16

Dragons are bad news.

In different universes, games and books, multiple interpretations of different types of dragons existed - evil, kind, reasonable, bestial, living and extinct - but in all interpretations dragons always have outstanding power, beyond the lower races. Of course, various single exceptions, like "lower dragons" and "dragonian familiars," existed, but as a general axiom, dragons always remained a peculiar mark of the strength and power of heroes and monsters.

In Yggdrasil, it was the same - if not even more true. Although the game had hundreds of different races that had their own positive and negative sides, they were in an elegant and perverse balance between themselves - but only one race had positive sides that outweighed all the negative ones. Dragons

Nine of the strongest NPCs in the game, World Enemies, were dragons, nine more were dragon-like and almost all of the remaining ones had a certain number of dragon motifs in their abilities or designs, not to mention just strong NPCs and bosses, many of whom were dragons. In other words - the creators of Yggdrasil were very open in their preferences of dragons as the most powerful of the game's creatures - which taught players like Ainz one simple immutable truth.

Dragons are bad news.

If the dungeon's boss turns out to be a dragon, then one could expect a protracted battle with a powerful opponent with a dozen powerful special abilities. If the quest required a powerful artifact - it was probably guarded by a dragon. If the craft of a new recipe required rare materials - at least half of them will be referred to as "dragon steel" or "dragon diamond".

In other words - if a player of Yggdrasil heard about a dragon - he began to prepare for the worst.

Therefore, the first thought Ainz had, when he heard from Archer about the approach of a certain dragon, was the idea of throwing off his disguise, calling upon all his Servants and beginning a slow retreat, leaving the fortress to be torn apart by the enemy from where it would begin.

'Besides, a certain Servant in the donjon…' - Ainz frowned at this. Did the Master plan to catch Ainz in a pincer attack between the approaching dragon and the Servant - after which he destroy him? If he planned to do this, it meant that the unknown Master had the ability to control dragons — a particularly dangerous and powerful ability that less than a few hundred people in Yggdrasil had — "Is it worth it in this case to destroy the Servant and escape? Or will it be easier in this case to destroy all the people in the fortress, hoping that Master of the Servant will be among them?"

The thought about this flashed through Ainz's head - however, it was instantly crushed by cold logic.

'If the information that I destroyed the fortress spreads, then the likelihood of peacefully getting information will catastrophically fall…' - Ainz bit his lip. His suppression of emotions could destroy all the pros and cons of mood, panic or fear, but restless analysis of options that came from inside Ainz was not an emotion in the true sense of the word - because of that, it left Ainz building new theories over and over again, rejecting the old ones as they would finally take shape in his head.

Is it possible that the approaching dragon was created by the Dragon Witch? Very likely - however, this did not exclude the possibility that the Servant planned to attack Ainz at the moment when he was distracted by the battle with the dragon. Could the Servant himself be the Dragon Witch?

'My husband…' - the voice of Serenity in Ainz's head made him strain, expecting a new surprise, 'I found the Servant, however... I believe that you should look at her.'

At this Ainz frowned again. If Serenity found the Servant and wanted to show it to Ainz, did that mean that she considered the Servant incapable of harming Ainz? And what did he need to do now, when a dragon was approaching the fortress?

'Archer' - he turned mentally to the observer - 'When will the dragon arrive at the fortress?'

"Judging by the speed and distance - fifteen minutes" - Archer's answer made Ainz sigh. He needed to work out a plan as quickly as possible — however, he still had time to look personally at the Servant that Serenity wanted to show him.

Looking around, Ainz took a few steps into the shadow of the wall, where the commandant of the fortress had departed a bit earlier, after which he used the spell.

"Greater Invisibility" - although such a spell was not the strongest of this kind among the Ainz spells, since it left some signs of the existence and actions of the caster - more powerful abilities were beyond the limits of the magic his current body could safely use.

The spell worked instantly, erasing Ainz from reality. The sounds he emitted also instantly disappeared, as did the traces left by him, but a slight tremor of the earth at each step of Ainz, a small magic background and wind movements could alert the attentive observer to the fact that Ainz still was here.

Moving through the camp, Ainz repeatedly avoided wandering soldiers, idle from a victory that he easily got and unaware of the approaching new monster, after which he made his way to the donjon and found himself inside where he could feel Serenity's location.

