A.N: I am alive! Barely, but still there!
Sorry for the long wait, I lost my muse for a long while and IRL events made it all the more difficult to pick up a pen and write, but at least I finally got something done.
So yeah, hope this might be the start of me finally defeating my laziness or y'all might be in for a few more months of waiting before I publish something again, lol.
In any case, ejoy reading, leave me a comment later, and happy a great day!
And here's a link to my discord server for more updates and whatnot, and to talk to some pretty awesome folks: (remove the spaces)
discord .gg/ rt5VgzCn
"Here. This place is as good as any," the newly formed chimeric sinner said to his new 'friend', earning a nod from the skeleton as the two began slowly diving towards the spot Adam pointed at.
As the pair touched the ground, the Overlord looked around the area, it seemed more or less the same as some of the other zones of Hell they've passed through, with the exception that this spot here was practically a ghost town, and more debilitated than usual even for the infernal realm in question.
"How curious, is this your hideout?" He asked the serpent-tailed sinner with a hint of interest, to which he responded with a snort and a defeated sigh.
"Nope, but it seems like it would be for a good while, at least until I get my shit together."
Suddenly, the man's sharp elf-like ears perked up for a second as he looked at his 'saviour', suspicion clouding his eyes.
"I still haven't asked, why the hell did you help me to begin with? I'd expect most of the shitstains here to join in on trying to kill me, why did you do the opposite?"
Silence permeated the air as neither spoke a word as the chimera stared at the undead.
The undead responded slowly to Adam's question, his hands folded in front of him as his mandible moved. "Quite simple really, I need information, and you look like you could provide it to me."
The man's alert attitude didn't disappear, though it did crumble a bit as the undead didn't seem to have any particular agenda against him.
'Information? What type of information would this… sinner… skeleton… guy… be looking for? He's not actually expecting me to hand out confidential information about heaven because he helped, right?'
Suzuki continued with his words as he didn't hear any retort or refusal from the demon. "To put simply, I happen to be a new arrival to this… hell. I would hope for you to provide me with any information you may have on this place, sir…"
"Adam, just Adam." The tension in the First Man's muscles slowly wavered and disappeared as he sighed softly for a moment, running the fingers of one of his hands through his silver mane of hair, grimacing ever so slightly as he touched the base of his horns.
'Well, I guess that explains that. He doesn't have a bone - heh, bone - to pick with me because he doesn't even know who I am. Though I can't say that I will stay for long.'
"Fine," Adam said. "I'll tell you since you did help out of that shit situation, just don't expect me to be some sort of walking encyclopedia… uhh, what's your name? I don't think either of us introduced ourselves."
The undead was silent for a moment as the gears in his mind began working overtime. 'My name? Should I use my IRL name? Or my Yggdrasil username?'
His jaw opened for a moment as he was about to respond, only for it to close shut as he contemplated this again. 'No, I'll use the one I'm truly proud of. While I hope that my friends and anybody else don't ever end up in literal hell like I am now, I should still spread my name in this place, if my little sightseeing of this city was any indication, strength is everything and crime is the prevalent language. I will make the name of Ainz Ooal Gown one to be feared by all these demons and monsters.'
"My name… is Ainz Ooal Gown, but you may call me Ainz. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir Adam."
"Same, and just Adam is fine." Adam extended his hand towards the undead, who shook it with equal strength behind him.
"Well then, where do I start? We should probably find a place to hole up in so we don't get ambushed first, because this is going to take a while."
"...You have got to be kidding me." The undead sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time as he digested the information given to him by Adam.
"I wish I was, would at least mean I can get back to Heaven if it was just a big ol' fucking joke." The chimera clicked his tongue with a despondent expression on his face.
To say that Ainz was confused or wary would be an understatement, especially in regards to the information given to him by Adam.
Who turned out to not just be any Adam, but the Adam. The first human ever and a personal creation of God, capital G.
