39

Olga-Marie chewed a pen thoughtfully.

She really wanted to smoke, but there were no more cigarettes in Chaldea.

On the first day after her 'rescue', she collected all the cigarettes from all the survivor, under the pretext of destroying things that could cause a fire, and then she smoked it all with pleasure, but since then, for obvious reasons, she could not find more cigarettes.

'Damn!' - the girl mentally cursed, after which she threw the pen on the table and moved away from it, then she got up and stepped aside, staring at the large stained-glass window behind her.

Unfortunately, it was useless to look out the window now. Previously, from Olga-Marie's office one could see the beautiful view of the snowy distant peaks of the Alps and the pure nature, untouched by man. Now all she could see was just the bluish dome of the shimmering barrier and the flashes of orange-red flame barely visible behind it.

Reports, reports, reports...

All this made her head hurt. She just wanted to smoke a couple of cigarettes and forget about what happened as a nightmare.

But it was impossible.

The girl closed her eyes, after which she massaged her head and returned to the stack of documents lying on the table.

Report on the functionality of the main core...

The girl looked at the dry numbers.

The first block... Destroyed, restoration impossible.

The second block... Destroyed, restoration impossible.

The third block... Damaged, partially restored, functionality at sixty percent.

The fourth block... Damaged, work is underway to restore the functionality possibly at least increasing functionality by ten percent.

The girl leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

The overall functionality of the core is at twenty-six percent. According to estimates, it will be possible to increase it to forty percent after completing all possible repair. The remaining parts must be rebuilt, for this they would need materials, which needs money and suppliers. All things that they can't get.

"Dog shit," the girl cursed almost helplessly. Forty percent of the core... And what she was supposed to do about the rest?

The core was an incredibly powerful thing, capable of creating so much energy that it would be enough to power half the world for a couple of months. But it was not without limit.

There were no perpetual machine in nature. At least none achievable by a simple mind for sure. Of course, once her father, Marisbury Animusphere, came dangerously close to unraveling this phenomenon, creating the core of Chaldea, but even he failed to create an eternal source of energy. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, five hundred thousand years? Yes. Forever? No.

Under normal conditions, the Animusphere would not even have thought about it. For her a century of reserves would have been enough and a thousand times more. But the conditions around her were anything but definitely not ordinary.

What happened behind the barrier was unexplainable from the point of view of any normal person, scientist or mage. There was no way to even assess what level of damage the Chaldean shields were holding back now.

Chaldea would have survived even if it had been stuck in the center of a supernova explosion. The only question is - for how long?

At the time before the calamity, Chaldea possessed ninety-seven percent of its maximum capacity of energy. After the explosion, twenty-five.

"Lev, what the hell?" - the girl looked at the document in front of her as if it were her personal enemy.

But it was not scary.

The important thing is that now, after the restoration of some part of the core functionality, the energy level was equal to twenty-four percent.

Several teams were able to restore part of the core functionality, but the energy reserves did not increase. They decreased.

The shields of the Chaldea could withstand even the hell created outside its borders. The question is - for how long?

Olga-Marie reached into her pocket for cigarettes and cursed. Empty.

Ainz also gave her an additional source of headache. Okay, she could get along with the Servants, but the creature he summoned... Animusphere wasn't even sure she wanted to know where he had dug it from. All that Ainz said was that she was an evil vampire god who once wanted to destroy an entire world. And she almost did it, but at the last possible second she was stopped.

By Ainz himself.

Who the hell is Ainz - the third question that haunted Olga-Marie.

Mechanically, she patted the pockets of her pants, checking for a pack of cigarettes before pulling herself together. Ugh, she's losing her mind!

Having escaped from the report again, the girl went to the chair placed nearby and then fell on it like a doll whose strings have been cut.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door - after which Olga-Marie looked up and rose from her stupor immediately, then trying to take on the most respectable of appearance.

"Come in!" She commanded, making sure that her hair was not tousled after lying down. Although considering that she changed her hair and began to wear it in a long tail, this was not a problem for her.

