"Congratulations. You are all still alive." Ainz said bluntly as he looked over the mass of humans. "You are not dead, and I am not here to kill you. I came to save you at the behest of your Queen. I come from another kingdom, and she has made offers and appeals to me that have induced me to apply myself to saving you. I am going to leave this city soon, and I will move on to the next city, and then the next, and every single beastman that does not run back over their borders, will die."

That drew cheers from a shocked crowd, husbands and wives who survived hugged and kissed, children who survived cried with happiness, those who had lost much and could only wait for death, looked on in utter disbelief that this was happening. But Ainz was not done, he raised his hands and called for silence.

"I said I am here to rescue you, not to escort you. You will make your way from here to safer places farther west, I suggest the capitol, but your lives are your own and you may go where you wish, but you must not remain here, take only what you can carry for now, when safety is restored, you may return here and claim your homes or goods at large, but there are villages and beastman camps not far from here who will soon realize that they are not going to get more of you shipped to them from this place, and since I am not remaining and the largest settlements are the most important, I cannot take the time to go to those places. Do you understand?"

There were bobbing heads among the crowd. "There isn't enough food for us to sustain us all the way there though! There is plenty of water along the way, but many of us are weak from hunger...how will we..." A man began to ask.

"The beastmen offer you their solution. Eat them. They may not appreciate the irony, but it is fitting that their bodies should sustain you as you go to safety." Ainz said in a quite reasonable tone of voice, and grim savage smiles came over the faces of the human audience.

"I will give you a few hours to cut up the meat you need and gather your things, but you must be gone by sunset." Ainz said, "Now go, and get to work. If any of you require healing, or know of those who do, have them brought to the amphitheater here, I will summon a servant to attend to them."

After the crowd had dispersed and Ainz had summoned Pestonya and set her to the wounded, he was about to walk away, when a vaguely familiar girl approached him. He recognized her as the girl who appeared catatonic before.

"Yes?" He asked. "What do you need?" His voice was not exactly warm, he did not like his thoughts being interrupted, but the girl knelt in front of him. "Allow me to follow you at least sire." She said.

"No." He said bluntly.

"Please." She begged and dared to meet his eyes with hers, they were wet, he was sure he was just a blur to her vision now.

"They ate my father, my mother, my brother, and the man I was going to marry, and his family, I have nothing left here and even if I go to the capitol, there is nothing for me there. Let me follow you, I want to see them die in dispair." Her voice had a hateful edge to it, and her body was visibly trembling.

"Let me come with you, even if you don't rest, surely you get bored, I could keep you company, I could do work for you, I could..." She blushed..."Keep you warm at night." Her face was beet red, "I'll carry wood, or search for valuables, give you anything I find, can you eat? I'll cook for you. Please...please your majesty? Grant me this small thing, you don't have to protect me, if I die, I die, say you will leave my corpse like trash in the dirt if that is what it will take, but please, while I live, while you do this, let me accompany you?" The woman begged and begged, and Ainz wondered why anyone ever thought offering their body to the undead was going to be appealing to the undead themselves.

Still, she was persistent, and it was a brave enough offer as far as it went...and he would get bored with nobody to talk to, he thought it over further, and he thought the guardians would eventually insist that he at least have a servant with him, and he could never get the kind of feedback he wanted from them... "Very well." He said. "I accept your terms, you may come with me. Meet me at the front gate at sunset, as you do require rest, I strongly advise that you sleep now." He added. "We will be moving over the course of the evening and strike the next city at sunrise."

She bounced up and down happily, "Thank you! Thank you sire!" it was like she was a child on Christmas morning and she'd gotten just what she wanted for herself.

"What is your name?" He asked her politely. "I should at least know what to call you other than 'bouncy girl'?" He added, and she stopped bouncing to blush again.

"I am Vanysa." She said, "Pleast to meetcha!" She gave a toothy grin and said, "I'll see you at the gate at sunset sire!" She waved happily as she skipped farther away.

"Something is not right with that one." Ainz said to himself. "Is it her lust for revenge, has she snapped from the trauma..." He sighed, "I have no time to consider it and no way to fix it, so for now I'll have to leave it be and let her come along."

