Yes this story premise is rather outlandish but hey I figured such a thing is what is needed...
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The New World, and the Land of Illusion. (Touhou Overlord crossover)
- Thread starter Blue Glass
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Prologue
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2022
- Messages
- 71
- Likes received
- 637
Yes this story premise is rather outlandish but hey I figured such a thing is what is needed. Besides this popped up occasionally over the last year so might as well.
A groan escaped as consciousness slowly started to return to her. The feeling of grass and the faint feeling of a breeze greeted her. "What happened," She picked herself up as her head pounded. "I remember using a setup with that headset I borrowed for the spell and then…"
As the headache subsided she started to look around the area. She wasn't within a futuristic, or rather modern from her perspective, room within the universality she worked with. Instead, she was outside with grass, an open sky, and a faint nightly breeze.
Stars greeted her as she looked into the night sky. Renko had grown used to the difficulties of using her ability in the last few decades. With the use of magic to aid her such a problem wasn't as bad as it was but seeing the night sky without any need to help her made him recall a time when she was younger. Before those in remaining paranormal and the moon had cut off the leadership of the world in secret creating the conditions of how it was now. Before her learning of magic wrapped her very existence as a human into being the first Magician to be seen in the world of humans in a long time. Back in a time where she had been with her missing friend.
She closed her eyes as she thought back to that day. When they last saw each other. 'Merry…'
Reminiscing about the past could wait as right now she had something else to look into. A string of unexplained disappearances that had centered around the game YGGDRASIL. All of which looked random and were easily swept away. Indeed she would have ignored it herself if it wasn't for one thing. In one of the missing persons, someone she had known from her day job as a physics professor, had a slight taint of what she believed was magic.
Now here she was in a place where the sky could be seen again without aid. 'I should figure out where I am,' No sooner than she thought this did she activate her ability and found that everything was off. 'None of the constellations, and the moon isn't even the moon.'
Faced with weird stars, a moon that didn't feel like the moon, and the very obvious fact that everything seemed rather alright Renko could only assume she wasn't on earth anymore. Her first thought was she was in one of the "other realms" as those who still lingered in the human world called them. That thought was shut down immediately as the sky should be the same across all of them. Neither could this be the Lunarians' home on the moon.
Indeed whatever had brought her here couldn't be tied to the Lunarians. That left her with few possibilities. She was either in a completely different solar system or in a different universe. 'Did I accidentally open a wormhole?'
For a moment a pulse of energy had surged over the world. Most could not feel it and for those that did such a feeling was so brief that they had forgotten about it. A few knew that whatever that had been was something that piqued their interests. None more so than a large dragon who lay within a floating fortress. Tsaindorcus couldn't believe what he had felt that he almost thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
'My magic felt like it had been free,' Whatever it was had seemed for a moment to break the feeling of corruption that had edged itself into his inborn magic. It was as if something disturbed what had become reality.
As a Dragon Lord, a True Dragon Lord, he had to deal with the effects Tier Magic had on his own magical abilities. Wild Magic had suffered as a side effect of its proliferation. Mentally he cursed his father who had caused this mess overall in the first place. Yet, in a brief instance, the hold it had on his magic had been removed. For a moment he had the freedom of his power. As fast as it came it was gone. Almost like a delusion of his mind.
'If I recall this is happening around the time that another player is to come to this world,' There had to be a connection as in his centuries of life had taught him that there was no such thing as coincidence. 'Could it be the player or perhaps something else?'
Tsaindorcus highly doubted it was a player. Something else had probably been the cause of that. As he thought about it he noticed that something was off. Someone was here trying to hide. "Come out, I know you are there."
Whomever it is they both were amazing at entering without triggering any alarms of the fortress but also sucked at not revealing themselves to him. Coming out of the shadows was a young human woman dressed in an outfit that seemed off from everything he knew. A cape that a wizard or mage would wear alongside an outfit that seemed strange. In her hand was a device of some sort small and rectangular. On her face though wasn't a look of fear, a lot most humans would have when in the presence of a Dragon Lord, or perhaps one of awe at such a being. Her look seemed closer to wonder.
"I didn't think Gensokyo had a western dragon."
Sumireko didn't know why she appeared here, and where exactly she even was, but seeing a big westerner dragon was something that she wasn't complaining about. That did bring up a question of where she was exactly. Maybe, somewhere like former hell, or maybe the dragon had moved its lair to Gensokyo much like the Scarlet Devil Mansion was moved by its vampire mistress.
"What is this Gensokyo you speak of?"
The response from the dragon confused Sumireko. She was asleep which meant she was in Gensokyo right? "What are you talking about?"
Chaos had gripped Gensokyo as suddenly without warning storms of various kinds, mini earthquakes, and finally, tarrings of space opened and closed about. All within the span of minutes but the effects and resulting chaos was still being felt. Most of the inhabitants were in a panic about such an event likely being a new incident. For Yukari Yakumo that wasn't even the least of her worries.
In the instant that all that had happened, something had attacked the Hakurei barrier. For whatever reason it didn't try to collapse the barrier, nor did it try to force its way through the barrier. Instead, it was trying to take from Gensokyo, or as outlandish as it was to think of Gensokyo itself, and drag it somewhere else. Had Gensokyo just been a pocket realm isolated into itself it might have very well succeeded.
She was a bit grateful for the connections Gensokyo had though depending on how far it went Yukari could have a headache. Right now her focus should be on what had attempted to take Gensokyo and to see if anyone was missing. The phenomenon, either a spell or the act of some unknown force, had attempted to take Gensokyo and while it had failed she just knew it had to have been taken from Gensokyo. Finding who caused it was a priority that she was focused on but for some, it didn't seem to lead much of a trail.
Though that didn't mean there wasn't anything to follow, it was that it was confusing. One part felt as if it was from the future, time travel was something that she knew about having been stranded in the past, and only led to no real space. It seemed more along the lines of an illusion. A virtual world may be like something out of a cheap sci-fi movie. The second one, however, was near impossible to track because it felt like it was completely out of this world. Out of sync with time and space, another universe maybe she did have some experience with that.
Something had reached into their universe and tried to take Gensokyo. A feat that was under normal circumstances impressive and terrifying. However, it seems that there wasn't any real control over it. 'Still, whatever the reason Gensokyo has been affected by it.'
Before she attempted to see if she could go after who or what had done this, Yukari needed to check up on everyone in Gensokyo. First on the list was Reimu. Opening a gap she walked through and saw the state of the Shrine. While the Shrine was mostly intact, parts of the rooftop lying all around and the donation box was lying on the ground to the side, the grounds had been torn up. Damage that was all superficial thankfully to the Hakurei Barrier.
"Yukari what the hell is going on?!" Reimu had been caught off guard completely by the sudden incident. Whatever had just happened had torn up her shrine and she was pissed.
"Something tried to grab onto Gensokyo itself and spirit it away," An explanation that sounded ridiculous even by Gensokyo's own standards. Yet, it had been attempted by some outside source. "I managed to track it down but the thing is it's going to be rather difficult to get to who or what had caused this."
"So, Gensokyo is this world within a world that serves as a refuge, a refuge that you travel to in your sleep?" Tsaindorcus wondered what could have forced such a thing to happen though in her world he had a vague idea which such a place was probably filled with. Although, the term Western Dragon seemed rather strange to think about.
There was a possibility that she was from Yggdrasil. Despite his inability to use tier magic he was able to tell when it was used or if anything was made in the vein of them. What Sumireko had with her wasn't made with tier magic. "Yeah, though I guess I am not there."
Sumireko tried to think about where she could be. Maybe in some sort of Western hidden world? Which might explain why the dragon hadn't heard about Gensokyo. Still, a question popped up as to why she had ended up here herself but Sumireko just probably chalked that up to something supernatural that she didn't know about.
"So, what is the place called, your world I mean?"
The dragon was a bit surprised by how casual she was with talking about this. It was as if this wasn't anything but a minor inconvenience. Perhaps it was, she probably possessed a means to return home of some sort. Either that or she literally had no idea where she really was.
"The world has had a few names depending on who you ask, we Dragon Lords know it as Saindrok, the humans once called it Terris, I forget what the ancient beastmen called it, but to the players of Yggdrasil they called this the New World."
Of all of that, the only thing that sounded familiar was Yggdrasil. The World Tree of Norse mythology. Something that Sumireko did ask about it when she wanted to know about the other mythologies and how much was real. Almost no one she asked, which wasn't a lot admittedly, seemed to have an idea about what she was talking about. Kasen seemed familiar with it but told her that she shouldn't bother with asking about it. The term player threw everything she had expected into confusion.
'Wait players, does he mean something like a video game?' The multiple names for the world was concerning as well. As much as she would like to figure all this out Sumireko had a feeling it was better to not focus on it. "Well, I apologize for popping by but I think I should wake up now."
The dragon, if it could, would have given her a raised eyebrow at her phrasing. "You believe this to be a dream?"
"What, that's not what I mean," Besides she was still a bit wary about actually dreaming after the whole thing with her dream selves. "I travel between my world and Gensokyo when I sleep so if I wake up I should be back home."
In all his centuries he had never heard of something so out there. Technically, he heard that in a long time passed some old philosopher had predicted this as a possibility. That dreams could be used to travel to other worlds. Beyond that, he had no idea. "Really?"
"Of course, all I have to do is focus on my psychic powers to wake myself up and…" Sumireko blinked as nothing happened as she tried to force herself awake. Even if she was not within Gensokyo proper it was possible for her to still awake back up. If she couldn't awake back home but was standing here then there had to be only one possibility. She was awake and this was actually her real body.
"You're stuck here aren't you?"
Tsaindorcus figured that was the case. It had to be because of his father's ritual. She was stuck here against her will because of him. It was fortunate for them both that she showed up here instead of some random location on the planet below. As bad as the thought was, he really didn't want to risk seeing what would happen if someone unrelated to the players could do it if allowed to roam freely. He already felt responsible for all the suffering his father had brought to the world being his son and all.
Reimu didn't fully understand what Yukari was talking about when she spoke about other universes. She did understand enough to know that this wasn't exactly something anyone could really see coming, though she thought she saw her say something in a barely audible whisper. Whatever the case it didn't matter much to her. Unfortunately, dealing with the incident was another matter.
"So, traveling to who or what caused this is impossible?"
"Not impossible it's just rather difficult," Most of the issue was actually how faint the echo was. Sure, she still in a word had the pathway isolated but really she wouldn't try it right now. "Before anything is done I want to see if no one has gotten pulled in by it."
Yukari knew that was a pointless justification. She already figured that had happened already. Really, right now her immediate focus was dealing with her fellow sages who likely were also planning on what to do, and get them to help with the whole crossing realities. At the very least she needed a list of names for who was missing. It was good she sent Ran off to check up on everyone.
So, that about does the proof of concept/prologue. I would like to hear anyones thoughts. Well, assumimg this story gets anyone to see it.
A groan escaped as consciousness slowly started to return to her. The feeling of grass and the faint feeling of a breeze greeted her. "What happened," She picked herself up as her head pounded. "I remember using a setup with that headset I borrowed for the spell and then…"
As the headache subsided she started to look around the area. She wasn't within a futuristic, or rather modern from her perspective, room within the universality she worked with. Instead, she was outside with grass, an open sky, and a faint nightly breeze.
Stars greeted her as she looked into the night sky. Renko had grown used to the difficulties of using her ability in the last few decades. With the use of magic to aid her such a problem wasn't as bad as it was but seeing the night sky without any need to help her made him recall a time when she was younger. Before those in remaining paranormal and the moon had cut off the leadership of the world in secret creating the conditions of how it was now. Before her learning of magic wrapped her very existence as a human into being the first Magician to be seen in the world of humans in a long time. Back in a time where she had been with her missing friend.
She closed her eyes as she thought back to that day. When they last saw each other. 'Merry…'
Reminiscing about the past could wait as right now she had something else to look into. A string of unexplained disappearances that had centered around the game YGGDRASIL. All of which looked random and were easily swept away. Indeed she would have ignored it herself if it wasn't for one thing. In one of the missing persons, someone she had known from her day job as a physics professor, had a slight taint of what she believed was magic.
Now here she was in a place where the sky could be seen again without aid. 'I should figure out where I am,' No sooner than she thought this did she activate her ability and found that everything was off. 'None of the constellations, and the moon isn't even the moon.'
Faced with weird stars, a moon that didn't feel like the moon, and the very obvious fact that everything seemed rather alright Renko could only assume she wasn't on earth anymore. Her first thought was she was in one of the "other realms" as those who still lingered in the human world called them. That thought was shut down immediately as the sky should be the same across all of them. Neither could this be the Lunarians' home on the moon.
Indeed whatever had brought her here couldn't be tied to the Lunarians. That left her with few possibilities. She was either in a completely different solar system or in a different universe. 'Did I accidentally open a wormhole?'
For a moment a pulse of energy had surged over the world. Most could not feel it and for those that did such a feeling was so brief that they had forgotten about it. A few knew that whatever that had been was something that piqued their interests. None more so than a large dragon who lay within a floating fortress. Tsaindorcus couldn't believe what he had felt that he almost thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
'My magic felt like it had been free,' Whatever it was had seemed for a moment to break the feeling of corruption that had edged itself into his inborn magic. It was as if something disturbed what had become reality.
As a Dragon Lord, a True Dragon Lord, he had to deal with the effects Tier Magic had on his own magical abilities. Wild Magic had suffered as a side effect of its proliferation. Mentally he cursed his father who had caused this mess overall in the first place. Yet, in a brief instance, the hold it had on his magic had been removed. For a moment he had the freedom of his power. As fast as it came it was gone. Almost like a delusion of his mind.
'If I recall this is happening around the time that another player is to come to this world,' There had to be a connection as in his centuries of life had taught him that there was no such thing as coincidence. 'Could it be the player or perhaps something else?'
Tsaindorcus highly doubted it was a player. Something else had probably been the cause of that. As he thought about it he noticed that something was off. Someone was here trying to hide. "Come out, I know you are there."
Whomever it is they both were amazing at entering without triggering any alarms of the fortress but also sucked at not revealing themselves to him. Coming out of the shadows was a young human woman dressed in an outfit that seemed off from everything he knew. A cape that a wizard or mage would wear alongside an outfit that seemed strange. In her hand was a device of some sort small and rectangular. On her face though wasn't a look of fear, a lot most humans would have when in the presence of a Dragon Lord, or perhaps one of awe at such a being. Her look seemed closer to wonder.
"I didn't think Gensokyo had a western dragon."
Sumireko didn't know why she appeared here, and where exactly she even was, but seeing a big westerner dragon was something that she wasn't complaining about. That did bring up a question of where she was exactly. Maybe, somewhere like former hell, or maybe the dragon had moved its lair to Gensokyo much like the Scarlet Devil Mansion was moved by its vampire mistress.
"What is this Gensokyo you speak of?"
The response from the dragon confused Sumireko. She was asleep which meant she was in Gensokyo right? "What are you talking about?"
Chaos had gripped Gensokyo as suddenly without warning storms of various kinds, mini earthquakes, and finally, tarrings of space opened and closed about. All within the span of minutes but the effects and resulting chaos was still being felt. Most of the inhabitants were in a panic about such an event likely being a new incident. For Yukari Yakumo that wasn't even the least of her worries.
In the instant that all that had happened, something had attacked the Hakurei barrier. For whatever reason it didn't try to collapse the barrier, nor did it try to force its way through the barrier. Instead, it was trying to take from Gensokyo, or as outlandish as it was to think of Gensokyo itself, and drag it somewhere else. Had Gensokyo just been a pocket realm isolated into itself it might have very well succeeded.
She was a bit grateful for the connections Gensokyo had though depending on how far it went Yukari could have a headache. Right now her focus should be on what had attempted to take Gensokyo and to see if anyone was missing. The phenomenon, either a spell or the act of some unknown force, had attempted to take Gensokyo and while it had failed she just knew it had to have been taken from Gensokyo. Finding who caused it was a priority that she was focused on but for some, it didn't seem to lead much of a trail.
Though that didn't mean there wasn't anything to follow, it was that it was confusing. One part felt as if it was from the future, time travel was something that she knew about having been stranded in the past, and only led to no real space. It seemed more along the lines of an illusion. A virtual world may be like something out of a cheap sci-fi movie. The second one, however, was near impossible to track because it felt like it was completely out of this world. Out of sync with time and space, another universe maybe she did have some experience with that.
Something had reached into their universe and tried to take Gensokyo. A feat that was under normal circumstances impressive and terrifying. However, it seems that there wasn't any real control over it. 'Still, whatever the reason Gensokyo has been affected by it.'
Before she attempted to see if she could go after who or what had done this, Yukari needed to check up on everyone in Gensokyo. First on the list was Reimu. Opening a gap she walked through and saw the state of the Shrine. While the Shrine was mostly intact, parts of the rooftop lying all around and the donation box was lying on the ground to the side, the grounds had been torn up. Damage that was all superficial thankfully to the Hakurei Barrier.
"Yukari what the hell is going on?!" Reimu had been caught off guard completely by the sudden incident. Whatever had just happened had torn up her shrine and she was pissed.
"Something tried to grab onto Gensokyo itself and spirit it away," An explanation that sounded ridiculous even by Gensokyo's own standards. Yet, it had been attempted by some outside source. "I managed to track it down but the thing is it's going to be rather difficult to get to who or what had caused this."
"So, Gensokyo is this world within a world that serves as a refuge, a refuge that you travel to in your sleep?" Tsaindorcus wondered what could have forced such a thing to happen though in her world he had a vague idea which such a place was probably filled with. Although, the term Western Dragon seemed rather strange to think about.
There was a possibility that she was from Yggdrasil. Despite his inability to use tier magic he was able to tell when it was used or if anything was made in the vein of them. What Sumireko had with her wasn't made with tier magic. "Yeah, though I guess I am not there."
Sumireko tried to think about where she could be. Maybe in some sort of Western hidden world? Which might explain why the dragon hadn't heard about Gensokyo. Still, a question popped up as to why she had ended up here herself but Sumireko just probably chalked that up to something supernatural that she didn't know about.
"So, what is the place called, your world I mean?"
The dragon was a bit surprised by how casual she was with talking about this. It was as if this wasn't anything but a minor inconvenience. Perhaps it was, she probably possessed a means to return home of some sort. Either that or she literally had no idea where she really was.
"The world has had a few names depending on who you ask, we Dragon Lords know it as Saindrok, the humans once called it Terris, I forget what the ancient beastmen called it, but to the players of Yggdrasil they called this the New World."
Of all of that, the only thing that sounded familiar was Yggdrasil. The World Tree of Norse mythology. Something that Sumireko did ask about it when she wanted to know about the other mythologies and how much was real. Almost no one she asked, which wasn't a lot admittedly, seemed to have an idea about what she was talking about. Kasen seemed familiar with it but told her that she shouldn't bother with asking about it. The term player threw everything she had expected into confusion.
'Wait players, does he mean something like a video game?' The multiple names for the world was concerning as well. As much as she would like to figure all this out Sumireko had a feeling it was better to not focus on it. "Well, I apologize for popping by but I think I should wake up now."
The dragon, if it could, would have given her a raised eyebrow at her phrasing. "You believe this to be a dream?"
"What, that's not what I mean," Besides she was still a bit wary about actually dreaming after the whole thing with her dream selves. "I travel between my world and Gensokyo when I sleep so if I wake up I should be back home."
In all his centuries he had never heard of something so out there. Technically, he heard that in a long time passed some old philosopher had predicted this as a possibility. That dreams could be used to travel to other worlds. Beyond that, he had no idea. "Really?"
"Of course, all I have to do is focus on my psychic powers to wake myself up and…" Sumireko blinked as nothing happened as she tried to force herself awake. Even if she was not within Gensokyo proper it was possible for her to still awake back up. If she couldn't awake back home but was standing here then there had to be only one possibility. She was awake and this was actually her real body.
"You're stuck here aren't you?"
Tsaindorcus figured that was the case. It had to be because of his father's ritual. She was stuck here against her will because of him. It was fortunate for them both that she showed up here instead of some random location on the planet below. As bad as the thought was, he really didn't want to risk seeing what would happen if someone unrelated to the players could do it if allowed to roam freely. He already felt responsible for all the suffering his father had brought to the world being his son and all.
Reimu didn't fully understand what Yukari was talking about when she spoke about other universes. She did understand enough to know that this wasn't exactly something anyone could really see coming, though she thought she saw her say something in a barely audible whisper. Whatever the case it didn't matter much to her. Unfortunately, dealing with the incident was another matter.
"So, traveling to who or what caused this is impossible?"
"Not impossible it's just rather difficult," Most of the issue was actually how faint the echo was. Sure, she still in a word had the pathway isolated but really she wouldn't try it right now. "Before anything is done I want to see if no one has gotten pulled in by it."
Yukari knew that was a pointless justification. She already figured that had happened already. Really, right now her immediate focus was dealing with her fellow sages who likely were also planning on what to do, and get them to help with the whole crossing realities. At the very least she needed a list of names for who was missing. It was good she sent Ran off to check up on everyone.
So, that about does the proof of concept/prologue. I would like to hear anyones thoughts. Well, assumimg this story gets anyone to see it.
Last edited:
KitsuneObsessedFreak
(Verified Fox girl Enthusiast) (Floof for Brains)
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2020
- Messages
- 534
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- 7,655
I like where this is going so far. I'm eager to read the next part when it's ready.
Chapter 1
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2022
- Messages
- 71
- Likes received
- 637
This took a lot longer then I thought it would but to be honest I am grateful that I at least got it out before the month ended. Sorry, but that's just kind of how it is.
According to Ran, it had seemed that no one was missing from the Human Village, the Myouren Temple, or the Divine Spirit Mausoleum. No one from the Forest of Magic seemed to be missing to their knowledge although that was hard to fully pen down given how she only paid a visit to those with a permanent residence there.
That's where the good news ended, however. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was missing both its mistress and her little sister. Youkai Mountain had a few missing inhabitants but the most notable was Sanae who just up and disappeared right in front of her shrine. Two others were missing from the bamboo forest exactly who was unknown as a few rabbits only told Ran, the fairies around the Misty Lake were in a panic which had to mean one or both of the greater fairies who lived there were missing. The Flower Garden of the Sun was missing its primary caretaker and inhabitant. What stopped Yukari from reading the list was the fact that Okina was one of those that had gone missing as her Servants had revealed in a panic.
One of the Sages of Gensokyo had gotten taken away by this mess somehow. Yukari would have probably laughed at such a thing if it wasn't concerning. "This is just within Gensokyo directly," An emergency meeting was going to need to be called in hopes of getting everything settled down amongst those in Gensokyo. "I can't imagine if this had affected any of the realms directly tied to it."
