Overlord (WN)

Invaders Part 5

Translators: Skythewood, Frostfire10, Henet

"Push them back!"

Greenham's voice reverberated inside the room which was filled with the smell of mold and death.

The square room was about 25 metres in length. The ceiling was 5 metres from the ground. The room was lit by magical lights made by a magic caster and the torch that fell on the ground, and formed the shadows of people.

They were the members of Greenham's [Heavy Masher] and were pushed to the corner of the room. And they were surrounded by low ranked undead like Zombies and Skeletons that looked as if they had just climbed out of the grave.

Their numbers were too large to count.

The stream of death was blocked by Greenham and two shield-wielding warriors directly, and prevented them from reaching the rearguard.

Greenham's full plate mail was hit against the flailing arms of the zombies. While they could bring out more power than normal humans as corpses, they could not leave a mark on steel armour. Their rotten and weak arms broke, and the filth that was sprayed onto the full plate mail gave off a retching stench.

The skeletons were the same. The rusted weapons could not pierce the full plate mail.

Of course, coincidences did exist. Depending on the situation, an attack could land. The reason why that was ignored was due to the help of protective magic.

Greenham swung the axe in his hand, but the hole from the single body lost was immediately filled. And so they were pressed to such a distance that they seemed to be crushed.

"Shit! There are too many!"

The warrior with the shield next to Greenham let out a cry of exhaustion. Since he had a shield that covered his whole body, he was not harmed, but the shield was covered in dirty liquid.

He destroyed the heads of Zombies and Skeletons, but they lost to the pressure and slowly moved back.

"Really, where did this many enemies come from!"

The warrior's question was natural.

Greenham's team had searched several rooms after splitting off from the other teams at the crossroads. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much treasure as the mausoleum, but after finding a sizeable chunk of valuables lying around, they slowly searched further. When they entered this room to have a look, the door suddenly opened and the undead started to pour in.

A zombie or a skeleton by itself wasn't a difficult opponent, but their numbers were the real problem.

Even if they fell or got trampled, they wouldn't die, but the undead would reach the rear flank.

Of course, the rear flank wouldn't be taken out that easily either, but against this many, it was difficult to say.

With a little bit of bad luck, the front would collapse immediately. Greenham thought this, and decided to use the force he had been conserving.

"We'll finish this in an instant! I leave it to you!"

The rear guard, which had only been slinging stones so far, started to move.

For Greenham's "Heavy Masher", undead like these were not really a threat. But because they weren't a real threat, he tried to conserve their strength by keeping the rearguard in reserve.

If the rear guard attacked as well, the undead wouldn't be a problem.

"My lord, the god of earth! Please repel the evil ones!"

The cleric holding a holy symbol shouted while exuding divine power. The air filled with negative aura was cleared away and filled with freshness as if a cool breeze had just passed by. A wave of divine power, stronger than usual, swept out from the cleric. The cleric's Undead Purification skill activated.

As soon as the ability activated, the undead around the cleric turned to ashes.

Exorcising the undead usually just made them flee, but if there was an absolute difference in strength, it obliterated the undead instead. However, it was extremely difficult to obliterate large numbers of undead because it required a matching amount of strength.

About 40 Undead were purified going to show how excellent Greenham's cleric was.

"Fly! <Fireball>"

A fireball flew from the arcane magic caster and exploded amidst the undead horde. A pillar of flame sprouted for a moment and burned away the undead's false life within the effect radius.

"Not over yet! <Fireball>"

"My lord, the god of earth. Please repel the evil ones!"

The area of effect attacks struck again and the number of undead fell drastically.

"Let's go!"

"Alright!"

The warrior abandoned his shield, grabbed two maces and jumped into the undead horde along with Greenham. It would have been easy to leave everything to the magic casters, but the reason Greenham rushed in was so that they would conserve as much mana as possible. Especially for the cleric, who could only repel the undead a certain number of times per day. Because it was a job that was especially potent against undead, he would be their hidden card while they were in the tomb.

Greenham swung his axe at the group of zombies. Rather than blood, thick liquid came out from the cut,—it would have spurted if they had hearts—oozing weakly. From the cuts came a disgusting stench, but it was nothing they couldn't handle.

Rather, their noses were already numb. Therefore, the smell did not pose a problem to them.

Along with the warriors, they attacked, attacked and attacked. They did not think of defense even for a moment.

