...Beastman Kingdom...

Rargnan was almost something like happy, for the first time in months or more. As a minor village chief he'd been quite happy once, but from the collapse onward...notsomuch. Now he was alone on the wastes and the unholy powerful being that had quite literally broken and remade him was gone. Tigermen were not known for their cowardice, but one lone figure was vulnerable out here, he looked around to find a place to conceal himself...and then that terrifying hole in reality reappeared and a skeletal hand came through and gestured for him to come forward.

He didn't move even after the hand withdrew.

The human, Vanysa she'd said her name was, skipped through and stared at him like he was an idiot.

"Whatcha doin out 'ere? Yah wanna get ate?" She asked.

He stared at her dumbly.

"Mah master says he'd rather not chance havin to find a new guide, so yah can c'mon through here if'n yah can behave yerself. An yes, he says yah can 'ave somethin ta eat."

The lure of food was a powerful one, but a portal like that was an unknown.

"Wow, bit of a coward aincha?" She asked, "Look ahm nah gonna tell yah this cuz ah like yah, ah still wantcha fer mah bath robe. But through there be heaven, an if'n he says he aint gonna hurtcha, he means it. Now do yah wanna make 'im mad?"

"Alright." He said, "Lead the way...Vanysa." He said as he looked into her mad eyes.

She spun on her heel and leaped through like a fawn, and Rargnan gingerly followed, stepping through the portal in front of him and finding himself somewhere else...somewhere unimaginable.

As far as he could see, there were green rolling hills, trees, there was a lake nearby that had clean water, none of the green bloom that made it undrinkable and deadly in his country, he instantly fell to his knees and down to all fours behind the two. Even seeing Vanysa with her back to him, he was so overwhelmed he could not even think of her as food, all he could do was touch the grass and the soft fertile earth beneath him, it was like his country had been when he was young.

"You didn't lie...human...Vanysa...this is...heaven." He said in his rough tigerish voice.

He crunched the grass and squeezed at the soft earth between his furry fingers, he let himself fall forward on his belly, and savor a feeling he hadn't had in a long time.

The skeleton beside the human paid him no mind, it only laughed in low, noble tones as the tigerman, fierce predator, rolled like a kitten until he lay on his back. "How...how did we lose this? Were we cursed by the gods?" He asked softly.

"You killed it." Ainz said bluntly.

"What?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I said, you killed it." Ainz answered.

"I still don't understand." He said.

"Its called 'Trophic Cascade', it is environmental collapse due to the destabilizing influence of a species arrival or departure, or some other form of localized shift that results in a change. If a river dries up, can anything live off the fish?"

"Well no." He said.

"So the things that lived off the fish either need other food, or they die, right?" He asked.

"Sure." He answered.

"So if they start eating other things, then those things populations can fall, or even disappear, and then other life that needs to eat those things, also dies, or the species that ate the fish die off because they can't eat anything else, but then the life that needed that species also disappears. Every form of life is interconnected in some way, and when the balance shifts with the destruction of one organism for any reason, it can have an ever greater effect on everything else. In your case, your people became to many, ate to much, and destroyed the very land that sustained you, in trying to maintain your population. Frankly, for all the revenge humans desire on you...you're giving it to them yourselves." He said.

"But the expedition..." He began.

Ainz laughed, "Would not have changed a thing. Not for long anyway, there were simply to many of you, you take a lot of water to satisfy your thirst, you take a lot of meat to feed all of you, even if you took the entirety of the Draconic Kingdom in a day, your invaders were eating up most of what they took just by themselves, and though the Draconic Kingdom was not especially strong, relative to yourselves the Empire of Baharuth and the Slane Theocracy and even Re-Estize were noteworthy, and a combined alliance would have taken away your 'people ranch' with relative ease within two years, there isn't a chance they would allow you to share a border with them. Re-Estize has a population of millions, they can put hundreds of thousands into a battle, backed by sixty thousand Baharuth imperial knights and the bulk of the Theocracy scriptures, the adventurers guilds and elites of all three kingdoms, and they don't even have to invade, just deprive you of your ranches, and you'll starve to death as a people and turn on each other all over again. Even if I did nothing...the Draconic Kingdom would be your last stand, within fifty years, I doubt there would be even two thousand beastmen left in all your kingdom. Those who didn't get eaten by others or die of the red patch or die in battle trying to hold on to food for one more day...would end up being hunted down by vengeful adventurers for bounties and rewards aplenty. Within a hundred years, your entire kingdom will go extinct if nothing changes."

