I forgot how tiring it is to translate everything by myself and I don’t machine translate.
The Capital City of the Kingdom
Translators: Frostfire10
"Oh dear, shouldn't he stop and think for a bit? While some service is excellent bait for those hiding in the shadows, destroying the door is a bit too eye-catching isn't it."
Demiurge's whispered were blown away by the wind and disappeared.
If one looked down, they would see the figure of the door Sebas broke. The place where Demiurge was currently standing on the roof of the opposite building.
Demiurge was standing on top of the building and his appearance could not be said to be good.
He wore a cloak with a hood, and his face was covered by a mask borrowed from Ainz. It was a plain mask, but was a magic item that had activated passively. However, Demiurge had the ability himself, and thus it had no more meaning than hiding his face.
Why was Demiurge alone in such a place? This was not due to Demiurge's will. This was as he was ordered to worked together with Sebas by the smiling Ainz.
[Because you are friends, you should work together.]
Holding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, Ainz spoke in a leader-like manner that he could not say before.
"I'm troubled, but it's Ainz-sama's intention for me to overcome it."
Demiurge thought about his own abilities and wished for sufficient backup. This was as secret missions were not Demiurge's expertise. Just having the assassin Solution join him would have been enough.
However, Demiurge's internal state was never vocalised to his master.
Demiurge's mouth crumbled into a smile.
[Because of the support of a Guardian like yourself, there will be no problems.]
This was as Demiurge's master felt that he was deeply reliable. Having that said to him made it difficult to request for backup.
"Ainz-sama is a terrifying person."
Causing Demiurge to prioritise his emotions over logic was—
"Oh, I shouldn't."
Demiurge resisted making a slovenly face. Just recalling his master's words caused sparks to run down his spine to a level that would cause most people to feel pain from it.
However, while it was a waste to kill the greatest feelings he felt, he had things to do.
More importantly, he could not do this again.
Just this once, just this once he would put his emotions first. Next time, no matter what, he would put the mission first.
Demiurge decided so and thought about the next thing.
"Oh dear. I don't have enough options."
Demiurge thought about using his ability for an instant to summon a demon. Succubi had mind control abilities and magic. It could be said to be useful in such a situation. However, he understood that humans had a strong aversion to demons thanks to his ranch.
In addition, they came here with the "aim" of saving people. Using demons would be a bit ill fitting.
In most cases, those that summoned demons would have the label of "Evil" attatched to themselves.
The dissatisfaction from not having enough options appeared in Demiurge's heart, directed at someone not present.
"—You went ahead too far, you fool."
There were no people in the building with the destroyed door, of course, Sebas' figure could not be seen.
Originally, it would have been proper to proceed together with Sebas. However, their relationship was bad. They did not hate each other, but they felt that the other was a bother, and they did not mesh well.
That was why the job was split into two parts.
Sebas would enter the interior and save people. Demiurge would teleport the saved humans into Nazarick.
Of course, Demiurge's responsibilities were not only that. In order to prevent too much information from leaking, he was observing the surroundings.
"However…. Due to that naivety, do you understand how much trouble you dragged in?"
Thinking of Sebas, Demiurge's face under the mask crumbled.
"Using Ainz-sama's kindness for us subordinates for your own gains, how frustrating."
It was a rare sight to see Demiurge grumble. If any of his fellow Guardians saw this, they would be shocked.
That was how bad Demiurge and Sebas worked together. It was to the point that he felt that he could work better with Pestonya who had the complete opposite personality.
He had confirmed that he could not work well with Sebas.
Sebas chose to save them in a hurry, causing Demiurge to prioritise readying Nazarick to receive the slaves and to make preparations to retreat from the building.
Demiurge had just managed to fly to the nearby roof when all he saw was a broken door.
"It is not clear who is watching, and the higher ups of the Kingdom might move. As an invader, stimulating their curiosity so much is nothing but a fool's errand."
Sighing, Demiurge pondered over his next actions.