Ainz spent some time walking the streets and meeting with the peasants and few surviving nobles who were busy packing up, in this Ainz saw that the peasants had a definite advantage, they had little to take with them, so nothing held them back, by contrast the nobles had an abundance of goods and wealth, and they were loath to leave any of it, so they packed large bags they couldn't possibly carry, or sought to hire peasants to carry their goods for them. Ainz put a stop to that quickly, sending an edict throughout the city that nobody was to carry anything for anyone except for those who were family members, or for someone who was to old or to young to carry things for themselves. This lead a number of pregnant women to protest, and Ainz, much embarrassed by the oversight, allowed others to carry things for them.

Casually he asked one how they survived as long as they had, she was heavily pregnant, and there was no way she had been driving them off, he instantly regretted the question. "Majesty," she said, "It is considered a delicacy to eat a newly birthed child." Her voice was sickeningly weak, but bore a hopeful note, "I am due in perhaps a week or two...had you not come...had you not come..." She broke down and hugged her belly protectively, and as he imagined the nightmare of being dragged to a feast while in labor...the fate of her newborn...Ainz felt sick.

"You are safe now." The undead King said.

"Thanks to you." She replied, "With your permission sire...there is no...father really."

"Immaculate conception?" He asked, "Is that a thing that happens on this world?" He tilted his head to the side curiously.

She actually laughed, "No sire, that isn't what I mean, that would be silly. I mean the child's father...he abandoned me when the beastmen threat appeared, ran away for parts unknown and left me...us, to whatever would happen to us. I want to ask, with your permission, would you accept a peasant giving her child the name of our savior?"

"I can think of no greater praise, what kind of king could say no to that?" He asked. A moment of inspiration occurred. "May I touch your belly?" He asked.

"You are a king, I am a peasant, you have power, I don't...you can do what you want." She said, but her tone of voice told him she was mystified that he would ask permission to touch her, and wondered why he would ask.

"Your body is yours. Nobody has a right to it. Never forget that." He said softly as he remembered the ideals his own world had abandoned and what it had done to those precious to him to have to endure a world without those beliefs.

"As your majesty wills it." The woman said in a gentle voice filled with awe, and Ainz placed his skeletal hand where her child rested, unlife reached out to new life, old to young, past to future, and briefly Ainz wondered if his mother had feared as much as this one did, how far they went to protect their young, good mothers were as much a blessing as bad ones were a curse. As he lingered a moment, he said softly, "Blessing of the Dark." And a fragment of his magic passed to from him to her as he cast his spell.

"Sire...what...?" She asked with confusion as he removed his hand.

"Tell no one of what I have done." He said, "But I have passed a blessing unique to my kind on to your child through you."

"A blessing?" She asked. "What sort?"

"That remains to be seen. Blessing of the Dark bestows gifts on those who receive it, but these gifts may take many forms, perhaps your child will have great dark vision, or be stronger in the twilight hours, or have an affinity for the type of magic I use. Whatever the case, it should be of use to them some day."

"Thank you sire." She said with a stunned whisper. "I will not forget this."

Nor did she.

Ainz went about the rest of the afternoon ensuring that people were packed and ready to move, and he had nobles carriages reverted to carts, and carts expanded to fit more people, he gave them simple rules for the trek back. Everybody begins by walking and carrying their goods. Carts move behind the whole of the line of movement, those who tire, fall, injure themselves, or grow sick, are picked up by the carts that follow, thus nobody is left behind. Everybody carried enough food for several days, and the handful of horses that remained would be ridden ahead to notify the Draconic Kingdom's officials of the coming stream of refugees and to bring back aid to ensure their quick arrival.

Finally sunset arrived, and Ainz went to the main entry gate, and found Vanysa waiting for him with a big toothy grin on her face again. Her eyes had a slightly fanatical tint to them, and for a moment that vaguely reminded him of the way Albedo looked when caught up in a moment of madness.

"Toldja I'd be here." She shouted, bouncing up and down and waving to him energetically.

As he approached he asked, "Did you sleep?"

"Aye ah did." She said with a rapid, manic nodding of her head.

"Well then follow." He said, as he walked out the gate, while the citizens of the city began to move out the other way, streaming towards the capitol.

