My remaining 5 mana (1 mana per level + 5 starting mana) was not enough for me to be confident after my enhancements ran out, they all lasted 15 minutes, so I simply left the danger area after my buffs had worn off and I killed another few imps.
Checking my experience bar, I was gleeful to find it at 381. This was fast progression alright!
But, right now, I have a far more pressing matter. Where, the fuck, am I?
I knew it couldn’t be any of the elemental planes, nor would any gods allow their heaven to get infested by imps, and it certainly wasn’t one of the abysses if imps were invading it.
So I must be in one of the lesser known planes. Perhaps a second plane similar to the material plane? I do see lots of different colored and shaped people walking around.
Walking up to one of the more friendly looking people, I began to speak to them. “What plane is this?” I asked, doing a slight bow as I did.
To which, I heard the eloquent response of ‘garble, garble’.
Frowning, I opened my mouth again only to be interrupted by the man I chose to talk to pulling out.. a small metal handheld device. Moving his fingers rapidly on it, he flipped the device towards me and hit a button. Gesturing me to speak into it.
“What… plane is this?”
The device in the mans hands did not respond in the slightest.
The man, having no clue of this, flipped his phone around after I was done speaking. Looking at the unchanged screen with some confusion, the man began to do something else on his device.
A ringing sound lasted for but a moment as a clicking sound ended it. Speaking more of what was garble to me into the phone.
Taking the device off his ear, the man pointed to the ground, then a seat next to him.
Would there be a translator coming? Or was I bound for execution? Even if it was the latter, I doubt I could avoid that fate anyway.
Taking a seat in the chair pointed at by the man, he sat opposite to me.
Going on to that strange device again, the man flipped the device to me. On it was a black screen with one singular white hieroglyphic.
Tapping on what must have been a written word in the man’s strange language, he then pointed to himself and said a word.
“Human,” I repeated to the man, pointing at him to add emphasis. The man then nodded and went back to the strange, seemingly all-purpose device.
Now having learned what species he was, or perhaps that was his name if he were self-centered, I thought I was making great progress.
It wouldn’t be good if I went around calling everyone Mathias or something, so I’d have to confirm that later.
Typing more words into the device, he had a long list that totaled about 7.
I managed to memorize five of them before what I now knew to be a car slid to a halt next to us. Or rather, on the road next to us. I judged that it was probably against the law for any cars to be on the white ground next to the black ground.
A man in a black suit came out of the car, which was of a more chunky design that most other cars I’d seen, gesturing for me to follow into the now opened car door.
Doing as implied resulted in a silent ride to.. wherever I was being taken. Hopefully a facility equipped to properly provide translation. Whether through magic or finding someone who spoke COMMON of all things.
It was called Common for a reason.
The car’s momentum slid to a halt and I followed the man out of the car. Before me was another massive building by my own plane’s standards, but seemingly average here.
After being transferred to another man at the front entrance of the building, I was lead down a massive hallway, at least to me, and sat in a room with a singular table with two chairs opposite to each other.
Sensing nobody around, I drooped into my chair. It being made of some weird material that was… very hard to describe. It was sleek, and slightly reflective, but otherwise it appeared to be a normal chair. No magic material.
My mana was still rather low, too. Around 8 now. A point of mana being regenerated every 10 minutes meant that half an hour had passed since.. then.
I hope everyone didn’t get eaten.
Well, I better meditate it away. Although I shouldn’t use my skill for it now…
———
At the sight of a once beautiful mountain with history ancient as some civilizations themselves, a large crevice ran through the ground. Tens of meters in width and hundreds in depth.
Next to this crevice was the corpse of a humongous beast, the like of which would tower over city walls. A Jotunn. A giant humanoid creature with skin as blue as ice and two massive horns with black circles at intervals around it.
