"Any being not stronger than me—even if it's half-invincible—so long as it reveals even the slightest crack under these eyes of mine, there is only one outcome..."
With each word Chu Lian spoke, another Umbral Shadow was cut down. Her speed was unmatched.
By the time she finished the sentence, every Umbral Shadow surrounding her had been slain. Not a single one managed to benefit from the passive regeneration of Pure Black.
"So weak..."
The blue-green glow in her eyes faded. She exhaled lightly, swinging her blade to force back an attacking Umbral Shadow. For the moment, she did not reactivate the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, instead waiting for the right opportunity.
Suddenly, over a dozen arrows formed of condensed ice shot toward her from the distance.
Her gaze sharpened. Channeling mana into her blade, flames burst forth. With a single slash, she shattered every ice arrow.
Immediately afterward, she activated Teleport, appearing at the source of the magical arrows. A pearl radiating a faint azure glow began circling her.
Demonic Foxfire.
Three pale blue flames revolved around her. She extended a slender finger, and the flames shot forward instantly, engulfing a Pale Shadow and burning it to nothing.
Yet even after destroying one, countless Pale Shadows still lurked in hiding. The cooldown of her abilities was too long. In the short term, she couldn't use the Seven Illusions Bow either—wasting that time would be enough for the Umbral Shadows to force Ainz and the others into a miserable state. There was no way for her to eliminate too many at once.
"So irritating... Orb of Deception."
Pressing her lips together lightly, Chu Lian hurled the Devourer's Soul Orb. It shot forward in a straight line, piercing through three Pale Shadows before instantly returning to her hand. They had no chance to activate their skill before being annihilated.
"Consider yourselves lucky..."
She cast a glance aside, calculating that three seconds had passed. Activating Teleport once more, she drifted back to her original position. Her long blade swept out, and wherever the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception fell, no Umbral Shadow could escape death.
In barely a dozen seconds, many Umbral Shadows had already been killed by Chu Lian. Yet they seemed devoid of emotion, continuing to charge at her without hesitation.
"You're all so annoying..."
She muttered under her breath. Each downward swing of her blade "killed" one or two Umbral Shadows. Under those eyes, monsters that were nightmares to ordinary humans were nothing more than lambs awaiting slaughter.
"Liliana, something big is coming..."
After forcing back an Umbral Shadow with his twin swords, Ainz felt the tremor beneath the ground and looked up to warn her.
"I know... Rania, is it ready?"
If Ainz could sense it, Chu Lian certainly wouldn't miss it. But now was the moment her encirclement was closing in, so she temporarily ignored the approaching threat.
"It is ready, my lord!" Rania's voice rang out from afar.
Chu Lian activated the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception for the third time. This time, however, her target was no longer the Umbral Shadows—but the thick trees surrounding them.
Her blade swept across the trunks, instantly severing the vitality of each tree it touched. One after another, they collapsed.
Within the brief ten seconds that the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception remained active, Chu Lian cleared out an open space roughly thirty meters in diameter. Now, nothing blocked the sunlight from pouring down.
"Loose!"
From the distance, the centaur girl gave the command. Countless arrows rained down.
Although the maximum damage of each arrow did not exceed 120, for the Umbral Shadows—immune to physical damage under 50 points and possessing only 25 defense—it was more than sufficient. Without the cover of trees, there was no more darkness. Once wounded, they could no longer recover.
Under wave after wave of volleys, the Umbral Shadows—too mindless to evade—were reduced by more than half in an instant. The remaining few were swiftly eliminated by Ainz's burst of power and the massive magical beasts emerging from every corner of the forest.
Perhaps only several hundred Umbral Shadows had appeared here. Once they were wiped out, no more emerged from the surrounding forest.
The corpses that had previously lingered gradually dissolved into black smoke under the blazing sun, dispersing into the air.
Now, aside from the Pale Shadows still casting magic from the treetops, no other enemies remained.
Chu Lian raised her blade and faced the towering figure before her—a massive creature shaped like a gorilla, standing ten meters tall.