It was the kind of a charge they could do thanks to their sturdy armour supported by magic, not to mention that the undead were weak.

At times, an undead managed to strike Greenham's head, but the armour absorbed all the shock and there was no strain on his neck. Even when he was struck on his chest or stomach, he barely felt it.

Greenham and the warrior swung their weapons around, destroying the undead non-stop. The undead that attempted to attack from the rear were repelled by the thief and cleric.

The floor of the room were covered with corpses and brain fragments. There were no signs of movement from them.

"Huh."

Following Greenham, the other members gave out a breath of relief. The thought of losing never crossed their mind. The rear guard were mostly observing from the back. Facing off with such a number of undead caused them to develop mental fatigue.

"Good, close the door and get some rest."

"Wouldn’t it be better we use another room? It stinks here."

"That's right. We don't even know how they infiltrated this room."

"Really, we didn't even see any undead on the way in. Not even a trace of them. Where did they spill out from?"

True enough. Greenham agreed that they had a point.

There were three exits leading to this room. The one that Greenham and his group passed through and another two. The undead poured in from all three doors. That's right, even through the door that Greenham passed through.

Furthermore, there was no way that they could relax in this deplorable room. He would at least like to wipe away the viscous fluid that contaminated his armor. He could at least take some rest as he wiped it.

"Now, let's move—"

Greenham closed his mouth in middle of a sentence. The rogue who had been talking so much just now raised a finger to his lips and was focusing on listening.

When Greenham listened, he could hear an irregular clacking sound, like something tapping the floor.

All the members directed their attention towards the source of the sound. It came from one of the doors.

"Probably an enemy… right?"

"Yea, and there's only one."

Everyone slowly raised their weapon. The warrior standing in the front received his shield and hid half his body behind it. The magic caster readied his glowing staff to launch an attack at any moment towards the direction sound was coming from. The cleric readied his holy icon and the rogue aimed his bow.

Clack, clack. The sound gradually became louder and the opponent showed itself.

Old, but luxurious robes covered the limbs, which were as thin as if they were just skin and bone, and it held a staff in one hand. This was the source of the sound.

With only a thin layer of decomposing skin, the face had a look of fiendish wisdom and negative aura surrounded the body like a fog.

It was an undead magic caster. Its name was—

"—Lich!"

The magic caster who identified the monster first shouted.

That was right. The name of the monster that appeared—Lich.

A monster that spawns when the corpse of an evil magic caster gained unholy life. Unlike the undead they faced so far, the Lich retained their intelligence.

Greenham's comrades immediately changed formation when they heard "Lich". No one stood in a single file and they kept their distance from each other in case of an area of effect magic.

A Lich was considered a strong enemy. Even A-class adventurers would have to put in quite the effort. If it were A+ class adventurers, they stood a better chance of winning. As for Greenham's group, if they ignored their fatigue, it was an opponent that they could defeat. Luckily for them, the group consisted of members that were strong against the Undead.

Plus if the opponent was extremely far away, it would have been dangerous, but the distance between them was advantageous.

"You must be the master of this tomb!"

Greenham had come to that conclusion. Liches were rulers. Sometimes they ruled over an undead horde and occasionally traded with living beings.

There was a famous lich that ruled over an abandoned castle.

If it was an Lich, then it wasn't strange to think it would be the master of the tomb.

"We've got the right address1 Lucky!"

"Although killing the owner of this tomb wasn’t the request."

"Let's show him the power of 'Heavy Masher'."

"Kneel before the blessing of god!"

All his comrades shouted together. It was to shake off the fear of facing against a strong opponent like a Lich.

"Defense magic—"

Greenham tried to shout orders to his comrades filled with resolve, but was surrounded with a feeling of dread. The source of this dread was the powerful opponent standing before them, the Lich.

"…..What's he doing?"

"Is he planning….for a sneak attack?"

The Lich showed no sign of movement against Greenham's team. It did not raise its staff, nor did it chant any spell, but simply watched them.

Greenham's companions could not hide their surprise at this. Their expectations of an immediate battle had been shattered. But they also hesitated to strike first.

The undead harboured hatred for all living beings. But certain sentient undead were capable of suppressing their hatred to negotiate. If the living were to offer negotiation, it would usually end up as a bad trade, but if the undead made the first offer, there had been instances of people obtaining ancient items that had been made with now-forgotten knowledge.

