"What? The story should start with that information!" Merlin resented the almost natural glare thrown at him, retaining only part of his perennial buffoonery even so, perhaps not even willingly, but only because that was his nature. "You can't talk about the Beasts without mentioning the development of human civilization! The Beasts are a product of human civilization!"
Ainz looked at Merlin and was silent for a moment, trying to figure out if he was being serious or if he was once again trying to confuse him. Before concluding that, he couldn't determine such a thing for sure either way. However, he could still put pressure on Merlin, and if he was telling the truth, then there was no point in Merlin worrying about that pressure anyway. No hand done.
So Ainz raised his hand very visibly and distinctly before placing it on the table, as if he was a second away from directing some kind of spell at Merlin. Merlin, after observing such a picture, moved slightly to the side, his smile dimming slightly, but it didn't affect his rhythm too much, instead choosing to move on with his story.
"Anyway, the Beasts! Right, so the Beasts are a product of human civilization, and… It's like cancer." Merlin looked around at the Servants to see if they understood his explanation before turning his gaze to Ainz.
"Cancer is neither good nor bad in itself; it is not sapient enough to be so. Cancer is bad for the people experiencing its effects, but in essence, it is simply the natural progression of human life, of the body. It is something embedded in the genes of the cells themselves, they are able to divide, they are able to mutate, they are able to become unaccountable to the body and go beyond its control. Beyond what the body has designed for them. From the point of view of the organism, in this case, they become an absolute evil; from the point of view of the human being, cancer is a disease, an enemy that destroys the whole. But from the point of view of cancer, it is no such thing, it is simply a consequence of the existence of the organism itself."
Taking a deep breath after the long sentence he had just uttered, Merlin took a posture, raising his hand.
"So the Beasts, the Evil of Mankind," Merlin raised his hand, then tried to smooth a lock of his uncontrollable hair as if he were talking about something completely abstract and unemotional, some random historical fact.
"They are not Evil in and of themselves; they are the Evil of Mankind. In other words, they are the ultimate evil to humanity, but should we take them outside the human paradigm? First, they would cease to be evil. In the second place, they cannot exist, just as cancer cannot exist outside the body."
"Human civilization, after all, is built of many agreements and contradictions, of many vulnerabilities, be it the distribution of benefits, the institutionalization of violence, the hierarchy of control, the stratification of society… In other words, cancer, the Beasts, have been in human civilization itself since its inception," Merlin smiled, looking into Ainz's eyes.
"And the Evil of Humanity can always break free as the embodiment of these contradictions, if you just put a little pressure on one of these sides."
Smiling softly as if he was remembering something pleasant, Merlin continued on.
"There are seven positions of the Beasts generated by human civilization. Seven, like the standard Servant classes… But I'm getting a little ahead of myself there." Merlin hummed, clearly pleased with the opportunity to demonstrate his storytelling skills.
"The Beasts themselves are not fixed beings. Rather, they are forms—or containers—like Servants. Different beings can occupy the Beast positions… But unlike the Servant classes, the conditions for taking a Beast position are much stricter. And so, naturally, the number of beings who can take a Beast position is much smaller than the number of beings who can take a Servant position. So, on the other hand, we can consider that Beast positions are actually defined for a narrow range of possible candidates. There are not many beings in the world who embody Nature, Beast, Cancer of Civilization, and Solitude at the same time, while possessing the power beyond the divine to take the position of a Beast II, for example. Unfortunately, Tiamat is one of those who fits all of those conditions."
Hearing the name of the Dragon once again, Ainz took note of the fact that he would probably have a tough fight ahead, if this Tiamat is just as strong as the one in YGGDRASIL. And just hearing Merlin tell the story of the Beasts, that would be very likely… 7 of them, huh?
"Mhm, as for Tiamat herself—I think that would also require some explanation of the situation… Though in a way, I'm sure that name is not new to you," Merlin glanced at Ainz as if trying to get some sort of reaction from him, but Ainz, still undecided whether Merlin was primarily an ally or a danger, only tilted his head slightly to the side, saying nothing, making Merlin himself cough in embarrassment.