"To summarise all… this. In the past, you and your exorcists, all of whom are angels like your past self, would go to Hell for an extermination, which was a yearly event intended to cull the number of sinners, who are the guilty humans deemed unworthy of Heaven. Which was done both because of overpopulation by these sinners, and that they in the past attempted multiple rebellions in hopes of overthrowing Heaven."
As the First Man nodded with approval, Ainz continued. "And around six months ago - which was after a recent extermination -, a woman called Charlie Morningstar, daughter of Lucifer Morningstar, the devil himself, came to you to try and convince you to call off the exterminations and to instead support her…"
"Hazbin Hotel."
"Yes, that."
Ainz would've made an expression as he was given affirmation of the name of the royal hellborn's establishment. 'I still can't believe that's the actual name of this supposed rehabilitation center, was she that much of a defeatist when she named the place, or does she just have a horrible naming sense?'
He shook his head before continuing. "And after her pitch, which she used nothing but crayon drawings and a song to try and convince you, you kicked her out using also a song-"
"Which was badass by the way."
"-and told her that the extermination would be bi-yearly from now on, instead of just once a year. Why exactly would you do that?"
Adam was silent for a moment as a sour expression bloomed on his face, his eyebrows furrowed for a moment as he mulled over the question.
'Should I tell him? What if he were to use that information for his own gain later?' Adam would've continued this line of thought if the recent events hadn't crossed his mind. 'I might as well, he would've found out anyways considering that the fight at the hotel was broadcasted all over hell. Plus I already told him that I was a former angel.'
"... Before the meeting with that damned princess, we found out one of the exorcists was killed in battle, she was… beheaded. We knew it was probably one of those fucking sinners who would've done that because the prissy nobles and Lucifuck know that killing an angel, especially considering their track record in the past, would've resulted in the treaty being broken and a war to happen again, something neither Heaven or Hell want."
"And you planned to make the extermination happen twice a year in hopes of both flushing out the murderer and to stop any ideas of rebellion from sprouting in the sinners' minds, correct?"
As Adam nodded, Ainz hummed softly as he cradled his bony chin. 'That explains that, I guess. Still though, from what it seems, the extermination this time around probably failed, if the leader of the exorcists being here is any indication.'
"And after that, the princess went to Heaven to try and persuade the angelic courts to her side, but ultimately failed. Meaning that the extermination continued like before. However…"
"We were defeated by that bitch and her cannibal army," the man then pointed at himself. "And I got beaten by Lucifuck and stabbed in the back by a demonic midget. And lo and behold, I am now nothing more than a sinner like the rest of the fucks down here."
The man sighed as he folded his arms, gazing from the broken window of the building at the glowing lights of the city of Pride with an exhausted expression.
'This is quite worrying,' Ainz thought to himself, the flickering lights in his eye sockets were snuffed out as he fell into deep thought. 'I am now effectively protecting an 'enemy of the state' that once fought against the ruling family of this place. Should I just leave? Being caught protecting this man would give me a whole heap of trouble that's just not worth the headache. And the last thing I want to do is to get into a fight against one of Hell's Deadly Sins.'
In YGGDRASIL, the most powerful groups of foes to ever surface in the DMMO-RPG were called the World Enemies. And like with how the game prides itself in drawing characters and figures from all over the world. One such group of World Enemies were called the Seven Deadly Sins, who were in the world of Muspelheim alongside other World Enemies in the flaming world such as Surtr, the Flame Giant.
While Ainz does not know if the Seven Deadly Sins of Hell are even close in strength to those of YGGDRASIL, he doesn't want to find out. When he fought the Sin of Lust in the past, it took two entire parties of Level 100 Players to defeat him.
'The bastard had a charm fog that pierced even the natural immunities of undead. Thank God that I had my World Item back then, or I would've ended up like Ulbert and Pero.'
The man shuddered imperceptibly as he recalled the infuriating memory, fighting Lust was already bad enough, but having your best DPS mage and sniper against you as well was a nightmare.
