Overlord

Enri looked at the longsword raised high before her.

Panic was written all over her face as she watched the malevolent gleaming of the terrible swift sword, and she realized two things.

The first was that her life would be over in a few seconds. The second was that an ordinary village girl like herself had no way of fighting that fate.

The tip of the sword was stained with some of her blood. As her heart beat faster, the pain spread through her body, along with the scorching heat of her wound.

The pain she had never felt before filled her with fear and made her want to throw up.

Perhaps vomiting would clear the feeling of nausea that filled her.

However, Enri was looking for a way to live, so she had no time to throw up.

Although she wanted to abandon her struggle, there was a reason why Enri had not given up until now. That was the warmth pressed against her c.h.e.s.t — her younger sister.

She had to let her sister live.

That sole thought kept Enri from giving in.

In contrast, the armored knight in front of her seemed to be mocking Enri's resolve.

The raised sword swung down.

Perhaps it was because all her energies were concentrated here, or because her brain was working overtime because she was on the verge of life and death, but Enri felt that time was passing very slowly, and she desperately tried to think of some way to save her little sister.

However, she could not think of anything. All she could do was use her own body as a shield, letting the blade cleave deeply into herself, in the hope of buying time for her little sister to escape.

As long as she had the strength, she would hang on tightly to the knight or the sword he stuck in her, holding on tight and not letting go until the flame of her life guttered out.

If she could do that. she would gladly accept her fate.

Enri smiled, as though she were a martyr.

As a big sister, this was all she could do for Nemu. The thought made Enri smile.

Could Nemu escape the hell that was Carne Village by herself?

Even if she fled into the forest, she might run into patrols of soldiers. However, as long as she could survive, there was a possibility of escape. In order to give her little sister the chance to survive, Enri would bet her life — no, she would bet everything.

Part 3

Momonga sat on a chair and looked at the mirror before him. The roughly one meter wide mirror did not reflect Momonga's face, but a patch of grass. The mirror was like a television set, showing images of a distant plain.

The grass of the plains swayed in the wind, proving it was not a still image.

As time passed, the sun slowly rose, its light banishing the darkness that covered the plains. This pastoral scene, almost poetic in its beauty, was a stark difference from the former location of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the desolate world of Helheim.

Momonga reached out to the mirror and swiped his hand right. The mirror's image changed.

This was a Mirror of Remote Viewing.

This was a magic item used to display an image of a specific region. It was a very useful item for player-killers, or player-killer-killers. However, there were low level spells which occluded information-gathering spells that could hide people from the mirror's eyes. In addition, it was easy for users to be counterattacked by offensive barriers, so it was an average item at best.

However, for the present circ.u.mstances, an item which could show the outside world was a very useful item indeed.

Momonga enjoyed the movie-like quality of the grass within the mirror as the image changed.

"It would seem that I can move the image with a wave of the hand. That way, I won't have to keep looking at the same spot."

The scenery and the angles with which it was viewed changed within the floating mirror. Although he had made several mistakes so far, Momonga kept changing his gestures to alter the landscape within the mirror, hoping that he would find someone. However, up till now, he had not found any intelligent beings — for instance, humans.

He repeated the same simple gestures over and over again, but all the images he got were the same: plains. Momonga was starting to get bored, so he looked at the other person in the room.

"What's wrong, Momonga-sama? I stand ready to heed your every command."

"No, there's nothing, Sebas."

Sebas was the other person in the room. He might have been smiling, but his words seemed to hold some kind of subtext. Although Sebas was absolutely loyal to him, he had objected to Momonga's excursion to the surface without bringing his followers along.

Indeed, just after Momonga returned from the surface, Sebas had accosted and lectured him.

Momonga said what was on his heart.

"What will I do with him…"

Being with Sebas made Momonga think of his guildmate Touch Me. After all, Touch Me-san was the one who had designed Sebas.

Still, he didn't have to make him so similar to himself. Even the way Sebas gets angry reminds me of him.

After grumbling in his heart, Momonga looked back to the mirror.

Momonga's plan was to teach Demiurge the hard-learned lessons of how to control the magic mirror. This was what Momonga had meant when he spoke to Demiurge about another security net.

Although it would have been simpler to leave this task to his subordinates, Momonga wanted to handle this task personally. The truth was that he wanted to use his can-do working attitude to inspire and gain the respect of his subordinates. Therefore he could not be seen to give up halfway. Still, why can't I switch to a higher vantage point? If only there were a manual… With these thoughts in mind, Momonga went about the painstaking work of figuring the mirror's controls out by boring, repetitive trial and error.

He did not know how long it had been.

It might have only been a while, but so far his work had not borne fruit, and he could not help but feel like this was all a waste of time.

Momonga casually waved his hand with a vacant expression, and his field of vision suddenly expanded.

"Oh!"

Surprise, delight, pride, Momonga's exclamation was filled with all of these. At his wit's end, he made a random gesture and the screen suddenly did as he wanted. This was a cry of joy one would expect out of a programmer who had pulled eight hour's worth of overtime.

Cheering and clapping answered him. The source of these two sounds was Sebas.

"Congratulations, Momonga-sama. Your servant Sebas stands in awe of your prowess."

Granted, this was the fruit of extensive trial and error, so you don't need to go that far. Momonga thought that, but when he saw that Sebas looked quite happy, he decided to humbly accept the butler's praise.

"Thank you, Sebas. Although I apologize for making you accompany me for so long."

"What are you saying? Staying by your side and obeying your orders is the reason for a butler's existence, Momonga-sama. There is no need to thank or apologize to me… although, it is true that this process took quite some time. Momonga-sama, would you like to take a break?"

"No, there is no need for that. Undead like myself are not affected by negative statuses like fatigue. If you're tired, you may go and rest."

"Thank you for your kindness, but it would be unthinkable for a butler to rest while his master worked. With the aid of magic items, I am not affected by fatigue either. Please allow me to stay by your side until the end, Momonga-sama."

Momonga realised one thing from his conversations with the NPCs; namely, they casually used game terms in their speech. For instance, skills, job classes, items, levels, negative statuses, and so on. If he could use game terms with them in an unironic way, it might be easier to give them orders.