The Jotunn’s head had been smashed in, a large, almost comical, dent in its head. A multitude of other cuts, that would have been large on regular sized humans, were scattered on its body like hairs. One, large even for its body size, slash lay skew above its heart. Exposed and long since beat its last.
Aside from the Jotunn, there were several other bodies laid on the field. Having been left there to be buried later, everyone too exhausted to do it now. These bodies were of the Monks who trained with Ainz under Head Abbot Thegar.
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———
It took about 5 or so minutes, but eventually the door to my.. interrogation room opened. My jaw fell to the floor as a ANGEL wearing a suit walked through the door.
Perhaps this was one of the heavens? A very odd one, however. I wondered what sort of deity would allow imps to run rampant through their domain.
Sitting down on the chair opposite to me, I felt a wave of power overflow from the angel and target me. Letting this effect happen without resistance, I heard my first actually understandable words.
“Hello, I am Malaliel,” said the angel. Reeling back from her presence in my chair, I spoke. “Ah… could you maybe back up?” I said, showing the patch of red bubbling skin that had formed on my hand closest to her. And was slowly expanding.
Clearly she was a very strong angel if her mere presence had enough effect on me to burn my skin. Within a small radius, at least.
The angel immediately backed up, showing some shock on her face. “Ah!” She said intelligently, watching as the red bubbling mess on my hand slowly calmed down. “Are you alright?” She asked after a moment of silence.
“Yes, I’m just a Dhampire, so holy energy and I don’t mix well,” I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, hoping the angel wouldn’t obliterate me upon hearing of my evil heritage.
Suddenly, something seemingly clicked in the angel’s eyes. “Did you fall through one of the portals?” She inquired, turning to speak to a.. goblin who I failed to notice had entered the room.
His eyes are a bit too beady though.. is he perhaps a mix of some other race and goblin?
“Yes, someone else was falling through so I jumped in the way.” I replied succinctly. The angel looked at the goblin fellow and said something but I did recognize one word,“Human”.
The angel known as Malaliel turned back to me. Her mouth opening a second later, “You wouldn’t happen to know anybody named Turlough? Or have a.. class system? Like levels and such?”
Turlough? Sounded like an Ork name.
“I don’t know any Turlough. Although it sounds like an Ork name. But isn’t the second half.. natural?” I asked, whatever thin streak of hope I was in the right… cosmological plane? (I didn’t quite know the right word for a.. plane of planes) was extinguished.
The angel turned to the probably-not goblin and spoke a few sentences to said not-goblin before he scurried away.
Pulling her chair out farther away from me, Malaliel sat down in it. “Sorry for.. whatever my presence does to you. But I need to know some more basic information about you and where you came from.”
Hm… I wasn’t particularly sure if how to.. introduce myself. Sure I knew my name, and where I came from, but what else was there for me to say?
Although this angel definitely wasn’t asking for anything on that depth.
“My name is Ainz Bloodweaver,” Malaliel’s eyes twitched, “and I was taken in by a group of Monks at age 5. I fell through the portal when, as I’ve said, I jumped in the way of one in order to prevent another from falling.”
Writing all of this down on a piece of paper, Malaliel asked another question. “I can assume you also have powers? Meaning non-biological things such as shooting fire or similar. Or superhuman strength and durability?”
I nodded.
“Ah, does nodding mean yes from where you come from?”
“Yes.”
…
A woman stood atop the corpse of a Jotunn, wearing a black fur robe over even blacker armor that covered everything except the head. A stupid design choice to be sure.
Wielding a staff in one hand, the woman began to chant a spell. The ground crumbled underneath her as the Jotunn started to rise and-
The woman froze, a clear look of shock on her beautiful face. And then, her head slid off her body. A spray of green acidic blood covering the sword of Hero Lexus. Swinging his sword to the side, all of the blood flew off of it in a clean motion.
“She was rather stupid,” he muttered under his breath. His tense stance dropping into a more relaxed, yet still vigilant posture. “Thegar?” He asked to the wind, waiting for a response.
