“Eh?…That bitch, she actually dumped it all on me.”
This ridiculous state of events made Ainz reveal his true nature.
Normally, wouldn’t we have a scene like “Oh, let’s fight together~” or something? Or “Thanks for coming, we’ll leave them all to you?” At the very least she could have been polite about it, we could have gone back and forth several times about “Will you be alright here?” and so on… And not even a single word of gratitude after being saved? What the hell, man?
Frustration built in his heart. However, it did not reach the level of true anger, so it was not suppressed. It was like a tiny flame of indignation simmering inside him.
It was as though how someone had messed up and forced him to work overtime, and the person in question had said that they had something on and just up and left.
No―
I would’ve been more angry. Like say, if I was going home to play YGGDRASIL… and the guild had plans already, and being late would cause problems for everyone. It happened before, and while everyone forgave me back then…
Thus fuelled, the miniscule flames blazed up into an inferno, and then they were forcibly extinguished.
“Hm… While my anger’s been suppressed, I’m still unhappy. That’s the first time I’ve been treated so rudely.”
While she had shouted “shut up” at him before, the situation had been different back then. In the first place, they had agreed that Ainz could sit this battle out, but Ainz had still rushed over as reinforcements. Surely anyone who had an inkling of common sense would have taken a different tone when addressing him.
Everyone Ainz had met until now had been at least minimally polite.
That was why Ainz found it strange.
After cooling his head and searching through his memories, Suzuki Satoru recalled having met people like Remedios several times before.
Still, none of it comforted him.
Ainz turned his still-irate gaze on the three demihumans.
Granted, it was not entirely their fault either.
Ainz understood that he was simply taking it out on them.
What should have happened was that Remedios’s relationship meter with Ainz should have maxed out when the latter saved her from danger, she should have apologized for treating Ainz this way all this time, and then worked hard for Ainz in all ways in the future. That was why Ainz had been observing Remedios from the air with 「Perfect Unknowable」 active all this time, and then stepped in to help her when she was in trouble.
But in the end, things had turned out like this.
He could not understand how they had ended up this way.
If the department’s quota was not met and it was close to the end of the month and someone stepped up to make up for the shortfall, surely everyone would be grateful to that person, right? Especially if that person had finished his own work long ago and had come back from his leave to help them.
Ainz had been observing the battlefield from above, and he had a firm grasp of the big picture. There were many more dangerous places than this. He was even aware that the girl who had glared at him all this time was in danger.
Even so, he had chosen to come to this place because he wanted to sell a favor to the highest ranking person he could ― better to rule in hell than serve in heaven and all that ― and he had judged that the captain of the Holy Kingdom’s paladin corps was the highest ranking person here.
However―
“I really am annoyed.”
As he grumbled without thinking, Ainz heard a piercing laugh.
“Heeheehee. Looks like you’ve been left here. Heeheehee, how sad, how sad.”
“An Elder Lich. In other words, an individual that’s powerful as a magic caster. Is there a need to be careful? I haven’t seen that wall-making spell before, but it seems to be of a fairly high tier.”
“Hmph. So it’s still a magic caster, then? Don’t really feel like fighting it. In the end, you need to beat a warrior if you want people to sing tales about you.”
The three demihumans seemed to have recovered from the bizarre situation enough to banter with each other. Ainz turned to look at them, and his eyes focused on the ape-like demihuman among them who seemed to have laughed just now.
“Does it matter? First we kill him, then―”
“―Shut up.”
Ainz interrupted their conversation and cast a silent eighth tier spell, 「Death」.
The ape-like demihuman’s smile was frozen on his face as he slowly collapsed.
“…What? What did you―”
“―I told you to shut up, didn’t I?”
Ainz once again cast a silent 「Death」 spell.
The four-legged demihuman collapsed in the same way as just now.
“Eh? Ehhh? What happened? What’s going on?”
The female demihuman who remained still did not understand what was going on, but it would seem she had already recognized who had done it.