The front door to the office then slowly opened, after which the one about whom Animusphere was just thinking about appeared on the threshold.

'Speak of the Devil' - the girl sighed, "Ainz?"

"Chief," the magician greeted, after which he took a step inside.

"Did something happen?" The girl asked instantly, after which she looked around the magician.

"No, nothing, I just wanted to formally report on the completion of the mission," the mage answered calmly, closing the door behind him. The girl looked at him, and then sighed.

"It would be worth doing it while in the presence of both Roman and Da Vinci," Olga-Marie nevertheless sank a little on her chair, relaxing her back a little.

"I thought about it, but decided to report to you first," Olga-Marie glanced at Ainz, after which she remembered that he had behaved in the same manner with her in the past and relaxed a little, "Good, but still it would be better to talk about with their full company, if there is not something that concerns me specifically."

Ainz, stopping for a second, thought for a moment, recalling everything that had happened in the Singularity, after which he shook his head, "No, nothing of the kind."

"Good," the girl nodded, "Finally, some good news."

Ainz, however, having waited a second, also gave a voice again, - "I would also like to know about the Servants."

"About what exactly?" The chief looked at the magician carefully.

"Do they cause problems?" Ainz explained, "I am particularly interested with Cainabel."

"Ah, that one," Olga-Marie remembered the girl, "Nothing special. Offends everyone right and left, refuses to approach people, scares the especially frisky ones - but nothing really irreparable happened. I confess I expected the worst."

"Me too," Ainz nodded thoughtfully, "I admit, I thought she would kill a couple of people on the first day — especially given her background..."

For a second, Olga-Marie froze, reflecting on what was just said. Servants could kill people as much as other people could kill people. Even their Master is not safe - although the Master was protected by the Command Spells. However, if the Servant was no longer bound by such restrictions - there was no direct prohibition on killing their own Master - although for most Servants this meant suicide, since very few Servants could survive without the support of the Master especially without his mana.

However, what interested Animusphere more in this matter was not a question regarding killing people.

"You never told me about who this one is..." the girl sighed. "Cainabel. And why her name is so similar to the two that I know of - Cain and Abel."

"Ah, that," Ainz paused for a second, "This ... Not quite the information I would like to share."

"Hm," Olga-Marie only sighed. In the end, she expected something like that.

"She is the god of vampires," Ainz said, in the end, "You can call her... The true ancestor of vampires?"

"True Ancestor, huh," Olga-Marie grinned, "Just what we need right now."

After that, an awkward silence fell in the room.

"And you killed her?" The chief looked at the magician carefully.

"Not really me, but yes, that's true," Ainz nodded. "There were several of us... Although, I could do it alone, probably..."

After that, Ainz suddenly stopped short, as if he had given out extra information. Olga-Marie grinned at what was said.

'Who the hell are you, Ainz Ooal Gown?' - the girl reached for her cigarettes, and then she jerked her hand. No, she'll definitely go crazy with this!

"Chief, is something wrong?" This time, Ainz himself asked the girl what she had just did.

"I just really want to smoke," the girl explained.

"Smoking is bad for your health," as if some caring older brother Ainz uttered a warning, causing the Animusphere to grin.

"Whoever is destined to burn will not drown," the girl grinned at her own fatalistic joke. "The only problem is that the cigarettes are gone."

"Hm," Ainz thought for a second, "Do you really want to smoke that badly, chief?"

For a second, Olga-Marie wondered if this was some kind of test from the magician, but remembering who she was talking to, drove away these thoughts from herself - "Very much."

"Okay," Ainz sighed, and then held out his hand, "Just don't tell anyone that I did this. Create Greater Item."

After a second, Animusphere felt a strong wave of mana. It seemed as if it would cause her to be knocked down, smacked into a wall and smeared into a thin layer - but the image subsided as quickly as it appeared. Olga-Marie, having thrown off her stupor, looked at the magician, after which she saw a pack of something resting on his arm.

