[1st floor of Nazarick]

A dark hallway, immediately following the entrance to the Great Tomb of Nazarick-

At the base of a T-junction staircase, wide enough to fit three huge-size creatures, with a thin railing, and suspended from one end to another, behind which a series of double colonnades, jointed by decorative arches, supported the immense weight of the structure-

This was the rendez-vous place set by the adventurers group “Nine’s Own Goal”, at a time long ago, when the deepest floor of Nazarick was the Underground Lake - 4th floor, and the entire size of the tomb was less than a 10th of what it is today.

Having arrived well on-time, Nishikirenai - a ninja covered from head to toe in black bandages, concealing his entire appeal but for his golden blades meant to pierce his enemies, and Momonga - the now guildmaster of Nine’s Own Goal, after the founder, sir Touch Me, had resigned from his position; dressed in near common attire for his ranking, which exposed the top half of his torso-

The two were casually enjoying an unintelligible chit-chat which, due to the nature of their voices, made a deep, sinister echo.

The entrance to the tomb, not yet magically guarded, was suddenly opened wide, much like the swinging doors in western movies, allowing a blinding light to fill the obscured area.

A loud clinket of silver boots stepped down the staircase, each step made with confidence and complete disregard of the noise, similar to a beast demonstrating its authority.

On his piggy-back, a purple coat laid flat over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, with some speck of black hair hanging beneath, cowering away from showing a face.

Despite the mud seeping down from the coat, the armor of the paladin in silver was immaculate, shining as bright as ever, giving the impression that dirt and filth would simply not be able to stick to it, and fell off instantly.

He was way late.

At the bottom of the staircase, the two immediately interrupted their conversation, eager to salute their party member and friend.

Momonga, who was still, in part, recovering from his IRL social anxiety, was currently attempting to open up more to his online friends, and was the first to break the ice, speaking loudly as to be heard across the immense staircase:

“Welcome back, Touch-san! We were just talking about you!”

A commentary followed from Nishikirenai, who was devoted to the way of the ninja which implied, amongst many others, punctuality. This was said in a lower than normal volume, which was the usual way Nishikirenai would speak:

“Took you long enough…”

The paladin replied, as joyful as ever:

“Haha! Sorry, sorry! I had to make a quick stop on my way back.”

As he came closer to the base of the stairs, the ninja sensed the other strong presence by him, and squinted his eyes behind his scarf.

Momonga sensed it as well, but he did not react.

Both this aura, as well as the fact that Touch was using illusionary magic to change his natural appearance, while appearing to hold his actual insectoid face as a mask in his left hand, were signs of slight concern to Nishikirenai.

“So, how was your mission? Did you manage to defeat Zeus?”

Touch was talking about a recent event, for which most of the members of Nine’s Own Goal dispatched.

“A failure, and a success.” - replied Nishikirenai.

Touch’s confused expression was right on mark with this statement.

His face, due to his general lack of imagination, was forged to resemble his real appearance, that of an elder man with short-cut imperial beard. It was, of course, upgraded to a ‘perfect’ instance of his real appearance, being much stronger and more handsome.

This was a trick he would teach Momonga later on.

Momonga cleared his throat:

“Pardon me, allow me to explain. He does that uh… ‘mysterious’ speech all the time (…).

We got our kill stolen by another party. No matter how much we circled around, we didn’t manage to find another Zeus spawning within the spawn area listed in the event info.

In the end, we met a party who had more success than us, yet they were not interested in the reward. I suppose they were already much higher level, given how their mounts looked.

They just wanted to sell it, so, it cost us a good amount, but we managed to get the Keraunos.

They had already fiddled with some settings, so they had to rename it to ‘Keraunos MK3’.”

“MK3? What happened to MK2?”

“Dunno’…”

“Ah well, I suppose it worked out in the end! Don’t tell me how much it cost, I don’t want to know(…) Anyhow, I also got a little something for the guild!”

Touch let Narberal off of his shoulder. She was now looking straight at Momonga, being intrigued by his skeletal appearance.

She was born in an unusual place for a doppelgänger. Her species was typically used to undead, but she had only made contact with humans before.

After scanning him well, her eyes shifted to the staff that Momonga had a firm grip upon. (0f course he would - it had cost him so much)

A silver sceptre, with a noble golden lining all across, dignifying of a king or queen - seeing it made Narberal whisper a simple thought:

“Pretty…”

On the other side, Nishikirenai reflexively opened his eyes as soon as he saw her, a loud bell ringing in his head.