After agreeing to Sebas's request, he continued studying the ways to control the mirror. Finally he discovered a method to adjust the height of his viewpoint.

Momonga smiled in satisfaction, and began looking for a populated area.

Finally, an image of something like a village appeared on the mirror.

As Momonga zoomed in on the village, he felt that something was amiss.

"…Are they holding a festival?"

People were running in and out of their houses this early in the morning. They looked panicked.

"No, that is not a festival."

That steely voice came from Sebas, who was watching the display with a keen look in his eye as he stood beside Momonga.

There was an undercurrent of disgust in Sebas's stern words. As Momonga enlarged the image, he too furrowed his nonexistent brows.

Fully armored knights were swinging their longswords at the villagers, who were dressed in rough clothes.

It was a massacre.

A villager fell with every swing of a knight's sword. The villagers could not resist them, and could only run away. The knights pursued and killed the fleeing villagers. There were horses eating the grain in the field. Those horses must have belonged to the knights.

"Cheh!"

Momonga scoffed, intending to change the image. This village had no value to him. If he could extract more information from it, perhaps he might have a reason to save them. But as things stood, there was no reason to save this village.

He should abandon them.

Momonga was taken aback by how he could make such a heartless decision. A cruel slaughter was occurring before his eyes, but the only thing he could think of was the good of Nazarick. There was nothing like pity, anger, or worry, basic human emotions anyone should have.

It felt like he was watching a TV show about animals and insects, where the strong ate the weak.

Could it be that as one of the undead, he no longer considered himself part of humanity?

No, how could that be?

Momonga struggled to find an excuse to justify his thinking.

He was not an agent of justice.

He was level one hundred, but like he had told Mare, this world's commoners might well be level one hundred as well. Therefore, he could not tread blindly into this unknown world. Although it looked like the knights were conducting a one-sided slaughter of the villagers, there might be other reasons at work here which he did not know about. Reasons like "illness, judgement, setting an example," and others like them kept appearing in his mind. And if he stepped in and defeated the knights, he might earn the ire of the country they belonged to.

Momonga stretched out his bony hand and rubbed his skull as he thought. Could it be that after becoming an undead being who was immune to mind-affecting effects, he had become inured to scenes like this? Definitely not.

He waved his hand again, showing a scene from another part of the village.

It seemed like two knights were trying to pull a violently struggling villager off another knight. The man was pulled away, his arms were held, and he was rendered motionless where he stood. Before Momonga's eyes, the man was stabbed with a sword. The blade entered his body and exited from the other side of him. It should have been a fatal blow, but the longsword did not stop. One, two, three strikes — the knight seemed to be taking out his anger on the villager as he hacked at the man's body.

In the end, the knight kicked away the villager, who collapsed to the ground while spurting his blood into the air.

—The villager looked straight at Momonga. No, this might have just been a coincidence.

It was definitely a coincidence.

There was no way for anyone to detect the mirror's surveillance apart from anti-divination spells.

Frothy blood leaked from the villager's mouth as he tried to open his mouth. His eyes were unfocused, and Momonga could not tell where he was looking. Even so, with what may have been his dying breaths, he gasped his last words:

—Please save my daughter—

"What do you intend to do?"

Sebas seemed to have been waiting for this moment to speak.

There could only be one answer. Momonga replied coldly:

"Nothing. There is no reason, value or benefit in rescuing them."

"—Understood."

Momonga nonchalantly looked at Sebas — at the phantom image of his past guildmate.

"This… Touch Me-san…"

Just then, Momonga remembered something.

—Saving someone in trouble is common sense.

When Momonga had just started out in YGGDRASIL, hunting down characters of heteromorphic races was a common practice, and Momonga, who had chosen such a race, had been PKed countless times. Just when he was about to leave YGGDRASIL, those words, spoken by that man, had saved him.

If not for those words, Momonga would not be here.

Momonga sighed softly, and then he smiled. Now that he had recalled that memory, he had no choice but to go save them.

"I will repay that debt… besides, sooner or later, I'll have to test my fighting strength in this world."

After saying that to his absent friend, Momonga enlarged the view of the village until he saw everything. After that, he tried to pick out the surviving villagers.

"Sebas, put Nazarick on maximum alert. I will go first, and you will tell Albedo, who is standing by next door, to follow me after fully equipping herself. However, I forbid her to bring Ginnungagap. After that, prepare support units. Something might happen which results in my inability to retreat. Therefore the units sent to the village should be adept at stealth or have the ability to go invisible."

"I understand, but I wish to request the task of defending your body to be given to me."

"Then who will relay my orders? These knights are currently sacking the village, which means there might be knights near Nazarick who might attack us. Therefore, you must stay."

The image changed, and now it showed a girl sending a knight flying with a punch. The girl was leading an even younger girl as they ran away. They were probably sisters. Momonga immediately opened his inventory and withdrew the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Just as the girl planned to flee, she was slashed in the back. Since time was tight, Momonga swiftly incanted the spell.

"「Gate」."

It had no limits on distance and a 0% chance of teleport mishaps.

The spell Momonga used was the most accurate and potent of such spells in YGGDRASIL.

The scene before him changed in an instant.

The fact that the opposition had not used teleport-blocking filled Momonga with relief. If he was denied the chance to rescue them, and was ambushed instead, it would have been bad.

The scene before the eyes was the same of what he had seen earlier.

Two terrified girls were in front of him.

The one who looked like the elder sister had a braid of straw-blonde hair that reached down to her b.r.e.a.s.ts. Her skin, healthily tanned from working in the sun, was now deathly pale from fear, and her dark eyes were wet with tears.

The little sister — the younger girl — buried her face in her sister's waist, trembling in fright.

Momonga gazed coldly at the knight standing before the two girls.

Perhaps he was shocked by Momonga's sudden appearance, but the knight simply stared at Momonga, having apparently forgotten to swing the sword he was holding.

Momonga had grown up without knowing the touch of violence on his life. He did not think that the world in which he currently resided was a simulation, but the real thing, Even so, he did not feel the slightest bit of fear at the knight before him who held a sword.

This calmness allowed him to make a cold, cruel decision.