Considering that the lich was a strong enemy, it would be a better outcome if they could cease any hostility through negotiation even if the group had to come out on the losing end.

Considering all these factors, it would have been foolish to attack first since it would destroy any chance of negotiation. A hard battle without an established escape route carried huge risks.

Greenham's companions looked at each other as if they had all arrived at the same conclusion.

It was the leader's job to talk as the representative.

"Umm, we would like to negotiate…."

The Lich turned its grotesque face to Greenham and raised its bony finger to its lips.

Meaning: be quiet.

It was not an action fitting a Lich, but nobody was brave enough, no, nobody was stupid enough to say something like that to such a strong opponent.

Greenham closed his mouth obediently. In the hallway filled with silence, he doubted his ears when he heard a sound again.

Greenham doubted his ears.

The clacking noise he heard not too long ago. The noise of something knocking on the floor. And several of them—

Greenham's team looked at each other. They could not believe their ears.

And—

"Buuuuuu!!"

—Everybody descended into panic.

"Who was it! Who said that Elder Lich was the master of this tomb?"

"What the hell is this? How does this make any sense?"

"Oiiiiiii, how are we supposed to win against this!"

"Even god's blessing has its limits!"

Liches slowly entered the room. Six of them. Including the one in the room from the beginning, there were seven. There were that many of the Lich, an undead spellcaster of the strongest class. They had enough firepower to wipe out even a small city.

As long as they were of the same type of monster, they had similar methods of attack. In other word, if one had a way of neutralizing their attacks, it was theoretically possible to defeat all of them.

However, none of them possessed the method to do so, nor was it possible to possess such methods. Then they would have to fight with existences that could topple a small city directly.

In this hopeless situation, Greenham and his comrades lost all will to fight.

[Then, let's begin.]

Following the voice of the Lich that did not show even a hint of wanting to negotiate, seven staves rose slowly. At the same time, Greenham's shout echoed.

"Retreat!"

As if waiting for that command, all of them ran with all their strength in the opposite direction from the Liches. Of course they had no time to think about what would be beyond the tunnel. They only sought to improve their chances of survival against the onslaught of Liches.

They ran through an open corridor.

The rogue ran at the front, then Greenham, then the magic caster, then the cleric and finally the warrior. This was not a result of planning. It was pure coincidence.

They ran straight. The door led to a path. They ran without hesitation.

A corner. Normally they would be wary of a monster around the corner, but considering the footsteps that came from behind them, there was no time to carefully look around before going. They left everything up to luck and just ran.

They were doors of stone along the sides of the path, but they did not have the courage to plunge in.

Due to someone with metal armour running, a clanging metallic sound rang through the path.

They could cast <Silence>, but then they would need to pause. Since there were Liches chasing after them from behind, they did not have enough breathing room to do so.

They ran and ran and ran. To the point that they had no idea were they were running to.

Fortunately they had not encountered a single monster, and were saved by the fact that there were no traps along their path.

"—Are they still chasing us?"

Greenham asked while still running. The reply came from the warrior at the back.

"Yea! They're running, too!"

"Damn it!"

"Stop running after us! Just use flight magic!"

"If they use flying magic, then they can just attack while following us, you idiot!"

"Let's lock ourselves in some room and negotiate—"

The magic caster shouted while gasping for air. He was the least physically fit out of all the members and looked as if he was about to collapse. Greenham decided this was not the way to go. They couldn't last any longer.

Undead monsters like Liches felt no such thing as fatigue. At this rate, they would eventually catch up and slaughter the exhausted workers.

"How are there so many Liches…."

It was something that defied common sense. Could strong undead such as Liches coexist with undead of similar strength.

"Is the master of this tomb something even stronger than an Elder Lich?!"

That was the only explanation he could think of. But did such undead exist? Greenham had no answer.

"Damn it! This god damn tomb!"

The warrior at the rear shouted while breathing hard.

As if waiting for that moment, the floor began to glow in shapes. It was big enough to surround all of Greenham's group.

"Argh!"

Someone's voice rang out with what sounded like a scream—

—He felt as if he were floating for an instant. Greenham's vision was nothing but pitch darkness. There was something crunching underneath his boots and he felt a slowly sinking sensation, as though he was being sucked into a swamp.

A black world where only silence ruled.

Greenham, as if swallowed by it, asked in a small voice.

"….Is there someone here?"

