The Sorcerer King drew out the necessary ingredients and showed her how to make a roast beef sandwich and how to use it with a cup of french onion dip, and then he handed one over to her, and she looked at it funny. "Ees kinda like stew eh? Yeh take a bit a bread and dip it in tha stew and then yah gots stew on ya bread...but its not quite like tha is'it?"

Ainz was very much amused as she cocked her head to one side and looked at the little cup of dip in one hand while holding the sandwich in the other.

"Well, try it and see." He said. She shrugged and dipped the sandwich and took a bite, and her face lit up, she quickly did it again, and again, and again, until her cheeks were quite stuffed and she could barely make the smile she was trying to.

"Ish shooooo goooood!" She said as she arched her back, and threw her head up as she chewed she clenched her little fists as if she could scarcely stand it.

Ainz slapped his knee and laughed where he sat, cursing his emotional dampener when it kicked in.

She did the same thing twice more and then looked mystified at her now empty hands as if she could not understand where her sandwich had gone, she looked from one hand to the other and, finding only some of the dip remaining, she took it like a shot of hard liquor and drank it down too, then with a delighted 'mmmm' she licked her tongue all over the interior of the cup to take in every last bit of the flavor that she could find.

"Is yer majesty a god ah cookin?" She asked seriously.

"Pardon?" Ainz asked confused.

"Weeelll...ah couldn elp but notice that when yah kill the beasties, theys always good ta eat, an then ya gimmie these great thins, yah know I didn much get good food growin up, but even so, its lihk yah just know what perfect food is." She stretched out her legs where she sat and bounced them up and down off the dirt, a few yards away the beastmen had managed to scream, but it was cut off as suddenly as it began, neither Ainz nor Vanysa paid it any mind.

"No, I am not the god of cooking." Ainz said, adding another sentence to the list of statements he never saw him saying in all of eternity.

"Well, howdja know how good that was?" She asked.

Her hands went to her side and rested on the rock on which she sat, and she kicked her legs up and down while she leaned forward in anticipation of his answer.

Ainz reflected that she was probably leaning forward that much on purpose, just to find an excuse to ask if gods could be pervy, and he resolved that...damnit yes they could be, but he'd never admit it.

Instead he folded his hands together in front of him and said, "Tell me, is the rock your sitting on, alive?"

She looked him curiously, "Course not!" She said with a titter.

"Is it dead then?" He asked her.

"Wahl no, not really, its jus'a rock." She said, unsure of where he was going.

"So you can't kill it, and it can't die, right?" He asked.

"Wahl aye, course not." She said as if the question were absurd...and it was.

"So it can't become an undead then, can it?" He asked her.

"So...are yah sayin you're not a rock? Ah know that sire, yer a god." She said with a titter.

Ainz put his skeletal palm to his face, and then he saw the absurd grin on her face and realized she was teasing him. It felt 'good' to be teased a little, the constant reverence of the guardians, the worshipfulness of Neia, it created a distance that even magic could not bridge. But here was a girl who did see him as a god, and who almost certainly had an element of madness to her, but who felt comfortable with teasing him, treating him as one would a companion or a friend, it was a strange and refreshing thing.

He laughed. "Most gods do not get teased by mortals you know." He said half seriously.

She grinned, "Aye well most gods ain't like ya 'ar master."

"Yah mean ya were a person'r...somthin, once? Ya used to be alive, like me?" Vanysa said with a bright smile, and she got up, stretched, arching her back and thrusting out her chest, her arms going over her head and her hands clasping, she stretched in a much exaggerated way, straight up...and back...and held it, and then popped forward and approached him.

"Didja like girls majesty?" She grinned, "Yah know, back when ya lived?"

Ainz was a bit flustered at the directness of the question.

"Ah think yah did." she said with a grin as she came closer, "yer a god now though." She pouted a bit at that, but shook it off and reached out to touch his skeletal hand, she looked up at him with eyes of reverence.

"Y'know what, back b'for all that stuff, ah thought tha gods musta had a lot'a fun, cause if ah were a god...ah could do anythin." Her fingers closed around his hand and he saw a glimmer of madness overtake her bright spark as she went back down to her knees.

"Yah can y'know?" She said duskily, fluttering her eyes at him.

"Can what?" He asked as he looked for some way to escape this situation.