"Tiamat, the original Mother Goddess in the mythology of Uruk, is said to have mixed her waters' with Abzu and brought forth the world, giving rise to all things and all gods, until the god Marduk killed her and from her body created heaven and earth. Even the people of the Ancient Ages themselves did not consider her a deity, but a natural element, separating her from the 'ordinary' gods… In reality, however, the situation with Tiamat is even more complicated than can be understood from these myths."
Hoh, lore detail, huh? Tabula would have loved to hear this.
"Tiamat can be considered a living thing in the sense that an anthill can be considered an ant," Merlin looked up, nodding to himself, clearly pleased with his analogy.
"Tiamat did indeed give birth to all things. To be more precise, she gave everything such a form that for the first time it could be considered 'alive'. It should be realized by correlating the Age of the Gods, and even the Age before the Gods that Tiamat was one of the first beings of Earth… Trying to tell of her history would be… incredibly difficult to say the least, but to make things brief, Tiamat is indeed the mother of all things. Or rather, a divine ark capable of endlessly spawning all things, the black slime spreading around all the fenced cities is simply a manifestation of that fact. As is with the endlessly spawning monsters."
Merlin then turned to look at the distant broiling black sea, filled with life, and at the unending monsters his eyes could see.
"Spawning all those thousands, millions of monsters is no effort at all for Tiamat. Indeed, they are spawned not so much by Tiamat's effort or desire, but by the simple fact of her existence. It only takes a small amount of effort for Tiamat to completely cover the entire planet with billions of species and hundreds of billions of monsters. Without any exaggeration, Tiamat is the absolute mother of monsters…" After these words, Merlin glanced at Angrboda and smiled apologetically at her, tilting his head down a little, like a misbehaving child who said something in front of his parents that he definitely shouldn't have said.
Ainz himself glanced at Angrboda to see her reaction, and noticed the deep wrinkle on her forehead. It was as if Angrboda herself was thinking on how exactly she should react to Merlin's words. Should she try to challenge Tiamat for the title of 'mother of monsters' or to try to find a connection with her 'sister'?
Her 'sister' killing all of Humanity notwithstanding.
Turning back to Merlin, however, Ainz raised another eyebrow. Merlin's story was definitely starting to drag on. While Ainz had gained a lot of important theoretical information, he still hadn't come close to solving the main problem, causing Merlin himself to cough slightly in embarrassment before continuing to speak.
"When Tiamat gave birth to all living things, those 'living things' were grateful to her… However, in the end, that was Tiamat's role. As a great mother, her nature was to give life to everything, infinitely. However, her children, spawned by her, ultimately feared Tiamat herself. Her function was to 'generate life,' not to 'direct life' or 'stop after she had generated enough life.' Eventually a great problem arose, would Tiamat give birth to those who would eventually conflict with humanity or the newborn gods? What would happen if one day she spawned a new species that would take humanity's place? Or, much more simply, what if, in her quest to create life, she decides to act personally? After all, Tiamat is indescribably powerful, even the gods were generated by her purely as an 'accident' in her unstoppable process of generating life. All she had to do was simply swipe her hand and all of humanity, all of the gods of this world, would be destroyed. Such a possibility could not but cause doubt and fear among men and gods."
Ainz could definitely see it, humans and Gods alike acting rashly when put under such a Sword of Damocles.
"And so the gods acted. Marduk defeated Tiamat and overthrew her. True, he did not create heaven and earth from her body, Tiamat has no direct relation to their appearance, besides, Marduk defeated her, not killed her. Tiamat, after all, was the mother of all life with no direct understanding of the actions committed by Marduk, or understanding of the concept of betrayal and war, and so Tiamat was defeated and sealed. To destroy a being like Tiamat… Granted, it is theoretically possible, but even if it is possible, it is undoubtedly unnecessary. Perhaps she was too dangerous to let free to create endlessly, but the world could use a creature capable of recreating all life on Earth if necessary, couldn't it?" Merlin tried to make a joke out of the rather grim story, but noticing how Ainz was slowly frowning, waiting for the transition from the theory to the current situation of the Singularity, he hurried to continue.