Momonga reached out an empty hand and cast his spell.

"「Grasp Heart」."

This spell was one that crushed a foe's heart, and among the ten tiers of spells, it was an instant death spell of the Ninth Tier. Many of the necromantic spells which Momonga was adept with possessed instant death properties, and this was one of them.

Momonga had chosen to open with this spell because even if it was resisted, the spell would still temporarily stun his opponent.

If the spell had been resisted, his plan was to take the two girls and jump back into the still open 「Gate」. He had already planned his route of retreat since he was not sure what his opponents could do.

However, it would seem those preparations would not be necessary.

A feeling of something soft crushing beneath Momonga's fingers travelled up his arm, and the knight collapsed silently to the ground

Momonga looked down upon the fallen knight.

It would seem that even killing someone did not stir any emotions within him.

There was no guilt, fear, or confusion in his heart, which was like the surface of a calm lake. Why was it like this?

"I see… so it's not just my body, but my mind that's no longer human."

Momonga took a step forward.

The elder sister squeaked in confusion as Momonga walked past her, probably in fear at the knight's demise.

Momonga had clearly come to rescue her. However, the girl was seemingly confused by Momonga's sudden appearance and actions. What was she thinking?

Although he had his doubts, Momonga did not have time to worry about them. After verifying the wounds on the elder sister's back through her tatty old clothes, Momonga put the girls behind him, and glared at a knight who had just emerged from a nearby house.

The knight saw Momonga as well, and took a step back in fear.

"…So, you dare to chase girls, but not someone who can fight back?"

As Momonga stared down the quivering knight, he considered what spell to use next.

Momonga's opening spell was one that he particularly favored, 「Grasp Heart」. This sort of magic was Momonga's specialty. Momonga had used his innate skills to increase the chances of instant death, and his necromancy-enhancing abilities improved the effectiveness of 「Grasp Heart」 even further. However, it meant that he could not gauge the strength of that knight.

Therefore, he should use another spell against this knight, something that did not instantly kill him. This way, he could measure the strength of this world and verify his own power.

"—Since I've come all this way, I might as well run a few experiments. You shall be a test subject."

Momonga's necromancy spells were augmented, but the simple attack spells he used were not very destructive. In addition, since metal armor was weak against electrical effects in YGGDRASIL, most people enchanted their plate armor with electricity resistance. Therefore, Momonga deliberately chose to attack his foe with an electrical spell to see how much damage it would do.

Because his aim was not to kill his opposition, there was no need to enhance its effects with skills.

"「Dragon Lightning」."

A dragon-shaped bolt of white electricity crackled around Momonga's arms and shoulders. The bolt flared brightly as it instantly surged out at the knight Momonga was pointing at.

There was no way to avoid it or defend against it.

The knight who had been electrocuted by the dragon-shaped lightning bolt shone brilliantly for an instant. Miserable as his death was, it was still a beautiful sight.

The light in his eyes faded, and the knight collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. The body beneath the armor was charred black and gave off a vile stench.

Momonga had been planning to follow up with another spell, but he felt silly as he noted the weakness of the knights.

"Pathetic… he died so easily…"

To Momonga, the fifth tier 「Dragon Lightning」 was a weak spell. When hunting level one hundred players, Momonga would usually cast spells of the eighth tier and higher. Magic of the fifth tier and below would almost never see use.

Now that he knew the knights were weak enough to be finished off by fifth tier magic, Momonga's tension vanished in an instant. Of course, it could be that these two knights were especially weak among their kind, but still, it was a great relief. Still, the plan to retreat with magic had not changed.

These knights might be focused on offense. In YGGDRASIL, a blow to the neck counted as a critical hit and dealt extra damage, but in the real world, it might well be fatal.

Instead of relaxing, Momonga raised his guard. It would be too foolish to die because he was careless. Next, he ought to continue testing his powers.

Momonga activated one of his skills.

"—「Create Mid Tier Undead, Death Knight」."

This was one of Momonga's skills, which could create various undead. The Death Knight in question was Momonga's favorite undead monster, which he used as a meat shield.

It was roughly level thirty five, but although its attack power was only comparable to a level twenty five monster, its defensive power was very good, equivalent to a level forty monster. That said, monsters of that level were useless to Momonga for the most part.

However, the Death Knight had two very important skills.

One of them was the ability to draw away enemy attacks. The other was that just once, they could survive any attack with one HP. Momonga liked using Death Knights as shields because of these two skills.

This time round, he was also looking forward to using the Death Knight in a similar way.

In YGGDRASIL, when he used his skills to create undead, they would appear out of the sky in their summoner's vicinity. However, things seemed different in this world.

A cloud of black fog appeared. The cloud headed straight for the body of the knight whose heart had been crushed and then enveloped it.

The mist slowly expanded, and melded with the knight's body. After that, the knight wobbled before slowly rising to its feet like a zombie.

"Eeeeek!"

Momonga heard the shrieks from the sisters, but he had no time to worry about them. After all, he was quite surprised at the sight before his eyes.

With a wet, dripping sound, several rills of black ichor oozed out from between the gaps in the knight's helmet. It must have come from the knight's mouth.

The black fluid flowed out without end, until it covered the knight's entire body. It looked like a human being that had been swallowed by a slime. Completely surrounded by the black liquid, the knight's body began to twist and change.

After several seconds, the black liquid fell off the body of what was now a Death Knight.

It was now two point three meters tall, and its body was correspondingly bulkier. It no longer resembled a human being, but a wild beast.

In its left hand it held a large shield that covered three-quarters of its body — a tower shield — and in its right hand it held a wavy-bladed flamberge. This one hundred thirty centimeter long weapon was intended to be held with both hands, but the massive Death Knight could easily wield it with one hand. A dreadful red-black aura covered the flamberge's blade, which pulsed like a heart.

Its massive body was sheathed in a suit of full plate armor made from some black armor, and it was covered in red tracery that resembled blood vessels. The armor was also covered in spikes as far as anyone could see, and it looked like a man-shaped incarnation of brutality. Demonic horns sprang from its head, and one could see its rotted face underneath them. Twin points of hateful, murderous light shone in the eye sockets of its ghastly visage.

