5,226In a haze of darkness, a stillness descended over the plain and proliferated into a suffocating feeling of dread. Yet, that paled in comparison to the insurmountable grief Ainz was feeling.
Call it laughable; hell go ahead and laugh, but to Ainz, the Great Tomb's NPC's were all he had left of his comrades who may or may not have been transported to this new world.
It was true that he may be overreacting, that it was a common occurrence for a guild's NPC's to die during a raid on another guild's base, but this was different.
Entirely.
Stare at a model of data crystals with pre-programmed settings and actions, and then compare it with a being that strayed from those norms. There was life in the eyes, the face, the body, not just a program.
Even now as Ainz stared at Demiurge's face, the belief and fanatical faith in Ainz had never faded even in death.
Demiurge's passing was almost peaceful and serene.
'Glory to Ainz Ooal Gown.'
Those words managed to reach Ainz's ears even at the end when he'd broken out of the hellish landscape of DunScaith.
Therefore, what he chose to do now was never pointless.
Even if it may prove useless or unsubstantial, he would let this day be known as a day of death. He could at least do that much for the passing of a Guardian.
Fear froze the bodies of all while minds raced to formulate rational thought. Against the outpouring of demons that Demiurge had summoned, likely through an 'Armageddon-type' spell, the Baharuth and Re-Estize armies were understandably rattled.
No one with a sane mind could say that they wouldn't perish here against the demons.
At least, this way of thought was true for Jircniv and the others.
Nero, Caesar, Caligula, and Romulus, not so much.
But still, they must have recognized it!
That Ainz was on the level to be a threat to them.
Ainz's eyes would have been bloodshot if he still had them in his empty skull. Instead, the intensity of the glowing orbs in his eye sockets magnified several fold.
Various calculations crossed Ainz's mind while picking up Demiurge. In fact, he'd started his spell casting from the moment he escaped the gate and his cold gaze took stock of the situation.
"The Goal of all Life is Death."
Known as a class skill learned at the fifth stage of the [Eclipse] class, it allows any spell it's paired with to bypass all instant death immunity at the cost of delaying the casting time.
It was usually impossible to cast this spell in the middle of a boss raid in YYGDRASIL due to boss aggro and limited raid area, but it was different here. With life entering NPC's including former Raid Bosses, a human factor was introduced.
While a boss may be uncaring of any attack a player uses and charges relentlessly forward, people are different.
This battlefield had been no exception.
Ainz's sudden arrival and the appearance of a forcibly opened gate in the sky had plunged everyone into a state of wariness and the human factor began to take its part.
Nero and the warring emperors did not immediately make a move on Ainz. Rather, like hardened veterans of battle, they chose to assess his threat level before proceeding. Even maddened Caligula could not ignore his battle sense until it was too late.
Ainz had already cast his spell.
"Maximize magic: Widen Magic!" Ainz declared, his entire figure obscured by the overwhelming black shadow of the 5th level [Eclipse] class spell. The fiery glow of his red eyes struck deep into the hearts of those who stared into them. "Cry of the Banshee!"
A magic circle rapidly extended out from beneath Ainz's feet, covering a radius a hundred meters, followed by a crying death wail that affected all within its range. Finally, with the augmentation of the 'Goal of all Life is Death,' death immunity had become void in this domain.
Not even the debilitating effects of the Golden Palace Nero had summoned could contain the sheer death element in the casted spell.
Everything within the radius would die in a flash of blinding darkness.
/-/
Jircniv stared at death, and death stared back while Fluder seemed all too honored to die at the hands of such a magic spell.
Resigned as he felt, Jircniv was uplifted by a flash of red rose petals and the figure that stood in front of him.
"Jircniv!" Nero yelled while planting her sword into the ground. Within her Golden Castle, the planted sword acted as a key that laid out an elaborate flame pattern that created a boundary of flames. "Brace yourself, there's no time!"
Swallowing down his nervousness, Jircniv pulled Fluder and hunched low to make it easier on Nero to guard him.
The magic cast by the undead Magic Caster was instant once invoked. To make it worse, Nero and the other emperors had regarded Ainz as the priority target and had long stepped in the range of a hundred meters along with all the elites of the Baharuth and Re-Estize kingdoms.
The three swordsmen that held up Jaldaboath's generals were also within inches of the undead Magic Caster. In fact, they were the closest, the swordsman with a two-meter sword had his blade inches away from the Magi Caster's neck. On the other side, the swordswoman wielding two swords had her blades pointed at undead Magic Caster's limbs.
It was not to be.