No—rather than a creature, it was a monster. It was fundamentally different from ordinary magical beasts. Aside from its mismatched eyes—one red, one blue—its body was twisted in interwoven black and white, bizarre beyond measure.
"Rootless Giant Ape: A-rank monster. Its body is composed of black and white, an anomalous lifeform born under the influence of cosmic storms. Its body cannot be damaged by any magic or physical attack. The only way to destroy it is through an instant-kill ability. Its movement is sustained by its eyes, but unless killed in a single instant, those eyes will disappear. Note: The system has detected that these eyes are rare treasures. Host must obtain them."
"Attributes: Strength 99; Vitality 99; Agility 60; Spiritual Sense 30. Skill: Neither Yin Nor Yang. Neither Yin Nor Yang: Unless instantly killed by a sure-death ability, it will not take any damage. Other skills: Unknown."
"So once a monster has a rank, its attributes are listed in the system's original format? It seems its information has already been recorded. But even if you're undying, even if two of your attributes are 99, even if your other skills are unknown—so what?"
As the Rootless Giant Ape charged toward her, Chu Lian slowly closed her eyes.
In that instant, the wind seemed to grow violent. Her long hair whipped wildly through the air.
Time stopped.
The clouds in the sky froze. The magic cast by the Pale Shadows hung motionless midair. Nabe's calm gaze, Ainz's sword in motion, the magical beasts chasing the Pale Shadows, the centaur drawing her bow—everything became a painting.
Only Chu Lian's flowing hair remained in motion.
Her essence, energy, and spirit converged. Since the slaying of the dragon, her focus once again condensed to its peak. The sharpness radiating from her felt like the keenest blade, capable of tearing apart the heavens themselves.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Blue-green light blazed.
The single line of death upon the Rootless Giant Ape appeared before her.
She raised the Senra Longblade—and brought it down.
A deep azure blade-light, condensed from half of her MP, erupted with the most dazzling brilliance in the world. It was as though the dark-blue sky had lent it its color, as if the firmament itself had crystallized a fragment of its own body to empower this strike.
All extremes reversed in an instant—supreme motion collapsing into utter stillness, then stillness exploding back into motion. The time it took was vanishingly brief.
The azure blade-light crossed the very center of the Rootless Giant Ape in a single instant—then vanished.
"Disappear. You should never have existed..." she said calmly.
Only after her words fell did time resume its flow. The girl stood exactly as before, yet the scene that had just occurred was etched indelibly into their eyes.
That massive figure, brimming with boundless ferocity, whose oppressive presence had suffocated every living being present except Ainz and Nabe—had, beneath the girl's slow and gentle slash, turned to dust and scattered into the air.
The only things left behind were the two gem-like stones that had formed its eyes.
She extended her hand. The two gemstones fell into her palm of their own accord. After a glance, she smiled softly.
"Not a bad harvest."
Putting the gemstones away, Chu Lian planted the Senra Longblade into the ground and turned around, raising her hand. The Seven Illusions Bow appeared in her left hand.
Her right hand drew the bowstring. At that moment, her eyes resembled the guidance system of a missile, locking onto the Pale Shadows one by one.
Mana condensed along the bowstring. After releasing one arrow, she did not wait to observe the result, already locking onto the next target and forming another arrow.
If there was any weapon in this world capable of ignoring the special constitution of the Pale Shadows, it was the Seven Illusions Bow.
Originally, it had been a physical weapon. But once the Key of Seven Illusions transformed into the Seven Illusions Bow, that limitation had been shattered. Whenever Chu Lian used it, she had never worried about arrows—only about whether her magic power would run dry.
Now that she was in the world of Overlord, the energy it consumed had also become magic power. Fundamentally speaking, every arrow she fired counted as a magical attack.
But that wasn't the key point.
The key was that the Seven Illusions Bow had no concept of tiers. It granted skills, but it did not distinguish between higher and lower ranks.
Thus, every arrow Chu Lian fired possessed no specific magic tier—yet at the same time, it possessed the highest tier.
All magic immunities defined by tier meant nothing before her arrows. Unless the immunity reduced damage by a fixed value or percentage, there was no way for it to negate her attack entirely.