Her biggest hope was that at most it was isolated to just Gensokyo and them. Otherwise, there was going to be a whole host of headaches to deal with. Some of which are more understanding than others. Speaking of the issue at hand Yukari was certain that with some help she could trace the connection to the future in order to piggyback and force open a pathway to wherever they had ended up.
The only issue for her was that it would require her and two others. Someone who can control time was preferable, something that was easy enough to get as the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion will be willing to help, but also someone who can feel or see the possibilities to ensure they time it right into forcing open a gateway from this lingering connection. Unfortunately, the only person she had on hand that could do so was also one of those missing. That made things more difficult than she had liked but not impossible.
"Ran, I need you to go to Tir Na Nog."
Her shikigami looked surprised to hear that. Tir Na Nog was far out of the way of Gensokyo. The realm that was the homeland of the fairies hidden within the unseen in the British Isles and current residence to the last of the Celtic Gods. "Is there any reason I should go there?"
"I need you to get someone," Probably the only other person she knew who would be willing to help and had the skill set to take the missing position. Otherwise, they are going to have to wing it and hope for the best.
One minute she was with Sakuya enjoying tea in her mansion and not long afterwards she felt something. A shift in the air followed by everything shaking and then the ground below her opening up as she fell into what could be described as a rift. Remilia had no idea what had happened and found herself landed in the middle of a woodland in a small clearing during the middle of the day. Naturally, on instinct, she had gathered her power to resist the sun's rays and race to the shade of the tree but for some reason, she didn't feel the sensation of pain from the sunlight.
Normally, a vampire will feel the pain as the sunlight cooks them into ash. Instead, she only felt mild discomfort. Which was strange as the sun didn't do that normally. Nowhere had it done that. Not back when she lived on the Outside World, Gensokyo, or during her time meeting with her distant relatives.
'I fell through a hole and ended up here,' That brought up a question about where she had even shown up. 'It has to be something that affected most of Gensokyo.'
Speaking of Gensokyo, Remilia noticed something off. In front of her materializing was an ethereal card. Just looking at it was enough to confirm something for Remilia. That the spell card system wasn't in effect at all. Which meant that wherever this was she was back to going about things in the old way of how things had been done. Alone as well which was something that Remilia hadn't really done in a long time. Only the clothes on her back and her spear which she always had on her for defense with her.
Looking around her immediate area Remilia noticed something that was very telling. It was faint, probably difficult to tell as someone had tried to hide the evidence, but a group of people had died here. Remilia had learned via necessity back when she lived in the late Middle Ages. Whoever did it only did enough to make it not so obvious. Likely hoping for the natural processes of the world to hide it. Turning away from the scene of what was probably a mass murder Remilia thought about what to do next.
Getting back home was an issue but she was certain that whatever had happened would be solved. It had to be because unfortunately for her she had no real way to return home on her own power. 'Maybe I can ask Patchi about that when I get back.'
After a few minutes of wandering in a random direction, Remilia was greeted with a larger clearing. Where she could see something, no someone, just standing there motionless. Her outfit reminded Remilia of a young noble lady. In her hands was a strange-looking thing that Remilia thought had the appearance of a lance of some sort. Deciding to get closer she could tell that she wasn't human.
"Who are you and why are you standing in the middle of nowhere?"
No response was given. In fact, there was no acknowledgment of her presence. She just stood there looking down like some kind of standing doll. Remilia was somewhat annoyed by the refusal to acknowledge her, and a bit put off by it as well. Something was wrong with her and Remilia was curious as to why. Either it was someone's ability or perhaps a spell.
Looking at her eyes from where she was it had seemed as if she was in a trance. Yet, something was off about this. "What I wouldn't give to have Patchi here though I wonder."
As she was about to touch her in the side of her vision Remilia caught that her lance thing moved and was aimed at her. With a flap of her wings, she moved back away from her. "Well, that's…"
Her outfit had suddenly changed in an instant. Almost like some kind of spell or perhaps this was her ability. "What do we have here?"
Shalltear Bloodfallen looked at the "little girl" before her. The wings coming out of her back was the most obvious trait that dismissed her rather human-like appearance overall. If Shalltear could take a guess she was probably a devil of some kind. 'She's not from Nazarick, that's obvious.'
Even if she didn't know everything in there personally she knew enough that no sort of devil or demon like her. She was a native of this world and probably liked so many of them so far, probably beneath her notice. "I wonder what a weak devil was hoping to accomplish in trying to attack me."
"Weak devil?" Remilia had been called many things. Weak wasn't one of them given that vampires are a naturally strong youkai. "You attempt to attack me and you call me weak?"
"Of course."
Remilia was insulted to even hear this. She was Remilia Scarlet, Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She was someone to be feared and respected and here was this little upstart calling her weak. Remilia held out her hands as the spear gungnir appeared, answering her call. Pointing the weapon toward the newly armored girl. When this is all said and done she will regret those words.
"How did she get past the perimeter that Aura and Mare are supposed to set up around Shalltear?" No one could give him an answer and to be honest, Ainz really didn't think there even was one.
Aura's beasts were patrolling the perimeter that he had given her. The only way around it was to teleport or gate here. Which was the only way passed though he was somewhat certain that no one who could possibly do that would show up. Except of course, for whomever had done what had happened to Shalltear. Even then he didn't expect them to show up.
"She looks to be a young devil of some sort," Demiurge commented as it was kind of hard not to notice the very presence of wings on her back. "I can't make out what she is saying."
The mirror wasn't about to translate the conversation. Nor was it located in such a way to try to read lips. As the young devil got closer to Shalltear Ainz was conflicted on if they should interfere. Taking a gamble he decided it was best to watch and see what happened. 'If she's the culprit I can use Greater Teleportation to be there in front of them in no time while the other Floor Guardians will follow me.'
It wasn't a very sound plan of attack but getting the surprise drop on someone was as good a plan as any now. He couldn't double back and get all that he wanted for this fight without them getting away. In the mirror, he watched as his answer was given to him.
Shalltear attacked and the devil had to jump back. A few words are exchanged before the devil summoned a long red spear. Finally, they charged forward and to the immediate surprise of everyone present the first clash didn't end in the death of the devil. In fact, if Ainz was honest judging by the footwork of Shalltear, she seemed to be the one struggling in the clash.
Shaltear had expected nothing much from the winged girl, probably a devil of some kind, in front of her. So, far everyone that the inhabitants of the Tomb of Nazarick had faced in this world were weak and pathetic. Sure, she had dodged her first swing but to be honest that was more her putting in as much effort as she expected was necessary. Even this fight was expected to be rather easy as she expected to easily overpower this girl.
At the first clash, she was proved wrong immediately and soon she found herself fighting defensively when it came to the physical front. This little girl who she expected to be nothing wasn't just stronger than her physically but was also faster than her! When she tried to break and get some distance to counter-attack she closed it at a speed that Shalltear knew she didn't possess. Her attacks, rather her counterattacks as the momentum was on her opponent's side, were deflected and blocked, almost expertly though there was some degree of sloppiness. Like she had untold years of combat experience and training but had neglected it at one point relying on faded muscle memory.
Shalltear used Force Explosion to send a shockwave knocking Remilia back and into the air. If she couldn't overcome her on the physical front then she was going to try on the magical side. "Implosion!"
Remilia could feel her whole body tremble as something was trying to collapse her body. It hurt but to be honest, Remilia can overcome it. With a gasp of pain, she endured it and looked down. The magic didn't seem like anything she had seen, and with Patchouli she had seen a lot. Shalltear who was viewing this was able to gain an idea as to the possible level of her opponent.
'Probably in the nineties at the very least,' She knew from talk amongst her creators that levels didn't technically mean everything, one's build did, but it did give a general idea of the threat of the foe. Still, compared to like everything else they had faced so far, and believed such a thing was in itself worthy of respect.
Shalltear's surprise was added on as the devil waved her hand with a magic circle forming in front of her. From it, a blast of red light shot out and slammed into her tossing Shalltear back. Mentally she cursed herself for just thinking that she wasn't capable of at least some magic.
Having a Magician for a friend wasn't really just all for nothing. While Remilia wasn't as well versed in magic as Patchouli she had picked up quite a lot of it here and there. The only real issue was how little she had bothered to practice. Something she had slowly been fixing as of late.
Red threads shot out from circles that appeared around her as they reached to bind her opponent. Shalltear immediately took up for the sky as Remilia raised a hand and drew something into the air, lines that vaguely looked like a letter of some kind. Crushing it and then tossing it towards her. It split up midair as they formed into a cross around her.
The symbols reappeared and from them, the air burst open as four beams of dark red, almost black energy came out and hit her from all sides. Shalltear was blasted basically where she stood as she started to feel a negative effect on her body. A debuff of some kind that she immediately realized was affecting her HP and her agility.
"Gandr is a very simple curse but it's one that I found a lot of use for," Remilia commented as she raised her hand quickly writing another rune into the air and crushing it.
From her hand, she let out a blast of red lightning at her opponent which Struck her weakened foe knocking her back. With her teeth gritted Shalltear was going to have to cancel the debuff which was going to cost her MP. With a quick use of a Lesser Restoration, she nullified the curse. "Greater Teleportation!"
Disappearing Shalltear reappeared behind Remilia who just barely had enough time to get out of the way of the attack. Catching her off guard with something like that wasn't easy as Remilia had grown extremely used to people appearing behind her. With a slash of her claws, Remilia let out a magical slash cutting into Shalltear's armor and forcing her back.
Not wasting any more time Remilia thrusted forward with a slicing motion of her spear. Shalltear's reaction was just enough to cause the weapon to only slash through her chest and armor. A smug smirk formed on Remilia's face that was quickly gone as she watched time seem to reverse itself before her eyes as her attack was undone.
'What the…' Remilia's shock was all her foe needed as Shalltear thrust her lance into her stomach. Remilia could feel it trying to take her own energy and on reflex, she tried to resist it before flying back from the strike. She looked at her dress and the wound that had formed.
Such an injury was technically nothing. Youkai were rather sturdy when it came to what could actually kill them and as a vampire, Remilia possessed an innate healing factor on top of it. For Shalltear the healing effects of her lance wasn't as much as she had expected but it would have to do. As for her opponent, the strike hadn't done much of anything and she was certain that the wound looked like it was healing itself before her eyes.
On the other side of the mirror viewing as the fight went down the Floor Guardians and Ainz were practically speechless at the whole event. So far for the former there was a growing thought that the inhabitants of this new world were all pathetic and weak. Partly because of how they viewed things of considerable power seemed to be weaker themselves. Shalltear's state served as something of a wake-up call that someone or something out there was an actual threat. However, there was a difference between knowing and actually seeing something that could be considered a threat.
"Physically. She. Outstrips. Shalltear. In. Strength. And. Speed," Cocytus's observation was hard to deny as every time they clashed physically Shalltear had to move into the defensive. As if to prove his point again the two clashed with Shalltear being the one to react to her opponent's movements. "Though. As. Far. As. Magic. And. Skills. Is. Concerned. Shalltear. Seems. To. Have. The. Edge."
A use of Negative Impact was used to blast the young devil off of her in the mirror as Shalltear attempted to hold her in place with Force Sanctuary. It worked for a few moments before her opponent glowed red and managed to shatter the divine magic barrier with her spear. Shalltear threw a Purifying Javelin at her as that happened which was blocked by a magic circle summoned as some sort of barrier for a moment.
"An edge that doesn't seem to be much of an issue," By the looks of it her magic wasn't Tier Magic like they are used to. Something different and as such completely unknown in how it worked. "Lord Ainz, what do you make of her magical abilities?"
Ainz was pulled out of watching the fight as he tried to recall what had just been said. Truthfully the moment they clashed on even footing, well somewhat even footing, he had watched to figure out just who that was. By his assessment Shalltear was seemingly being overwhelmed physically and her magical abilities were being used to arguably make the fight even. Unlike everyone else who was commenting he was more watching the fight as he tried to figure out what was going on.
"I haven't seen anything like it," None of the spells he recognized. It was like they were seeing a different system of magic that held some visual familiarities but beyond that nothing else. "It's perhaps some sort of magic native to this world."
Something else to think about. A completely different system of magic could very likely lead to issues when facing it. Ainz continued to watch on as the fight continued to be the same as Shalltear was still seemingly on the back foot even if she was holding her own. "How do you all think this fight will end?"
"Shalltear is obviously at a disadvantage and it seems is fighting on the backfoot but I am confident that she will win," A statement that may have sounded crazy given the fight seemed to be going in the favor of the devil. "Shalltear has yet to use Einherjar."
"Vermilion Nova!" At that, a pillar of flames consumed Remilia which caused her to scream. It didn't last long as inside it the pillar waved about before it started to move and was then gathered within her hands of all things! "How the…"
Shalltear didn't get to respond as Remilia managed to reflect the spell right onto her. Having a sister who played with the Sword of Loki and who had an affinity for flames required that she have the means to counter her if the need arose. Shalltear screamed as her spell was used on her. On reflex, she attempted to use her Time Reverse skill again but this time Remilia was ready. With her hand raised she pulled the threads of fate and was able to nullify the effects of the skill.
'What the hell?!' That should have been nigh impossible without a counter-skill of some kind that specifically was meant to stop that.
Remilia raced forward and tried to thrust into Shalltear who in response used Mist Form to take no damage. Remilia turned over in time as Shalltear tried to attack her. Blocking it with her spear she freed one of her hands and at point-blank range blasted her. Shalltear was sent flying into the air and landed with a thud on the ground.
Picking herself back up, Shalltear cursed everything that was going on. She had been losing. She didn't even know how much MP her opponent even had as any spell done to figure it out failed to give her anything. By the looks of it, she still had MP to spare while she was running out.
'I underestimated her,' At this point, she was going to have to unleash her trump card in order to win.
As soon as that thought crossed her mind she activated her skill Einherjar. To Remilia's surprise a copy of Shalltear, seemingly completely pure white, appeared from her and right next to herself. Both Shalltear and Einherjar raced towards Remilia and while Remilia did stop Shalltear's attack she did not stop Einherjar from cutting into her side.
A pulse of red energy burst from Remilia knocking back the both of them for a time. Remilia followed it up with a cut aimed at Shalltear only for Einherjar to take advantage of this to try and attack her from behind. Twirling around in time Remilia got out of the way and jumped backwards creating some distance.
No words are said but it was obvious that the momentum of the battle had changed. With Einherjar Shalltear knew she had the advantage. Sending out Einherjar to attack Remilia Shalltear figured she could use this as a chance to heal herself at least. Remilia blocked the constructs' attacks as she expected to be rushed from the side.
However, it didn't come as she predicted. Instead to the side, she saw a host of creatures being summoned from shadows only for them to immediately be attacked with Shalltear's body slowly healing with each attack. Sacrificing her servants or familiars in a way that seems utterly wasteful and barbaric to Remilia.
Still, there was no way Remilia was going to let her just heal herself. From all around her formed from small magic circles and red threads that tangled up the copy. A temporary solution to the attacking double but that was all she needed. Rocketing towards Shalltear a barrage of spears formed as they took out most of her summoned familiars either directly or forcing them to flee. The Floor Guardian had only a moment to get out of the way as Remilia's spear cut into her side through her armor.
Rolling a bit in midair to reposition herself, Remilia leaped forward as Shalltear blocked the incoming blow. Behind them both Einherjar broke from the bindings and raced to rejoin the fighting. Remilia broke off and flew upwards into the air as the copy failed to make contact. Looking down, Remilia saw as they both immediately turned to pursue her.
Raising her spear upwards arcs of red energy blasted down from the tip that seemed to act almost like lightning down at her foes. Shalltear used the last of her MP to cast Greater Teleportation appearing above her. Remilia broke her spell off to attack and used her wings to get out of the way at the last moment, narrowly dodging the strike aimed at her. Flipping in mid-air she landed on the ground below and looked back up at the both of them.
Remilia slammed the but of her spear into the ground as her energy seemed to explode from around her. A magic circle formed below her as she raised her spear into the air. The energy seemed to arced into the tip of the spear in her hands like a lightning rod.
Shalltear and her Einherjar raced to attack her, hoping to cancel the spell before she could finish it. Remilia brought down the tip into the ground as the gathered energy reacted. The magic circle all around her morphed its shapes into various runes as the energy within the strike was reflected back into it. A cascading effect as the built-up energy turned more violent. Right as Shalltear and her copy moved to strike the stored red energy erupted all around them in a blinding light.
As the light ceased dust and rubble from the ground fell as the clearing was torn apart and made into something better described as a blasted area. The grass in the ground had been burned and destroyed, the soil was blasted apart, and nearby trees had been destroyed almost completely. As the dust and smoke from the epicenter cleared it revealed only one figure still standing. Shalltear looked all around her for any sign of her foe.
That spell had been enough to kill her. Luckily for her then that she had a resurrection item. It had seemed that whatever that spell was it had taken out her opponent as well. A kind of suicidal spell that while not unheard of in Yggdrasil wasn't really used often if at all.
"Well, I must commend her on being willing to die to take me out."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Shalltear was caught off guard as the voice of Remilia spoke up. "But I will not be done in by my own attack."
Overhead the sky darkened as a crimson hue covered it. Reimilia flew there as she looked down at her opponent. Truth be told she hadn't had a fight like this in years, decades even. The last one was against a suicidal vampire hunter. One who could manipulate time and had an affinity for knives. The only person Remilia could say she would trust with her life. Looking at her opponent Remilia for a second could see her fate.
Her ability wasn't something she could truly control. Fate manipulation was really the ability to alter probability and one's actions. Fate was the culmination of one's choices, likely choices, and the possibilities that it created with all that in mind. A very difficult thing to control as some were naturally resistant to or could change it themselves because of an inherent awareness of its pull on some level.
"How strange your fate will continue even after your life's end at my hands."
Shalltear heard her words and had an idea what it might mean. She had died before defending Nazarick only to be brought back by her creator and the other Supreme Beings. She was going to fall and Lord Ainz would revive her. Even she couldn't deny it as her mp reserves were spent while her opponent still had some to spare on top of being physically superior to her.
A conflict of feelings raced in Shalltear's mind at everything. On the knowledge that Ainz might revive her, she felt both hatred, joy, and shame. At her opponent, she felt anger but also respect. Shalltear had made the mistake of thinking this world was filled with weaklings and here comes someone to show that she was wrong. Even if what she said was obvious Shalltear refused to let it happen.
Remilia lunged downwards from the sky as Shalltear found the ground below her breaking as she slid away from her attempt to block the impact. Remilia was quick on the follow-up as she thrusted her spear over and over as Shalltear was only barely able to hold it off.
Finally, it seemed that there was an opening for her to attack in the mess. Trying to thrust her own lance forward it was then where Remilia sprang her trap. Moving to the side Remilia stabbed her spear forward cutting right into Shalltear's forearm tearing through the armor and into the limb. Shalltear pulled her arm back but the loss of feeling was obvious as her weapon fell from her now useless hand.
Gungnir spun within Remilia's hand as she looked at the blood on the spear tip. When she cut into her foe she could smell the blood but didn't have any time to focus as she would immediately retaliate against her. Right now she knew that her enemy was spent and as such could take a moment to realize that her blood was foul. A living undead corpse.
"You're a living corpse of some sort that much is obvious but I don't know the type," Remilia cleaned the blood off with a swing of the weapon. "A Revenant maybe."
Shalltear was a bit insulted by that. She wasn't just some basic undead creature. "I'm a Vampire, a True Vampire!"
"A vampire?" Remilia couldn't suppress a laugh at this. "Please, you're not a vampire for I am one!"
"You're just some kind of devil!"
"An Oni technically, though depending on how one views it that can also be true," It was a nice play on words with the name of her mansion. "Although, I must confess both me and my sister are a bit different from the average even in that regard."
That all rested with the weapon in her hands. An heirloom of her family's bloodline and the reason for both her and her sister being born into the ranks of the bloodsuckers. Tossing her spear into the air Remilia jumped and grabbed onto it and readied the weapon to be thrown turning the spear into a javelin. As she did a demonically malicious and yet also serene and divine red light consumed the weapon. Without the limitations of the spell card rules, she could unleash the true power of the divine spear. For Gungnir was a spear that would never miss its target when thrown no matter the skill of its user or the attempt of its prey to flee. In her other hand, she created a large spare of red energy whose glow complemented the spear's own.
"Taste the fury of my true ancestor, Gungnir!"
The spear was tossed flying from her grasp as in her free hand she let loose the red ball. Shalltear was about to try to get out of the path of the spear yet something in the very back of her mind, a survival instinct that she had only just recently received, knew on some level the futility of it. For Remilia's own nature had been added to the spear to allow it to make its target feel their death, to feel that their fate was sealed the moment she tossed the spear.
The spear ripped right through her chest tearing right through her heart while energy condensed around it ripped through her whole chest. Following behind it Remilia's red energy ball collided with her and in doing so her body was engulfed in the scarlet blast. Overhead the mists parted as Remilia held her hand out as Gungnir returned to it. The broken and torn corpse of her foe lay on the ground. It had been a long time since she really had to kill someone.
Remilia turned her head towards the sky. Having lived in Gensokyo, and even before then, Remilia had gained an understanding of when someone was watching her from afar. During her fight, she had a suspicion this was the case. Holding out her hand she decided to see if this was the case as she cast an anti-divination spell.
Silence gripped the room as they watched Shalltear's corpse lay on the ground. Not only had the young devil managed to fight her on even terms. She had managed to kill her which forced the use of her resurrection item, and on top of all of that she managed to kill Shalltear again with less problems as she still possessed her magic.
To say their expectations had been shattered was an understatement. The Floor Guardians had just watched one of their own fall to what seemed like a native of the New World. In that moment the growing confidence in their strength within this world had somewhat been destroyed. Confirmation of beings in this world that could fight and even kill them did indeed exist.
However, when she managed to terminate the view from the mirror the shock at the end of the fight was replaced with paranoia. Ainz especially so as to him it looked like at first that she wasn't even aware of what had happened but when she terminated the view it made him literally rethink everything. Had she been aware the whole time that they had seen her? Had she gone and fought Shalltear in order to send a message of some sort? Was there more like her or was she just alone?
When his passive activated it tried to null his paranoia but Ainz literally couldn't stop as he tried to rack his mind around this. Most of his rapid thoughts are indeed in paranoia but there were also some parts of him trying to think positively, well probably in denial, about the whole thing. Maybe they weren't possibly tied to whomever had tried to take control of Shalltear and was possibly an enemy of them? If that was the case then attacking her after this was a bad idea.
