Overlord, Vol. 9: The Caster of Destruction

Chapter

4
|
Massacre

1

Making use of the gently rolling hills of red earth, the two armies took up their positions and scowled at each other.

The kingdom’s army, surprisingly large with 245,000 men, had a right wing of 70,000, a left wing of 70,000, and 105,000 in the center. These were spread resourcefully in camps across three hills. The “camps” were the type made not with fences but with the sheer violence of numbers.

The first five rows of soldiers held spears nearly twenty feet long that required two hands. It was with those thickets of pikes that the positions were constructed.

It was a measure against the main attacking force of the empire, their heavy cavalry, and also acted in place of chevaux-de-frise. The reason they didn’t have chevaux-de-frise was simply because it would have taken a ridiculous amount of wood to protect such a huge army. Putting their men to work with the spears was more efficient.

That said, though this formidable formation was strong, it still had many weak points.

The men were crowded together, and due to the heavy weapons, they had their hands full preventing their opponents’ charge. For that reason, they lacked the ability to cope with any quick actions, and if the empire launched arrows or spells, they would suffer serious casualties.

But these peasant soldiers weren’t being asked to do any more than that. Their only task was to stop their enemy’s first attack.

Meanwhile, the empire’s army had sixty thousand men.

Compared to the kingdom’s forces, they were overwhelmingly few.

But the imperial knights didn’t look at all like they expected defeat with their calmly superior faces. They didn’t think they would lose.

They were confident because they knew how much stronger they were individually.

Still, the gap in numbers should have been a major concern. If they could fight perpetually without getting tired, maybe not, but that was impossible for humans. If they got worn out, their opponents would eventually catch up, despite the gap in their abilities.

The kingdom had one other big advantage: the gap in the worth of the people.

Most of the soldiers making up the kingdom’s army were farmers. In contrast, the empire’s knights were professional warriors. If a farmer who was handed a weapon and a knight who required time and effort to train were both killed, the empire’s loss was greater. For that reason, the empire wouldn’t undertake unreasonable operations or the sort that were likely to get knights killed.

This flat battlefield, then, where all they could do was clash head-on, would work in the kingdom’s favor.

That was why previous wars between the kingdom and the empire had always ended as minor scuffles.

The empire normally achieved its goal just by having the kingdom drag its farmers out onto the battlefield. They weren’t about to do anything that would deplete their precious human assets, which the kingdom understood quite well.

This sort of essentially rigged fight was what the “wars” between the kingdom and the empire had been.

Most of the kingdom nobles believed that even if the caster Ainz Ooal Gown joined in, this war would still end as a casual dustup. The empire’s knights weren’t only its military force but also its police organization. They were the power that maintained the peace. Pointless losses were liable to shake the foundations of the country.

The kingdom waited for the empire’s forces to make their move.

In a normal year, the imperial army would pass in front of the kingdom’s army and then withdraw. Then the kingdom’s army would let out a triumphant shout. That was how it usually went.

But…

The imperial forces weren’t moving.

They had left their fortresslike barracks and taken up a position opposite the kingdom’s forces, but they hadn’t moved a muscle since then. It was almost as if they were waiting for the kingdom to make a move, or perhaps there was something else they were waiting for.

“They’re not moving, huh? What could it mean?”

Slightly behind the 105,000 men jostling in the central group was the king’s position.

It was the safest position, located on top of a somewhat tall hill.

Marquis Raeven, standing next to Gazef, was the one who had spoken as he looked out at the unmoving imperial knights.

If the empire didn’t move, the kingdom couldn’t move, either.

As conveyed by the thickets of spears, the kingdom knew that attacking would be the height of folly. A long time ago, some nobles had taken the initiative to attack, but they were killed instantaneously, and the kingdom ended up suffering substantial losses.

Ever since then, the kingdom’s tactics for facing the empire were to set up their spear walls and wait. If their opponents would fall back on their own, there was no sense in leaping into danger.

“Well, it seems like they’re waiting for us to move…”

“The final proposals have already been given, and the war has already started… Captain—Sir Gazef, do you have any idea what the empire might be waiting for?”

