Evileye followed the bloody footsteps of Lupu as they descended deeper into the catacombs, occasional undead came into view, only to be dispatched by what could only be described as seamless teamwork.  ‘They’re like my Roses…’  Evileye considered when the pair silently went in two different directions in the same moment and dispatched the contents of two rooms at once.  

As a mere observer, Evileye remained behind and checked each room, and each left her gawking.  Seconds was all it took, and dozens of undead were in pieces, zombies in one room, skeletons in another.

But more troubling to Evileye was the intent for so many corpses, most necromancers wanted only enough servants to attend to them while they conducted their research in private, delving into forbidden arts because of their own private obsessions.  A few sought to raise armies intending some kind of conquest.  

But the looming shadow of the Death Spiral, a thing she held out hope against, was more and more obvious the further in they went.  An undead that ended a life, created a new undead, a few hundred, a few thousand, could potentially turn an entire city if they got within the walls.  

‘They’re tearing apart years of work before my eyes, and if they didn’t, what would have happened to E-Rantel?’  Evileye had no idea, but it wasn’t good.  Guards mostly used spears and swords, far from the best weapons against the undead.  The possibility of success seemed all the more likely as they continued to descend ever farther and found more and more rooms full of corpses either already animated, or just waiting to be.

Shadows flickered over their bodies from the firelight as they came at last to the deepest depths of the catacombs.  ‘At least we haven’t found any armored undead, that would have been really ominous.’  Evileye kept her chuckle confined to her own mind while the pair of adventurers stalked the halls in front of her.

“This should be the final level, shouldn’t it?”  Ainz asked and pointed toward the stairs going down into the depths.

“Yes, I think so, but nobody has had really accurate maps of these places for a long time.”  Evileye looked up at him and answered with stars in her eyes hidden by her mask.  

“Good, stay behind me, they know we’re here by now, they don’t seem to have prepared an escape route for themselves, so this is their last stand.”  Ainz said and put a hand on both the shoulders of Evileye and Lupusregina.

Evileye suppressed a shiver of delight, but her consummate professionalism wouldn’t let her remain silent.  “Sir Momon, you have excellent armor, but no shield, what will you-?”

He cut her off with a squeeze of his hand on her shoulder.  “Trust me.”  

Evileye fell silent.

Lupu leaned back and looked to his left side where Evileye stood and said with a little titter, “Yeah, what Momon said, trust him, watch this, it’s going to be good!”

The shouting that made its way up the stairs confirmed the truth of his assessment, and he began to walk down the stairs.

“Why so slowly?  Wouldn’t a charge give them less time to prepare?”  Evileye asked.

“Fear.”  Ainz replied.  “They’re already prepared, but fear will weaken them, we’ve stalked and eliminated the entire catacombs, they only know we’re coming because nobody else has checked in and nobody coming up has made it back.  Though they may have heard some noises of violence.  Now they can only listen while some unknown force stalks in on them.  Panic makes haste, haste makes for bad decisions.  It’s basic strategy.”

“Yeah, basic strategy.”  Lupu echoed and stuck her tongue out at Evileye with a playful wink.

Evileye’s estimation of Momon went up another rank.

The stairs were not endless, though they were long, and the noise grew to a tumult and finally began to ebb, the trio all knew why.  The noise of Ainz’s footsteps was reaching them.

Down far ahead in the dim stairs, they saw the bright glow of orange light, and the faint smell of lamp oil reached their noses.  The two great swords of the dark hero came out slowly to the front of Ainz’s body, but in a stance Evileye had never seen any warrior use before, the pommel’s were held one end over the other so that the sword points were vertical as if it were one long edged staff.

She cocked her head, and looked to Lupu beside her when the woman fell back behind Momon, the bloodsoaked cleric only rubbed her hands together and gave Evileye a knowing little look.

The unknown was made known when they reached the base of the stairs.

“Fire!”  A voice from beyond shouted, and both fireballs and arrows launched en masse toward the dark hero.

‘No!’  Evileye wanted to cry out, ‘He’s destined to save many lives!  To do great things, even he can’t take so many hits…’  She thought as his body was hammered by scores of arrows and scorched by flames, and the Dark Hero died to protect them.

Or… that is what she should have seen.

Instead she saw the meaning of his unknown stance.

His greatswords spun like a chariot wheel locked into place, arrows were knocked aside and fireballs failed to so much as warm his spinning blade, it moved with such speed in front of her that even the Adamantite ranked Evileye couldn’t follow its spinning motion.

