80

Ains looked at the approaching ship -The Argo - and began contemplating.

'The Argonauts…' - Ainz strained his memory once again. In Yggdrasil, The Argo existed as a rarely seen wandering boss, the ship was like the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship. Many uninformed players on their first battle with The Argo would begin the fight by attacking the rather weak mobs spawned by the wandering boss, the 'Argonauts'. The killing of which would take almost no time and effort, this of course was a trap killing these spawned mobs would slowly deplete the attacking players resources. As these same mobs, these 'Argonauts', would spawn endlessly as long as the ship itself is intact. In fact, the main target of this boss encounter was not the ghost ship's mobs, but rather the ship itself, The Argo. Which, after receiving a certain level of damage, would transform into something like an undead golem, starting the real battle with the players... And although The Argo itself was a very weak boss - actually the same level as Cainabel - given that usually before people realize that the ship was the real enemy they had to spend considerable resources killing the endlessly spawning mobs - many players considered The Argo a disgusting boss... Although, given the shitty devs' nature - every second boss was somehow disgusting in something... Oh, how much Ainz cursed the developers during Ainz Ooal Gown's first battle with Shub-Niggurath - he was even ashamed of how quickly they were TPK'ed when they tried a new unknown boss without any scouting or using any guidelines...

'But,' Ainz shook his head. 'I'm thinking about pointless things.'

As far as Drake herself had told him, in this world The Argo was not a ghost ship at all and was hardly the same existence as the one in the game, a ship created with the help of technologies taken from Romulusremus, the new defender of civilization. So, at least on this side, Ainz was calm.

On the other hand, as Drake herself told him, in this world the "Argonauts" themselves were much more important. That in this world they were not just mobs for the Player to mow down, but were Servants themselves. And one of these Servants had kept the Grail with him. Just what Ainz needed at the moment, that was sarcasm by the way.

"Hah," Ainz sighed and shook his head.

Ainz initially planned for Baal to manage all the new Servants and for him to be the first contact with any other Servants - but this plan was instantly spoiled by Cainabel's complaints. She, for some reason, was against Baal doing these tasks - and even specifically asked Ainz for more work to be just as busy as Baal. If Ainz instructs Baal to do one more job, then Cainabel is unlikely to be happy with such a thing. Especially so considering that Ainz created the task given to her at random and that she may well suspect something is wrong if Ainz simply sends her to some other island as her next job.

'How difficult it is to be a good boss!' - Ainz then looked around to his Servants.

Unlike Cainabel and Baal, the other Servants had not demonstrated any desire to do additional work. And Ainz's authority, which had finally begun to take form, would clearly crumble if he immediately began to transfer all his duties to his subordinates. Not to mention that none of them could teleport. So…

"I'll go to them alone," Ainz nodded.

"Yo, admiral," Drake who stood next to him drew attention to herself, "You have proved that you can stand up for yourself, and I respect courage - but do not confuse courage with stupidity. These are the Argonauts!"

Ainz nodded. "I'll be careful."

For a few seconds, Drake thoughtfully scrunched her eyebrows, and then shrugged. "Do what you want, but do keep in mind that I do not want to change Admirals for the second time today."

Ainz nodded.

'If the Argonauts themselves were not even given any special notice in Yggdrasil, then it is unlikely that they were anyone significant' - Ainz grunted 'I mean, like Heracles... Oh, I remember the battle with him - it took us twelve attempts before we were able to kill him...'

Before teleporting, Ainz had remembered Tabula saying something about the Argonauts and Heracles, but he dismissed such unnecessary thought. He had a more important problem to solve now.

Be a good boss!

"ATTACK! ATTACK!" - the golden-haired blond currently trying to kill him proved that "being a good boss" was still a very difficult job.

A second later, a muscular column of flesh appeared next to Ainz swinging down a giant blade - the giant of a man was as tall as Ainz's true body. The gigantic man was so muscular that Ainz thought for a second that the man had at least a few racial levels of a giant.

In an instant between breaths, before the large giant finished his swing, several large, bright rays of light crashed into Ainz. The laser-like spell was sent by a magician girl standing next to the blond. Fortunately, the magic rays that were currently hitting Ainz were weaker than that of the eighth rank and did not do any holy or fire damage. So because of Ainz's immunities the rays simply dissipated without doing any damage.

