Chapter 4, Part 8

Zesshi, who had relaxed after Ainz said that her life would be spared, tensed up again upon hearing Ainz’s next line. She jolted in surprise at the sound of the arena gates lifting up. Turning her head she saw a large group of insect-like monsters, and leading them were three women, they had pale skin, jet black hair and wore white traditional Japanese dresses. The contrast between their black hair and the rest of their appearance was especially eye catching.

Zesshi reflexively retreated a few steps from the approaching monsters. She then looked at Ainz before shifting her gaze to Mare. I might have been too optimistic about Ainz’s words. Just because my life will be spared doesn’t mean I won’t experience things that will make me wish I was dead, Zesshi thought as she bit her lip.

“Calm down, Zesshi,” Mare said after noticing the turmoil she was in, “So long as you don’t resist, no harm will come to you,” he tried to reassure her.

“Hm?” Ainz turned to look at Zesshi, his gaze lingered on her for a few seconds, before he cleared his throat. “Mare, why don’t you accompany Zesshi as she’s taker to her cell in the Frozen Prison,” Ainz said while motioning for several of the insectoid monsters to act as an escort.

“Ye-yes, Ainz-sama,” Mare replied with a bow.

“Um, Zesshi should also leave her equipment behind and she should be patted down,” Ainz said as his eyes moved from one Guardian to the next. “Aura should be the one to do it.”

“Yes, Ainz-sama,” Aura said as she moved toward Zesshi, though she didn’t seem very confident.

Zesshi was somewhat upset about it, though she couldn’t complain – searching prisoners was common sense. With a sigh, she removed several articles of her clothes, leaving her dress and shoes on.

“Um, how do I?” Aura mumbled as she stood in front of Zesshi, unsure what to do.

“Just um, run your hands over her body to make sure she isn’t hiding anything,” Ainz instructed her.

After the Aura failed to find anything, Shalltear came forward and opened a [Gate] to the fifth floor. Ainz did not give any further orders, instead waiting for Zesshi to leave the arena. He could make out her questioning Mare as to her fate in a hushed whisper, as the two went through the swirling portal. Seemingly in response, Mare took her hand as if to reassure her.

He then looked around until his gaze fell on Pandora’s Actor, who had made his way into the arena from the spectator stands. “Pandora’s Actor, take charge of inspecting, cataloging, and storing the items these invaders used. Obviously, the “Downfall of Castle and Country” is here, but I want to know what other items they brought with them. Give me a report as soon as you are finished,” Ainz began giving out orders.

Pandora’s Actor who rubbed his hands together in anticipation, was clearly excited at the prospect of adding some more items to Nazzarick’s already impressive treasury. Upon hearing Ainz’s orders he clicked his heels together, straightened his back and saluted while replying “Wie du mein meister wünschst.”

Ainz gave him an annoyed look, but Pandora’s Actor was already too preoccupied with his task to notice. Did he forget I ordered him not to salute or speak German ever again? Whatever, I’ll just pretend not to have noticed, Ainz thought.

“Aura, help Sebas move the members of Blue Rose to the lizardmen village here on the sixth floor. I doubt they are stupid enough to cause any trouble there, especially since Go Gin is there as well. Don’t take their equipment, though you should still catalog them and add the information to Pandora’s Actor’s report,” Ainz continued.

“Yes, Ainz-sama,” the two responded in unison.

“Remove all of the equipment from the rest of the downed humans, then throw them into individual cells in the Frozen Prison,” Ainz ordered the insectoid monsters.

“The rest of you, come with me to the throne room. I want to hear your reports, especially you two,” Ainz said, looking at Cocytus and Demiurge.

Ainz opened a [Gate] to the throne room and walked through, followed closely by the remaining guardians. Once they arrived, everyone took their usual position before Ainz as he sat on his throne. Silence filled the room, as Ainz tried to sort his thoughts. Normally, he would take a long breath before starting a discussion, alas, undead could not breathe.

“Cocytus, let’s hear from you first. What are your thoughts on your opponent? Did anything unusual happen during the fight? We still know precious little about this Sir Armoreth,” Ainz finally spoke.

“Yes. Ainz-sama.” Cocytus replied, then proceeded to narrate his fight with Sir Armoreth.