More precisely, Animusphere guessed that it was a pack of cigarettes. The small box was absolutely black, with gold embossing around the edges, which made it look no worse than some kind of jewelry box in which the heirlooms are kept.

"Is that?" Olga-Marie glanced at the thing that had been offered to her.

"Cigarettes," Ainz sighed, "I, of course, have never done anything like this before, but there are no theoretical prohibitions on creating this — it's still not food, so Create Greater Item should do the work."

After that, Olga-Marie somehow stared at the pack of cigarettes in a special way, after which she extended her hands to Ainz and took it.

Real.

That is, of course, Servants were able to create physical objects, magis could also do it. Magecraft is generally an amazing tool that could be used for many things.

But Olga-Marie did not remember a single mage who would create cigarettes with his magic. Nobody would have thought of such a thing.

Poison, creatures, weapons, anything. But cigarettes?

'Although I guess this is also poison in some sense,' the girl grinned, and then opened the pack.

Surprisingly, the smell of cheap tobacco did not hit her nose.

'Although' - she took out a cigarette from the pack and set fire to it with a small spark made by her own magic - 'Is creating cigarettes really that amazing compared to everything he can do?'

After that, the Animusphere drew in a deep breath and broke into a blissful smile. Yes, that's exactly what she lacked all this time.

The girl again smoked the cigarette, after which she closed her eyes.

Ideal. The light taste of tobacco, without impurities, a barely noticeable smell...

The girl could not resist and smoked again.

Amazing!

Ainz, looking at the Animusphere, sighed, - "However, I still think that it is unhealthy."

The Animusphere just nodded at this incomprehensibly, feeling how with a new puff her body becomes more relaxed and she felt her problems slowly fade into the background.

A second later, the ash fell from the end of the cigarette and fell on the girl's finger, causing her to jerk reflexively. Ash, obeying the laws of physics, immediately flew off her finger, falling to the floor. The Animusphere, opening her eyes, looked at it, and then peered into her hand.

A small burn. It will disappear in about ten minutes. After that, she looked at the cigarette, which continued to smolder, and then at Ainz, who grinned.

"And really, the fish will not teach you to breathe underwater," the girl sighed and looked at the magician, "Tell me... How do you do all of this?"

"Do what?" Ainz looked at Olga-Marie carefully.

"All this," the girl vaguely waved her hand, outlining a circle in the air, "You understand management, control a bunch of Servants, fight on the front line, make friends, kill gods, solve world-class problems in a couple of weeks... How do you do all of this?"

Olga-Marie grinned and smoked a cigarette again.

"I don't know if this is just my feeling or not," the chief this time rose from her seat and moved to the table. In the drawer of the table lay an ashtray, in which she shook off a smoldering cigarette, - "But I seem so insignificant next to you... I envy you, you know."

Ainz, having heard this, stopped for a second.

'Of course,' the chief grinned. 'I am not the first one to tell him this. What is the use of my words for such a person?'

Ainz, froze, as if thinking deeply.

"Chief..." Ainz sighed, but the girl interrupted him.

"Olga," the girl said calmly, "You can call me Olga. I don't think that I have the right to make you call me a chief."

"Good, Olga," Ainz sighed, "I think... You overestimate me."

After what was said, Olga burst out laughing, almost dropping the cigarette, - "Really? Overestimate? I would think that you are fishing for compliments or are displaying pretentious modesty if I knew you a little less."

"Although," the girl sighed immediately, "It's not that I know a lot about you. How long have I known you formally - about four weeks?"

"Yes, something like this," Ainz nodded. "Although, it's a very long time, actually..."

"Long?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician.

"Yes, there are not many people with whom I talk with," Ainz said, and then corrected himself, "I talked with. Four weeks is a good length of time."

"It is possible," the girl did not argue with the magician, "But it doesn't matter. I'm not talking about that anyway. You know, modesty is not quite right for you. At least that kind of modesty."

"I'm just not very used to this," Ainz looked at the girl carefully, "I... I'm used to the fact that most of the people I talk to are not quite alive."

