Deep in the underground tomb of Nazarick, in the grand throne room chamber, the grand king of this tomb Ainz Ooal Gown was in a true state of concern. If it was possible for a skeleton to sweat, he would certainly be sweating right now.

After Albedo had run in to deliver her panicked report, he had attempted to ask for a report from the elder liches he had created and assigned in the town. However, he did not get a response from a single one of them. Perhaps what was even more concerning is that he did not even feel a response from any of the death knights he had assigned throughout the city. No, most concerning of all was that despite his complete lack of contact with the elder liches or the death knights, the towns people were still going about their business as normal without concern. And then, when Ainz looked out the window he could see the death knights still marching through the streets, except he could not make contact with any of them through the magical bond he should have with them as the one who created them.

Upon realizing this, Ainz had immediately ordered a retreat to the underground tomb. “Hmm… but how could I have lost control of them?” He mused. In the space of the past 30 minutes, Ainz had had his emotions canceled at least once per minute in that time as he repeatedly went into various extreme emotions from panic to anger to fear. If he had any organs at all, his worry would be causing him to nearly vomit by this point. How could anyone take control of his undead from him?

Ainz couldn’t help but think of those people who had taken control of Shalltear with a world item before, but an item that powerful should not be able to be used across a wide area or have rapid repeat use abilities. And yet, several hundred undead had quite clearly been subject to either charm or brainwashing effects. This was certainly not a normal mind control magic, undead are supposed to be immune to all forms of mind altering attacks. Effects such as charm, sleep, confusion, and certainly brainwashing should be totally useless against undead.

The larger concern was just how many of the other servants of Nazarick were also under this demon lord’s control. Indeed, it was already quite clear the forces of Nazarick had never faced an opponent as devilish or as fearsome as this demon lord. Albedo had told him that demon types such as herself and Demiurge were uniquely sensitive to the aura let off by the demon lord and they could sense him any time he was near. If it were not for Albedo’s warning there is no telling how much danger he would have been in. It seemed merely by approaching the city, nearly all the denizens may have been already placed under the demon lord’s control. This instant brainwashing magic or ability that could even effect undead was certainly like nothing that had ever existed in Yggdrasil.

“If he existed there, he would likely have a title such as ‘ruler of the demon world,’ a world creature for certain.” Perhaps he was some kind of hidden boss of the game nobody had triggered, but then even if that was the case, how did he wind up here?

For now, as a precaution, Ainz had called everyone back to Nazarick. Every single one of the servants without exception were to return.

“To.. to thin, the lord of demons.” Demiurge said in a shaky tone that even seemed to have a hint of admiration behind it. “To have even outsmarted the great Ainz sama and driven us into such a predicament. This is a truly fiendishly clever adversary.”

Normally at this time Albedo would have chastised Demiurge heavily for such a comment that sounded like it could in any way disparage the might of their leader. However, in this instance, she could do nothing but just direct a sour glare at him as she let off a grimace of shame.

“No, this is all my fault. If only I had sensed the demon lord’s approach sooner and warned Ainz sama immediately.”

“That’s enough Albedo.” Ainz cut her off. “You brought news of this as soon as you were able, and while we may have lost the city of Erantel, all that was there were a few Death Knights and Elder Liches. I can easily create more servants like that. All of my irreplaceable children such as you are still safe and so long as that is the case we will be able to deal with this somehow.”

“Not. All. Of. Us. Have. Arrived. As. Of. Yet. However.” Cocutus announced.

“Yes, that idiot bimbo Shalltear is still missing!” Aura, the dark elf tamer said to confirm. Although she spoke harshly, and she was known to fight a lot with Shalltear, it was clear from her expression that she was actually quite worried.

“I hope nothing happened to her.” Aura’s twin Mare said in concern. Mare, although being Aura’s twin brother, had a far more reserved demeanor and wore a short skirt as he was made by his creator to be a “trap.”

“Well, she was not stationed near the city, so I imagine she should be fine, but…” Albedo said and then had her eyes dart around a little. At this time, everyone still sorely remembered the incident where Shalltear had been brainwashed by a world item once before.

“It should be alright. Unlike last time, she has a world item. Even if she does meet up with this demon lord, she ought to still be protected from the brain washing effects.” Ainz says to calm everyone’s concerns, but mostly his own.