Thirty minutes ago, messengers had negotiated between the two armies glaring at each other. Well, they called them “negotiations,” but it was more like a game of exchanging unfeasible conditions. Basically, they said,
Look how merciful we’re being
, pretending to avoid the war to the last even though their offers were self-serving.

Naturally, they failed to reach an understanding, and it always came down to war.

In a normal year, the empire would have already been on the move. But this year, they weren’t. They simply stood at attention.

“Any idea? I mean… Do you?”

“No… I don’t know much about military matters, so I’ve always left it up to my men.”

“I know all too well how knowledgeable you are, your lordship, so that sounds an awful lot like a lie, but…”

“A lie, hmm…? You certainly don’t mince words, Sir Gazef.”

“Have I offended you? If so, I’m sorry.”

“Ha-ha-ha. No, that’s fine. I much prefer this attitude to how you were before.”

Gazef picked up on the jab and frowned.

“Ha-ha-ha. Please just accept what I said. It’s the truth that I don’t have much skill in moving troops. And I happen to have a man under me who excels in just that. I’m not lying. I leave it up to him.”

“Could it be one of the former adventurers who are now famous for their performance during the demon disturbance?”

“Oh, no, they’re over there.”

A group of five people was standing in the corner Marquis Raeven pointed at.

They had all entered middle age and were probably past their prime, but as they were also former orichalcum-plate adventurers, even Gazef had the feeling that one couldn’t be too careful around them.

“They’re my bodyguards.”

“If you have such strong people protecting you, you’ll be sure to make it back to the capital in one piece…assuming we don’t have to face that great caster. But wait, so who is your strategist?”

“You don’t know him. He’s a commoner from my domain. I heard about him because he fought off a horde of goblins attacking his village with only half as many villagers. After that, I started putting him in command…and the surprising thing is, he hasn’t lost yet. He’s that good. I’ve given him a high rank in my staff.”

“If he can earn such praise from you, Marquis Raeven, then…I’d like to meet him. I’d like to give him command of the entire kingdom’s army.”

“If you put him in command…and the kingdom’s army operated as one, I’m sure he would do battle in ways that would make neighboring countries say, ‘You mustn’t take the Re-Estize Kingdom’s army lightly’…”

Gazef and Marquis Raeven looked at each other, heaved tired sighs, and smiled.

“The nobles would never allow a commoner to command the army. At present, it’s a pipe dream.”

“Yeah, it’s impossible while we have these factions.”

The imperial army had proper organization with a general in charge of each army and then division commanders and battalion commanders.

But in the kingdom, each noble brought his own soldiers, so even with the king as the overall commander, each unit acted according to their own ideas and faction alignment.

To be blunt, the army had no unity whatsoever.

Even Gazef was charged with leading the Royal Select only as their captain; it wasn’t as if he could give orders to the nobles. Certainly, there was the possibility of getting his ideas through as orders from the king, but many of the nobles looked down on Gazef due to his common background and would find it disagreeable, so it could cause trouble for him in the future. The king knew that, so when he gave orders, he didn’t do it through Gazef.

The two men sighed heavily at the state of their country. Then they looked at each other and smiled.

This discussion was one to have somewhere else, not on the battlefield where swords were about to clash.

“If we survive this, we’ll still be on the battlefield, I guess.”

“I hear that’s how it is for nobles.”

“When this is over, I’m going to tell the king to please make you a noble. It irritated me that you were the king’s sword, yet you never tried to engage with noble society.”

The marquis said it in a joking way, but Gazef could see from the glint in his eyes that he actually was angry.

He was glad that someone so skilled at concealing his emotions would show them to him, but it wasn’t as nice when it was a negative emotion. Gazef changed the subject.

“…Well, leaving that for now…could we call over your strategist? I’d like to talk to him…although I guess it’s tricky to have him come here at the moment.”

“Yes, he’s heading up my position. We don’t know when the empire will make its move, so I want to keep him where he is.”