Ainz kept up a brisk walking pace, but he found that she could quite easily keep up. After hours of enjoying the scenery and silence...and his total avoidance of work paperwork in Nazarick, he looked over to her. "What did you pack with you?" He asked.

"Ah got me some meat. Got bearman meat and lionman meat and tigerman meat, some ah each!" She said, swinging her pack around and rustling through it, pulling out samples of each in turn. Ah also managed to find some bread still left, but no potatoes for stew..." She frowned, somewhat disappointed.

"Well, you can at least make a sandwich." He said with a shrug.

"Whasat?" She asked as her pack went back into place, and gave him a little tilt of her head to one side, he had to admit, as humans went, she was pretty cute.

"You've never had them?" He asked, and then it occurred to him that he'd never seen anyone eat sandwiches before.

"Uh uh." She said, bringing her hands behind her head casually as they walked, Ainz felt very comfortable around the girl, though it seemed she was somehow 'off', she had a bouncy temperament and an abundant energy...and it didn't hurt that she had the kind of large breasts he'd liked when he was a human.

"You take a loaf of bread and slice it into pieces about the width of your finger so that you make a roughly square shape, then you slice meat into a width and shape that will fit within it. Then you place the meat between two of those slices of bread, then you put whatever you want with the meat, vegetables, various flavored sauces or gravy, when I used to eat, those were a favorite of mine." He said as he enthusiastically described the food.

"Well ah ain't got no sauces, an ah got no knife to cut the bread," He paused and pulled out a dagger from his pocket dimension and handed it to her, it was a trash item to him, but she looked at it in awe as he handed it to her. "isat silver?" She asked, "Ah you given me a silver dagger just to cut up bread and meat?" She looked at him with utter disbelief as she took it.

"No. That is white gold." He said casually.

"Ah can't take this!" She said with shock, "This's the kinda thing a noble'd have."

Ainz shrugged. "Do you have another knife?"

"Well...no...but..." She looked half panicked, but relented and attached the sheath to her belt. Then paused as she realized what she'd just seen, she'd been so distracted by the quality of the dagger that she hadn't given a thought to where he'd gotten it.

"But..ow'd you do that? Did you make it with magic? Ain't never seen magic like that b'fore." She said surprised.

"No, its how I store things, I have another space that only I can access, and when I wish something, I simply reach in and will whatever I am seeking to hand, in this way I can carry whatever I need, wherever I need it."

She went quiet at this, and Ainz chose to fill the silence. "As to the rest, you're right, meat and bread by itself does not a sandwich make." He said, and after a brief message, a beautiful maid stepped out of nothing, holding a sack full of vegetables and sauces. Vanysa stared in shock at the maid's black hair and incomparably beautiful face, her expression was severe, but this did not seem to detract from her beauty in the least.

She handed the sack to Vanysa, and Ainz traded a few polite words with her before she bowed, stepped through the hole in the air, and vanished the way she'd come.

"What'd I just see?" She asked in confusion and shock.

"A convenient means of travel, its a not something anyone else as far as I know, is able to use." Ainz replied.

"Ah see...well its right useful, but if its alright with you your majesty, I'm a mite hungry and ah'd like to lighten this load a bit by tryin out that sandwich thing you mentioned!" She gave him a hopeful and toothy grin, and it was impossible for him to say no.

"Very well." He said, "Prepare the camp, doesn't matter if we're on the road or off, so right here is fine."

She kept her grin and quickly went to work, and Ainz had to credit her with that, she was swift, efficient, she knew her way around the woods. She'd dragged a fallen trunk from a tree over to where Ainz was for him to take a seat, and one for herself, dug a small pit and surrounded it with rocks to make a fire, and crafted what she'd need to roast the meat in no time. She knew what to do and she did it well.

Within a very short span of time she was sitting there watching the meat roast over an open flame and she was fairly salivating, on this occasion, he saw she had chosen the meat of the bear man.

"Lick me will yah you sonofabitch, well lets see how you taste." She had a savage and hateful look on her as she salivated over the roasting flesh of her former tormentor. It was...a little disturbing.

