A second explosion became audible as it vibrated through the sanctum, closer than the first time and even distant cries of soldiers began to echo through the halls of the sanctum as one could but imagine what horrors they faced.
"Could it be they're headed straight for us? Did someone betray us or can they sense the power of the holy relics? Tch, anyways, Zesshi, I'm leaving it to you!"
Shouting these words, Archon ran past Zesshi in the direction of the treasury earning a respectful glance by Zesshi who admired her usually timid and annoyed superior for finally stepping up to the plate and acting as someone in his position should. It seemed that crises truly did give birth to amazing people who just needed a push to blossom.
Whilst thinking this, Zesshi showed an almost unnoticeable smile as a thought ran through her head.
If we meet again in the next life or the afterlife, I may treat you a little bit more respectfully, Archon-san.
Treating this as her last casual thought, she steeled herself as she could feel the malice of perhaps her last opponent drawing in on her.
The rumbling was getting closer as the various screams from the paladins behind the door died down completely. There could be no doubt that all of those poor souls had already been dealt with. Zesshi, however, didn't even have time to think of them as she felt a monstrous power get closer and closer to the door, like a wild beast approaching her in the forest that was looking for prey.
For many years, she had not felt this thrill anymore, the thrill of being frightened just before a life-threatening battle, now in the short span of a few months she had already felt it twice: once in the battle against that strange werewolf and now as whatever monster drew near her.
The rumbling died down just as it approached the large steel door. Evidently, whatever was on the other side was probably preparing to blow down the door or was figuring out how to open it. Hopefully it was the former as Zesshi didn't think that they would be able to get through without brute force and having to bear with the suspense was far more difficult for her than actually fighting.
Zesshi licked her lips as she felt cold sweat running down her back. She didn't know what kind of foe was about to appear before her, but in the face of finally facing a worthy opponent who could make her go all-out, she could not help but rejoice.
Hopefully it's something not only strong but also intelligent. Fighting another beast like that werewolf that has only brute force and no tactics would be too boring. Maybe that sorcerer brought a dragon along with him, I've always wanted to fight one of those. Please, God of Death, grant my one and final wish. If this is going to be my last fight, I want to be killed by a powerful dragon.
Not a second later as that thought had gone through her head, a powerful blast rang out on the other side of the door as the entire structure with hinges and all was blown back all the way to the back of the corridor.
Zesshi stared in awe as even she didn't possess the destructive strength to break down a steel door as solid as that in one blow. That door had been reinforced with powerful seals and spells to ward it not only from magic but powerful brute force as well. An army could bash it with battering rams for days and it wouldn't be dented. Even the strength of the blowback was so strong that had Zesshi been standing in its path when it was sent flying, she would have been hard-pressed to dodge.
The blast had caused the stone wall surrounding the door to be damaged quite a bit as a lot of rubble and dust had created a thick dust cloud that made it impossible to see who had destroyed the door. Zesshi hoped that any second now a ferocious beast would emerge from out of the cloud and her final fight could commence.
Soft footsteps became audible as a figure emerged from the cloud wearing a calm expression on his face.
The one who appeared before Zesshi was not a monster or even a wild beast, but a human looking person wearing formal attire with a straight posture that reminded one of a butler for high ranking nobles; even his face gave off a dignified aura of someone who would not look out of place at a high society ball or at the side of royalty.
"Forgive the rude intrusion, but we were unable to find the key to the door."
"What the…? Where the hell is my dragon?!"
Part 2
The inner sanctum was usually a place of silent worship and responsible but also secretive conduct. The place was practically a giant hidden temple beneath the capital, with its corridors and halls encompassing most of the capital's underground. A veritable maze that secretly linked the six great cathedrals placed throughout the capital with pathways that even the paladins and workers* that guarded and maintained it could easily get lost in without a map or thorough knowledge of its inner structure.
Now, this place had become noisy as voices echoed throughout most of the sanctum while men were dispatched left and right to deal with the situation above ground. The wraiths that Ainz had summoned were still flying above the city as they kept endlessly repeating the same phrase over and over.
The entire populace was naturally still in chaos, their entire lives they had been praying faithfully, making sacrifices and donations to their respective churches; they had said the words and lived by their codes only to be threatened with destruction by a creature who actually had proven that he possessed godlike powers.
Knights and priests all over the city were scrambling to regain control over the capital that had fallen into chaos. Despite that, security in the inner sanctum had not decreased, quite the opposite.
The inner sanctum contained three vaults that the paladin guardians had to protect with their life: one was the treasury where the weapons of the Six Gods were kept; the second vault contained the secret transcripts of the Slane Theocracy, some of which were said to have been written by the Six Great Gods themselves; and the third vault contained confiscated relics of darker times, things that the Theocracy couldn't destroy or was too afraid to disturb, they locked away inside that vault. Of those, it was rumored that whoever entered had to swear a magic pledge that forbade them from speaking about its contents. But still, there were rumors that inside that vault were relics from the time before the Thirteen Heroes defeated the Demon Gods, the so called Age of Calamity.
Now that the capital was under threat, all of the capital's elite of the elite rushed towards their respective posts as their first and foremost duty was to protect these relics with their lives. Even so, none would think that the enemy would make it to the inner sanctum any time soon. After all, the entrances to the inner sanctum were carefully concealed and would be hard to locate even if one were to burn down the entire capital.
Considering this, it was all the more surprising when in one of the large halls where lots of guards and paladins gathered to prepare to move out to the surface and destroy the annoying wraiths that had been terrorizing the citizens when suddenly…
"So this is their hidden base? It's quite a poorly lit and grim place for a nation that claims to be protected by the light of their gods or whatever."
A cold voice rang out through the hall as all the soldiers stared in shock at a veritable black gap in space that had appeared out of nowhere as four peculiar and yet clearly menacing figures appeared from it.
"It is as you say, Ainz-sama, these lower life forms are clearly closer to worms than intelligent beings if they choose to hide in a dark underground place like this. Although we also have our base underground, it would be quite foolish to say that Nazarick is anything like this rat-infested cave."