Marquis Raeven may have been cooperating with the kingdom, but his top priority was still his own domain. Refusing was only natural.

“Even though it’s the same old pattern, I just don’t like this tense atmosphere.” Gazef sighed. “I’m not hoping for a serious charge from the empire, but if they’re going to attack, it’d be better for my mental health if they would just launch it already.” He sensed the unsteadiness in the kingdom’s army and tried to locate the source. “…Aha. One potential strategy the empire could take is to wait for the kingdom to get antsy and act. It would be hard to move all these men together. But for that reason, any forces’ slightest movement will look like a large ripple from the edge. Even if we’re packed together and there are too many of us to go on the attack, they could easily rip to pieces any prey that is out of line. They’re like a beast on the hunt.”

Marquis Raeven followed Gazef’s nervous gaze, but when he saw the soldiers in the left wing rushing around, he seemed to grasp something.

“It looks to me like they’re trying to move soldiers from the back up to the front line.”

“If they’re only changing formation, then we don’t need to worry, but…”

“That’s Marquis Beauleurope’s flag. It seems like the general of the left wing means to move up to the front line himself.”

The kingdom had nobles’ faction members on either wing and king’s faction members concentrated in the center.

The commander of the center group was King Ramposa III, and the commander of the left wing was Marquis Beauleurope.

“It’s highly unusual for the general to change the formation so he’s up front. You know, Sir Gazef, that the marquis brought his elite men. This war will get the attention of many nobles, so if his forces can put up an admirable fight against the individually stronger imperial knights, he’ll be recognized as the noble with the strongest unit in the kingdom.” Marquis Raeven flashed a provocative look at Gazef as if to say,
Won’t it bother you if his unit is considered stronger than your Royal Select?

But that wasn’t about to ruffle Gazef. “The Royal Select is guarding His Majesty. Even if the empire charges, I have no intention of moving them without His Majesty’s orders. Their only job is to make sure the king gets back to the capital safely.” He patted his sword. “Although there’s the possibility that I go out on my own to kill the enemy’s momentum.”

“The kingdom has four treasures, and that’s Razor Edge? I see…” The marquis looked at Gazef from top to bottom.

The Gauntlets of Vitality made it so the wearer never got fatigued; the Amulet of Immortality constantly healed the wearer; Guardian Armor, made from the hardest metal in existence, adamantite, was said to be able to save the wearer from a fatal critical hit; and Razor Edge was a magic sword enchanted in the pursuit of sharpness that cut armor like butter.

“With all of them equipped, you yourself are the kingdom’s greatest treasure. I heard that the kingdom originally had five treasures, but have they always been together right here?”

Receiving such an overblown compliment, being compared to a treasure, Gazef knew it was flattery but couldn’t stop himself from blushing. “Oh, cut it out, Marquis Raeven. His Majesty is the truly amazing one. Knowing full well what it would mean to lend all these to a commoner, he still entrusted them to me.”

“You do have a point. Honestly, I thought it was foolish to entrust them to a commoner. I thought it would only mean more people leaving the king’s faction. But now that we’re here together on the battlefield, it seems like a great idea, as self-centered as that is.”

“I hope I can live up to your expectations…”

Gazef looked out at the ranks of imperial knights.

With the exception of Triad Caster Fluder Paradyne, he didn’t feel like they had any particularly strong opponents. He was confident that he could beat their strongest four knights. He even had a faint hope that, with all the treasures equipped, he could take Fluder.

But he didn’t think he could beat Ainz Ooal Gown.

He just couldn’t see it happening.

No matter how positively he tried to visualize things, no matter how optimistic he was, he saw himself getting killed with a single mysterious spell.

“What’s wrong?”

“A-ah, nothing…” He was known as the kingdom’s strongest warrior. If he showed any weakness, it would have an adverse effect on the soldiers’ morale. “I mean, I was just feeling sorry for Prince Barbro.”

“Sorry for him…? Could it be that…? Ah, I see. Hmm. So you… I see.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“No, it just seems like you think that the king sent the prince to Carne to stop him from achieving anything here.”