Stepping inside a small, half-ruined tower, Ainz dispelled the spell, and then looking around, he went downstairs - to the basement.

"My husband," that was the way Ainz was greeted by a girl in a second when he appeared on the doorway of one of the utility rooms, to which Ainz answered with a nod.

"Serenity?" - looking at the girl Ainz turned his gaze to, apparently, the one who was the Servant that Roman and Olga-Marie could notice - "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

Serenity nodded at this, forcing Ainz to look more attentively at the figure who was unconsciously lying on a pile of fallen dusty bags and boxes.

The absence of light did not prevent Ainz from seeing, given that he was an undead, so he was able to easily make out that the Servant was a girl — her long, wheat-colored hair was braided into a thick braid at half her height. Although her eyes were closed - for some reason Ainz was sure that they themselves were the colors of the midday clear sky.

The girl was dressed in armor - but not like Arthuria, who was chained in knight armor - rather, her armor was lighter and more free to move in, the color of brushed steel. Next to the girl, put to the wall, rested a spear.

"No" - Ainz instantly corrected himself, looking at it- "This is not a spear"

What was attached to the wall was a banner that now hung lifelessly under the effect of gravity, whose sharp top made it look like a spear, but it was impossible to see what was painted on the banner.

A few more times looking at the girl with a quick glance, Ainz turned to Serenity and looked at her questioningly.

"My husband, you had to look at her to decide her fate," with these words, Serenity turned her gaze on the girl, "Under the current conditions, she is defenseless and does not pose a danger, so perhaps we should capture her and conduct an interrogation".

Ainz nodded at this — it obviously made sense — after which, he looked at the girl again. It did not look like she was an adversary - at least at the moment. However, just in case, Ainz opened his inventory, after which he took out one of the first daggers he came across and reached out with his hand to the girl's throat. When the rhythm of the girl's breathing did not change, even when the blade touched the Servant's neck, Ainz, just in case, pressed the steel slightly, forcing the girl to wriggle in a dream from touching, after which, barely avoiding a cut, he put it back into the inventory.

"She sleeps too carelessly for a possible adversary," concluded the mage. In itself, this did not mean that the girl was not exactly an opponent, as she could have been just a very unskilled killer, but it still significantly reduced the likelihood, - "Good."

However, the girl who felt the touch to her neck, began to slowly toss and turn, after which, after a dozen seconds, slowly opened her eyes.

"Huh?" - she slightly confusedly concentrated her gaze first on Ainz, then on Serenity, who was standing next to him, and reacted to the awakening of the girl with the appearance of a small throwing knife in her hand, - "Where am I?"

"Hmm?" - Ainz frowned at this. Did the girl in front of him now not know where she was - or did she try to confuse Ainz? But if she tried to confuse Ainz, then what did she want to get from him? Did she know about the approaching dragon at all or not?

Serenity, having carefully observed the reaction of Ainz and came to a definite conclusion for herself, did not begin to change her posture, continuing to drill the girl with her eyes, holding a pair of blades at the ready.

If Ainz were in place of the girl who was sitting now in front of the Assassin, then in such conditions, he would clearly feel discomfort, but without having received an unequivocal answer - the girl seemingly calmly assessed the situation, and only then stretched, as if she had just woken up from a long sleep.

Not having finally reached the final conclusion regarding the Servant, Ainz nevertheless decided to start a dialogue, - "Who are you?"

There were several direct and completely not false answers to this question, each of which carried a different content of truth and a desire to tell the truth about itself. If the girl reported now that she is a dozing soldier, Ainz would note that she did not want to report her status as a Servant and at the same time could not see the Servant in Ainz or Serenity. If she had reported that she was a Servant, then the likelihood that the incident was a trap designed for Ainz would have been reduced. However, the Servant went even further.

"Jeanne d'Arc," - the girl smiled at this question, after which she blinked several times, - "But I understand... I guess you should be surprised now, because I died just a little more than a week ago…"

After these words, Jeanne unexpectedly stopped and became silent, but continued to silently say something to herself, moving her lips, and then looked at Ainz - this time she looked confused - "But, I can't understand where I am now... And why was I called?

Thoughts of this Jeanne as of the Dragon Witch in Ainz's head could not cope at the same time as the current scene opened before him.

'Does this mean that the girl in front of me is not Jeanne?' - Ainz glanced incredulously at this - 'And does she know that a dragon is approaching the fortress?'