And he got one, although not in the manner he expected.
The body of Head Abbot Thegar was sent flying through the air, several bones breaking mid flight as he crashed into the corpse of the Jotunn.
“She was a distraction!” He yelled, pouring mana into his body. Dodging a blast of pure, unbridled necromantic energy that rotted the highly magic resistant Jotunn flesh behind him in an instant.
A tall, clocked figure stood atop an army of skeletons. The wave, thousands—no, ten thousand—strong in skeletons, both beast and human alike, marched forward.
Raising their arm into the air, ten skeletons dropped scattered to the floor. Their remnant souls having been taken to refill the mana of the Litch.
Lexus leaped from the Jotunn and stood a few meters apart from Thegar, as not for both of them to get hit by an area of effect attack.
Thegar looked at the army of skeletons, then Lexus, and finally to the Litch. Grabbing an ornament hanging from his neck, Thegar signed.
“Hero Lexus,” he started, “It was my honor to provide the Monk of the Hero’s Party. Tell my remaining disciples they can live as they please, so long as they fellow the teachings taught here.”
Before Lexus could respond and say they could fight the army together, perhaps call Aurora and have her blast the army with holy magic, Thegar pushed all his mana into the amulet.
All 78 of it.
Mana was supposed to have a ‘fatigue point’, that point being half of your total mana. However, there were some exceptions to this.
Ancient artifacts passed down from one leader of a bastion of humanity (and co) against monster waves, invading empires or planes, and similarly destructive things was one of them. Even if none of the above things had happened in many, many years.
In the public eye.
From the amulet a massive wave of came out. Purified, given purpose, restrictions, and formation. Formation into a gigantic creature, that is. Much like the Jotunn dead behind Thegar.
Only instead of nearly a hundred meters in height, it was nearly a thousand. It also lacked the horns of the Jotunn, its skin a golden yellow instead of an icy blue. Wearing what appeared to be traditional Monk wear.
The Litch looked up at the giant Buddha and roared, expelling its mana in waves that latched unto every single one of the skeletons. The mana then pulled inward, towards the Litch, and sent bones flying as it began to assemble into a much larger creature, a being greater than the sum of its parts. Mana filling the gaps in its formation, creating a large purple-hued warrior with a long sword made of the bones of dragons.
The fist of the Buddha collided with the sword, sending shockwaves flying and blasting Lexus off his feet and into the corpse of the Jotunn. Several bones fell to the floor in front of Lexus where a large patch of yellow energy also fell.
Knowing this battle was far, far beyond the scope of himself at level 26, which was very good for his age, Lexus began to flee.
However, before he could go too far, the fallen bones from the sword of the Litch reanimated themselves into the form of several smaller dragons. One of them lashing out, striking Lexus’ heel.
Rolling on the floor in a groan of pain, Lexus assessed the forming rot on his foot and knew he wouldn’t be able to flee anymore. Preparing the sword passed down from one Hero to another by unsheathing it, he felt a hand on his shoulder before he could do much more.
Nearly striking the owner of the hand in instinct, Lexus stopped himself when he realized it was one of the older Monks. He didn’t quite remember their name, but he knew they had served in the Bastion for many, many years.
Turning his head further back, he saw every single remaining Monk except Zegar, who was unconscious and hoisted unto the back of the carriage that Lexus and Aurora had arrived from.
“Go,” said the Monk whose hand was placed on Lexus. Lexus couldn’t quite properly formulate a response, unable to come to terms with the fact that every Monk here.. was going to sacrifice themselves so he could continue his journey.
“Zegar is unconscious because he wanted to fight with us, don’t be alarmed if he doesn’t awaken in many days,” The older Monk continued, looking back at the younger Monks behind him who were done hoisting Zegar up.
Nodding to them, Lexus felt a flow of mana come from every single Monk as they rushed forward with blinding speed.
To a fight, they knew, they couldn’t win.