Jircniv flinched as a dark haze of light quickly swept up with the magic caster as its source. The two sword wielders closest to the undead Magic Caster froze first, followed by all those within the spell's range including Nero and Jircniv.
"Kh," Nero took a knee, grimacing as she coughed. "F-Founder!" She yelled, feeling her heart constrict knowing that she'd already used her guts skill.
-Those who were born in Rome, and those who died for Rome are equally his children.
"The Spear of Nation Building!" Romulus thrust his spear into the ground, rallying within him the divinity sealed away by his imperial privilege. Its true name would be invoked. "Magna Voluisse Magnum!"
What manifested was the dream of a tree witnessed by Silvia that represented all of Rome. The origin of the twin brothers, the wolf that took them in, and the foundation day of the Palatine Hill.
The tree invoked the history of Rome, from its tragedies to its triumphs engraved in wood.
The sight was fleeting, impossible to fully bear witness to in the flash of the undead Magic Caster's spell, but the images were seared directly into the mind.
Jircniv felt goosebumps travel down his skin while each and every Roman emperor present gave reverence.
Verdant trees shot up from the ground to form the empire, lush blades of grass turning into a sprawling field of reeds.
Amidst it all, the spells clashed within the Domain of Nero's Golden Palace.
As death sought to slaughter all, the opposite was true of the Nation Founding Spear.
Just as there was death, so too was there life.
The Noble Phantasm's True Name invoked the past, present, and future of Rome, carrying with it certain attributes.
Once there was a farmer that lived in the marsh fields near the Campus Martius. After a storm of lightning and thunder, the figure of Romulus seen on that hill vanished in a strike of light witnessed by the farmer.
This was the ascension of a mortal into a God as witnessed by the farmer and spoken of in the Quirinal Hall.
Romulus-Quirinus, a founding God of Rome.
Divinity spiraled out in the sacred spear that directly countered the spread of Ainz's spell that could bypass all death immunity.
The barrier of wood that wrapped around Nero and the others wasn't a type of death resistance to begin with, rather, it was something more fundamental.
As divine Quirinus, Romulus did not permit the 'concept' of death, as Rome was as eternal as the great tree's roots.
All that was left was the blunt force of the spell that instantly killed the weaker soldiers when the impact snapped their backs and shattered their bones. A dust storm of dirt and debris blanketed the area as the great tree's roots shielded those from the shrapnel.
Grunting, Nero scanned the area for the enemies as Romulus retracted the Great Trees roots.
She and many of the more capable personnel survived, but the same could not be said for all.
The area was ruined beyond recognition. The grass outside of the Founder's protection had withered and died, reducing the landscape into barren soil. And over that soil, dozens of bodies lay strewn.
"Gh-!" Nero's eyes widened before she fell onto her knees and entered a coughing fit.
"Nero!" Jircniv wiped off the dust covering his brow and moved to support Nero, but Nero hardly noticed.
Her vision was swaying from exhaustion as the domain of her Golden Palace had shattered amid the glow of Trajan's flaming Aquila.
"The enemy…" Nero rasped to Jircniv who froze in realization as the dust cleared.
The undead Magic Caster had fled.
Sparks grated as Shirou avoided a blow to his temples by parrying with a Traced sword. Kanshou followed up with Bakuya to force Cu's relentless assault back, but Cu acted as if he didn't care for pain and pressed his assault.
Gnashing his teeth, Shirou thought hard.
'One hit.'
That was all Shirou needed. It wouldn't even take him that long to Trace another copy of Rule Breaker to stab Cu with, but doing so was far from simple.
Rolling to the left, Shirou bent his knee, his muscles burning before he sprung up to dodge a spear sweep.
Clangs echoed as Kanshou and Bakuya clashed against Cu's red spear in a bid to hold the hound back, but it was futile.
It was already hard for Shirou to keep up with his Reinforcement, but the entire battle was giving him flashbacks to Fuyuki as a teenager. Frankly, it was ironic since Cu had originally been the one closest to killing him in his entire life.
"..."
Shirou didn't bother talking, having realized it would do no good either way in Cu's current condition. It was like Cu was driven by nothing else than straight forward commands.
There was no autonomous thinking, but an inherent skill that far surpassed the common warrior's.
Planting his foot into the ground, Shirou caught a flash of red in his peripherals before snaking an arm around and batting it away with Kanshou. Quickly letting go of Bakuya in his other hand, he Traced Rule Breaker and stabbed forward.
Cu deftly avoided a point-blank stab by twisting his hips and violently side-stepped, his heels digging grooves into the dirt.
Each step the two took sent plumes of debris up at their heels, the two fighting with a strength leagues above the average of the new world.
'Another miss.'