Suddenly, an explosion occured near the building they were in, the shockwave moving the dust and dirt in the run-down abandoned building.
"The hell was that? Did these fuckers actually follow us here?" Adam asked no one in particular as he growled, moving cautiously towards the window with broken glass while looking at the source of the explosion.
And found it quite easily.
The first thing he saw was a group of demons of varying sizes in armour reminiscent to that of 21st Century officers, surrounded what seemed like a pair of female demons of contrasting colour schemes. The armoured demons had guns of differing sizes, yet the only thing that united them were the silver lines and engravings running across the shafts of the modern weaponry.
Indicating that they were made with angelic steel.
'These fucking bastards.' Adam seethed as he could sense the divine metal in the weapons despite his literal fall from grace, his serpentine tail hissing aggressively in response to his emotions.
He didn't care what happened to the pair of demons, quite frankly, he couldn't even muster the emotion, years spent on Earth and more spent gazing at Hell from Heaven and leading the exterminations himself made sure of that. Yet seeing the familiar weapons that would've been in the hands of his exorcists especially after the defeat they suffered under the hands of Hell's royal brat drew forth an anger he couldn't explain in words.
"What do we have here?" Ainz asked as he moved towards Adam's side, the flames in his eye sockets increasing in intensity as he gazed at the scene below him.
"Demons? Sinners, I suppose? And these weapons…"
'[Silent Magic: All Magic Appraisal].'
"Angelic weapons? I suppose they belonged to your former subordinates?" The undead asked passively as he saw the armoured demons aiming at the pair, one of whom was shielding the other behind her while wielding a spear of similar nature to the guns.
"Yeah," Adam growled under his breath as his clawed hands tore into the broken glass, red blood faintly trickling from his fingertips in response.
Ainz gazed at the scene below him with cold disinterest. Watching as one of the armoured sinners shot a silver bullet into the hand of the spear-wielder, making her recoil in pain while dropping her sole means of defense.
'This is a bit worrying. Even though I practically saw half dissolved corpses every now and again on the streets of Earth, seeing violence like this should've arrived least made me feel disgusted, or horrified. But I can't, is this because of my {Emotional Suppression} skill, or was I always this cold?'
He gazed at the group once more, his eyes scanning each and every one of them. They are demons, not like the ones like Ulbert who just masqueraded like them, or even like the NPCs in YGGDRASIL, who were just another race that had good and bad folk. Still…
''Helping others who are in trouble is common sense.' I saved one, might as well save some another, I'm already in the hazard zone when I saved this Adam. And if these two could give me more information on this place, then all the better.'
Ainz tapped Adam's shoulder lightly, making the First Man shift focus from the group below to him with a gaze mixed with both underlying fury and interest.
"Say, how would you like to vent out your anger on these sinners below?"
A second passed.
And another.
And a feral grin grew on Adam's face as the serpent tail attempted to copy the tail as much as it could with its fangs and tiny teeth.
"You either come with us willingly or you'll lose your entire hand next time, got it?!" The demon with the head of a large hog snarled at the reddish-brown skinned woman, her white curly hair stained with blood as she stood protectively in front of the pale skinned blonde, attempting to hold her spear with her non-dominant hand following her injury.
"Odette, you need to run now, give me a moment to make a distraction for you-"
"Clara, no! I'm not leaving you behind with these pigs!"
"The fuck did you call us?!"
"You literally are pigs, shut it!"
One of the girls' assailants groaned in annoyance before aiming his rifle at the demoness called Clara. "Fuck it, we only need one brat to deal with the weapons bitch, let's just shoot this one as a warning for her!"
The rest of the group grinned at their companion's suggestion as they aimed their arms at her, a shiver running through her body as one of the guns was aimed right at her eye, her would-be murderer's face sporting a bloodthirsty smile.
"Sorry brat, but business comes fir-!"
The man didn't, or rather, couldn't, finish his words as he fell face first in front of the woman, with blood soon pooling beneath him.