When it was thoroughly roasted she took out the bread and he showed her the way to cut it to make the slices he'd described, then from there she worked out how to slice the meat into strips, and then she chose to overlay it with tomatos, turkey, and lettuce, and when Ainz suggested a yellow looking thing he called 'mustard' she agreed and slathered it on with wide hungry eyes, then closed the sandwich with the other slice of bread, cleaned her knife and resheathed it, then took a large bit.

Ainz wanted to laugh as she muffled out through puffed up filled chipmunk cheeks, "Ish shooooooo gooood!" Her eyes rolled back into her head in bliss and then her eyes closed as she let herself get lost in the feel of eating. And that was the moment when he could not restrain himself and burst out laughing, deep, nobly, long at the absurd sight before him. His skeletal hand slapped his thigh as she struggled to chew the excessively large bite.

When she finally managed to swallow, she took another one of roughly equal size and the absurdity repeated itself. When she was down to her last bite, she fairly licked her fingers with glee. "Ah tell yah when ah get outta all this, I'm gonna open a san'ich shop!"

Her simple ambition made him smile internally, and he privately hoped for her success.

"First watch?" She said politely.

"No need." Ainz said. "I am undead, I do not sleep. You may rest."

She grinned and laid herself down to rest using a bedroll that probably wasn't hers in the first place. Ainz sat and watched the fire and he watched her sleep. She slept fitfully, the sunny, bubbly, altogether unexpectedly childlike nature she'd exhibited was gone entirely. Instead she tossed and turned and cried, there were names he didn't recognize that made it past her lips. She was sweating, caught in the grip of memory and pain and loss. It was pitiable to behold, and the human part of himself wanted to wake her, but given their brief association, waking up to the face of a skeleton was probably not for the best. So he simply watched over her. Besides, he had another concern, someone was approaching.

"I know you're there, and believe me when I say that this is your only chance to stay alive, withdraw or perish." He said into the darkness, and he got up and turned around, revealing his skeletal form and his piercing red eyes glowed in the darkness, there was a sound of retreat, but he knew someone was still there. "If you're not going to withdraw with your fellows, you may as well come out." He said, and out of the darkness stepped a minotaur.

"You're a bold one. Or are you suicidal?" Ainz asked.

The minotaur snorted. "They're cowards, but I want the meat you've got with you skeleton, and I'll snap your bones to get it."

"Very well. Come snap my bones." He said.

The minotaur took a step forward, and Ainz said, "Gravity well." And the minotaur had only one moment of awe and terror, because the increased gravity turned him into a paste and depressed the ground by several feet.

"Stupid beast." Ainz said, and returned to his seat. The remainder of the night was peaceful, and Vanysa woke up and found herself drenched in sweat.

"You did not sleep well I think." Ainz said, his voice very matter of fact.

"Nah, ah didn't. Don't know what ah dreamed though." She looked at herself covered in sweat. She blushed and bent the knee before Ainz. "Sire, can'ah take a moment to change?"

"Of course." He said, and turned his back.

He heard the sound of rustling clothing as the woman behind him stripped away her simple tunic and threw on a fresh one. "Kay, I'm ready." She said and he turned back, she gave him her toothy grin again and it was as if the night's rest had been good after all, she stowed away the sweaty clothing and then, somewhat embarrassed, lifted her arm, tilted her head down, and sniffed. "God I stink." She said, "I'm sorry if me smell offends you sire, ain't exactly got a place to bathe here. Promise I'll do that at the next stop."

Ainz was glad he could not blush, he simply nodded, her peasant coarseness was charming in its way, but that was a bit much for the fastidious Ainz.

"The next city will have something I am sure." He said, "But so that it does not get...worse..." He cast a summon undead spell, and two undead horses appeared. "Do you know how to ride?" He asked.

"It won't kill me?" She asked with some trepidation.

"As long as I don't order it to, no." He answered.

"Aye, ah can ride, not like cavalry soldier or nuthin but ah can ride good'nuff."

She got on the undead horse with some hesitation, and they began to eat up ground, as it turned out the next city was not as easily reached as a morning walk, and instead they did not arrive until after noon.

When they got to the walls there was atrocity waiting. Humans were tied to crosses, naked on the walls themselves, they were obviously being baked under the heat, and they were, to Ainz's keen sight, clearly having trouble breathing. Given their previous habits, he guessed that this was part of a meal preparation. As they came closer, the guards saw them and called out, these were mostly minotaurs, but there were boar men as well, and the calls that reached Ainz were threatening and demanding, and Ainz had no patience for it today.