“Was, was it you? You killed those two in an instant…?”
Terror was deeply etched on her face. Her body was shaking hard.
“Yes, yes,” Ainz carelessly cast a silent 「Death」 on the female demihuman as well. “―Hmmm?”
She did not die. Ainz’s 「Death」 had been resisted.
In the moment he realized this, Ainz’s mind immediately switched gears, entering a mental state that could be considered a combat mode.
Was it a defensive racial characteristic? A protective spell she had cast on herself? Had she resisted it normally? Had a magic item protected her? Or was it something else?
While one could not completely rule out the possibility that it might have been a coincidence, surely she could not have resisted it under her own power. Ainz had observed the three of them as they fought. While he did not think that he had the full measure of their abilities, Ainz was certain that they could not resist the power of his magic in a direct contest.
As Ainz mulled over the reasons for this, he felt that it would be best to stay on his guard and let his opponent make a move.
Perhaps he might discover something that could only be found here. He would like to see the trump card wielded by someone who could resist Ainz’s usual attack methods.
“Hmm… Well, it doesn’t matter what she did. What a waste of time. If I’d known, I would have left that woman alone and gone to help elsewhere. I was thinking that if I fought together with that woman, we could have put on a show of hard fought triumph, so we would have spent a bit more time on the back and forth…”
A chatty undead being stood before her.
What kind of undead creature is this?…The undead couldn’t possibly ally themselves with humans. Is it being controlled by a necromancer? Still, that power…
While she had no idea what he had done, he had instantly killed two warriors who were on par with her. Could such a powerful undead being even be controlled?
If his finger pointed to her, would she be the one to perish next?
The only people she knew who could do this besides the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth would be the great demons who were his henchmen.
―That’s impossible! Anyone who could control an undead creature who was on par with those mighty beings must be on the level of a god! How could such a necromancer exist?
If this human nation had such a necromancer, how could the Demihuman Alliance have pressed their invasion so far?
Should I run? Should I take the chance to flee while he’s acting all relaxed? Or can I even escape?
She did not possess any spells which were handy for escape. After all, she had never been in such danger before and had not felt the importance of learning such spells.
In that case, the only way out is through!
“Ahhhhhhhhh!”
She used her battlecry to rouse her spirit, and began to cast spells with her trembling lips.
There was a fourth-tier arcane spell called 「Silver Lance」. It was a physical-type spell, but since it possessed silver properties, it was a tremendously damaging spell against enemies who were weak against silver. In addition, it also had a special effect known as “piercing,” which made it do more damage to unarmored opponents. However, it also had the drawback that its damage could be reduced by armor.
Her trump card lay in altering this powerful spell to produce new, unique spells.
There was the 「Burn Lance」, which inflicted fire-element damage.
There was the 「Freeze Lance」, which inflicted cold-element damage.
There was the 「Shock Lance」, which inflicted lightning-element damage.
These three spells all did elemental damage, so armor could not reduce their potency, and they still retained the deadly “piercing” ability.
Of course, in keeping with their deadliness, those spells consumed far more mana than fourth tier spells.
She activated three of these potent ― to her ― spells at once.
She was simultaneously casting three spells, each one of which used a significant amount of mana. In addition, simultaneously casting spells was very draining in itself, and as the shock of using huge quantities of mana hit her, she felt light and floaty, as though she were about to pass out.
“Diiiiiieeeee!”
The three lances flew toward the undead being ― and then vanished without a trace.
“―Hah?”
She could not understand what had happened before her eyes. She could understand if it had taken damage, or shrugged it off. But this ― this was like nothing had happened at all.
The lances had simply vanished.
“Eh? Eh? What? What what?”
“…I gave you all that time and this is the best you can do? Is this the ace up your sleeve? Hm. I guess I didn’t need to let you make the first move out of caution. Now then, there’s not much time left, so hurry up and die. 「Maximize Magic Reality Slash」.”