"Lord Ainz?"
It was only when Albedo called to him did he realize that he had been caught in thought focusing a bit too much on the now turned off mirror. "What is it?"
"Aura and Mare are ready to move in and capture the devil," Albedo informed him as Ainz very quickly thought that was a bad idea. She just revealed that she knew she was being watched!
"What no don't!"
Everyone there looked at him in surprise at his statement. In an instant Ainz realized he might have messed up when he said that. Thinking fast he had to come up with an explanation. Luckily for him he had already thought up a good reason not too in his little worrisome thinking.
"First, she knew that she was being watched which means that she knows that she's expecting us to come after her," Now that he said it that sounded way too believable to not just be some random possibility. "Secondly, Shalltear fought her which means that she isn't the one who did that to her so we have no way of knowing if she is actually our enemy."
His arguments sounded rather weak, especially with his last one as even he didn't fully believe that. Ainz wasn't going to lie if they pushed him on it he was going to have to just give in. "You're right, how could we not have seen it?"
'Wow, they actually agreed with it?'
"Still, this event does reveal something important to note," Demiurge cut in as he cast a glance as the mirror returned to normal showing the blasted landscape with the corpse of Shalltear laying there. "There are indeed individuals in this world that pose a considerable threat."
You know it was a bit difficult in choosing the first interaction between Nazarick and inhabits of Gensokyo and after a few process of elimination I figured that this was the best idea. As for choosing Remilia I did so to give a general idea of the level of some in Gensokyo as her ability isn't directly combat focused, and taking some liberties she gives a good idea how the New World and Gensokyo stack up.
According to Ran, it had seemed that no one was missing from the Human Village, the Myouren Temple, or the Divine Spirit Mausoleum. No one from the Forest of Magic seemed to be missing to their knowledge although that was hard to fully pen down given how she only paid a visit to those with a permanent residence there.
That's where the good news ended, however. The Scarlet Devil Mansion was missing both its mistress and her little sister. Youkai Mountain had a few missing inhabitants but the most notable was Sanae who just up and disappeared right in front of her shrine. Two others were missing from the bamboo forest exactly who was unknown as a few rabbits only told Ran, the fairies around the Misty Lake were in a panic which had to mean one or both of the greater fairies who lived there were missing. The Flower Garden of the Sun was missing its primary caretaker and inhabitant. What stopped Yukari from reading the list was the fact that Okina was one of those that had gone missing as her Servants had revealed in a panic.
One of the Sages of Gensokyo had gotten taken away by this mess somehow. Yukari would have probably laughed at such a thing if it wasn't concerning. "This is just within Gensokyo directly," An emergency meeting was going to need to be called in hopes of getting everything settled down amongst those in Gensokyo. "I can't imagine if this had affected any of the realms directly tied to it."
Her biggest hope was that at most it was isolated to just Gensokyo and them. Otherwise, there was going to be a whole host of headaches to deal with. Some of which are more understanding than others. Speaking of the issue at hand Yukari was certain that with some help she could trace the connection to the future in order to piggyback and force open a pathway to wherever they had ended up.
The only issue for her was that it would require her and two others. Someone who can control time was preferable, something that was easy enough to get as the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion will be willing to help, but also someone who can feel or see the possibilities to ensure they time it right into forcing open a gateway from this lingering connection. Unfortunately, the only person she had on hand that could do so was also one of those missing. That made things more difficult than she had liked but not impossible.
"Ran, I need you to go to Tir Na Nog."
Her shikigami looked surprised to hear that. Tir Na Nog was far out of the way of Gensokyo. The realm that was the homeland of the fairies hidden within the unseen in the British Isles and current residence to the last of the Celtic Gods. "Is there any reason I should go there?"
"I need you to get someone," Probably the only other person she knew who would be willing to help and had the skill set to take the missing position. Otherwise, they are going to have to wing it and hope for the best.
One minute she was with Sakuya enjoying tea in her mansion and not long afterwards she felt something. A shift in the air followed by everything shaking and then the ground below her opening up as she fell into what could be described as a rift. Remilia had no idea what had happened and found herself landed in the middle of a woodland in a small clearing during the middle of the day. Naturally, on instinct, she had gathered her power to resist the sun's rays and race to the shade of the tree but for some reason, she didn't feel the sensation of pain from the sunlight.
Normally, a vampire will feel the pain as the sunlight cooks them into ash. Instead, she only felt mild discomfort. Which was strange as the sun didn't do that normally. Nowhere had it done that. Not back when she lived on the Outside World, Gensokyo, or during her time meeting with her distant relatives.
'I fell through a hole and ended up here,' That brought up a question about where she had even shown up. 'It has to be something that affected most of Gensokyo.'
Speaking of Gensokyo, Remilia noticed something off. In front of her materializing was an ethereal card. Just looking at it was enough to confirm something for Remilia. That the spell card system wasn't in effect at all. Which meant that wherever this was she was back to going about things in the old way of how things had been done. Alone as well which was something that Remilia hadn't really done in a long time. Only the clothes on her back and her spear which she always had on her for defense with her.
Looking around her immediate area Remilia noticed something that was very telling. It was faint, probably difficult to tell as someone had tried to hide the evidence, but a group of people had died here. Remilia had learned via necessity back when she lived in the late Middle Ages. Whoever did it only did enough to make it not so obvious. Likely hoping for the natural processes of the world to hide it. Turning away from the scene of what was probably a mass murder Remilia thought about what to do next.
Getting back home was an issue but she was certain that whatever had happened would be solved. It had to be because unfortunately for her she had no real way to return home on her own power. 'Maybe I can ask Patchi about that when I get back.'
After a few minutes of wandering in a random direction, Remilia was greeted with a larger clearing. Where she could see something, no someone, just standing there motionless. Her outfit reminded Remilia of a young noble lady. In her hands was a strange-looking thing that Remilia thought had the appearance of a lance of some sort. Deciding to get closer she could tell that she wasn't human.
"Who are you and why are you standing in the middle of nowhere?"
No response was given. In fact, there was no acknowledgment of her presence. She just stood there looking down like some kind of standing doll. Remilia was somewhat annoyed by the refusal to acknowledge her, and a bit put off by it as well. Something was wrong with her and Remilia was curious as to why. Either it was someone's ability or perhaps a spell.
Looking at her eyes from where she was it had seemed as if she was in a trance. Yet, something was off about this. "What I wouldn't give to have Patchi here though I wonder."
As she was about to touch her in the side of her vision Remilia caught that her lance thing moved and was aimed at her. With a flap of her wings, she moved back away from her. "Well, that's…"
Her outfit had suddenly changed in an instant. Almost like some kind of spell or perhaps this was her ability. "What do we have here?"
Shalltear Bloodfallen looked at the "little girl" before her. The wings coming out of her back was the most obvious trait that dismissed her rather human-like appearance overall. If Shalltear could take a guess she was probably a devil of some kind. 'She's not from Nazarick, that's obvious.'
Even if she didn't know everything in there personally she knew enough that no sort of devil or demon like her. She was a native of this world and probably liked so many of them so far, probably beneath her notice. "I wonder what a weak devil was hoping to accomplish in trying to attack me."
"Weak devil?" Remilia had been called many things. Weak wasn't one of them given that vampires are a naturally strong youkai. "You attempt to attack me and you call me weak?"
"Of course."
Remilia was insulted to even hear this. She was Remilia Scarlet, Mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She was someone to be feared and respected and here was this little upstart calling her weak. Remilia held out her hands as the spear gungnir appeared, answering her call. Pointing the weapon toward the newly armored girl. When this is all said and done she will regret those words.
"How did she get past the perimeter that Aura and Mare are supposed to set up around Shalltear?" No one could give him an answer and to be honest, Ainz really didn't think there even was one.
Aura's beasts were patrolling the perimeter that he had given her. The only way around it was to teleport or gate here. Which was the only way passed though he was somewhat certain that no one who could possibly do that would show up. Except of course, for whomever had done what had happened to Shalltear. Even then he didn't expect them to show up.
"She looks to be a young devil of some sort," Demiurge commented as it was kind of hard not to notice the very presence of wings on her back. "I can't make out what she is saying."
The mirror wasn't about to translate the conversation. Nor was it located in such a way to try to read lips. As the young devil got closer to Shalltear Ainz was conflicted on if they should interfere. Taking a gamble he decided it was best to watch and see what happened. 'If she's the culprit I can use Greater Teleportation to be there in front of them in no time while the other Floor Guardians will follow me.'
It wasn't a very sound plan of attack but getting the surprise drop on someone was as good a plan as any now. He couldn't double back and get all that he wanted for this fight without them getting away. In the mirror, he watched as his answer was given to him.
Shalltear attacked and the devil had to jump back. A few words are exchanged before the devil summoned a long red spear. Finally, they charged forward and to the immediate surprise of everyone present the first clash didn't end in the death of the devil. In fact, if Ainz was honest judging by the footwork of Shalltear, she seemed to be the one struggling in the clash.
Shaltear had expected nothing much from the winged girl, probably a devil of some kind, in front of her. So, far everyone that the inhabitants of the Tomb of Nazarick had faced in this world were weak and pathetic. Sure, she had dodged her first swing but to be honest that was more her putting in as much effort as she expected was necessary. Even this fight was expected to be rather easy as she expected to easily overpower this girl.
At the first clash, she was proved wrong immediately and soon she found herself fighting defensively when it came to the physical front. This little girl who she expected to be nothing wasn't just stronger than her physically but was also faster than her! When she tried to break and get some distance to counter-attack she closed it at a speed that Shalltear knew she didn't possess. Her attacks, rather her counterattacks as the momentum was on her opponent's side, were deflected and blocked, almost expertly though there was some degree of sloppiness. Like she had untold years of combat experience and training but had neglected it at one point relying on faded muscle memory.
Shalltear used Force Explosion to send a shockwave knocking Remilia back and into the air. If she couldn't overcome her on the physical front then she was going to try on the magical side. "Implosion!"
Remilia could feel her whole body tremble as something was trying to collapse her body. It hurt but to be honest, Remilia can overcome it. With a gasp of pain, she endured it and looked down. The magic didn't seem like anything she had seen, and with Patchouli she had seen a lot. Shalltear who was viewing this was able to gain an idea as to the possible level of her opponent.
'Probably in the nineties at the very least,' She knew from talk amongst her creators that levels didn't technically mean everything, one's build did, but it did give a general idea of the threat of the foe. Still, compared to like everything else they had faced so far, and believed such a thing was in itself worthy of respect.
Shalltear's surprise was added on as the devil waved her hand with a magic circle forming in front of her. From it, a blast of red light shot out and slammed into her tossing Shalltear back. Mentally she cursed herself for just thinking that she wasn't capable of at least some magic.
Having a Magician for a friend wasn't really just all for nothing. While Remilia wasn't as well versed in magic as Patchouli she had picked up quite a lot of it here and there. The only real issue was how little she had bothered to practice. Something she had slowly been fixing as of late.
Red threads shot out from circles that appeared around her as they reached to bind her opponent. Shalltear immediately took up for the sky as Remilia raised a hand and drew something into the air, lines that vaguely looked like a letter of some kind. Crushing it and then tossing it towards her. It split up midair as they formed into a cross around her.
The symbols reappeared and from them, the air burst open as four beams of dark red, almost black energy came out and hit her from all sides. Shalltear was blasted basically where she stood as she started to feel a negative effect on her body. A debuff of some kind that she immediately realized was affecting her HP and her agility.
"Gandr is a very simple curse but it's one that I found a lot of use for," Remilia commented as she raised her hand quickly writing another rune into the air and crushing it.
From her hand, she let out a blast of red lightning at her opponent which Struck her weakened foe knocking her back. With her teeth gritted Shalltear was going to have to cancel the debuff which was going to cost her MP. With a quick use of a Lesser Restoration, she nullified the curse. "Greater Teleportation!"
Disappearing Shalltear reappeared behind Remilia who just barely had enough time to get out of the way of the attack. Catching her off guard with something like that wasn't easy as Remilia had grown extremely used to people appearing behind her. With a slash of her claws, Remilia let out a magical slash cutting into Shalltear's armor and forcing her back.
Not wasting any more time Remilia thrusted forward with a slicing motion of her spear. Shalltear's reaction was just enough to cause the weapon to only slash through her chest and armor. A smug smirk formed on Remilia's face that was quickly gone as she watched time seem to reverse itself before her eyes as her attack was undone.
'What the…' Remilia's shock was all her foe needed as Shalltear thrust her lance into her stomach. Remilia could feel it trying to take her own energy and on reflex, she tried to resist it before flying back from the strike. She looked at her dress and the wound that had formed.
Such an injury was technically nothing. Youkai were rather sturdy when it came to what could actually kill them and as a vampire, Remilia possessed an innate healing factor on top of it. For Shalltear the healing effects of her lance wasn't as much as she had expected but it would have to do. As for her opponent, the strike hadn't done much of anything and she was certain that the wound looked like it was healing itself before her eyes.
On the other side of the mirror viewing as the fight went down the Floor Guardians and Ainz were practically speechless at the whole event. So far for the former there was a growing thought that the inhabitants of this new world were all pathetic and weak. Partly because of how they viewed things of considerable power seemed to be weaker themselves. Shalltear's state served as something of a wake-up call that someone or something out there was an actual threat. However, there was a difference between knowing and actually seeing something that could be considered a threat.
"Physically. She. Outstrips. Shalltear. In. Strength. And. Speed," Cocytus's observation was hard to deny as every time they clashed physically Shalltear had to move into the defensive. As if to prove his point again the two clashed with Shalltear being the one to react to her opponent's movements. "Though. As. Far. As. Magic. And. Skills. Is. Concerned. Shalltear. Seems. To. Have. The. Edge."
A use of Negative Impact was used to blast the young devil off of her in the mirror as Shalltear attempted to hold her in place with Force Sanctuary. It worked for a few moments before her opponent glowed red and managed to shatter the divine magic barrier with her spear. Shalltear threw a Purifying Javelin at her as that happened which was blocked by a magic circle summoned as some sort of barrier for a moment.
"An edge that doesn't seem to be much of an issue," By the looks of it her magic wasn't Tier Magic like they are used to. Something different and as such completely unknown in how it worked. "Lord Ainz, what do you make of her magical abilities?"
Ainz was pulled out of watching the fight as he tried to recall what had just been said. Truthfully the moment they clashed on even footing, well somewhat even footing, he had watched to figure out just who that was. By his assessment Shalltear was seemingly being overwhelmed physically and her magical abilities were being used to arguably make the fight even. Unlike everyone else who was commenting he was more watching the fight as he tried to figure out what was going on.
"I haven't seen anything like it," None of the spells he recognized. It was like they were seeing a different system of magic that held some visual familiarities but beyond that nothing else. "It's perhaps some sort of magic native to this world."
Something else to think about. A completely different system of magic could very likely lead to issues when facing it. Ainz continued to watch on as the fight continued to be the same as Shalltear was still seemingly on the back foot even if she was holding her own. "How do you all think this fight will end?"
"Shalltear is obviously at a disadvantage and it seems is fighting on the backfoot but I am confident that she will win," A statement that may have sounded crazy given the fight seemed to be going in the favor of the devil. "Shalltear has yet to use Einherjar."
"Vermilion Nova!" At that, a pillar of flames consumed Remilia which caused her to scream. It didn't last long as inside it the pillar waved about before it started to move and was then gathered within her hands of all things! "How the…"
Shalltear didn't get to respond as Remilia managed to reflect the spell right onto her. Having a sister who played with the Sword of Loki and who had an affinity for flames required that she have the means to counter her if the need arose. Shalltear screamed as her spell was used on her. On reflex, she attempted to use her Time Reverse skill again but this time Remilia was ready. With her hand raised she pulled the threads of fate and was able to nullify the effects of the skill.
'What the hell?!' That should have been nigh impossible without a counter-skill of some kind that specifically was meant to stop that.
Remilia raced forward and tried to thrust into Shalltear who in response used Mist Form to take no damage. Remilia turned over in time as Shalltear tried to attack her. Blocking it with her spear she freed one of her hands and at point-blank range blasted her. Shalltear was sent flying into the air and landed with a thud on the ground.
Picking herself back up, Shalltear cursed everything that was going on. She had been losing. She didn't even know how much MP her opponent even had as any spell done to figure it out failed to give her anything. By the looks of it, she still had MP to spare while she was running out.
'I underestimated her,' At this point, she was going to have to unleash her trump card in order to win.
As soon as that thought crossed her mind she activated her skill Einherjar. To Remilia's surprise a copy of Shalltear, seemingly completely pure white, appeared from her and right next to herself. Both Shalltear and Einherjar raced towards Remilia and while Remilia did stop Shalltear's attack she did not stop Einherjar from cutting into her side.
A pulse of red energy burst from Remilia knocking back the both of them for a time. Remilia followed it up with a cut aimed at Shalltear only for Einherjar to take advantage of this to try and attack her from behind. Twirling around in time Remilia got out of the way and jumped backwards creating some distance.
No words are said but it was obvious that the momentum of the battle had changed. With Einherjar Shalltear knew she had the advantage. Sending out Einherjar to attack Remilia Shalltear figured she could use this as a chance to heal herself at least. Remilia blocked the constructs' attacks as she expected to be rushed from the side.
However, it didn't come as she predicted. Instead to the side, she saw a host of creatures being summoned from shadows only for them to immediately be attacked with Shalltear's body slowly healing with each attack. Sacrificing her servants or familiars in a way that seems utterly wasteful and barbaric to Remilia.
Still, there was no way Remilia was going to let her just heal herself. From all around her formed from small magic circles and red threads that tangled up the copy. A temporary solution to the attacking double but that was all she needed. Rocketing towards Shalltear a barrage of spears formed as they took out most of her summoned familiars either directly or forcing them to flee. The Floor Guardian had only a moment to get out of the way as Remilia's spear cut into her side through her armor.
Rolling a bit in midair to reposition herself, Remilia leaped forward as Shalltear blocked the incoming blow. Behind them both Einherjar broke from the bindings and raced to rejoin the fighting. Remilia broke off and flew upwards into the air as the copy failed to make contact. Looking down, Remilia saw as they both immediately turned to pursue her.
Raising her spear upwards arcs of red energy blasted down from the tip that seemed to act almost like lightning down at her foes. Shalltear used the last of her MP to cast Greater Teleportation appearing above her. Remilia broke her spell off to attack and used her wings to get out of the way at the last moment, narrowly dodging the strike aimed at her. Flipping in mid-air she landed on the ground below and looked back up at the both of them.
Remilia slammed the but of her spear into the ground as her energy seemed to explode from around her. A magic circle formed below her as she raised her spear into the air. The energy seemed to arced into the tip of the spear in her hands like a lightning rod.
Shalltear and her Einherjar raced to attack her, hoping to cancel the spell before she could finish it. Remilia brought down the tip into the ground as the gathered energy reacted. The magic circle all around her morphed its shapes into various runes as the energy within the strike was reflected back into it. A cascading effect as the built-up energy turned more violent. Right as Shalltear and her copy moved to strike the stored red energy erupted all around them in a blinding light.
As the light ceased dust and rubble from the ground fell as the clearing was torn apart and made into something better described as a blasted area. The grass in the ground had been burned and destroyed, the soil was blasted apart, and nearby trees had been destroyed almost completely. As the dust and smoke from the epicenter cleared it revealed only one figure still standing. Shalltear looked all around her for any sign of her foe.
That spell had been enough to kill her. Luckily for her then that she had a resurrection item. It had seemed that whatever that spell was it had taken out her opponent as well. A kind of suicidal spell that while not unheard of in Yggdrasil wasn't really used often if at all.
"Well, I must commend her on being willing to die to take me out."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Shalltear was caught off guard as the voice of Remilia spoke up. "But I will not be done in by my own attack."
Overhead the sky darkened as a crimson hue covered it. Reimilia flew there as she looked down at her opponent. Truth be told she hadn't had a fight like this in years, decades even. The last one was against a suicidal vampire hunter. One who could manipulate time and had an affinity for knives. The only person Remilia could say she would trust with her life. Looking at her opponent Remilia for a second could see her fate.
Her ability wasn't something she could truly control. Fate manipulation was really the ability to alter probability and one's actions. Fate was the culmination of one's choices, likely choices, and the possibilities that it created with all that in mind. A very difficult thing to control as some were naturally resistant to or could change it themselves because of an inherent awareness of its pull on some level.
"How strange your fate will continue even after your life's end at my hands."
Shalltear heard her words and had an idea what it might mean. She had died before defending Nazarick only to be brought back by her creator and the other Supreme Beings. She was going to fall and Lord Ainz would revive her. Even she couldn't deny it as her mp reserves were spent while her opponent still had some to spare on top of being physically superior to her.
A conflict of feelings raced in Shalltear's mind at everything. On the knowledge that Ainz might revive her, she felt both hatred, joy, and shame. At her opponent, she felt anger but also respect. Shalltear had made the mistake of thinking this world was filled with weaklings and here comes someone to show that she was wrong. Even if what she said was obvious Shalltear refused to let it happen.
Remilia lunged downwards from the sky as Shalltear found the ground below her breaking as she slid away from her attempt to block the impact. Remilia was quick on the follow-up as she thrusted her spear over and over as Shalltear was only barely able to hold it off.
Finally, it seemed that there was an opening for her to attack in the mess. Trying to thrust her own lance forward it was then where Remilia sprang her trap. Moving to the side Remilia stabbed her spear forward cutting right into Shalltear's forearm tearing through the armor and into the limb. Shalltear pulled her arm back but the loss of feeling was obvious as her weapon fell from her now useless hand.
Gungnir spun within Remilia's hand as she looked at the blood on the spear tip. When she cut into her foe she could smell the blood but didn't have any time to focus as she would immediately retaliate against her. Right now she knew that her enemy was spent and as such could take a moment to realize that her blood was foul. A living undead corpse.
"You're a living corpse of some sort that much is obvious but I don't know the type," Remilia cleaned the blood off with a swing of the weapon. "A Revenant maybe."
Shalltear was a bit insulted by that. She wasn't just some basic undead creature. "I'm a Vampire, a True Vampire!"
"A vampire?" Remilia couldn't suppress a laugh at this. "Please, you're not a vampire for I am one!"
"You're just some kind of devil!"
"An Oni technically, though depending on how one views it that can also be true," It was a nice play on words with the name of her mansion. "Although, I must confess both me and my sister are a bit different from the average even in that regard."