He recalled, about 10 weeks prior (cca. 3 weeks IRL), hunting trolls for components for several potions of regeneration, in anticipation for the event.

He remembered falling back after seeing the embers of a doppelgänger forming, since he knew they were incredibly annoying to fight due to their smart mechanics that were counter-intuitive to a player’s typical fighting pattern.

It was also, now, clear to him, why sir Touch was concealing his appearance. He wanted to appear more friendly, as heteromorphic races were perceived as threatening, even amongst each-other.

Narberal, however, did not seem to mind Momonga’s appearance.

“I suppose I can cancel [Disguise Self] now. It was a good use of a leftover item.”

As in any MMORPG, players would acquire many items which became obsolete later in the game, or were not useful to them from the start. A [Disguise Self] spell scroll was one such item, which was much lower level than the spells that Nine’s Own Goal currently regarded as useful in combat.

Nishikirenai suddenly leaned on one knee, with an arm casually placed over the other.

“Say, what’s your name?”

Narberal was still in shock after almost dying to another spawn NPC.

She pumped up air in her cheeks and replied with an insecure yet powerful shout:

“You’d better remember this! My name is Narberal! I am going to be the strongest wizard in Yggdrasil!”

Nishikirenai laughed, a rare event given how keen he was on maintaining his character.

“Greatest wizard? You don’t look very wizard-like to me! Come with me… perhaps some new clothes will change that(…)”

[dark hallway in Nazarick]

Lupusregina had the smile of someone waiting for their turn to say something amazing and really smart.

Feeling the pressure of Lupi’s presence, Nabe felt pressed to ask:

“What is it? Did I say something wrong?”

Lupusregina giggled with a closed mouth.

“You’re strong, you know?”

“Eh?? What are you… trying to say…”

Narberal blushed as her voice fainted out. Beta knew she’d react like this. That was her plan! And so, she kept pressing:

“You have to be so high standing and proud to use your powers, yet look at you now! You’re so shy-su, hehe!”

Narberal’s face turned red as she made an awkward noise:

“Mmm-mmmmph!”

“But, you know, you’re still the best wizard I know! You’re kind and considerate with your friends, yet fearful and threatening in a fight - you’re amazing!”

Narberal was now covering her face, peeping through the gaps between her fingers.

“S…stop it!”

Beta laughed forcefully and diabolically, proud of her victory and trying to exhale all the air in her lungs in a satisfying manner.

Solution turned around to warn the two, but it was too late.

“Keep it down, you w-whaa!(…)”

Squirming, ebony tentacles emerged from the inappreciable darkness at the side of the wide corridor, snatching her away into nothingness.

Lupusregina rushed to the wall, which she could vividly see with her darkvision, yet there was no crack or opening from where something could have crawled through.

She slammed heavily into the wall to get the creature’s attention, but there was no response, and the incoming sound resonated of a closed space, rather than an open room on the other side.

She didn’t wait too long before grabbing her crosier and slamming it at full force into the wall.

After several consecutive slams, there was merely a small crack left in the special-made stone wall, reinforced with magic that would prevent intruders from forging an escape route.

“Stop it-”

Narberal tried touching her shoulder to calm her down, but got snapped back at:

“Then what do you expect we should do!!?? How can you be so calm?”

Narberal wanted to answer, but she stopped herself, looking the other way.

(…)

In complete darkness, Solution could sense herself inside a wardrobe-size enclosure with no apparent way out.

The walls began to close in on her, yet this was of no concern for a slime.

Slimes and oozes were able to change their shape at will, depending on their level of practice and the species.

Some species had a more fluid consistency, which allowed them to stretch more, but limited them from creating strong shapes for attacking.

Other species were more dense. They had little potential to shapeshift, but their damage output and defence were superior.

Higher level races were able to alter their consistency at will. Shoggoths - Solution’s rare genus was one of those.

The reverberant, discomforting gurgle of a sack of air sliding through the vortex of a drainage pipe echoed in the small chamber.

Through her thick armor, Solution could sense something cold building up at her feet, not feeling any moisture due to insulation her boots provided.

Once a slime changed their consistency to be more fluid, they would more rapidly dissolve, risking to lose control of their shape if submerged in a large volume of water.

The succession of these events was now clear in Solution’s mind. She knew it was not just a trap, but one designed specifically to strike at her weakness.