"Do...anythin...ta me." She whispered and inched closer on her knees, still holding his skeletal fingers.

He was all but speechless, and the alligator man managed to utter a loud whimper, and she popped up on her feet, skipped over to it, an kicked him square in his eyeball, "Ahma tryin...to talk...tah god now yah damn heathen!" She said and stomped his eye several more times, her little fists on her hips, and for a moment Ainz was so grateful for the interruption that he almost...almost...considered cancelling the spell over that one as a reward.

When she finished stomping on the beastman's eyeballs, she turned around and folded her arms in front of her and looked down with a huff and a pout. Ainz used the distraction to mount his horse and he gestured to hers. "Come Vanysa, we have a ways to go to the next city."

She skipped over again and said, "But'cha won't though." She giggled, and he wondered if her dusky conduct had been another tease, and the bouncy gleam returned to her eyes again, they rode for several hours at a brisk pace, no monsters, beastmen, or humans were encountered, they simply enjoyed the deep green wood and the sounds of nature.

"How can I reward you, after all this is done?" Ainz asked as the sun began to set.

She put a finger to her cheek and turned her face up in thought, "Ah don't rightly know, ah guess ah could ask fer money, people like money, gets all kindsa good stuff, but ah didna do much, ah guess...when ah can write good, can ah write thins for yah an have yah see em, an...maybe just see yah again som'tim?"

She looked a little depressed, "Yah gonna go home aincha, back to yah kingdom, afta all this?"

He nodded. "I am. This is a brief interlude for me, in truth more of a vacation from the tedium than a chore or a quest. Long ago, when I had my other forty great friends, we went on truly grand quests, with great challenges against others who rivalled us, and we triumphed again and again...they're gone now, and I'm here."

She looked at him, "Ah didn know gods coul'be lonely." She said, and his gaze, which had been straight ahead, snapped to look at her, she wasn't joking, not about this, that he could tell.

"Ahm sorry, ah wadn't tryin to make yah sad majesty, ah lost ma friends to yah know, they all dead, turnt inta bear shit, ah know h'w it is, yah love em, then they gone, an yah don't know why...an it hurts, but yah happy to cause yah had sech good times an yah want em back, but yah get to member em an it hurts but also makes yah happy an yah lovem but can't say nuthin to em no more an all yah want is to say sorry but yah cant cause they gone an yah wonder if yah did somethin or coulda did somethin an yah know yah couldn't but yah think yah coulda and now yah can't do nothin fer um but think'v em an yah sometimes wish yah n'eva knew'm cause then yah wouln't hurt so bad but then yah wouln't felt good in'th first place an...an...an..." She ran her sentence on and on without pausing for breath until she ran out of air, and she hugged her waist and shook and cried, and Ainz reached over to the reins of her horse, and brought it a little closer to where he was riding, and they rode in silence that was unbroken but for her tears and a shared time of painful but beautiful memories.

They rode so long that the night meant nothing, and Vanysa cried herself to sleep on her horse, she slumped over on one side, but before she could fall, Ainz allowed her to slump against him. He couldn't feel much in the way of physical sensation as her body rested against him, whatever her dreams were, they didn't trouble her like yesterday, so he thought it best to let her sleep.

He didn't wake her till they finally emerged from a clearing and saw the distant walls of Forton, when he saw them, he shook her, and she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Ahhhh...what time es it?" She asked, "Ow long ah sleep?"

"Long enough," he said and pointed, "We're here. This is the last great city held by the beastmen. After this, its time to visit the beastmen in their own homeland." Ainz added, and Vanysa's eyes went wide. "Ah slept all that time, sire why didja na wake me! Ah cannae serve yah while ah sleep, what if'n yah needed somethin? Ah cahnt let down tha god that saved me life!" She blushed furiously.

Ainz let it go with a shrug, "I am undead, I do not sleep, I do not tire. I would be a poor king and a worse god if I overtaxed my servants." He said.

She didn't have a teasing remark for that, but he could sense she appreciated the gesture. As they came closer to the wall, a shout came down from it

"Who are you and whatta you want?" The voice said.

"Do the beastmen rule this city?!" Ainz shouted.

"We do!" The voice returned.

"Then I command you all to surrender to me now!" Ainz shouted back up.

"And I command you to fuck right off!" The voice said in response.