It even caused the humans behind the rows of armored undead to hesitate.  From the back center one of them, full of fear and awe and disbelief, had enough sense through his terror to give orders to the stunned necromancers.  “Again!  Hit him!  Fire!  He can’t stop them all!”  The disciple  screamed and fireballs flew again, while undead archers reloaded, aimed, and fired in unison.  Still the sword spun, and the dark hero did not move from his place in the door.  ‘He doesn’t advance because as long as he stands there, they can’t hurt us!  True heroism!  Of the highest order!’  Evileye thought with admiration that grew ever higher.

Her own acute senses were at work while she waited for the ambush to simply run out of mana and arrows.  The sound of breaking wooden shafts was as steady as dry pine needles underfoot on a hike, it seemed without end, the constant shouts of ‘Fireball!’ came on again and again, and yet to her dismay, Sir Momon did not even seem to tire, let alone miss.

His towering, powerful body blocked all access to herself and Lupu, and the cleric, true to the nature Evileye had recognized, couldn’t help herself.  She leaned against the wall and began to clean her bloody nails.  “How much longer, do you think?”  Lupu casually asked.

“Uh, ah, I don’t know, if they have mana enhancing items, a few minutes, then that’ll be the end of the fireballs.  The skeletons, if they have more arrows we don’t see, maybe a minute more.”  Evileye answered the radiant red stained, red headed adventurer.

“Sounds about right, guess you’re not bad at this stuff, huh?”  Lupu asked her.

Evileye could only stare from behind her mask, “I’m one of the strongest adventurers in the world.”

“Oh?”  Lupu looked at her with sudden interest, “Seriously?”

“Ah, yes.”  Evileye answered, briefly turning to look again at the way the dark hero ripped through every attack without any effort whatsoever.  “Or, I was.”

“That’s more like it.”  Lupu chuckled, and curling her fingers over her palm, she brought them up and blew on them with a cocky expression taking shape with the upturned corners of her lips.  

‘Even Lakyus couldn’t do this without all of her swords, and she would have had to do something else against the magic casters.’  Evileye understood very clearly that Sir Momon could do this was something she would have deemed impossible even after seeing the remains of the skeletal dragons.

The bright light and heat of the fireballs began to die down as magic casters began to run out of mana, and the arrows tapered off a moment later.

“What are you waiting for!”  A robed man shrieked and pointed toward the entrance.  The crypt core was a single wide open space with single stone coffins in place around the room, the faces carved on them were chiseled and handsome, like the dead wanted to be remembered, but likely only idealized representations of who they were.  “Get them!”  He shouted.

And the armored undead dropped their bows and took up swords.  Their bone white jaws fell open in screams that could not exist but for magic, and their feet clattered on the stone as they charged with swords raised high.  

“Now, Lupu, go, play, have fun.”  Evileye heard Sir Momon order, and the pair broke from the entrance.  

Momon charged with great swords swinging in massive, wide arcs, what anyone envisioned when they thought of the word ‘Heroic knight’.  But Lupu was almost wolflike, leaning far forward, so far that more than once her hands were used to draw her along in a bizarre animalistic fighting style as savage as the wolf the girl reminded Evileye of.

Her red braids flew behind her and she barely even used her mace.  ‘Cleric?  She’s a cleric?!!  A cleric should be back here!’  Evileye again reminded herself and watched the two tear through scores of armored undead like their iron and steel armor wasn’t even there.  The swords swept four or five aside with every swing, and the clattering fearless masses of the undead died a second time before the onslaught.  

Lupu batted heads from shoulders or with a palm that had to be harder than steel itself, smashed into chests with such violence that the undead flew back and broke their comrades into a jumble of bones that rattled and shattered on the floor or against the walls.

It wasn’t lost on Evileye that the pair moved along the sides rather than in the center, the undead were forced to split their numbers, and it put them on path to surrounding the now manaless necromancers.  ‘With me here at the entrance, they can’t go anywhere, they’re trapped between a rock and a sharp (hard?) place.’  Evileye just held her hands together like a prayer as she praised the dark hero in her own mind.  ‘So cool!  He’s amazing!’  She squeaked even in her own mind as the duo reached the back, the necromancers had mere moments of terror for the most part, half fell with the first swing of the sword, bodies severed in half at the waist, went flying and spinning in all directions.  Those unfortunates who survived to land in pain on the stone, tried to crawl away.  Some, missing parts of their arms, could not even do that.

Lupu simply punched, and heads exploded. Her mace was entirely unnecessary, and within mere moments, there was only one man left alive.  The red coated cleric approached to finish him off, cracking her knuckles and staring down at him as he scrambled away like a crab through the blood and viscera of his mutilated deceased companions.  The sound of slapping hands striking bright crimson puddles and splashing them about was accompanied by his cries.

“Mercy!  Mercy!  Please I surrender!  I surrender!  Don’t kill me!  Don’t hurt me!  I have information!  I can help you!”  He held out a shaking hand from down on his back.  Lupu glanced up toward the dark hero.  