“Was there some other reason?”

Marquis Raeven winced. “Yes, there certainly was. His Majesty really trusts you, you know.”

Gazef had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and it showed on his doubtful face, so the marquis explained.

“Naturally, if the king’s most trusted captain is extremely wary of Ainz Ooal Gown, so is he. Rather than putting his son on a battlefield where no one knows what will happen, he sent him somewhere safe, even though there isn’t as much to achieve there… The old me would have been offended that he sent his child somewhere safe when so many parents were sending their children to the battlefield…” Then he smiled with the face of a father. “But now I understand. I would probably do the same for my son.”

“Yeah, Marquis Raeven, you’re a father through and through.”

Marquis Raeven smiled. Gazef knew it was rude, but he couldn’t help but think it was out of character for his expression to be so warm, happy, and proud.

“I sure am. I promised I’d play with him a bunch after this war is over—I’m an utterly normal father. Oh, but we’ve gotten off topic. Anyhow, that’s how it is…but I’m sure Prince Barbro doesn’t understand his father’s feelings. That’s a bit sad, a parent’s feelings not getting through to his child.”

Gazef wasn’t sure how to respond. He didn’t have kids, so he couldn’t really relate.

“R-right. Do you think there could be a detachment going to raid E-Rantel? They might stop at nothing to bring it down, even if they were heavily criticized.”

I’ve been changing the subject every time I don’t know what to say
, thought Gazef, but the marquis went along with it.

“It won’t be so easy to take down E-Rantel with its three layers of walls. It would probably be tough even if they mobilized their two remaining corps. My strategist doubts they would try an operation like that.”

“Oh? But what about using flying mounts? Or what if they had another secret army?”

“It would be impossible. Ultimately, it’s a difficult proposition to conquer a city with small numbers. Without more people, they wouldn’t be able to take it… Ah, Sir Gazef, there’s one critical requirement for capturing E-Rantel. Do you know what it is?”

Gazef honestly shook his head.

“You need to claim a great victory in a head-on fight with the kingdom. If it was a narrow victory, it would be difficult to rule after the fact. There is no way the citizens would take kindly to invaders, so a resistance movement would spring up. Even if the empire managed to take E-Rantel with a detachment, if our soldiers were unharmed, they would move immediately to retake it. That’s why the empire is aiming for a crushing victory. That way the citizens will be too scared to resist and there won’t be enough army left to fight.”

Essentially, the empire had to win this battle. And it had to be such an overwhelming victory that it would make neighboring countries, and especially the kingdom, think twice about trying to retake the territory.

Suddenly, Gazef felt like he had all the pieces of the puzzle. He just couldn’t discern what he was supposed to be seeing.

He was tormented by a vague sense of foreboding.

“What’s wrong, Sir Gazef?”

“Mm…”

He thought if he told Marquis Raeven about all the mixed-up puzzle pieces in his head, he would use his superior intellect to put them together for him, but the marquis suddenly turned to face the empire’s position.

“Sir Gazef, it seems they’re finally making a move.”

The imperial army was parting as if to create a path. Just as Gazef figured they must have been splitting to counter the kingdom’s left and right wings, a flag he didn’t recognize was raised in the center.

It was a flag with a crest that Gazef had absolutely no knowledge of, from neither the kingdom nor the empire. A group of figures bearing it proceeded forward.

All eyes were on that group.

Then Gazef had a sense of dread. Next to him, surely witnessing the same events, Marquis Raeven swallowed hard. Realizing he wasn’t the only one feeling it, Gazef sensed a bitter taste spread across the back of his tongue, and his heart began to pound.

They were a strange force.

It was about five hundred mounted soldiers—hardly anything compared to the two armies facing each other.

But there was something…abnormal…about them. Even at this distance, their ghastly presence seemed to pummel him.

Gazef’s memories of Carne came vividly back to him. The monster knights Ainz said he had created. There were about two hundred warriors with the same spiked armor and giant shields.

The rest were also grotesque soldiers, but they wore leather armor, and he saw they carried weapons like axes, spears, and crossbows.