'Master' - Archer's voice was like a pain in the teeth - 'The dragon is approaching - besides, a group of skeletons are noticed in a few dozen minutes of walking.'

'Problems follow one another' - on this Ainz sighed. Frankly, he never really had to command before - he rarely acted as a raid leader, and as a guild leader, he acted rather as a symbolic and nominal figure, while all issues were decided by a collective vote. He never sought to command - and, to confess, he now began to clearly understand why - 'In the first hour of my command, problems are falling one after the other. Maybe I'm just not good enough to be a commander?'

Thinking about this, Ainz shook his head, but no such thought could distract him from his duties.

"Jeanne," Ainz glanced at the girl sitting under his gaze on old bags and showing no desire to reach for her weapon, "Do you know what is happening at the moment in France?"

The girl closed her eyes for a second, after which, opening them, she nodded slowly and uncertainly.

"I'm not completely sure," the girl said a little stumbling, "However, it seems that there's another Jeanne d'Arc in France who called on the monsters and burned the king... However, I don't have complete information - perhaps because my summon was carried out incorrectly. I cannot determine exactly what caused such events and I lack some information about the current situation in the world, but I still managed to get some information using the Grail."

After these words, the girl looked at Ainz, forcing him to frown. Jeanne reported too much information about herself, in fact, for their first meeting. Was she not afraid that Ainz could simply find out information from her, and then kill her?

Serenity might have thought about something like that, but most likely she just did not think - from the very beginning of the dialogue the girl did not change her posture and, it seemed, never even stirred, continuing to follow the Holy One's movement with her blades in her hands, preparing to cut her throat any time, should Ainz just wish it.

Of course, if Ainz was an ordinary person, he would feel a little uncomfortable with the girl's similar devotion, but in the current conditions, when problems began to immediately accumulate on top of each other, and with the disappearance of some fundamental human principles of psychology, everything that Ainz experienced looking at the girl, ready to cut the Holy One's throat open at his command was relief and some gratitude.

Looking at the Assassin, in turn, Jeanne also nodded, but instead of being offended by such distrust or showing fear, as any other person would have done, she continued to speak.

"Under normal conditions, I should have been called up as Ruler," the girl shook her head for that, "But due to the strange conditions of my current call, I lost most of my abilities — I have no Command Seals and I cannot see your True Names. In addition, my parameters also suffered and decreased by one rank. Even more…"

The girl ran over her hip, as if to make sure that something was missing, - "St. Catherine's Sword also disappeared, which is why I lost my last trump card."

After these words, the girl looked at the nearby stand for the first time in the entire conversation, "So, I have only one Noble Phantasm right now..."

"Why are you telling me about this?" - about this, Ainz only slightly wonderingly asked a question. Ainz did not even plan to ask the girl about her combat abilities, because he understood that such a question would look suspicious under current conditions - if not outright hostile. Should he be in the shoes of a girl, he would try to find that thin enough line between trust and distrust, talk about some of his strength and try to give as few hints as possible to those abilities that could be considered his trump cards.

Even more, he did just that when he was in Chaldea — he only said that he was "a mage who is not inferior to an average Servant and with large mana reserves", hiding information both about his real strength and about his Phantasm's - or the most dangerous abilities. And it's not that he thought Chaldea itself was dangerous or that he was going to betray it - he just understood that regardless of whether they were allies or not - his abilities remained his trump card and at the same time a weak point. He was not ready to trust this knowledge to even someone like Chief or Roman.

The only people to whom he could trust all the information about himself were his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown, because he truly believed in their friendship and reliability, but no one except them.

"Hmm?" - the girl just looked at Ainz in a slightly uncomprehending way. "Why shouldn't I?"

Ainz looked at the girl as if he were looking at a child who did not understand the truisms "If I were your opponent, now I could use your ignorance of the current situation and tell you something that would be beneficial to me. Or knowing about your loss of a part of your abilities, I could attack you without fear of retaliation."

To this, Ainz was expecting an answer like "but why did you decide that I am telling you the truth?" or something like that, which would have made little sense in the current situation, but the girl in front of him, who still hasn't taken her the only weapon just shrugged, "I don't think you will."

At this, Ainz just stared at Jeanne with a blank look.

"What?" - thinking that he misheard, Ainz blinked a couple of times.