"They tried similar answers at Ha'ak Pale & Hearthlight, and now all of them are dead! Are you sure you will not surrender?!" Ainz asked.

There was silence, and the voice responded, "Wait there, I'll get the commander!"

"Your lives are on borrowed time, pray you do not borrow to much before I call in the debt!" Ainz snapped back. He looked over the walls while the owner of the voice scurried away. They were formidable, perhaps twenty meters tall, but there was no moat, and though the gate had an arched tunnel and probably numerous murder holes, he noticed that there were relatively few towers and no evidence of long range siege equipment, the city looked more formidable than it had been in reality. No wonder if thad fallen. The stones looked thick though, that was probably why the walls were intact, they went over, not through.

After a few minutes a new voice answered, "Who are you?!"

"I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom!" He shouted up.

"What do you want here?!" It shouted back to him, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"I am fulfilling the request of Queen Draudillion of the Draconic Kingdom, and to that end she has traded me the last from somewhat beyond here, all the way to the border of your kingdom. So you are in my city, and I am come to claim it. Now you can get out, or I can kill you all the way I did the beastmen of Ha'ak Pale and Hearthlight, your choice!"

"Only the governing tribal chief can order that!" The voice shouted back in a rising panic.

"Then why are you here?! Go and fetch him!" Ainz snapped back, "an hurry, I am impatient!"

Several minutes later, a voice from yet another figure called from over the wall. "I am the ruler here, who are you?"

Ainz finally snapped, he hated repeating himself, "You should know my name and reason for being here if your subbordinates are not incompetent morons!" He shouted, "I am here to claim what is mine. Get out of my city or you will suffer till you beg for death!"

The voice was silent. "If we agree to leave, are we allowed to bring suffient food with us?!" The voice asked.

It was the first sane response Ainz had seen from the beastmen.

"I will permit no humans in your...larder. You will leave them behind, but as a favor to your reason, I will permit you all 'other' food in the form of beef, sheep, or other unintelligent beasts!" Ainz shouted.

The voice shouted in frustration.

Voices argued amongst one another quite loudly for a bit, and the voice returned, "We want to offer a challenger, if they survive against you for two minutes, then we leave with food, if they win, they eat you and that tender dish beside you, if they die, we take nothing! The humans are yours!"

Ainz appeared to consider it. "Send three challengers, I will make it closer to fair!" he shouted.

He looked to Vanysa, "Stay back this time, do not get in the way."

She didn't protest, she only rode her mount several yards away, and a few minutes later three towering figures emerged, and Ainz dismounted from his horse.

There stood a rhinoman, a lionman, and what seemed to be a pantherwoman.

They came within a few yards of Ainz, completely unopposed, atop the hill, Ainz could see people lining up to watch the fight.

"Brave undead. But you won't win." The panther woman said, a low and dusky purr coming from her shapely face. She blinked bright eyes and looked hungry.

"Of course I will," Ainz said, "You have common ground with a corpse, you're dead...but don't know it."

Vanysa slapped her face with an open palm...god of humor and jokes he was not.

They spread out in front of them.

Ainz turned to Vanysa, "Signal the start of the fight." He said.

"Start!" She shouted, and Ainz cast timestop, then he cast delay, true death on the lionman, delay, internal explosion on the panther woman...and then he unfroze time, the lionman fell over dead, and the panther woman's body exploded from the inside, sending her torso flying back the way she'd come. The rhinoman didn't realize what had happened, to single minded, and began to whale on Ainz, only to see the corpses in his peripheral vision and realize in a panic that this fight was not what he was expect.

Ainz let the blows come, they were nothing, he let those on the wall see the blows do nothing, he managed to look very bored as the rhinoman tried to hurt him, and then as if he tired of the game, he grabbed the wrist of the rhinoman and snapped it...twice. There was nothing dignified or magical about what Ainz did next, but this was not about his magic, this was about showing absolute strength and undeniable superiority, and so he began to pummel the rhinoman, the horn snapped like a twig, teeth shattered, ears were torn off, and the blows of skeletal hands continued to fall on the beastman until he fell, which was not long, it was very clear he was punishing the being more than simply defeating him, and when it was done, there was nothing but tenderized meat left.

"That meat you CAN take with you!" Ainz shouted, and then he saw the torso of the panther woman, she was in bad shape, but she was trying to crawl back to the city, Ainz did not see fit to let her do so. He walked over to where she cralwed, grabbed her by the rough of her neck, and dragged her bodily over to Vanysa and plopped the beastwoman in front of her.