If the ones in front were knights, then the ones in the back were warriors, he supposed.

Either way, they weren’t human. They were genuine monsters.

And they were riding magical beasts. They could properly be described as bone monsters, wrapped in a wavering fog rather than flesh. Yellow like pus and a brilliant green occasionally flashed within the haze.

Gazef’s whole body erupted in goose bumps.

This is bad.

This is really bad.

His impression wasn’t terribly articulate, but he couldn’t come up with any words more appropriate.

“…So the empire has incorporated monsters into its army? This is quite a surprise. Really gives you goose bumps.”

“No. No, Marquis Raeven, that’s not it. That’s not why you have goose bumps.”

“Hmm?” the marquis asked curiously.

“It’s the threat of death. It stimulates our human survival instinct.” Marquis Raeven was surprised, but Gazef turned away from him to look at the imperial army. “Their horses are cowering. Even trained warhorses are frightened into paralysis…?”

“…What could that possibly be? Does the empire have a secret unit?”

“…No, how could that be? Those aren’t monsters that humans could tame and control!” He wasn’t sure what kind of monsters they were, but his intuition as a warrior made him confident of that. “That has to be…Ainz Ooal Gown’s cavalry!”

“That…! That’s the…?! That’s the army of the caster you’re afraid of?!”

“Marquis Raeven! I want you to gather your former adventurers on the double! What is the optimal course of action? I want to ask people who have fought tons of monsters and lived!”

“Un—”

He was probably going to say he understood. But before he could, they moved to protect their master. Of course they did. They probably had a better idea of how powerful their opponents were than even Gazef.

“Marquis Raeven!”

The former orichalcum plates raced over on their horses.

“Did you see that?! Do you feel it?!”

At the head of the group was their leader, a holy knight of the fire god, Boris Axelson.

His voice contained fear he couldn’t hide.

Marquis Raeven was speechless. Gazef knew exactly how he felt.

A former orichalcum-plate adventurer, in this position protected by a huge army, was so frightened his voice was trembling.

Gazef determined it was no longer any time to be fretting about manners and asked, “Tell me, what is that? No need for introductions! I just want you to tell me what you know!”

Boris clutched the sigil hanging around his neck as if it would protect him.

“…I’m not sure, but the monsters they’re riding seem to be the soul eaters of legend. They’re a type of greedy undead that devours the souls of the living. Folklore says they appeared in a city in the center of the continent, in the country of the beastmen.”

“And…what was the damage?”

Boris’s reply was horribly quiet.

“A hundred thousand…”

Gazef gasped.

“…Supposedly, three soul eaters showed up, and the city was destroyed. Ninety-five percent of the population—over a hundred thousand people—died, and legend has it that it was renamed the Silent City, then abandoned.”

A heavy silence fell.

“…And there are five hundred of them here?”

No one had the strength to answer Marquis Raeven’s question.

Gazef finally managed to squeeze out some words. “As I said earlier, I don’t think the empire could control monsters like that on its own, even with their great caster Fluder Paradyne. So…”

He didn’t have to finish for Marquis Raeven to understand.

“S-so this is the power of Ainz Ooal Gown? Then what are the things riding those monsters?”

“That…” The adventurers looked at one another. “We don’t know. But they’re just as dangerous. No, my apologies. This probably requires a proper explanation, not a vague word like
dangerous
, but nothing better comes to mind.”

“Wh-what should we do, Sir Gazef?!”

Gazef responded to Marquis Raeven’s unnerved question concisely.

“Withdraw.” He understood well enough that the enemy had prepared a shocking army. So what else could they do but run away? “I’ll suggest it to the kin—”

He didn’t get to finish what he was saying—because a masked caster took up position at the head of the army. To his right was a small figure in a hooded robe. To his left was one of the empire’s Four.

Even at that distance, Gazef knew who it was at a glance.

“Sir Gown…”

“That’s the caster Ainz Ooal Gown?!”