“Oh my! You all have such depressing faces! Why don’t you try to put on a more positive face in front of our majestic leader!” A voice comes from a deep red portal that just opened up in the middle of the room as the subject of everyone’s conversation appears from that hole in space. At once, everyone’s heads lift up and are glaring straight at the source of that voice. The owner of that voice was indeed the vampire Shalltear dressed in her usual gothic lolita style. She wore a red dress dyed in various shades of deep crimson and it was lined in violet frills. Something outside of the norm for her though is that today instead of her usual parasol, she appeared to have picked up something new. A large white-haired doll. The skin was a porciline white and it was dressed in a manner that seemed a little sparse for the normal porciline doll, but something about it seemed to really complete her image. The one truly odd thing about this doll though, aside from it’s somewhat large size, was that it had different colored eyes, one red and one purple, almost as though to match her dress. If it was just wearing the same cloths as the one who was holding it, the look would most certainly be complete.

“Shalltear! Do you have any idea how concerned everyone was about you!?” Aura immediately jumped up to shout at her. “And what is with that strange doll? Have you finally realized that your never going to grow any bigger in that undead body of yours and so you’re finally deciding to regress into a little kid now?

“I’m not a doll, my name is Vandaleu.” The person Shalltear was holding in her arms suddenly spoke in a blank monotone while turning to look at Aura.

During this whole exchange, and outside of the attention of everyone else, Albedo and Demiurge had stiffened as a pained expression spread over both of their faces in unison as though they had both been stung by a bee the very moment Shalltear had walked through her gate spell, and while Aura was arguing with Shalltear they were moving, albeit somewhat stiffly, to take defensive positions in front of their leader Ainz. Although they both looked like they wanted to do nothing more than to run away or to immediately throw themselves down on the floor and beg for their lives, they both showed a great sense of resolve to remain standing and stay guarding their beloved leader Ainz Ooal Gown.

 

 

-Earlier that day.

After getting past the check point at the gate, Vandaleu and their party decided to go straight to the governor’s mansion that the gate keeper had mentioned. However, when they arrived, they were informed that the Sorcerer king had just left in a hurry a little earlier.

“I am sorry I cannot be of more help. He just suddenly left and took all of his servants with him declaring a state of emergency. I am not certain what the issue was, but I was left behind. I have been given administrative duties over this city, so I am doing my best to continue serving in that role while the master attends to other urgent matters.”

The one talking to them, they were informed, was an elder lich. And in addition to that, he mentioned he was created by the sorcerer king himself. Vandaleu was suddenly thankful he had not decided to bring Luciliano along on this trip, he could imagine how interested he would be by this individual and the fact he was created by another undead. Not only that, the fact that it seemed he was sane before he was exposed to Vandaleu’s guidance was another thing that was quite significant.

At any rate, they were left wondering what they should be doing at this point. If they had left because of some emergency, perhaps the best course of action would be to find an Inn in town or something and wait for the Sorcerer King to return after he had finished attending to whatever crisis situation he was dealing with? Just as they were about to leave though, there was another voice deeper in the building.

“AINZ SAMAAAAA!!!” A clear voice of a young girl rang out from deeper inside the building.

“Who is that?” Vandaleu asked the elder lich who was still in front of them.

“Ah, that would be Shalltear sama. She is one of the floor guardians of Nazarick, one of the highest rank servants of our lord the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown. It seems as though she has gotten the destination wrong and came here by mistake. I should go inform her that the order to rally was to go to the throne room in the underground tomb and not here.” The elder lich helpfully informed them.

“Ah, I will leave you to that then.” Van said. Just as he was about to turn and leave however the voice of that girl, Shalltear, grew much closer.

“Ainz Sama! Where are you?” Her voice was heard from right out in the hall, and in that moment they came face to face. “Oooooh! Who are youuuu!?” What they saw was a lovely young girl who looked to be around 14 years of age dressed in a deep red dress in the Victorian style. The most striking characteristic about her however was her platinum blond hair and the deep crimson eyes. In their own world, those crimson eyes signified a vampire. Was it the same in this world?

The willful girl ran right passed the elder lich and immediately took Vandaleu into a possessive embrace. “Ohhh! What a sweet tender looking child, and you have such a powerful scent surrounding you! Huh?” She was now holding Vandaleu by the shoulders a good foot off the ground, she had lifted him up and was holding him at arm’s length as she suddenly began to scrutinize his face very carefully. “Different colored eyes? This is not my first time seeing that, but, isn’t one eye the crimson of vampires? What is the meaning of this?”

“Ah, so I take it then this is your first time seeing a damphir? I am the biologically born child of a vampire and a dark elf.” Vandaleu informs her.

“Ooohhh??? How interesting.” She says, calmly placing him on the ground and getting a huge caniving looking smile on her face. “So, that means you are not attached to a vampire parent then. So then, would you like to become mine?”

