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.