“He summoned the soul eaters? That guy? Marquis Raeven, what…?” The veteran hero gulped and gasped in a murmur, “What are we going up against?”

Ainz waved an arm. In response, a gigantic dome-shaped magic circle—it must have been at least thirty feet across—suddenly appeared with Ainz at its center. The two standing to either side of him were also inside it, but nothing seemed to happen to them as a result. It must not have been something that could hurt his allies.

Even the ones who knew they were facing an emergency couldn’t help but watch the fantastic spectacle.

The magic circle glowed pale blue, and patterns like translucent letters or symbols appeared on it. These letters changed at a dizzying rate; the same pattern didn’t linger for even an instant.

A gasp of surprise went up from the kingdom. It was like the oohs or aahs one might emit while seeing a splendid show; they contained no tension. But those with sharp intuitions began looking around in confusion.

“I’m going back to my army. We can’t even consider a clash anymore. Ainz Ooal Gown’s power is on another level, and trying to do battle with him was a mistake. From now on, we should focus on figuring out how to make it back to E-Rantel while keeping losses to a minimum. Sir Gazef, protect His Majesty and withdraw at once!”

Marquis Raeven had been so calm until just moments ago but no longer.

“Right! I’m not sure how much I can do, but I will go guard the king! And we shouldn’t retreat in ranks, but—”

“Of course not. This will be a withdrawal at a furious pace—it’s a rout.”

“Very well, Marquis Raeven. I hope you’ll be safe!”

“And you, Sir Gazef!”

The kingdom’s greatest intellect and warrior leaped into motion. Except…

It was far too late.

Guess there aren’t any
, Ainz determined as he expanded the magic circle.

There were no players in the kingdom’s army.

Super-tier spells from the game
Yggdrasil
were immensely powerful.

For that reason, in a large-scale battle, neutralizing anyone trying to cast one first was the basics of combat.

Using teleport to close in and stab, magic carpet bombing, long-range sniping—there were countless methods of attack.

Yet no one came at Ainz. Their absence was proof that there were no other
Yggdrasil
players present.

Without anyone knowing, Ainz’s mouth beneath his mask twisted into a smile—although of course, it was impossible for him to smile as a skeleton.

The wry grin of his subtle delight spoke volumes about his mood.

“I guess I don’t need to be bait anymore.”

He was glad he didn’t encounter any
Yggdrasil
players.

Ainz could not be called the strongest among
Yggdrasil
players. There was always someone stronger. Against a player stronger than him, he probably didn’t stand much of a chance. Ainz’s power during the era of the game had stemmed from his knowledge. In PvP, he had a high win ratio, but it could be considered a streak only if the first encounters were ignored.

Ainz was actually ingenious when it came to utilizing information he accumulated. Conversely, against opponents he faced for the first time, his loss ratio was extremely high.

He knew himself to some degree, so he was thankful he hadn’t encountered a new, strong enemy.

On the other hand, it was a bit of a disappointment.

It didn’t seem like they would find any leads about the being who possessed the World Item and had brainwashed Shalltear.

There was still some stubborn hatred in Ainz’s mind. Waves of powerful emotions were suppressed, but the ripples of weaker emotions persisted.

Ainz opened his hands, and inside was a small hourglass.

He could have used a cash store item to cast the super-tier spell immediately. The reason he hadn’t was that he was acting as bait for
Yggdrasil
players. But if there weren’t any, he no longer had any reason to space out during the long casting time. It was really uncool to stand around in the middle of a magic circle.

During the fight with Shalltear, he had been too stressed out.

During the fight with the lizardmen, he didn’t use attack magic.

So…

“I’m really looking forward to this. Ahh, it’s going to be so fun…”

What kind of effect would his super-tier spell have on the kingdom’s army?

In
Yggdrasil
, this one wasn’t so powerful, but what would it do in this world?

Suddenly, Ainz furrowed his nonexistent brow.

He was ever so slightly horrified by his complete lack of pity or any other emotion for the numerous humans who would die. He truly felt nothing—not even the guilt that came from stomping on an ant.

