Chapter 10

Azirim looked up from the report in his hands as Medulla returned.

"Did we get the information we needed?"

"..."

"I'll assign someone from the 9th to keep track of their movements."

Azirim picked up a different sheet of parchment.

"Demiurge requested that we help in his efforts in the Holy Kingdom. He no longer has use of a pawn."

"..."

"Yes, you will be in charge of that since I have to investigate with the odd invitations Lord Ainz had received."

Remedios walked down the street as the rain continued to pour. She was on patrol and intended to finish it as soon as possible so she could get out of the rain.

She glanced at a nearby building which proudly bore the banner of the cult that had recently sprung up worshipping the damned undead king as a god. Remedios was not so stupid as to not notice that she had been assigned as far as possible from Neia Baraja.

The storm had started not long after she started her patrol and quickly intensified to the point where the winds started to bend and break the trees lining the roads.

Remedios turned the corner and saw two cloaked figures; one a giant easily standing over 9 feet tall and the other who seemed to be of average height for a human. Her instincts screamed at her that something was wrong and Remedios moved to draw her sword. But before she could pull her holy blade from its sheath, the smaller figure suddenly appeared in front of her. The cloaked figure then grabbed Remedios by the side of her head.

"[Mind Spike]"

"Ma'am, this doesn't look like she died in an accident."

The light blue giant said as he watched Medulla drag Remedios' body to the curb. Medulla then put the head on the edge of the sidewalk. She then placed her hand on the neck and pushed just hard enough to break it.

*Snap*

The giant continued to speak. "If I may voice my opinion, I do not think people will believe that she slipped in the rain and hit her head hard enough to kill her."

"..."

"I would have recommended sticking to Guardian Demigure's suggestions. After all, having her tragically die in a demihuman raid or poisoned while visiting the South would be more believable."

Medulla ignored the comments made by the giant and continued to shift the body around until she was finally satisfied. She made her way over to the giant and cast [Gate].

"Hahhh… At least I talked her out of having her slip and fall in the bath." muttered the giant as they entered the portal.

The Night Lich Alzan watched impatiently as his latest experiment failed. Alzan watched from a safe distance through the eyes of one of his many undead servants using [Undead Slave Sight] as the zombie he had tasked with activating the spell crystal disintegrated. The 6th level spell that he had attempted to bind within the crystal exploded outwards, destroying all nearby undead.

Ending [Undead Slave Sight], Alzan returned to his laboratory to review his notes and try again.

The Night Lich stormed down the halls of the grand palace he had claimed for his base of operations. He had set up his operations within the palace a few hundreds years ago when he heard news of a country that had been destroyed. When he first arrived, the streets of the city were filled with zombies and the palace was in a similar state. This did not bother Alzan since the zombies did not attack him due to his undead nature and served as a warning system in case of enemy attack. The abundance of undead also made gathering test subjects very easy, which pleased Alzan as he considered any time not spent on his research as time wasted.

Alzan reached his laboratory and once again threw himself into his research. He knew of the existence of items imbued with spells higher than the 6th tier through his interactions with his fellow members of the undead cabal known as Corpus of the Abyss. Alzan just could not figure out why he was unable to bind the magic into the crystal.

His concentration was so intense that he did not notice the [Gate] spell easily bypassing his defensive wards. Nor did he notice the object that lazily passed through the portal.

"So this is the extent of a member of Corpus of the Abyss?"

Alzan whipped around, preparing to cast several offensive spells at his intruder. He was surprised to see that his intruder seemed to be a floating skull plated in silver and whose eye sockets were inlaid with deep blue gems.

For a moment he thought that this was a surprise visit from another member of Corpus.

Very few cared about their fellow members but Alzan was one of the few that kept tabs on the other members and knew the locations of their hideouts. What made him worry was that he only did this in his paranoia that one of them would attempt to steal his research; it was likely that this intruder was planning on just that.

The skull continued to chatter.

"Comical! How comical! They dare invite our glorious lord instead of throwing themselves at his feet and swearing their undying fealty!"

"Do you have any idea who you are speaking to? I am-"

The skull cut him off

"[Undead Domination] Silence! I demand the locations and information on members of your little club."

Alzan had no choice but to follow the commands of his new master and he gave him everything he knew about the bases of the other members.

Corpus of the Abyss was in a state of pure panic. Due to their isolation, it was a miracle that it only took a couple of weeks for the organization to notice that its members had been cut in half. The once grand undead organization had fallen from 114 members was now down to 54 members.

The inner circle determined that there was either a traitor in its midst or they were being hunted. And so they sent out a message to all of its remaining members; 'Corpus of the Abyss will fortify the ancient elven fortress of Molavar and any members that do not contribute will be considered a traitor and hunted down.'

