Once the full tally of bones and bodies were laid out, there was one more thing to do before departure.

Say goodbye.

The armor of Clementine, which she had bedecked with the plates of the many adventurers she’d slain, was held out by Momon. All present adventurers, even Igvarge, fell silent as one by one the lightly armored and heavily armored alike came forward to look for the names of missing comrades.

“Indari… wow, I wondered what happened to him… hard to believe.” Someone said, and taking out a sharp dagger, they cut away the binding that held the gold colored plate in place. After going through the rest, the young woman stepped away, knowing no more of the names.

A beefy warrior approached, thickly muscled, and carrying a large maul on his shoulder, he slammed the head of it hard into the ground. He was bald headed and had sharp blue eyes that ran over the many tags. ‘Stern fellow.’ Ainz thought, until water filled the blue eyes when he found a name he knew.

“Gretchen…” His trembling hand touched the silver plate. “So it’s true.” He bawled like an infant when he found the name on the breast of Clementine’s armor, his thick, sausage like fingers pawed at the plate until he got a nail behind it, and yanked it away with such force that the leather strips simply snapped.

So it went, one by one, until only a smattering of little plates remained with none to mourn them.

It was after the last of the adventurers had come and gone, that Pluton Ainzach approached and held shaking hands up, “I-I will take the rest. The names on here must belong to other guilds, I’ll put out word to the guildmasters there and send them back for proper honors.”

“That’s good.” Ainz replied, the man’s grief hit him like a hammer, and Ainz nodded respectfully at the offer.

“That is the way it’s done. Every man and woman who registers knows there’s a possibility they might die out there. Some go into too much danger, too soon, and that’s it. Some just have bad luck, a bad day and it’s the last. And some…” He blinked back watery pools and paused when his voice choked up, “Some we just don’t know what happens, until somebody finds their plate. Sometimes in a cave, sometimes in a monster’s belly, and sometimes, like now, on the armor of a monster disguised as a human.”

Ainzach spat at the ground, and Ainz gently, reverentially laid the armor into Ainzach’s hands.

The remaining plates rattled on the handoff, then Ainzach turned to face those present.

“A moment of silence for the dead, may they rest easy in the afterlife, avenged, and free of pain.” The plump guildmaster said, and quiet befell the area that was so great you could have heard a pin drop. Heads bowed for the span of several breaths, and the called-for moment passed and was done.

When it was, the guild members took it on themselves to disperse and return to the interior, while Pluton Ainzach turned back to the dark hero. “Mr. Momon,” he said while looking up at the dark hero’s helmet covered face, “You’ve done a service that, in my view, would justify immediate promotion to adamantite. However,” he folded the armor up and tucked it under one arm, then scratched his head in thought before going on, “Some folks would be unhappy by such a rapid rise. The feeling may be that it cheapens the rank if it is achieved so quickly.”

Ainz crossed his arms in front of his chest. ‘If I think about it like a job... right, it’s like when somebody just joins the company and immediately gets a big promotion, it doesn’t matter what they did, the others see them as not having paid their dues yet. Still, I did something big out there!’ It rankled, but he kept ‘most’ of that from getting out of his mouth.

“I shouldn’t need to prove my strength again and again… but I understand. You’re about to offer something, aren’t you?” Ainz guessed, and the plump face of the tense guildmaster relaxed.

“Yes, if an adamantite adventurer accompanies you on this task and attests to your strength, nobody will argue against a promotion. Evileye of Blue Rose has volunteered,” he gestured to where the short mage stood chatting with Lupusregina, she saw and waved her hand, hopping up and down with almost childlike enthusiasm, “Just finish this, get her endorsement, and that will be that.”

“I see, explain what you need then.” Ainz said and gave a quick, hesitant wave to the masked woman. ‘She seems to like me, it would be good to have a friendship with someone outside of Nazarick, even if they’re not especially strong compared to its children.’

Pluton Ainzach went on to explain everything he knew, which proved to be far too little.

He was just wrapping up when Evileye approached with Lupusregina in tow. The masked mage stuck her hand out toward him and he grasped it firmly, taking care not to squeeze too hard.

“So it looks like I’ll be joining you as an observer.” Evileye said in a childlike voice.

‘She sounds very young, is it the mask, is that a side effect of it, or an enchantment?’ Ainz was very curious what lay behind the accessory.

“Just try not to get in the way, eh, short stuff?” Lupu said and winked down at the mage who briefly took a step back, offended, until she saw the tongue sticking out and realized she was being playfully taunted.

“Right… I’ll try not to get in your way.” Evileye replied with a chuckle as if that was too absurd to even contemplate.