What he did feel was a desire to see the outcomes of his actions. That, and the benefits that he and the Great Tomb of Nazarick would reap.

Ainz focused energy into his hands.

The sand falling out of the broken hourglass flowed toward the magic circle, surrounding him in a motion that was different from the wind’s.

And the super-tier spell was cast instantly.

“Iä Shub-Niggurath!”

A dark breath blew past the left wing of the kingdom’s army, which had finally finished reorganizing its formation.

No, there was no actual wind. None of the grasses on the plain nor the hairs on the kingdom’s soldiers’ heads rustled.

But all seventy thousand men of the kingdom army’s left wing…

…were robbed of their lives in an instant.

2

What had just happened?

Not a single person understood right away.

All the living things that made up the kingdom’s army’s left wing—not just the humans but the horses, too—fell to the ground like marionettes whose strings had been cut.

The first to realize what had happened was the imperial army facing them.

What the imperials had seen was so unbelievable that there was a lag between then and when their brains arrived at a conclusion. At that point, the commotion became an unusually large wave that engulfed the entire army.

Certainly, they had known that when Ainz Ooal Gown projected the magic circle, he was probably about to unleash some sort of spell.

But who could have predicted this?

Who knew he would cast something so horrifying?

Who would have thought he would use a spell that would slaughter seventy thousand men—more than all the imperial troops that had been deployed to this battlefield combined—in an instant?

Doubting their eyes, the imperial knights all prayed to whatever they believed in.

That the kingdom soldiers weren’t dead.

That such a horrible spell didn’t exist in this world.

Of course, with the truth right in front of them—no one was getting up—they knew that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

But their emotions wouldn’t accept it. They didn’t want to acknowledge the truth as the truth.

Even Nimble, one of the Four, those pillars of imperial strength, was staring at the now-deserted kingdom left wing position with his teeth chattering in fear.

The reality that no one was getting up was so, so terrifying.

No, a description that simple couldn’t cover it.

Ainz Ooal Gown, this caster, was a monster who could tear down human nations as if they were sandcastles.

That reality hit Nimble stronger than any words.

The commotion enveloping the imperial army ebbed like a tide and vanished. Eventually, everyone kept silent, no one daring to speak.

Once everything was still in the imperial army position, a bizarre noise echoed. It was so many noises overlapping that it was actually quite a racket. It was the sound of every single knight’s teeth clacking together.

Fear—because they all knew that their beloved empire, where their families lived, was on the brink of destruction just like the kingdom.

Making an enemy of Ainz Ooal Gown would mean that spell would be shot at them.

Suddenly, Nimble wondered how the inhuman caster felt after such a massive magical slaughter.

Without turning his head, he stole a look out of the corner of his eye at the monster standing next to him, and the monster was unfazed.

That can’t be. That can’t be. This… How can he be so calm?! He just robbed seventy thousand people of their lives! I get that this is a battlefield—a place for such atrocities to occur. It’s only natural to slay your weak opponents. But isn’t it natural to feel something after killing that many people?

It would have been perfectly natural to feel guilt or regret. Joy or delight, he would have been able to understand in the context of an atypical mind.

But…

Is feeling nothing a defensive instinct to protect his psyche? No. This monster is used to seeing scenes like this! He doesn’t even feel the pity or dark glee of a human stomping a bunch of ants. What is this? It’s awful… Why is a guy like this in the human world?

“What?”

“Eek!” It was like having cold steel driven through him. After emitting such a stupid noise in response to the question, Nimble tried to gloss over it. “N-nothing. That was a wonderful spell.”

He wanted to pat himself on the back for getting some words out. And surely, he deserved the highest praise for even managing to compliment Ainz.

“Ha-ha-ha!”

The response to Nimble’s frantic compliment was a chuckle.

“D-did I say something to displease you?”

“No, no, nothing like that. You said, ‘That
was
a wonderful spell,’ right?”

“Y-yes.”

Was that the part he was scoffing about? Sweat dripped down Nimble’s forehead. Having just witnessed how horrible it was to offend this person, he didn’t want to upset him in the slightest.