"—Over here, Greenham."

The voice of one of the comrades, the rogue, rang out. He didn't sound too far away. Probably about the same distance they were keeping when they were running.

"…Is there anybody else?"

There was no reply. It was the expected answer. Since there was no light, they could imagine that the magic caster was not there. And so the cleric and warrior behind him had a high chance of being separated as well.

He should consider it lucky that at least the rogue was with him.

"…It seems there's only us."

"So it seems."

He looked around with taking a step forward. The deep darkness was everywhere and invoked the fear that he wouldn’t be able to tell where he himself ended and where the darkness started.

There was no sign of movement anywhere—

"Should we turn on the light?"

"Sure thing."

He wondered if their movement would break this silence, or activate a trap, and other negative thoughts creeped in. However, human eyes could not see in the dark and they needed some kind of light source.

"Hold on a moment."

With the rogue's voice, some kind of moving noise came from the darkness and there was a light.

The sight of the rogue holding a glowing stick was the first thing in view. And countless shining objects which reflected the light. It reminded him of the treasures in the mausoleum.

But that wasn't the case.

Greenham barely suppressed his screams and the rogue looked as if he was about to have a seizure.

The light brought up countless reflections. Insects filled the entire room and the identity of the reflections were cockroaches. The room was filled with cockroaches of various size ranging from ones the size of pinky finger to ones which were over a meter long. Furthermore, they were stacked on top of each other in countless layers.

The crushing sensation and noise by his feet had been the cockroaches. Considering they came up to his waist, he didn't want to imagine how many there were.

The room was so wide, the light did not reach to the walls. Considering the effective area of the glowing stick was fifteen meters wide, he could roughly comprehend how wide the interior was. When he looked up towards the ceiling, he could see a humongous swarm of cockroaches reflecting the light back at him.

"What… is this place?"

The rogue murmured in groaning tone. Greenham could understand what he felt like. He felt if he spoke, they would all start moving at once.

"Just what is going on?"

"….Was it a floor trap?"

While looking around in fear, Greenham remembered the last moment before they were teleported into the pitch darkness. He thought about the glowing magic circle and asked the rogue.

"It's probably not the case. Wasn't it something else?"

"A teleportation type magic trap…"

Impossible….No, Teleportation magic was possible. Such as the 3rd Rank <Dimension Move>. There were others, like—

"—There is 5th or 6th tier magic that could teleport a group of people at once, right?"

"Yea… I think so."

"To think they could use that kind of magic…"

A being that could use 5th tier magic at the very least. It was unheard of. But Greenham could make sense of it. If there was someone as strong as that, then it made sense he would be able to rule over multiple Elder Liches at once. Even able to give them the command of fighting Greenham and company.

Greenham realized the true extent of danger lurking within this tomb and a chilling sensation filled his body. At the same time, hatred for the Earl who had made this request started boiling deep inside him. Of course, the people who had taken on this work were Greenham and the other workers, and they had put their lives as a betting chip despite all the risks. They couldn't say anything about it.

But the Earl must have had some information about the tomb. Otherwise, he wouldn't have offered such significant sum of money to gather the workers. What sort of power that the owner of the tomb holds, to be able to rule over such monsters.

"Let's escape from here quickly from this… hell."

"Ah."

Greenham had a horrible feel about this room. Thankfully, the thief did not notice it.

The roaches remained dormant. From the twitching of their antennae, they were not dead, only stationary. The unknown reason for this phenomenon caused Greenham's heart to beat faster.

"—No, you cannot escape."

The voice of a third person sounded.

"Who's there!"

Greenham and the rogue looked around everywhere, but there was no sign of movement anywhere.

"Ah, I apologize. This one is Kyouhukou, the one entrusted with this territory from Ainz-sama. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."

In the direction where the voice was coming from, they witnessed a strange scene. Pushing away the swarm of cockroaches, something was trying to climb up.

It was not at a range that could be reached with a close combat weapon. The rogue quietly readied his bow and Greenham tried to take out his sling and stones, but decided otherwise. He would rush across the swarm of cockroaches coming up to his waist and cut the opponent immediately.

The one that appeared after pushing through all the cockroaches was another cockroach.

This cockroach was about thirty centimeters tall and stood on two legs.

It wore a bright red cape decorated with luxurious golden threads around the edge and a cute little golden crown on its head. Grasped in its front leg was a scepter with a pure white gem embedded at the end.