"I don't think you would do that," the girl just blinked back, as if she didn't understand Ainz's reaction in turn, "You don't look like an opponent or a bad person."

At this Ainz stopped, then closed his eyes.

"It does not make sense!" he wanted to scream for a second, but the suppression of emotions left only the core of this thought, "This is wrong."

'Maybe I was mistaken and she really is a very high-class assassin who organized the trap?' - only such an idea could fit in the head of the magi. However, looking around and finding nothing suspicious, having not yet experienced the attacks of an invisible enemy and not engaging himself in battle, Ainz was forced to admit that the likelihood of this was negligible.

"My husband," Serenity, who turned to Ainz, brought him out of his thoughts, "I apologize, but should you not deal with other problems?"

"Yes," stepping out of his thoughts, Ainz nodded. The problem of the approaching dragon and the pile of skeletons marching towards the fortress was still unresolved and, whatever the meeting with Jeanne — or the Servant, who pretended to be her — meant, it was not like the girl was planning to attack Ainz.

"In that case, I believe that you understand that you should not meet with people at the fort right now," Ainz finally arrived at an interim conclusion, after which he turned his gaze to the girl. She frowned slightly at the hint of her — not her - reputation — after which she nodded, understandingly, "All right. In that case - I will ask you to wait a while until we decide what actions we will need to take in the future."

Despite the fact that he himself, having heard something like that, would definitely have strained and wondered what "actions" a person who knows all his strengths and secrets would think - Jeanne just nodded, as if understanding and accepting what Ainz said faithfully, after getting a little more comfortable on the dusty bags. It seemed that the captive - in all sense but a name - was not at all concerned about her position.

"Serenity," - turning around, Ainz whispered to the girl through the connection, - "Do not let her get out of the castle or get in the eyes of anyone."

"Of course, my husband" - this is what Serenity replied without even a moving an inch. Ainz gave her answer a dignified nod, then walked away from the dungeon.

The fact that Serenity should not know about his impending problems with the approaching dragon was something that Ainz failed to notice.

When the back of her Master - "husband!" - the girl indignantly reminded herself - disappeared behind the closed door - Serenity turned her eyes to Jeanne, who continued to sit quietly in her seat, after which she firmly grabbed the blades in her hands.

Jeanne did not react cautiously or with aggression - although, perhaps, in the opinion of Serenity, she should have, but only tried to smile at the opposite girl.

"The two of you are very mistrustful," the Holy One tried to start some kind of dialogue, but to this Serenity only continued to follow the girl's movements, not disturbed enough to answer the unspoken Servant's question.

Jeanne continued to remain silent for another ten seconds, waiting for a response from an inhospitable girl, but without achieving any reaction, she tried again, "I know you may find my behavior strange, but I am not an enemy. I may not know somethings about the current situation... No, I don't even know why I was called - but I don't want to fight you. All I want is to find the cause of what happened, that "resurrected" Jeanne d'Arc, and then put an end to the destruction of France."

Hearing this, Serenity did not budge.

She did not care about the reason for which this Jeanne was called into this world — as well as the reason why another Jeanne was resurrected. She was also not concerned by the goals she pursued in this world or what she planned to do in the future. She didn't care if she was an enemy or an ally. At least for the moment. All that worried her at the moment - the words of her Master - and her husband, even if a pretense - and his decision. The way Serenity was supposed to act was determined by the words of Ainz, and the rest of the facts about Jeanne — her goals, causes and morality — should have already influenced these words. If Ainz had commanded Serenity to cut Jeanne's throat, even if she were an ally, even the Holy One, she would have done it, even if a second ago Jeanne and Ainz would have sworn eternal loyalty to each other. Now her order was clear - to follow the girl and not let her get out of the donjon. And it was precisely this order that she was going to execute - Ainz did not say anything about the conversation with the supervised, so in this case Serenity was free to interpret this situation on her own. And her interpretation was such that Jeanne was a beautiful girl who unexpectedly found herself next to Ainz. And even though she didn't like any people, the beautiful girls who unexpectedly found themselves next to Ainz were at the top of her list of unloved people.

Therefore, the girl continued silently to supervise Jeanne, who, after waiting a few more seconds for an answer, still sighed and reached for her weapon leaning against the wall.

"Stop," eventually, Serenity commanded at the moment when Jeanne reached for her banner.