It might have been natural to repair the door, but Demiurge had no repair magic. Nor illusion magic. If he had to do it, then he could force it back in. Or he could hide the door and make people think that it was originally open.
Which way was better?
While in thought, Demiurge was spoken to.
Demiurge had used plenty of caution while coming to this place.
It would be fine for some information about his master to leak. He had such thoughts but if Demiurge walked along the town with his true face, with his demonic appearance, it would be too eye catching.
That was why he had activated with a scroll and acted invisibly.
He could use up to the 10th Tier, but the types that he could use were extremely limited. It was easy to just count the number. He could not use , and thus activated it with the scroll he received.
Next was the black clothes that covered his body. Next was that he flew quite high to get there. Due to this caution, discovering Demiurge was almost impossible.
Would anyone be using and at the same time and be paying attention to the sky? The chance of that occurring was extremely low.
However, on that day, there was such a person.
"So, can I ask what you are doing here?"
The voice from behind Demiurge was such a strange and muffled one that he did not understand from what species it came from.
How careless.
Having this occur on top of Sebas' mistakes caused Demiurge's face to frown even further.
Demiurge's ability stats was high. This was as his level was 100. Also, an anthropomorphic being gained more stats per level than humanoids and demi-humans. However, he was not skilled in thief or ranger skills that helped his detection.
Ainz, Aura and Shalltear could use magic to do this, and Sebas and Cocytus could use their warrior senses as a replacement. However, Demiurge had none of this. Thus, he allowed this person to draw near.
"Trusting one's basic abilities too much will lead to pitfalls, eh?"
Demiurge sighed. Thinking about what a failure this was, he hung his head and immediately began to think of a method to rectify it.
"What are you talking about? Turn here slowly. If you make any strange movements, you will lose your life. You might be an ally, but you don't want to lose your life over a mistake right?"
Her intention to attack was not fake, and feeling that strain, Demiurge slowly considered.
There was a small existence. She was wearing the same black robes as Demiurge and her long black hair shook in the wind. Her face was hidden by a mask.
Evileye.
Demiurge did not know, but she was a member of the strongest adventuring party in the Kingdom, [Blue Rose].
Demiurge began to speak to the mysterious person. He wanted to gain the initiative in the conversation, no matter how little.
"I came here to save people? Why are you here?"
"Why you ask…."
Having the initiative taken from from, Evileye's voice wavered. Demiurge laughed and continued his words.
"If you get in my way, I have to kill you."
"…. I see, we have the same goal. Why do you have such a suspicious appearance?"
"…. I did not think that you would tell me that but…. This is a secret mission."
"Hmm…."
They tried to sniff out each other's intentions, and the next one to speak was Evileye.
"Is that so, I got it. Then we will handle the rest. You, leave."
"…….."
Evileye's words caused the sense of righteousness to move over to her, causing Demiurge to be troubled. He felt that he had she had the arrogance and strong will that showed she had the protection of the law.
"……..I cannot believe those words. Could I see some proof?"
"…. If I show you will you follow? Before that, could you remove your mask? If you live in this city, you know who I am right?"
"…….."
Demiurge understood that he was in an extremely dangerous situation. He had considered the possibility of running into a person connected with the upper brass but….
"…. Even if I know, I do not know if you are that person. Could you please remove your mask?"
There would be no famous person who would normally wear a mask. They were probably hiding their faces using a mask like Demiurge. His words were a result of such thinking. However, here, that was a big miss.
"What? Remove my mask….?"
"If you do th—"
As if cutting him off, Evileye slowly readied a stance.
"— I'll tell you honestly…. I have no idea which noble hired you, so I did not intend to let you escape. However, not knowing the least about me has peaked my interest. As a resident of this world, how do you not know about Evileye of [Blue Rose]."
The meaning in those words.
Demiurge sensed that she would not negotiate.
"….This was to buy time right?"
"That's one reason."
The two masked figures looked at each other.
As a wind blew across the rooftop where they stood.