Its tattered black cape blowing in the wind, the Death Knight awaited Momonga's orders. The way it carried itself was truly deserving of the name "Death Knight".

Much like he had with the Primal Fire Elemental and Moonlight Wolves he had summoned, Momonga used the mental bond with his summoned monster and pointed to the corpse of the knight who had been slain by the 「Dragon Lightning」.

"Exterminate all the knights who are attacking this village."

"OOOOOOOAAAAHHHHHHH!" it roared.

So mighty was its cry that it shook the air, and it was so filled with bloodl.u.s.t that everyone who heard it broke out in goosebumps.

The Death Knight ran, fast as lightning. The way it charged forward without hesitation was like a hunting hound that had scented its quarry. The undead creature's hatred for the living made it s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e to the prey that it would soon slaughter.

As the Death Knight's silhouette shrank into the distance, Momonga was keenly aware of a difference between this new world and YGGDRASIL.

That was "independence".

Originally, the Death Knight should have stayed by its summoner's side to await his orders and attack any enemies which approached. Yet, it had disregarded that order and launched an attack of its own accord. This difference might be a fatal vulnerability in an unknown situation like this one.

At a loss for words, Momonga scratched his head and sighed.

"It ran off… to think a shield would abandon the person it was supposed to protect. Then again, I did tell it to do so."

Momonga reproached himself for his miscalculation.

Although he could make quite a few more Death Knights, it was best to conserve limited-use abilities while he was not sure of the enemy and the situation. Still, Momonga was a back-line mage. Without a front-liner to run interference for him, he was effectively n.a.k.e.d.

Therefore, he would need to create another defender. This time, he would try making one without a corpse.

Just as Momonga was thinking about that, a humanoid shape came through the still-open Gate. At the same time, the Gate's duration ended, and it slowly disappeared.

A person clad in a suit of full-body black plate armor stood before Momonga.

That suit of armor looked like a demon. It was covered in spikes and did not expose the slightest bit of flesh. Its clawed gauntlets grasped a black kite shield in one hand and a bardiche that radiated a sickly green glow in the other. A blood-red cape blew in the wind, while the doublet beneath was also the carmine of fresh blood.

"The preparations took some time. I apologize for my late arrival," Albedo's melodic voice spoke from beneath the horned helmet.

Albedo's levels were in the defense focused Dark Knight class. As a result, among the three level one hundred warriors of Nazarick — Sebas, Cocytus, and Albedo — Albedo possessed the greatest defensive ability.

In other words, she was the strongest shield in Nazarick.

"No, it's fine. You came just in time."

"Thank you. Then… how shall we dispose of these inferior lifeforms? If you do not wish to stain his hands with their blood, I will gladly eliminate them on your behalf, Momonga-sama."

"…What exactly did Sebas tell you?"

Albedo did not respond.

"I see, you didn't pay attention… my intention is to save this village. Our enemies are the knights in armor, like that corpse over there."

Momonga saw that Albedo nodded in understanding, and turned his eyes elsewhere.

"Then…"

The two girls shrank under Momonga's unyielding gaze, and tried their best to make themselves as small as possible. Perhaps it was because of the Death Knight, or because they heard its roar, or because they had heard Albedo's words, which made them tremble uncontrollably.

Perhaps it was all of them.

Momonga felt that he should show his intention to help and reached his hand out to the elder sister, but the two girls seemed to have gotten the wrong impression.

The elder sister wet herself, followed by the younger sister.

"…"

The stench of ammonia filled the surrounding air. Fatigue washed over Momonga like a tide. He had no idea what to do, and Albedo was no help, so Momonga decided to continue trying to express his good intentions.

"…You seem to be hurt."

As a working man, Momonga had long since trained up his ability to ignore things.

Momonga, who pretended not to notice, opened his inventory and withdrew a backpack from it. Although it was called an Infinite Backpack, it could only hold up to five hundred kilos of items.

YGGDRASIL players commonly put their immediate-use items into this bag, because the items within the bag could be assigned to hotkeys in the game interface.

After digging through several of these Backpacks, he found a small phial containing a red potion.

It was a Minor Healing Potion.

This potion could restore fifty HP, and beginners in YGGDRASIL frequently used it. However, Momonga as he was now had no need for this item at all. This was because this potion healed through positive energy. To an undead being like Momonga, this potion was like a damaging poison. However, not every member in the guild was undead, so Momonga kept some of these items just in case.

"Drink it."

"Momonga offered the red potion. The elder sister's face was pale with fright as she replied:

"I, I'll drink it! Just, please, spare my little sister—"

"Nee-chan!"

He watched the little sister weeping as she tried to stop her elder sister, while the elder sister apologized to her little sister while taking the potion. Their reactions confused Momonga.

After all, he had saved them in a tight spot, and had even offered them a potion. Why were they acting like this in front of him? What was going on here?

They don't trust me at all. Even though I wanted to leave them to their fate at first, I ended up being their saviour in the end. They should be crying and hugging me in gratitude. Isn't this sort of thing common in manga and movies? But the exact opposite is happening now.

Where did I go wrong? Could it be that being instantly accepted is a privilege of the beautiful?

Just as a baffled expression dawned on Momonga's fleshless face, a dulcet voice said:

"…Momonga-sama offered you a healing potion out of the kindness of his heart, but to think you would actually dare to refuse it… you inferior lifeforms deserve ten thousand deaths for that."

Albedo raised her bardiche in a natural way, preparing to behead them on the spot.

Considering they had treated him like this despite how he had risked himself to save them, Momonga could understand Albedo's feelings. However, if he let her go ahead and slay them, then there would be no point to this rescue.

"Wait, wait, don't be so hasty. There's a time and place for this, so lower your weapon."

"…Understood, Momonga-sama," Albedo replied gently as she withdrew her bardiche.

However, she was still radiating murderous intent, to the point where the two girls were gritting their teeth in fear. In response, Momonga's nonexistent stomach began cramping up.

In any case, he had to leave this place as soon as possible.

If he remained here, who knew what other tragedies might occur?

Momonga offered the potion again.

"This is a healing potion. It is harmless. Hurry up and drink it."