That all rested with the weapon in her hands. An heirloom of her family's bloodline and the reason for both her and her sister being born into the ranks of the bloodsuckers. Tossing her spear into the air Remilia jumped and grabbed onto it and readied the weapon to be thrown turning the spear into a javelin. As she did a demonically malicious and yet also serene and divine red light consumed the weapon. Without the limitations of the spell card rules, she could unleash the true power of the divine spear. For Gungnir was a spear that would never miss its target when thrown no matter the skill of its user or the attempt of its prey to flee. In her other hand, she created a large spare of red energy whose glow complemented the spear's own.
"Taste the fury of my true ancestor, Gungnir!"
The spear was tossed flying from her grasp as in her free hand she let loose the red ball. Shalltear was about to try to get out of the path of the spear yet something in the very back of her mind, a survival instinct that she had only just recently received, knew on some level the futility of it. For Remilia's own nature had been added to the spear to allow it to make its target feel their death, to feel that their fate was sealed the moment she tossed the spear.
The spear ripped right through her chest tearing right through her heart while energy condensed around it ripped through her whole chest. Following behind it Remilia's red energy ball collided with her and in doing so her body was engulfed in the scarlet blast. Overhead the mists parted as Remilia held her hand out as Gungnir returned to it. The broken and torn corpse of her foe lay on the ground. It had been a long time since she really had to kill someone.
Remilia turned her head towards the sky. Having lived in Gensokyo, and even before then, Remilia had gained an understanding of when someone was watching her from afar. During her fight, she had a suspicion this was the case. Holding out her hand she decided to see if this was the case as she cast an anti-divination spell.
Silence gripped the room as they watched Shalltear's corpse lay on the ground. Not only had the young devil managed to fight her on even terms. She had managed to kill her which forced the use of her resurrection item, and on top of all of that she managed to kill Shalltear again with less problems as she still possessed her magic.
To say their expectations had been shattered was an understatement. The Floor Guardians had just watched one of their own fall to what seemed like a native of the New World. In that moment the growing confidence in their strength within this world had somewhat been destroyed. Confirmation of beings in this world that could fight and even kill them did indeed exist.
However, when she managed to terminate the view from the mirror the shock at the end of the fight was replaced with paranoia. Ainz especially so as to him it looked like at first that she wasn't even aware of what had happened but when she terminated the view it made him literally rethink everything. Had she been aware the whole time that they had seen her? Had she gone and fought Shalltear in order to send a message of some sort? Was there more like her or was she just alone?
When his passive activated it tried to null his paranoia but Ainz literally couldn't stop as he tried to rack his mind around this. Most of his rapid thoughts are indeed in paranoia but there were also some parts of him trying to think positively, well probably in denial, about the whole thing. Maybe they weren't possibly tied to whomever had tried to take control of Shalltear and was possibly an enemy of them? If that was the case then attacking her after this was a bad idea.
"Lord Ainz?"
It was only when Albedo called to him did he realize that he had been caught in thought focusing a bit too much on the now turned off mirror. "What is it?"
"Aura and Mare are ready to move in and capture the devil," Albedo informed him as Ainz very quickly thought that was a bad idea. She just revealed that she knew she was being watched!
"What no don't!"
Everyone there looked at him in surprise at his statement. In an instant Ainz realized he might have messed up when he said that. Thinking fast he had to come up with an explanation. Luckily for him he had already thought up a good reason not too in his little worrisome thinking.
"First, she knew that she was being watched which means that she knows that she's expecting us to come after her," Now that he said it that sounded way too believable to not just be some random possibility. "Secondly, Shalltear fought her which means that she isn't the one who did that to her so we have no way of knowing if she is actually our enemy."
His arguments sounded rather weak, especially with his last one as even he didn't fully believe that. Ainz wasn't going to lie if they pushed him on it he was going to have to just give in. "You're right, how could we not have seen it?"
'Wow, they actually agreed with it?'
"Still, this event does reveal something important to note," Demiurge cut in as he cast a glance as the mirror returned to normal showing the blasted landscape with the corpse of Shalltear laying there. "There are indeed individuals in this world that pose a considerable threat."
You know it was a bit difficult in choosing the first interaction between Nazarick and inhabits of Gensokyo and after a few process of elimination I figured that this was the best idea. As for choosing Remilia I did so to give a general idea of the level of some in Gensokyo as her ability isn't directly combat focused, and taking some liberties she gives a good idea how the New World and Gensokyo stack up.
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Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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She isn't immune to the sun as much its negative effects are basically livable. However, thats meant to hint to something far down the line that doesn't just concern her down the line.
bobking01
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
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Pretty good fight scene, not too much detail but it wasn't skimmed over either. Only issue is that some words and sentences seem incomplete and you need a line break between scene transitions.
Blue Glass
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God danm it I just now realize it. Well, thats what I get for assuming the line breaks get copied from my Google doc like on Fanfiction.net.
Enuma666
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the story is pretty good so far, it's nice that an author doesn't put nazarick as the best in everything, I've seen overlord fanfic crossing with marvel, fate and other series where they always put Ainz as the strongest, they are worse than the others fanfic from naruto
Blue Glass
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Never understood why people would do that. Its rather dumb and ignores how things can work out when two drastically different systems fight.
Fun fact, originally this fight was supposed to be Flandre versus Shalltear but as I wrote it I realized that despite her ability Flandre might very well lose because of her lack of any real magical ability outside of the spellcards and if she didn't immediately overwhelm Shalltear. Which yes, one can argue she very well could do but I figured that Remilia was the better option.
Mage King
Not too sore, are you?
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I
Its mostly either authors not understanding the magic systems or just overlord fanboys
Blue Glass
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I can understand people having a hard time with the Nasuverse system as it really is a bunch of concepts, counter concepts, and is riddled with exceptions and contradictions unless you look into it. Beyond that yeah it has to be overlord wanking which ruins so much of it.
Enuma666
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I don't know if I remember but Flandre, like almost all Touho girls, has a hax? In this case, hers is the destruction where they only have to visualize their objective in an eye that appears in their hand and then crushes it, I remember that in some forums she was strong enough to easily destroy a meteorite. It really created that most Touhou girls wouldn't have much trouble dealing with the guardians or Ainz, there was a reason for card dueling, so everyone had a chance to defend themselves.
Blue Glass
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Touhou abilities shown in canon can be seen as limited to circumstances to having very little restrictions. Remilia seems to lean more to the former while Flandre leans more to the later. The spell cards do mitigate that issue but in this story everyone who enters the New World from Gensokyo's end loses the spell cards.
Something important to remember is that a lot of Touhou characters are kind of roudblocked by their ability and don't have much in the way to compensate for when they need to do something else. Of course, one can argue for most that doesn't matter as you can brute force your way through a lot.
HellLord
He Who Walks Beyond
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It doesn't matter how few options you have, when the one you have is a nuke.
AFAIK, at best, Ygdrassil max level characters could match the top tier Touhou characters because the Touhou characters are out of practice with real combat, but that only works if they don't have an "I win" power (Flandre, Yukari, Suika, Kaguya, etc.) or fuckoff levels of power such that being rusty does not matter (Hecatia, Yuuki, Utsuho, etc). Some Touhou characters could be weak to the tricks Ygdrassil players pull, but I can also see them bullying death until they get revived.
Chapter 2
Blue Glass
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Collecting Shalltear's corpse and planning to revive her wasn't much of an issue for Ainz. No, the real issue that seemed to dominate the Tomb of Nazarick was the aftermath of what this fight had entitled. A loss of the feeling of superiority that had slowly been growing within some of their minds. Ainz, however, was at an impasse on what exactly to do. His first thought was to try to track down the devil girl and maybe figure some things out. On the other hand, he could see how Nazarick was reacting to what she had done and represented. There was paranoia and a desire to ready the Tomb for the possibility of being attacked.
'Seriously, the lockdown turned into preparation for war,' Reviving Shalltear was put on hold for a moment as they did want to see if there was anything they could get that could tell them about the devil's weapon. For Ainz it seemed rather pointless but he could tell the Floor Guardians are a bit more wound up.
That wasn't to say he was mellow himself. Far from it as Ainz kind of felt more vindicated than ever at being as cautious as he was. The only real issue was that he kind of had to watch out not only for himself but for the whole Tomb. For a moment he wondered how different everything would be if he had come with nothing but himself.
'If it was such a thing I might have a more difficult time,' He thought about everything he had on hand with the Tomb versus just being alone. There was also the fact he wouldn't have anyone with him.
Ainz pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. Walking into the throne room he saw that the Floor Guardians had gathered around and were already talking amongst themselves. As soon as he entered they ceased whatever they were talking about as soon as they saw him walking in. He had only caught the tail end of that conversation but it seemed to concern their little mystery.
"What were you all talking about?"
"We can't seem to locate the devil that took out Shalltear," That wasn't surprising. After the end of the fight, all the focus had turned more on getting Shalltear back and seeing if no one else had ended up attracted by the fact the sky turned red. "Nor have we come up from anything in the aftermath to give us an idea of how she did it."
Given it was some sort of native ability that they might not even be able to possess it didn't come as a surprise. All of which Ainz felt was to be expected. "I see," This also meant that there wasn't any reason not to resurrect Shalltear. 'I wonder if she'll remember anything when I do so?'
He hadn't tried to bring the dead back to life. Well, fully to life as he already knew about what happens when undead are summoned. Although, it could be different with Shalltear as he still had access to some of the systems of the Tomb despite not being in Yggdrasil. Ainz decided to file testing his ability to resurrect the dead on the natives for later.
"As it stands we should cease the lockdown of the Great Tomb of Nazarick," Prolonging it was only going to further make things difficult as is. "As for the devil, it's obvious that we lost her so it is best to continue as is but be much more careful with our interactions with the world."
Claiming the credit for killing Shalltear, or Honyopenyoko as he had told them, wasn't exactly difficult. It felt wrong given it wasn't his accomplishment but they had assumed it was so. Although, he did have to bullshit why the sky had been covered in a red mist. Yeah, that red mist the devil had unleashed managed to be seen by some travelers and was even visible according to some in the city. On the note, it turned out Shalltear had no memory of the whole thing which made the fact she had been defeated and killed by the devil a complete shock to her.
Regardless of the fact in the end he and Narberal, or as they are known Momon and Nabe, had become Adamantite adventurers. The highest level within the Adventurers Guild and walking around for the first two days was rather noticeable in how everyone treated them. Looks of awe and reverence were clear from most people. From other adventurers, there was clear envy and respect. Today though something else seems to have taken everyone's attention.
"Flying really?"
"Yeah, she just flew over the city clear as day."
"A girl landed near the mayor's
"My brother's a guard, he said that she's a foreign representative."
"A representative from where?"
The city was practically talking amongst themselves and it wasn't exactly hard to overhear them. E-Rantel also didn't play host to many foreign representatives, envoys would usually head for the capital directly after all, so this was a rather big deal to the population. Ainz could admit that he was curious about who it was but on the other hand, it didn't concern him right now. He had a lot more on his plate right now.
As he and Narberal walked into the Adventurers Guild building they could see a few of the city guards talking to the lady over the counter. Catching sight of them she pointed to the both of them as the guards walked up to him. "Sir Momon, Lady Nabe the mayor wishes to speak with both of you."
"Might I ask what is the reason for the good mayor to summon us?"
"His guest wishes to meet our city's great Adamantine adventurers so we are sent to fetch you, sir," With the guard's answer it seemed to Ainz that he was going to meet the representative who had the whole city talking.
"Very, well we won't keep them waiting."
A medieval fantasy world straight out of an RPG. That was the sort of place that Sumireko had found herself in. Tsaindorcus was rather helpful with getting her acquainted with the world and even helped her with getting settled into the place. Naturally, seeing how she was stuck here for the foreseeable future he decided to see about making her officially a diplomatic representative of the Argland Council State. A means so he could keep in touch with her while she explored the world without much issue. A bit strange that someone with no training or experience was being made such but hey not like she was complaining.
"To be perfectly honest I hadn't expected that you would come all the way here just to meet with adventurers," The mayor of E-Rantel Panasolei Gruze Day Rettenmaier, a rather portly man, took a sip of some tea. "It seems rather strange for a diplomatic representative to be interested in such things."
The only snag in her new role was that she was technically speaking having to represent a country. Sure, Tsaindorcus did give her a means to directly contact him if she needed it, but she didn't want to immediately use it all the same. "Well, I heard about two new rising stars who managed to make the Adamantine rank in a short time, you know."
"Oh, yes Darkness," Panasolei had expected that word had already been spreading about that across the kingdom. Raising through the ranks as fast as they had done was something that was of considerable note. "They had only recently made the rank after defeating a vampire by the name of Honyopenyoko I believe."
Sumireko wanted to laugh at how ridiculous that name was. It sounded fake to her like someone came up with it on the fly without any real thought put into it. Although, given she was in a new world the name might be real for all she knew. As for the name of the adventurer group, it sounded uncreative. If you ask her she could probably have come up with a far better name.
Walking into the room came the guards that the mayor had sent to fetch the adventurers and following behind them were two individuals who had to be the adventurers that made up the group with the uncreative name of Darkness. The first one to Sumireko was a man, at least she was certain was a man, wearing a full suit of black armor that covered him from head to toe. Next to him was a black-haired woman that Sumireko could admit was rather beautiful.
Having spent some time practicing she had tried to feel the surface emotions of people. Trying it on both of them the results were unexpected. For the woman there was disgust, and hatred hidden under what was a thin veil of calmness. Her neutral expression didn't match up though it was likely she could control her emotions. As for the armored man, she felt nothing. Well, it was nothing, there was dullness to his emotions that gave off the feeling of nothing. Like he wasn't even alive!
"Ah, Sir Momon and Lady Nabe it's good to see the both of you," Panasolei spoke up as Sumireko filed the strange feeling for later. "My guest here had been asked to meet you both so I apologize for any trouble this might have given you both."
"It's nothing really, we don't have anything important to do anyway," At least nothing important as adventurers. "I was told that you and your guest wanted to see us, sir?"
Panasolei motioned to the young woman who had not spoken. "Indeed, allow her to introduce herself."
"Sabrina Luminaria, representative for the Argland Council State," Sumireko introduced with a somewhat overly dramatic bow.
The pseudonym was something that Tsaindorcus had come up with as her name was kind of one that didn't exactly fit with humans around here. Their names sounded something that was mostly European or what vaguely sounded such. Although, apparently from what he recalled there was an island nation with names that sounded much like her own. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the continent, a lot of hostile races blocked the two, and he really only knew about it because one of his fellow Dragon Lords had been there.
Ainz had heard a bit about the Argland Council State. From what he had gathered it was a nation that was ruled over by five dragons with an assortment of races underneath them to the north of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Arguably given such a thing he didn't expect the first person he would officially meet to be a human who back home wouldn't be much older than maybe sixteen or seventeen.
"I must admit it seems strange for a representative of another country to come all this way to E-Rantel," A fortress city didn't seem like someplace for a representative of another country after all. 'Perhaps something else is behind this?'
Could she be here because of a diplomatic visit to another country and was just stopping by? That was a plausible explanation though a nagging thought had it that she was possibly here because of the young devil. If it was the last reason then that would raise another question.
"Oh, I was on my way to meet with the envoy of the Argland Council State to the Dragon Kingdom when I heard about two new Adamantine adventurers and I figured I could stop by to say hello," That wasn't a lie though it wasn't the full truth. Sure, she had heard about them but she wanted to test something given how suspicious it was that they had risen through the tanks this quickly. "If it's no bother mind if you show me your power in a bit of a spar?"
A forest. One moment she was within the Garden of the Sun and the next she was here standing in the middle of some forest. All because something opened up within the Getting her bearings for a second, Yuuka could feel a faint void in nature nearby. Looking around she tried to make sense of where she currently was. She knew what some of the trees were but their placement around her was enough to know she wasn't in Gensokyo or even Japan for that matter.
Of course, this fact was probably difficult to pick up for most humans, and youkai. For ones like her who held a deep connection to the natural world such a thing was very obvious. Beyond that, the feeling of nature around her was slightly off. The difference between how things felt was akin to looking through a fog that didn't stop you from looking at everything but changed the colors of everything around you. Which made this very obvious to her that she wasn't in the Outside World but probably some place completely different.
'Whoever did this is going to be on Yukari's hit list,' Yuuka was almost certain that all of Gensokyo had been hit by what had happened to her and her home the Garden of the Sun. Yuuka's eyes narrowed as for a brief second the air around her was seemingly overcome by murderous intent. 'There better not be any damage to my garden.'
Unlikely that anyone would be willing to damage her flowers. The few fairies that lived in the Garden of the Sun are rather competent in not causing any terrible damage and any youkai in Gensokyo knew better than to piss off one of the strongest inhabitants. Was it possible that whoever did this had damaged her garden or will it be damaged by something else while she was away? Yes, and Yuuka would destroy them if she found that out.
Moving deeper into the forest she started to notice a lack of animals of any kind. From the small woodland creatures to even insects that tend to cover the world around them. It was as if everything in nature was running away from something. That is all except for Yuuka and one other entity that Yuuka felt watching her.
Closing her parasol she pointed the tip at it right at where she knew the watcher was. "Come out now."
Coming out from behind the forests was a green wooden-skinned woman with leaves for hair. Yuuka was almost taken aback at the appearance, not because of fear or disgust, but actually, because it had been almost three hundred years since she saw a youkai whose appearance wasn't generally humanish. In the centuries leading up to Gensokyo's creation most who could either because it was their natural state or via shapeshifting/magic/ability/raw force of will took on human-like forms. Those who couldn't or refused to either were hunted down or fled to other realms. The being in front of Yuuka seemed to be one of the latter which was something she hadn't heard of from anywhere in Gensokyo or from the realms tied to it.
A silence came as the unknown woman stood out in front of Yuuka, a bit surprised that she had managed to catch her watching her. Yuuka though had enough awareness of the world around her via her own nature that locating her was rather easy. Especially with all the nature around her.
"Who are you?" Yuuka rested her parasol on her shoulder as she looked at the woman. "You're not human that much is obvious."
"I'm Pinison Pol Perlia a dryad and you shouldn't go that way if you value your life."
Pinison's words made Yuuka look at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. The first thing was that she was supposed to be a dryad. Appearance-wise she did fit some kind of old fantasy book idea of it but Yuuka knew that dryads didn't look like that. No nymph looked literally like whatever they embodied and Yuuka should know. As for the latter half, it sounded like a warning for her life. Giving the feeling in nature she could feel it had to be caused by something.
"Why is is that?"
Everything about this was just kind of ridiculous and yet it was indeed happening. The representative from the Argland Council State wanted to see what they are made of and seemed like she would take no for an answer. Giving a small show wasn't really all that much of a bother and so he agreed to it. Sabrina had asked if there was some place they could do so and unfortunately, the only place that could be picked was outside the city.
That wasn't the ridiculous part. No, it came about when the representative wanted to be the one they would fight with. "Are you sure about this?"
Trying to convince her that it was possibly a bad idea was something that Ainz and the mayor of E-Rantel had been trying to get her to rethink. Yet, she just seemed to not care at all and seemed to just wave away any concerns. "Of course, it's not like this is a life or death thing after all."
It seems that there wasn't going to be any use in getting her to rethink this. At the very least this was something to take his mind off of everything happening back in Nazarick. With his swords at the ready, he swung making sure to have the flats of the weapon strike as to minimize the possibility of cutting into her.
Just before it made contact though his sword stopped as an invisible force grabbed onto it. Holding her hand out a shockwave of telekinetic force came out from her hand and knocked Ainz back, almost even knocking him on his back from the surprised force. 'What was that?'
It didn't seem to be magic, at least not a form of magic he used, but something similar enough. Sumireko turned over as two balls of lightning came at her. The two spheres met and seemed to explode in a flash of light with Sumireko not being seen standing at the spot or there being any sign she had been blasted back from the attack. Ainz's assessment was proven correct as Narberal was soon cut into by a bunch of cards thrown from overhead.
Overhead Sumireko floated with the air as all around her was a bunch of occult cards floating about with some in her hands. Ainz was quick to realize that she had teleported just before the Electrospheres had hit her. 'We're not dealing with someone who is in over their head.'
Going by the fact she could teleport she had to be able to use fifth-tier magic or at least something comparable to it. Ainz was certain right now that she wasn't even using tier magic at all. His thoughts didn't go much further as several of the cards were set alight and soon tossed at the both of them. Getting out of the way he jumped forward as he tried to aim for her only for Sumireko to fly out of the way with surprising ease. Turning her back around she held out her hand as she managed to catch a bolt of lightning aimed right at her within her hands. Electrokinesis wasn't something she had good practice with so she couldn't hold on to lightning for long but she didn't need to as Sumireko sent it right back at Narberal.
Narberal was only barely able to get out of the way of the ball of lightning while Sumireko raised her hand and sent another shockwave of telekinetic energy knocking her off her feet like a ragdoll. Ainz caught her with one of his arms as he looked at the floating girl who held a look of disappointment on her face.
"You know… I kind of expected much more from an adamantine ranked adventurer team."
In Gensokyo the spell card rules had mitigated the power imbalance that existed amongst everyone. Sumireko had been given a brief idea of what to expect as she was told that while she could have fought off most youkai on her own, maybe if such a thing hadn't existed the heavy hitters of Gensokyo would have been a completely different issue had she fought them. Right now she was in such a world where the spell cards didn't work and surprisingly it felt like she was a bit overleveled for most of the population.
Still, they were supposed to be suspiciously powerful, given how fast they had made it to the top rank of adventurers, and maybe even the "players" who tended to end up in this world every hundred years. If they were indeed them then they might not be all that of an issue in the end should they go about causing problems.
"Well, I see that you're quite skilled but unfortunately our maximum is not on your own," Ainz was still trying to hold his cards as he already assessed her possible strength. Admittedly, outside the devil, she was probably more than a match for everyone else seen so far.
"Oh, I've been holding back this whole time."
There was a small pause as her words seemed to take a moment to register. Sumireko was just using this to gauge the power of the two of them being possible players and so far she kind of wasn't impressed. Could they be hiding their full strength? Absolutely as she wasn't using all her tricks she had herself. For Ainz though the question was what was her upper limit.
"Could you show us a demonstration of your full power then?" She was the first individual from a nation that Ainz and Nazarick had little knowledge of. One who was claiming to be holding back so the question was just what was her full power like. "If it isn't too much to ask."
"Sure why not."
Deciding to give them a show, Sumireko raised her hand as within the city every piece of trash, alongside many things not nailed down, floated up and out over the heads of the citizens. All of it gathered over Sumireko's head, forming into a giant mass. Closed her hand the mass crushed down to almost half its size as its contents condensed into something that was vaguely spherical.