The tigerman listened to all that from flat on his back, the wonderful feeling of the grass the feel of perfect spring air, no dust blowing through his nose or choking his lungs, somewhere nearby he heard the sound of a waterfall, and it was actual splashing, not the steady 'gloomp' sound of lumpy green bloom thunking into the water below.

"We...destroyed ourselves?" He asked, he could hardly believe his ears, it was horrific to think of, but the being nearby sounded so absolutely certain...

"Are you...sure of this?" He asked softly.

"I am." The Sorcerer King replied.

"How..." He asked.

"I've seen it before, on another world I was at, years and years ago. The people there destroyed themselves by destroying the world they needed to survive. Fools, profound fools, they poisoned the air they breathed, the water they drank, if a species was inconvenient, it was driven into extinction by intent or by accident with an indifference towards their own impact on it. Some fought back of course, they once had a great park, almost as large as some countries, it was nearly destroyed by the eradication of its wolves, then decades later, they brought the wolves back, the wolves ate the deer, the reduction in deer allowed the plants to return, the plants ended soil erosion, the soil holding firm let the river flow firmly and consistently, the fish returned and grew larger, the beavers came back and created new niches for new life to thrive on, the bears came back when the trees with berries returned, they saved it all there once...just by the introduction of a few wolves who restored the predator prey balance...but it wasn't enough forever. In the end, that world choked to death on its own hunger for more and indifference to the wealth they already had."

Ainz turned to face Rargnan and pointed at him, his skeletal finger seeming to be that of death itself decreeing it was his time. "Your people did the same thing to yourselves, and all you were doing by attacking the Draconic Kingdom was expanding the destruction and delaying your end by a handful of generations at most."

"Are we doomed then?" Rargnan asked, while his mind spun beyond the impossible as he imagined the ageless being before him, as not a mere world traveler, but a traveler of worlds, he felt his doubt melting away, this being...whatever it was...spoke the truth.

"No." Ainz said.

He was just about to ask what could be done when he realized...he had never bothered to ask the skeletal figure his name.

"Who...are you?" Rargnan asked with fear and trembling awe.

"I am the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom, North of the Slane Theocracy, East of Re-Estize, South West of the Baharuth Empire." Ainz answered, "And to answer your next question, this," he flung his arms out, "Is a fraction of the realm my friends and I created, my home."

"You all created this..." He asked, "Are you gods...?" His gravely voice was rough and low, but even that could not hide the innate awe the tigerman felt.

"Does it matter?" Ainz asked. "The important question is the one you haven't asked yet, and that is 'how' can your otherwise inevitable fate be averted."

"Tell me Rargnan, what were you doing, before everything fell apart?" Ainz asked politely.

"I was the chief of the 'Great Maw' tribe, we had a village, not large enough to call a town, but larger than most villages. Large enough that I didn't have to live life being stupid and ignorant since we had a few teachers, good enough for me to understand the thing you say of these failures..." He said almost defensively.

Vanysa watched all this with a curious expression on her face.

"Majesty..." she began as she sank to one knee with her eyes downcast. "WIll you forgive this humble servant of your august self a few words?"

Ainz mental eyebrow perked up, her ability with language had continued to improve as her reading had, and as her interactions with his own more formal grasp of language had required her to adapt to him. He reached down and cupped her chin and tilted her face upwards, her eyes were clear and unclouded, at least when she held that look. Idly he wondered if it would continue to grow over time in its duration, or if she would revert when they parted ways.

"Go on, speak your peace Vanysa." He said.

"Sire, this humble girl has not known you overly long, yet a good servant should know the mind of her master, and I think I begin to." She said softly.

"And?" He asked.

"And I believe your majesty is going to offer to save his country, am I right?" She asked softly.

"I am...the land at least, his kingdom is another matter. If a kingdom changes enough, is it still the same place?" He asked philosophically.

"Sire, my lord...my god...after all that they've done..." She started to say, but he put one finger to her lips, and their movement ceased.

"Do you trust me Vanysa?" He asked.

"More than anything." She replied with breathless passion in her voice.

"Then trust me when I say that what I do, is necessary, not only to avenge your people, but to salvage the land itself and ensure that a second ravaging of their neighbors never happens again. By now every single one of those who invaded your country is dead, dying, since the cities were annihilated and the villages are no doubt wiped out as well, and put plainly any who were taken captive are wishing they were among the dead as my servants crush their remaining will to exist or resist." Ainz said firmly, closing his skeletal hand into a fist for emphasis.