“So, where do we go first?” The little mage asked the pair, and for that, Ainz was grateful to have a quick answer in the form of a question.

He looked down at the woman who was barely more than waist height to himself and asked, “Where are there likely to be a vast number of bodies?”

“This is E-Rantel, a major assembly point for Re-Estize soldiers during our wars against the Baharuth Empire. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a grave somewhere.” Evileye answered with a disappointed sigh. ‘So, this really is all there is to him, jump to the obvious and no further, and he made such a strong first impression.’

Ainz nodded in answer, “Yes, I see, I see.” He muttered and thought back to his days as a guildmaster, it was a warm, happy memory, raiding tombs to build up his own necromantic skills, and when he thought about that, it made sense.

‘Older graveyards are full, by definition, that’s why new ones get opened up, but they’re also little used and so rarely visited, perfect place to hide if you’re a necromancer.’ Ainz thought and dropped his hand down to put on Evileye’s shoulder.

Her heart jump started almost immediately despite being quite dead, and then it did it again when he spoke to her.

“That isn’t quite what I mean, I’m sorry, I thought the depth of my question wouldn’t be lost on an adamantite adventurer.” Ainz replied, with Lupu chuckling when she moved to his right side.

“What I mean is, where would I find the oldest, deepest, and most heavily used graveyards, some place that is almost never visited any longer?” Ainz asked the question more thoroughly, and to him, it seemed she was pausing to think.

‘Stupid, you should have known a great man like him would think deeply and quickly about a subject, you don’t get to be that powerful without learning a lot along the way!’ Evileye criticized herself for the foolish moment of doubt and answered just before the silence could become awkward.

“The oldest graves are south of the city, the great families are at the center, there are a great many old catacombs that run underground all over the area, nobody ever goes there unless a member of one of the city’s great families dies. Even then, they now use mausoleums above ground.”

“I see, so a deep system of catacombs that nobody ever visits and are swelling with all the bodies a necromancer could ever wish for, is that right?” Ainz asked her, and to that, Evileye could only incline her head and be grateful that she could no longer sweat nervously.

“Then let’s get going.” Ainz answered, and every heavy armored step he took, made the dead heart of the little vampire woman, come to life again.

Reaching the outlying graveyard took time on foot, but there was little reason to hurry, nightfall didn’t concern the pair as far as Evileye could tell. When the shadows swept the land and dead tree limbs took on the look of monsters in the dark that would tower over great heroes, the pair she observed moved under and past them unafraid.

The way in was unlocked and unguarded, only a low iron fence that had rusted and fallen into disrepair in many places served to separate the living and the dead.

The brown trail was of hard, packed earth that crumbled beneath their steps, and the grave markers went from clean white or granite, to old, gray, and moss covered in many places. More than a few were cracked, and many more than that were broken.

Names forgotten because all who knew them passed away, were ruined forever when stones toppled over the earth that covered forgotten faces, names were worn away by wind and rain, a testament to the age of the area they now found themselves within.

Finally, Evileye watched as Momon called a halt by placing a hand on his teammate’s shoulder. Envy shot through the little vampire mage at the familiar touch, while she also acknowledged with a certain cocky pride in her own advanced recognition that, ‘He is a true professional, he doesn’t speak without need in a potentially dangerous area.’

‘It feels good to have physical contact with someone again, the undead body had its uses, but the same senses were… different, than this, even through armor.’ Ainz thought with a certain sense of comfort at the feel of the shoulder under his armored hand.

‘A flawless sense of caution.’ Lupusregina thought with pride in her lord, ‘He wants me to check and signal him covertly, that’s why he says nothing even though he knows I love it when he speaks. Lord Ainz is so coooool!’ Lupusregina wanted to howl with excitement, but she focused on the matter at hand.

She sniffed the air, it was heavy with the stench of death, and some living things, she turned behind her to face the little magic caster, while not entirely certain what to make of her yet, she acknowledged privately that Evileye recognized her master’s greatness instantly. That put her at least somewhat better than a mere worm that had yet to see his greatness first.

Lupusregina tapped her own nose three times, and visibly sniffed the air to ensure her actions were understood. The thick odor of death and decay was punctuated by the odors of some living things, small animals for the most part, possums, coyotes, foxes, and others that might try to take shelter among the scattering of trees and graves and broken old tombs.

She pointed off in a slightly different direction and raised a fist so that both could see her. She opened and closed all five fingers four times. She then pointed ‘down’.