The gathering of undead creatures was impressive to say the least. All the remaining Night Liches brought their most powerful servants with them in an attempt to fortify the ruins to the best of their abilities.

The dense gathering of such a massive number of undead also caused the surrounding environment to change. Negative energy was present in such high concentration that powerful undead began to naturally spawn.

Hundreds of Elder Liches patrolled the crumbling walls and thousands of zombies and skeletons shambled around in the courtyard while vast Necroswarm Giants and Meat Hulks stood in their midsts. Overhead, packs of Wraiths and Bone Vultures stalk the skies, searching for any signs of intruders.

The servants of the inner circle were also present:

Granz Locke, a practitioner of the 8th tier, brought his personal bodyguard of four Death Knights.

Guphandera=Argoros, the terrifying Dracolich, led three Zombie Dragons and two Skeleton Dragons.

Kunivela, the individual closest to the 9th tier, had brought his dominated Vampire Counts.

Benjeli Ansis, the founding member of Corpus of the Abyss, came with the most terrifying undead creature, unmatched by any other in the organization, two Soul Eaters.

'Boreeeed. Boreeeeeeed.'

Ebonshadow, in her opinion, was not trying particularly hard to keep herself hidden. In reality due to her specialization in stealth and assassination, her current position could only be detected by using the most powerful detection abilities.

The elf had infiltrated the ruins around the same time the first members of Corpus had begun setting up their new base of operations. That is to say, she has been crouching in the corner for the past month without moving.

If she had known that this mission would be so boring, she would have had one of her subordinates in the 9th Legion take the mission instead.

Her analysis of Corpus of the Abyss had identified a single target that might pose a miniscule threat to the mission, a Night Liches who seemed to hold a position of power within the organization. If she had paid any attention to the mission briefing, Ebonshadow would have been able to identify the Lich as Granz Locke. However her primary target was Kunivela.

Currently, the entire organization had gathered in the great hall as they planned out defenses and shared information on the mysterious group that they believed to be hunting them down.

All of this was according to plan. Being able to gather the entire organization in one spot was much better than having to hunt them down individually.

An Elder Lich silently made its way into the hall and quietly passed a message to one of the members of the inner circle.

A knight then entered the hall as many of the gathered Liches whispered and speculated on the newcomer.

"It seems we are approached by the envoys of Ainz Ooal Gown. Judging by your appearance, I assume that the Sorcerous King Ainz has accepted our offer?" Siyern, the Necrotic Titan, bellowed over the whispers of the gathered undead.

"No."

"No?" bafflement evident in the voice of the undead giant.

"If I were as capable as Demiurge at manipulation… No, you are a possible threat, and so you will be eliminated." spoke the ragged knight.

'That's my queue.'

The hall was silent for a moment, then filled with the laughter of the undead.

"Have you gone mad? You, alone, versus countless numbers of our undead."

'Ok, can't risk it surviving sooo, full damage combo it is.'

Ebonshadow activated her class skills; [Shadow Image] which created a shadowy projection of her whose attack ignored all resistances and [Mark] which marked her target, exposing its weaknesses.

The assassin then drew her bow.

Using her class skill [Snipe], she launched a powerful arrow and quickly sent another normal one after it. Ebonshadow then drew her twin war picks and leapt towards her target, further enhancing her attack with [Merciless Focus]. She struck with both of her weapons at the same time, then ravaged the Night Lich in front of her with her most powerful single target ability; [Death Stroke].

Not a single Night Lich noticed the attacks as it occurred all within the span of a couple seconds.

This was ridiculous overkill since this combination of attacks was created to kill level 100 player characters.

As soon as Kunivela was blasted into pieces, several [Gate] spells were cast and the assassin continued onto the other members of the inner circle.

Out of the [Gates] came giants dressed in full plate armor on top of long monk robes, wielding great weapons and screaming war hymns. Their weapons, glowing with radiant energy, cleaved through the surprised undead.

The great hall exploded in pandemonium as the gathered undead panicked, caught completely off guard and unsure if they should fight or flee while giant knights screamed praises to the 41 while hacking apart any creature that stood in their way.

Azirim walked over the bones that littered the room as he surveyed the carnage. Quite a few Night Liches tried to teleport out, but to no avail and the inner circle had been dealt with by the commander of the 9th. The battle soon came to a close as the last Lich had its skull crushed by a particularly zealous Cathedral Knight.

"Alright, clean up outside. Ebonshadow, you're in charge of sweeping the rest of the fortress for any stragglers and anything of interest."

"What!? Come on! I want to be involved in the operation involving the Player!"

"We have enough people on that. Focus on completing the mission at hand."

"Fine! But I will complain the entire time."

The cloaked elf stormed off and Azirim began to make his way over the one of the active portals.

"No point in stroking my own ego, might as well bring in a dragon or two." Azirim muttered to himself as he made his way through the portal.