her, "but it is both."

She wondered if that was how the man who introduced himself as Jerry had been able to get spies and magical artifacts inside the tomb. It would explain a lot. Regardless, the only way to satisfy herself that it worked would be to test it.

"Best get started, then," Evileye agreed. Giving into a whim, she raised one foot and positioned it above the mound representing Nazarick before pushing down. The effect that had was startling despite her expectations. Even as the mound of sand beneath her had flattened, the hill that disguised the tomb was forced into the ground, debris spreading out in all directions. She paused to stare, barely believing the power of the artifact before her. That should not have been possible. She withdrew her foot and then slowly dragged her fingers through the clay sand in the strange looking receptable, and watched as deep trenches appeared in the wreckage of the tomb.

It made no sense. The sheer amount of magic required for such a feat was beyond even her, and she couldn't detect the magic driving the effect at all. One of the few things she had been able to determine about Nazarick was that it extended deep underground, so she dug in. There was some resistance, as if there were hard pieces of clay hidden in the sand, but those quickly crumbled. She watched the place that used to be the stronghold of the greatest threat her world had known in centuries become a rubble filled crater as she kneaded and stirred the sand in the strange container. Finally, she withdrew her hands and dusted them off before casting a variety of detection spells.

"Nothing. I sense no life within the crater and nothing undead. It's over." Her tone suggested she could barely believe what she was seeing. Jerry and Toby both examined the wreckage via their own means.

"She's right," Toby agreed. "Most of the anomalies in there got scrunched, and even the one or two tough enough to survive it aren't going to be a problem, especially with a little help." He raised a hand and concentrated.

"What are you…?" Jerry began, then caught on. "Oh! Yes. Excellent idea." Before them, the mound seemed to settle a bit. Evileye could see and feel the change. The mound of rubble that had been Nazarick was compacting and solidifying into a single massive stone. Anything dangerous within that mass would be staying there, very likely till the end of time.

"And that," Jerry said with some satisfaction, "is that."

"I should think so," Evileye admitted as she thought quickly. While she, herself, would have been capable of such a feat, it would have taken an absurd amount of magic. What Toby had done, though, hadn't involved any magic at all. Not that she could feel. There were a few possible reasons for this, she realized, and none of them filled her with confidence about her chances should her allies turn hostile.

"With Ainz Ooal Gown and his lackeys dealt with, I think our business here is done." Jerry glanced at Toby. The other man shrugged.

"It's a pretty interesting place," Toby allowed, "and I wouldn't mind seeing more of it, but we don't really have time."

"Indeed," Jerry agreed, "we've got things to do back home, and this world doesn't need our problems spilling over."

"Or yours spilling into ours," Toby admitted as the foreign mage busied himself with some arcane mechanism or perhaps it was some piece of advanced technology. Evileye decided it hardly mattered.

"I am glad to hear you say that," she admitted, feeling it best to be perfectly clear. The entire world owed these people, so the least she could do was be honest with them. "We are more grateful for your help than I can say, but frankly, the power of the artifacts you have brought here frightens me." She gestured at the sandbox. "Please take that back to wherever you got it."

Jerry nodded. "Of course. We'll collect the anomalous objects that survived this little venture. It shouldn't take long."

"Thank you," she said sincerely.

"It's definitely been an adventure," Toby said, offering a friendly smile. "Much as I'd like to see more of this place, though, Jerry's right; we've got troubles at home that need our attention. Take care of yourself, okay?"

"You do the same," she said, doing her best to mask her relief.

OOOOOOOOOO

Jerry sat back in his armchair and surveyed their collection. The smaller items rested on the table before them, while the larger items were stored in a nearby warehouse which had been rendered uninteresting with some rather nuanced magic. "We got about 76% of them back, and those that we didn't retrieve have been confirmed irretrievable."

"Think we'll be able to convince the skippers of that?" Toby asked.

"I can't say I really care," the mage replied flippantly.

"Most of the ones missing are things better destroyed anyway," he shrugged. "Latest report indicates they sent people to that world to retrieve their anomalies. They might cause some trouble for the locals."

"I'll drop a note to Evileye, but they won't cause much trouble. Too used to keeping a low profile here." He would include a list of the objects known to be destroyed and a bit of proof as well that she could pass on the Foundation.

"Yeah," Toby nodded. "They've got that whole die in the dark to live in the light thing going on."

"Don't dismiss them so readily," Jerry chided. "They have their part to play, as do we." He considered the collection of anomalous objects. "There are many potential uses for these. Many problems that could be solved."

Toby nodded in agreement.

"So, let's plan."

OOOOOOOOOO

Cole stared at the readings in confusion. Several of the anomalies had simply winked out of existence. Or they were taken somewhere else, he realized. As he watched, several other anomalies they had been tracking vanished as well.

"Could the Serpent's Hand know we're here and are relocating them?" Winken asked for the GOC contingent.

"That would be my guess." Schaefer chimed in.

"Why bring them here in the first place, though?" Nod wondered aloud.

"I believe I can answer that question," a female voice answered.

They turned to find a blonde woman in a red cloak and mask standing with several others, eyeing the dimension-hopping soldiers warily.

"Really?" Cole stood from the table at the tavern they had chosen to have lunch in. The backroom had cost a bit, but the privacy was worth it. At least, he had thought so at the time.

"I am called Evileye, a sorceress and adventurer. I know from agents of the Serpent's Hand who you are and why you are here. I assure you; our intentions are not hostile. Will you hear me out?"

Cole nodded. The others stayed seated, but he knew their weapons were at the ready if needed. He didn't know how this woman was connected to the Hand, but if she had useful information, and was feeling chatty, it would be worth listening.

"Thank you. You've met Ainz Ooal Gown, correct?"

"We have." Cole confirmed.

"Do you know how many people the lich has butchered in his drive to conquer our world?"

"We don't," Cole answered honestly, a bit taken aback by the question. He knew the elder lich had conquered the kingdom they were currently in, but had not looked into the details. It hadn't been their concern. "Not to be insensitive, but learning your history wasn't our priority. We needed to get back what the Hand stole. Those objects and creatures are our responsibility, and I think you've likely realized by now that some are very dangerous."

The woman gave a slight shudder. "Yes. I realize that. Which is why I asked them to take their 'anomalies' back where they came from." She shook her head. "Our world has enough troubles without importing someone else's."

"Very wise," Cole agreed. "We've dealt with a few of the anomalies while we were here and retrieved a couple of others. There are some, though, that we must be sure of, for everyone's sake."

The woman nodded. "I understand. I'll tell you what I know, and then you can go home." She motioned for Cole to sit and took a seat at the table as well. Her companions stayed on guard, while Evileye began to talk.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Well, this is a pretty mess." O5-1 leaned back in his chair and regarded the only other two council members in the room before glanding at the split screen showing the others. "Thoughts?"

"Can I simply be glad that SCP-106 is dead and gone?" O5-8 asked.

"Certainly," 05-1 said magnanimously. "I think we're all happy about that, but it doesn't solve the primary problem. We can confirm the destruction of several dangerous anomalies, but that doesn't relieve us of the responsibility to recover those that still exist and are still in enemy hands."

"We can all agree on that point as well," 05-4 said. "We need to find the other stolen anomalies." He looked to the others. "So, let's plan."

THE END FOR NOW