After listening to Cocytus, several thoughts ran through Ainz’s mind: So, it was an empty suit of armor, just as we thought. But what exactly was it? A golem? A magical spirit that occupied a suit of armor? Or something else? Ainz disliked unknown factors, especially ones that involved a relatively powerful foe. And what happened after time stop sounds strangely familiar, Ainz thought as his mind raced.

“So, after the time stop ability was used, Sir Armoreth began to display a delayed response to your actions, but his own actions didn’t suffer from such a delay? And his overall speed remained unchanged?” Ainz asked, wishing to clarify the issue Cocytus encountered.

“Yes. Ainz-sama. Armoreth. Thought. I. Became. Faster. I. Didn’t. Want. Him. To. Learn. The. Truth. So. I. Finished. Him.” Cocytus explained. “Did. I. Make. A. Mistake?” He couldn’t help but ask after Ainz remained silent.

“No, you responded correctly. Since he didn’t realize the truth immediately, this is most likely his first time encountering such a phenomenon. With that in mind, leaving him mistaken was the better option,” Ainz explained.

“Will we ever know what happened? Now that he’s dead,” Shalltear asked.

“Unfortunately, we know nothing about Sir Armoreth, as such it’s not a given that he’s actually dead. It could be some kind of spirit, that is able to poses inanimate objects, like a suit of armor. It could be a familiar or a servant, which would mean that bringing him back to life might be as simple as casing the summon spell. Or maybe it’s some magic caster who is able to place his consciousness into a suit of armor, while the real body remains somewhere safe,” Ainz began to list various possibilities. He was going to list several more, but at that moment it was as if a light bulb went off in his mind. His mind raced as he recalled the relevant information.

“Then, what should we do to learn more about him? Evileye seems to know…” Demiurge began to speak but Ainz motioned for him to stop.

The throne room descended into silence. The guardians were waiting for Ainz, who was absentmindedly drumming a beat on the throne’s armrest as he searched through his memories of Yggdrasil. After about a minute, he returned to the present.

“So, that’s how it is,” Ainz said, feeling quite satisfied with his deduction. “I am almost certain that the suit of armor was just a puppet, controlled by his consciousness. The real Sir Armoreth is still somewhere out there, and he should be aware of everything that his puppet witnessed. Also, the real Armoreth is most likely a Dragon Lord, ” Ainz continued seeing the anticipation written on the Guardians’ faces.

“Eh? Why?” Shalltear asked.

“Um, I’d like to know that too,” Aura added as she felt just as lost as the vampire.

“The Supreme One is truly unfathomable. Please, excuse my incompetence, Ainz-sama,” Demiurge had a crestfallen appearance as he said this.

Demiurge had come to terms with the fact that Ainz’s plans were far more complex than what he could comprehend. However, as a dutiful servant he continued to struggle to keep up with his master to the best of his abilities. Sometimes, he felt he did an acceptable job at it, yet at others he would get completely stomped at Ainz’s thought pattern.

“Do not blame yourself, Demiurge. You simply lack the knowledge I used to come to this conclusion, otherwise, I am certain, you would have already thought of it. It has to do with how time stop abilities worked in Yggdrasil,” Ainz said as his memory went back to the game he spent so much time playing.

Despite significant interest and resources spent, time compression had eluded the scientist of his world. There was no need to mention an actual ability to stop time. The way the devs implemented time stop abilities in Yggdrasil was this: Upon using such an ability, everyone who didn’t have an appropriate counter would have their screen freeze for the duration of the ability. The area affected by such a freeze was also quite large, so there was no chance of someone else entering the time stop zone and making it all the way to the user. There were, of course, cases where the time stop zone happened to be in the middle of someone else’s fight, resulting in players inside the zone getting their screens frozen, while those outside could move about freely. The shitty devs ignored the players’ complaints, and responded by claiming that such an event was just based on luck, so there was no need for them to change anything.

The players from outside entering the time stop zone aside, the way the ability interacted with the game was rather straightforward. If one had the appropriate counter, then their screen wouldn’t freeze and they could move freely. Additionally, it was impossible to interact with those who were affected by the time stop, meaning they could not be attacked, healed or buffed. Attacks were handled in one of several ways: spells would fail, since they couldn’t interact with the target. Thrown items (including spears and arrows etc.) would freeze as soon as they left the user’s hands, but would continue on their trajectory once the time resumed. Lastly, melee combat would continue unimpeded, provided that the target of the attack was not frozen.

