Ainz braced himself for pain- but it never came. He felt a slight pressure, as if he had been hit by a soft pillow, followed by a hiss. He had blocked the attack with a limb, so even if he had been hurt it wouldn't have been a fatal wound.
With his attention now undivided and now undistracted by other things, the turned to look at the attacker. It was a snakeman, though unlike the others he had seen. He was almost twice as large, and his scales were a deep azure blue, not to mention they were larger as well. He hissed revealing a row of fangs, and there was something about his appearance that made Ainz think that he might be part dragon and not entirely snakeman. In one of his hands he held a silver trident whose prongs were illuminated by blue light- clearly a magic item of some sort. He wore no armor, likely because his scales counted as natural armor- strange how such a thing carried its way over from Yggdrasil. He had two earings, one red and one blue, and a necklace adorned with what looked like diamonds.
This newcomer glared at Ainz. Normally, one would need to be wary of the Naja's paralytic gaze- though as an undead, this posed no threat to him.
"What was that?" the thing asked, no panic in its voice, but a hint of confusion. "How did you esssscape unharmed? What kind of Martial Art was that?"
The others leapt into action. Dantallion shrieked and hid away as far as he could (so in his case, he leapt into inaction), while Neia loosened an arrow that failed to penetrate the snakeman's hide. Boobeebee moved to shield the Zern prince, offering her body as a natural shield. She said something though it was muffled by panic and Ainz could not understand it.
Remedios swung at the creature, but it was deflected, and before she could press any kind of advantage, it swung back with several strikes that forced her into a defensive position. The strikes were not extremely impressive for one of Ainz's level- though the fact that he could keep up with Remedios spoke to this thing's ability.
"You... are you Rokesh?" Remedios asked, seemingly recognizing the creature.
"Ah, it does please this one that this one's name is such well known to be recognized," it said. "Indeed, that is I, though based on your appearance, human, you are the Paladin Captain I was told to watch out for, no? Retardios, was it not?"
"Remedios!"
"Ah, I was wondering what the commotion was about," he said. He glared at Boobeebee. "So, you're decided to turn traitor, have you? The Death Emperor will wipe out your tribe for thissss."
"We are already done if not for our prince," Boobeebee said.
The snakeman turned his gaze to Suzuki. "What was that you used? Was it [Fortress]? Or [Impenetrable Fortress]?"
Ainz remained quiet- even though he had no knowledge of martial arts there was no need to give his enemy information like that.
And, given the fact that he had taken no damage, it meant that he had a rough idea how strong this creature was.
"Ah, you do seem quite strong," Anz said. "Tell you what, I'm assuming you're high up in the ranks with this... Death Emperor?"
"Ah yes... human... what of it?"
"Why not defect to our side?" Ainz asked. A strange noise came from the snakeman- it took a moment for Ainz to recognize it as laughter.
"Join you... human? And what other than certain death would await me? You cannot fight the Death Emperor, your Queen has been taken care of, your heroesss are ssscattered, no, the fight is over for you- not for me. I would extend the offer of bending the knee to the Death Emperor, though he has no use for vassals such as yourselves."
At the mention of the Holy Queen, Remedios's grip tightened on her sword. "Take this! [Heaven's Fury]!" She called out Safarlisia's signature technique- and her blade glowed brightly and almost doubled in length. The attack, which could only be used once a day, appeared as a wave of light from the sword. As it was a wave of light- it could not be blocked by armor or other techniques, and the only way to avoid it was to leap out of the way of the blow. However, the blade's glow, which was all the more awry depending on how evil the target was, would usually make dodging it nearly impossible.
The snakeman squinted as he saw the light, and it hit true. He grunted with pain but... to Remedios's shock he was still standing.
"How... how did that do nothing?!" Remedios cried out.
"I would not call it 'nothing,'" Ainz said, as [Life Essence] revealed that he had taken about twenty percent of his health in damage. "It just wasn't a lot."