"Alive?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician, and then remembered. Right, necromancer.

For some reason, right now, the mention of such an important information sounded completely inappropriate. Frankly, she even managed to forget about the fact that he is a necromancer. That he is a terrible mage who brings sacrifices and kills on a massive scale, a terrible vivisector of a scientist.

Somehow the girl could not match this information with the image of the Ainz that she knew. Quiet, modest, charismatic. Caring even...

Well, to some extent.

After that, the Animusphere glanced at the cigarette and extinguished the smoldering stump.

However, Animusphere remembered. She remembered this eerie figure of a huge skeleton, dressed in the mantle of the most perfect cut that you can imagine, decorated with gold embroidery and arcane symbols. She remembered the oppressive presence of a huge powerful and completely indifferent mass, devouring all light and hope with one's aura of indescribable power.

"Who are you?" The girl looked at the magician carefully.

After asking a question, he froze.

"I..." he began, after which he fell silent for a couple of seconds, "I cannot tell you this."

"I didn't expect any answer," the girl grinned, after which she opened the pack again and took out a new cigarette, "But still... Can you tell me something?"

Ainz thought for a second, after which he finally took a few steps to a standing chair and sat on it, "Something... Something about me, maybe yes."

The Animusphere sighed with satisfaction. It is small, but still a victory.

The girl glanced at the nearby sheets of paper, after which she closed her eyes. Reports may wait a bit. She already has ripples in her eyes from the endless lines and numbers.

"Tell me about your victory over this... Cainabel," the Animusphere finally decided.

"This…"- Ainz thought for a second, -"This is not the most exciting of story, actually. Backthen, an event happened, as a result of which Cainabel gathered enough strength to pose a threat. She has existed for a long time, but did not appear directly in the open, most of the time just remaining something like a rumor or a famous figure of legend, but then she appeared in full force. She had gathered enough strength to threaten the whole world - many subordinates, many pawns, many spells. She gathered in her fortress the most powerful of servants and attacked the whole world. It was... somewhat expected of her to attack with her full force, what is unexpected however was just that it was she herself who is leading the attack. We then considered her a great threat and set off with eight people — I was among those who went against her, but... In the end, it was a disappointing battle."

"Disappointing?" The Animusphere glanced at the magician carefully, "In what sense?"

"We thought that if she was such a dangerous god, then she would be very strong," Ainz exhaled, "She was... No, she was still a problematic opponent, it would have been difficult for me to win one on one in battle then. But there were eight of us, so at that time we... At first we didn't even believe it when we defeated her - we expected that some kind of trap would be activated and it would kill us, or she would be reborn stronger than before, or something else would happen and maybe one of her henchmen had taken her place... But no. We did indeed just killed her. It was very... Unpleasant."

"Unpleasant?" Animusphere tightened her hold on the cigarette. "Interesting choice of word."

"Unjustified expectations," Ainz sighed. "We knew so much about her and heard rumors about her so often, we expected an invincible leviathan, and yet, we found a simple god. Not the weakest - but not even the strongest with whom we fought with before."

"Before?" Olga-Marie grinned at the chance of gathering more information, "So you killed other gods then?"

"Well, ahem." Ainz suddenly hesitated. Olga-Marie understood that he clearly did not want to share this information, - "We... We killed other gods on some occasion."

"How much?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician.

"A certain number," the magician answered very evasively.

"A certain number is a very loose concept," Olga-Marie looked at the mage with a mocking gaze and drew in a cigarette again, "I can say that you killed one hundred or two hundreds."

"More," - from the utterance Olga-Marie suddenly choked on the smoke and coughed.

"What?" She glanced at Ainz, speaking with her still short breath.

"This number is more than two hundred," Olga-Marie stared disbelievingly at the magician.

"Yeah," she said vaguely, blinking a couple of times, "If you said the first, then say the second. How much... I can't believe that I am asking this... How many gods did you kill?"

"I'm not quite sure of the answer," Ainz said, "There were too many. I lost count."