‘Twenty underground… she must have a talent for scenting things out, what’s that they call it? ‘Hunter’s Nose’ or something.’ Evileye pulled her faded memory to the fore and watched as Lupu took the lead. Lupu’s simple traveling gear seemed to offer no protection on the surface, but it was difficult not to notice that it somehow seemed impossibly clean as well.

‘Enchanted, probably against damage too.’ Evileye realized, and her estimation of the copper plate team Axel went up another notch.

‘This ‘is’ just like the game.’ The lifelong gamer in him came out in force, and Ainz pointed Lupusregina off in one direction, while he went down another.

Evileye herself hung back and watched as the pair split, and she began to follow down the center. She smelled the blood when it hit the air, but heard no scream.

[Fly], Evileye cast the spell and ascended into the air, her blood red eyes widened like saucers when she saw the superhuman speed with which both Momon and Lupu ate up ground. He was tall enough that his long strides carried him faster than the undead they encountered could respond. Old, degraded blood of the sort that had lingered too long in a corpse for even a vampire to desire, flowed into the dust and grass.

Momon’s sword never missed a neck and severed them clean off, sending corpses toppling with quiet, final thuds.

Lupu was little different, her mace simply broke heads, but if Momon was a sprinter, Lupu was an acrobat, leaping from place to place before any of the watching undead could respond or call out to the masters that summoned them as guards. ‘She’s like a wolf chasing prey. I’ve never seen such a deadly cleric, most of the time they’re frail at best. No wonder she brought Igvarge to his knees so easily!’

Within minutes only, the undead were dead again, and without a skeleton or zombie letting out a cry. Evileye descended upon the pair as they approached a large columned gate of white stone. Heavy bronze doors barred the way within, and with the undead put back to the ground, there were no guards to keep them out.

“Nice work.” Evileye acknowledged when she stepped close to the pair.

“Course, Momon is the best.” Lupu gushed, and when the towering dark hero reached out, took the large handle with one hand, and pulled a door meant to be pulled by three or more, opening it by himself… she was not inclined to disagree.

Within, torches flickered and glowed, casting the shadows of the dancing flames in endlessly shifting patterns over white floors, leading far, far beyond easy vision, and giving away the recent, even current occupation of the house of the dead, by the living. Without a trace of fear that would have set many an adventurer to hesitating, Ainz said simply, as a hero might, “Let’s finish this.” And placed one foot forward into the parade of shadows.

That was when she watched the impossible.

‘There are times to go in stealthily, to hunt and stalk and kill your prey so that they die never knowing that their death was coming,so that they die wondering what killed them. But not for nothing, the hero charging forward is considered the greatest ideal.’ Evileye thought and watched as the pair immediately began their charge.

Momon kicked a door in with such force that its iron hinges snapped and the entire piece flew inward, crashing into someone out of Evileye’s sight, she immediately felt his life force die. ‘Head crushed. That’s a hero’s might.’

Charging a magic caster was a dangerous thing to do, and yet he did it. Rushing into the room, his great swords swung in broad arcs just out of view until she caught up with him. Behind her mask, the vampire mage’s eyes widened, the swords swung through a room that was fundamentally too small for them to do so. Yet they did, and ‘why’ was more impressive than the two bodies that lay cut in half on the floor. His swords cut through the stone and cut through the solid rock more easily than an oar split the surface tension of water.

Scattered rocks along the wall testified to the raw power of the towering dark hero.

Evileye left Momon behind and followed the sound of the laughing Lupu.

Her ears told the story of what was happening, and yet she could barely believe it.

Lupu smacked the door open when she found it around the corner, the back of her hand cracked the door in half so simply that it toppled with ease, “Hi hi!” She wiggled her fingers at the three magic casters that stood around a captive stretched out on a rack.

They wore dark blue robes and carried short wands, their faces were shrouded, but she could smell their fear and shock, not to mention see it when they whirled around to face her. On the rack, a pitiful specimen of a human lay strapped down. His arms and legs pulled so far that his bones were obviously no longer connected to one another.

His head fell limply to the side, which likely took all the gaunt, emaciated man’s strength to manage, in order to look at the one who caught his tormentor’s eyes.

“R-Run.” He tried to whimper out, and as if his words were a trigger, the magic casters who tormented him began to cast their spells.

“Charm person!”

“Sleep!”

“Confusion!”

‘Oh they want to capture me, how quaint.’ Lupusregina giggled and rushed forward, her left and right hands caught the throats of two magic casters before they could utter another spell, closed her fingers tight, and pulled.