Clara, Odette and their remaining assailants all looked at the hog-headed sinner who fell down dead with his cold smile frozen on his face, blood pouring from his mouth and eyes.
"I really should lower my expectations when dealing with the common rabble." A shiver ran through their spines as a deep voice echoed across the abandoned street, and when they looked up at the shadow, or shadows, cascading over them, their shock turned into pure fear.
Two demons, bigger than all of them, hoovered in the air, one of whom looked an amalgamation of the many beasts of the earth, with a living serpentine tail with glowing eyes that scanned each of them with a hungry hiss. And the other accompanying this monstrous being, was a being that could be described as nothing short of Death Incarnate.
The two sisters gulped nervously as they scanned the hovering pair; they were not unfamiliar with powerful demons, with one such entity being Zestial, who was one of, if not the oldest active overlord in Hell, and a friend of their mother.
But these two? While the two may not have as much combat experience as their mother or the ancient arachnid overlord, they knew for sure that even attempting to stand up to these two would be nothing more than a certain death sentence.
Luckily for them, they weren't the target for today.
"You can go ahead and use that axe I gave you." The skeletal being looked towards the man beside him. "Just make sure to not let any of them escape."
The man gave a pleased grin as he drew a weapon from behind him into full view; a large oversized obsidian halberd with golden symbols strewn all over the blade and dark purple shaft.
The man was quick to act, not even giving the poor unsuspecting victims time to blink, let alone raise their weapons, as he began cutting through them. His swings connected with their bodies with the cold precision of a butcher, and the deadly silence of a hunter, something to be unexpected of someone of his large size.
The pair of sinners watched with both awe and fear as the demon cleaved right through their assailants with complete ease. Unfortunately, or fortunately, they attention went to another person instead.
The Grim Reaper gently landed near them, his gaze never leaving them as his eyes(?) were fixated on the pair, or more precisely, on the injured Clara.
Odette tried to get in front of her injured sister to protect her this time around, only for her injured ankle and wrist to send jolts of pain to her brain, making her grit her teeth in response.
The gaunt figure didn't even bother to react to her actions before putting his skeletal hand into his sleeve. He then pulled a small glass container with golden ornaments out of his sleeve, the flask contained a red liquid substance flowing inside.
The man, if he can be called that, uncorked the bottle, and before either of the two could react, dumped the liquid contents of the potion over them.
This move alone was more than enough to surprise them, as they felt both shock and a tinge of fear as the blood-like substance coated their bodies, only for something miraculous to occur.
Their forms glowed slightly as their wounds began to heal, from Odette's injuries that turned her fair skin to an unsettling purple beneath her clothes, to Clara's hand that had a hole drilled through it by the bullet from before. It was as if they were never injured in the first place.
"How in the…" Odette was the first to attempt to muster a response to this miraculous event, only for her words to fail her as she couldn't comprehend what was going on, and frankly neither was her sister in any position either.
'It's a good thing health potions work the same way they used to in YGGDRASIL, though I suppose they still wouldn't work on undead like me…' The man wanted to sigh at this moment, but knowing how unprofessional it may seem with what he's planning on doing later, did something else.
"Are you alright?" Ainz asked as he knelt slightly to get on their eye level, their faces marred by wariness and surprise.
"Y-yes… Though, excuse me, who are you two? And why did you help us?"
The blonde demon asked cautiously as she looked at the undead Overlord and the Chimeric Demon, who was already done dealing with their assailants and wiping his weapon clean with a piece of cloth he ripped from one of the deceased sinners with a smile of satisfaction on his face.
Ainz placed a hand on his skeletal ribcage as he answered. "I am Ainz Ooal Gown, and this here is… Mekon."
The undead rose to his full height as he continued. "As for why we helped
you two, it's simple."
If Ainz could still make expressions with his skeletal face, a smile aimed at calming the two would be adorning it.
"We saw the two of you in trouble and decided to help."