“I think I have heard enough of that!” An elf girl who looks to be almost exactly the same age as the vampire girl in front of him steps out from the sub-space and appears directly between the two, directing a very harsh glare at this boisterous newcomer. This elf girl was Gufadgarn, the evil god of labyrinths who always followed directly behind Van. She had taken the form of a young elf girl due to a misunderstanding, and now followed him around with that appearance everywhere, although most of the time she was invisible and hid in the subspace behind him due to her mastery over space magic. “To think! Talking about making the great Vandaleu Sama your own possession! I can think of no greater insult! You have clearly gone too far.”

“Ooohhh? I only recognize one existence as the greatest. Everything else is mine to do with as I please so long as it does not displease Ainz Sama!”

“That’s enough!” Vandaleu interrupts the two of them. “If you would like to fight, we have a rule for that in our group. You may have it out for five minutes. You may not use any special abilities or magic. If you can agree to those rules, we will continue to listen to what you have to say.” These were actually rules for fighting among friends in the Vidal empire, but since he had heard this girl was an important servant to the Sorcerer King who he presently did not consider his enemy and wanted to have a good relationship with he was regarding her with the same rules as a friend.

“Hmm… Interesting! That’s fine, I will agree to these rules. I do not need magic or abilities to stomp a little elf girl like you flat!”

“Gufadgarn is a god of labyrinths though you know? You really shouldn’t underestimate her.” Vandaleu informed her.

“WHAT!? This little girl!?”

“Oh-hooo! Are you becoming scared now? I cannot quite bring out my full strength in this vessel, but it is still large enough that I can access quite a bit of power even like this.”

“Wow! I don’t think I have ever seen Gufadgarn like this!” Saria comments in astonishment.

“Of course! This child is not one of the great Vandaleu Sama’s friends or associates, and she even had the nerve to talk about taking him like a possession! She is not deserving of the normal courtesy I direct to everyone else. Don’t worry, I will not permanently maim her since she does seem to be the associate of someone Vandaleu wishes for a positive relationship with, but I will make sure she knows her place before we are through today!”

“Well then, I suggest we take this outside of town. It is likely for the surroundings to be damaged by such a battle.” Vandaleu makes this suggestion while looking to both of the girls.

“Hmph! Well then, shall I take you all outside of town then?” Shalltear offers. With a wave of her hand, a deep red portal opens in the middle of the hallway. “This portal leads to a field where we should be able to go all out against each other.”

“That will not be needed. I will take Vandaleu Sama to our destination. I have already grasped the coordinates of where that portal leads. Well then, Vandaleu Sama, shall we?” At these words, Gufadgarn bows to Vandaleu and gestures toward a door. It is not the front door, but one of the doors leading to a room off of the hall way where they currently are.

“I’ll go tell daddy what’s going on.” Rita offers and then leaves for the front door.

“Well then,” Saria says, moving for the door Gufadgarn just gestured to and opening it, taking up position on the opposite side from Gufadgarn. With a shrug of the shoulders, Van looks at Shalltear and raises his hands in a gesture to say “it can’t be helped.” Indeed, it may have been better to accept the hospitality of their host and use Shalltear’s space magic to get to their destination, but given the situation he had almost no choice but to use Gufadgarn’s. Oh well, they should calm down after they fight.

Vandaleu walked through the door which had him come out in a field some distance from any civilization. Not only would nothing be damaged, but it’s unlikely anyone would even be able to see the battle going on here. Saria was quick to follow him, and then the portal closed and then Gufadgarn teleported by a different means on her own. At that moment, they were looking to a similar blood-red ovoid portal a short distance from them and Shalltear was quick to appear from it with a regal and confident look on her face.

Vandaleu quickly used golem creation to create a 5 minute hour glass which he passed to Saria.

“Well then, to repeat the rules from earlier, you will not be allowed to use any magic or special abilities. You will have five minutes. After five minutes, if no victor is decided, the fight will end regardless. Begin!” And, at those words, Saria flipped the hour glass and Gufadgarn and Shalltear launched themselves at each other.

Vandaleu immediately began preparing a picnic blanket as soon as the fighting began, and Sam arrived quite quickly with Rita aboard. Rita was already prepared with snacks she had taken from the back of the carriage and got out to join in the preparations. Once everything was prepared, Sam who had gained some skill with long distance control managed to get his human projection to get down off the carriage and join them on the picnic blanket and they enjoyed the finger sandwiches prepared as they watched the fight.

“Well, this is certainly developing in an unexpected direction isn’t it Bochan?” Rita says as she places tea bags inside of a small tea pot that has already had the water heated up with her fire magic.

“Indeed, however I am actually somewhat concerned. This Shalltear seemed to be carefree enough to start all this, but is it really alright?” Vandaleu voiced his concerns.

“That’s right, didn’t that nice elder lich say that there was some kind of emergency they were supposed to be dealing with? We are holding up an important servant of the Sorcerer King right now with all of this nonsense.” Saria responds.