Shirou could feel frustration start to well within him as he was also paying keen attention to the other battlefield where Nero and the others were fighting. The longer he spent here, the less time he had to intervene there.
The tipping point was the moment an enemy Magic Caster invoked a spell that prompted Romulus of all Roman Emperors to react.
Shirou couldn't let this fight stretch on for much longer.
He would save Cu. That was his determination as an Ally of Justice.
Should he let Cu stab him?
In the moment Cu pierced his spear through his body, if Shirou tensed his muscles and wedged the spear using his flesh and bone as leverage, he might have enough time to nick Cu with Rule Breaker…
If it were anyone else, Shirou would not have hesitated. However, Cu was different.
The spear Cu wielded was Gae Bolg, a cursed spear that rendered most healing effectiveness moot.
Should Shirou's gambit fail, all that was left was to bleed out to death. This wasn't even accounting for the variable of Cu simply letting go of his spear.
There were too many uncertainties with this approach, so Shirou had to think of another one.
Trying to pin Cu down with a rain of swords had also been a bust due to Cu's inherent Protection from Arrows skill that made projectile attacks meaningless.
Raising an arm, three Traced Swords fired at Cu as a distraction, but Cu's figure blurred as the blades drew near. Each sword ended up arching past Cu and impacting the ground in large craters of dirt and soil.
A new strategy was needed, but something began to change in Cu the moment Romulus had successfully blocked most of the undead Magic Caster's damage on the other battlefield.
For a second, Cu froze as if he was being given new orders, before he started retreating.
Cu was fleeing, changing the battle from a fight to a pursuit.
"Get back here!" Shirou hurried to keep pace, but deep down he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep up with Cu's sheer speed.
That didn't mean everything was over though.
A flash of purple blurred through the air above Cu before red lightning-like magic energy struck Cu on the side and revealed Scathatch with a leg pulling back from a swift kick.
Scathatch's appearance was a sight for sore eyes, relief causing Shirou's confidence in the situation to swell. However, Scathatch did not look happy. Rather, there was a listless self-blame in her expression.
"Indeed, it was my sentimentality," Shirou read Scathatch muttering under her breath.
There was a story behind all of this, one that Shirou was surely interested in, but now wasn't the time.
Tumbling violently over the ground, Cu killed his momentum by stabbing his spear into the ground and staring blankly at Scathatch. Raising an arm, he grimly wiped the blood trailing down from his forehead and between his eyes.
He spit on the ground, a tooth falling loose.
"At least it's a mercy that the other two have yet to see you again," Scathatch said while lifting a hand and summoning an identical red spear to Cu's.
Shirou caught up while yelling to Scathatch.
"Keep him still for a moment!"
For a fraction of a second, a flicker appeared in Scathatch's eyes as she intuitively realized what Shirou intended and quickly decided to comply.
"Naturally." She snorted.
The student had yet to best the teacher, much less in Cu's current state where he'd traded technique for power and speed.
Taking a stance, Scathatch slammed her palm on the ground and activated a primordial rune of energy and power connected to the Earth.
"Uruz," she said.
A Nordic Rune flashed in a shimmer of blue light in the pattern of a sigil before fading into the ground. In the next second, Scathatch disappeared.
Red eyes dilated, Cu in his current state, appeared to keenly sense the danger of his adversary and took immediate precaution. He tensed, his stance lowering and both hands gripping tightly to his spear. However-
"It's a mess." Scathatch's voice trailed in the wind, followed by a heel kick that sent Cu sprawling to the ground.
Cu had tried to react, but with both hands gripping to his spear and the suddenness of Scathatch's strike, there had been no time to react.
The Primordial Rune, Uruz granted her increased strength and durability for what she intended to do next.
Throwing aside her spear, Scathatch threw herself forward and grappled with Cu just like the earlier days of Cu's training. Wrapping her legs over one of his arms, she rolled him onto his back.
She would have tried an arm-bar, but in Cu's current state, he wouldn't care even if he broke his arm, leaving Scathatch with little choice but to pursue a full-body submission maneuver.
Tangling Cu's joints with hers, Scathatch pinned Cu to the ground, sweat beading over her brow. She wouldn't be able to hold Cu down for long like this, but the Master would never let her struggle show.
Instead, Scathatch glanced at Shirou, her eyes urging Shirou to hurry and act.
There was no hesitation in Shirou's steps before he firmly planted Rule Breaker into Cu's stomach.
The change was instant. Cu convulsed, his eyes widening as a groan escaped his mouth. Writhing, Scathatch held Cu firm under the convulsions stopped and his eyes closed shut.