He summoned his messenger demons, and they flew over the walls and screamed like banshees to draw every ear. "The great one has come to purge the beastmen of this city. You will in his mercy, be given two minutes to make peace with whatever gods you follow, and then you will be slaughtered!"

The purple faced demon heads flew to every part of the city, screaming this message repeatedly, and then they vanished as if they were never there.

Ainz waited, and patiently counted out one hundred and twenty seconds. There was a moment of silence, and then a flurry of activity, followed a moment later by laughter, clearly they had counted out their two minutes faster than he did, as when they thought it had ended and nothing had happened, it had been a simple bluff. But Ainz was not bluffing.

A blue orb enveloped him, light like that of an angel surrounded his body, and Vanysa was sure she was looking at a god as it expanded, circles took shape under his feet and flew around his arms as they spread wide open, as if in sympathy for the crucified humans on the walls, for their part, they watched the spectacle with awed expressions, for a moment forgetting their pain as they looked at what they were sure was divine intervention, they had the best view of the city, though perhaps it is fair to say that they neither appreciated nor wanted that. "Super tier magic...Hunting Flame!" And then from where he stood, thousands of fireballs shot into the air and arced over the walls. "Do you want to watch them die?" Ainz asked.

"Aye ah do sire." She said with a grin. And she followed him as he walked to the gate, 'Greater break item' he said, and the gate shattered and he passed through to the interior. That was when she saw what hell looked like. The fireballs Ainz sent out had each locked on to a beastman as a target, and they followed that particular beastman and no other. If a beastman stopped and the fireball caught up to him or her, it began to burn their body with agonizing slowness, the flame spreading over the flesh and searing deeper into the body, spreading out from nonlethal parts first, and ironically cauterizing the wounds so that the victim would not bleed to death. If a beastman ran like a bat out of hell, the fireball chased them with almost the same speed, it became immediately obvious as they saw the fleeing figures everywhere, that the fireballs were torturing them, going just fast enough to force a tiring run, but not fast enough to catch up. As the beastman slowed, so did the fireball, if the beastman stopped or fell, then the fire caught and consumed them. The screams were like honey to the human captives, who though fearful at first, realized they were being completely ignored, and their fear became exultation.

Some of the beastmen tried to hide, but their hiding places were burned up and they with them, some tried to throw water at the flames, but it did nothing, others tried throwing humans at the flames, for the flame to simply buffer the human and lower them safely...and then resume the pursuit.

Vanysa began to laugh, it started as a giggle, and became full blown hilarity to her, she slapped her knees and watched with frothing mouth as her greatest desire was right before her eyes. "Burn! Yes burn! Burn from the wrath of god! Burn you sick fucks!" She laughed and laughed and laughed...while the minotaurs and boar men screamed and burned and ran.

"What city was this called?" Ainz asked curiously.

"Hearthlight." She said with a smile, appreciating the irony of the light bearing flames burning up their tormentors. A minotaur nearby happened to fall, and the fire caught him at the hoof, that was the last moment he did not know pain, as the hooves were both caught, and burned away, and the flame began burning its way up his legs, in desperation, he crawled, dragging himself as if he could escape the flames that way, until he was at the feet of Vanysa & the Sorcerer King. He desperately grabbed at the Sorcerer King's robe.

"Please...no more...make it stop..." He managed to get out through gargles of pain and shrieks as it drew nearer his waist.

"You dare touch him! You're not fit for that!" She said with a cackling glee and brought her foot down on his hand and then again on his nose, pain atop pain, he wailed and pleaded for forgiveness he would never get as the flames burned their way to his waist, and Ainz looked on with indifference. The fires slowed when it hit the waist, this spell was made for suffering. The eyes went white with pain as foam and spittle flew from the minotaur's mouth.

Ainz looked away and watched without a word as two boar men were running towards an intersection, one going one way, one the other, each not aware that the other was around the corner until they collided. They tried to rise from the tangle of limbs that they found themselves in, but the flames caught them first, and they screamed as their tails caught and began to burn.