"Do what you need to do." He said, and she let out a shriek and began to beat the half dead creature...the rest of the way to death.

It took a couple of minutes for her to do so, but the walls were watching, the predators had become prey, the oppressor the oppressed, the strong became weak, and unbending wrath had fallen on their heads.

"You will now depart my city." Ainz snapped loudly.

There wasn't a sound, they were clearly reluctant.

Fear was a rare emotion, but one they felt strongly now.

Vanysa approached, huffing and puffing and coated in blood. "Majesty?" She asked, and Ainz looked behind her, the panther woman was a bloody pulp, and it was clear she'd been bitten, Vanysa had blood on her cheek and on her lips, she hadn't gone easy on the beast woman.

"Yes Vanysa?" He asked.

"Were yah gonna let em leave with people?" She asked with trepidation.

Ainz laughed, "I agreed to their contest because victory was impossible, I just wanted them to know this."

She clapped her hands together and hopped up and down again, the blood streaked golden mane bounced behind her. "Oh yay! I knowed that, course ah did, what was ah thinkin?" She giggled.

Ainz looked back to the city. "Did I not say to leave my city?!" He said.

"You have one hour to depart!" He announced, and reached to his wrist and fiddled with an odd device on it.

Nobody left.

You have fifty five minutes to depart.

Nobody left.

Fifty minutes...

Nobody left.

He counted off the time in five minute increments.

Still nobody had gone when a voice spraing from the device, "The timer you set is up big brother Momonga!"

"Ahh Bukubuku Chagama, thank you as always." He said at the happy voice.

"Not leaving?" He asked of the silent city that seemed to be busy pretending he was not there, as if that would work.

"Then die, and regret with your final moments, that you broke a deal with Ainz Ooal Gown." He said .

He pointed at the city, "Walk of Mal'ak Hammashit!" he shouted, and blue light emenated around him as the supertier spell was activated, noise filled the air and drowned out the cries of human and beastman alike, and then the spell vanished and...nothing happened.

There was silence, nothing moved, no one spoke, the sky did not fall down, the world did not tear asunder.

The beastmen started to laugh hesitantly, "Was it all just a big bluff?!" Some voices began to shout...and Ainz just waited.

Vanysa came to stand beside him, "What'dja do sire?" She asked.

"I killed them all." He said, "They just don't know it yet, but they will."

She waited, the voices began to pick up, laughter and relief at still being alive, and shouts that he shouldn't move because they were coming to kill him were made, and given more time, they might have tried, but Vanysa looked where Ainz did, and so they saw before the beastmen or humans inside the walls did, that the sky had started to become overcast.

The wind began to pick up, the hit the trees and they blew and bent, as if bowing towards Ainz Ooal Gown. Vanysa watched it with awe, it was nature, nature itself was bowing to her god. She went to both knees, this was sacred ground to her now, and she lowered herself prostrate, not a giggle or a laugh, which was why she did not see the beastmen on the wall die.

There was screaming suddenly, roars of terror, the bellows of beastmen, as Mal'ak Hammashit began to move about the city, Ainz could not see its movement, but he could tell it was moving swiftly, as it moved, it spread its plague, and beastmen clawed at their own bodies as if trying to claw away at the infection it spread, they tried to tear off the infected flesh like one would a scab, but this bought them seconds, minutes for the fastest, and those were of uttery agony as their flesh was rotted from their living bodies, the humans who could see it all happen, saw it as one would a miracle, one moment the beastmen were everywhere and were invincible, the next, a shadow moved, and they died in agony, rotting away from the outside in, from their extremities to their torsos and finally their heads, screaming until their lungs were gone and they found they could not gain breath to shriek from, leaving their heads at last, until that too was a fleshless skull and the body was nothing but bones. the screams lasted for a long time as Mal'ak Hammashit did its masters's bidding, street by street and block by block. They stood outside for some time, until the screaming grew ever farther away as it moved in to the interior. "Come along Vanysa, would you like to see my city?" He asked her, and held out his skeletal hand for her to grasp and rise with, which she did.

"Ah would luv to sire." She said happily, and she followed him to the gate, skipping all the way with a sadistic smile following the world disaster she worshiped as a god.