‘War is ugly… I swear I can smell the blood from here.’ Ainz thought as the screams reached the high place where he hovered above the fight. Thankfully nobody could see him vomit from on high, he pulled aside his mask and watched the puke fall to blend with blood and gore among the dead, and waited while the lizardmen slowly won their fight. The magic casters were not particularly effective, but as the New World went, he judged them average, notably they had a surprising number given the relatively small size of their tribes.

Still, he kept his eyes on individual duels to the exclusion of all else, noting the way the two species fought one another, there was no evidence of quarter from either side, anyone wounded was quickly butchered by the other side, both saw it as do or die, but little by little it was evident that the lizardmen would triumph.

However, the big frogwoman, Heketi, he guessed, was quickly capturing his attention, she was utterly stupendous, driving her forces to exceed their limits in a desperate bid for survival, and killing the strongest of the armored lizardmen and the big sword bearer who seemed to prefer his fists until he faced off against her.

When he saw the blue sword bearer thrust his sword home, it seemed it would be over. Breaches were opened everywhere, and the lizardmen were killing every frogman of every age and state of health they came within killing reach of.

Shalltear was then gone from where she had been, and burying her lance in the badly wounded frogwoman, moments later, the big one with the crown of bones upon her head was screaming for mercy and begging to surrender.

‘Thank goodness… I wondered if they would ever stop…’ Ainz thought, and summoned his screaming demons.

The clouds roared overhead and turned black, a high wind picked up that was so clearly unnatural that even in mid spear thrust, the lizardmen stopped to look and the frogmen in flight ceased to run away.

The heads came screaming down from above, “The Great One says ‘enough’! Frogmen lay down arms, lizardmen take surrenders! The war is over, any frogman not on their bellies, will die, any on their bellies, will live!”

Ainz slowly began to descend among the carnage, the longed for surrender had come, and Heketi still howled for mercy that in her fevered pain she did not know had been granted.

She looked deliriously at the red knight, “Spare our lives! Spare us and we are yours…!”

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Shalltear pointed up to the sky, “No, you are his.” Ainz finally came into view, descending beside Zaryusu who fell to his knees and grasped his brother’s body, clutching the fallen chief, he howled like Heketi at the loss.

Lizardmen whose bloodlust had been curbed by the howling demonic heads Ainz used as messengers, began taking up vines and binding the bodies of frogmen of all ages and states of health.

“Shalltear, take a scroll out and heal this one, she is in charge, clearly.” Ainz said and pointed down at the Queen whose crown had now tumbled away from her body and into the bloody mire.

Shalltear withdrew both the blue sword and the spirit lance, pulled a scroll of healing from her pocket dimension, and used it on the broken Queen.

“He is your Master now.” Shalltear said, “Surrender to him,” she pointed up to Ainz Ooal Gown, “the Master of Death, or you will all be wiped out root and branch, and added to his armies as undead.”

Wails of horror came up from the frogmen ranks that gave out ribbiting sobs of fear as they realized their final ends.

Heketi, her pain and wounds taken away, rolled over to her belly and then up to all fours, as much as she could, and kept her head low to the ground. “Queen Heketi of the Frogmen Tribe of Allone, surrenders to…”

“King Ainz Ooal Gown of the Kingdom of Nazarick.” Shalltear said, and Heketi repeated it.

“Are you… the one who defeated the Empire? The one who raised the army of the dead and froze the lake… mighty Lord.” Heketi asked.

“I am.” Ainz answered, not trusting himself enough to say more than two words without vomiting again into his mask.

“Then you are strong, and we submit… do what you will with us… but let my people live… I beg of you…” She said, and fell silent.

‘Had I known what I was facing I would have surrendered immediately… now look at us, all our work, all my plans… and now we will grind away our days in service to a God of Death…’ Heketi cursed her birth, she cursed her parents, she cursed her vision of a united frogmen kingdom, she cursed the war, she cursed her fate and she cursed herself.

But she did it all in the quietness of her mind, and said nothing of the sort to the new King of the lake.

Lizardmen raised up a cheer that was the counter to her despair. “Long live Ainz Ooal Gown! Long live Ainz Ooal Gown…”

And he raised his golden staff aloft, calling for silence. “The lake now belongs to the lizardmen, who will always be part of the Kingdom of Nazarick.”

“And… what will you do with us… your slaves?” Heketi asked.

Ainz stepped away from her for a moment, his mind raced for an answer, such was his desperation for something to say, to a very good question in fact, that he sought to buy time. He removed a wand from his pocket dimension and held it over the body of Shasuryu Shasha, and said [Raise Dead].

Before the eyes of disbelieving lizardmen and frogmen alike he proved himself a God that hour, the true Master of Life and Death, as he stumbled over the answer while Shasuryu began to laugh in his brother’s arms.

“I have other lakes. I will move you to one of those, and you will live in peace. You will remain Queen, unless you dare to rebel… in which case you will cease to be at all. Let’s see what you can do if you have no enemies to threaten or unite you. Live or die… it is your choice.” Ainz answered her, and the few surviving frogmen’s mouths fell open as they were handed a new home.

‘There was another, smaller lake… there can’t be many frogmen left alive now, I will send them there… and see what happens next.’ Ainz thought privately.

“We are yours forever…” Zaryusu Shasha promised, and the united lizardmen army knelt as one before the God that granted life to the fallen.