"Yeah, sure," Olga-Marie sighed. "Communicating with you is an easy way to earn an inferiority complex. How much is the approximate number?"

"Not sure," Ainz sighed. "Some of them looked like gods, but they were not called gods — and some called themselves gods, but they were not."

"Okay, then," the Animusphere thought, "Then tell me how many of them were equal to the Servants?"

"I…" - Ainz hesitated, - "I'm not sure what level the Servants is exactly…"

"Okay, how many of them were stronger than" - Olga-Marie fell silent, - "Stronger than Mashu?"

"Mashu?" Ainz suddenly stared at Olga-Marie, "I... I'm really not sure about the answer for that. I did not count such opponents."

Olga-Marie burst out laughing with the absurdity of the answer.

"Great, just great!" The girl smiled happily, "And this man says that I am overestimating him! Just great!"

After that, Olga-Marie could not resist it any longer and just laughed.

Ainz, left standing, only looked at the girl, who fell out of reality for several minutes, literally bursting her guts at what was just said.

"Ha ha ha... Just great!" The girl finally brushed the ashes from the cigarette away and was able to pull herself together again, looking at the magician with a smile, "Okay, let's go from the big numbers and we will reduce them gradually. More than a million?"

"More," Ainz nodded, causing the Animusphere to choke.

"I didn't expect such an answer," the girl answered honestly. "Well, then... More than a billion?"

The worst thing, in her opinion, was that after what was said, Ainz was deep in thought for a moment. He was really counting the total, trying to remember the number in his mind, then slowly nodded.

"Most likely yes," Ainz nodded. "Something like that number."

The Animusphere, astounded, only pulled another cigarette.

And what can she say to that?

Billion... Billion...

There are currently only seven and a half billion people on Earth.

Looking at the window, behind which only a shield flickered, protecting them from the fiery inferno, the girl corrected herself - that existed until recently.

A billion is thirteen percent of the world's population.

According to the most optimistic of estimation, for the entire length of time that humanity has existed as a species, there were only about one hundred billion people that have ever lived.

A billion is one percent of the world's population that has ever existed. A whole percent.

How many of them were as strong as Mashu?

This was a phenomenally stupid question.

Mashu was far from being the strongest Servant. There were magi stronger than Mashu. But how many were there?

On the whole earth, when it used to have seven and a half billion people, there were no more than one and a half, maybe even two millions of magi. Mages comparable in strength to Mashu, a Servant albeit a very weak one, but a Servant, out of these two million... Not more than five thousand? Maybe even ten.

Total is the ten thousand.

Even if one takes into account the past, even if one takes into account the Age of Gods, the great heroes of the ancient world, the ancient myths of the Earth... How many of them were so strong? Yes, in the Age of Gods, magic was accessible to most of the people, great heroes were born time after time, myths arose on their own and monsters that could not be found in the modern world plied the earth. But this does not mean that every person who lived at that time was as strong as a Servant. Even if we assume that there were a hundred, no, a thousand times more - it would still leave only ten million.

This is exactly a hundred times less than the number recalled by Ainz.

"How did you do this?" The Animusphere glanced at the magician and grinned. "If anyone had said that he had killed even a hundred Servants, everyone would have looked at him like a madman. A billion is a number of statistics. In a nuclear war, it is estimated that only four hundred million will die…"

"That calculation is wrong," Ainz suddenly interrupted the girl. "Seven hundred and twenty milliom will die from the explosions itself and another two and a half billion in the next ten years, from hunger, diseases, chaos, and local conflict."

Animusphere suddenly broke off her train of thoughts and looked at Ainz.

Ainz looked at her seriously. Not at all in his usual manner. Without even stating a fact.

He looked at her seriously.

"In a nuclear war, seven hundred twenty million will die on the first day," Ainz said this clearly, and then began to list, "USA, Russia, China, India, Israel, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Pakistan..."

With each spoken name, Animusphere seemed to be sobbing from the effects of nicotine.