The strangest thing of them all was despite the fact it stood on two legs, its head was facing Greenham and the rogue. If an ordinary insect stood upright, its head would point towards the sky. But the strange being in front of them wasn't like that at all.

Other than this, there was not much difference when comparing with the other cockroaches. No, it would be more accurate to say that it was already strange enough.

Greenham and the rogue exchanged a glance and decided that Greenham would be in charge of the negotiation. After confirming that the rogue had nocked an arrow and had it pointing downwards, he talked to Kyouhukou.

"Who… are you?"

"Hmm… It seems you did not hear me the first time. Would you like me to introduce myself once more?"

"No, that's not the problem…" Greenham realized this was not the kind of thing to talk nor ask about. "…I'll be honest. Do you want to trade?"

"Oh-ho, you want a trade. Since I am feeling very grateful towards the both of you, there is no reason why I can't listen to your proposal."

The mysterious words, "feeling grateful", made him uneasy about what exactly made it feel grateful, but it wasn't something they could afford to ask under such disadvantageous circumstance.

"…What we want… is for you to let us go unharmed from this place."

"Of course, that would be something you wish for. But even if you do leave this room, you are currently on the 2nd Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. I must advise you that it would be extremely difficult to return above ground."

2nd floor—

Hearing those words, Greenham's eyes widened.

"So the door underneath the mausoleum on the surface leads to the 1st Floor?"

"Is that unusual?"

"No, I just wanted to confirm it."

"Haha, since you were teleported from the 1st Floor, I can understand your confusion."

Looking at Kyouhukou who was nodding at the structure layout, Greenham felt a chill running down his spine, as if an icicle was stabbing him in the back.

It was fear arising from realizing his earlier theory was correct.

In other word, something had somehow used teleportation magic as a trap. What kind of magic would it be and what kind of magical abilities would it require? He was not a magic caster, but he fully realized the implications.

"…Of course, it you could tell us the way out of the tomb as well… Hmmm, no we won't ask that much. Just let us leave this room."

"Hmm hmm."

"We'll… give you whatever you want."

"Is that so…"

Kyouhukou nodded and appeared as if he was concentrated on thinking.

Some time passed in absolute silence. Then Kyouhukou nodded as if he understood and started talking.

"This one already has everything one could wish for in its hand. I doubt you would be able to provide what I desire."

Kyouhukou stopped Greenham, who was about to talk, by raising its front leg and continued.

"But you seem to be confused as to why I was thanking you earlier, so I wish to provide you with an explanation. You see, my subjects are getting tired of cannibalism. To you, who will be the food that will serve as the solution, I give my thanks once again."

"What!"

The moment the rogue understood what was being said he shot the arrow.

The arrow cut across the air but was wrapped around by Kyouhukou's red cape and fell on the ground.

The room started to tremble.

Countless sounds started coming from every direction and crescendoed.

A tidal wave erupted.

It was a swell of a black sea.

"It is unfortunate that there are only two of you, but now it is time to have you for dinner."

The gigantic tidal wave swallowed Greenham and the rogue. It was truly as if they were being swept away by currents.

While being rolled around in the black whirlpool, Greenham slapped at the cockroaches that had managed to crawl into the openings in his armour.

There was no weapon that would work well against a horde of such small insects. It was faster to use hands than anything else. Because of that, they had already abandoned their weapons which had long since disappeared.

He tried his best to struggle and wave around wildly, but due to countless cockroaches holding onto him, he could barely move. It was a movement that resembling someone drowning. The only sound Greenham could hear was that of countless cockroaches crawling about.

The rogue had already been swept away and his voice was nowhere to be heard.

No, it was only natural that Greenham could not hear his voice. The rogue couldn't speak with all the cockroaches that had crawled into his mouth, throat and stomach.

Greenham felt painful stinging sensations from everywhere on the body. It was the pain from cockroaches that had slipped inside his armour slowly eating away at him.

"Sto—"

Greenham tried to shout but was immediately choked by the countless cockroaches flooding his mouth and clogging his throat. He tried to throw up with all his might, but cockroaches kept crawling in from the tiny opening of his mouth. Then they scrabbled around in the mouth.

As if one had crawled inside his ear, the rustling sound was persistent and loud enough to give him chills.

Countless cockroaches crawled and ate away at his face. He felt pain on his eyelids, but he didn't dare to open his eyes. It was obvious what would happen if he ever opened his eyes.