Ainz began to walk the city streets, it was as casual as if it were just an afternoon stroll, the screams of the beastmen would have been pitiable if he did not know the nature of the beings that made them. Vanysa seemed to have no more pity for them than he did, though she perhaps went farther, and occasionally threw some random object in the way of a beastman to trip him up and allow the ball of fire chasing him to catch up and consume him. When one was fallen and already burning, she approached and added extra agony by throwing kicks and punches at the wounded beast, it was cruel...but Ainz said nothing, he was sure it was richly deserved. Gradually the noise of the city began to die as its targeted occupants did, and eventually there was only one fireball still active. "Mass fly." He said, and both he and Vanysa rose into the sky.

"Ah! Whas appenin! Whas goin on, why'm ah floatin?!" She said and flailed around, turning herself upside down and trying to grab at the ground, she began to kick her legs and swing her arms from in front of her to her side as if she were struggling to 'swim' back to the ground.

"Be at ease." Ainz said, "We are under my control, we are flying above the city, there is still one surviving beastman, and I want to find him." Ainz looked around, and saw a dot moving down the center of a street, "That would be him." Vanysa had noticably calmed down, and Ainz took her by the hand and drew her gradually down to the ground into the path the remaining beastman would have to cross. When they landed, Ainz simply stood and waited, watching the direction he had predicted the figure would run, and he was not disappointed. The beastman came jogging, or perhaps 'shuffling' around the corner, it wasn't a swift sprint, but rather a slow steady motion designed to preserve his energy. 'An intelligent one', Ainz reasoned.

As the beastman saw them, he bellowed his frustration, but neither picked up nor slacked off on his pace. "Do you want to live?!" Ainz shouted.

"Yeeeeeesss!" the beastman shouted, it was on closer inspection, a minotaur, large and thickly muscled, probably in his prime.

"Then come and kneel at my feet and I will cancel the spell. I have a use for you!" He shouted to the terrified and increasingly tired figure.

The minotaur, desperate beyond all reason, rushed to Ainz and descended to both knees, gasping for air, the flame that had been pursuing him, went past and returned to the open palm of Ainz Ooal Gown's hand.

"You live for one reason, to dispatch a message. If I find that the message was not received when I arrive, I will release this flame again, and though you hide at the bottom of the sea or the ends of the world itself, this flame will always find you." The minotaur nodded, numb with terror, Vanysa looked somewhat disappointed that she wouldn't get to see him burn, but she remained quiet as she bounced on her heels with her arms folded behind her back, like a much amused child.

Ainz tried very hard not to notice the way her breasts were bouncing with her playful motion, and instead focus on the task at hand.

"You will go to the next city, you will inform them of the fate of Hearthlight, and inform them that I have also exterminated the beastmen of Ha'ak Pale. If every human taken in this invasion which is still alive is not released, and returned to human lands from that city, from the beastman kingdom, and from the surrounding villages, I will continue to exterminate your kind until it is done. Do you understand?" Ainz asked, his noble voice carrying the will of death itself, the Minotaur had absolutely no doubt that the being before him was capable of exactly what he promised.

"It will be done." He said breathlessly, "But may I ask what name to give them when they ask from whom this message comes?"

"You may tell them it comes from the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. Now get out." He said, and the minotaur rose to his feet, only to be knocked on his ass by a back handed blow from the skeletal king.

"NO! You do not walk out of this city as if you have pride or dignity, crawl out in shame, or I will find another way to deliver me warning." Ainz snarled out, his mood was rapidly turning vicious, and the beastman, in terror of his life, meekly went to all fours and crawled out with his head down, his pride forever ruined.

"Now, Vanysa..." He looked to her to see stars in her eyes and she bounced from one foot to the other, her hands clasped together with joy, kicking one leg up into the air behind her after the other with utter happiness.

"That was amazing, my lord you are amazing!" She said, her winsome voice more fitting to winning a contest than exterminating a city...but he was not one to contest the praise.

"Vanysa, go, and start to release the humans of this city, tell them to help and get everyone free, then to gather at its amphitheater, I believe I saw one when we were taking a bird's eye view.

"It will be done my lord!" Vanysa said with utter glee, and darted to the nearest human she could find, skipping at a surprising pace.