'I just wanted to talk…' - Ainz sighed and then stared more seriously at the large bulk of a Servant that is currently swinging a huge blade towards him. Although, rather, with a closer inspection Ainz could say instead of a sword that it was actually more of a club with a cutting edge crudely chipped into it - 'Hmm, apparently it will probably be doing slashing and bludgeoning damage…'

And if receiving slashing damage was a relative non-danger for Ainz, then Ainz had to place a more significant attention to the bludgeoning damage as Ainz had a weakness to it.

"Resistance To Bludgeoning Damage," Ainz used a spell to increase his resistance to bludgeoning damage, negating his weakness. Ainz casted the spell just in time because after the spell effect began, the giant's blade crashed into Ainz. Although the sound of impact sounded catastrophic, the blade simply bounced back, without even inflicting a single point of damage.

"What?!" the screaming blond was greatly shocked by such an incongruous display.

Without giving Ainz any time to comment, several arrows then crashed into Ainz. However, as it would inflict piercing damage being a ranged weapon and, additionally, being weaker than the minimum level of attack force capable of injuring Ainz - the arrows simply crashed into Ainz without doing any damage and instantly breaking from the impact with his body.

Ainz turned his eyes on the girl that had shot him with a bow. Her cat ears caught Ainz's attention over her other attributes.

After another second, another blow of the giant crashed into Ainz, after which several more spells struck Ainz from the side by the girl-magician. Although, judging by her age - should he use another term? Wizard-girl? Mahou-shoujo maybe?

"Jason!" The girl, noting that casting even more of her spells would have no effect, instantly took a step forward, apparently obscuring or maybe even to defend the blonde man, "Retreat! This is a monster that we cannot defeat!"

"I know damn it!" Jason glared at Ainz with horrified eyes.

Ainz slowly exhaled and then cast another spell, - "Mass Hold Species."

After a moment, several circles of light appeared around all of Ainz's opponents, completely paralyzing them.

"Good," Ainz nodded before noticing, "Ha, is he still resisting?!"

The giant who had attacked Ainz with a giant club was also exposed to the seventh rank spell, but unlike the rest who had become completely paralyzed, he is obviously still trying to resist. His muscles were swollen and judging by the steam coming from his warped face and the low growl, he is trying to resist Ainz's magic with all his might.

Not that such a thing was a great achievement - especially considering that for someone of Ainz level, this spell would not have any effect at all. But even so, at the moment, it was the first adversary who could, even if just partially, resist Ainz's magic.

"How interesting..." Ainz was intrigued, but before he would be plunged into his thoughts about experiments, he forced himself to return to reality, " Jason, I presume?"

Ainz looked at the blond, who seemed to be the commander of the combatants. Unfortunately, due to the paralysis, he could not even speak, so Ainz was forced to be creative, "Blink twice, if I'm right."

Jason, paralyzed by Ainz's magic, blinked twice as fast as a completely paralyzed person can.

"Good," Ainz nodded. "I didn't come here to fight. I just wanted to talk with you and, perhaps, come to a mutually beneficial agreement."

Jason blinked slowly in confusion..

"If you agree, please do not attack me after I remove the spell," Jason blinked again in comprehension and Ainz lifted the spell.

"Herc, wait!" Jason gave the command immediately, after which the mountain of muscles froze in place. Presumably this 'Herc' person is a bit hot-headed. After another second, Jason shook his head and glanced at the two girls on his side - the magician and the archer - nevertheless looked at Ainz, - "Who are you?"

"My name is Ainz," Ains nodded. "And the simple fact is, I need the Grail."

After that, Jason, as if realizing what was said, sighed, - "I knew that he could not be trusted…"

"He?" Ains looked at Jason.

"Yes, the guy in the cloak and hood," Jason explained. "I have not seen his face so I have no clue who he is."

At that moment, the magician girl next to Jason shifted from foot to foot and looked down.

"And how exactly does this relate to the Grail?" Ains asked a question, looking at Jason carefully.