Sumireko threw her arm down. In doing so the condensed ball of random junk was sent slamming into the ground at high speeds and seemingly exploding as it made contact. Dirt, rocks, and dust fell into the sky as the city of E-Rantel was spared a shockwave from the impact by its walls but the ground still rumbled from the effects. Being near the epicenter Ainz dug one of his swords in and held on to Narberal as the shockwave passed them by. Once everything started to clear, a wide and somewhat deep crater was what greeted the both of them. An eyesore in the land around the city that was occasionally littered with the remains of some of the things that had been within the ball.
Floating just over the large hole in the ground was Sumireko whose back was still turned to them as she looked at the damage she had done. Only as soon as she saw it did she remember that she just might have scared the city. "I think I might have overdid it."
Aniz looking at the crater though had a different thought process. Such a thing was something he just knew was likely a thing that high-end Tier Magic could do within this world. For a second he wondered how he could get an exact idea of her power and then he was reminded that he had a spell to do just that. Casting Discern Enemy he hoped there wasn't anything getting in the way.
"Level seventy-six?" The spell seemed to have a hard time reading but level seventy-six was what seemed to be something that it seemed to end up on.
This also made him question the power of the Argland Council State if their leadership had someone like her under them. There was a lot that he didn't know about this world and both the young devil who took out Shalltear and "Sabrina" had made that clear to him. Narberal, however, who had no real idea of the actual level was just looking at the act of psychic power without a word though the look of utter shock was very much present on her face. Sure, compared to the Floor Guardians she wasn't special but this was the second strongest native they had seen behind the one who took out Shalltear.
If this was a taste of what the Argland Council State could do then Ainz was rather wary about what exactly the Dragon lead nation could do. He still had a lot to learn about the world. As for Sumireko, she realized looking at the giant crater that she was going to have to hope that this wouldn't cause an unnecessary scene given she kind of just unleashed what was effectively a meteor strike just outside the city.
A giant monster fell from the sky. Zy'tl Q'ae was its name and according to Pinison it had fallen asleep within the Great Forest of Tob, a place that Yuuka had no recognition of, and while a team of human adventurers had managed to stop the creature they only managed to beat a part of it before. Now Zy'tl Q'ae was waking up and devouring nature as it did so. However, Pinison seemed to hold out hope as she talked about the adventurers promising to come back and finish Zy'tl Q'ae.
"How long ago did they make this promise?" Something wasn't adding up and Yuuka had to be sure.
"Decades ago at least but I just know that they will come."
"Decades?" Yuuka wondered if she understood how time worked. Maybe she honestly did, which made Yuuka decide to try something else to get an accurate idea. "How many winters have passed over the forest since they made such a promise."
Pinison had to think about it for a second before the answer came to her. "Almost ninety I believe."
Yuuka had looked at her for a moment. She did know that humans didn't live that long right? Not unless one had diluted youkai or god blood both of which could impart longer lifespans, or turned into some kind of youkai. Magically expanding one's lifespan was also a thing but who wouldn't opt for being a magician over that? If she assumed the best possible scenario of the adventurers being in their late teens at best they would be pushing at a hundred years which wasn't typical of humans. Never mind, at that point they wouldn't be able to do much of anything.
"They're dead," Yuuka's words seemed to confuse her. It was as if she didn't even grasp or understand anything about humans. Had she been so alone that she either didn't remember or never at all learned anything about them? "Humans don't live that long, eighty years is the average lifespan for most, and even if they are alive past that point they aren't able to do anything."
Confusion was very much evident on Pinison's face as she tried to process those words. In her mind, it seemed impossible. She had been holding hope that they would come back and slay the creature for good. Now she was being told by this lady that they were dead. That they are not going to fulfill their promise because they're dead. Pinison was about to argue with her about it but the look in her eyes. The coldness within them was enough to get her to stay her tongue. She was dead serious about it. Her friends are dead.
"But if they're dead then there is nothing that can stop Zy'tl Q'ae…" Pinison slowly fell to her knees as the realization of how doomed everything was fully hit her. 'The forest will be consumed and the world will…'
Her thoughts didn't get to go any further as Yuuka just walked right past her in the direction of where Zy'tl Q'ae was. Pinison took a split moment to realize what was going on as Yuuka was heading in the direction of Zy'tl Q'ae. "What are you doing?"
"I am going to see this monster of yours."
Yuuka didn't respond to any of Pinson's words of worry as she continued toward the source of the wound in nature. As she got closer to the area she could feel a part of her recoil a bit. She was a being of nature after all so getting closer to the area affected was bound to have some effect on her. A clearing greeted her as she passed over what was deemed the spot where this thing was and on the other side, she was greeted with the creature that Pinison was so worried about.
Zy'tl Q'ae was a giant tree. Of course, Yuuka hadn't asked about what Zy'tl Q'ae was but the description of it falling from the sky onto the earth had made her think of something more along the lines of something from Heaven or maybe even a Lunarian experiment gone wrong. Instead, it was a large tree that was responsible for the void of nature within the forest. Zy'tl Q'ae's tentacle-like branches grabbed on and ripped whole trees from the ground, bringing them to its maw to eat whole. A tree monster that was eating trees.
"That's what you're afraid of?" Yuuka could tell that it had eaten much of the nature in the area. The animals had left, likely sensing the predator slowly awakening and left.
"Yes, and now that he's awakened I fear the whole forest is doomed," Despair was evident in Pinison's voice. Zy'tl Q'ae was practically unstoppable in her eyes. "Without my friends, there is nothing that can stop him!"
Yuuka just ignored her as she walked forward. This creature was attacking nature and while she normally wasn't extremely militant about such things, her garden being a noticeable exception, the way that Zy'tl Q'ae was doing it caused her to feel a hint of anger that she usually reserved for her garden being attacked. A feeling that anything connected to nature would feel. Without a word, she took steps into the clearing ignoring the peas of Pinson as she walked closer to the twisted tree.
"Over here."
Zy'tl Q'ae turned over to the woman and lashed out at her with one of his tentacles. Yuuka's response wasn't to dodge but instead to counter the strike with her own fist. Zy'tl Q'ae recoiled back in shock while Yuuka showed little to no trace that the impact had affected her at all. It tried to grab the woman to eat her, wrapping another of the branches around Yuuka. He tried to pull her up but Yuuka wasn't moving. It wasn't that she was too heavy to move as much as she was using her ability to fly to hold herself in place.
Attempting to strike at her Yuuka brought her parasol to block the as she blasted the branch holding her tearing it clean off. Zy'tl Q'ae recoiled back at this before it tried again to crush Yuuka with its tendrils failing as its onslaught was parried by the parasol in Yuuka's hands without much effort. Yuuka counterattacked with a blast of raw energy which did succeed in pushing the Zy'tl Q'ae back. Pinison, who was watching this, was surprised by the fact that she wasn't having nearly as many problems on her own as she had expected.
For Yuuka, however, all it took for a few hits for her to know that this was actually disappointing. There was some semblance of power behind the tree, anything that could drain nature had to possess it, but it was just mindless in its actions. No tactics, nothing beyond instinctual attacks and even then it had a rather limited awareness of its enemy. Arguably a Greater Fairy like either of the Three Fairies of Light, or the boisterous Ice Fairy of the Lake would give her a better fight on the grounds they knew what they were doing. It was time to stop playing around.
Power. Unbelievable power surged from the green-haired woman. No, she wasn't a woman at all. Zy'tl Q'ae and Pinison who were watching could feel it within their very being. Before them was a human-shaped thing. Nature itself was incarnated through her. A living avatar of nature's vengeance. The ground around her started to spring back to life as if to further drive home this fact. Something that wasn't even intentional on Yuuka's part but was a side effect of her unleashing all her might.
Zy'tl Q'ae was a mindless monster. Whatever consciousness it once possessed was long gone. However, even a mindless beast still felt the primal understanding of the world. Eat or be eaten, predator and prey. Before the trenant was a predator and it was the prey. Out of the ground a large sharp vine shot out and tore into the bark of the creature digging itself through the trunk.
The treant tried to trash about but it was for nothing as its tentacles were held in place by the vines gripping on its being. The vine pulled as the treant was hoisted up into the air before being forced to lean down and look at Yuuka right in where its eyes would have been. Even without a single thought in its mind, it could tell that it was "looking" at its death.
Yuuka closed her parasol and pointed it at the overgrown log. The spell card rules are not in effect and for Yuuka that was rather liberating to know. After all, this feral youkai needed to be put down anyway. At the tip of the flower energy gathered as Yuuka had a slight sadistic smile as the treant struggled to escape the predator before it.
"Master Spark!"
A ray of light and natural energy burst from the tip and utterly engulfed the body of the treant. The light rose up into the sky, up into the clouds which were immediately pushed away from the utter force of the unregulated blast. A strong gust of winds blew all around on ground level as the last of the energy dispersed itself from the tip. Overhead the rays of the sun touched down without the clouds obscuring it. The ground all around Yuuka had been brought back to life with a tap of her parasol on the ground.
The remaining ravaged ground sprang back to life as what had been made a dead wasteland soon turned into a blooming flower field. Pinison looked on at the repaired land as she couldn't believe what had happened. Walking a bit into the field she could almost feel nature rejoicing at being revived. Not a single trace of Zy'tl Q'ae remained as the monster had been obliterated.
Yuuka had done what the heroes couldn't have done. She had managed to kill the creature. "You made it look so effortless…"
"It was," Yuuka answered with a casual, almost disappointed tone in her voice as she looked at the newly created flower field. "I have fought demons and gods before, that mindless tree really didn't mean anything to me."
"Demons, and gods…"
She had said it so casually like it was nothing. Fighting a god was something that seemed so impossible to her and yet Yuuka acted like it was seemingly no big deal. Pinison recalled the utter feeling of power she had unleashed. How it felt to be before an embodiment of nature itself.
"What are you?"
Now that was a question that Yuuka didn't hear asked all that offended. Mainly because technically speaking she was something of a single specimen and because those that could be termed her kind didn't tend to show up in the Far East or Gensokyo. She did toy around with the idea of making another her though. Yuuka knew the process of her own creation and could replicate it with any sunflower if she so chose. Of course, doing so would make her said newborn youkai's mother for all intents and purposes. Beyond that, she did fit within one of the broad categories of nature spirits Though more specifically one that was made famous in the myths of a peninsula and island nation in the West.
"I am a Sunflower Nymph."
Death could be felt clinging to the very soil around her. On the moment she had landed here, she could feel the strange magical ambiance that had seemed to cling to her for an instant which failed to last. After all, despite being a severed arm she technically wasn't dead. Looking out at the plains she tried to see if anything about this looked familiar.
She had no clue just where in the world she was and the memories she had from her brief period as being complete didn't help either. No, she had to be in some other world. After all, she hazarded to guess she would be tossed here on her own. 'Well, the only thing to think of is what am I going to do.'
On one hand, she still wanted to go over her other half but the very brief time that had been one again made it clear how much the other half wouldn't allow that. Sure, she could try to take over again but there was no idea how long that would take to get back to Gensokyo. Given enough time she would likely be aware and already had a plan in place. No, that was just going to leave her in the same state she had been in.
'If I try to do the same thing she would just seal me away and I can't kill her because that will be killing myself,' The only other option was trying to completely separate each other. Something she just knew from that brief period while her other self had tried to see if possible. 'Well, first things first, just where the hell am I?'
Took longer then I had liked but I finally managed to get this ready. As for what I had planned these first few chapters are basically explaining were some of the Touhou characters end up and the effects they have on the world before Gensokyo finally comes by in order to get them all. So, I guess expect Overlord canon to derail with each one of them showing up. Which is already had but lets be real things can always get worse.
'Seriously, the lockdown turned into preparation for war,' Reviving Shalltear was put on hold for a moment as they did want to see if there was anything they could get that could tell them about the devil's weapon. For Ainz it seemed rather pointless but he could tell the Floor Guardians are a bit more wound up.
That wasn't to say he was mellow himself. Far from it as Ainz kind of felt more vindicated than ever at being as cautious as he was. The only real issue was that he kind of had to watch out not only for himself but for the whole Tomb. For a moment he wondered how different everything would be if he had come with nothing but himself.
'If it was such a thing I might have a more difficult time,' He thought about everything he had on hand with the Tomb versus just being alone. There was also the fact he wouldn't have anyone with him.
Ainz pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. Walking into the throne room he saw that the Floor Guardians had gathered around and were already talking amongst themselves. As soon as he entered they ceased whatever they were talking about as soon as they saw him walking in. He had only caught the tail end of that conversation but it seemed to concern their little mystery.
"What were you all talking about?"
"We can't seem to locate the devil that took out Shalltear," That wasn't surprising. After the end of the fight, all the focus had turned more on getting Shalltear back and seeing if no one else had ended up attracted by the fact the sky turned red. "Nor have we come up from anything in the aftermath to give us an idea of how she did it."
Given it was some sort of native ability that they might not even be able to possess it didn't come as a surprise. All of which Ainz felt was to be expected. "I see," This also meant that there wasn't any reason not to resurrect Shalltear. 'I wonder if she'll remember anything when I do so?'
He hadn't tried to bring the dead back to life. Well, fully to life as he already knew about what happens when undead are summoned. Although, it could be different with Shalltear as he still had access to some of the systems of the Tomb despite not being in Yggdrasil. Ainz decided to file testing his ability to resurrect the dead on the natives for later.
"As it stands we should cease the lockdown of the Great Tomb of Nazarick," Prolonging it was only going to further make things difficult as is. "As for the devil, it's obvious that we lost her so it is best to continue as is but be much more careful with our interactions with the world."
Claiming the credit for killing Shalltear, or Honyopenyoko as he had told them, wasn't exactly difficult. It felt wrong given it wasn't his accomplishment but they had assumed it was so. Although, he did have to bullshit why the sky had been covered in a red mist. Yeah, that red mist the devil had unleashed managed to be seen by some travelers and was even visible according to some in the city. On the note, it turned out Shalltear had no memory of the whole thing which made the fact she had been defeated and killed by the devil a complete shock to her.
Regardless of the fact in the end he and Narberal, or as they are known Momon and Nabe, had become Adamantite adventurers. The highest level within the Adventurers Guild and walking around for the first two days was rather noticeable in how everyone treated them. Looks of awe and reverence were clear from most people. From other adventurers, there was clear envy and respect. Today though something else seems to have taken everyone's attention.
"Flying really?"
"Yeah, she just flew over the city clear as day."
"A girl landed near the mayor's
"My brother's a guard, he said that she's a foreign representative."
"A representative from where?"
The city was practically talking amongst themselves and it wasn't exactly hard to overhear them. E-Rantel also didn't play host to many foreign representatives, envoys would usually head for the capital directly after all, so this was a rather big deal to the population. Ainz could admit that he was curious about who it was but on the other hand, it didn't concern him right now. He had a lot more on his plate right now.
As he and Narberal walked into the Adventurers Guild building they could see a few of the city guards talking to the lady over the counter. Catching sight of them she pointed to the both of them as the guards walked up to him. "Sir Momon, Lady Nabe the mayor wishes to speak with both of you."
"Might I ask what is the reason for the good mayor to summon us?"
"His guest wishes to meet our city's great Adamantine adventurers so we are sent to fetch you, sir," With the guard's answer it seemed to Ainz that he was going to meet the representative who had the whole city talking.
"Very, well we won't keep them waiting."
A medieval fantasy world straight out of an RPG. That was the sort of place that Sumireko had found herself in. Tsaindorcus was rather helpful with getting her acquainted with the world and even helped her with getting settled into the place. Naturally, seeing how she was stuck here for the foreseeable future he decided to see about making her officially a diplomatic representative of the Argland Council State. A means so he could keep in touch with her while she explored the world without much issue. A bit strange that someone with no training or experience was being made such but hey not like she was complaining.
"To be perfectly honest I hadn't expected that you would come all the way here just to meet with adventurers," The mayor of E-Rantel Panasolei Gruze Day Rettenmaier, a rather portly man, took a sip of some tea. "It seems rather strange for a diplomatic representative to be interested in such things."
The only snag in her new role was that she was technically speaking having to represent a country. Sure, Tsaindorcus did give her a means to directly contact him if she needed it, but she didn't want to immediately use it all the same. "Well, I heard about two new rising stars who managed to make the Adamantine rank in a short time, you know."
"Oh, yes Darkness," Panasolei had expected that word had already been spreading about that across the kingdom. Raising through the ranks as fast as they had done was something that was of considerable note. "They had only recently made the rank after defeating a vampire by the name of Honyopenyoko I believe."
Sumireko wanted to laugh at how ridiculous that name was. It sounded fake to her like someone came up with it on the fly without any real thought put into it. Although, given she was in a new world the name might be real for all she knew. As for the name of the adventurer group, it sounded uncreative. If you ask her she could probably have come up with a far better name.
Walking into the room came the guards that the mayor had sent to fetch the adventurers and following behind them were two individuals who had to be the adventurers that made up the group with the uncreative name of Darkness. The first one to Sumireko was a man, at least she was certain was a man, wearing a full suit of black armor that covered him from head to toe. Next to him was a black-haired woman that Sumireko could admit was rather beautiful.
Having spent some time practicing she had tried to feel the surface emotions of people. Trying it on both of them the results were unexpected. For the woman there was disgust, and hatred hidden under what was a thin veil of calmness. Her neutral expression didn't match up though it was likely she could control her emotions. As for the armored man, she felt nothing. Well, it was nothing, there was dullness to his emotions that gave off the feeling of nothing. Like he wasn't even alive!
"Ah, Sir Momon and Lady Nabe it's good to see the both of you," Panasolei spoke up as Sumireko filed the strange feeling for later. "My guest here had been asked to meet you both so I apologize for any trouble this might have given you both."
"It's nothing really, we don't have anything important to do anyway," At least nothing important as adventurers. "I was told that you and your guest wanted to see us, sir?"
Panasolei motioned to the young woman who had not spoken. "Indeed, allow her to introduce herself."
"Sabrina Luminaria, representative for the Argland Council State," Sumireko introduced with a somewhat overly dramatic bow.
The pseudonym was something that Tsaindorcus had come up with as her name was kind of one that didn't exactly fit with humans around here. Their names sounded something that was mostly European or what vaguely sounded such. Although, apparently from what he recalled there was an island nation with names that sounded much like her own. Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the continent, a lot of hostile races blocked the two, and he really only knew about it because one of his fellow Dragon Lords had been there.
Ainz had heard a bit about the Argland Council State. From what he had gathered it was a nation that was ruled over by five dragons with an assortment of races underneath them to the north of the Re-Estize Kingdom. Arguably given such a thing he didn't expect the first person he would officially meet to be a human who back home wouldn't be much older than maybe sixteen or seventeen.
"I must admit it seems strange for a representative of another country to come all this way to E-Rantel," A fortress city didn't seem like someplace for a representative of another country after all. 'Perhaps something else is behind this?'
Could she be here because of a diplomatic visit to another country and was just stopping by? That was a plausible explanation though a nagging thought had it that she was possibly here because of the young devil. If it was the last reason then that would raise another question.
"Oh, I was on my way to meet with the envoy of the Argland Council State to the Dragon Kingdom when I heard about two new Adamantine adventurers and I figured I could stop by to say hello," That wasn't a lie though it wasn't the full truth. Sure, she had heard about them but she wanted to test something given how suspicious it was that they had risen through the tanks this quickly. "If it's no bother mind if you show me your power in a bit of a spar?"
A forest. One moment she was within the Garden of the Sun and the next she was here standing in the middle of some forest. All because something opened up within the Getting her bearings for a second, Yuuka could feel a faint void in nature nearby. Looking around she tried to make sense of where she currently was. She knew what some of the trees were but their placement around her was enough to know she wasn't in Gensokyo or even Japan for that matter.
Of course, this fact was probably difficult to pick up for most humans, and youkai. For ones like her who held a deep connection to the natural world such a thing was very obvious. Beyond that, the feeling of nature around her was slightly off. The difference between how things felt was akin to looking through a fog that didn't stop you from looking at everything but changed the colors of everything around you. Which made this very obvious to her that she wasn't in the Outside World but probably some place completely different.
'Whoever did this is going to be on Yukari's hit list,' Yuuka was almost certain that all of Gensokyo had been hit by what had happened to her and her home the Garden of the Sun. Yuuka's eyes narrowed as for a brief second the air around her was seemingly overcome by murderous intent. 'There better not be any damage to my garden.'
Unlikely that anyone would be willing to damage her flowers. The few fairies that lived in the Garden of the Sun are rather competent in not causing any terrible damage and any youkai in Gensokyo knew better than to piss off one of the strongest inhabitants. Was it possible that whoever did this had damaged her garden or will it be damaged by something else while she was away? Yes, and Yuuka would destroy them if she found that out.
Moving deeper into the forest she started to notice a lack of animals of any kind. From the small woodland creatures to even insects that tend to cover the world around them. It was as if everything in nature was running away from something. That is all except for Yuuka and one other entity that Yuuka felt watching her.
Closing her parasol she pointed the tip at it right at where she knew the watcher was. "Come out now."
Coming out from behind the forests was a green wooden-skinned woman with leaves for hair. Yuuka was almost taken aback at the appearance, not because of fear or disgust, but actually, because it had been almost three hundred years since she saw a youkai whose appearance wasn't generally humanish. In the centuries leading up to Gensokyo's creation most who could either because it was their natural state or via shapeshifting/magic/ability/raw force of will took on human-like forms. Those who couldn't or refused to either were hunted down or fled to other realms. The being in front of Yuuka seemed to be one of the latter which was something she hadn't heard of from anywhere in Gensokyo or from the realms tied to it.
A silence came as the unknown woman stood out in front of Yuuka, a bit surprised that she had managed to catch her watching her. Yuuka though had enough awareness of the world around her via her own nature that locating her was rather easy. Especially with all the nature around her.
"Who are you?" Yuuka rested her parasol on her shoulder as she looked at the woman. "You're not human that much is obvious."
"I'm Pinison Pol Perlia a dryad and you shouldn't go that way if you value your life."
Pinison's words made Yuuka look at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. The first thing was that she was supposed to be a dryad. Appearance-wise she did fit some kind of old fantasy book idea of it but Yuuka knew that dryads didn't look like that. No nymph looked literally like whatever they embodied and Yuuka should know. As for the latter half, it sounded like a warning for her life. Giving the feeling in nature she could feel it had to be caused by something.
"Why is is that?"