"So you are not mute!" - however, Jeanne, it seemed, was not upset at all - on the contrary, having pulled her hand away from the half-banner half-spear, the girl smiled, and then looked at Serenity with a satisfied look, - "However, I say, I am not your enemy! Don't you believe me?"

Serenity thought for a second, weighing all the pros and cons, after which she was forced to admit that if she continued to ignore the girl, she would most likely gradually begin to build up her provocations and continue loosening the Assassin's nerves, so she had little choice.

"This is not related to my beliefs," if we talk about personal feelings, Serenity did not consider Jeanne to be an enemy. Or she saw in front of her the most disastrously bad enemy in history, - " But my order is to follow you, and I will execute it."

Any person in the place of Jeanne would be hurt by such an attitude, but the Holy One only smiled in response and sighed, "Good. So you respect the orders of this person?"

"Ainz Ooal Gown," the girl Serenity instantly corrected, unexpectedly stung by the impersonal "this man", "His name is Ainz."

"Okay," Jeanne nodded at that, "Ainz. Is he your husband?"

Serenity suddenly coughed, confused at these words. Of course, she herself called him her husband just a minute ago, but when she spoke of him as her husband, she understood that she was doing nothing more than simple - but so pleasant - self-deception. Hearing someone talking about her marriage to Ainz was...both embarrassing and enjoyable. And the girl could not even make out which feeling was more prominent.

"Not at all," finally, coughing, Serenity objected to Jeanne, "He is my Master."

Although under normal conditions of the Holy Grail War, such a phrase would not be something strange and out of the ordinary, the fact that at the moment Jeanne was not called upon during the War - just as the fact that Serenity did not object to Jeanne's supposition about their close relations - made the girl suddenly blush with the words of Assassin and turn away, - "How bold!"

But Serenity herself did not hear these words, having lost her thoughts for a second, after which, after thinking a little, the girl looked at Jeanne with a cold look again. The girl just smiled in response, once again, as if she was not at all concerned about the scrutiny.

'At least she knows how to choose the right words,' Serenity confessed to herself.

"A... Then, when he became your... Your "master"..." - with these words the girl faltered and blushed deeply, - "How... Was it?"

"Hmm?" - at this Serenity looked at the reddened Holy One with a slight lack of understanding, - " As it always happens. He asked me - I agreed…"

At this moment, Serenity remembered how Ainz patted her head then, and then smiled an unexpectedly dreamy smile that someone could hardly have expected from her, given her previous willingness to cut the Holy One's throat with one order, - "Although admit, when he caressed me... I still remember this. I may not even have enough of this. Maybe if he could stroke me now…"

"Such blasphemy!" - Jeanne was glowing like a candle, from the tip of the ears to the heels, after which she looked away in the opposite direction and frowned. However, literally after a dozen seconds, although the blush from the girl's cheeks never faded, the Holy One slowly turned her head to Serenity, after which, looking at the wall next to her, as if not even looking at her captor, she slowly and quietly asked,- "Did ... Anything else happen then?"

Ainz left the donjon without hiding - he did not need to use invisibility anymore now that he found the only Servant who could be really dangerous for him.

Now he was more concerned with other problems.

"Is the dragon still approaching?" Ainz instantly contacted Archer when he just left the tower.

"Soon the guards will see him," was the answer. Ainz himself raised his head, and then looked a little - and indeed, in the distance on the horizon, he could see a small black dot, slowly approaching his location. Now he could hardly see it in the distance, but in reality it would only take a couple of minutes before any guard noticed the creature's approach.

"Can you see him from your spot?" If Archer could see any of the individual features of the dragon, then Ainz could probably determine what kind of dragon was heading for the fort now, but Archer sent only a negative response.

"Too far, too high and too fast moving" - this was the answer, that Archer gave to him, before he, after a little bit of thought, still tried to provide the little information he could find out, - "Not very large, main body is about five meters, tail is five more. The wings are about ten from one end to the other. "

"Not very big," Ainz noted in the end. Although, of course, in reality, a creature almost ten meters long and with an equally large wingspan would seem huge - for Yggdrasil, ten meters was not the largest possible size, some huge dragons or titans could reach four or five dozen meters, not including special opponents so large that they made up a formal "location" - like for example a battle in the belly of "The Lord of Gluttony", one of the World Enemies. Also, by the way, a dragon.