Now that no attacks are going to hit him anytime soon, he was able to take a closer look at Jason . Not that such a thing is necessary, he was simply a curious person. The captain of The Argo appeared to be a blond with short golden hair, whose eyes matched the color of his hair, and he looked handsome. A special kind of beauty that makes people think of "casanova" or, possibly, "boy toy". His armor - if one could call such a thing as 'armor' - consisted of only a few gold and black plates, barely placed on his body, leaving more than a decent amount of bare skin open.

"He told me that we need to steal the Grail from Drake," Jason shrugged.

"And I had told you that it was an idiotic plan," the archer, whose cat ears twitched from time to time, instantly snapped - verbally that is - into Jason.

"Medea vouched for him!" Jason immediately spoke in defense.

Medea - who appears to be the girl standing next to Jason, looked downwards, forcing Ainz to look at that one carefully.

The girl - in fact, looked to be just a girl barely fourteen years old in appearance - she was dressed in a translucent peignoir, barely hiding her young - but, judging by the small chest - still clearly female, body.

Ainz, realizing that he is currently looking somewhere that would probably land him in a lot of trouble, immediately looked up, appreciating the girl's face.

Medea's appearance was certainly beautiful - and although there was some teenage awkwardness in it her appearance is definitely one of her strong points. With her sharp nose, lips folded into a smile, large purple eyes that looked at the world with curiosity, and even her long purple hair tied up in a high tail, descending to the knees - everything in her was so childishly beautiful that Ainz for a second had a desire to protect her from the whole world.

Of course, if she had not attacked Ainz, then he probably would have been fascinated by her beauty. Now however, Ainz's mind suppressed this emotion.

"Then you are saying that you did not steal the Grail on your own volition," Ains looked at Jason in askance.

"That's right," Jason breathed, "And frankly, we no longer have the Grail itself. The guy in the cloak stole it as soon as we got it from Drake and then fled with it."

Jason nearly spat on the floor of his ship, but, glancing upon the unimpressed gaze of the cat-eared archer, restrained himself.

Ainz looked at the last girl - although he thought he recognized the archer for a second. In the end, Ainz still couldn't remember where he had seen this girl before.

The girl's long hair, which seemed to change color on its own whim — turquoise, peach, pinkish and golden locks were mixed together — went down to her knees. Fortunately for Ainz's currently wandering eyes she still looked older and was taller than Medea, so Ainz doesn't have to worry about being put to jail if he were to stare at her for too long. However, the dress - or rather, the corset along with the dress also left indecently many open areas - and if it weren't for her bestial ears, and long enough tail that with a small tassel, and the big bow in her hands, she would have looked more like the visitor to the social events that Peroroncino liked to talk about rather than a Servant.

"So you no longer have the Grail," Ainz breathed. Sadly... This meant that this meeting was a useless endeavour for Ainz, - "So you are useless to me…"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jason waved his hands in a hurry, while the cat-eared girl slowly lifted her bow, "We can help find him!"

"Really?" Ainz looked at Jason carefully.

"Of course!" Jason nodded right away, "Medea can find him with magic... And we can bring you to the Grail! For us it will not even be work!"

"Oh, is that so?" Ainz was surprised, "Great. In that case - could you please guide my ship?"

"No problem!" Jason smiled at Ainz, "Just... What should we do about Drake and her fleet?"

Jason pointed to the slowly approaching pirate armada.

"Oh, no need to worry," Ainz nodded and looked at the approaching fleet. "They are under my command."

Jason, having heard this, froze for a few seconds before retreating and nodding, - "I see, it's even logical if you think about it…"

"What?" Ainz, hearing Jason mutterring, asked him a question.

"Nothing, but if there is anything else you need, just leave it to Jason!"

After that, Jason smiled again with such a bright smile that for a second Ainz thought that he was blinded by a second sun.

"Hm, yes, of course," Ainz nodded, "In that case... How long will it take for you to find the Grail?"

"Mmm," Jason glanced at Medea, who slowly shook her head.

"A day..." after answering, Medea looked at Ainz again and shuddered, "But this is the worst case possible, we will find it as quickly as possible!"

"Great," Ainz smiled in genuine joy. Unfortunately, of all the things that Ainz could scry the location of, perhaps, the only thing - The Grail- . Ainz could not so easily locate the Grail in the Singularities... Because he had given his Grail to Da Vinci. A simple wish could lead Ainz to whatever he wants to be found, although perhaps using an all-powerful wish to simply locate an object might be overkill.