"Tiamat was thrown down to the very depths of Tartarus, literally, she was chained, sealed under all worlds, including the world of the dead, and into the absolute Abyss, where it comes in contact with the World of Imaginary Numbers…."
Before, Merlin was interrupted by Mashu's loud gasp.
"So Tiamat is near the Ocean of Imaginary Numbers?! I know that some powerful magi can use those in their magecraft, but is it a physical place?" Mashu raised her voice, surprised by such information."
"Oh, yes, definitely!" Merlin was momentarily distracted by the new topic. Then, hearing the slight clinking of the blade in Arthur's scabbard, which seemed to have 'accidentally' been moved, when Merlin was starting on a tangent, returned back to the previous, more important topic.
"Ah yes, what was I talking about!? Right! Anyway, Tiamat was sealed in the deepest depths of the Abyss and plunged into a coma-like state. Not quite sleeping, but not waking either, more like a deep slumber in which dreams are perceived by the brain at the same time as the surrounding reality, confusing consciousness and impairing judgment… And this was the state she had been in all this time. Or rather, she should have been. Sealed at the very edge of what could be called reality, Tiamat should have been in her eternal slumber…"
And once again, Merlin's explanation was interrupted, this time by Jacques.
"I wouldn't be too quick to call her dwelling place the 'very' border of reality," Jacques raised her voice, causing Merlin to be distracted again.
"The Outer Gods don't count! They exist on the border of a different kind of reality! The Outer Gods exist in a reality so fundamentally different to the human environment that we can't even call them dwellers 'in reality', while Tiamat exists in a reality in which there are in fact no laws at all, no reality factor in itself, and so we can say that she exists 'on the very edge of reality'." Merlin started going on another tangent again as he refuted Jacques, until Alturia put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it with enough force to crumble concrete blocks, causing Merlin himself to let out a momentary cry of complaint.
"It's not my fault that I'm constantly being asked other questions and given other topics to talk about!"
Alturia held her hand on Merlin's shoulder for another dozen seconds as a warning before releasing it, causing him to grimace and swipe his shoulder a few times, worried about a bruise forming. When he was about to complain about the rough handling of a Caster from a Saber, he hurried to continue his explanation when Alturia started cracking her fists.
"Anyway, Tiamat was stuck dreaming, and everything was fine, she was supposed to stay dreaming for eternity… But then the biggest thing that had happened in the last… At least a few thousand years? Happened."
"The Singularity?" Mashu looked at Merlin carefully, causing him to instantly drop his pitiful expression and smiled, raising his finger up in an instructive manner as he spoke in a mentor-like tone chiding a student that had given a wrong answer.
"No, the thing that caused all the Singularities. The burning of humanity!"
Despite her cheery tone of voice, the topic was definitely a serious matter, as Ainz would instinctively lean closer. The objective of his mission to save Humanity.
"To be even more precise, the main cause of this Burning is the one who calls himself the Grand Caster, Solomon." Merlin raised his finger in an instructive manner.
"In all the previous Singularities that you had faced, the Grails that were placed, in the end, were placed by his Demon Kings. Those Singularities may have served a purpose, but in the end, they were nothing of significance in the grand scheme of things. After all, all previous Singularities had been spawned by the Grand Caster's creation, which meant that, theoretically, there was nothing stopping him from spawning five or ten or even a hundred more of them. The loss of the past Singularities may have been an unpleasant surprise to him, but nothing more… In this Singularity, however, the Grand Caster had handed the Grail personally." Merlin smiled a radiant smile, as if he had solved some mystery of the universe.
"With the destruction of humanity and the birth of this Singularity, Tiamat was given the opportunity, the 'qualification' to become Beast II… But that doesn't mean she became one. See? I am getting to the current situation after all!" Merlin immediately took the opportunity to protect himself from further physical and mental abuse, as if by saying this, he had simultaneously repelled all possible claims of laziness against himself.