From this it could be seen that time stop abilities were a double aged sword, presenting just as many pitfalls as benefits. On top of that, being able to ignore the time stop ability was not the only countermeasure against it. The large variety of counters included things like: gain immunity after time resumes its flow, gain movement speed afterward, teleport to the player who used time stop and even inflict a high amount of damage on the time stop user.

However, what Ainz recalled was the way the time stop zone would interact with a player who could ignore time stop abilities, but was controlling a puppet that did not have the equipment to ignore time stop. The player’s view of the world would remain as normal, but the puppet would be frozen for the duration. Afterward, the puppet would take the actions it was given during the time stop, before following new inputs. The feeling it gave was very similar to playing with lag. It was a glitch in the design.

Ainz had accidentally discovered this abnormality when he happened to be inside someone’s time stop zone, while playing around with [Shared Vision] which allowed him to see through the eyes of his summoned creatures. After conducting further tests, he gained a good understanding of this abnormality. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that useful. Few classes had abilities like [Shared Vision] and even fewer of them were something players would use while in combat. As such, Ainz’s discovery was interesting, but of no practical utility.

Who would’ve thought it would be useful in this New World, Ainz thought while he explained things to Demiurge.

“Truly magnificent,” Demiurge offered his sincere praise after Ainz finished. “Then, the reason you believe the real Armoreth is a Dragon Lord is… because he must be stronger than the puppet?” Demiurge continued.

“Correct. There is no one like that left in the Slane Theocracy, and all of the Zuranon executives are here. According to the Elf King, Black Knight was the last remaining NPC from the group that was transported to the New World two centuries ago. Which leaves Dragon Lords as the most likely candidate,” Ainz concluded.

“If it was a Dragon Lord, then Argland Council State is most likely behind it. They’ve rejected the request made by the Slane Theocracy to join this farce of an attack, but they are likely cautious of us. Sending a puppet to gather information, without exposing themselves is an appropriate step under such circumstances,” Albedo offered her thoughts.

“Still, we know little about Dragon Lords, so while the Argland Council State is likely the one behind it, we should not discard the possibility of it being some unaffiliated Dragon Lord acting of their own accord,” Ainz cautioned. “I will use Evileye to confirm Armoreth’s true identity, then we can plan our response,” he continued.

“What about your opponent, Demiurge? Did anything unusual happen?” Ainz asked.

“Yes, Ainz-sama. During the fight, Black Knight used a skill on his sword to give himself a huge power boost. He began to grow stronger and faster. As his power increased, he was able to damage me, and toward the end he might’ve even briefly exceeded my power,” Demiurge paid no heed to the cries of shock and surprise from the other guardians at his revelation and continued to narrate, “However, the skill has a costly price. When he activated the skill, black smoke covered the blade, it then spread to his whole body before burying into him. After the skill’s duration ended, he dropped dead and the blade of his sword was gone as well. His skin had shriveled up and he looked as if he completely dried out, with just his skin wrapping the bones tightly.”

“Hmm, a temporary buff that greatly enhances one’s power at the cost of their life,” Ainz nodded.

However, he did not continue to speak, his skeletal hand rose to caress his chin, while his mind raced. But why would an unnamed NPC under level fifty have a buff that would allow it to kill level hundred players? There is no reason for him to have it.

“Did Black Knight say anything about this skill?” Ainz asked desperate for any information to help him make sense of it.

“Yes. Before activating it, he said this power was originally designed to allow the members of his order to protect the treasure they were guarding,” Demiurge said.

So it wasn’t just him, some if not all the members of his order had it? But, I’ve never heard of anyone complain about these mobs having such an insane ability, and their temple was a popular grinding spot, Ainz shook his head dejectedly. I must be thinking about it the wrong way.

“Did he say anything about this treasure his order was guarding?” Ainz asked hoping to find a new angle to go after.

“No. However, his words: “the treasure we were guarding” imply that he was no longer guarding the treasure, most likely because it wasn’t transported to the New World with him,” Demiuge proposed.