Greenham understood what would happen to him. At this rate, he would be eaten alive by these ravenous cockroaches.

"I don't want this!"

He screamed in desperation and the cockroaches poured into his mouth once again. They crawled, trying to move into his throat. Then something mushy, a sensation of something tumbling down into the stomach. Then the disgusting sensation of cockroaches squirming inside his stomach made him want to throw up.

Greenham resisted with all his strength.

It would have been better if he died in the hands of the Lich. Dying in such a manner was pitiful.

In the end, even his thoughts were swallowed in a black vortex—

◆

His eyes opened.

What came into his vision was a strange ceiling. It was made with stone and had white glowing objects embedded in it. He tried to look around to understand how he got there, but realized his head wouldn't move at all. No, it was not just his head, but he couldn't move his entire body. It was as if something was tied around his wrists, ankles, waist, and chest.

This incomprehensible situation filled him with fear and he wanted to scream, but something was stuck in his mouth, so he could not speak nor close his mouth fully.

When he desperately tried to look around by straining his eyes, a voice spoke.

"Oh my, you're awake now?"

It was a guttural voice. It was difficult to tell whether the voice belonged to a man or a woman.

The one that appeared in his unmoving sight was a disgusting monster.

It had the body of a human, but the head of a deformed octopus. The six long, squirming tentacles attached to its head extended all the way down to its thighs.

The skin colour was milky white, like the waxy flesh of someone who had drowned. On the bloated, corpse-like body was clothing made with black leather which barely covered anything. The cloth wrapped tightly around its body, like butcher's twine tying up a piece of meat, and it could be described as nothing but grotesque. If a beauty had worn it, it would have been attractive, but on a monster like this was nauseating.

On each hand were four webbed fingers. It had long fingernails, with strange and bizarre nail art on them.

This strange heteromorphic being turned its pupil-less milky blue eyes on him.

"Fufufu, did you sleep well?"

"Hff, hff, hff hff."

Fear and panic. Gripped by those two emotions, he could only let out a harsh breathing noise. The monster touched his cheek softly like a mother trying to calm a scared child.

But the cold and mushy feelings of the hand sent chills all over his body.

It would have made perfect sense if the pungent smell of blood or rotten flesh had wafted over, but the creature smelled like aromatic flowers. This only amplified his fear.

"My, to think it'd shrink this much. There's no need to be scared."

The monster's gaze was towards his lower body. From the sensation of air on his skin, he realized that he was naked.

"Hmm, mind if I ask your name?"

It tapped its slender finger on its cheek and tilted its head while asking. The pose would have looked good if it was a beauty, but a monster that looked like a drowned corpse with an octopus for a head only evoked disgust and fear.

"……"

The monster smiled at him, who could only move his eyes. The tentacles covered its mouth and its expression barely changed. Despite that, he knew it was smiling because its bead like eyes had narrowed.

"Ufufu, you don't want to speak right? How cute. Don't be so shy."

The monster's fingertip slid across his chest as if it was writing something, but all he could feel was fear that felt as if his heart was being ripped out.

"Onee-san will tell you her name F.I.R.S.T." It was a seductive and sweet tone of voice that sounded as if heart marks would pop out of them. "I'm the Great Tomb of Nazarick's Special Information Gatherer, Neuronist. Hehe, they also call me the 'Interrogator'."

The long tentacles squirmed apart and revealed a circular mouth at their base of the tentacle. Amidst rows of razor sharp teeth, a tube that resembled a tongue came out. It truly looked like a red straw.

"I'll suck you dry with this in a bit."

What did it mean by "suck dry"? He tried to move his panic-stricken body, but it was tightly clamped down.

"Now, now. You were captured by us."

That was right. His last memory was of Greenham and the rogue disappearing from right in front of him. Then he blacked out and woke up to his current predicament.

"You should know where you are, right?" Neuronist laughed before continuing. "This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The place where the last of the 41 Supreme Beings, Momon— I mean Ainz-sama, resides. It is the most holy of places."

"Heinhu sawa?"

"Yes, Ainz-sama."

Neuronist understood him perfectly despite his inability to speak properly and slid her hand across his skin.

"One of the 41 Supreme Beings. He ruled over the other Supreme Beings in the past, and he is very, very cool. If you look at him once, you'll want to swear loyalty with all your heart, too. If Ainz-sama ever calls me over to his bed, I don't mind offering my first time to him."