"Content yourself with one final vengeance, one that destroys the seat of their corruption once and for all, and then all will be set to rights, and it will be time to return home." Ainz said. "They are the last of the truly guilty, they will be punished for it in horror and pain, and then it will be done."

Vanysa gave a small, almost childlike nod. "If'n yah say so majesty...but...c'n ah eat some of em?" She asked, the prospect of vengeance and punishment returning the madness to her eyes, and at that, Ainz chuckled and patted her head. "Not this time." He said. "There will be none left."

Rargnan watched this interplay with curiosity and fear, the human girl he knew as Vanysa had been about to argue for the extermination of his country, and as he heard them talk about the casual consumption of his people by a human, and he felt a very faint chill sweep across his mind, causing him to wonder if perhaps he was feeling a hint of what the humans being invaded had felt. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Ainz turned back to Rargnan, who had risen to his knees. "Is it true?" He asked.

"Is what true?" Ainz asked in return.

"Are you going to save my kingdom?" He asked.

"No." He replied.

Rargnan's face looked desolate for a moment, even on a tigerman, sorrow and loss could be evident, but then Ainz added, "I am going to give it the means to save itself. But FIRST there is a price that must be paid by those who are chiefly responsible for its collapse. I am going to utterly destroy your capitol, when it is done, then the salvation can begin for those few who survive." Ainz said.

"For now, the two of you will eat and sleep." Ainz said, "I had intended to provide rooms but...under the circumstances...a little camp out here on the sixth floor seems appropriate."

A few minutes later after a brief message a number of servants arrived bearing various dishes that had Rargnan convinced...if he had any doubts, that Vanysa had spoken the truth about this being heaven, he had not eaten so well in years upon years, and even when he had in quantity, none of it had been of this quality.

When he was finally finished and the food stopped...bringing food, he thought the matter over further and asked the Sorcerer King, "You are not doing this for nothing, are you?"

Ainz shook his head. "No, absolutely not."

"What do you want?" Rargnan asked.

"The first is that the raids on the settlements of intelligent beings must stop, not humans, not demihumans, not even each other. The second is that because it is the nature of your population to have to take measures that are damaging to the landscape in order to feed yourselves, your population which must eat meat, must be more limited, you must enact strict population controls on your settlements and ensure that you do not occupy nearly the amount of space that you do. I will impose further mandates later, but suffice it to say these are all for your own good, that your corner of the world can recover and your people are no longer driven to such destitution again." He answered.

Rargnan looked down at the ground and thought that over. "I am a chief without a village to be chief of anymore, all my own are dead and gone, we were declared a 'frenzy' when our tribute from a raid was insufficient, we were thought to be weak, therefore we were to be wiped out. I suppose they must have been right, because out of all my village, I alone survive. So I have no power to accept your terms, and if the capitol is destroyed, nobody else does either."

"And will the others come if there is food involved?" Ainz asked more or less rhetorically.

"They would walk through fire for the mere promise of it." Rargnan said with absolute certainty.

"Then when their capitol is no more, I will send word out over the land to come to its remains, and I will explain my offer to them." Ainz replied, "Now sleep, and if you so much as lick Vanysa...her desire for a new bathrobe will be met...slowly." Ainz said flatly.

Rargnan appeared more offended than frightened, and he prostrated himself to the Sorcerer King.

"You have fed me, she is your servant, she is safe. More than that, you offer to save the world of my youth, I will not forget that." He sighed as he kept his head down, "I eat meat to live, I am well fed, why would I then eat her now?" He asked rhetorically.

"Cause yah hate us, dontcha?" Vanysa asked.

"Of course not. You eat cattle don't you, do you eat them because you hate them?" He asked.

"Course not." She said.

"So, what makes you think my need to eat meat...means I hate you? You're just made of what I happen to eat." He replied.

"But tha torture'n stuff." She said.

"War creates torturers." Ainz said with absolute certainty, "Horror begets horror, and the tortured who suffer horror, become torturers themselves, some are as avengers, targeting those who prey on others, others become the very ones they hate."

"Oh...well...ah still want a bathrobe." She said, sadistically eyeing the tigerman.

"You're already going to get a panda coat on your way home." Ainz said, feeling very much like he was managing a child. "Be content with what you will get tomorrow, and on your way back afterwards." He said.