It was only after five minutes of no movement that Scathatch gradually eased her grip on Cu and stood back up on her feet.
Traces of exhaustion covered Scathatch's face as she breathed in and out. Before arriving here, she'd had to quickly settle matters in DunScaith to prevent more of its prisoners escaping.
Yet the cause of such an unlikely jail break was right in front of Scathatch. Sighing, Scathatch nodded to Shirou with gratitude before turning her attention back to Cu.
Her lips pursed wryly.
"Setanta, even now…still a trouble maker."
Scathatch's expression softened when she noted that Cu's features had returned to normal.
An air of relief spread across the two warring armies as each licked their wounds and counted their losses.
Neither side, Baharuth or Re-Estize, was eager to resume any sort of battles after repelling the Demon's schemes.
Of course, morale was higher on the Empire's side, but that was stymied by the departure of Trajan's Aquila and the starlit road. Beams of light regathered on Caesar, Caligula, and Romulus, returning them to where they had originally been prior to Trajan's summoning.
Vanishing in motes of magic light, Jircniv and the legions of the empire stared at Caesar and the other emperors in a daze before all bowed their heads in gratitude.
"Roma Invicta," Romulus's departing words, echoed strongly within the hearts of the Baharuth Empire's soldiers. It was true charisma and leadership, but a lingering grief remained in the Empire's army.
Not all had been able to avoid death, and Jircniv could understand that, but the young emperor felt his heart caught in his throat.
"How is she?" Jircniv asked Leinus who knit her brows before answering.
"She is resting, but her injuries are extensive." Leinus stood on guard. "She is in a fragile state where I recommend keeping a careful guard squad around her. She wouldn't be able to defend herself against a common thief right now with how deeply she sleeps."
Not that Nero wouldn't be defended by the remaining Baharuth army to death, given what she had shown and done for them. Many were alive thanks to her intervention, and the revelation that she was an emperor of the past somehow brought to the present gave her a revered status.
Jircniv clenched his jaw at the news, and felt at a loss for the first time in his life.
The moment the battle had concluded, Nero had fainted from magic and physical exhaustion. She showed no signs of getting up, and ordinary recuperation as a Heroic Spirit was lost on her because she was contained in a mortal body.
"Supply her with adequate food and rest. No one is to disturb her." Jircniv ordered with clenched fists and an aching heart.
"By your word," Leinus saluted and did as told, mostly because her interests lay with Nero.
Jircniv could put trust in Leinus in this regard.
Grudgingly, Jircniv turned to political calculation to distract his mind.
Continuing the war now would no doubt lead to the Baharuth Empire's victory over Re-Estize. There was no question considering that the Empire's morale was higher, and the enemy was just as weakened by the demons as they were.
However, was it the time?
The emergence of the demons and the magic of the undead Magic Caster still left chills on Jircniv's back.
If not for Romulus, he couldn't imagine how many would have died.
No, many did die. Those whose mental and physical resistances were too low despite Romulus's aid.
A dark era was returning, and Jircniv would not have the squabbling of men be the start of humanity's downfall.
"We will return to the Empire."
Jircniv made up his mind.
/-/
In the Re-Estize side, a desolate silence pervaded the area. A warm wind was blowing, but it could do little to stop the shivers everyone felt beneath their armour. All who had come were subject to the same feeling regardless of bravery or courage.
Gazef was making plans about how to report the war situation to the King while doing his best to maintain a steady demeanor. Too many people looked up to him as a foremost knight to reveal any sort of doubt or indecision.
Glancing at his trembling hands, Gazef recalled the feeling of fighting against the horde of summon demons.
He almost died. No, he would have died.
The number of the demons appeared practically endless, and their natural durability and strength were lethal. If not for the woman clad in purple who used the opened gate in the sky to swallow the demon's spawn points, there would have been no end.
For the first time in years, Gazef felt weak. The enemies the empire would face in the future felt almost insurmountable. At his current level, they were.
The only ones that stood a chance in the battle were a handful that directly stood out from the rest.
'Those three swordsmen…'
Gazef noted the place where Musashi, Sasaki, and Brain stood before shifting his gaze to the next place where a crowd dared not draw near to the woman clad in purple.
It was only natural for Gazef's attention to be drawn to her as a person who helped put an end to the demons, and it didn't help that she had an ethereal beauty beyond words. However, that wasn't why Gazef's attention was so focused on the woman, it was because of the spear she had used in battle. Namely, the spear technique that reminded Gazef heavily of a more advanced form from the pair of twins he'd chanced upon.
Was there a relationship?
Gazef was growing suspicious, but he couldn't find it in him to question the woman now of all times.
