None of the members present were usually talkative but at this moment they could do little but try to collect their thoughts as best they could. Only one of their members could muster up the courage to speak as little as these few words.
"Ainz Ooal Gown. Truly powerful…"
The only one who spoke up was a youthful man no older than twenty wearing a blood-red robe with a strange bone necklace that made a clattering sound whenever he moved. He stood up and continued to look at the image that was being displayed
In the center of the room stood a golden basin with strange ancient markings etched into the side that glowed with an occasional glimmer of red light. This was an ancient item known as a Blood Pool that worked following the wild magic system and consumed many hundreds of liters of blood in order to work. Even Zuranon, to whom it was a small feat to make people disappear off the face of the earth, did not dare to use this item carelessly as the amount of people that had been sacrificed for it to work today was enormous to say the least.
In exchange this blood pool provided them with a vision spell that could not be detected nor blocked by anti-detection magic from the ten tier system. The fact that the Sorcerer King had not noticed their spying proved that even he did not possess a counter against it. They had gambled that today Ainz Ooal Gown would show up and attack the capital and to their great delight he had and displayed not only his own power, but the power of his subordinates as well.
"To think that he was this strong!"
The one who spoke was the youngest member of the council and one of the three mages. His age was extremely misleading, however, as his talent for necromancy outstripped what the other two mages were capable of at that age by a large margin. He was said to be a likely future successor of the leader's will and a person capable of even surpassing him.
"Whatever do you mean, Heckar-san? Today we didn't even get to witness the power of the magic caster, instead all we saw was how his two subordinates eviscerated the Black Scripture as if they were fighting children."
The one who addressed the youngest member of the council was a scholarly old man wearing a pale white mask over his face. This man was one of the few humans who had an expertise of ancient or wild magic and had once lost a considerable portion of his facial skin when dabbling in these old arts as a price for this dangerous research, which had left scars that could not be healed even by divine magic casters. He was not the most hideous member of the council but preferred to wear this mask to not accidentally have to look at his own horrendous appearance.
Although he still had trouble finding the right words it would be a little embarrassing if only the youngsters could find the courage to speak at such moments.
"Regis-san, even you can surely see that if his subordinates are this strong that one can only imagine how strong the master is. We already know how powerful Ainz Ooal Gown is after learning about the events on Katze Plains, but now we know that even his subordinates completely leave the elite of the human world in the dust."
Regis closed the eyes behind his mask as he contemplated what the best course of action would be.
"While it is true that this Ainz Ooal Gown is powerful, extremely powerful even, he's still an undead; if we take into account the immense hatred that undead creatures usually have for the living we can accurately predict his next moves. Controlling him to a certain extent or even using his name to gain strength may not be out of the question."
Heckar frowned upon the statement of his colleague as he expected a man who gave off such an academic aura to have a bit more common sense.
"That's too careless, Regis-san! That lich has demonstrated a power that far surpasses what human sorcerers are capable of. To speak of matters like using his name for our cause or manipulating his actions, aren't you being too naïve?!"
"If we're measuring strength of liches than please don't forget who we have as our leader. While we may lose in destructive power there's no way that Ainz Ooal Gown is more cunning than-"
"Silence!"
With a voice that carried a deep dark chill, the two executives were silenced immediately by the only one of the twelve figures that still had not removed the cowl of his robe from his head. From beneath it glowed two dark red eyes that stared at the other executives with malice that would make even the bravest warriors shudder.
Unrazon, also known as the calamity of Arautum city. This being was the de-facto leader of Zuranon and one of the human world's elite magic casters. He had been the first human ever to voluntarily ascend to an elder lich. He had succeeded in what Khajiit Dale Badantel had attempted to copy in E-Rantel and slaughtered an entire city in order to harvest a large amount of negative energy that he used for his transformation. Now he was immune to the passing of time and had used his immortality to research all kinds of forbidden and dangerous magic all in order to pursue his dream of gifting all of humanity with the blessing of being undead.
On top of being capable of performing magic up to the fifth tier he also had a more extensive grasp of necromancy and the undead than probably any mortal, even more than the famous necromancer Rigrit Bers who was once one of the thirteen heroes.
"This undead is not so weak that we can call him an elder lich. Even though I still can't get a full grasp on his power I can feel a presence far surpassing my own. The only fitting title for this being is truly 'God of Death'."
The other executives gulped as they heard this, their master who could be called one of the strongest undead in existence called his own rank weak compared to that of Ainz. The fear that they felt for this creature became greater and greater every second.
"Whatever the case may be, what will we do now, ascended one? This sorcerer already demonstrated that he himself possesses incredible magic power, but now he didn't even need to use it. Instead his subordinates simply crushed a foe that the former executive Clementine said we would need to use our full force against in order to stand a chance."
Unrazon looked towards one the corners of the room, and there he saw a figure standing motionlessly and in a slightly crooked manner. A sorry sight considering that this person was once one of the strongest human warriors and an executive on this very council. The Former ninth seat and hero level warrior Clementine was lifelessly standing in the room.
After the events in E-Rantel where two adventurers had magnificently thwarted the plans of one of Unrazon's twelve disciples', Zuranon had invested a considerable amount of effort to retrieve the two corpses for questioning and revival.
To their great dismay, the corpse of Khajiit, who looking from a rational perspective was much more valuable to Zuranon, was damaged too severely to even attempt a resurrection. The only choice was to resurrect Clementine who - although proved valuable with a mountain of intel that was provided by her about the inner workings of not just the Slane Theocracy but also the Baharuth Empire, Re-Estize kingdom, Draconic Kingdom and even the reclusive Aggrand Council Alliance - was an enormous pain for Zuranon to properly keep in check.
What's more was that one could but imagine how horrible a death she died as not only was her body badly damaged, but her soul refused to be resurrected as if afraid to return to the same plain of existence as the one who killed her. Considering her personality it was frightening to think who could instill that kind of fear into her soul all the way to the afterlife. The organization thus decided to use a special spell on her corpse that brought only the body and mind back to life, without the soul. It was a forbidden spell that bordered between necromancy and divine magic. Although her speech was blurred and incomplete they were able to make out quite a bit through her fractured babbling. One word in particular came back dozens of times. Skeleton.