"No matter what the setup was, if your opponent was a player or players from YGGDRASIL then it wouldn't have ended with you being left alone in that place in your neutral state. Thus a picture forms of someone who's only hope of beating you was using their world item to mind control you, however you managed to wound or kill the one using the world item before the control was complete and forced them to flee while leaving you in that state."
"It is as you say Ainz-sama."
"Well then, there remains only one question that I'd like to ask you Demiurge. Why the Slane Theocracy?"
"About that Ainz-sama, considering that we know for sure that the empire does not possess such power nor the kingdom, geographically the Theocracy is the obvious next suspect."
"Hmm… that definitely makes sense, with the kingdom and the empire out of the picture the only other nation close to us would definitely be the Slane Theocracy.
"Also as I said earlier, thanks to the empire's intelligence network I was able to find out much about the Theocracy's inner workings. Amongst those was a report that they have under their control a special unit like the one Ainz-sama fought in the human village, with the main difference being that this unit possesses items that were reported as 'not of this world'.
Ainz could not help but let out a soft 'aah' sound as the pieces of the puzzle were coming together quite nicely.
"So then let's assume that this unit like the ones we encountered at Carne Village were out on a mission and came across Shalltear. After witnessing how strong she is they resorted to using a world item. However Shalltear sensed the danger and struck a blow against the one using the item, thus causing a draw due to killing or wounding the user."
"Indeed Ainz-sama that is my theory as well, however it is impossible to say if it's really them who are responsible for the incident. But I believe that at this point it is our best lead."
"Hmm, you're right Demiurge, it is definitely worth checking out. Eventually we would become their enemy's anyway seeing as they despise non-human races."
"Ainz-sama please send me to dispose of those lesser beings! If they really were the ones responsible for my blunder then I should be the one to handle them! I will turn them into zombies and have them kill their own loved ones and family to see how they like it. Or should I maybe do the reverse and force them to kill or be killed by their zombified loved ones."
Shalltear was visibly shaking with both excitement and anger as she could feel the opportunity to relish exacting her revenge against the ones who caused her to rebel. Ainz could not begin to imagine what other horrors she would subject them to if they could be captured alive.
Somehow I doubt that they will allow their capture though, well if necessary we could revive them and then kill them again after torture.
Ainz had completely forgone any notion of sparing the lives of the ones responsible for making him kill Shalltear. If they really could be captured alive he would just say "go wild" to Shalltear and leave it at that.
"No Shalltear, if we manage to lure them into a trap I can promise you that I'll let you have your revenge but until then I'll have you stay in Nazarick."
"I understand Ainz-sama, please forgive my uncalled for outburst just now."
Shalltear bowed her head returned to her calm and composed state, but Ainz could still feel that she was revved up and rearing to go.
"Well then Ainz-sama if u permit me to strategize I will come up with a plan to destroy these foolish humans and clear away Shalltear's no Nazarick's shame."
To this Statement Ainz appeared to give off a broad smile as he responded to Demiurge's request.
"No need to uphold the façade Demiurge, I know full well that you already started formulating a plan the moment that u figured this out."
Demiurge smiled brightly with an evil grimace, displaying his true nature he answered his lord.
"As expected from my lord, there is nothing this one can hide from you. Well then if u will allow me to make a suggestion, I recommend we use that hairy old sheepdog u picked up recently as bait."
"Sheepdog?
Ainz Pondered for a second who Demiurge meant.
Aah you mean him. You're right if it's him he should definitely be able to lure out the any strong ones within the Theocracy.
"Now the next question is what we do with them after we lure them out. Even if they are weak they still possess at least one World Item. Even though we have armed the floor guardians with World items we have no way of safely confirming if they still deter the effects of other world class items."
"About that Ainz-sama, how about we transport them into my guardian's arena?"
Ainz thought about what Shalltear said for a second and then firmly answered.
"Rejected, if we lose control of a guardian there we will have no way of bringing them back or even killing them."
A guardian's arena referred to the part of Nazarick where the floor guardians would fight with any invaders that came into Nazarick if they were of a high enough caliber. Inside their arena a floor guardian was nigh invincible when compared to outside of their arena. With the exception of Victim whose arena didn't strengthen him so much as the other fellows on his floor, a floor guardian inside his arena could easily take on 20 level 100 players and had the strength of a semi raid-boss.
In Shalltear's case she would face them inside the 'Blood fest Ballroom', where all players would continually be drained off their health whilst fighting her and her high-level undead minions. This along with her Spuit Lance and the fact that she could consume one of her six vampire brides' blood to restore her health completely made it possible to out-sustain even the strongest parties.
In Demiurge's case his 'Devil's Lobby' had a very nasty mechanism where the floor was actually the mouth of an enormous demon. Every two minutes there would be a magic activation that disabled all forms of flying and levitation for all creatures except for demonic creatures. If the curse was not dispelled within ten seconds the floor would open and the players would fall into the mouth where repeated instant-death magic was cast on them till they perished. Combine this with the barrage of AOE lava attacks and constant assault from flying demons and you had a veritable raid nightmare.
Ainz smiled as he reminisced about how much fun Peroronchino-san and Ulbert Alain Odle-san seemed to have as they were developing these mechanics back in the day.
Weren't those two being a little bit too sadistic with their arenas? Then again I did setup the Avatars in the Treasure room to attack anyone with the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown so I can't judge too much.
The reason that Ainz wished to avoid making the guardians arenas the battleground for defeating this enemy was twofold. First off there was a considerable amount of money that needed to be paid to activate an arena. In the old days it would have been an insignificant amount but now it was too much to use carelessly.
Secondly, though in YGGDRASIL you couldn't affect a floor guardian with a World Item whilst they are inside their arena, with the exception of world items like World Savior which did direct damage instead of effects− this was to prevent guilds constantly destroying each other's bases using just one world class item. But here in this new world there was no guarantee that the rule still applied. Which meant that if a guardian could be mind-controlled inside of their own arena, then Nazarick would have no way to stop them− since they did not possess enough level 100 members to take on a guardian inside of their arena without the use of another world item and even then it was risky.
"Looks like no matter what I'll have to wrap my hand in cloth and stick it in the flame to see if it catches fire. Well we'll have to burn that bridge when we get to it. For now let's focus on getting the proper Intel first. To charge at an enemy without clear understanding of their capabilities is just foolish."