The problem was that the small size did not always mean the dragon's weakness - of course, there were low-level dragons in Yggdrasil, which usually were much smaller than their relatives, but some powerful and high-level dragons also preferred to retain their smaller appearance.

Ainz frowned - now his power was much less than if he could use of all his abilities as a level one-hundred player, but even if he were in full force, he would prefer not to encounter an unknown dragon under unknown conditions. Even more, if he had equated all his Servants to level one-hundred players and used the help of Jeanne - he still would not have been unequivocally sure of his victory. He knew many powerful dragon bosses who could fight a dozen hundred-level players without any particular problems. Therefore, the most logical option in this case was to retreat. But…

"All to me" - in the end, he still gave the order on his connection Ainz to all his Servants, except for two Assassins, judging that the two murderers who were specialized in fighting against people would not show themselves well in a battle with a huge fire-breathing beast, after which he turned his attention to the two remaining ones, "Hassan, look into the approaching skeletons. Serenity - watch over Jeanne. If she does something, let me know immediately and try to grab her. If it doesn't work - kill her."

After receiving a confirmation from all his Servants in response, Ainz stopped for a second. His body was much weaker than the real body of a Servant and could not withstand high-level spells - even with a large number of buffs cast on him, and he was not ready to meet an unknown dragon absolutely unprepared and unarmed.

"Protection against Natural Weapons", - his mutterings were heard, as the several of the most important buffs in these conditions took their place, - "Blessing of Magic Caster", "Freedom", "The Body of Effulgent Beryl", "Greater Protection against Fire".

The five most important spells in the current conditions were imposed on Ainz - this time he was not at all concerned about the reaction of the people around him to his actions, after which he heard a scream from one of the sentinels.

"Dragon!" - shout made people freeze for a second, - "Dragon! Dragon! DRAGON!"

The last, loudest repetition of the word made all the soldiers in the castle instantly drop everything, whatever they were doing at the moment - and begin their panicked run.

"The Dragon! The Dragon!" - was heard here and there. A second later, next to Ainz, Cu Chulainn only confirmed his words.

"They will likely trample each other," Ainz had to agree to these words - the panic that rose after the cries of the approaching dragon made a lot of calm soldiers abandon their positions and run away like mad beasts, pushing each other and stepping on one another, like a crazy herd, - "And nothing will remain. An interesting way to prevent the dragon from killing soldiers is to trample them to death by themselves."

"Master!" - in contrast to the very cold-blooded, if not indifferent Cu Chulainn, Mashu, who arrived just a minute later, was agitated, - "Is the dragon really moving towards us?!"

At this Ainz only nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off the gradually growing point of the winged lizard in the sky. Tracing the direction of Ainz's gaze and finding a gradual approaching enemy on her own, the girl gasped, then grabbed her shield more firmly.

"Mashu," Ainz instantly began, "Get ready to immediately use your Phantasm to block his breath. When dragons come close to the ground, they usually attack with their breath weapons first without landing. Cu - your goal is to prevent him from rising into the air - he is the most powerful, when in the air. Archer will try to blind him by shooting at the eyes, Medusa will get his attention, and Arthuria and I will do the damage."

However, even in the current conditions, Ainz was unhappy with his hastily drawn up plan. What if the lizard was smart enough to ignore Medusa? what if it was strong enough to break through the Mashu's shield? what if it was protected from long-range attacks? Or from immobilization?

Ainz bit his lip - Dragons were the most broken and most powerful opponent that should never have been underestimated - so that Ainz himself, looking at the approaching point in the sky, prepared for the worst.

The huge, majestic beast could rightly be called the King of the Sky.

His huge wings left a shadow on the ground that could hide a dozen people. His mouth could tear a bull in half. His claws could break steel like a sheet of paper. His scales could reflect a blade.

His majestic flight forced people to scatter away from one of its kind. Trained soldiers fled in terror. If the lizard were intelligent, he would look at the soldiers who were running around below, he would be satisfied - like a hunter would be, looking at the hare prepared for the new hunt.

Having pricked his claws, he chose his next victim like a gourmet looking at dishes on a buffet - trying new flavors.

Clad in steel and barefoot, wounded and healthy, those that fled from him - and those that with a shudder tried to stand against him with a blade in their hands. These he left for dessert.