[Heaven's Wrath] did less damage the less evil the enemy was, with the damage approaching zero when it came to beings that were good- but Remedios could not wrap her head around such a thing. How could a creature like this snakeman not be evil? The way it delighted in killing humans, the way that it had insulted her Queen... this thing was pure evil incarnate! And yet...
"[Strengthen Hide]! [Flow Acceleration}! [Venom Concentration]! [Mystical Armor]!" Rokesh cried out as he activated Martial Art one after the other before striking at Remedios.
His tail moved first, and as she moved to block it, his tail veered off at the last moment- it was a feint! His trident now swerved, faster than even Remedios could swing it, right at her lower abdomen. It was not a region that you would normally target in a fight given it was heavily armored, but the blow likely had been bolstered to cut through metal just like Safarlisia could.
"[Body of Effulgent Aquamarine]!" Ainz cast out. It was a spell that had twofold effects- one, for the duration of its cast, it would reduce the damage done by piercing attacks, and two, it would negate a single blow of piercing damage, no matter how strong.
A loud clank! sounded out as the trident struck her armor, though it remained unscratched.
Ainz mentally chided himself, he had left things to Remedios thinking that she could handle it- hoping to conserve mana given the fact that he might have to face a Death Emperor, but this was a mistake. "[Grasp Heart]!" Even if he somehow survived the instant death effect, the snakeman would still be stunned, giving Remedios an opening to cut his head off.
This was not needed however, as Ainz felt something soft give way under his skeletal grip and the sensation of warm, thick liquid gushing over his hands before it disappeared, and the snakeman fell to the ground.
"Let's get out of here," Ainz said, opening a [Gate], relieved that it was not blocked by anti-teleportation magic, and he first chucked the corpse of the snakeman, and then ushered the others in.
Remedios was the last to leave- at first Ainz thought it was a sort of responsibility of 'guarding the rear' as one would have it, but it looked like she was too shaken to move. She took two steps, but then she fell to one knee.
"What happened?" Ainz asked her.
"W-water..." she croaked. Ainz, not knowing what else to do, picked out his Pitcher of Infinite Water and handed it to her, and she began to drink right from it, but it didn't seem to be doing her much good.
Ainz checked her health with [Life Essence] and it seemed to be fine, but she was clearly not well.
Unsure of what else he could do and panicking slightly, he decided to go with the only solution he could think of- given that Remedios was likely suffering from some unknown illness or curse, he cast [Undead Form] upon her. This spell gave the target all the attributes of being undead, both the negatives and the positives, and with that Remedios managed to get up.
"Thank you..." she stuttered out. She seemed to be doing better now and walked through the [Gate].
They emerged in Ainz's fortress he had made using magic. Ainz wandered over to the corpse of the snakeman that he had killed, and picked up the trident, wanting to examine it.
"Ah... I see..." he muttered. The trident had the ability to inflict a [Dehydration] effect on a target- while [Body of Effulgent Aquamarine] negated the damage, it didn't negate the added effect of this weapon. He was of course, unburdened by it being undead... he should've really checked her status using magic first though, because he was about to land in a bit of trouble.
"So, what kind of poison was on that thing?" Remedios asked.
"It causes [Dehydration] as a status effect," Ainz said.
"Thanks... though what was it that you used to heal me exactly? I feel slightly... off... somehow..." Remedios said.
"Ah, I used the spell [Undead Form] to make you-" he barely spoke those words when he felt her give off an intense killing intent- seriously, he hadn't seen her this mad even when he had walked in on her bathing that one time!
"Wh-how-HOW DARE YOU!?" she yelled at him.
"Hey- I was just trying to save you," Ainz retorted.
"I didn't ask for your filthy black magic, necromancer!" she screamed at him and then began checking her arms and legs as if she had been contaminated by some strange illness somehow. She looked like she would've preferred death to having that spell cast on her. Ainz felt his spell break as she placed some resistance against it- thankfully, the [Dehydration] effect did not return. She however, stormed off, presumably to her room.
