"The Six Scriptures of the Slane Theocracy schemed with every trick in the book, but in the face of Lord Ainz's absolute power crushing down on them, they could only end up in total defeat."
Albedo said this softly, her arm in white silk gloves wrapping around Ainz, her body pressing tightly against Ainz's left shoulder, her lips exhaling a sweet, fragrant breath, her cheeks flushing with two patches of red.
"Albedo, this is all thanks to your efforts." Ainz tried to pull away from Albedo's arm, but she just clung to him even tighter.
"According to the traditions in stories, when the hero and the maiden endure endless trials, defeat the enemy's schemes, they get all excited, hug and kiss passionately, then head to bed for a night of tangled passion as celebration."
Albedo's eyes shimmered with lustful light, her lips on the verge of pressing against Ainz's jawbone.
Ainz inwardly groaned in frustration, suddenly remembering something and quickly changing the subject:
"Has Antilene been captured? This girl is the Slane Theocracy's top fighter, and she's said to have an atavistic divine bloodline— she might be worth studying."
Albedo's expression shifted dramatically, her brows knitting tightly as she said, "You're interested in her?? Her chest is even flatter than Shalltear's!"
"Albedo, don't get in the way of Lord Ainz handling business." A light snap echoed in the air, and the dark elf Aura Bella Fiora teleported right in front of Ainz.
She was dressed in a fitted white suit, bowed deeply, and presented a parchment scroll to Ainz, saying:
"Lord Ainz, we've uncovered some useful info. EeDechi once got help from the Slane Theocracy—the Six Scriptures gave her their mapped-out desert chart from the Eight Greed Kings. This is a backup copy of the map."
Ainz felt relieved that someone had finally shown up to put a stop to Albedo's advances. He pondered for a moment and said:
"EeDechi must have followed this map. With it, we can figure out the path she has to take. But I've already sent Nabe to track EeDechi down—I bet we'll deal with that pain in the ass soon enough."
"Lord Ainz, please let me join the fight!" Aura said eagerly. "I have the World Item Depiction of Nature and Society, which can trap EeDechi right in a pocket dimension. That way, she won't have a chance to escape."
Ainz nodded slightly in approval. "Not bad, that's a damn good plan. If we'd used the World Item Depiction of Nature and Society during the last ambush on EeDechi, she'd have been fish in a barrel ages ago."
The Great Tomb of Nazarick holds multiple World Items, and the Depiction of Nature and Society is one of them. It takes the form of a massive scroll of paintings and calligraphy, able to suck enemies (even whole cities) into a pocket dimension. There are 100 different kinds of dimensions to pick from, including ones that keep dishing out damage and more.
Its downside is that, except for certain specific dimensions, every time it's activated, it randomly picks one out of 40 total escape methods. If the target pulls off the escape condition, ownership of the item shifts over. Meaning the rights to Depiction of Nature and Society go straight to the trapped opponent.
Ever since Shalltear got jumped by some unknown attacker and ended up in that neutral state, Ainz handed out World Items to every level 100 guardian to make sure nothing like that happens again.
The World Item bestowed upon Aura was the Depiction of Nature and Society. Aura had once used the Depiction of Nature and Society to trap the Quagoa army, helping Shalltear pull off the feat of wiping out over eighty thousand Quagoa all by herself.
Last time during the ambush on EeDechi, Aura was busy fighting a Dragon Lord in the Argland Council State and couldn't spare the effort to join the battle, which let EeDechi slip away in some inexplicable way.
Just thinking about EeDechi vanishing through those "spatial rifts" stirred a faint unease in Ainz's heart. To this day, he couldn't figure out how those dark, abyssal "spatial rifts" had appeared; this world still held plenty of mysteries he couldn't grasp or control.
"Next time we ambush EeDechi, the first move is to use the Depiction of Nature and Society." Ainz said in a dark tone.
...
In a southern town of the Slane Theocracy, beside a dirt road.
The sun scorched like fire, waves of heat roasting the earth. A small group of traveling merchants pulled over in the cool shade of some trees, drawing water from a farmer's well. A few nightmare warhorses were tied to a jujube tree, pacing around restlessly.
"From your accents, are you folks from the capital?" A townsperson in a straw hat hauled a watermelon out of the well and casually asked the merchant drawing water next to him.
"Yes." The merchant, wearing a big hooded cloak, kept his answer short and sweet, like he didn't want to say another word.
"The capital's fallen. Lately, we've seen a lot of people like you fleeing from there." The townsperson sighed, his voice thick with bitterness and grief, making the sweltering summer feel a notch cooler.
"Mm." The merchant poured the crisp well water into an oak cup.
"By the Six Great Gods above, it's a damn good thing the Sorcerer Kingdom didn't keep up the assault. The new Pope issued an order too—the whole nation's armies are to stop resisting and give up on supporting the capital. Our country's turned into a vassal of the Sorcerer Kingdom now, kinda like back in the days of the Eight Greed Kings."
The townsperson smacked the watermelon open on the stone slab by the well, pale red juice spilling out like blood thinned with water.
"This won't go on forever." The merchant ground his teeth, the words bursting through his clenched jaw.
"You're full of hate, aren't you?" The townsperson took off his straw hat, feeling the same way. "Me too. How the hell does our country not have a single person who can take on the Sorcerer Kingdom? Those Six Scriptures bastards always boast about being humanity's ultimate fighters, but now the nation's in deep shit, and not a word from them."
CRACK. The merchant crushed the oak cup in his grip, shards of wood stabbing into his palm, blood beading up in dots.
"Hey, that cup's crap quality. Even you merchants get stuck with knockoffs? Better bandage that up quick." The townsperson glanced at him, fanning himself with the straw hat.
The merchant yanked the splinters from his palm, rinsed it roughly with water, then scooped a little well water into the cup's remaining base and walked off in silence.
He headed back to his group of traveling merchants and handed the wrecked oak cup to a girl in loose hooded robes.
Under the hood's shadow, the girl's pupils were freakishly one black and one white, and the long hair tucked beneath showed streaks of black and white.
"Lord Antilene, does our Black Scripture really have to flee to the Eight Greed Kings' desert? I want to go back and fight—even if I die in battle, it's better than scraping by like a coward." The merchant's body shook faintly, staring north with resentment—that was the direction of the capital.
The girl sipped from the oak cup, raised her head, and said, "The plan to revive the God of Death at the altar failed. That road's a dead end now."
"Why did it fail? This... this was clearly the resurrection altar diagram drawn by the God of Death himself. Is the Slane Theocracy totally screwed?" The merchant balled his fists, letting out a deep sigh.
"No, the altar revival's off the table, but there's a second path." Antilene stared far south, her eyes blazing with resolve.
"Where's this path? Which way do we head? Why haven't we heard about it? Is it some top-secret info only the six Divine Commandants know?" The merchant clung to it like a drowning man to a rope, rattling off questions.
"The second path is right under my feet."