Momonga's words were gentle, but backed with an adamant will. There was also the implied threat that if she did not drink, she would be slain.

The elder sister's eyes went wide and she gulped the potion down. After that, a look of surprise filled her face.

"No way…"

She touched her back, then wiggled her body in disbelief and patted her back.

"The pain is gone?"

"Y-Yes, it is…"

The elder sister nodded stiffly, to indicate that it did not hurt.

It would seem that the minor wounds on her were easily remedied by a low tier healing potion.

Now that he had their trust, Momonga continued by asking a question. There was no way around that question, and depending on the answer, it would affect his future movements.

"Do you know of magic?"

"Yes, yes I do. The alchemist who comes by our village… my friend, knows how to use magic."

"…Is that so. Well, that makes things easy to explain. I am a magic caster."

Momonga then cast his spells:

"「Anti-Life Cocoon」."

"「Wall of Protection From Arrows」."

A dome of light, roughly three meters in radius, surrounded the sisters. The second spell was not visible to the n.a.k.e.d eye, but there was a subtle change in the air. He had originally planned to use an anti-magic spell as well, but he did not know what sort of magic existed in this world, so he did not do so for the time being. If the enemy had magic casters, then that was just their bad luck.

"I have cast a defensive spell that keeps living creatures from coming near you, as well as a spell that weakens the effectiveness of shooting attacks. As long as you stay here, you should be safe. Ah, just in case, I will give you these as well."

After calmly explaining the effects of the magic to the two dumbfounded sisters, Momonga withdrew a pair of unremarkable-looking horns. Apparently, the magic did not obstruct them, since they sailed straight through the forcefield as Momonga tossed them to the sisters' side.

"These are called the Horns of the Goblin General. If you blow them, Goblins — in other words, small monsters — will appear. Order them to protect you."

In YGGDRASIL, electronic data crystals dropped from monsters could be slotted into almost any sort of item (apart from certain expendable items), in order to create just about any item a player could think of. In addition there were certain artifacts which could not be created by players and had fixed stats. These horns were examples of them.

Momonga had used the horn before, and at that time it managed to summon a Goblin Troop, twelve or so Goblins with some measure of ability. There were two Goblin Archers, one Goblin Mage, a Goblin Cleric, two Goblin Riders and their wolf mounts, as well as one Goblin Leader.

Although it was called a Goblin Troop, their numbers were few and they were very weak.

This was a trash item for Momonga. The surprise was why he had not disposed of it yet. Still, Momonga felt quite smart for being able to put this trash item to good use.

Another good point about this item was that the summoned Goblins would linger until they were killed instead of vanishing after a while. That could at least buy the girls some time.

As Momonga finished, he turned to leave, bringing Albedo with him as he headed to the village. However, after a few steps, a couple of voices called out to him.

"Ah… th-thank you for saving us!"

"Thank you!"

Those words stopped Momonga in his tracks, and when he turned around, he saw the two girls, their eyes brimming with tears as they thanked him. He simply replied:

"…Think nothing of it."

"And, and this may be thick-skinned of us, but, but you are the only one we can count on. Please! Please save our parents!"

"All right. If they're still alive, I will rescue them."

The sisters' eyes went wide as they heard Momonga's words. Their faces reflected the disbelief in their hearts, but soon they came to their senses and lowered their heads in thanks.

"Th-Thank you! Thank you very much! And, and, may we know…"

The girl's voice trailed off, and then she asked in a mumble:

"May we know your name…?"

Momonga almost responded by reflex, but in the end he did not state his name.

The name "Momonga" was that of the guild master of the former Ainz Ooal Gown. Then what should he call himself now? What was the name of the last man who remained in the Great Tomb of Nazarick?

—Ah, that's it.

"…Remember my name well. I am Ainz Ooal Gown."

Part 4

"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The mighty roar shattered the air.

It was the signal for a slaughter to become a massacre of a different sort.

In the blink of an eye, the hunters had become the hunted.

Londes Di Gelanpo had probably cursed his gods more times in the past ten seconds than he had in the rest of his life. If the gods really did exist, then they should defeat that evil being right now. Londes was a faithful man — why had the gods abandoned him?

The gods did not exist.

In the past, he had looked down on those people who did not believe in the gods as fools. After all, if the gods did not exist, how could the priests work their magic? And now, he realised that he was the foolish one.

The monster before him — a Death Knight, for want of a better word — drew closer.

He took two steps back in response, trying to get away from it.

A shrill creaking noise came from his armor, and the sword he clutched in both hands was trembling uncontrollably. He was not the only one; the other eighteen knights surrounding the Death Knight were all acting the same way.

Although they were filled with fear, none of them ran. This was not courage — the grinding of their teeth could attest to that. If they could, they would run as fast and as far as they could.

It was because they knew there was no escape.

Londes's eyes shifted, pleading for help.

This square was at the center of the village, where Londes and his men had gathered sixty or so villagers. They looked fearfully at Londes and his men, while a group of children were hiding behind a wooden watchtower.

Some of the children held sticks, but none of them was in a fighting stance. It was all they could do not to drop their sticks.

During Londes's attack on the village, they had chased the villagers to the central square. They searched the houses, and then, in order to root out anyone who was hiding in the cellars, they poured in alchemical oils and set them on fire.

There were four knights standing guard around the village with bows, and their job was to shoot down anyone who tried to escape the village. They had done this several times now, and it could be said that they were old hands at this sort of thing.

The massacre had taken a fair bit of time, but it had been successful, and they had gathered the surviving villagers into one place. After that, they would release some of the prisoners as bait.

It should have been like that, but—

Londes still remembered that moment.

The sight of Erion flying through the air, after the last few villagers fled into the square.

It should have been impossible. Nobody knew what was going on. How could they understand the reason why a trained, grown man in full plate armor — which still had some weight even if it was lightened by magic — could fly through the air like a ball?

After soaring about seven meters through the air, he fell to the earth with a thunderous crash and lay still.

A bone-chilling monster stood where Erion had been. The hair-raising undead being called a Death Knight lowered the tower shield that had bashed Erion and stood before them.

This was when their despair began.

"Aiiiiieee!"

Their panicked squeals echoed through the air. One of the men huddled together with his comrades could not bear the oppressive terror and fled with a scream.