Ainz sighed as his nonexistent stomach began to ache. Initially, he felt regret and sorrow- couldn't he have waited and checked her status first before using that kind of spell? Then, this turned to irritation, and then finally anger. Yes, he had jumped the gun slightly- but that was just to help her out! And did she really mind that much when he had just saved her life not once, but twice in a single fight?
No, it was definitely her that was in the wrong, Ainz felt, though he felt guilty nonetheless.
"Whew," Dantallion said. "And here I thought that I had bad luck with woman."
Ainz ignored him and then turned his attention to Boobeebee and Beebeezee. "I suppose that the two of you want to scamper off towards the hills, is that correct?"
Beebeezee made some weird gesture that Ainz couldn't understand. "Indeed- though it may seem cowardly, we cannot turn our tails and attack our former oppressors no matter how we may wish to. With me as the only male, we need to safeguard our colony until we have another male, though it is likely this conflict would be over before then."
Ainz nodded. He would've preferred they stay back and fight- though honestly speaking given their power levels, they would not be of much help anyway. "Ah, but before I send you back, I was told you have information on where the Holy Queen is being held."
"Indeed," Beebeezee said. "The Death Emperor has taken her to a human city by the name of... what was it again... Cashinsha?"
"Do you mean Kalinsha?" Neia asked.
"Why don't you take a Cashinsha on my dic-" Dantallion tried to say before being punched in the gut by Neia- Ainz assumed there was a pun involving the word 'Cashinsha' that the translator function didn't actually translate very well.
"Indeed, Kalinsha," Beebeezee said.
"And is there any other information that you can give me?" Ainz asked.
"Indeed," Beebeezee said. "The Death Emperor comes from a land far to the East from here, and came to the Holy Kingdom looking for a certain magic item he was told was hidden here. That is why he gathered the demihumans of the Hills and attacked the Holy Kingdom."
"I see- it must be quite powerful for him to go through such trouble- any more details one what it is?" Ainz asked.
"No, though I was told that he was close to finding it, but I'm not sure if he actually has," Beebeezee said. "Regardless, he had no intention of leaving this country alone- he wanted to turn it into a vast area spawning undead, and would continue ruling over it as a ruler once he had found the item. And though he did not openly say this, I have the feeling he intended to kill most of the demihumans serving under him once we had outgrown our usefulness."
"I see," Ainz said. "Why did he take the Holy Queen to Kalinsha when Remedios last saw her being flown in what looks like the opposite direction?" What Ainz remembered from all that time ago when he had seen a map of the region was that the direction they were heading in was almost a total 180 from the actual city.
"He transported her there- I don't know how, possibly via teleportation magic," Beebeezee said. "He intended to have her publicly executed in some sort of military parade. Given that..."
"...it's possible she's already dead," Ainz said, with Neia gasping as the realization dawned on her as well. "We don't have time to lose!"
The Zern departed soon enough, and after a few hours had passed, Ainz concluded that the time was ripe to go fetch Remedios.
Truth be told, now that he had more time to reflect on his actions- he was beginning to see things from her perspective as well. Remedios was a hardcore racist against the undead (though in this world, that was understandable given how the undead behaved. Ainz was different only because he had been transported here with a human mind, wild undead were every bit as deadly and dangerous as Remedios described them to be), and as such, becoming a sort of undead, even if it was only for a short while, would no doubt damage her psychologically.
As an example, he considered, what if he had cast a spell on one of the Neo-Nazis and made them a Jew temporarily? It would likely also cause a large amount of emotional distress to them.
He knocked on her door thrice. He knew she was in there as his patrolling undead had seen her walk into the room, slamming the door shut (and it was good that the door was made by magical means or else she certainly would've ripped it off its hinges otherwise). "Remedios- I brought you dinner." He held a tray of food in his hands.
A voice came from inside. "Come in!"
Ainz opened the door- technically there were locks on each of the doors in the Fortress, but given that he was the one who had made the structure, they would all open to his touch. Still, it was good manners to knock. Not to mention that Ainz most definitely did not want to intrude on Remedios if she wasn't decent- he did not want to encounter a bath scene with her again. Yes, he had absolutely no desire to see what she looked like without clothes, and as his mind got flustered at how she had been that time with the memory of her visage practically engraved into his memories, his undead nature managed to calm him down.