Everything about this was just kind of ridiculous and yet it was indeed happening. The representative from the Argland Council State wanted to see what they are made of and seemed like she would take no for an answer. Giving a small show wasn't really all that much of a bother and so he agreed to it. Sabrina had asked if there was some place they could do so and unfortunately, the only place that could be picked was outside the city.
That wasn't the ridiculous part. No, it came about when the representative wanted to be the one they would fight with. "Are you sure about this?"
Trying to convince her that it was possibly a bad idea was something that Ainz and the mayor of E-Rantel had been trying to get her to rethink. Yet, she just seemed to not care at all and seemed to just wave away any concerns. "Of course, it's not like this is a life or death thing after all."
It seems that there wasn't going to be any use in getting her to rethink this. At the very least this was something to take his mind off of everything happening back in Nazarick. With his swords at the ready, he swung making sure to have the flats of the weapon strike as to minimize the possibility of cutting into her.
Just before it made contact though his sword stopped as an invisible force grabbed onto it. Holding her hand out a shockwave of telekinetic force came out from her hand and knocked Ainz back, almost even knocking him on his back from the surprised force. 'What was that?'
It didn't seem to be magic, at least not a form of magic he used, but something similar enough. Sumireko turned over as two balls of lightning came at her. The two spheres met and seemed to explode in a flash of light with Sumireko not being seen standing at the spot or there being any sign she had been blasted back from the attack. Ainz's assessment was proven correct as Narberal was soon cut into by a bunch of cards thrown from overhead.
Overhead Sumireko floated with the air as all around her was a bunch of occult cards floating about with some in her hands. Ainz was quick to realize that she had teleported just before the Electrospheres had hit her. 'We're not dealing with someone who is in over their head.'
Going by the fact she could teleport she had to be able to use fifth-tier magic or at least something comparable to it. Ainz was certain right now that she wasn't even using tier magic at all. His thoughts didn't go much further as several of the cards were set alight and soon tossed at the both of them. Getting out of the way he jumped forward as he tried to aim for her only for Sumireko to fly out of the way with surprising ease. Turning her back around she held out her hand as she managed to catch a bolt of lightning aimed right at her within her hands. Electrokinesis wasn't something she had good practice with so she couldn't hold on to lightning for long but she didn't need to as Sumireko sent it right back at Narberal.
Narberal was only barely able to get out of the way of the ball of lightning while Sumireko raised her hand and sent another shockwave of telekinetic energy knocking her off her feet like a ragdoll. Ainz caught her with one of his arms as he looked at the floating girl who held a look of disappointment on her face.
"You know… I kind of expected much more from an adamantine ranked adventurer team."
In Gensokyo the spell card rules had mitigated the power imbalance that existed amongst everyone. Sumireko had been given a brief idea of what to expect as she was told that while she could have fought off most youkai on her own, maybe if such a thing hadn't existed the heavy hitters of Gensokyo would have been a completely different issue had she fought them. Right now she was in such a world where the spell cards didn't work and surprisingly it felt like she was a bit overleveled for most of the population.
Still, they were supposed to be suspiciously powerful, given how fast they had made it to the top rank of adventurers, and maybe even the "players" who tended to end up in this world every hundred years. If they were indeed them then they might not be all that of an issue in the end should they go about causing problems.
"Well, I see that you're quite skilled but unfortunately our maximum is not on your own," Ainz was still trying to hold his cards as he already assessed her possible strength. Admittedly, outside the devil, she was probably more than a match for everyone else seen so far.
"Oh, I've been holding back this whole time."
There was a small pause as her words seemed to take a moment to register. Sumireko was just using this to gauge the power of the two of them being possible players and so far she kind of wasn't impressed. Could they be hiding their full strength? Absolutely as she wasn't using all her tricks she had herself. For Ainz though the question was what was her upper limit.
"Could you show us a demonstration of your full power then?" She was the first individual from a nation that Ainz and Nazarick had little knowledge of. One who was claiming to be holding back so the question was just what was her full power like. "If it isn't too much to ask."
"Sure why not."
Deciding to give them a show, Sumireko raised her hand as within the city every piece of trash, alongside many things not nailed down, floated up and out over the heads of the citizens. All of it gathered over Sumireko's head, forming into a giant mass. Closed her hand the mass crushed down to almost half its size as its contents condensed into something that was vaguely spherical.
Sumireko threw her arm down. In doing so the condensed ball of random junk was sent slamming into the ground at high speeds and seemingly exploding as it made contact. Dirt, rocks, and dust fell into the sky as the city of E-Rantel was spared a shockwave from the impact by its walls but the ground still rumbled from the effects. Being near the epicenter Ainz dug one of his swords in and held on to Narberal as the shockwave passed them by. Once everything started to clear, a wide and somewhat deep crater was what greeted the both of them. An eyesore in the land around the city that was occasionally littered with the remains of some of the things that had been within the ball.
Floating just over the large hole in the ground was Sumireko whose back was still turned to them as she looked at the damage she had done. Only as soon as she saw it did she remember that she just might have scared the city. "I think I might have overdid it."
Aniz looking at the crater though had a different thought process. Such a thing was something he just knew was likely a thing that high-end Tier Magic could do within this world. For a second he wondered how he could get an exact idea of her power and then he was reminded that he had a spell to do just that. Casting Discern Enemy he hoped there wasn't anything getting in the way.
"Level seventy-six?" The spell seemed to have a hard time reading but level seventy-six was what seemed to be something that it seemed to end up on.
This also made him question the power of the Argland Council State if their leadership had someone like her under them. There was a lot that he didn't know about this world and both the young devil who took out Shalltear and "Sabrina" had made that clear to him. Narberal, however, who had no real idea of the actual level was just looking at the act of psychic power without a word though the look of utter shock was very much present on her face. Sure, compared to the Floor Guardians she wasn't special but this was the second strongest native they had seen behind the one who took out Shalltear.
If this was a taste of what the Argland Council State could do then Ainz was rather wary about what exactly the Dragon lead nation could do. He still had a lot to learn about the world. As for Sumireko, she realized looking at the giant crater that she was going to have to hope that this wouldn't cause an unnecessary scene given she kind of just unleashed what was effectively a meteor strike just outside the city.
A giant monster fell from the sky. Zy'tl Q'ae was its name and according to Pinison it had fallen asleep within the Great Forest of Tob, a place that Yuuka had no recognition of, and while a team of human adventurers had managed to stop the creature they only managed to beat a part of it before. Now Zy'tl Q'ae was waking up and devouring nature as it did so. However, Pinison seemed to hold out hope as she talked about the adventurers promising to come back and finish Zy'tl Q'ae.
"How long ago did they make this promise?" Something wasn't adding up and Yuuka had to be sure.
"Decades ago at least but I just know that they will come."
"Decades?" Yuuka wondered if she understood how time worked. Maybe she honestly did, which made Yuuka decide to try something else to get an accurate idea. "How many winters have passed over the forest since they made such a promise."
Pinison had to think about it for a second before the answer came to her. "Almost ninety I believe."
Yuuka had looked at her for a moment. She did know that humans didn't live that long right? Not unless one had diluted youkai or god blood both of which could impart longer lifespans, or turned into some kind of youkai. Magically expanding one's lifespan was also a thing but who wouldn't opt for being a magician over that? If she assumed the best possible scenario of the adventurers being in their late teens at best they would be pushing at a hundred years which wasn't typical of humans. Never mind, at that point they wouldn't be able to do much of anything.
"They're dead," Yuuka's words seemed to confuse her. It was as if she didn't even grasp or understand anything about humans. Had she been so alone that she either didn't remember or never at all learned anything about them? "Humans don't live that long, eighty years is the average lifespan for most, and even if they are alive past that point they aren't able to do anything."
Confusion was very much evident on Pinison's face as she tried to process those words. In her mind, it seemed impossible. She had been holding hope that they would come back and slay the creature for good. Now she was being told by this lady that they were dead. That they are not going to fulfill their promise because they're dead. Pinison was about to argue with her about it but the look in her eyes. The coldness within them was enough to get her to stay her tongue. She was dead serious about it. Her friends are dead.
"But if they're dead then there is nothing that can stop Zy'tl Q'ae…" Pinison slowly fell to her knees as the realization of how doomed everything was fully hit her. 'The forest will be consumed and the world will…'
Her thoughts didn't get to go any further as Yuuka just walked right past her in the direction of where Zy'tl Q'ae was. Pinison took a split moment to realize what was going on as Yuuka was heading in the direction of Zy'tl Q'ae. "What are you doing?"
"I am going to see this monster of yours."
Yuuka didn't respond to any of Pinson's words of worry as she continued toward the source of the wound in nature. As she got closer to the area she could feel a part of her recoil a bit. She was a being of nature after all so getting closer to the area affected was bound to have some effect on her. A clearing greeted her as she passed over what was deemed the spot where this thing was and on the other side, she was greeted with the creature that Pinison was so worried about.
Zy'tl Q'ae was a giant tree. Of course, Yuuka hadn't asked about what Zy'tl Q'ae was but the description of it falling from the sky onto the earth had made her think of something more along the lines of something from Heaven or maybe even a Lunarian experiment gone wrong. Instead, it was a large tree that was responsible for the void of nature within the forest. Zy'tl Q'ae's tentacle-like branches grabbed on and ripped whole trees from the ground, bringing them to its maw to eat whole. A tree monster that was eating trees.
"That's what you're afraid of?" Yuuka could tell that it had eaten much of the nature in the area. The animals had left, likely sensing the predator slowly awakening and left.
"Yes, and now that he's awakened I fear the whole forest is doomed," Despair was evident in Pinison's voice. Zy'tl Q'ae was practically unstoppable in her eyes. "Without my friends, there is nothing that can stop him!"
Yuuka just ignored her as she walked forward. This creature was attacking nature and while she normally wasn't extremely militant about such things, her garden being a noticeable exception, the way that Zy'tl Q'ae was doing it caused her to feel a hint of anger that she usually reserved for her garden being attacked. A feeling that anything connected to nature would feel. Without a word, she took steps into the clearing ignoring the peas of Pinson as she walked closer to the twisted tree.
"Over here."
Zy'tl Q'ae turned over to the woman and lashed out at her with one of his tentacles. Yuuka's response wasn't to dodge but instead to counter the strike with her own fist. Zy'tl Q'ae recoiled back in shock while Yuuka showed little to no trace that the impact had affected her at all. It tried to grab the woman to eat her, wrapping another of the branches around Yuuka. He tried to pull her up but Yuuka wasn't moving. It wasn't that she was too heavy to move as much as she was using her ability to fly to hold herself in place.
Attempting to strike at her Yuuka brought her parasol to block the as she blasted the branch holding her tearing it clean off. Zy'tl Q'ae recoiled back at this before it tried again to crush Yuuka with its tendrils failing as its onslaught was parried by the parasol in Yuuka's hands without much effort. Yuuka counterattacked with a blast of raw energy which did succeed in pushing the Zy'tl Q'ae back. Pinison, who was watching this, was surprised by the fact that she wasn't having nearly as many problems on her own as she had expected.
For Yuuka, however, all it took for a few hits for her to know that this was actually disappointing. There was some semblance of power behind the tree, anything that could drain nature had to possess it, but it was just mindless in its actions. No tactics, nothing beyond instinctual attacks and even then it had a rather limited awareness of its enemy. Arguably a Greater Fairy like either of the Three Fairies of Light, or the boisterous Ice Fairy of the Lake would give her a better fight on the grounds they knew what they were doing. It was time to stop playing around.
Power. Unbelievable power surged from the green-haired woman. No, she wasn't a woman at all. Zy'tl Q'ae and Pinison who were watching could feel it within their very being. Before them was a human-shaped thing. Nature itself was incarnated through her. A living avatar of nature's vengeance. The ground around her started to spring back to life as if to further drive home this fact. Something that wasn't even intentional on Yuuka's part but was a side effect of her unleashing all her might.
Zy'tl Q'ae was a mindless monster. Whatever consciousness it once possessed was long gone. However, even a mindless beast still felt the primal understanding of the world. Eat or be eaten, predator and prey. Before the trenant was a predator and it was the prey. Out of the ground a large sharp vine shot out and tore into the bark of the creature digging itself through the trunk.
The treant tried to trash about but it was for nothing as its tentacles were held in place by the vines gripping on its being. The vine pulled as the treant was hoisted up into the air before being forced to lean down and look at Yuuka right in where its eyes would have been. Even without a single thought in its mind, it could tell that it was "looking" at its death.
Yuuka closed her parasol and pointed it at the overgrown log. The spell card rules are not in effect and for Yuuka that was rather liberating to know. After all, this feral youkai needed to be put down anyway. At the tip of the flower energy gathered as Yuuka had a slight sadistic smile as the treant struggled to escape the predator before it.
"Master Spark!"
A ray of light and natural energy burst from the tip and utterly engulfed the body of the treant. The light rose up into the sky, up into the clouds which were immediately pushed away from the utter force of the unregulated blast. A strong gust of winds blew all around on ground level as the last of the energy dispersed itself from the tip. Overhead the rays of the sun touched down without the clouds obscuring it. The ground all around Yuuka had been brought back to life with a tap of her parasol on the ground.
The remaining ravaged ground sprang back to life as what had been made a dead wasteland soon turned into a blooming flower field. Pinison looked on at the repaired land as she couldn't believe what had happened. Walking a bit into the field she could almost feel nature rejoicing at being revived. Not a single trace of Zy'tl Q'ae remained as the monster had been obliterated.
Yuuka had done what the heroes couldn't have done. She had managed to kill the creature. "You made it look so effortless…"
"It was," Yuuka answered with a casual, almost disappointed tone in her voice as she looked at the newly created flower field. "I have fought demons and gods before, that mindless tree really didn't mean anything to me."
"Demons, and gods…"
She had said it so casually like it was nothing. Fighting a god was something that seemed so impossible to her and yet Yuuka acted like it was seemingly no big deal. Pinison recalled the utter feeling of power she had unleashed. How it felt to be before an embodiment of nature itself.
"What are you?"
Now that was a question that Yuuka didn't hear asked all that offended. Mainly because technically speaking she was something of a single specimen and because those that could be termed her kind didn't tend to show up in the Far East or Gensokyo. She did toy around with the idea of making another her though. Yuuka knew the process of her own creation and could replicate it with any sunflower if she so chose. Of course, doing so would make her said newborn youkai's mother for all intents and purposes. Beyond that, she did fit within one of the broad categories of nature spirits Though more specifically one that was made famous in the myths of a peninsula and island nation in the West.
"I am a Sunflower Nymph."
Death could be felt clinging to the very soil around her. On the moment she had landed here, she could feel the strange magical ambiance that had seemed to cling to her for an instant which failed to last. After all, despite being a severed arm she technically wasn't dead. Looking out at the plains she tried to see if anything about this looked familiar.
She had no clue just where in the world she was and the memories she had from her brief period as being complete didn't help either. No, she had to be in some other world. After all, she hazarded to guess she would be tossed here on her own. 'Well, the only thing to think of is what am I going to do.'
On one hand, she still wanted to go over her other half but the very brief time that had been one again made it clear how much the other half wouldn't allow that. Sure, she could try to take over again but there was no idea how long that would take to get back to Gensokyo. Given enough time she would likely be aware and already had a plan in place. No, that was just going to leave her in the same state she had been in.
'If I try to do the same thing she would just seal me away and I can't kill her because that will be killing myself,' The only other option was trying to completely separate each other. Something she just knew from that brief period while her other self had tried to see if possible. 'Well, first things first, just where the hell am I?'
Took longer then I had liked but I finally managed to get this ready. As for what I had planned these first few chapters are basically explaining were some of the Touhou characters end up and the effects they have on the world before Gensokyo finally comes by in order to get them all. So, I guess expect Overlord canon to derail with each one of them showing up. Which is already had but lets be real things can always get worse.
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Sleepwalker
Know what you're doing yet?
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Interesting. An MMO player against the spawn of a hardcore bullet hell.
An unfinished sentence.
The narrative jumps to another character in another place. At least split a paragraph.
Usually used in the form: she WON'T accept no as an answer. But maybe that's exactly how it's meant to be.
NinEty, I guess.
An unfinished sentence.
The narrative jumps to another character in another place. At least split a paragraph.
Usually used in the form: she WON'T accept no as an answer. But maybe that's exactly how it's meant to be.
NinEty, I guess.
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Catgc
Experienced.
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This part is cut off.
Missing a line break on this part.
Words got funky near the qoutes end, that needs fixing.
Often.
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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Thanks. I tend to only notice the issues after I post a story and I think it might be because of how I write typically starting with both the beginning of a chapter then its end while working my way backwards between the two. Its not conventional but boy does it help me avoid writing myself into a corner.
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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All that raw power and her ability really isn't overwhelming. Speaking on that having her be a Sunflower Nymph was a shout out to an old doujin about her origins. One I don't think anyone will get though I wouldn't be shocked if someone could remember it.
krahe
Versed in the lewd.
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It's funny cause it's true. Always loved tidbit that as far in monster scale, Yuuka is an oversized ancient fairy while still being in the top list power wise
Chapter 3
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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She didn't know when the mist had rolled into the plains. What followed was various forms of walking dead. Corpses that seemed to wander up, skeletons armored with swords and shields, and even the decaying forms of what looked like warriors still dressed in their armor. All of which were annoyances than anything of an actual threat to her. The weapons and armor stood out though as she crushed the living dead. All of it was Western in design.
At first, she thought she was in the ruins of Helheim. An underworld found in the west that had mostly been abandoned. Kasen's knowledge of it was unfortunately rather limited as she only really had the basics of it in case of a visit or an incident that would require her to visit beyond Gensokyo. Yet, even then this didn't fit what little Kasen knew about Helheim. There was no ice that seemed to grip the plains.
As she crushed one of the annoying skeletons underfoot, a rather strange thing to think about given she was technically just an arm, she had to wonder just where she had ended up. For a moment she decided to try to summon up her own undead, the very people she had killed and eaten, only to find that she couldn't. No, she could, it's just something that was interfering with it. Something she couldn't describe beyond maybe a feeling of knowing something was there but being unable to grasp it.
In the mists, she could hear something. The echoing of metal clashing against metal. Someone else was fighting the undead in this mist. Turning in the direction of the sound she could make out faint shadows of the undead moving on something. 'Not much of a lead but it's not like I shouldn't be able to take on whatever is fighting them.'
Walking towards it she was greeted with what looked like humans dressed in similar armor to the undead. About a dozen knights, a term used for the European equivalent of Samurai as she recalled, fought it out against the skeletons and armored corpses. It seemed they could handle this themselves, as sad as it was given that these were so weak. Although, they could be useful in telling her just where the hell she was. Thinking it over she came to the conclusion that it was worth more to save them for her selfish ends than it was to let them have a chance to die.
For the knights of the Baharuth Empire, this was one of the unfortunate times when the undead had started to form up. Traveling through the Katze Plains always ran the risks of dealing with the undead. It was unfortunately one of those times when the undead started to spawn. As one of the armored zombies came to strike a knight from behind it was taken out by a sudden fist striking it from behind. In a swift motion, the newcomer attacked the remaining undead with a kick, a strike of her fists, and finally chopped to the last zombie head, taking it off.
In the aftermath, the knights are greeted with the individual who had aided them. It was a rather pretty woman with shoulder-length pink hair, a strange form of dress, and a pair of horns on her head. It was the horns that caught the attention of some of the men.
"Is she a demihuman of some kind?"
"No, I think she's a Sharp Horn."
"Are you an idiot, Sharp Horns have only one horn."
They didn't know what she was. This just proved to her that she wasn't lost within some far-off part of the other realms, nor was she in the Outside World because the outside had long past having warriors dress like this. The only option might be another world altogether. Was such a thing even possible?
"Miss I ask again why are you out in the plains?"
"Maybe she's an adventurer?"
"I don't think so, she's probably a Worker."
She was going to need to come up with an explanation. Right as she was about to speak a monstrous roar called out as everything turned to the side. Walking out of the fog was another of the undead. The leader of the armed men looked at the creature in front of him as he could swear it looked like something that was talked about by some of the men within the empire. A rare and dangerous undead that they had managed to capture.
"D-death Knight!"
Before they had time to process the Death Knight moved. With the large shield in one hand, it knocked aside a few of the men to the ground while it swung its sword clean through two of them without showing any signs of resistance. One tried to slash at the Death Knight from behind only for his attack to do nothing before he was backhanded by the shield across his face. The impact broke his skull and killed him.
As if sensing something nearby the Death Knight swung its shield around. For a moment it's balance was lost as the weapon was stopped. Not meeting resistance, but outright stopped suddenly. Its soulless eyes stared at the pink-haired horned woman who had caught its weapon with her bare hands. Immediately it tried to pull the shield back but to its surprise, the woman didn't budge. Instead, she pulled nearly tearing the arm off the armed undead from the surprising amount of physical strength, and cast the thing aside.
The Death Knight swung with its sword but missed as the woman moved to the side, twirling around it and delivering a strike that sent the undead creature flying off its feet and landing on the ground with a thud. The surviving men looked stunned almost completely at the ease with which she had done all of that. She turned to them for a split moment noticing that something had started to rise out from their now-dead companions' corpses.
With a sweep of her hand, she copped one of their heads off as soon as it turned to her. The rest ignored the warriors and much like their creator the undead focused their attention on her. A shockwave of air from a punch she threw was all it took to take them down. As for the creator of them, the Death Knight rose and let out a roar as it came swinging to take off her head. It intended to kill her but unfortunately, its desire to kill her was misplaced.
Its sword was caught by her almost casually. A sadistic smirk formed on her face as she could see the body language of the undead. If it possessed something of a mind then she knew that it was feeling fear. A shockwave was released from contact as she struck the undead directly. Its upper body was blown apart from the attack. The knights looked on in awe, and a bit of fear as she stared at them. The smile on her face was unsettling and in the back of their minds a feeling reserved for prey when faced with a predator.
"Now that minor inconvenience is out of the way," She could tell that they were looking at her with a mixture of awe and fear. It was something she missed when looking at warriors who had seen an Oni in action. "My name is Kasen Ibaraki."
Meeting Sabrina had seemed to cause something of a change as Ainz had seen in the last few days. For one Narberal seemed to have a slightly less hostile outlook with humans. How much of that was brought on by meeting one who was stronger than her, or how much brought on by the fact that it was starting to become clear that Nazarick wasn't the strongest thing Ainz couldn't say. Speaking of strength, Demiurge was becoming extremely interested in trying to find if any others like the young devil or the Argland Council State's representative existed after he had asked about it. He already was compiling a few suspects.