She fidgeted, no, jiggled as if she was embarrassed.

"Hey, do you want to hear something?" Like a timid girl playing with her finger, she traced letters across his naked body. "There was this one time Ainz-sama was staring at my body. It was the stare of a male selecting a target for his hunt. Then he turned his face away as if he was embarrassed. It made my chest tighten and sent chills down my back."

It stopped suddenly and brought its face closer as if trying to look deep into his eyes. He tried with all his might to get away from the grotesque face, but he couldn’t move his body at all.

"Even though that brat Shalltear is aiming for Ainz-sama's attention, I, who has more experience, am still more attractive. Don't you think so?"

"Wevs E fink mahs hoo" (Yes, I think so, too.)

What would happen if he dared to disagree? That fear forced him to grunt his muffled agreement.

Neuronist clasped her hands and looked up happily into the air. It looked like a zealot praying up into the sky.

"Fufufu, you're a good boy. Or are you telling the facts as they are? But why isn't Ainz-sama calling for me… Ah~ Ainz-sama… Even your abstinence is amazing…"

The way her body twitched in delight called to mind the writhing movements of a giant, squirming maggot.

"…Ha, it makes my body feel electrified. Ara, I'm sorry. I've been talking only about myself."

Don't mind me. Neuronist ignored his thoughts and continued.

"Now, should I tell you about your fate? Do you know what a choir is?"

He blinked at the unexpected question. Looking at his surprised expression, Neuronist assumed he did not know what a choir was and explained.

"A choir is a group of people that sings hymns praising god's love and glory. I want you to become one of them, along with all your little friends."

If that was all, then it wasn't much. He wasn't very confident in his singing, but he was not tone deaf either. But was this monster really talking about something like singing? He could not hide his unease that rose like the tide and eyed Neuronist.

"That's right, a choir. Even fools like you that haven't sworn loyalty to Ainz-sama can dedicate their voices to sing his praises. The goal is a chorus. Ah, how electrifying! It's Neuronist's gospel music dedicated to Ainz-sama."

A cloudy colour spread in its revolting eyes. Was that because it was excited by its thoughts? Its fingers wiggled like worms.

"Fufufufu, now I'll introduce you to the ones who will support you in your chorus."

As if they had been waiting in a corner, several figures came into view.

He stopped breathing the moment he saw them. It was obvious that they were evil creatures.

Black leather aprons that clung tightly to their figures. Their skin was ghastly pale, almost transparent, and purple veins were visible as if their blood was purple.

They wore tight black leather masks with no visible openings, which made him curious how they could see or breathe. Their arms were long as well. They were about two meters in height, but their arms were long enough to reach their knees.

Each of them had a belt on their waist, with numerous tools hanging off them.

There were four of them in total.

"—They're 'Torturers'. They're going to help me help you sing a beautiful song."

A dangerous premonition. He finally realized what it meant by singing and struggled to escape. However, he still could not move.

"It's no use~. It's not going to break from someone of your strength. They'll cast healing magic over and over, so you can get plenty of opportunity to practice."

Neuronist said this as though she were extending the hand of mercy to him, but she did so in the most evil of tones.

"Thnd du mus!" (Don't do this!)

"Mmm? Why do you say that? Do you want us to stop?"

Neuronist asked softly to the man who had tears rolling down from his eyes. Then the six tentacles squirmed.

"Listen well. Because he remained, we, who were created by the 41 Supreme Beings, were allowed to exist. Our very existence is to serve him. Do you think we'll show even a shred of mercy to some filthy thieves that tracked mud into the holy place where such an exalted being lives? Do you really think that?"

"Auf lirru gwpph!" (I'm really sorry!)"

"Hehehe, that's right. Regret is a valuable thing."

Neuronist picked up a thin rod from somewhere. At the end of the rod were spikes that were roughly five millimeters long.

"Let's start with this."

Neuronist kindly explained every little detail to the man who didn't understand anything about the tool.

"My creator used to suffer from a little problem called 'kidney stones'. To pay respects to that, we'll start with this. Since it became so small, I don't think we'll have much problem putting it in."

"Thnd du mus!"

Neuronist took its face closer to the man who was screaming out in realization of what would happen to him.

"We're going to spend a long, long time together. You shouldn't start crying, because this is only the beginning."