However, at some point, the eyes of the King of Sky caught one of the people. No, three people. They kept themselves apart - while the rest of the small cockroaches ran, like a torn anthill, these continued to stand in their places. They looked at the approach of the King of Heaven, not as frightened prey, but as hunters.

If the beast were intelligent, he would undoubtedly say that he liked this look.

Each of the three was not like the other two - or all the other fleeing soldiers. Each one smelled of something special... Strength.

The one that smelled the weakest was ahead - but even she was not weak. Weaker than the other two, of course, but far from weak.

The one that stood at the very end was even stronger - but the most dangerous was the one who stood in the middle. He smelled of death. Not as from a corpse - but as from a century old crypt, where generations rested. As from the earth, soaked in the death of entire eras.

If the King were intelligent, he would gladly have laughed with an angry and blustering laugh, inviting three worthy opponents to fight him.

But the King of Sky was not intelligent, and therefore, at the sight of the three creatures standing against him, he raised his head in order to roar...

With the slight sound of the bottle being opened, it was as if the cork had flown out of champagne, the lizard's head separated from the body, and then in one continuous movement it exploded with a bloody firework of lumps and bone fragments, as if a battering ram had crashed into the head at full speed, after which the lizard's body crashed, jerking several times, then it suddenly fell and went limp.

Everything happened so quickly that the body of the beast went limp before the soldiers even managed to scream about the appearance of the creature.

Not far from the body, Ainz slowly lowered his hand, with which he had just created a spell, and then reached for his ear. Communication with the desired Servant formed instantly.

"Archer," Ainz said slowly and distinctly over the link. Just in case this connection was heard at the moment by all the Servants of Ainz, - "I will say this once and only once."

Ainz was so furious that the suppression of his emotions was activated three times before he was able to speak quietly and calmly again.

All his experience...

All his plans...

All the nerves...

Ainz exhaled, after which he loudly barked at the connection in such a way that all the Servants immediately covered their ears - "WYVERNS ARE NOT DRAGONS!"

Existence Outside the Domain: EX (Case)

Since this skill is fundamental to most of the abilities and skills of Ainz, it is easier to say what qualities he does not possess.

First of all, the positive effects of this skill are given by the fact that it allows the existence of the very personality of such a hero as Momonga - although what used to exist first, a skill or a hero - is an extremely difficult question to learn.

In fact, it is this skill that is responsible for transforming the game character "Momonga" into the hero "Momonga". A peculiar "Legend" of the character was the information about him that was known not only to the players, but also thanks to the information of the game character himself. In other words, the "quest log" of a Momonga character is the closest thing to such a thing as the "legend" of an ordinary hero, and it is this skill that is responsible for the fact that these two concepts are correlated with each other. Thus, for any other hero that looks at Momonga and wishes to see his "legend", what will appear before him will be essentially a list of quests completed by Momonga, connected by a single narrative thread. Minor quests such as "harvesting ten squirrel tails" will be omitted, while major storyline events, such as the battle with the "World Eater", can gain artistic expansion and deviation to turn an ordinary, albeit complicated quest to clear one of the powerful game's bosses into a truly epic tale about defeating a creature that destroyed the Root of All Worlds.

On the reverse side, if Ainz wishes to look at the hero's quest log, for example, Heracles, this ability will turn the story of Twelve Labors into a list of standard and doable tasks with a list of goals, a reward, and even those who issued this quest.

The same skill works comprehensively - although the mages' thaumaturgy cannot be classified using the Yggdrasil magic tiers, it is this skill that is responsible for assigning a specific rank to certain spells of magi, or vice versa, turns the spells used by Momonga into the High Thaumaturgy or Greater Ritual. This skill works almost comprehensively and there are only three unique skills - and one Noble Phantasm - of Momonga, that has nothing to do with this skill, although the relationship of several abilities, skills and Phantasms with Momonga may be a little more complicated than a simple description of "they are an integral part of this skill."

Also, although it is extremely rare, there are a few unique cases that can interact directly with Momonga, Ainz or Satoru Suzuki, bypassing this skill - but they still exist. However, no Servant possesses such an ability - neither does any God, Beast, or Magician. Although this skill is not unambiguously "stronger" than the abilities of the above, unlike them, it is a "fundamental principle of existence", which cannot be violated by virtually any force other than a force similar to this one.