In other words, whoever or whatever was doing this was well informed of her abilities, and, most likey, of all the other battle maids. There were two options at hand: One - there was a spy inside Nazarick, guiding the movements of the mastermind, or leading the operation themselves. Two - the attacker had already seized control over other NPCs, and was using them to extract information.

A skinny hand with sharp fingernails emerged from the agitated water. The being emanated a powerful, evil presence.

Solution’s eyes looked directly at the source of the mana, which she perceived as hot red through her [true sight]

(…)

One down.

[Throne Room, 10th floor of Nazarick]

Demiurge appeared through the spell [Dimension Door], which he had special permission to use at will for the time being.

This spell was only tier 4, allowing the user to travel through a magic door between two relatively close locations, while also carrying one other creature. It was much lower level than the tier 9 [Gate], which allowed travelling with limitless distance, even across other planes. As such, it was not at all exhausting to use.

The only NPC that would, at times, use [Gate], without permission, inside Nazarick, was Shalltear, purely flexing on being the only one, other than Ainz, capable of casting it, despite being of no real use to her due to the teleportation rings that each guardian possessed.

Standing straight, with the door closing behind him, Demiurge took his usual bow in front of the supreme ruler of Nazarick.

“I’m afraid the exercise is proceeding below the expectations, my supreme lord, Ainz-sama.”

“Mhm.(…) It’s alright, Demiurge. This is going well. Good work!”

“Ah, so you have already foreseen this outcome! As expected of the King of the newly found Sorcerer Kingdom!”

Demiurge made a pause in his speech, shifting his mood from calm and assertive to sounding somewhat rushed.

“Well then, my master, Ainz-sama, I must excuse myself. I have more work to do(…)”

Ainz raised his hand to give a sign for Demiurge to not insist on apologising.

“I understand. Continue enforcing phase two!”

Demiurge shouted his approval of the order he’d received, sharply swinging his tail:

“Yes! Understood, Ainz-sama!”

(…)

[back to the Pleiades]

Lupi turned around nervously:

“I don’t get it! Pandora, you said it was some kind of giant fly - that didn’t look like a fly to me!”

“Mmm, well, Amon is a demonic spirit that possesses a target and changes its shape(…)”

Lupi raised her arms to lash back:

“Do you seriously expect us to believe that?”

In the middle of the argument, an odd green spark caught Entoma’s attention.

She was filtering out the banter, completely zoning out. She distanced herself slowly, heading towards the corner where the mysterious object shined on the ground a moment ago.

Eventually, Lupi made the effort to notice:

“Eh, Entoma? Hold up! Where are you going???”

She was already next to the corner.

“Bug!”

“What?”

“Bug… we saw one here!

She lifted a sleeve to point towards the ground

“It did not answer!”

Entoma continued to walk the path she thought the bug had followed, moving out of Beta’s vision as soon as she took the corner.

Beta, followed by Gamma immediately behind, both rushed to the corner.

Pandora’s Actor stood behind, only following their movement with his head.

By the time they reached, all they saw was an empty corridor, with not a trace of Entoma even having passed through.

The passageway they were looking at was the longest reaching of shortcuts through the 10 floors, which lead from the 9th to the 2nd floor.

Inside a pitch-black environment, Entoma was now slowly making her way through, pathing her route using her delicate antennae to feel around, while being guided by the familiar smell of beetles.

She passed through an opening that felt like a regular sized door, inside a room that was a small step lower, which she took very gently, without a chance of tripping.

Sniff, sniff!

“It is close. There are more!”

A clacking sound filled the room, coming from the other end. The frequency of the clacks increased more and more.

Entoma gestured them to halt, but to no effect.

The beetles shortly crawled up her prosthetic legs, pinning her in place, unless she detached herself from her human impersonating exoskeleton.

“Bugs! But… can’t control!”

As the beetles climbed higher, scaling on top of one-another, their weight became to over-encumber Entoma, whose lowest stat was Strength.

The maid armor that each of the Pleiades wore was around 600, plus minus 50 pounds. Despite this, each of them were high enough level, such that they could effortlessly waltz around in their quarter-ton tunic.

It was apparent that these were not regular bugs.

Entoma’s legs finally yielded, with her body slowly being dragged to the ground and pinned prone.

The swarm of beetles began to expand and melt together, forming three pairs of gigantic insect appendages.

Behind Entoma, a sparkling white portal with red swirls, almost like a candy cane, opened up and dragged her beneath.

Two down.

[end of chapter 5]