Ensem only needed to time the moment of his strike with the moment his time spell wore off. With so much practice he could get the timing right in his sleep and for the last five years it had never been off. The fate of his opponent was as good as sealed; he would aim the strike at his eyes and pierce his lance all the way through to the brain. No matter the creature, without a brain they would perish.
"Ten seconds left till you die, you insect!"
Now with only five seconds, Ensem stepped in even closer. In a moment he would go in and strike. T the lance would be on target and the enemy's brains would be cooked and he never would have understood how he died.
"Hmm?"
As he stepped to about one meter away from Cocytus, Ensem suddenly felt it. Something strange was in the air around him.
Even though it should be impossible for anything else to move around in this world he felt like some strange force had stirred.
Before he could realize what it was a flash of white immersed him.
The whole world had turned white in his eyes as he felt like an avalanche had hit him in the face.
This was the last light that he would see in his life…
As the time stop ability wore off the world returned to normal again. The Black Scripture focused their eyes as they expected to see Ensem standing over the corpse of Cocytus but the real spectacle was even more dazzling.
Cocytus was standing, completely unharmed he was still in the same spot and seemed to not have done anything.
In front of him however stood a strange figure. It appeared only as big as a human child. It took the Black Scripture a moment to figure out what it was.
Without having the faintest clue what happened they saw how the Second Seat of the Black Scripture…
Had been turned into an ice statue.
An ice figure in the exact shape of Ensem was standing in a fighting pose with its spear raised and ready to strike. Seeing this scene Ainz could not help but laugh.
"Hahaha, and where is this amazing sight that you promised me, young warrior of the Slane Theocracy? All I see is an idiot that thought that my subordinates do not have a counter against time-stop abilities. Such foolishness! He ought to be punished for his arrogance!"
Sebas assumed that the remark was aimed at him and responded to his master. Although Ainz had no face to speak of his subordinates had learned to tell who he was 'looking at'.
"Indeed, it is as you say Ainz-sama! The sin for letting down a Supreme Being is a heavy one and must be redeemed in full. I will see that Shalltear deals with this one extra harshly."
In YGGDRASIL, the ability to stop time was highly coveted by most magic casters, but was increasingly ignored by warriors. Most of the countermeasures against time-stop were range based and only activated once the opponent that had cast time-stop got into a certain range of them. This was why Ainz, a magic caster, had so many advantages as he could simply chant spells from a distance, but this in turn required a much higher level of skill that only top-tier players could pull off.
Though the ways that different guardians protected themselves from time-stop was unique from guardian to guardian, it was impossible for someone to get close to them no matter which guardian they approached. In the case of Cocytus, any warrior that dared to approach him would be frozen instantly.
This was what had happened to Ensem and the fool had never known what hit him.
Looking at the second strongest member of their unit turned into winter art, the Black Scripture felt like they could just vomit. Ensem wasn't the physically strongest, but his ability to manipulate time could be the death of anyone other than another member of the scripture.
Without equipment like theirs that could dispel the time stop ability once Ensem got too close to them, one would be finished.
The reason he wasn't the captain was because he wasn't an awakened God-Kin like Sylvan and he was a bit too arrogant.
Cocytus watched as Mare dragged Ensem out of the way and began to approach the other members of the scripture once again. Although there were still plenty left to fight, he was worried that more of them would do something stupid and attack Ainz or Mare so he would have less chances to show his might.
Bahmeth smiled as he watched the steadily approaching figure of Cocytus drawing ever closer. Just from a glance he could feel the mountain of pure warrior prowess just oozing out of him.
"Palyntana, can you tell how strong this guy is? He looks like he could put up a fight!"
Palyntana frowned as she had been continuously trying to do just that with the power of her crystal divination orb. But no matter whether it was Cocytus, Ainz or even the elf girl the result was the same.
"I can't figure it out. Something is constantly jamming my magic. But I can still feel an unimaginable pressure from them! Don't underestimate him at any cost!"
Bahmeth smiled with anticipation as he untied the giant battle axe strapped behind his back. This weapon that was left by the gods was one that only he could wield. It was no wonder that simply going by physical strength he was the strongest human in the group, not counting Sylvan and Zesshi who could hardly be called human.
"Captain-san, I'm going to take that thing on. You stay behind and make your decisions based on you're the outcome!"
Sylvan looked at Bahmeth in astonishment. Although going out one at a time could potentially buy them more time for Kaire to charge her item, to take on an opponent that Ainz Ooal Gown had sent out to fight all of them by himself would surely spell doom.
"Don't worry captain I'll back him up."
From behind Sylvan the divine chain Beaumarchais raised his hand as he walked forward.
Seeing the arrogant look of his comrade, Bahmeth frowned as he never really got along with this fellow. One reason would be because he was seated higher than Bahmeth himself. The Black Scripture members were ranked not simply by strength but by what level of opponents they could defeat or how useful they were or whether they would be able to best the members ranked lower than them.
"Oi, Edgar! Don't think that you can just butt in with my man to man duel and expect me to quietly agree! This is my fight. Have you forgotten what happened last time you tried to bite off more than you can chew?"
Beaumarchais twitched a bit as he remembered how that mysterious vampire broke the hold of his chain and lopped his head off with just one strike. If not for resurrection magic that would have been the end of him.
"Bahmeth-san, that thing can hardly be called a man, and besides, we have good synergy. Your attacks are frightening to be sure, but if the opponent dodges then you're the one who's in trouble. I'll hold that thing in its place and you finish it off."
Although Bahmeth still felt frustrated that he had to pair up with this arrogant fool he still had to agree that Beaumarchais was right. If his chain would keep the foe in his place and prevent him from dodging then victory was all but assured. Aside from Zesshi, even Sylvan would have to dodge a full strength attack from Bahmeth's axe.
"Can't be helped! Let's go!"
Beaumarchais and Bahmeth stepped out as they went out to meet with Cocytus who was now barely fifty meters away from them. Seeing that his first opponents had stepped up he halted as he too would rather draw out the fight than finish them all at once.
"Come, insectoid! We'll be your opponents!"
Beaumarchais gripped the chain strapped to his waist as it began to glow with a white holy gleam.
His chain, unlike his armor, was not an item that was left behind by the Six Great Gods. This was a specially manufactured weapon from the Slane Theocracy. Through simple thought controls it could float, extend constrict, and even burn any enemy. It was embedded with a strong holy energy that drained anyone who was wrapped by it but required a significant level of skill to master. Besides Beaumarchais, who had a very pliable and relaxed mind, it could not be completely controlled by anyone else.