Remedios was laying in her bed in the dark, though that did not impede his vision at all.
There was an uncomfortable silence before Ainz decided to break it. "Ah, about the spell I cast on you earlier... I'm sorry if it bothered you that much..."
"...don't apologize. You did what you had to do and I don't care about that really," Remedios said.
AInz was surprised. Was this one of the 'when a woman says "I'm not mad" don't' believe her' scenarios that his friends had warned him about when complainig abou their wives/girlfriends? "So then what was wrong...?"
She turned to look at him. She seemed to reconsider saying something to him, and turned around.
"Hey- I don't know what it is, but I'm sure I can help you out with it," Ainz said.
"...it didn't work..." Remedios said.
"What didn't work?"
"[Heaven's Wrath] didn't work on that monster," Remedios said.
"It actually did it just didn't-"
"Why didn't it kill it? That thing was evil, it had to be evil- so it should've been slain in a single blow," Remedios said.
"That's because it wasn't evil, at least not that much," Ainz said.
Remedios turned to glare at Ainz. "How can you say that? How could it not be evil?! It helped slaughtered thousands of humans!"
Ainz said, "True, but see things from his perspective. Or, put it this way- what do you think that a deer slain by a hunter thinks of that hunter? If you asked the deer, it would just say that humans are unspeakable monsters, no? The same for many demihumans, they see the world as predator and prey, or as someone once told me 'what is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.' It was likely that snakeman was not 'evil' in the sense that he would cause others harm voluntarily." Ainz was thinking of the 'morality' system in the way of Yggdrasil, the snakeman was likely a 'neutral' aligned character in the sense that while he didn't care to do much good, he wasn't looking for trouble either.
Remedios snorted. "No... that can't be true... humans are the ones blessed by God, and to kill those blessed by God is evil..."
Ainz now understood what was going on. Remedios was one who was motivated by justice- though not the exact kind of justice that Touch Me would espouse. Her version painted all the demihumans as evil- and as such, to get objective proof that her ideas were wrong- namely, Safarlisia's skill not working, messed with her. She was likely so strong because of the devout nature of her beliefs, and to have them shattered so...
...well, Ainz had very little idea of what to do. He had almost zero experience reassuring woman, and he did not believe in God himself and as such could not really understand what Remedios was going through. Religion was all but dead in his time. "Remedios... think of it this way... when I turned you into an undead temporarily, that meant that you would've taken more damage from Safarlisia, correct? But would that make you any more evil than you are right now?"
Remedios seemed to pause at that. "No... it wouldn't... that's just magic..." She turned to face him again. "I see... magic doesn't always align perfect with good and evil..."
"That's... not exactly what I was getting at," Ainz said. It seemed she had completely misunderstood what he was saying and twisted his words around so that it fit with her desired worldview. It would get really annoying if something like that kept happening. He had wanted her to reconsider viewing the demihumans as absolutely evil- instead she had reconsidered how reliable her skills were. "Ah, forget it. Eat your dinner before it gets cold- and oh yeah, we found out the whereabouts of the Holy Queen-"
He had barely said that when Remedios leapt out of the sheets and ran to him, clearing the distance in less than a second. "Why didn't you lead with that instead of this 'I'm sorry' and 'Here's dinner' nonsense?!"
"Uh..." Ainz stammered. Remedios was in light clothes- very light clothing. It was just a simple cloth wrapped around basically the bare essentials (though to Ainz she still seemed incredibly beautiful) which was now clearly visible as she wasn't hidden under a sheet. It also left very little to the imagination, though this was likely because Remedios thought it was dark enough to compensate for this and as such she had not bothered to change, not knowing that Ainz could see as well in the dark as he could in the light. "Lemme just- look, why don't you eat, get dressed in your armor, and we'll discuss battle strategies then?"