Evileye shivered. This was not due to the wind but she felt it directly from the one in front of her. The feeling of hate and impatience blew towards her, along with the sense of pressure.
She felt the pressure that came with facing a monster stronger than A Class. And this seemed to be much more powerful.
The experience of someone that exceeded her experiences in her long life was a first. The reason why she could still try to move while being rooted to the spot was due to her unnatural body.
However, Evileye tried to move, but her slight hesistation was a large gap to a powerful existence like Demiurge.
[Inflict Self-harm]
Demiurge released his curses of commandment at Evileye—
"What!"
"What?"
The suprised voices numbered two. The former was Evileye's and the latter's was Demiurge.
Evileye flew away. She had cast flight magic and thus could easily fly over the uneven surface of the rooftops.
Demiurge did not attack the retreating Evileye but merely shook his head.
Evileye and Demiurge, glared at each other as they tried to read the other's moves.
There was only one reason why the superior Demiurge did not immediately attack her.
"…. Oh dear."
Demiurge understood that since his method of attacking, his curse, had no effect, he was in greater danger.
If his curse of command worked, it was an overwhelming ability. However, it was not all powerful nor the strongest. It was a mind related ability that worked on sound. If one knew about it, there were multiple methods to block it.
For example, if that person were over level 40. Or that they had perfect resistance to mind control or control-type skills. Or that she was invulnerable to sound-based skills. There were countless other methods to block it such as being too dumb or not knowing the language.
The problem was how did the enemy in front of him protect herself.
If she had blocked it due to her high level, this would be troublesome.
"That bastard, doing a half-hearted job."
Demiurge was unhappy with Sebas.
Since Demiurge had not heard about any person who could block his curse of command, he blamed the person in charge of collecting information: Sebas.
In actuality it was different.
Sebas had collected information on the person known as Evileye. Not delivering it to Demiurge was a failure on Ainz's part.
Ainz was originally a normal person, and had no experience at the top. Thus, while he understood the importance of information, he was not good at understanding what information to give to his subordinates and when.
It could not be helped that despite the failings of Shalltear, repeating it again could be said to be foolish. However Ainz did have an excuse in this case. Demiurge was backing up Sebas. Also he did not expect to encounter Evileye, and he had no time to explain only the information that he deemed necessary amongst the large amount of information that Sebas brought back.
Demiurge did not know any of that and was thus unhappy with Sebas.
Thus, Demiurge was thrust into a situation without information, as if forced into the darkness without a light, restricting much of his actions.
And Evileye. She was in the same position as Demiurge where she could not move.
It was not clear how strong her opponent was. Well, she could feel that he was an overwhelmingly strong person. However, what was her chance of victory, or the chance of escape? Since he was too high level, she could not tell.
How powerful was the enemy in front of her.
What led her to this thought was the earlier attack.
She could not see the attack with her eyes, but she felt that the mysterious existence released something strange. Evileye had compiled a large amount of knowledge, but this was a strange move even to her.
[Famed adventurers of history win battles before they are fought.]
Those were words that stressed the importance of information. Basically it was that the analysis of information before the battle would decide the victor. She had done this in past battles. Thus it was natural that she hated random encounters.
Basically, Evileye was in a similar situation to Demiurge where she was in the dark without a light.
After some time, reading each other's movements, the first one who moved was the disadvantaged one— Demiurge.
This was a result of them realising that the longer this dragged out, the better it would be for Evileye.
Stepping in with a thud, Demiurge charged in towards Evileye. Out of the countless attack methods he had, Demiurge chose his fist.
In the middle of his charge, he had changed his magic to flight magic, and thus recieved no penalties from the uneven ground beneath him.
Demiurge's physical ability was the weakest amongst the Guardians. While he would not lose to Ainz, but he had no chance of victory with any others. He was about as strong as the Battlemaids, perhaps even stronger. He chose a melee battle was out of caution.
It was to avoid showing his hand.
Evileye knew over 100 magic spells, and had countless she could release at close range. However, the experienced her realised something. That she could not beat him with her magic here.