For one the Dragon Lords are something of note. Ancient dragons once were claimed to rule the world and while some have died and their reign was no more some still lived. The Argland Council State was ruled over by at least five of them and thanks to Sabrina they had an idea of just what their level of power could be. Another was the Dragon Kingdom which while not actually ruled by a Dragon Lord was instead ruled by the descendants of one. A Kingdom currently being invaded by Beastmen and the ruler was too young, at least physically so, to unleash any power she might have from her heritage.
Walking into his inn room Ainz dropped his Illusion and equipped his usual garb. Opening a gate spell he walked through and back into the Great Tomb greeted by Demiurge who seemed to have been awaiting his arrival. "My Lord, welcome back."
"Demiurge, I take it you made more progress on learning about anyone of notice?"
"Yes, though this one seems to be as mysterious as the young devil is," Demiurge handed out a drawn portrait, one that he had to be sure was as good as possible based on the description. "Mare was looking through the Great Forest of Tob when she came across a flower field with the middle of it that seemed completely out of place and a dryad that seemed to almost religiously worship the place."
Ainz took the image and was given a surprisingly well-drawn image of a beautiful woman with short green hair, red eyes, and an emotionally neutral expression. "She talked about a creature that we assumed was some kind of treant attacking the forest and devouring nature only for this woman to show up and put it down with one blast of something she called a Master Spark."
"What of the flower field, how did that come to be?" Ainz hadn't seen the woman anywhere now that he thought about it. She looked human but someone like that would probably be known to the Adventurers Guild or he would have seen her. "Do we know anything else about her?"
"According to the dryad the flower field came into being just from her unleashing her full power and she did have a small conversation with her before leaving," That actually sounded almost like she had Passive Terrain Alteration. Passive Terrain Alteration was something that no player in Yggdrasil was able to possess but some bosses did. All of them are high-level and a pain to fight. "She revealed her race as a sunflower nymph and that in her own words, she had fought demons and gods."
Sunflower Nymph wasn't exactly something that Yggdrisal had. The closest thing that came to Ainz's mind was Clytie, a somewhat notable quest giver supposedly based on an actual figure from Greek myth, a water nymph that turned into a sunflower. Naturally, this woman didn't look anything like her with the green hair and red eyes. The claim of fighting demons and gods though made Ainz give pause and think about something.
Do gods actually exist or rather do gods even exist in this world? Clerics, Priests, Paladins, and other such classes that rely on gods for magic do in this world. Does that mean that they exist or was it solely just the belief in of itself? If gods are indeed real then what exactly are the rules of how they even worked? All of these were questions that are further spurred on by the mystery woman.
'I am going to have to look more into it at some point,' Another thing on his to-do pile. "She didn't happen to tell the dryad her name?"
Demiurge gave a nod as at the very least they had a name to go with the individual. "Yuuka Kazami, I believe, was the name given."
Ainz paused as the name caught him off guard a bit. Mostly everyone he met in the New World had names that were European or something that was vaguely foreign sounding. So imagine his surprise as he heard a name that was Japanese of all things. "Did she say where she is going?" Ainz stopped as he decided to ask another question that finally pushed itself through. "Where is the dryad now?"
"She didn't seem like she wanted to leave the flower field so she remained there," Demiurge didn't find any reason to care about what happened to her. The information she gave was enough of a trade plus she was pathetically weak. "Unfortunately, she didn't know where she could be just that she went into the forest afterwards."
Locating her within the massive forest was something that Nazarick didn't have time to do. Besides it was easier to watch near the edge of the forest in case she did leave. Assuming she couldn't fly overhead which was a possibility. "By the way, our scouts have located Lizardmen tribes in the wetlands around Great Lake."
Ainz remembered hearing something about that while in the Adventurers Guild. Something about the lake having pillars of ice forming within the middle of it, cold mists covering the waters, and finally one talking about an unknown figure whose presence caused snow to fall. All of which only started happening three months ago and affected the whole lake. Well, almost the whole lake as the southern portion was seemingly unaffected.
'There must be something to that,' Maybe the Lizardmen had an agreement with the entity in the lake. Perhaps they are its servants or did they have summoned it? 'Only way to find out is to attack them.'
Recent events had been rather unfortunate for the Slane Theocracy. For one the attempt to help the Baharuth Empire with killing Gazef Stronoff had instead led to the Sunlight Scripture being dissolved with their members being most likely all dead. Next was the Black Scripture's failed mission to use the relic Downfall of Castle and Country Catastrophe Dragon Lord. Both of which happened to be close to each other but so far there wasn't anything to connect the two of them.
The losses didn't really concern them in the long term. For one the Sunlight Scripture could be replaced in a decade, and while they had failed the relic was still with them. Using it on the Dragon Lord after it resurrects wasn't an ideal plan but it shouldn't revive within their lands, however, given it hadn't shown itself the Cardinals figured that there was plenty of time on that front.
With all that said the Cardinals still had a nation to run and that meant focusing their attention on their neighbors. One of which was currently being overrun by Beastmen and in a war that was effectively one of extermination. Being a human nation right next to them being invaded, the Slane Theocracy's diplomatic gaze was always on the progress of the war. Mainly because they didn't want to have to intervene unless necessary beyond the amount already given they were themselves in a war with the Elf Country to the south.
"What do you mean the Beastmen invasion has slowed down?" The emissary they had in the Dragon Kingdom had sent one of their messengers to report on the current ongoing war. Per their consultations, the Dragon Kingdom should still be fighting in
"The beastmen invasion has slowed down in the Dragon Kingdom, enough that the Dragon Kingdom is making slow but stable progress in retaking their lands," That was strange as the Dragon Kingdom had largely been fighting defensively since the start hoping to slow down before starting a counter-offense. "The strangest thing is that amongst the new groups of refugees are people who we had thought were all doomed given how deep they are within the occupied lands including some who had been captured for information."
From what the leadership of the Slane Theocracy had gathered the Dragon Kingdom wouldn't have been able to retake their lands without large direct military aid, something only likely to happen once things got dire enough for the Bah Empire to intervene as the hostile demihumans get closer to their borders. The Dragon Kingdom really shouldn't be able to push back and nor should the Beastmen be slowed enough for it to be possible without something drastic happening.
"Do we know anything about who or what might have caused this?" Infighting was very likely though that was something likely to be saved until near-total victory was achieved.
"Some of the refugees claim it was a champion sent by the gods, others go as far as to claim that the individual was a god, or rather a goddess, had appeared to answer their prayers," That caused a tense silence to fill the room as the words left the man's mouth.
The Six Cardinals took a moment to process what this could all mean. The Cardinal of Wind was the first to speak. "Do we have a description of this person?"
"A young human woman with a white and blue outfit, green hair, and what looked to be a snake and a frog accessory in her hair," It wasn't much of a description, to be honest. Some of the others had exaggerations about the woman. Likely as a response to having someone save them from a traumatic experience. "Apparently, she is strong enough to overpower the beastmen with little issues with her magic and even grant miracles from healing the sick, and injured, to even seemingly reviving the recently dead."
A woman strong enough to be able to heal, raise the dead, and be able to almost turn the tide of a war single-handedly was something that seemed impossible for even most legendary heroes and Adamantine Adventurers. In fact, it sounded nigh impossible except for a few beings to be able to accomplish. Except the Slane Theocracy did possess individuals who could do so if they wished.
The Cardinal of Fire decided to speak up, saying what they were all thinking. "Could she be a God-kin?"
The children of the Six Great Gods were powerful, some more than a match for a whole army even. Such individuals are who the Slane Theocracy took great pains to keep within their nation. Even still it wasn't completely impossible for one to show up outside their borders. Especially, given one of their previous God-kins did have a habit of sleeping around when he was alive, and as much as they would like to say they knew everyone he had slept with there was always the possibility they missed one… or several.
"Strange that the Dragon Kingdom seemed to hide a God-kin from us," The Cardinal of Light gave this a bit more thought at how strange this was. Having a God-kin was something the other Human Kingdoms would do their best to conceal from the Slane Theocracy but any of them wouldn't hesitate to deploy them if they had faced such a threat as the beastmen did to the Dragon Kingdom.
"Unless the Dragon Kingdom didn't know they had one," Now that was also possible and surprisingly enough very likely. Most of the nearby nations didn't have the means to track down such a thing outside of nobility as they could. "Regardless of the reason this brings up a question of what we should do."
Getting the possible God-kin should be a priority. However, the fact was she was within the occupied territory of the Dragon Kingdom. The Slane Theocracy was already dealing with two losses of forces though getting another God-kin would both cover that and maybe even more. Which meant that they had to send in a team to extract her. A task that needed to be done with as little risk to them as possible and as quickly as well. Stealth was also something of note though in this case, the refugees had likely let it slide which meant that they didn't need secrecy.
"A small force will be sent to the Dragon Kingdom under the pretense of helping with the war effort," It would serve to help maintain relations with the Kingdom and get the possible God-kin out of there.
At first, she didn't know what had happened. One minute everything was chaotic and the next she ended up face-first into the lake. Well, getting out wasn't an issue but once she did she learned that this wasn't Gensokyo. As a being of nature, she could instinctively feel the difference. Even so, at first, she remained as she usually did. The creatures in this new place were weaker than her and didn't really threaten her.
For a time she just wondered if this was some sort of incident that would be solved soon and she would be pulled home. After an accident where she was taken out by a lucky native creature, that all changed. When one of her kind died it wasn't death. They would respawn for a lack of a better term where they are tied too owed to the fact they are small embodiments of nature itself. On the chance whatever they are tied to is destroyed and they are killed they instead respawn in the ancestral homeland, Tir Na Nog. Unfortunately, for her, she was too far, for the lack of a better term for how she could describe it, for both. So, instead, she had to pull from the energies she had on hand. Herself.
Each resurrection cost her power. She got smaller, and less powerful, and with each time she was faced with something that was a foreign concept to fairies, true death. Utter fear consumed her at the point that she was reduced to a normal lesser fairy. Her nature was disjointed by this feeling of impending death and the normal carefree state that was edged into her.
Looking back it was a good thing she met that Lizardman with a weapon of ice. He hadn't immediately attacked her when he saw her. No, instead he was curious about what she was having never seen anything like her. Her gaze had turned on the weapon he had on him and she had asked about it. A weapon made from the first time the lake froze over and then it hit her.
How could she had not have thought of that? Maybe it had been the fear of death that was clouding her smarts. Regardless, there was a big lake, a lake that had frozen over much like the lake where she was born, and it wasn't hard to tie herself to it. It did cost her current body but in the end, she was reborn. Well, maybe there was this strange thing in the background trying to enter into her but when it did, it just went silent. Like those earmuffs she had taken that could block out loud sounds. Oh, and she had grown strong. The nature here was rather vast and overwhelming, it actually supercharged her! Furthered her growth into something she knew she was always able to become!
Zaryusu Shasha looked at the mists that form just beyond the wetlands. A slight detour on his task to get the tribes to cooperate for the invasion but he just knew, if war was to come to them then they needed all the help they could get. He could feel Frost Pain react as he looked on at the mist. Pulling it out he could almost feel the cold within reacting as the air around him chilled right off it.
When she tied herself to the lake the weapon seemed to react to her. Its powers almost changing in response. Perhaps, it was due to the nature of its creation, made from when the lake first froze over, and her own nature as a living force of nature.
"Oh, hey Zary," Zaryusu was pulled from his thoughts as the mists dissipated. "What brings you to see me?"
Flying a bit off the edge of the lake one would mistake her at first glance for a teenage human girl. The icicle-shaped wings fluttered about from her back which betrayed her inhuman nature. An Ice Fairy, an embodiment of the force of nature, and hilariously enough someone most of his kind would probably be terrified of given their coldblooded nature.
"Cirno… what is on top of your head?"
Cirnor looked up at the mix of wood, beads, and animal bones that formed into something that seemed like a makeshift crown. Not only that but around her next was something of a tribal necklace whose design was familiar to Zaryusu. "Oh, I found those frogmen you told me about and beat them up."
"You… beat them up?" Zaryusu took a moment to process this. Sure, she showed her power when she appeared taking on this form. Much of the lake had frozen over for just a moment that it had most of the tribes wondering in a panic for a few days about what had happened. "You defeated them all by yourself?"
"Yeah, they started talking bad about me, and after I beat them all and their pets with my ice they now do whatever I say!" That wasn't the only thing they now created these statues of her alongside leaving things for her on this elevated table at the edge of their settlement. "Hey, you haven't answered my question!"
"I am gathering my people to war in order to stand against a force that threatens our very lives" He should focus right now to see if she would help, and then continue his mission to get the tribes to unite. "I come to ask if you will help us as I do not know if this Ainz will stop at just us or attempt to take the whole lake for himself."
First, Cirno found the name of this guy rather dumb sounding. Almost like someone just made it up. Secondly, she didn't like the idea of someone threatening her new, though hopefully temporary, home that she was edged into. Finally, if someone was giving out a challenge then it would only make sense that they do so to her. Yet, this Ainz fellow didn't and instead decided to fight Zary's people. An insult against her as she was the strongest person here!
"I'm in, just tell me where!"
Zaryusu was almost surprised by how easy it had been to get her to agree. Although, she seemed rather prideful and boastful in herself. It made sense that she would take it as a challenge. A challenge that had passed her up for someone else. Regardless Zaryusu was grateful for such a thing as it did mean they had one as powerful as her in the coming battle.
Ainz looked over at the undead army that had been amassed. Sent over to the spot where the Lizardmen were making camp. All the tribes it seemed were amassing, likely to fight for their lives against the army. The truth was that Ainz kind of didn't care about victory in the upcoming battle. No, he was hoping that the threat of genocide would be enough for them to seek out the entity in the lake for aid.
He was honestly fixated on the area around the camp for any of the signs of the being. No pillars of ice were present nor any of the mists. 'Maybe I assumed a relationship that didn't exist.'
Honestly, he didn't care for this invasion. This was more to boost morale and give more of the Guardians something to do. He had been told of the idea to create a fake Nazarick as an emergency. Its construction was currently halted as they had to do a sweep to assess just how many high-level beings were actually in the forest after learning about Yuuka. It was likely that by the end of it, there shouldn't be anything left to find within the forest.
"Lord Ainz you seem awfully fixated on watching the Lizardmen encampment for these last few hours," He was brought out of his thoughts as Albedo questioned him. Had he really been staring that long looking for a sign of the entity of the Lake? "Is there something you're looking for?"
The answer was obviously yes. Though it was less staring at the encampment all the time and more looking for the signs of something that wasn't there. "I heard rumors in the Adventurers Guild about something inhabiting the lake and wanted to see if it was another being of interest."
"So, you expected that if we attacked the Lizardmen that it would show itself?" It sounded brilliant though if anyone else had done it Albedo would probably recognize it risky.
"Something like that," Ainz kind of hoped that doing so could maybe leave with him getting some sort of information on it. In a more unrealistic but optimistic way maybe even an ally, or at least something on the other "Beings of Interest" found in the world. "I had originally assumed that the whole lake was their territory and that perhaps the invasion of the Lizardmen tribes on the lake's southern wetlands would grab their attention."
"If you wish we could call the invasion off and search the lake instead."
It was rather tempting to do so. He felt kind of like a fool for starting a war basically on an assumption. "As much as I would like that we announced that we were to fight the Lizardmen and to turn back now would tarnish the name of Ainz Ooal Gown."
He allowed the invasion to go through and he kind of felt obligated to see it through to the end. Even if he technically allowed it under a false assumption. It could be that the entity didn't control the whole lake, or it could mean that it didn't care about the inhabitants of the lake. In any event, Ainz figured it wasn't something to worry about. He turned the Mirror of Remote Viewing off. Unknown to him, had he looked at it for a second longer he would catch a glimpse of a light mist forming around the camp that wasn't there before.
Something was going on within the capital of Re-Estize. That much was obvious to Sebas when both he and Solution ended up in the city as they posed as a wealthy young woman and her butler. There was talk about a thief of some sort within the city. One that no one could actually describe as their memories of them were gone with only a vague idea that someone had been there and a few missing food. A few of the local kids even talked about having a friend that they couldn't remember who played with them every now and again.
It got to the point where a few of the adventurers in the area had tried to append the thief for rewards but they also had a hard time. Most forgot almost immediately after setting a trap while others had been found unconscious with no idea what had attacked them. It seemed that someone was editing people's memories in such a way as to get by. The only issue was that a few times it seemed that a whole group was subjected to it almost immediately after whomever had escaped. Sebas didn't know of any form of tier magic that could do that.
"Gods damn it someone stole from my bakery again!" Sebas paused as he heard a shout of frustration as he passed by one of the shops that had been subjected to the thief.
Sebas figured that the criminal in question wasn't very far but was he someone to catch a thief? Perhaps, his creator would most likely try that if he could. "Oh, I haven't seen you before."
Sebas was caught from these thoughts as a young woman dressed in a bright yellow dress with light green hair. What caught his attention the most were two things. One that she was floating off the ground basically in the open and two there was a purple orb-like thing with long organic cables tied to it and to points on her body. The orb as Sebas was quick to note was a closed eyeball.
Sebas was cut off guard by her sudden appearance. Actually, how did she sneak up on him given his Ki Sense? Her casual floating explained why there was no sound at least but it should have gotten people's attention more so than it was giving him. Indeed the people around them were looking at her in awe though the moment they turned away they seemed to just go about their day. Maybe, she was someone that was known to the people of the city?"
"I am sorry but I am new here I don't believe we've met," This was all strange and suspicious but Sebas pushed that aside. "I am Sebas Tian, I am a butler doing tasks for my lady and you are?"
"Strange you remind me of the Scarlet Devil Mansions gatekeeper," The girl floated about around him as she spoke, as if ignoring his question. Either that or not really acknowledging it. "Although, your mind's colors are rather off."
It wasn't actually his conscious mind she was referring to either. The subconscious was a way she could be said to navigate the world. Yet, when she met him she was reminded of the subconscious of that two-tailed cat that lived on the surface alongside the nine-tailed fox that was seen with one of the Sages of Gensokyo. She liked playing with the cat though her attempt at getting other cats to listen to her, and failing, was funny.
"My colors are off?" A phrase that didn't make any sort of sense at all to him. As Sebas stared at the strange girl he spotted something within Koishi's hands. A croissant, a freshly baked croissant much like the ones taken from the bakery. 'Wait is she the thief.'
If she was the thief then how the hell had no one been able to describe what she looks like? Her brightly colored outfit and the third eye attached to her body via long organic cables are a dead giveaway. She wasn't human as well, visibly non-human even. So, the question was how is it that she is just floating about the city for him to see?
"Anyway, mister I got to go," She flew off waving behind her as she did so with the crosscut in hand. "Oh, by the way, my name is Koishi!"
"Wait," Sebas tried to grab her, moving at rather impressive speeds as he realized what was going but when she turned the corner and disappeared from his vision he stopped. As soon as she was out of sight he was suddenly hit with a blank in his mind.. "Who was I asking to wait?"
His mind was drawing a blank. Sebas knew he had interacted with someone but beyond that, he had no memory of who. Their appearance was just gone from his mind, as was their name, and all of his recent short-term memory. Naturally, he should report this to his lord but an issue showed itself. What exactly was he supposed to tell him had happened?
I kind of always pictured that Koishi was a thief of some kind, though not an intentional one. It would of course just be done mostly for food as she has to eat, or rather feels she does because others subconscious minds say they do.
At first, she thought she was in the ruins of Helheim. An underworld found in the west that had mostly been abandoned. Kasen's knowledge of it was unfortunately rather limited as she only really had the basics of it in case of a visit or an incident that would require her to visit beyond Gensokyo. Yet, even then this didn't fit what little Kasen knew about Helheim. There was no ice that seemed to grip the plains.
As she crushed one of the annoying skeletons underfoot, a rather strange thing to think about given she was technically just an arm, she had to wonder just where she had ended up. For a moment she decided to try to summon up her own undead, the very people she had killed and eaten, only to find that she couldn't. No, she could, it's just something that was interfering with it. Something she couldn't describe beyond maybe a feeling of knowing something was there but being unable to grasp it.
In the mists, she could hear something. The echoing of metal clashing against metal. Someone else was fighting the undead in this mist. Turning in the direction of the sound she could make out faint shadows of the undead moving on something. 'Not much of a lead but it's not like I shouldn't be able to take on whatever is fighting them.'
Walking towards it she was greeted with what looked like humans dressed in similar armor to the undead. About a dozen knights, a term used for the European equivalent of Samurai as she recalled, fought it out against the skeletons and armored corpses. It seemed they could handle this themselves, as sad as it was given that these were so weak. Although, they could be useful in telling her just where the hell she was. Thinking it over she came to the conclusion that it was worth more to save them for her selfish ends than it was to let them have a chance to die.
For the knights of the Baharuth Empire, this was one of the unfortunate times when the undead had started to form up. Traveling through the Katze Plains always ran the risks of dealing with the undead. It was unfortunately one of those times when the undead started to spawn. As one of the armored zombies came to strike a knight from behind it was taken out by a sudden fist striking it from behind. In a swift motion, the newcomer attacked the remaining undead with a kick, a strike of her fists, and finally chopped to the last zombie head, taking it off.
In the aftermath, the knights are greeted with the individual who had aided them. It was a rather pretty woman with shoulder-length pink hair, a strange form of dress, and a pair of horns on her head. It was the horns that caught the attention of some of the men.
"Is she a demihuman of some kind?"
"No, I think she's a Sharp Horn."
"Are you an idiot, Sharp Horns have only one horn."
They didn't know what she was. This just proved to her that she wasn't lost within some far-off part of the other realms, nor was she in the Outside World because the outside had long past having warriors dress like this. The only option might be another world altogether. Was such a thing even possible?
"Miss I ask again why are you out in the plains?"
"Maybe she's an adventurer?"
"I don't think so, she's probably a Worker."
She was going to need to come up with an explanation. Right as she was about to speak a monstrous roar called out as everything turned to the side. Walking out of the fog was another of the undead. The leader of the armed men looked at the creature in front of him as he could swear it looked like something that was talked about by some of the men within the empire. A rare and dangerous undead that they had managed to capture.
"D-death Knight!"
Before they had time to process the Death Knight moved. With the large shield in one hand, it knocked aside a few of the men to the ground while it swung its sword clean through two of them without showing any signs of resistance. One tried to slash at the Death Knight from behind only for his attack to do nothing before he was backhanded by the shield across his face. The impact broke his skull and killed him.
As if sensing something nearby the Death Knight swung its shield around. For a moment it's balance was lost as the weapon was stopped. Not meeting resistance, but outright stopped suddenly. Its soulless eyes stared at the pink-haired horned woman who had caught its weapon with her bare hands. Immediately it tried to pull the shield back but to its surprise, the woman didn't budge. Instead, she pulled nearly tearing the arm off the armed undead from the surprising amount of physical strength, and cast the thing aside.