"The situation of the current Singularity! Originally, Gilgamesh in this Singularity was a living man, a living king… As were all the inhabitants of the surrounding cities. His Majesty, Gilgamesh, after all, rightfully bears the title of Sage King and the greatest hero of the Throne of Heroes. Even while alive, he is as good as the Servants of the Throne of Heroes, and so with his foresight, he was able to foresee what would happen in the future, and so he prepared for the awakening of Tiamat. He had prepared his cities, his armies, and had created great walls capable of stopping the Black Sea around selected cities, even summoned Servants to command his armies on the battlefield… Meanwhile, the Grand Caster tried to awaken Tiamat and-" Merlin paused for a long moment before he smiled and leaned back in his chair with his chin up.
"He failed, thanks to this charming older brother of all mankind!" Merlin loudly, and proudly, proclaimed.
"Merlin…" Alturia, not believing for a second that Merlin had actually executed his plan in the simple way he had mentioned, furrowed her eyebrows, causing Merlin to look away slightly, showing that his story was still not finished. "What?! I didn't tell a single lie, I actually did manage to hold Tiamat back from awakening! Maybe the story has a couple of unimportant details left out, but…"
Ainz, irritated by Merlin's antics, which had ended his story just as he was getting to answering his question about the current situation in the Singularity, spoke his next words coldly. "Merlin, if you'll allow me to say so, I must say that all this time you've not only been wary of me, but you've also done your best to avoid touching my body in any way… Tell me, is this something I should be thinking about?"
Merlin, upon hearing these words, once again dropped the jester's grin from his face for a brief moment, gazing into Ainz's eyes, as if to make a billion sparks of the strangest thoughts slip through his mind before he exhaled and sank his head.
"The original Servant summoning ritual, in its first version, was a ritual to summon the seven classes of Servants to destroy these Beasts and was, in fact, born of Humanity itself, its incarnation, Alaya, to protect humanity. The Throne of Heroes, serving as a common accumulative database, was to provide the best of the best Servants to solve whatever issue threatens Humanity. Seven of them, selected as the absolute best of their Classes, were to take the place of the Grand Servants, Servants specifically created to destroy the Seven Beasts… It was only later that humans, having discovered the already existing ritual, took advantage of it for their own purposes and organized Holy Grail Wars. Summoning Servants suitable for certain classes to fight their battles. But, the original ritual, the Seven Grand Servants, never disappeared. The Seven Grand Servants confronting the Seven Beasts were originally created by Alaya, the embodiment of Humanity, and thus their level relative to ordinary Servants, even the most powerful of Servants, is incomparable. Even Divine Spirits are mere minnows in the eyes of the Seven Grand Servants…"
Ainz nodded, satisfied by gaining some important information that would definitely prove useful in the future.
"However, along with such power, the title of Grand Servant does impose certain limitations on its bearer, which is why the Grand Caster was unable to awaken Tiamat directly."
Merlin looked up at Ainz after a few seconds of looking at the table beneath him, without a joking smirk on his face, "Instead, he found a creature… Not quite a goddess, and not quite a demon either, but something in between and much more than either of those parts, and forcibly, with the help of the Grail, gave her a small part of Tiamat's abilities, linking her to Tiamat herself. Then, manipulating this puppet goddess, the Grand Caster resurrected Enkidu. Now named Kingu, not that it means anything."
"Enkidu?!" Mashu's eyes lit up with excitement for a moment, preparing to spew out a dozen facts about the named Servant before realizing something and sinking back into her seat. "Though, yes, of course, if Gilgamesh is currently in Babylonia, then naturally Enkidu is here as well."
'No, Mashu, wait, give me some facts about Enkidu that everyone else knows! Because I don't know them!' Ainz inwardly screamed to Mashu, having no idea who this Enkidu was supposed to be, other than the fact that it was the name of the spear of one of YGGDRASIL's top players. But it was unlikely that the Enkidu of this world was a spear, this one was a living being at all!
To Ainz's relief, Arthur looked up at Merlin and raised one eyebrow as she questioned Merlin, causing Ainz to internally applaud her. "Enkidu?"