Ainz nodded in response, though there were still many questions in his mind. However, now was not the time to wonder, he cleared his thoughts before addressing the Guardians in front of him.

“Thanks to your hard work many of our enemies have been defeated today. But our work is not over yet, now we will make those arrogant fools of the Slane Theocracy pay for daring to attack us in our own home! Now, we take over the Slane Theocracy!” Ainz’s voice rose more and more.

The Guardians responded with great enthusiasm: Cocytus’s mandibles made an exciting, clanking noise, Albedo’s wings opened and closed, Demiurge had a satisfied smile on his face while Shalltear clenched her fist while licking her lips, and let out a wave of killing intent.

“Demiurge, Shalltear, you are responsible for this part of the plan. The teams of Hanzos should have moved into their designated positions. We have removed Zesshi and Loras from the picture, but it seems the top brass of the Slane Theocracy still has an ace up their sleeve, so don’t become careless,” Ainz instructed the two.

“Yes, Ainz-sama,” the two responded with a bow.

“We’ll hold another meeting with everyone after you complete your mission,” Ainz said. “Until then, I’ll be in my bedroom,” he continued.

Ainz teleported to his chambers and looked around to make sure that no one was in the room. After confirming it he fell on his large, luxurious bed and let out a long sigh. It’s finally over, he thought. He rolled onto his back and zoned out while stared at the ceiling. While he had gotten better at playing an all-knowing leader, and the attacks of self-doubt had become less frequent, it was still extremely taxing to pull of something like this.

“Ah, role playing in front of a live audience is really hard,” he mumbled. However, things turned out quite well. Thanks to the adjustments regarding Blue Rose the Sorcerer Kingdom will maintain its reputation even as we conquer the Slane Theocracy. We’ve also learned about a likely enemy. He stretched an arm out and stared at his bony hand while thinking.

“Ah, right,” Ainz said as he remembered something. He opened his inventory and pulled out a thick book, on the front of which “Ainz Ooal Gown’s Game Encyclopedia” was written in fancy letters.

“Oh, it adjusted to my name change,” Ainz said rather surprised.

The Game Encyclopedia was a basic item given to each player shortly after they started playing Yggdrasil. It was a compendium of everything a player encountered, starting off blank and then filling up with more and more information. Ainz slowly flipped through the pages, the memories of various events filling his head. It took several minutes before he finally stopped on a page titled “The Order of Zar.”

While the temple of the order was located in Asgard, a realm most heteromorphic players would avoid, Ainz and his friends had actually spent a lot of their time PvP’ing there, back when they were around level fifty. As such Ainz’s Encyclopedia had a good deal of information on the Order of Zar.

Nothing here either, Ainz sighed, his hopes to learn more about the treasure the order was guarding seemed to be in vain. He was about to close the book, when an idea struck him. He quickly opened it and read through the text again.

Under the heading Origins, there was a brief overview of how the order started and their stated goals and etc. Toward the end of this section and just prior to all the members of the order becoming cursed, was a sentence that sparked Ainz curiosity. It read: “The temple is the last known location of the famous dwarven archaeologist, Filkin Fizlestone, he had spent the night there before his sudden disappearance.”

Ainz then began to flip through the book again, until he came to the page for Filkin Fizlestone. A famous archaeologist specializing in demon lore, imagine that, Ainz thought as he read through the information.

“Aha, here it is,” Ainz exclaimed, he felt like an adventurer on a quest.

“Filkin claimed that he had discovered the location of a powerful demonic artifact and had organized an expedition to unearth it. However, the expedition met one misfortune after another, with some declaring it was cursed. By the time it was completed, only five members remained alive. The misfortune continued as they made their return – two of the remaining members were killed in a fight against bandits, and one died from food poisoning. No longer feeling safe on the road, Filkin decided to seek assistance from the nearby temple of the Order of Zar. Just as they were approaching the temple, Filkin’s companion lost control over his horse and fell, breaking his neck in the process. Filkin asked for an armed escort to help him return to his home in the capital, to which the temple agreed, however he was never seen again, with the paladins claiming that he left the temple the next morning without giving an explanation. Present whereabouts or whether he is still alive remain unknown.”

“Those shitty devs,” Ainz laughed.

****

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