'Just a bad luck, I suppose,' Ainz breathed and teleported away.

"Why..." Atalanta glared at Jason, then turned her gaze to the slowly approaching armada of ships, "Why did you agree to work for him?"

"Why?" Jason glared back at Atalanta. "Is your brain clouded by a catnip again?!"

"Another joke about my cat ears - and I'll stuff this arrow into your ass!" Atalanta pushed one of her arrows menacingly forward, shaking it in front of Jason's nose.

"Atalanta, please," Medea spoke out as a voice of reason while taking a step toward the archer, making her sigh and slowly placed the arrow back into the quiver. However, even though Medea had defended Jason, she still looked at Jason expecting at least a minimal amount of explanation from him. No, of course, placating words like 'it was necessary' from Jason would have completely eased her mind. But, nevertheless, she still would like to know the reason why Jason gave the order to attack Ainz as soon as he had appeared on board of The Argo, after which he so easily rescinded the order.

"Medea," Jason looked at the girl seriously, after which he shook his head, "you know, I'm not the best fighter..."

"And also as a commander, leader, strategist, man..." - Atalanta began to list Jason's qualities.

"Yes, yes, I know!" Jason shouted at the girl immediately, and then sighed, "Precisely because I am not the best fighter."

"Did you get scared for your life?" Atalanta raised one eyebrow and snorted. "I always knew that you were a worm whose destiny was to crawl in the mud and..."

"Enough already!" Jason shouted at Atalanta, after which he sighed and rubbed his face tiredly with both hands, "In short... I'm not the best fighter and have always been a coward... One of my skills grew out of this."

"Insight at the Jaws of Death," Atalanta grinned at the skill that symbolizes Jason's existence as a coward, but this time did not interrupt Jason's explanation.

"Yes, the skill that makes me stronger the greater the danger in front of me," Jason breathed out, "But this skill... It has a second function - it also determines how great the danger is in front of me. And…"

Jason shook his head, "If I were to say that my 'danger sense' in a fight with an ordinary person is one, in a battle with Atalanta a thousand, and in a battle with Heracles - ten thousand - then a battle with Ainz exceeds... I don't know... At least a million, I just can't even get my head around just how dangerous this Ainz person is.

"A Million?!" Atalanta snorted. "Maybe you miscalculated halfway?"

"Oh, yes, really?!" Jason glanced at Atalanta, "Well, in that case, do I need to remind you that he blocked your arrows, then Medea's magic, last but not least a blow from Heracles of all people - and then he paralyzed us all with one spell?!"

These words finally silenced Atalanta's complaint.

"I have no idea who this 'Ainz' is," Jason rubbed his forehead and wiped the slowly budding cold sweat on his brows, "But I can tell you at least one thing. Do not even try to fight him - he will kill you so quickly that you will not even have the time to understand what has happened to you."

Atalanta, although clearly wanting to object to Jason's words simply solely because of her character, was silent. Unfortunately, no matter how much Atalanta would laugh at her commander, in his ability to assess an enemy's strength, she trusted him explicitly. In the end, Jason was a coward, whose great reputation was built solely on surviving in any kind of trouble. If there was even one skill that he really had honed to mastery, it was his ability to evaluate his chances. And if Jason, with the support of Medea, Atalanta, and Heracles, said that they had no chance against Ainz, then that must have been the truth.

"That's good and all, but why did you sell yourself to him?" Atalanta still looked at Jason with indescribable disgust.

"What could I do?" Jason looked at Atalanta with an offended look , "We don't have much of a choice, you know! Either this monster would kill us right now - or I could prove that we are useful and that we should be left alive for now. And after that we could find a way to get out of this situation somehow…"

"Lord Jason," Medea nodded slowly, "I am touched by your concern for us..."

"Ah?" Jason glanced at Medea and blinked. "Ah, yes, and you survived too. Hurray me!"

"Jason…" - Atalanta frowned at Jason's surprise, - "Don't tell me that you only wanted to save your own skin... Although, why am I even surprised…" With her disappointment mounting, Atalanta began to move her hand forward to choke the life out of her 'captain'.