“You don’t have to be so guarded. It’s just…my spell hasn’t finished yet. The best part is yet to come. Our offering to the mother goddess Shub-Niggurath will come back to us bearing the return gift of her young. The young are just adorable.”

Yes…

Just like returning ripe fruit to the earth…

Once again, it was the imperial knights who noticed
it
first.

It was utterly natural that the knights watching from the distance in the safest position would be the first to notice. It was precisely because they felt safe that they were able to see it even with their narrow field of vision through the slits in their helmets.

After the whirlpool of death robbed the kingdom soldiers of their lives, a weird pitch-black sphere appeared out of the heavens as if it were going to soil the world.

So who was the first kingdom soldier to notice it? This is mere conjecture, but since the right-wing soldiers had their view obstructed, it was probably them. Even if they realized something unusual was going on, not knowing what, they would have looked around and spotted it.

Compelled to follow their neighbor’s gaze, the next soldier and the next soldier after that noticed. Soon, all the people who had been about to wage war on the Katze Plain were just staring silently at the black sphere floating in the sky.

The sphere, like a hole in the sky, seemed almost like it was covered in a spiderweb, in that anyone who saw it found themselves unable to look away.

The black orb grew gradually larger.

They couldn’t think anything constructive like,
Let’s run
or
Let’s fight
.

They could only stare mutely, as if they had dementia.

Before long…the adequately ripened fruit fell.

In what seemed like the obvious outcome, the sphere popped when it touched the ground.

Like a water balloon bursting against the ground, like a ripe fruit rupturing.

The contents of the sphere radiated out from the point of impact. It was like coal tar—a sticky liquid spreading its pitch-blackness everywhere, reflecting no light at all. It began to conceal the dead kingdom soldiers.

Perhaps operating under some abnormal instinct, no one thought this was the end.

And more than that, they had the feeling it was only the beginning.

Yes—the beginning of despair.

From the earth coated in the black liquid grew a single tree.

No, it wasn’t anything so cute as a tree.

What once was one began to multiply. Two, three, five, ten…

Swaying where there was no wind, what had grown there were…tentacles.

“Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

All of a sudden, they heard something adorable, like a goat’s bleating. And it wasn’t just one. It was like a herd of goats had appeared out of nowhere.

As if drawn by the voices, the coal tar wriggled and then sprayed upward to reveal something.

It was too strange, too different.

It must have been over thirty feet tall. Counting the tentacles, it was hard to say.

Shapewise, it resembled a turnip. Instead of leaves, it had several writhing black tentacles, and the root part was a bumpy lump of flesh. From below that grew five goatlike black legs with hooves.

There were splits in the root part—the bumpy lump of flesh—that peeled back in flaps. And—

“Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The adorable goat bleating issued from those fissures. The splits were mouths drooling a viscous black liquid.

There were five of these.

They had revealed their horrifying selves completely to all the humans on the Katze Plain.

The dark young…

They were monsters that emerged in proportion to the number of sacrifices collected by the super-tier spell Iä Shub-Niggurath. They didn’t have any powerful skills, but their stamina was a cut above normal.

And their level…was over 90.

In other words, it was a storm of atrocities.

There were no sounds besides the adorable—sickeningly cute—bleating. It was just that. Unable to believe what they were seeing, unable to accept it, no one tried to talk.

Over three hundred thousand people were gathered—although only two hundred and thirty-five thousand remained alive—and not a single one of them could make so much as a peep.

It was before this horrific spectacle that Ainz laughed.

“Wonderful. That’s a record. I’m sure no matter where or when you look, no one has ever summoned five at once before. This is truly awesome. I’ve got to give thanks to all those who died for me.”

Normally, summoning one dark young was great, and the rare feat of summoning two was practically impossible.

But this time he got five.

Just like how any gamer would enjoy setting a new record, Ainz was genuinely happy. He didn’t care at all about the tens of thousands who had just perished.

“But I think there should actually be more of them… Maybe five is the cap? But then that means I got the most possible, which is amazing!”