"A divine puppet, the strongest weapon of the gods of ancient Mesopotamia. Created from divine clay, he was a formless monster born to punish the rebelling Gilgamesh and bring him back under the control of the gods. Unfortunately for the gods, Enkidu, after descending to earth, gained reason, free will, a human form, and even a semblance of emotion. And so in the end, after a battle with Gilgamesh that ended in a draw, Enkidu came to Gilgamesh's side and became his faithful companion, performing many heroic feats, subduing many monsters, and even destroying the monstrous divine bull Gugalanna. The latter unfortunately led to one useless goddess accusing Enkidu of committing a grave sin, and the gods cut his thread using the divine laws built into his body as a creation of the gods, and Enkidu died." Merlin's explanation made Ainz barely refrain from giving a thumbs up in approval to Arthur's question, not that it had revealed much. But something is better than nothing.
Before long, Merlin regained some of his exuberance, demonstrating that there were few things in the world that could permanently and completely restore seriousness to his demeanor. "But I'm afraid His Majesty won't be too pleased with my more detailed explanations of Enkidu's identity and his history with Gilgamesh himself. Besides, a little earlier I was asked not to go further on the tangents, so I will return to explaining the current situation!"
Ainz almost wanted to throttle the annoying mage, but stopped himself at the last second.
"Besides, he's already dead anyway, and then he was resurrected by Tiamat as Kingu, and now he's dead again. So no need to worry about that guy." Merlin said in an even tone of voice, as if speaking about some old news rather than something important.
"Anyway, the Grand Caster couldn't turn Tiamat into the Beast directly, so he used this not quite goddess and not quite demon to resurrect Enkidu in the form of Kingu as her lieutenant, but the Grand Caster used his influence over the Holy Grail in her body to shift Kingu's priorities from serving the goddess to serving Tiamat. Kingu in turn acted on his own and organized the 'Alliance of the Three Goddesses'. Officially it sounded like an agreement between three different goddesses, including the one associated with Tiamat, to destroy Gilgamesh. But in reality, he used that to plan the death of the goddess associated with Tiamat. After all, that one was connected to Tiamat, and what better remedy to wake up to than feeling the death of a part of the whole connected to you?"
Seeing his joke fall flat, Merlin continued after faking a cough.
"After the death of the goddess and the collapse of the Alliance, Kingu began the awakening of Tiamat, then used the Grail to go directly to Tiamat, planning to finally free her from her bonds in the Abyss using the power of the Holy Grail, but to his surprise he was betrayed." Merlin shrugged before continuing.
"Despite the fact that Kingu was completely loyal to Tiamat, in the end he was not a creation of Tiamat, but of the Grand Caster who instilled this loyalty in him without binding him to Tiamat herself, which meant that Tiamat did not even know that Kingu was her child."
Pausing for a moment, Merlin then posed to show himself off gloriously.
"And at that moment, this luminous and dazzling big brother of humanity came into play!" Merlin unashamedly poked himself in the chest with his thumb, as if to ask, 'what did you think, of course it was me!'
"His Majesty had summoned me a little earlier, and I am, after all, Merlin, a magus of flowers and also of dreams! So while Tiamat, let's call it, was 'stirring' in her sleep, having already become Beast II, but never fully released from the Abyss, after the death of the false goddess and before the Grail could awaken her fully… I enlisted the help of a nice young girl and put her to sleep again! Whoah!"
Dodging the flash of Rhongomyniad deftly, Merlin took an apologizing posture as he dodged blows after blows from Arthur. It seems the last bit had heckled Alturia badly.
"Alturia, don't give me that wolfish look, it was necessary then, it was necessary now! By the way, the fact that the world wasn't completely destroyed is to my credit as well! I used the arsenal I had on hand, and before Kingu could deliver the Grail directly to Tiamat, I turned the Grand Caster's plan against him." Merlin pouted as he delivered the report.
"Technically speaking, the slain goddess wasn't exactly dead, as death would have simply severed the connection to Tiamat. Instead, Tiamat absorbed her at the moment of her death and retained some part of her that could still be called that goddess. After all, that is the function of Tiamat, as a perfect ark, she possesses, shall we say, the recorded form of all living organisms within her, so some part of the Goddess was originally within Tiamat. That was the basis of the original connection between that Goddess and Tiamat that the Grand Caster had made use of in the first place. And after the Goddess was absorbed, that part remained inside Tiamat herself."
Ainz had to admit to himself, he had no idea what the magus was talking about now.