"Don't touch me, go away!" Jason immediately avoided Atalanta's attempt to grab him, "I'll complain to Ainz, I'll say that you are interfering with our work!"

"He won't believe you," Atalanta took another menacing step toward Jason.

"He will believe me! Herc, support me here!" - Jason turned toward his friend - Heracles, unfortunately, he is summoned as a Berserker and therefore without even a speck of all rationality.

A second later, Heracles burst into a loud roar.

"That doesn't count as confirmation!" Atalanta instantly protested Jason's decision.

"It counts!" Jason immediately answered her back, after which he avoided a sharp slap in the face, "Wait, don't hit the captain!"

"Lady Atalanta, please do not hurt Lord Jason," Medea suddenly spoke out, "Well, at least not very much..."

"I knew that I should not trust any Medea in the world!.." - Jason let out a desperate cry, feeling the tenacious hands of Atalanta slowly dragging him into the abode of pain.

The immovable block of meat that is Berserker, full of hatred and primordial rage, stood motionless... However, an accidental observer might say that in Heracles' eyes, usually full of anger, for a second, a slight smile appeared from watching his captain spending his free time.

Cainabel, who had just teleported to an empty beach, sighed.

"Ha, why did I get such a menial job..." - Cainabel sighed, surveying the empty beach of a deserted island, where Ainz and his Servants originally appeared from.

"Although, on the other hand, this is Ainz we are talking about, and if he said that this job is really important, then it is so" - Cainabel glanced at Altera who she had brought along, and then shook her head, "Hey, tintoy. Feel anything?"

"No," Altera calmly shook her head in the negative, forcing Cainabel to breathe out of her mouth in disappointment.

"Ha, what then is my job supposed to be..." - Cainabel sighed and looked around the empty beach.

No matter how one might look at it, the island where Cainabel currently is was completely uninhabited - not a single living thing could be felt living on the island. Cainabel was sure of this, because she could feel any living creature within a radius of kilometers from herself. And therefore, she was absolutely sure that nothing was alive on this island.

"Ainz couldn't just be sending me to check the island?" Cainabel couldn't even imagine Ainz, Death Incarnate, Destroyer of Worlds and the Killer of the Gods, sending her on a futile mission... Why? No matter how one might look, this island was empty and completely uninhabited - such a task as scouting it was pointless.

Would Ainz give her a useless assignment?..

No, of course he wouldn't - someone as smart as Ainz made each of their decisions for a specific purpose - and not randomly or without any meaning to it. He acted so that every movement of his finger meant something in the overall picture of the world. Absolute victory over Drake in one spell... Subjugation of the whole fleet... Protecting Blackbeard - , of course, only an idiot would not notice the purpose in his actions - each of these actions made sense. But Cainabel could not grasp what exactly was the meaning of sending her to a distant uninhabited island.

"Well, what this means..." - Cainabel exhaled - "It's worth spending my time thinking on it."

Cainabel did not like to think, she instead loved to just smash her enemies head on with overwhelming force and then devour their remains. But this did not mean that she could not think or that she is stupid in any way shape or form. Maybe in Yggdrasil's overall picture she wasn't that great - but her goals were great, And her position as the... Hm, as the Higher Beings called it... "Boss" was earned not only by her ability to fight, but also her ability to think. Thus Cainabel was quite able in the thinking department.

"Why did Ainz send me on this particularly important mission?" - Cainabel thought. Of course, Cainabel herself had demanded work from Ainz - but since Ainz was not so stupid as to entrust, in his own words, an "extremely important" job to someone inappropriate - he clearly considered Cainabel to be the most suitable for this job. What distinguished Cainabel from all the other Servants?

Personal strength is the first that comes to her mind. The one closest to her level was Baal, and the fact that Ainz had sent her and not Baal meant that strength was not the reason for him to choose Cainabel instead... Hm, thinking about it, Baal would be a difficult opponent to defeat, but against her third Noble Phantasm he had no chance of victory despite any possible sleights of hand that he owned. But without her third Noble Phantasm... And if there were no other opponents around that Cainable could 'refresh' herself with. Cainabel decided to abandon this line of thinking.

What about her abilities... As a magician, her abilities were centered around dealing damage, strengthening herself and weakening the enemy. Meanwhile her tracking or search skills were "mediocre" at best. The only full-fledged general ability that she possessed was an ability to sense and control blood.