Under these extreme circ.u.mstances, it was only natural that — when stretched to the breaking point — people would snap. However, among all of the fleeing man's comrades, not one of them joined him. The reason was that would soon be evident.

A black gale whirled past the field of Londes's vision.

The Death Knight's body was larger than a normal human's, but its nimble grace was far beyond anyone's expectations.

The fleeing man only managed to take three steps.

Just as he was about to take his fourth step, an arc of silver brilliance cleaved his body in two. The bisected left and right halves of his body collapsed in opposite directions. A sour stench filled the air as his pink internal organs spilled out.

"GUWOOOOOOOOOOHHH!" the blood-covered Death Knight roared as it swung its sword.

It was a roar of joy.

The look of delight was unmistakeable, even on its rotted face. As an overwhelmingly superior slaughterer, it savored the despair and terror of the pitiful humans who could not even survive a single one of its blows.

Nobody dared attack, though they had swords in hand.

At first, they had tried an attack, though they were afraid. But even those blades which had made it past their foe's defense could not strike a telling blow through the Death Knight's armor.

In contrast, the Death Knight did not use its sword, but sent Londes flying with a shield bash, and it did so without using enough force to kill.

It was clearly toying with them, given the way it did not use its full strength. It was plain to see that the Death Knight wanted to enjoy the dying struggles of these humans.

The Death Knight only dealt fatal blows in earnest when the knights tried to escape.

The first knight to run was Ririk. He was a nice guy but a bad drunk. His limbs were chopped off, followed by his head.

After seeing the two deaths, the other knights knew the score, so they did not dare to flee.

Their attacks were ineffective, and they would be killed if they tried to run.

The only thing they could do was wait their turn to be tortured to death.

Although there was no way to see their faces below the full helms they wore, everyone present was keenly aware of their fate. The wails of grown men reduced to children echoed throughout the village. These men who had always oppressed the weak had not thought that one day, they would be on the receiving end of that treatment.

"Oh god, please save me…"

"Oh god…"

After hearing these cries for salvation, the strength left Londes's legs and he almost fell to his knees. He loudly cursed the gods — or was it a prayer to them?

"You, you lot, go hold that monster back!" a desperate knight shouted. He knew that his fate was sealed. His words sounded like an off-key psalm.

The man who spoke was standing next to the Death Knight. The way he was stumbling back on his tiptoes to back away from the corpse of his comrade was quite comical.

Londes frowned as he looked on that man in his pathetic state. It was hard to tell who had spoken those words because their closed helmets covered their faces and their voices were distorted by fear. Still, he knew that only one man would speak like that.

…Captain Belius.

Londes's frown deepened.

Overcome by his l.e.w.d d.e.s.i.r.es, he had tried to **** a village girl and then sought help from others after he got into a fight with her father. After he was pulled off the other man, he vented his anger by stabbing the father with his sword. That was the kind of man he was. However, his family was quite wealthy in their country, and he had joined this unit because of his family's riches.

Everything had gone wrong because he had been made their leader.

"I'm not someone who should die here! All of you, hurry up and protect me! Be my shields!"

Nobody moved. He might have been appointed their leader, but he was not popular at all. Nobody would throw their lives away for a man like this.

However, the Death Knight responded to his shouting, and it slowly turned to face Belius.

"Aiiiiiieeeeee—!"

The only thing praiseworthy about him was that he could make so much noise while standing in front of the Death Knight.

Just as Londes began to respect this odd quality of Belius's, he heard the man shriek in terror:

"Money, I'll give you money! Two hundred gold pieces!! No, five hundred gold pieces!!!"

Those were considerable amounts he was talking about. However, right now, it was like telling them that he would pay them to jump off a five hundred meter cliff.

Although nobody responded, one person — no, half a person moved as though in reply to him.

"Uboooooarrr…"

The right half of the bisected corpse gripped Belius's ankles firmly. The bloody gargling from its mouth hardly sounded like words.

"—Ogyaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Belius screamed in an unnaturally high-pitched voice. The onlooking knights and villagers were frozen in fear, their skin covered in goosebumps.

Squire Zombies.

In YGGDRASIL, creatures killed by the Death Knight would become undead of comparable power, haunting the place where they were killed. According to the game's rules, those damned souls who fell to the Death Knight's blade would become its slaves for all eternity.

Belius stopped screaming, and fell like a puppet whose strings had been cut, facing the sky. He must have passed out. The Death Knight drew closer to the defenseless man and stabbed its wavy-blade flamberge down.

Belius's body twitched, and—

"Gu-Guwaaaaaaargh!"

Woken by the incredible pain, Belius screamed, "Leh, leh me guh!!!!! Ah beggehg yeh!!!!!! Ah duh anythuh!!!!!!!"

Using both hands, Belius desperately grabbed the flamberge that had already penetrated his body, but the Death Knight paid his futile struggles no heed and worked the flamberge like a saw. His flesh and armor were cruelly torn open, and fresh blood flew everywhere.

"—Aah—eeeh—ah gib ya munni, leh, leh meh guh—"

Belius's body shuddered, and then he breathed his last. Only then was the Death Knight satisfied, and it stepped away from Belius's corpse.

"No… no… please, no…"

"Oh god!"

Their screams came from seeing the ghastly sight before them. If they ran, they would die swiftly, but if they stayed, they would die horribly. They knew that perfectly well, but still, they could not bring themselves to move.

"—Get a grip!"

Londes's shout tore through their wailing. The world was filled with silence, as though time was standing still.

"—Fall back! Sound the horn for the hors.e.m.e.n and archers to come here! The rest of you, do your best to buy some time for the hornblower! I'd rather not die like that, if you don't mind! Now move!"

Everyone moved in an instant.

There was no sign of their earlier panic. Everyone moved in silent unison, like a raging waterfall.

Their mechanical obedience to their orders without thinking created a miracle. There was no way they could move so immaculately again.

The knights each did what they were supposed to do. They had to protect the knight who would blow the horn and signal the others.

One of the soldiers who had taken several steps back lowered his sword and withdrew his horn from his bag.

"OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The Death Knight charged, as though reacting to the horn being taken out. Everyone was shocked. Could it be that the Death Knight wanted to destroy their means of escape so he could kill them to the last man?

The flood of darkness drew closer and closer, and everyone knew that stepping forward to try and stop it was certain death. However, the knights still climbed over each other to block the Death Knight one after the other. Their fear was wiped away by an even greater fear and they surged forward to become obstacles.

Every time its shield moved, a knight was smashed through the air.

Every time its blade flashed, a knight was cut in two.

"Dezun! Morett! Behead the fallen! Hurry, before they come back as monsters!"

The named knights hurriedly ran toward their murdered comrades.

The shield swung, and a knight was thrown into the air. His body was bisected by the flamberge.

Four men had lost their lives in the blink of an eye. Though Londes was still gripped with fear, he readied his sword against the coming of the jet-black storm, like a martyr preparing to give his life for his faith.

"Ohhhh!"

It might have been a meaningless gesture, but Londes did not intend to wait for death. Giving voice to a battlecry, he swung his sword with all his strength at the oncoming Death Knight.

Perhaps it was because of his circ.u.mstances, but Londes's muscles broke their limit and surprised him. It might have been the best blow Londes had ever struck in his life.

The Death Knight swung its flamberge as well.

In an instant, the world before Londes spun—

And he saw his decapitated corpse collapse to the ground, as his sword swung through thin air.

Just then, at that moment, the horn rang out—

♦ ♦ ♦

Momonga — Ainz raised his head as the sound of the horn reached him from the direction of the village.

The area around him was covered with the corpses of the knights who had been standing guard here. The stink of blood hung heavy in the air, but Ainz paid it no heed as he ran his experiments. Just then, he chided himself for getting his priorities wrong.

Ainz cast down the sword in his hand. The sword which had originally belonged to a knight fell to the ground, its gleaming, razor-sharp edge now stained with dirt.

"…Well, I've said it before, but this physical damage reduction is quite something."

"Ainz Ooal Gown-sama."

"…Ainz will do, Albedo."

Ainz's request to be called by a truncated version of his name threw Albedo into confusion.

"Ku, kufu! Am, am I really allowed to do that? Would it not be disrespectful to shorten the name of the leader of the Forty One Supreme Beings, especially if it is also the name of Nazarick's rulers!?"

Ainz did not think that it was a big deal. However, her words meant that she respected the name of Ainz Ooal Gown, which pleased Ainz. Therefore, his reply was phrased in a gentle tone:

"It's fine, Albedo. Until my former comrades arrive, that is my name. I permit you to shorten it."

"I understand… no, but please let me address you with the appropriate respect. Then, then… my master, Ai-Ainz-sama… kukuku… yes, that's right…"

Albedo twisted her body shyly.

However, since she was in full body armor, Ainz could not see her beautiful face. To him, she was just acting strangely.

"Could, could it be… kukuku… could it be that I'm the only one who's allowed to address you in such a way?"

"No. Having someone address me by such a long name all the time would be annoying, so I would like to have everyone do the same thing."

"…Is that so… ah, that's right. Yes, that's what I thought—"

Albedo's mood turned gloomy all of a sudden. In an uneasy voice, Ainz asked:

"…Albedo, what do you think of the name I chose?"

"I think that name suits you very well. It fits my beloved — cough, cough — it fits you, in your capacity as the one who united the Supreme Beings."

"…This name was intended to represent the forty one of us, and this includes your maker, Tabula Smaragdina-san. However, I ignored the feelings of your master and the others, and took that name for myself on a whim. How do you think they would feel about that?"

"…Although I fear to anger you… I pray you will allow me to speak. If my words displease you, then I will gladly take my own life if you command it. I feel that some of the Supreme Beings who abandoned us might object to that name being used by the one who stayed with us until now, Momonga-sama. However, they are not here, so if you wish to use that name, all I feel is happiness, Momonga-sama ."

Albedo lowered her head after she finished speaking, and Ainz remained silent.

The phrase "abandoned us" swirled in his mind like a vortex.

His past companions had left him for their own reasons. YGGDRASIL was just a game, and they could not abandon their real lives for a game. Momonga felt the same way too. Yet could it really be said that he — who had been fixated on Ainz Ooal Gown and the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick — had not been suppressing his anger toward his former comrades?

They abandoned me.

"…That might be so, but it might not be. Human emotions are a complicated matter, and there is no right answer. Raise your head, Albedo. I understand your feelings. All right, it's decided… this shall be my name. Until my comrades object, I shall be Ainz Ooal Gown."

"Understood. The thought that our most exalted master… and the man I love most would bear this glorious name fills me with joy."

The man I love most… ah.

The uneasy Ainz decided not to worry about this for now.

"…Is that so? I'm glad to hear that."

"Then, Ainz-sama, would you like to spend some time here? Although I would be happy to stand by Ainz-sama's side, I… right, a stroll through the woods would be fine too."

He could not do that. Ainz had come to save this village.

The parents that his sisters had asked him to save were already dead.

As he thought of their corpses, he scratched his head.

The sight of their bodies reminded him of a dead insect by the roadside. There was no pity, no sadness, no anger.

"Hm, well, a stroll might be all right. After all, there is nothing of importance to do. The Death Knight seems quite happy to do his job."

"As expected of an undead being that Ainz-sama made. His marvellous execution of his duties is truly praiseworthy."

The undead made by Ainz's magic and his skills were stronger than ordinary monsters of their kind due to Ainz's class skills. Naturally the same applied to the Death Knight he had just created. However, it was only a level thirty five monster, and it was nothing in comparison to the monsters which required XP to create, like Overlord Wiseman and Grim Reaper Thanatos.

The fact that it was still fighting until now meant that the enemies were weak.

In other words, there was no danger.

He wanted to jump for joy when he thought about it, but he had to okay the role of the dignified master, so Ainz quashed that thought. However, he clenched his fists tightly, under his robe.

"The enemies who attacked the village were too weak. Then, let us go check on the survivors."

Before Momonga set out, he realised that he had some things to do first.

To begin with, he deactivated the special effects of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. The malevolent aura which wreathed it vanished like a candle flame in the wind.