"And I, taking advantage of a special condition that existed between the young girl and the Goddess, organized… let's call it a small 'stimulus'". Merlin seemed almost entranced by his own voice and his own plan, by the way he was able to cleverly turn Grand Caster's machinations against himself. The narcissist was enjoying the chance to crow about his achievements.
"And as a result of this small 'stimulus', I was able to make Tiamat 'wiggle' in the direction I wanted, like someone trying to ward off a fly in a dream… except that in this case, the flickering of the arm is multiplied by Tiamat's own abilities and incredible strength. And Tiamat oh so carelessly struck directly at the Grail-wielding Kingu… To be more accurate, she missed by about ten thousand kilometers, but what does that matter to a creature capable of destroying the planet? Kingu was practically erased from existence, well, he definitely did when Tiamat consumed him under the tides of her Black Sea."
Imagining such a level of destruction, Ainz could only nod, comparing them to the knowledge he had about YGGDRASIL.
"It was nothing more than an irritation to the great mother, Tiamat. Like those nasty little crumbs in the bed that are incapable of harming a person in any way, but are terribly annoying and keep them awake. Considering that, I used my powers to keep Tiamat from fully waking up…"
Merlin finished his thought with a shrug, as if to say, 'You know what I mean,'.
"In the end, the end result was what you saw around the walls of the city that irritated Tiamat. Tiamat's endless sea of black, the primordial soup, the building blocks for all living things, had consumed the entire world… Tiamat's irritation caused her to unconsciously cover the surface of the planet with this black sea and absorb Kingu's dead body, after which…"
Merlin shrugged once again, as if to put a bold end to it. "Well, that was it, after that, is what you see. The world was flooded with black slime, humanity was walled in, and His Majesty was watching humanity as it was slowly consumed. End of story, except, in fact, for your appearance in this Singularity. Questions, doubts, wishes?"
Alturia's face lit with curiosity. "Your knowledge of Chaldea, your nature, Gilgamesh's plans, the Grand Caster's nature, that is what I want to know… But I'll ask the most important one for now, the fact that Tiamat continues to produce this black slime means that this 'stimulus' you created continues to affect her?"
"That's right," Merlin nodded clearly and with a cheeky grin.
"Tiamat cannot escape to reality without the power of the Grail, and the absence of the Grail's power is ensured by the fact that Kingu is consumed by the black slime. If this distraction I've made ever ceased even for a moment? Kingu will be able to break out of his trap and reach Tiamat. In fact, this should also answer the question 'what are Gilgamesh's plans'."
Ainz's ears perked up, before he had to sigh in disappointment.
"Strictly speaking, there is none. To be more specific, my interference with Tiamat's condition has provided a controlled kind of irritation, manifesting in the black sea and the hundreds of thousands of monsters it creates every day, battering the walls of the cities. Gilgamesh and his armies have long since adapted to this reality, so Gilgamesh's plan is quite extensive and quite simple. Ensure the survival of human civilization before slowly building up a reserve that would promote the birth of new heroes, even new gods. The current Gilgamesh is somewhat less adamant about those, especially those that would be born according to his plans. To introduce all the necessary methods of development and discovery into human history and slowly, inch by inch, reclaim the world from Tiamat. I am, after all, immortal, and therefore can contain her virtually indefinitely, and despite the fact that Tiamat is an indestructible source of mana and the perfect ark for all living forms, time is on the side of humanity. After all, Tiamat may be a mother, but in her current state, having become Beast II, Tiamat is completely irrational. She will send the same horde of monsters spawned every day, while humans are able to increase in numbers, become stronger, and spawn gods. In other words, while Tiamat stagnates, humanity would get stronger and stronger."
Ainz had to admit that he liked a plan where victory was assured in only a matter of time… Though something was definitely niggling his mind as he heard that plan.
"I won't say it's the fastest of plans, but it's definitely the most logical and reliable plan at this point."
Ainz thought about something for a moment before opening his mouth to ask a question. "And the black slime… You used the word 'absorbed' when you discussed Kingu's fate. What does that mean in this sense? What is Tiamat's black slime itself?"