Hmm, blood... It seemed that she was closing on to the truth..

If the work entrusted to her was really important, then it obviously concerned at least the Demon Kings or the Grail. Cainabel indeed could collect a lot of information from an individual - but exclusively by the absorption of blood...

"No, not exclusively!" - Cainabel froze and then looked at Altera.

In the past Singularity, Ainz had demonstrated to her that she was also able to receive information by destroying mana constructs, not just by absorbing blood. But…

Cainabel looked around her. However, even with her paying close attention, there was nothing on the island that was created from mana.

On the other hand…

Cainabel looked at the sand beneath her feet.

The current Singularity was unstable, which means Cainabel could maybe... 'Absorb' the sand that was created by the Singularity itself.

However, even given the instability of the Singularity, nothing beneath her feet contained mana that Cainabel could destroy. Or…

Cainabel turned her gaze to Altera.

"Ha..." - Cainabel grinned in a smile - "What a diabolical plan..."

"Is something wrong?" Altera looked at Cainabel carefully.

"Your ability," Cainabel smiled. "You can nourish any object with your mana, and then control it... This means that an object controlled by you can technically be considered as a mana construct."

In an ordinary Singularity, if there were actually such a thing as an 'ordinary' Singularity, Cainabel could not have done such a thing. Given that even when nourished by mana an ordinary object would remain as a stable part of the Singularity. However, if the Singularity was actually unstable...

"What a terrifying mind," Cainabel said quietly.

Initially, she did not plan to take Altera with her at all - but when she found out that Ainz had personally given her an artifact, she decided to take Altera along with her. In other words, Ainz was able to easily manipulate Cainabel's actions in such a way that she didn't even know about it.

"Really terrifying," Cainabel nodded, after which she turned to Altera, "Hey... I need you to flood this beach with your mana."

Altera looked around her.

Her mana reserves as Servants go were great, but to infuse her mana to the entire beach, stretching for kilometers around, was too big of a goal even for her.

"I would need Master's mana for this," Altera nodded slowly.

"So? Just do it," Cainabel snorted, after which Altera froze after feeling the deluge of mana being transferred to her. After a second, a huge peak of mana rose to heaven - and after only a few moments, every grain of sand on the island was saturated with Altera's mana. After a few seconds, she felt a pulling sensation - after which the small beach instantly turned into a wave of sparkling dust, and then was absorbed by Cainabel.

After a few more moments, when the riot of magic had finally subsided, Cainabel began to grin, and then laughed.

"THis is great!" Cainabel could not restrain her laughter, "Hahaha, how wonderful... Oh, I got something to wave in front of Baal's nose! That idiot fell for the bait - he would kill only one bird, allowing the second to gain knowledge... Haha, awesome!"

"What exactly are you talking about?" Altera looked at Cainabel carefully.

"I say that while the Demon Kings believe that they had trapped Ainz - Ainz had instead caught them in their own net, ha ha!" - Cainabel laughed again.

"I see..." Altera nodded slowly, "But... Was this really Ainz's plan?"

After a second, Cainabel's laughter instantly ceased, as if it did not exist at all - "Come again."

"I'm saying that if it really was Ainz's plan, then why didn't he just say about it to you?," Altera glanced at Cainabel, forcing her to raise one eyebrow and corner of her mouth in an expression of disgust.

"And what do you suppose?" Cainabel grinned. "That all of this was just by chance?"

"This is…" - Altera thought for a moment, - "One of the possibilities."

"Ha, little tintoy," Cainabel grinned, "Tell me... Didn't he say that he was entrusting us with an "extremely important" mission?"

"He did indeed say that," Altera nodded.

"And when you were about to leave to tell me — did you calmly leave his cabin and went for me?" Cainabel grinned.

"No..." Alter was forced to say, "He stopped me and asked me about my status as a Servant."

"And maybe he just let you go without asking any suggestive questions?" Cainabel enjoyed the confusion in Altera's face and her position as the one who would open Altera's viewpoint of the world.

"No..." Altera finally said again, "He asked me if I needed anything for 'my current situation'. I asked him for an artifact for disguise."