He whipped his swords out, scattering bloody viscera over the walls and casting off the red stains, satisfied he sheathed the swords on his back again.

“Knock him out and search him for now, let the authorities have him, he can die just as well later as he can now.”  Evileye heard Momon say, and approved of his judgement.

A sound punch from Lupu later, and a limp man lay crumpled in a robe stained red by the failure of himself and his fellows.  Crouched over his body, she rummaged through his things and pulled out a delicate looking jeweled circle.  “Huh, I guess this might be what they’re looking for.”

“Mission accomplished then.”  Ainz said, “We’ll go through the other rooms, see if there are any remaining living captives, then head back.”

‘Spoken like a proper adamantite ranked hero.’  Evileye confirmed to herself, and followed as they carried out the last of the cleanup.  

 

---

 

Hours later, Evileye was telling the story of the operation to the entire guild from atop the dais, to the crowd of adventurers below, and concluded it all by holding aloft the crown of wisdom.

“Mission accomplished.”  Evileye said, and giving it back to Sir Momon, she watched him hand it over to Gazef Stronoff.

“You may have saved this city and its people from a Death Spiral, from whom knows what kind of terrible undead rising, and I am eternally grateful.”  The hero decked in the kingdom’s treasures replied.  “Sir Momon, the reward for this will be beyond anything I have the power to give.  Come to the capital as soon as you can, and I will have to let the King himself settle on what to offer you.”

“I would be honored to receive the King’s favor.”  Ainz answered, “But saving the people is what anyone would have done, what higher calling is there for an adventurer?”  

Approving, awed mutterings filled the floor below.

Pride swelled the hearts of the adventurers below at the declaration and praise for their profession, and more than one engraved his words on their hearts.

“Nonetheless, a reward is due, and a reward you will have.”  Gazef answered and extended a heavy hand.

The handshake between the two was almost like the joining of allies or the forming of a new friendship in the eyes of those who saw it, and when it broke, Pluton Ainzach approached.

He held up a pair of adamantite plates.  “I have wanted to do this for a long, long time, and I doubted I’d ever get a chance to.  An adamantite plate is almost as rare as feathers on a fish, and I am proud to bestow them now.  These are marks not of what you’ve done, but of what you can do.  You stand at the peak, and from that peak, you can see all that needs to be done.  I pray you do it, and do it well.”  

He then put one around the neck of the red haired Lupu, who flashed two fingers out in a V for victory sign to the crowd that was already cheering down below.

She winked at them, and the story of the Beautiful Princess Lupu was born into legend.

The cheers redoubled when Momon lowered his head and allowed the adamantite plate to be placed around his neck.

“Team Axel, welcome to the world of living legends.”  Lakyus said and approached with an outstretched hand of her own.  “I look forward to working with you in the future.”

Ainz shook her hand with gentle courtesy, “And I with you.  As my senior, I hope you will advise me when I need it.”  

He watched as her eyes blinked at the profound humility of the hero who, by all rights, should have embraced the arrogance of the strong.  ‘Better,’  Ainz thought, ‘to show deference to seniors who have been on the job longer, who knew being a salaryman would provide so much useful knowledge?  I guess some things are the same in every world.’  

With Lakyus stunned to silence, Ainz turned his attention to Gazef, “I will take you up on your offer, but it has been a busy, busy time, so I hope you won’t mind if I take some time to rest and to celebrate first.  It won’t be long, however, I can promise you that.”

“Good, till we meet again!”  Gazef said, and they all began to break up.

Evileye however, lingered, she put a hand on Momon’s arm and looked up at him, “Will I see you again?”  She asked in what she hoped was not a lovesick voice.

“Ah, yes, of course.  We are fellow adventurers of the highest rank, I would imagine we will.”  He turned to walk away, but then it hit him, ‘wait, is that… is there something there?’  He wondered, and recalled the way Bukubukuchagama had once let her eyes linger on him, and he’d wondered the same thing.  Back then he’d said nothing, this time, he chose a different path.

“But…”  he added, “I hope it will be soon, Evileye.”  He said succinctly, and Lupusregina fell in beside him.

‘Yay!’  Evileye felt the girlish excitement come to her at his final added words, ‘He says little, but means it more.  What a man!’  She thought, and when Lupu turned to look back at her and gave a taunting wink, Evileye didn’t even let it bother her.

‘I can’t wait!’  The vampire mage thought, though the question she most feared also came up.  ‘What will he say, or do, when I have to reveal what I am… a man that righteous, surely he’d despise the undead…’  

She set the question aside as one that would only ruin her hopes, but it was one she knew would need to be answered some day.  Just not… today.