Though each Pale Shadow had 420 HP, its low magic resistance offered no defense against an arrow enhanced threefold, reaching 600 damage. Each was obliterated instantly.
The others stopped fighting.
They simply stood there, staring blankly as Chu Lian continued her assault—each arrow unfailingly erasing a Pale Shadow.
Monsters that had been the most troublesome of foes now had no temper at all before her power.
The magical beasts had already lowered themselves to the ground, presenting their most reverent posture toward Chu Lian. The scene just now—far more shocking than even yesterday's miracle—had driven into them the depths of their own insignificance.
Alongside fear came boundless excitement.
Such a powerful being was the one they followed. Under her leadership, how far could they ascend?
They would willingly offer their lives for her. To dedicate oneself to a god would only earn that goddess' favor, becoming one of her closest attendants. They asked for nothing more than to one day reach the level of strength that giant ape had displayed.
"Deloris is becoming stronger and stronger," Ainz remarked.
Noticing the dazed look in the maid beside him, he added jokingly, "When we return this time, I'll speak to Albedo about you and Deloris. Be prepared. Though I imagine Albedo won't mind—as long as she remains the principal wife. Shalltear might be more troublesome, but Deloris can handle that herself."
"Ainz-sama, I..."
Nabe first felt a surge of joy—then shock.
Lady Deloris belonged to Lady Albedo, and she herself was one of the Pleiades maids sworn to protect Ainz-sama. Wasn't this betraying their original purpose?
"It's fine. I am specifically granting you permission—though you are a Pleiades maid—to also be one of Deloris's fiancées. She is too lonely in this world. If no one remains by her side, I fear that one day she may simply disappear. You wouldn't want to see such a thing happen, would you? Becoming the attachment in her heart is the best way to prevent that. It's the only solution I can think of. Of course, if you are unwilling, I will not force you."
There was a trace of heaviness in Ainz's tone, as though he himself worried about his own idea.
"I am absolutely not unwilling. As long as Lady Deloris is willing, and Lady Albedo acknowledges it, then I, Narberal Gamma, shall become one of Lady Deloris's fiancées. In the name of Narberal Gamma, I swear this oath before the Supreme One."
Nabe knelt on one knee. Whether from joy or elation, she spoke those words with utmost sincerity.
Ainz waved his hand for her to rise. Watching Chu Lian finish off the last Pale Shadow and beckon the centaurs over, he sighed inwardly.
Why don't I have a brother like this? Finding a harem for his own sister—and personally granting permission in his own name. More importantly, weren't these harem members originally supposed to be mine? And they're all women. This yuri dynamic is terrifying. At this rate, I'm going to turn into a fervent yuri enthusiast...
On the other side, Chu Lian looked at the centaurs standing before her. With a gesture, she had them kneel, then spoke softly.
"You performed well. As a reward for your merits, I shall grant you something. Choose a longbow for yourselves."
With a wave of her hand, the 257 longbows she had crafted yesterday from 257 C-rank magical beast corpses appeared in the air.
Pointing at them, she said, "Aside from Rania, each of you will receive one longbow as a reward. Choose whichever you like. I do not know your individual preferences, so this is the best I can do."
Her words left the centaurs stunned. Yet none reached out to select a bow immediately. Instead, they were puzzled—why was their leader excluded?
Had Rania done something to displease their lord today? Was she dissatisfied with Rania's performance? If she received no reward, should they, as her kin and subordinates, accept one?
Rania's body trembled slightly. Lowering her head slowly, she said, "Follow our lord's command. Choose the bow you prefer."
She did not let Chu Lian see her expression. But Chu Lian understood—the girl was grieving.
To prevent that feeling from lingering, she spoke gently.
"Rania's reward will be bestowed separately once we return to Carne Village. Rest assured."
"Thank you, Supreme One..."
The centaur girl raised her head, crystal-like tears glistening in her eyes, a radiant smile spreading across her face as she replied happily.
Chu Lian nodded, unconcerned with which bow each chose. She turned instead toward the prostrated magical beasts, contemplating what reward to grant them as well.