"And maybe he gave you a Cloak of Invisibility after that?" Cainabel grinned, "Or, perhaps, any other of the thousands of artifacts that fit your description?"

"No," replied Altera, "He gave me a ring with the strongest concealment spell in it and explained to me that it could only function for five minutes and that it would disappear if I made an attack."

"That's right," Cainabel grinned, "after which we went to this island. If he had not given you an artifact, I would not have taken you with me. If you had not appeared here, then I would not be able to find out the Demon Kings' plan. If this did not happen, then even with Baal's plan, we would still have at least one Demon King roaming free. And, of course, if it weren't for the explosion of mana that was caused by you asking Ainz for more mana, then the second Demon King would not have come here. And if it were not for the spell of concealment sealed in the ring, then you would not be able to catch him."

"And so, tell me, tintoy," Cainabel grinned, "Is such a chain of coincidences in any way possible due to luck and chance?"

"This…" - Altera finally surrendered, - "No, such a thing is very unlikely to happen."

Cainabel grinned confidently at Altera, as if telling her 'That's all'.

"But, in that case..." Altera glanced at Cainabel, "Why did Ainz not just tell to us bluntly about his plan?"

"Ha, just how stuoid are you?," Cainabel rolled her eyes, then sighed, "Because he is simply too big for this world."

"Too big?" Altera glanced at Cainabel askingly.

"I had told you about his achievements hadn't I? - And you still did not understand it?" - Cainabel grinned, "What is happening right now is just like fussing in the sandbox for Yggdrasil. The destruction of humanity in one world, such an event is so insignificant for my - and Ainz's - original world that only adventurers completely drowning in boredom would even bother engaging with it, and while hardly even utilizing the peak of their strength at that. In the best case possible, the creator of these Singularities, this so-called 'King' of those Demon Kings, would not even be noticed by the absolute majority of the Higher Beings. And those who indeed knew about him would only leave a small note about him in the annals of history."

"That's the problem," Cainabel grinned. "For Ainz, the scale of these 'Singularities' is just so small that he simply cannot move freely here. Half of his at least somewhat serious abilities will simply tear your whole miserable world to pieces. And this fact also applies to his great stores of knowledge. Just one random word from his mouth can break the whole history of this world, just one careless thought spoken out can carry so much wisdom that even my mind would stagger - not to mention someone at the level of a normal Servant, which receiving his knowledge can cost the mind, life, soul or even something more."

"Something more?" Altera glanced at Cainabel questioningly.

"Life, the soul - all these are small bargaining chips in the great game of Yggdrasil". Of course one must consider the fact that Cainabel came closest to the essence of Yggdrasil with this very formulation of thought. However, given that she used the terms figuratively, means that she was all also far away from the essence of Yggdrasil, -

"He restrains every part of his being - whether it's his magic, artifacts, even his own mind. Because he is Gulliver, who is trying to get along with the Lilliputians, he must put those restraints on himself. It is simply too dangerous for him to do something directly - fortunately, he does not need to do this. He can guide his subordinates with only a couple of movements to do his biddings - and therefore he does it in exactly the same way."

After that, Cainabel was silent, giving Altera the opportunity to process the information she had just received.

"Is he so significant?" Altera looked up at Cainabel.

"You don't know the hundredth, but worse, you don't even recognize the thousandth of his significance," Cainabel grunted, and then looked at Altera, "In any case, we need to wait at least a few more hours here... Therefore..."

Cainabel created for herself the likeness of a throne with her magic, and then sat on it.

Altera thoughtfully compared Ainz's actions with Cainabel. Ainz at least had created a chair for her.

"You can stand, you can sit at my feet, it makes no difference to me," Cainabel grinned, and then became contemplative, "Where should I start... Oh yes, perhaps, from the moment our world was born..."

Name: The Goal Of All Life Is Death ~ The Last Hour Strikes

The first of the three Noble Phantasms of Ainz Ooal Gown. This Noble Phantasm was created from the nature and abilities of Ainz as the Eclipse of All Life.

A terrifying Noble Phantasm, which could be called the epitome of absoluteness, if not for the three negative sides of this ability.

First - this ability has a delay, a twelve seconds delay.

The second - this ability can only be used once every one hundred hours.

Third - this ability has no limit of application, it affects everything, and it has no ability to designate its target.