"The black slime, hmm…?" Merlin mused. "I suppose you could say it is a manifestation of her control, her nature as the Beast II. Servants gain skills and Noble Phantasms. Gods gain control of the natural elements and domain over their area of control. And Beasts receive Beast Authority, a kind of manifestation of their nature and status. In Tiamat's case, this manifestation took the form of this black slime. In a sense, it can be considered part of Tiamat herself, but in the sense that the Noble Phantasm is part of the Servant. I mean, it is certainly an integral part of the Servant itself, but not in the sense that it can be called 'part of the body'. For a Beast, however, it is."
Merlin shrugged, having reached for the simplest explanation. "And given the nature of Tiamat's physical manifestation of her status as Beasts, the black slime… In fact, they are the building blocks of all life, but distorted by Tiamat's nature they could rather be called 'an amorphous mass of magical bio-nanorobots'. It is a mass that instantly absorbs everything that can be considered 'living' and transforms it in Tiamat's own image, rejecting all possible life based on Tiamat herself as the original mother. After all, if all living things derive from Tiamat, doesn't she have the right of absolute control over all that derives from her? The short description for this phenomenon is Nega. The specific name for this case is Nega-Genesis, the perfect power of the mother over her offspring, the complete negation of the idea of evolution and development."
Cool name, but Ainz had no idea what Merlin was talking about… Can't he talk in simple words!?
"For most purposes, this means that touching this slime means that whatever had touched it would break it down into their smallest constituent parts before turning into the same black slime to serve as building material for new monsters. This process applies to humans, Servants, and Gods… Maybe when it touches a completely alien mass… Who knows what would happen." Merlin cast a glance at Arthur, Angrboda, Ainz, and then Jacques before returning his attention back fully to Ainz.
"After all, as long as something is considered 'alive,' exposure to Tiamat's black slime would have a conceptual effect on them. It may not be able to disintegrate the person who came into contact with it, but in that case, it will use its slime to take control of the body that came into contact with it. I didn't mention 'bio-nanorobots' for nothing. You can think of it as a process of assimilation, or directed evolution changing the flesh according to a new design, or failing that, taking over the mind, soul and body, tweaking those according to Tiamat's vision. But, as long as something is 'alive,' Tiamat has control over that."
"What about Enkidu then… I mean Kingu?" Mashu asked the question, causing Merlin to look away for a moment.
"Kingu is not truly alive, merely divine clay given 'life'. His body is divine clay, existing according to divine laws and forces, it is not flesh, not something that can be 'alive,' and therefore, swallowed by the black slime, he has not been assimilated. That doesn't mean it still has a physical form; but don't underestimate the power of the slime the creature exuded from the primordial chaos. Still, not being alive in the full sense of the word, it wasn't absorbed by Tiamat and therefore couldn't return the Grail to her. But technically speaking, it wasn't altered or assimilated by Tiamat."
Merlin shrugged as he finished his explanation, making Ainz blink in surprise as an idea presented itself to him.
"I mean, if we assume that someone could, at least partially, neutralize Tiamat's divine power and not be alive, they could survive contact with the black slime, couldn't they?" Ainz slowly furrowed his eyebrows and then looked at his hand, as if looking at it for the first time in a while.
"Such as… Some powerful undead imbued with the power to destroy the divine?"
Hello there! On Pat reon this Singularity has ended and currently people vote for which character's chapters they want to see in-between the Singularities! So, you know, you may vote. For a price.
Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.
For FAQ look chapter 155.
So, let's go to the more unique questions:
okay so Giles received a massive boost to... everything since he gained a better legend more or less? - Yes
also would the saber version of the new legend be closer to st john? - Can't say exactly how his legend going to change, only that it's going to.
hmm the protagonist from mass for the dead would be a pretty strong servant - Probably yes, but I'm not knowlegeable about Mass for the Dead enough to theorise on it too much.
It's all on my Pat reon\rure though, so it's now 6 - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond. And even more, I made a 2$ tier, that is now 6 chapters ahead of 1$ tier, or 12 chapters ahead of public release. And even 3$ tier, that now has 15 chapters!
Also, I commissioned an illustrator to make illustrations for my fic. And she did just that. And so there are some pictures on my Pat reon now too. And even more, now 5$ tier can vote on what gonna be drawn next.