Next, he withdrew a full-face mask from his inventory. It was gaudily decorated, and its expression was hard to describe, being somewhere between crying and anger. It resembled a Balinese barong mask.

The mask looked creepy, but it had no special powers. It was a simple cosmetic item which did not contain a trace of data.

Only those who were logged onto YGGDRASIL for more than two hours, between seven pm and ten pm on Christmas Eve, would possess this mask — no, as long as they were in the game during that period of time, they would automatically receive it. It could be called a cursed item.

This mask was known as the Mask of the Jealous, or the Jealous Mask.

Once, when he wore this mask, he was flooded by messages. "Has the company gone mad? We've been waiting for this. Nobody in our guild has it, can I PK him? I'm done with being a human being~" and other such things in a certain large message board.

Then, he took out a pair of gloves. Their rough exterior betrayed the fact that they were crudely made and had no special properties.

These gloves were called Jarngreipr, and they were an armor item made by one of Ainz Ooal Gown's members for fun. Their only ability was to increase the wearer's strength.

He used these items to hide his skeletal appearance.

Naturally, there was a reason for this emergency camouflage. It was because Ainz realised he had made a fatal mistake.

Ainz was used to YGGDRASIL, and looking like a skeleton did not frighten him. However, to the people of this world, Ainz's appearance was synonymous with terror. Both the sisters who had nearly lost their lives and the fully armored knights were afraid of him.

For the time being, he would use magic items to change his appearance from a "dreadful monster" to "menacing magic caster." That ought to reduce how frightening he appeared. Then he thought about the Staff. In the end, he decided to keep it with him. Besides, it was not a problem for him.

"Rather than beg your god for aid, you should not have massacred these people in the first place."

With that line which only an atheist could come up with, Ainz looked away from the corpse, whose fingers were folded into a gesture of prayer, and cast a spell.

"「Fly」."

Ainz floated lightly into the sky, Albedo soon followed him shortly afterwards.

"『Death Knight, if there are any surviving knights, leave them alive. They are useful to me.』"

The Death Knight sent its acknowledgement of Ainz's will back through the mental link they shared. It was difficult to put the distant Death Knight's thoughts into words.

Ainz flew toward the place from whence the horn blast had come, as quickly as he could. The wind lashed at his body, because he had never flown this fast before in YGGDRASIL. The robe plastered to his body felt a little uncomfortable, but that passed swiftly.

He soon reached the sky above the village, and Ainz looked down on the landscape beneath him.

Ainz discovered that part of the village square was darkened, as though it had absorbed water. There were many corpses and a few trembling knights, as well as the Death Knight.

Ainz counted the panting knights, who were too tired even to move. There were four of them in total. Though there were more than he expected, a few extra would not be a problem.

"Death Knight. That will be all for now."

His words seemed strangely incongruous with the surroundings, like he were buying something at a store. But to Ainz, this situation was as casual as going shopping.

He slowly descended to the ground, accompanied by Albedo.

The false knights stared at Ainz with mouths agape. They had been hoping for a rescue, but what had come was the man responsible for everything, and his arrival shattered their hopes.

"Greetings, gentlemen. My name is Ainz Ooal Gown."

Nobody answered.

"If you throw down your arms, I can guarantee your lives. Of course, if you would rather fight—"

One sword was cast to the ground. It was shortly followed by the other swords being thrown down until there were four blades on the ground.

Nobody spoke during this time.

"…You seem quite tired. Although, don't you think your heads are held a bit too high before the master of the Death Knight?"

The knights immediately prostrated themselves before him without a single sound.

They did not look like vassals before their lord so much as convicts awaiting execution.

"…I will permit you to leave with your lives. In exchange, tell your master — your owner — this."

Ainz used the effects of the 「Fly」 spell to move near one of the knights, and then he removed his helmet with the hand that was not holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. He noted the man's exhausted eyes, and their gazes met through the mask.

"Do not make trouble around here. If you make a disturbance here, I will slay you with the rest of your country."

The trembling knight nodded as hard as he could. His frantic gesture looked quite comical.

"Get lost. And make sure to relay this to your master."

He jerked his chin, and the knights fled like rabbits.

"…Ah, this act is tiring," Momonga quietly grumbled as he watched the knights run away.

If there were no villagers around, he might even have stretched his shoulders. Although he was doing the same thing in the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, playing the role of a dignified person was very tiring for an average salaryman like Ainz. Yet, until the curtains closed on this act of his, he had to wear yet another mask.

Ainz resisted the urge to sigh and walked toward the villagers. Albedo followed behind him, her every step accompanied by the clanking of metal.

"『—Clear up your zombie slaves』," Ainz ordered the Death Knight.

As Ainz drew closer to them, he could more clearly see the confusion and unease on the villagers' faces.

It was not that they were not happy at being rescued from the knights, but frightened by the person before them.

Ainz finally realised this. He was powerful, much more so than those knights, so he did not consider this situation from a weak person's point of view.

He decided to reflect on this, and pondered it quietly.

If he went too close to them, the outcome would be the opposite of what he was hoping for. Therefore, Ainz decided to stop at a distance from them, and spoke in a kindly tone.

"You have been saved. Be at ease."

"You, you are…"

One of the villagers was saying that, but even in the middle of speaking to Ainz, his eyes never left the Death Knight.

"I saw someone attacking this village, so I came here to help."

"Ohh…"

As the noises spilled out, looks of relief dawned on the faces of the villagers. Even so, they could not be completely at ease.

What a pain. Should I try a different approach?

Ainz decided to handle this in a way he did not like much.

"…That said, this was not for free. I expect a reward commensurate with the number of villagers whom I saved."

The villagers looked at each other. It would seem that they were worried about money. However, their doubtful looks faded away. This crass demand for money in exchange for salvation seemed to have allayed their suspicions somewhat.

"With, with the village in its present state…"

Ainz raised his hand to silence the other man before continuing.

"We'll discuss that later. I rescued a pair of sisters before I came here. I will go bring them over now. Can you wait here for me?"

He had to make sure those sisters did not talk and give away his true identity.

Without waiting for them to reply, Ainz slowly headed off. At the same time, he thought about using magic to alter memories.