“Well,” Sam says, joining in on the conversation, “if she is the type to suddenly pick a fight out of nowhere, the Sorcerer King is probably used to this sort of delay. We will just explain the situation if they ask about it.”

“Hmm… perhaps I should offer to somehow make up for the situation of holding her up.” Vandaleu considers. At about this time, the form of a rapidly flying Gufadgarn approaches the hill where they are sitting. However, when she is just about to run into them, a dark mist immediately cancels her momentum and then vanishes, allowing her to fall safely to the ground.

“Hey! That’s cheating isn’t it!?” Shalltear angrily yells at her.

“That was Vandaleu Sama’s inertia barrier. I did not cast the spell. If you don’t like it, simply do not hit me in this direction! Sorry about that Vandaleu Sama.” With those words, she launches herself back toward Shalltear and the fight continues. The combat is actually quite evenly matched.

“Urr! You are a lot better than I thought!” Shalltear barks out.

“You as well, I believe you may even be more powerful than the pure breed vampires who serve Vida.”

“Of course! That’s because I am a true ancestor!”

“Oh! A true ancestor huh? Well then, I will have to be more considerate not to damage you too much so as not to make your vampiric children sad. Once you have properly learned your lesson we will call that good enough.”

“Vampiric children? I don’t have any actually.”

“Oh? You have yet to create any pure breed vampires? Well, I must admit you are a rather strange case. I do not know about the circumstances, but wouldn’t the one responsible for your birth have wanted you to start your own vampiric line?”

“Peroroncino Sama!? But, the only duty he ever assigned to me was to guard the top three floors of Nazarick! No! I don’t! He would have said something if he wanted that!”

“I have been told that there is no parent who does not want to see their own grandchildren born. I do not know this Peroroncino who is your parent, but perhaps if you were to ask him.”

At these words, Shalltear turns a face full of tears toward Gufadgarn. “I can’t ask her anymore!” She cries and throws a punch full of frustration and emotion, but not much power toward Gufadgarn. Gufadgarn receives that punch with one hand and then places her other gently on Shalltear’s shoulder.

“I see… So that’s how it is, is it? I cannot say anything except I’m sorry.”

Somehow, the fight had turned into a counseling session. Gufadgarn seemed very uncomfortable with this role, but somehow she had gained Shalltear’s trust. They awkwardly began to explain their situations to one another. Shalltear explained how they were created by 41 creator gods, but 40 of them had gone missing and now they all desperately served the one who remained behind who was also the same one they called the Sorcerer King. Gufadgarn in turn explained how Vida, the goddess of love, had given birth to several new races, but the children who were the ancestors of every race, including the true ancestor of the vampires, were killed by Bellwood and Alda’s forces, and how for 100,000 years until Vandaleu had shown up and lead a counter-offensive against Alda’s forces, the children of Vida were persecuted and genocided by Alda and his followers.

“Vandaleu is the reincarnation of Zakkart sama, the one who was the greatest champion chosen by Vida herself. Zakkart was also the father of the Vampire race, but his child also was slain by Alda’s and Bellwood’s forces. Because of this, I consider the Vampire race to be very precious. You have the power to be the ancestor to an entire new race of Vampires in this world. I am certain this would make your mother proud.”

“Yes.. Yes! You are right!” Shalltear agrees with new life in her eyes.

“I will warn you though, you cannot have Vandaleu Sama as your child. I am not certain it would work anyway, he has drank the blood of several pure blood vampires and given his blood to them as well. None of them caused any transformation in him. Rather, even the pure bloods had their race change into abyssal vampires. Although he is a Dampir, his blood is actually superior to that of a true ancestor. If anything, it is you who should become Vandaleu Sama’s child.”

“What!? I could never!”

“Indeed,” Vandaleu agrees, having come down from the hill to join them. “That might be considered rude to the Sorcerer King if I were to suddenly take one of his subordinates like that.” The time had gone well past 5 minutes by this point, but he had been giving them some space since it seemed this conversation was important.

“Yes! I could never do something like that! I would never abandon Ainz Sama!”

“Anyway,” Vandaleu continues. “We were just going to meet the Sorcerer King, but we were told he had left to deal with some kind of emergency.”

“Oh! I will take you to him then! You cannot enter Nazarick without a special ring to disable the teleportation dampening effect, but my gate spell is the one exception.” Shaltear had regained herself in a big way after this long emotional conversation, and now she seemed quite energetic. She quickly scooped up Vandaleu in her arms and opened another one of her portals. In short order, she then walked straight through it and seemed to have forgotten to leave enough time for the rest to follow behind.