Chapter 401

The opening of the vortex in the air caused even the most veteran of the Black Scripture members to jerk back, startled by the unlooked for spell and its ominous black void surrounded by dark clouds of mana. "What is-"

Skana didn't care who asked, she didn't notice with her back to them, but she could feel their dismay at both the spell and the fact that a 'captor' dared show her back to the heroes of humanity. It was all but daring them to attack her. 'It's a risk, but I will have to trust that the Eight Edge Assassins will be able to stop them.'

None of the Black Scripture took up her 'invitation' to attack her from behind. 'It's a trap.' Was their universal conclusion.

She stepped through the vortex near to Tenjho, but despite volunteering initially, his foot did not rise from the floor to move after her. 'Move.' He told himself, but not fast enough. Her arm reappeared on his side of the opening with her slender palm up. Her fingers closed except for her forefinger which curled over and over toward the darkness in a persistent 'come hither' gesture.

With the finger square in front of his chest, the twelfth seat felt her accusation as if she'd spat the words into his face. It was as if she were saying, 'Move it, you coward!'

Shamed out of stillness, Tenjho stepped forward, her arm withdrew and the rattling of his chains was joined by those of the other volunteers.

For a moment there was nothing, their eyes were like empty sockets, there was nothing anywhere, no sign of light as they entered the darkness… and then they were able to see again.

"An arena?" The Strongest Human asked the rhetorical question before his eyes, and those of his friends, found the spectators in the stands. Golems, golems in every seat save a handful where, curiously, a diverse group of figures sat. An ice blue insectoid monster that radiated power, a young dainty looking girl in a fine dress holding a parasol for… some reason. A matronly looking woman holding two children in her arms, she might have been the most beautiful of her sex in all the world, but the wings and horns gave it away. 'Demoness.' They recognized at once. And so it went down the line of recognizable figures, a few of whom Alain recognized from briefings.

'We're definitely in Nazarick… but what kind of spell lets us go so far away?' He wondered.

A slender man with glasses in a pinstripe suit gave a courteous bow toward the champions of mankind. "Welcome, fortunate unfortunates, to the first day of the rest of your lives."

The elven woman to lead them into the arena stepped a few feet away from them after they stopped walking, turned, and then spread her feet shoulder width apart. Her hands folded behind her back and her body became statue still.

"What-" Alain opened his mouth to speak, but the thin man's tail lashed visibly behind him and his hand went up with palm out to still Alain's question before it could begin.

"The test, you see." Demiurge said, "It's different for everyone. Servants and strangers alike, all are tried, not all can pass. But even those who fail can still serve a purpose."

The ramblings struck the four like some fit of madness. 'Is he insane… are we in the home of a madman?' Tenjho wondered about that but clarity escaped him, his brain tickled with the tantalizing possibility of survival and that there might be some reason behind the words of the speaker who stood above them.

"What's our test, then?" One Man Army interjected, and the sharp eared man pursed his lips before they went down in a small frown.

"If it were one of courtesy, you would have failed, human. It is rude to interrupt your host's representative."

The blonde human flushed red in the face at the rebuke one typically gave to an outspoken child, but the demon went on.

"You were captured by magic, but you will be given a chance to free yourselves by force." Demiurge promised.

"What's the catch?" Alain asked, his eyes narrowed as he looked the demon up and down, his blood already racing through his veins with the promise of combat.

The demon didn't sneer or frown, rather he inclined his head toward the human as if to acknowledge the good sense Alain had in asking. "That when you fail, you accept resurrection, and participate in an experiment, one I promise you will survive through unharmed."

"We have no weapons." One Man Army protested, opening his arms as if to plead, "What are we to fight with, our equipment was taken."

"That is true." The demon said and clapped his hands together. And a far portcullis opened with the steady thud of a chain on links. Out of the darkness of the tunnel beyond the opening came, of all things, radiant maids. Beautiful women who ranged from the spring of early teenage youth, to the evident mature perfection of their twenties. However, long experience taught the Black Scripture members to doubt even the evident humanity of these women, their dresses fluttered in a breeze that came from nowhere, blowing small grains of sand around their feet.