The image of an attacking giant dragon. The feeling of something far more powerful than that stabbed into her.
""
Since Demiurge was put on guard by an unknown magic, he killed some of his force and whacked her with the intention of seeing what would happen.
The shield he was expecting failed to materialise, and his fist pierced into Evileye's small stomach.
"…. Oh?"
Demiurge felt his fist hit something soft, like a thick futon.
As a counterattack, Evileye punched Demiurge with her fist, but she could not penetrate Demiurge's magical defenses. Demiurge's body had the property of reducing damage as long as it was not holy.
"Shit!"
While holding his fist, Demiurge chose not to attack Evileye as he had felt caution about the unknown magic.
The two made some distance. It was what Evileye hoped for.
"Regret the fact that you did not chase after me!" Evileye fed her magic power into the lightning dragon in her hand. "Eat this! !"
The lightning attack was more powerful than normal, and the dragon rammed into Demiurge. His black robes were painted white by the lightning.
She had no confidence of defeating him, but she should be able to cause quite some damage.
Evileye released her most powerful magic for that reason.
Demiurge slightly tilted his head at the approaching lightning. He made no attempt to block. And the moment that the lightning swallowed him— It dispersed into the surroundings.
Silence and darkness returned to the surroundings, making it seem like the earlier white light was a lie.
—Unharmed.
There was not even a speck of ash on his suit.
Seeing that, Evileye's face under her mask crumbled.
"What are you!"
She shouted. Various emotions were contained inside her voice.
"I have not met anyone who can be unharmed from my magic! Even high-ranked dragons…. And the Demon Gods! What are you!"
"That's a nice voice."
His quiet voice rode on the wind. In that voice was an emotion that one did not show to an enemy.
"…. What?"
"Just what expression do you have on your face? Just imagining it makes me excited."
Evileye had chills run down her spine. She knew several strange people. However, all of them were weaker than her. She never felt panicked.
Just that the existence in front of her was really bad.
There were monsters that lightning damage was not effective on— those with lightning resistance— but this was a different reaction.
The next thing she thought was an ability to invalidate all magic. However, that was difficult without an overwhelming difference in power between the two sides. If it were magic invalidation, it meant that the one in front of her was far far more powerful than she was.
"However, it is a pity that I cannot play with you."
Demiurge's change caused shivers to run down Evileye's spine.
If he were to be serious—
She stood at the pinnacle of this world. The seriousness of someone who could outclass her. That meant— Evileye frantically searched for a method to survive. All while quivering in fear that she had never felt in her 100 years.
However, before Evileye could do anything, Demiurge's magic activated.
" (Iitoandaidi)"
However before Demiurge could release his magic, his target disappeared.
"What?"
Demiurge's face moved and he gazed at the rotting roof of a house ten metres away.
There was Evileye. Along with another person.
It was a woman bundled in black. She was hugging Evileye from behind.
"Sniff sniff, nice smell." (TL Note: If anyone has a better translation, please tell. くんかくんか、よいにほい)
"This is not the time to play, you idiot!"
Evileye screamed at Tina who had no panic in her voice and was instead rubbing her face on her comrade.
Tina sharply felt the meaning in those words, and while she had no change in expression, the colour in her eyes became stronger.
"A strong enemy?"
"The scale is different! My magic is useless on him, and his physical abilities outshine mine by a huge margin! He is at least more powerful than A+ Adventurers, and is probably Hero Class!"
"That's ba…."
In simple metrics, Evileye's physical abilities outclassed those of the warrior of [Blue Rose], Gagaran. It was true that in a battle, Gagaran would be the victor due to her experience, skills and weapons. However, Evileye was a magic caster. Thinking of that, her battle ability was on another level.
And this was someone who caused her to say that he was out of her league. Just how powerful was he?
Those words were enough to change Tina's focus.
"Run! We can't win without everyone!"
"Understood. Dickhead."
One of Tina's bad habits, her jeering, leaked out.