"Only forty-eight countries will become priority targets for the nuclear strikes," Ainz said this calmly, and then sighed, "But absolutely all countries will suffer. In sixty-eight countries, the overthrowing of its government will occur in the first year. Another forty - five years. No government could retain their full control of their own country. One hundred and fifteen new countries will be formed. Of these, eighty-four will collapse in the next twenty years. Another seventy-four wars will take place, from global to the local scale, in the next hundred years. As a result, the population will only regain its original number of population before the nuclear attacks of seven and a half billion people in sixty-five years."

Animusphere was silent.

Slowly, she put out her cigarette and looked up at Ainz.

"How do you know that?" She asked. Ainz suddenly looked up at her.

"I just know that," said the magician, after which became silent.

Olga-Marie was silent. Ainz was silent.

Both of them were thinking about something different.

Olga-Marie silently took out another cigarette.

"You know," she said suddenly, "Just a minute ago I thought that I envy you - that I would kill to have your strength, knowledge and skills... But now... I'm glad that I am not you. I do not have to know what you know and did not have to see what you saw."

Ainz was silent.

"This is strange," the girl sighed, "In but a second — and you are just an office worker, good-natured and soft. In another second - and you say that you have killed hundreds of gods. Another second - and you talk about a nuclear war as if you saw it yourself."

"I haven't seen it," Ainz said, "But I saw the consequences."

The girl looked up at the magician.

Ainz continued to sit silently for another couple of seconds before he nevertheless rose slowly from his chair, "Yes, I guess I'll go... I still need to deal with the Servants. Good luck, Olga."

The Animusphere nodded silently.

For some reason, she did not want to let the magician go.

Perhaps she wanted to hear about how he fought with the gods and called his battles with them "disappointing." Perhaps she wanted to know what else he could do with his magic. Perhaps she wanted to ask a couple of tips on how she could better herself in leading Chaldea.

Perhaps she simply did not understand why the words about the deaths of billions of people, about wars, about hunger and chaos from his mouth sounded so dry, strange and scary. As if he knew it himself. As if he saw the nuclear fire fall on defenseless civilians.

Animusphere extinguished her cigarette and looked at the black pack lying on the table, surrounded by a gold rim in which the cigarettes rested, and then pulled out another one. She lit one and drew in the poisoned smoke.

Perfect taste, perfect smell, perfect strength.

The girl looked at the closed door, behind which Ainz had long been hidden by, and took a puff.

Who the hell are you, Ainz Ooal Gown?

Ainz walked thoughtfully along the corridors of Chaldea.

He did not see the nuclear war.

He didn't see how the bombs fell, rockets fly, explosions devouring the cities.

He did not live in the chaos of the postwar years. Years after the Third World War.

He did not see the great famine, the nuclear winter, the long night and the ashes that covered the sky.

He was born later.

After they re-established society. After the Arcological Agreements were signed. After the full support complex was first developed.

He was born much later. He read about this once upon a time.

He received only primary education. The minimum necessary to understand the world.

But understanding the world requires knowledge of history.

Ainz remembered this.

He remembered the lines in the book describing the end of the old world.

The full list of countries. Estimated count of victims. Years of the Great Famine.

He remembered them because he knew that these lines were important.

And then he ended up in this world.

And vowed not to allow it to happen again.

"Servants," Ainz suddenly smiled. The collection, of course, is beautiful.

But there is still something else for which he fights for.

Commander - one of the basic classes, useful primarily for various leaders, such as strategists or raid leaders, as well as for some types of summoners. This class focuses on various types of support, enhancement spells, and also the removing of some types of curses or debuffs from other players. An interesting fact is that despite the fact that this class is playable and completely accessible from the start to any player, due to the close integration of the gameplay of this class and the role assigned to the player,what usually happens is that most often this class is chosen by those players that are already leaders or commanders in a team on their own, which theoretically can contribute to the effectiveness of using such a class due to the coincidence of the class's abilities and the player's ideas about their own tactics, strategies and abilities.