Her nails dug into soft flesh and the acrid stench of urine hit her nose at the same moment fear intensified in the dark eyes beneath the hoods. The pulling fingers ripped into the throats and tore the flesh away, however the third man between the two was struck by her body during her charge, and he flew backward over the table.

He rolled over the prisoner and tumbled end over end on the stone floor until he came to a stop against the wall, striking his head and dazing him, but he did not die.

Lupu had a cruel smile etched on her face when she released the two once held fast in her grip, they fell as if they were one person, living long enough to feel the agony as their knees hit the stone floor, and long enough to feel the pain when their faces hit.

Saka rubbed the back of his head, hitting the wall stunned him, his vision blurred, his comrades began their slow fall to the floor with spraying red droplets, now signifying only that his present minutes were full of fear.

‘What happened? What happened with Clementine? What happened with Master Khajiit, who is this? An adventurer…?’ Stunned or not, he could wonder such things by the time she hopped over their victim and approached him. Her hips rolled in a sensual walk, the long red braids that hung down her back were swaying in time with her hips, and red dripped from brown fingers that hung loose and open like claws.

“You had a bad day now, huh, real bad day, but don’t worry.” The redhead was saying to him, “I’ll make it all better.”

Saka tried to understand the nonsensical thing the radiant, exotic woman was saying, but it made no sense.

“You’re my master’s test, you know, and I aim to make sure he passes. Hesitation is weakness, and he never hesitates. He is bold, brave and loyal, and he will have everything. You… you are just a stepping stone, now be a good stepping stone, and stay still so he can step on you, and move a little further forward.” The woman said and cocked her head to give a sweet, beautiful smile.

‘Got to take her down…’ Saka thought with desperation, his body numbed from the force of the blow, he still tried to raise his wand to fight back. His arm shook, fear flooded his entire body and lent him strength to hold the blue crystal tipped wand in front of his body.

His lips opened to cast a spell, but before he could speak, he felt the dirty coppery taste of blood on his tongue. His brown eyes spread open in horror, faster than he’d seen her move, her hand shoved into his mouth.

The widened eyes trembled, the urge to fight was gone, all that remained was the urge to beg. He shook his head and stared into her beautiful, apple like face, her yellow eyes held him intently. “Hmpf,” she said to him a moment later, “Less courage than the village girl. Pathetic. She didn’t piss herself when she was about to die.”

He didn’t get to ask what the mad woman was yammering about before the fingers bent and dug into his tongue, splitting the soft flesh and then tearing back out away from his mouth. That pain was bad enough, but hot on its heels was the raw agony of his teeth being knocked out from the inside, they clattered to the floor so loudly that over his mutilated cries, he could still hear their noise.

The taste of blood was gone, as was his tongue and her hand, she threw it on the floor and stomped on it with a sickening squelch. “If I liked you, hurting you would be a lot more fun, but as it is… you’ll have to do.” He held his hands over his wounded maw and shook his entire body back and forth in denial.

He didn’t have a moment to try to work out what she meant, she showed him first. Her hands tore at his flesh, and he let out tongueless cries as the sickening sound of his own tearing flesh reached his ears. ‘No! No! Master! Master help us…!” Saka thought with desperation.

“Nothing to say? Cat got your tongue?” The woman giggled and crouched over him, the smell of his own blood, sweat, and fear soaked his body like a torrential rain soaked the ground. “No… no, it wasn’t a cat.” She whispered as she came closer, her face looming close to his. “It was a wolf.” She allowed her face to briefly begin to morph, and despair consumed even his sense of fear.

He lost consciousness. Fainting straight away and going limp. “Well, that was anticlimactic.” Lupusregina muttered, stood up, and stomped hard on his head, the skull cracked open and the brain within smushed as easily as mud under a heavy boot.

She turned around to see Evileye standing at the door.

‘Wow… just… wow. She tore them apart.’ Evileye could only look on, impressed at the corpses.

The victim on the table was in horrible shape, burned, mutilated, stretched on the wooden rack, he could have been down with these monsters for weeks, or even months for all Evileye knew, and the Dark Hero’s companion seemed to have taken his treatment very personally. ‘She really wanted to avenge him…’ Evileye felt the sense of approval growing as she saw the way the last of the necromancers had been torn apart.

“He’s still alive, you want to bring him along or just come back for him later?” Lupu asked her, pointing at the man on the rack who had no strength to speak.

He blinked, and that was the first real sign of life Evileye saw in him, “We’ll come back, who knows what’s further down.”

“Dead men who don’t know they’re dead yet, that’s all.” Lupu said, but under the eye of her appraiser… she cast a simple healing spell on the broken man, and left the room just as Momon passed it by.