He did not specifically react to her jeering, but Demiurge's eyes rumbled and changed into a cracked gold.
Demiurge had a class called [Gazer].
It was a class that only those with a special gaze ability could gain. While this class could learn multiple sight-based abilities, it's innate ability was only one— Petrification.
Sight attacks count cause various effects even without meeting their eyes. The cons were that its range was short, but the pros were that they could target multiple people in view. In the game of Yggdrasil, there would be terrible looking effects occurring within the effect range, but nothing like that occured in this world.
If they failed to resist, they would be turned to stone. Such a powerful gaze was turned towards them.
However, before that—
"Daibakufu no Jutsu (Great Waterfall Jutsu)!"
With the sound of her voice, a wall of water rose up from beneath Tina and Evileye, covering them. It occured on a roof. It was not natural.
The water drew a dome and surrounded the two of them.
It blew upwards, like a waterfall. The froth created hid the figures of the two inside, blurring them.
Now the effect of his gaze would weaken.
"—Ninjutsu? Then she is a Shinobi?"
Shinobi was a class that required one to have many assassin related theif skills, and that they had to be over level 60. There were Kashin Koji (TL: Look up Narutopedia trivia section) who gained more ninjutsu in exchange for losing close combat abilities, and their counterparts the Hanzou who were proficient in hand to hand combat.
They were weaker than warriors of the same level. But they were not people who Demiurge could fight with ease in close range.
"…. She does not seem that strong though…."
Her body was covered in weapons and defensive gear. Demiurge thought that they were magic items, but he felt no sense of danger from them.
However, underestimation was a problem. He should at least increase his physical abilities.
Demiurge's body protruded from beneath his clothes.
[Demonic Essence] was a tool in a devil's belt. It greatly increased one's physical abilities. It was a method to temporarily increase one's muscle strength. He intended to break through the Daibakufu no Jutsu (Great Waterfall Jutsu)
Shalltear was a priest-type, Aura was a Beast Tamer-type based on a druid and Cocytus was a warrior-type. Demiurge also had a certain type of his.
It would be fine to call it the monster-type.
A gaze attack, a blaze, monster summoning, curses, an ability to give bad statuses like poison or illness. He was made of classes that could provide such abilities.
The earlier Gazer and Demonic Essence was a part of that.
Demiurge had strengthened his body and jumped. However, as if waiting for that, the voice of a woman on the other side of the waterfall could be heard.
"—Fudou Kongou no Jutsu (Unmoving Varja Jutsu)"
The shine of the waterfall, the reflecting light from the dispersing water, changed. It became the glisten of metal. The flow of the waterfall stopped, and changed into a large lump of hard precious stones.
"!"
Demiurge stopped his fist and looked at the two blur figures he could barely see inside the giant lump.
The types of ninjutsu was limited, and in place of Tiers, the effects changed depending on the amount of MP used. Another way to say this was a Tier 1 Fudou Kongou no Jutsu, a Tier 2 Fudou Kongou no Jutsu, a Tier 3 Fudou Kongou no Jutsu…. And high level ninjutsu that had consumed a lot of MP was quite powerful. Their effects were more powerful than Tier 10 magic.
The dangerous thing was what level of magic this rivaled. The outside was the same so he could not tell.
Fudou Kongou no Jutsu (Unmoving Varja Jutsu) would create a shield that could defend well against physical attacks. It was weak to magic attacks. However, Demiurge did not have many magic spells and could not break it, and he could not give the opponents time.
Should he fight flashily? Demiurge pondered.
For an example of Demiurge's strong attack options, he had a lot of AoE attacks. [Organ Incinerator (Lit: An incinerator fed by internal organs)] [Dawn of the Morning Star], [The Fire and Sulphur of Sodom] would be his main choices.
However, that was too flashy. If a pillar of light fell from the sky, it would be too eye-catching. Yes. Far more than a certain broken door.
Now, what to do?
While thinking that, Demiurge lightly hit the shield of diamond. He clicked his tongue. This was as he realised that he was tricked.