The Death Knight swung with its sword but missed as the woman moved to the side, twirling around it and delivering a strike that sent the undead creature flying off its feet and landing on the ground with a thud. The surviving men looked stunned almost completely at the ease with which she had done all of that. She turned to them for a split moment noticing that something had started to rise out from their now-dead companions' corpses.
With a sweep of her hand, she copped one of their heads off as soon as it turned to her. The rest ignored the warriors and much like their creator the undead focused their attention on her. A shockwave of air from a punch she threw was all it took to take them down. As for the creator of them, the Death Knight rose and let out a roar as it came swinging to take off her head. It intended to kill her but unfortunately, its desire to kill her was misplaced.
Its sword was caught by her almost casually. A sadistic smirk formed on her face as she could see the body language of the undead. If it possessed something of a mind then she knew that it was feeling fear. A shockwave was released from contact as she struck the undead directly. Its upper body was blown apart from the attack. The knights looked on in awe, and a bit of fear as she stared at them. The smile on her face was unsettling and in the back of their minds a feeling reserved for prey when faced with a predator.
"Now that minor inconvenience is out of the way," She could tell that they were looking at her with a mixture of awe and fear. It was something she missed when looking at warriors who had seen an Oni in action. "My name is Kasen Ibaraki."
Meeting Sabrina had seemed to cause something of a change as Ainz had seen in the last few days. For one Narberal seemed to have a slightly less hostile outlook with humans. How much of that was brought on by meeting one who was stronger than her, or how much brought on by the fact that it was starting to become clear that Nazarick wasn't the strongest thing Ainz couldn't say. Speaking of strength, Demiurge was becoming extremely interested in trying to find if any others like the young devil or the Argland Council State's representative existed after he had asked about it. He already was compiling a few suspects.
For one the Dragon Lords are something of note. Ancient dragons once were claimed to rule the world and while some have died and their reign was no more some still lived. The Argland Council State was ruled over by at least five of them and thanks to Sabrina they had an idea of just what their level of power could be. Another was the Dragon Kingdom which while not actually ruled by a Dragon Lord was instead ruled by the descendants of one. A Kingdom currently being invaded by Beastmen and the ruler was too young, at least physically so, to unleash any power she might have from her heritage.
Walking into his inn room Ainz dropped his Illusion and equipped his usual garb. Opening a gate spell he walked through and back into the Great Tomb greeted by Demiurge who seemed to have been awaiting his arrival. "My Lord, welcome back."
"Demiurge, I take it you made more progress on learning about anyone of notice?"
"Yes, though this one seems to be as mysterious as the young devil is," Demiurge handed out a drawn portrait, one that he had to be sure was as good as possible based on the description. "Mare was looking through the Great Forest of Tob when she came across a flower field with the middle of it that seemed completely out of place and a dryad that seemed to almost religiously worship the place."
Ainz took the image and was given a surprisingly well-drawn image of a beautiful woman with short green hair, red eyes, and an emotionally neutral expression. "She talked about a creature that we assumed was some kind of treant attacking the forest and devouring nature only for this woman to show up and put it down with one blast of something she called a Master Spark."
"What of the flower field, how did that come to be?" Ainz hadn't seen the woman anywhere now that he thought about it. She looked human but someone like that would probably be known to the Adventurers Guild or he would have seen her. "Do we know anything else about her?"
"According to the dryad the flower field came into being just from her unleashing her full power and she did have a small conversation with her before leaving," That actually sounded almost like she had Passive Terrain Alteration. Passive Terrain Alteration was something that no player in Yggdrasil was able to possess but some bosses did. All of them are high-level and a pain to fight. "She revealed her race as a sunflower nymph and that in her own words, she had fought demons and gods."
Sunflower Nymph wasn't exactly something that Yggdrisal had. The closest thing that came to Ainz's mind was Clytie, a somewhat notable quest giver supposedly based on an actual figure from Greek myth, a water nymph that turned into a sunflower. Naturally, this woman didn't look anything like her with the green hair and red eyes. The claim of fighting demons and gods though made Ainz give pause and think about something.
Do gods actually exist or rather do gods even exist in this world? Clerics, Priests, Paladins, and other such classes that rely on gods for magic do in this world. Does that mean that they exist or was it solely just the belief in of itself? If gods are indeed real then what exactly are the rules of how they even worked? All of these were questions that are further spurred on by the mystery woman.
'I am going to have to look more into it at some point,' Another thing on his to-do pile. "She didn't happen to tell the dryad her name?"
Demiurge gave a nod as at the very least they had a name to go with the individual. "Yuuka Kazami, I believe, was the name given."
Ainz paused as the name caught him off guard a bit. Mostly everyone he met in the New World had names that were European or something that was vaguely foreign sounding. So imagine his surprise as he heard a name that was Japanese of all things. "Did she say where she is going?" Ainz stopped as he decided to ask another question that finally pushed itself through. "Where is the dryad now?"
"She didn't seem like she wanted to leave the flower field so she remained there," Demiurge didn't find any reason to care about what happened to her. The information she gave was enough of a trade plus she was pathetically weak. "Unfortunately, she didn't know where she could be just that she went into the forest afterwards."
Locating her within the massive forest was something that Nazarick didn't have time to do. Besides it was easier to watch near the edge of the forest in case she did leave. Assuming she couldn't fly overhead which was a possibility. "By the way, our scouts have located Lizardmen tribes in the wetlands around Great Lake."
Ainz remembered hearing something about that while in the Adventurers Guild. Something about the lake having pillars of ice forming within the middle of it, cold mists covering the waters, and finally one talking about an unknown figure whose presence caused snow to fall. All of which only started happening three months ago and affected the whole lake. Well, almost the whole lake as the southern portion was seemingly unaffected.
'There must be something to that,' Maybe the Lizardmen had an agreement with the entity in the lake. Perhaps they are its servants or did they have summoned it? 'Only way to find out is to attack them.'
Recent events had been rather unfortunate for the Slane Theocracy. For one the attempt to help the Baharuth Empire with killing Gazef Stronoff had instead led to the Sunlight Scripture being dissolved with their members being most likely all dead. Next was the Black Scripture's failed mission to use the relic Downfall of Castle and Country Catastrophe Dragon Lord. Both of which happened to be close to each other but so far there wasn't anything to connect the two of them.
The losses didn't really concern them in the long term. For one the Sunlight Scripture could be replaced in a decade, and while they had failed the relic was still with them. Using it on the Dragon Lord after it resurrects wasn't an ideal plan but it shouldn't revive within their lands, however, given it hadn't shown itself the Cardinals figured that there was plenty of time on that front.
With all that said the Cardinals still had a nation to run and that meant focusing their attention on their neighbors. One of which was currently being overrun by Beastmen and in a war that was effectively one of extermination. Being a human nation right next to them being invaded, the Slane Theocracy's diplomatic gaze was always on the progress of the war. Mainly because they didn't want to have to intervene unless necessary beyond the amount already given they were themselves in a war with the Elf Country to the south.
"What do you mean the Beastmen invasion has slowed down?" The emissary they had in the Dragon Kingdom had sent one of their messengers to report on the current ongoing war. Per their consultations, the Dragon Kingdom should still be fighting in
"The beastmen invasion has slowed down in the Dragon Kingdom, enough that the Dragon Kingdom is making slow but stable progress in retaking their lands," That was strange as the Dragon Kingdom had largely been fighting defensively since the start hoping to slow down before starting a counter-offense. "The strangest thing is that amongst the new groups of refugees are people who we had thought were all doomed given how deep they are within the occupied lands including some who had been captured for information."
From what the leadership of the Slane Theocracy had gathered the Dragon Kingdom wouldn't have been able to retake their lands without large direct military aid, something only likely to happen once things got dire enough for the Bah Empire to intervene as the hostile demihumans get closer to their borders. The Dragon Kingdom really shouldn't be able to push back and nor should the Beastmen be slowed enough for it to be possible without something drastic happening.
"Do we know anything about who or what might have caused this?" Infighting was very likely though that was something likely to be saved until near-total victory was achieved.
"Some of the refugees claim it was a champion sent by the gods, others go as far as to claim that the individual was a god, or rather a goddess, had appeared to answer their prayers," That caused a tense silence to fill the room as the words left the man's mouth.
The Six Cardinals took a moment to process what this could all mean. The Cardinal of Wind was the first to speak. "Do we have a description of this person?"
"A young human woman with a white and blue outfit, green hair, and what looked to be a snake and a frog accessory in her hair," It wasn't much of a description, to be honest. Some of the others had exaggerations about the woman. Likely as a response to having someone save them from a traumatic experience. "Apparently, she is strong enough to overpower the beastmen with little issues with her magic and even grant miracles from healing the sick, and injured, to even seemingly reviving the recently dead."
A woman strong enough to be able to heal, raise the dead, and be able to almost turn the tide of a war single-handedly was something that seemed impossible for even most legendary heroes and Adamantine Adventurers. In fact, it sounded nigh impossible except for a few beings to be able to accomplish. Except the Slane Theocracy did possess individuals who could do so if they wished.
The Cardinal of Fire decided to speak up, saying what they were all thinking. "Could she be a God-kin?"
The children of the Six Great Gods were powerful, some more than a match for a whole army even. Such individuals are who the Slane Theocracy took great pains to keep within their nation. Even still it wasn't completely impossible for one to show up outside their borders. Especially, given one of their previous God-kins did have a habit of sleeping around when he was alive, and as much as they would like to say they knew everyone he had slept with there was always the possibility they missed one… or several.
"Strange that the Dragon Kingdom seemed to hide a God-kin from us," The Cardinal of Light gave this a bit more thought at how strange this was. Having a God-kin was something the other Human Kingdoms would do their best to conceal from the Slane Theocracy but any of them wouldn't hesitate to deploy them if they had faced such a threat as the beastmen did to the Dragon Kingdom.
"Unless the Dragon Kingdom didn't know they had one," Now that was also possible and surprisingly enough very likely. Most of the nearby nations didn't have the means to track down such a thing outside of nobility as they could. "Regardless of the reason this brings up a question of what we should do."
Getting the possible God-kin should be a priority. However, the fact was she was within the occupied territory of the Dragon Kingdom. The Slane Theocracy was already dealing with two losses of forces though getting another God-kin would both cover that and maybe even more. Which meant that they had to send in a team to extract her. A task that needed to be done with as little risk to them as possible and as quickly as well. Stealth was also something of note though in this case, the refugees had likely let it slide which meant that they didn't need secrecy.
"A small force will be sent to the Dragon Kingdom under the pretense of helping with the war effort," It would serve to help maintain relations with the Kingdom and get the possible God-kin out of there.
At first, she didn't know what had happened. One minute everything was chaotic and the next she ended up face-first into the lake. Well, getting out wasn't an issue but once she did she learned that this wasn't Gensokyo. As a being of nature, she could instinctively feel the difference. Even so, at first, she remained as she usually did. The creatures in this new place were weaker than her and didn't really threaten her.
For a time she just wondered if this was some sort of incident that would be solved soon and she would be pulled home. After an accident where she was taken out by a lucky native creature, that all changed. When one of her kind died it wasn't death. They would respawn for a lack of a better term where they are tied too owed to the fact they are small embodiments of nature itself. On the chance whatever they are tied to is destroyed and they are killed they instead respawn in the ancestral homeland, Tir Na Nog. Unfortunately, for her, she was too far, for the lack of a better term for how she could describe it, for both. So, instead, she had to pull from the energies she had on hand. Herself.
Each resurrection cost her power. She got smaller, and less powerful, and with each time she was faced with something that was a foreign concept to fairies, true death. Utter fear consumed her at the point that she was reduced to a normal lesser fairy. Her nature was disjointed by this feeling of impending death and the normal carefree state that was edged into her.
Looking back it was a good thing she met that Lizardman with a weapon of ice. He hadn't immediately attacked her when he saw her. No, instead he was curious about what she was having never seen anything like her. Her gaze had turned on the weapon he had on him and she had asked about it. A weapon made from the first time the lake froze over and then it hit her.
How could she had not have thought of that? Maybe it had been the fear of death that was clouding her smarts. Regardless, there was a big lake, a lake that had frozen over much like the lake where she was born, and it wasn't hard to tie herself to it. It did cost her current body but in the end, she was reborn. Well, maybe there was this strange thing in the background trying to enter into her but when it did, it just went silent. Like those earmuffs she had taken that could block out loud sounds. Oh, and she had grown strong. The nature here was rather vast and overwhelming, it actually supercharged her! Furthered her growth into something she knew she was always able to become!
Zaryusu Shasha looked at the mists that form just beyond the wetlands. A slight detour on his task to get the tribes to cooperate for the invasion but he just knew, if war was to come to them then they needed all the help they could get. He could feel Frost Pain react as he looked on at the mist. Pulling it out he could almost feel the cold within reacting as the air around him chilled right off it.
When she tied herself to the lake the weapon seemed to react to her. Its powers almost changing in response. Perhaps, it was due to the nature of its creation, made from when the lake first froze over, and her own nature as a living force of nature.
"Oh, hey Zary," Zaryusu was pulled from his thoughts as the mists dissipated. "What brings you to see me?"
Flying a bit off the edge of the lake one would mistake her at first glance for a teenage human girl. The icicle-shaped wings fluttered about from her back which betrayed her inhuman nature. An Ice Fairy, an embodiment of the force of nature, and hilariously enough someone most of his kind would probably be terrified of given their coldblooded nature.
"Cirno… what is on top of your head?"
Cirnor looked up at the mix of wood, beads, and animal bones that formed into something that seemed like a makeshift crown. Not only that but around her next was something of a tribal necklace whose design was familiar to Zaryusu. "Oh, I found those frogmen you told me about and beat them up."
"You… beat them up?" Zaryusu took a moment to process this. Sure, she showed her power when she appeared taking on this form. Much of the lake had frozen over for just a moment that it had most of the tribes wondering in a panic for a few days about what had happened. "You defeated them all by yourself?"
"Yeah, they started talking bad about me, and after I beat them all and their pets with my ice they now do whatever I say!" That wasn't the only thing they now created these statues of her alongside leaving things for her on this elevated table at the edge of their settlement. "Hey, you haven't answered my question!"
"I am gathering my people to war in order to stand against a force that threatens our very lives" He should focus right now to see if she would help, and then continue his mission to get the tribes to unite. "I come to ask if you will help us as I do not know if this Ainz will stop at just us or attempt to take the whole lake for himself."
First, Cirno found the name of this guy rather dumb sounding. Almost like someone just made it up. Secondly, she didn't like the idea of someone threatening her new, though hopefully temporary, home that she was edged into. Finally, if someone was giving out a challenge then it would only make sense that they do so to her. Yet, this Ainz fellow didn't and instead decided to fight Zary's people. An insult against her as she was the strongest person here!
"I'm in, just tell me where!"
Zaryusu was almost surprised by how easy it had been to get her to agree. Although, she seemed rather prideful and boastful in herself. It made sense that she would take it as a challenge. A challenge that had passed her up for someone else. Regardless Zaryusu was grateful for such a thing as it did mean they had one as powerful as her in the coming battle.
Ainz looked over at the undead army that had been amassed. Sent over to the spot where the Lizardmen were making camp. All the tribes it seemed were amassing, likely to fight for their lives against the army. The truth was that Ainz kind of didn't care about victory in the upcoming battle. No, he was hoping that the threat of genocide would be enough for them to seek out the entity in the lake for aid.
He was honestly fixated on the area around the camp for any of the signs of the being. No pillars of ice were present nor any of the mists. 'Maybe I assumed a relationship that didn't exist.'
Honestly, he didn't care for this invasion. This was more to boost morale and give more of the Guardians something to do. He had been told of the idea to create a fake Nazarick as an emergency. Its construction was currently halted as they had to do a sweep to assess just how many high-level beings were actually in the forest after learning about Yuuka. It was likely that by the end of it, there shouldn't be anything left to find within the forest.
"Lord Ainz you seem awfully fixated on watching the Lizardmen encampment for these last few hours," He was brought out of his thoughts as Albedo questioned him. Had he really been staring that long looking for a sign of the entity of the Lake? "Is there something you're looking for?"
The answer was obviously yes. Though it was less staring at the encampment all the time and more looking for the signs of something that wasn't there. "I heard rumors in the Adventurers Guild about something inhabiting the lake and wanted to see if it was another being of interest."
"So, you expected that if we attacked the Lizardmen that it would show itself?" It sounded brilliant though if anyone else had done it Albedo would probably recognize it risky.
"Something like that," Ainz kind of hoped that doing so could maybe leave with him getting some sort of information on it. In a more unrealistic but optimistic way maybe even an ally, or at least something on the other "Beings of Interest" found in the world. "I had originally assumed that the whole lake was their territory and that perhaps the invasion of the Lizardmen tribes on the lake's southern wetlands would grab their attention."
"If you wish we could call the invasion off and search the lake instead."
It was rather tempting to do so. He felt kind of like a fool for starting a war basically on an assumption. "As much as I would like that we announced that we were to fight the Lizardmen and to turn back now would tarnish the name of Ainz Ooal Gown."
He allowed the invasion to go through and he kind of felt obligated to see it through to the end. Even if he technically allowed it under a false assumption. It could be that the entity didn't control the whole lake, or it could mean that it didn't care about the inhabitants of the lake. In any event, Ainz figured it wasn't something to worry about. He turned the Mirror of Remote Viewing off. Unknown to him, had he looked at it for a second longer he would catch a glimpse of a light mist forming around the camp that wasn't there before.
Something was going on within the capital of Re-Estize. That much was obvious to Sebas when both he and Solution ended up in the city as they posed as a wealthy young woman and her butler. There was talk about a thief of some sort within the city. One that no one could actually describe as their memories of them were gone with only a vague idea that someone had been there and a few missing food. A few of the local kids even talked about having a friend that they couldn't remember who played with them every now and again.
It got to the point where a few of the adventurers in the area had tried to append the thief for rewards but they also had a hard time. Most forgot almost immediately after setting a trap while others had been found unconscious with no idea what had attacked them. It seemed that someone was editing people's memories in such a way as to get by. The only issue was that a few times it seemed that a whole group was subjected to it almost immediately after whomever had escaped. Sebas didn't know of any form of tier magic that could do that.
"Gods damn it someone stole from my bakery again!" Sebas paused as he heard a shout of frustration as he passed by one of the shops that had been subjected to the thief.
Sebas figured that the criminal in question wasn't very far but was he someone to catch a thief? Perhaps, his creator would most likely try that if he could. "Oh, I haven't seen you before."
Sebas was caught from these thoughts as a young woman dressed in a bright yellow dress with light green hair. What caught his attention the most were two things. One that she was floating off the ground basically in the open and two there was a purple orb-like thing with long organic cables tied to it and to points on her body. The orb as Sebas was quick to note was a closed eyeball.
Sebas was cut off guard by her sudden appearance. Actually, how did she sneak up on him given his Ki Sense? Her casual floating explained why there was no sound at least but it should have gotten people's attention more so than it was giving him. Indeed the people around them were looking at her in awe though the moment they turned away they seemed to just go about their day. Maybe, she was someone that was known to the people of the city?"
"I am sorry but I am new here I don't believe we've met," This was all strange and suspicious but Sebas pushed that aside. "I am Sebas Tian, I am a butler doing tasks for my lady and you are?"
"Strange you remind me of the Scarlet Devil Mansions gatekeeper," The girl floated about around him as she spoke, as if ignoring his question. Either that or not really acknowledging it. "Although, your mind's colors are rather off."
It wasn't actually his conscious mind she was referring to either. The subconscious was a way she could be said to navigate the world. Yet, when she met him she was reminded of the subconscious of that two-tailed cat that lived on the surface alongside the nine-tailed fox that was seen with one of the Sages of Gensokyo. She liked playing with the cat though her attempt at getting other cats to listen to her, and failing, was funny.
"My colors are off?" A phrase that didn't make any sort of sense at all to him. As Sebas stared at the strange girl he spotted something within Koishi's hands. A croissant, a freshly baked croissant much like the ones taken from the bakery. 'Wait is she the thief.'
If she was the thief then how the hell had no one been able to describe what she looks like? Her brightly colored outfit and the third eye attached to her body via long organic cables are a dead giveaway. She wasn't human as well, visibly non-human even. So, the question was how is it that she is just floating about the city for him to see?
"Anyway, mister I got to go," She flew off waving behind her as she did so with the crosscut in hand. "Oh, by the way, my name is Koishi!"
"Wait," Sebas tried to grab her, moving at rather impressive speeds as he realized what was going but when she turned the corner and disappeared from his vision he stopped. As soon as she was out of sight he was suddenly hit with a blank in his mind.. "Who was I asking to wait?"
His mind was drawing a blank. Sebas knew he had interacted with someone but beyond that, he had no memory of who. Their appearance was just gone from his mind, as was their name, and all of his recent short-term memory. Naturally, he should report this to his lord but an issue showed itself. What exactly was he supposed to tell him had happened?
I kind of always pictured that Koishi was a thief of some kind, though not an intentional one. It would of course just be done mostly for food as she has to eat, or rather feels she does because others subconscious minds say they do.
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bobking01
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
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I forgot to ask this when Sumireko popped up the first time but now there are two outside world girls in Overlord. Are they aware that they got sent there or does "Overlord" not exist? I know Sumireko acknowledged that it was an RPG-Mechanics-verse but she's only been there for a bit.
Kind of hoping Sanae realizes she's in a anime/manga/LN considering she's supposed to be a bit of a nerd.
AlphaWolf112480
Versed in the lewd.
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So a lot of people are in dark theme and cant read black text
could you please make it grey or a different color from black.
thank you
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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I think I hinted that Overlord LN doesn't exist like that (besides how dumb that is) but also because I remember the Prologue was supposed to hint that Renko is the reason why everyone is here... well I guess no longer hint at as I am just straight up saying that Renko came from the future that Ainz's original human self is from... and that part of why its messed up is the fault of the supernatural side of the world.
That will be addressed once we turn back to Gensokyo.
ArsMagna1337
(Unverified Oracle) (Unverified Omake Machine)
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Curse my dark theme. I can't see the blackened text.
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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It really doesn't matter... none of the AN matter. You would get more out of me replying to questions.
ANIII
Making the rounds.
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But it's not just the AN. It's most of the chapter.
Blue Glass
This is just a hobby
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... there is literally no difference between the the normal text and the one I am replying with you according to what is going on.