She pouted, then flopped herself down on her back, enjoying his wayward glance as she drifted off to sleep with a yawn, "As yer majesty wishes." She said.

"You also, may rest, Rargnan." Ainz said, and with an expression of gratitude, the tigerman made himself comfortable and began to doze off.

Morning came quickly enough, and when they awoke and had a hearty breakfast, which the tigerman wolfed down (tigered down?) as if it would disappear if he didn't finish it fast enough, they were soon on their way.

Riding undead mounts, they reached the gates of the capitol faster than Rargnan had predicted, the Sun was in the sky in its noon position, and as they closed the distance, Ainz shrugged it off dismissively. The walls were twenty feet high and very obviously quite thick, but it was not an especially intimidating structure, there was no moat, there was no drawbridge, it did not appear to even have a wooden gate, being secured only by a portcullis, as defensive structures went...it was lacking numerous features one would expect a major city to posses.

Finally Ainz and his party was seen from the walls, and a sentry called down for him to identify himself.

"Detect life, child." Ainz said...nothing happened.

He turned to Rargnan, "Why am I not detecting children within the city?" He asked.

"I believe that would confirm a rumor I heard...that the capitol had resorted to eating its children." He said in a deadpan way that hid his emotions.

"Oh." Ainz said with understanding, "That makes this easy then."

He cast "Hell's emissary" and a hoard of nightmarish faces, wreathed in flame and exuding oppressive malice, rose from where he stood and flew up high above the city walls and scattered to all corners of the city.

"Beastmen of the capitol, the great one has declared that you are to be destroyed for all that you have done, and all that you have failed to do, and all that you will do if given the time to do it. In his grace he grants you two minutes to make peace with whatever gods you follow, and then it is time for you to perish.

The sentry was baffled, almost forgetting the very source of the nightmarish flying heads and their terrifying faces, continued to repeat their words, but counting down the time until the end.

When the countdown ended, the great blue orb surrounded him, swirling around swiftly, and both Vanysa and Rargnan moved to stay out of the magic sphere that circled the skeletal king. He held his posture for a few seconds, and then shouted, "Devourer of Urdu!"

A crackling and rumbling began under their feet, the earth began to shake, but it was clear that for the three outside the walls, there was nothing but the aftershocks, the truth was that the city was the epicenter of it all, the noise began, buildings began to tumble, walls collapsed, including the one in front of them. Screams of horror and terror swept over them, as if calling out to the uncaring Universe for a salvation that they would not, could not receive. They heard the sound of crunching and breaking bones, they heard the sound thumping and thudding as bodies fell from above and struck a merciless stone below, and then...all was quiet. "Break item." Ainz said as he approached the portcullis, it was pointless really to do that, the wall on either side was gone, but it was the principle of the thing. They had seen some of the destruction from the other side, but stepping within it...

The city was simply...almost completely gone. A great maw had opened up underneath, the ground had cracked and swallowed it all but whole, here and there a few buildings remained, but down deep within the hole there were people drowning, clawing, trying to get back up, the water under the city that had supplied it and made life there possible, was mostly gone, enough to drown in, but it had been so far destroyed that the city itself and everyone on top of it was now over an unsupported chasm.

Ainz looked down into the pit, some were still alive, clawing at debris screaming for aid. "Greater close gap." Ainz said, and in front of him new stone appeared, and expanded over the old, and despite the ruined state of the city, it was as if the chasm had never been there. "Detect life." He said. Nothing but down under his feet, and those were winking out as more drowned, idly he speculated that some might linger there in the darkness for days, weeks, or even months. The water supply was still large for a small group, and with the floating bodies of the dead, one could feast on corpses, with food and water, they could persist in the darkness for a very long time, possibly even years if they had somewhere reliable to rest or could fashion something to make that possible. But he doubted anyone would, with no way out at all, to just sit in water, darkness, and death in a chasm below the city was a unique kind of hell, he guessed anyone still alive in the next hour would last for a few days before they took their own lives to escape the nightmare.

"Now, to send a message...of a more peaceful sort." He said, and sent his nightmare faces screaming the news of the shattered, slaughtered capitol across the hellscape of their Kingdom, promising to feed those who appeared before its destroyer, and to destroy those who did not. He had little doubt that his summons would be...widely answered.

"Now what sire?" Vanysa asked.

"Now we wait." Ainz replied.