Behind the maids were numerous floating boards in a train, and as their eyes fell onto the contents of those boards, the women were forgotten entirely.

Strongest Human never cared a whit for gold or coin, good weapons were worth more, and as such he never spent his fortune in salary on anything but ways to improve his already marvelous selection of legendary gear.

But in one instant when his eyes fell on the oversized white ax he knew the truth, 'I wasted my fortune on trifles. A thousand years of work to wring one more fraction of power into my ax and here lies a weapon of the gods own forging…' Tears sprang to the old warrior's eyes at the sheer beauty of the weapon, a long white handle with a double headed white blade etched with glowing marks of power, it was only that the parade of the impossible was still going which kept him from running to the ax like it was a long absent friend and embracing it as such.

Out of the corners of his eyes he could see down at his other comrades, from their relatively diminutive leader, Time Turbulence, to the swift One Man Army and the ever courageous Heaven and Earth… their eyes were transfixed on the impossible.

The floating boards stopped in a double line in front of them, "Arm and equip yourselves as you see fit, champions of mankind." Demiurge said it almost mockingly and extended his hand while out of the corner of his eye he watched Albedo struggle to keep back her mocking laughter. 'I wondered why she asked me to speak, I can't blame her, who wouldn't laugh at such overconfidence?'

Alain went straight for a rapier and a short dagger, then began to don light armor that was cut from the leathery skin of some kind of unimagined monster. 'A dragon, maybe?' He wondered as he ran his hands along the leather that was as warm as if it were still alive.

One by one they dressed and armed themselves with the stuff that the legends of legends were made of. "Whom do we fight?" Alain asked, and another portcullis drew their eye.

"Him." Skana said and raised her hand level to point toward the figure who stepped from the shadows.

Ainz stepped from the shadows, his helmet off and clad in armor that glimmered with silver and white, covered with spiral etched patterns, the armor of a paladin.

No.

'The armor of the god of paladins…' Alain realized, and in the hand of the dark haired Allfather was a blade of green, a rapier like design, but unique in that it seemed to be made of several curving and intertwining metal strips that blended into one piece in the second half. It was only when he drew closer that it became clear that it wasn't just an odd looking orichalcum blade. "Is that a plant? Are you going to garden us to death?" Strongest Human laughed in the face of death, and while scowls went up from the small dark elven children to the towering ice monster, the Allfather only joined in the laughter, his squared jaw opening to chuckle at the brave temerity of his opposite.

"This," Ainz said and held the blade up close to his body, "is Laevateinn. In a dead language it means 'Damage-twig' and comes from the underworld itself, a place my friends and I raided long, long ago."

"You raided the underworld?" Tenjho gasped and felt the fear rising like bile in his throat.

"A long time ago." Ainz looked away from them as the memories returned, the weapon was a prize from defeating Loki's riddle after defeating the Trickster God in battle.

He shook off the contented memory of laying the weapon in the treasury and approached the elf who guided the humans within. "Did they try to harm you, Skana?" He asked Albedo's servant.

She knelt at once and bowed her head, crossing her arms in front of her chest, she answered him, "No, my lord. I gave them every chance to do your servant harm, but they did not attempt to take me hostage. Though your servant can't say whether it was because of the guards, or they sensed a trap, or they were simply above attacking someone who appeared helpless."

"It was still brave of you. Here is your reward." He said and stretching out a hand, he ran it over the top of her head, patting it gently. Envious gasps went up from the maids and those who stood amidst the audience of golems.

"Thank you, My Lord!" Skana beamed as the blessing of the Allfather was given to her.

The maids stared envious daggers at the elf, but with the humans now armed, they followed her out with their various floating boards of priceless treasures bobbing up and down in the air behind them like ships on the sea.

"Now…" Ainz leveled the rapier at the Black Scripture and grinning like a weeb he said, "Have at thee!" He threw out the cheeseball line and the martial arts of the champions went up all at once as they took position and made ready to join battle.