He hit it lightly— At that moment, everything crumbled.
The countless fragments of crystals danced into the air, but they did not remain on the ground. Inside the broken shield were two humans. No, two human-like things.
They were clothes stuffed with something. And they were standing in a human fashion.
"….Shunjutsu (Escape Jutsu)"
It was a ninjutsu that, for the price of losing their armour, allowed one to teleport to a substitute. Since there were many people who would prefer dying over losing their armour, in Yggdrasil, it was a dead ninjutsu.
However, it was effective in this case.
"So they escaped."
He could summon a demon to chase after them. He could apologise to his master and sent for reinforcements. Several ideas appeared in Demiurge's head, but he threw away all of them.
It would not be a problem for them to escape. It would be dangerous if Demiurge's true from were revealed, but it was only a problem in that a battle occured on the rooftops. He did not recalled leaking any sensitive information.
Then this was far from being a life threatening problem.
And—
Demiurge opened the scroll he was given. The magic written on it was .
"I have to apologise to Sebas. We should retreat immediately. Even if there are others we should save."
Below Demiurge's mask, was a small smile.
"Evileye, are you okay?"
"Ah…. I showed you something unsightly."
Reacting to her leader's, Lakyus', words, Evileye began to slowly stand up, wobbly.
Since Tina brought her here, she had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. The reason was mental fatigue. It was impossible for Evileye to feel mental fatigue, but she had parts similar to humans. That was why it was significant.
"No, I don't mind. Anyone would have crumbled in fear."
"Rather, it would be bad to not go right?"
The place where they were going should have one man. However, Evileye stopped them.
"We should stop. If we go we die."
"We can't win with everyone?"
Evileye froze and looked at Tina.
"Impossible. He is stronger than me."
"Stronger than you…. That's…."
Everyone in [Blue Rose] was at a loss for words. They had not heard of an existence that could defeat Evileye.
Evileye alone could wipe out the current members of [Blue Rose]. This was the natural reaction of hearing of someone that was more powerful than her.
"Even if all the members who fought me were here and I joined, it would be difficult to defeat him."
"Even with Baa-chan?"
Gagaran immediately stood up and scratched her head.
She was not here currently, but she was the strongest person in [Blue Rose] excluding Evileye. Even if she joined they may not win. Such a nuance was created.
"….What do you think he is?"
"The guy's true form? …. He is far stronger than a high ranked dragon in human form. Anything else, I don't know."
"Why is such an existence here?"
"Would I know?"
"That's bad, if he died, Climb…. Still a virgin."
"….He said he came to save people so he might be alive."
"His objective is unclear…. But it does not fit his image…."
All the members of [Blue Rose] shook their heads. Why was this ridiculous existence inside a human city? The image did not match, and was extremely irregular.
"Sorry. I removed the possibility for dialogue."
"Well, that's a big miss."
Pierced by Tia's response, Evileye raised a groan.
Evileye's actions were due to her arrogance as the strongest. She should have acted smartly and passed the baton to either Tina or Tia to find out who he was.
"Well it can't be helped. We don't know how the dialogue would go, so if you lower your head we will forgive you. If we had the money we could have gotten that girl out. The problem is—"
"I have not heard of anyone stronger than Evileye."
"People at the level of a legend might exist."
"If he is not a legend but was hiding in the world, I want to know the reason he moved."
They could not believe that an existence stronger than Evileye really came to save humans. They could understand if there was a deeper reason.
"Is he a Demon God?"
"….If he's a Demon God, we can still win."
The 13 Heroes had fought the Demon Gods. And they could win. Lakyus made a wry smile as she realised that mysterious existence was far more powerful than such a Demon God.
A person who was stronger than one that could destroy countries and caused suffering to many. Such an existence was moving about in the dark.
If he did not have any hostility then it would be fine. But if he did?
"….Isn't he a danger to the world."
"That's bad."
Tina reached the same conclusion and whispered. Everyone else also reached it and sighed with disheartened faces.