Chapter 154

The dragons who fled from demons, to fight demons, the mates and heirs of Olasird'arc, approached the fallen of their number, their heads loomed large over the King who rode him into battle. "I never thought much of him…" A faintly feminine voice rumbled while looking down at the savagely cut up body of the young dragon, "but he did well out here today."

Ainz didn't look up from the fallen one. 'This was my doing… I wanted an easy win to boost the confidence of the dwarves… Hejinmal wasn't ready to fight demons, even ones that were not at their full potential.' Guilt tugged at his heart. He didn't look up over his shoulder, "Which of you was his mother?" Ainz asked.

"I." Three voices resounded as they sought to claim the fallen hero as their own.

"It's easy to go into battle knowing you will win. It isn't so easy when you don't know that. He was very brave." Ainz said of the corpse.

The rest of the clan said nothing, there was nothing to be said.

"Brave enough for a second chance." Ainz said, and then removing his hand from the corpse, he plucked a wand from his dimensional storage space and removed a wand of resurrection.

The wand was the length of a man's forearm, and held a red jewel at the tip cut into diamond like angles and set deep into the wood so that only the pentagon shape bulged outward a little.

[Resurrection]. Ainz released the spell, and the corpse sucked in a deep breath.

"Did-Did we win, Sire?" Hejinmal asked without raising his head.

"Would you be alive if we hadn't?" Ainz asked and placed a free hand on the dragon's head.

"N-No, I suppose not… that was a foolish question. Forgive me, Sire. But I saw them and assumed we had all died…" Hejinmal said and looked up at the array of dragon faces hovering near.

"You did… alright, out there, Hejinmal." His eldest half brother said with reluctance.

"Th-Thank you, brother… but then, if we're alive, if you're alive… how did you come to be here?" Hejinmal asked in stupefied confusion and with the swiftness of a sloth, he began to move his limbs.

"That is a… very long story. Your father died, we assumed you had also, but we escaped among the quagoa when our way out was cut off. For some time the two of us fought against the daily onslaughts of demons, until word was brought to us of… I assume… you?" The female dragon who was speaking shifted her gaze from her son to Ainz.

Ainz ignored the beginnings of cheers within the city as the reality hit home and the survivor of the skirmish was seen to move again.

Their first real victory of any sort in a long time, the dwarven spirits were shooting higher than the mountain in which they lived, already Ainz could smell the flow of beer in the distance.

The female dragon that addressed Hejinmal, and then Ainz, adopted the role of voice for the small clan, and began to explain everything they learned from scouts, observations, and survivors who fled to carry word to them.

The full explanation took some time, which bought Ainz time to think as he looked up at the large ice blue frost dragon. "So Pe Riyuro is on his way here… with all his people."

"Except for those who decided to remain to buy time for the others, yes. Jaldabaoth is enemy to us all, he killed our mate… now killed my son, and threatens to slaughter, torture, or enslave us all. I am told you bested him once before, this is true?" She asked and cocked her head at him.

"I did." Ainz replied to her.

"I saw your fight, you held back?" She asked, hesitant but hopeful.

He clenched his fist hard enough to crack his knuckles. "I did. I can't say when Jaldabaoth may appear, but he will come here. I had to be ready and at full strength." Ainz answered, and they nodded in understanding. "But you came hoping for help… and you are not mine, it would be far wiser of me to simply refuse and let you bear the brunt of Jaldabaoth's assault, and then finish him when he's weakened. I can save many lives that way."

"You'd… leave us?" They asked as one, dragons or not, the sight of Jaldabaoth using their patriarch, the most powerful of their number as if he were a mere club, then shattering the mountain with his body and casting him out to his doom was still fresh in their minds.

Ainz waved a hand with dismissal, "Yes, you have no loyalty to me, I can't throw away loyal subjects to assist strangers who offer me nothing, especially if they will actively oppose me later."

The dragons collectively looked down at Hejinmal, and the eldest female spoke again, "My son has been faithful, hasn't he?"

"He died under me, so yes." Ainz said in a clipped and displeased tone and set his hands on his hips, though she towered over him, she felt more as if she were looking up, rather than down.

Her blood ran like her icy breath through her veins, "Hejinmal, what do you think?" Ainz asked.

They looked at the young runt that proved himself in the field of the stone sky, salvation or destruction lay in his talons.

Hejinmal rose to his feet, he was shaky, unsteady, and even his head wobbled a bit on his neck, but he spoke with crystal clarity, "I-I would ask that you spare them with your help, let them serve you and prove their loyalty. You… you gave me a chance, My Lord. Let them have one, the only one I had real reason to hate is now dead. That's enough for me."

Ainz let the dragons sweat for a moment, and allowed Hejinmal to bask in their desperate collective gratitude. Then, as if he was unsure of his decision, he turned his masked eyes from the dragon at his feet, to the dragon overhead, and nodded. "I will kill Jaldabaoth, or at least seal him away. When it is over, you will leave this mountain and fly to the Kingdom of Nazarick where you will be assigned tasks that will let you begin to earn my trust."

He let the moment hang for a moment, then put a hand on Hejinmal, "This one died under me. Do not complain if it takes time for you to raise your status in my eyes."

Ainz learned something new at that moment.

'When a dragon starts to swallow, it takes a very long time for them to finish.'