Then there was Shirou, the man the King had assigned Renner herself to monitor. Shirou's abilities were coveted, but the archery and skill he displayed before he locked blades with an enemy that dragged him out of the immediate battlefield were a surprise. Of course, all of that paled in comparison to the familiarity Shirou displayed with the purple-clad woman.
Gazef stowed the information in his mind, deciding to bring it up with the King later. He was never one for cunning exploitation, and was more of an upfront warrior. He'd let others decide on a proper course of action.
Crossing his arms, Gazef maintained a stoic appearance to foster confidence in those around him.
The expression Gazef was making was in direct contrast with Pandora's Actor and Narberal Gamma.
"Idiot," Narberal hissed.
Narberal had paled as she noticed Scathatch in the distance, and quickly kept her head low.
Pandora's Actor was slower on the uptake as he had no experience with Scathatch, but Nabe was quick to pull him away from sight. His black armor was too conspicuous, and the sight of 'Momon' and Nabe would certainly draw Scathatch's attention.
For that reason, Narberal forced Pandora's actor to remain hidden with her in one of the camp's tents. Not daring to socialize or discuss what had happened today. They would need to return to the Great Tomb first, and for that they needed to stay low until Shirou returned in order to not blow their cover.
Meanwhile, the Golden Princess was lost in thoughts of her own.
Renner had arguably lost sight of Shirou in the ensuing chaos of the battle, but what she had seen instead was something she deemed far more important.
The political playing field was changing, with kingdom rivalries skewing towards Baharuth. It didn't take a genius to understand that with Nero in the Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize would stand no chance in the next border war unless they were able to recruit someone of similar caliber. In which case, the imbalance could lead to annexation at the Empire's hands.
Yet, would Jircniv do that?
Renner recalled the last time she'd met the Bloody Emperor and understood that that man ruled more out of pragmatism than vane pride. The policies that Jircniv enacted that enabled equal opportunity to commoner and noble alike would undoubtably produce an exceedingly capable force. Coupled with Nero, and the expansion of the Baharuth Empire would not be a hypothesis but a certainty.
She had to return to the capital, but it wasn't as if she'd forgotten her primary purpose for attending this war.
The deal Shirou had made with her father was likely moot at this point, neither broken nor accomplished due to the intervention of demons. Which was to say, her father could arguably try to keep Shirou in Re-Estize, and with him Team Darkness and even that peculiar swordsmen trio.
Various thoughts flickered through Renner's mind before settling on the one.
She too had seen Shirou return with Scathatch on amicable terms if not, dare she say, friendly like close friends.
Climb could learn a thing or two from any of them, and that was where Renner's mind kept drifting to. Beyond her title of Golden Princess, the heart of a young girl still existed that lingered on the sentiment of affection and love.
Pursing her lips, Renner sought Shirou out, coming with a plan to somehow keep him in the kingdom to ward off the Baharuth Empire by making use of his abilities and connections.
However, try as Renner might, she could not find Shirou.
He was nowhere in sight almost as if he'd just up and vanished into thin air at the battle's conclusion.
Renner would never have known the type of mid-life crises Shirou had suddenly plummeted under when he witness Nero use a Noble Phantasm first-hand. The implication was what sent him into a spiral of doubts and reflection, then back to thinking about a certain blond-haired King and a promise he once made.
Irrespective, Renner's search for Shirou was fruitless.
Sighing, Renner dismissed the guards trying to cozy up to her and searched for Climb instead.
"Climb," Renner called.
"I await your order!" Climb said enthusiastically.
As Renner's appointed bodyguard, he was always nearby.
"There will be much work for you to do, but for now, may I ask of you a favour?" Renner brought her hands to her hips and smiled fondly.
"Of course. You not need even ask," Climb scratched at the bridge of his nose with a naïve expression.
It was all too adorable, but Renner hid her personal feelings.
"I'd like you to be my representative and invite that trio of swordsman for a talk." Renner made her request knowing that Climb would not refuse.
"Leave it to me!" Climb took off without another thought.
Humming to herself while watching Climb's departing figure, Renner hardened her expression.
The times were changing and powers were shifting.
One thing was for sure though, the age of evil and heroes had returned, and how she would make use of that in the kingdom was Renner's true question.
Thanks for reading!
Free web novel :[The Apostate in Grim Fantasy] (For those that asked, the web novel is available on webnovel and the patron main page, leave a review if you'd like! New goal is 20 reviews)
Next update: To be announced
P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious
Book links:
Fatedlegacydark
New Book: Out on Amazon (Remove dash on link)
Survivor's Log Reflection: Amazon.c-om/dp/B08VDDGN7Z?