“Gazef! Have you completely given up on winning?!”
“Brain! Don’t say such shameful things! The Sorcerer King is not that kind of man.”
Ainz held the sword and cast a spell. After that, he laughed.
“Well, this sword is quite impressive.”
Ainz returned the sword to Gazef hilt-first, the same way it had been given to him.
“Stronoff-dono. Do you have any idea of this sword’s power?”
“I fully understand it. This sword has an unreal sharpness that can cut metal like paper.”
“What a shame. That’s only a part of the sword’s power.”
“—What? What does that mean, Sorcerer King-dono?”
“Well, in short, this sword is a weapon that can kill me. Something like that is the absolute minimum condition for a solo PVP duel. Without a weapon that can harm me, this would be nothing more than an execution.
Sorry for comparing you to the rats that entered my fortress,” Ainz muttered as he suddenly produced a shortsword out of nowhere.
Without hesitation, he dragged the edge of that magnificent blade across his face in a forceful slice.
It did not leave so much as a scratch.
“Weakly enchanted objects like this cannot harm this body of mine. For reference, this shortsword is imbued with about as much data — or rather, as much mana— as that sword you bear, Stronoff-dono. However, your sword can harm me, in clear defiance of what I know to be true. Could I request that sword as a trophy after I win?”
Gazef smiled thinly.
“Forgive me for refusing, but this sword is a national treasure.”
“Mm. No-loot PVP, then? Very well. I will honor that request.”
“My deepest thanks, Sorcerer King-dono.”
After returning the sword to Gazef, Ainz stroked his chin in thought. He backed up, one step at a time, as though conforming to some regulated distance between them.
“I think this should be about five meters. And… because there’s no countdown, we will need a signal. You, in the white armor. Find something to start us off.”
Having been suddenly named, Climb shuddered.
“Climb, please.”
“Then, then I have a magical handbell here. I’ll ring it, and it will signal the start.”
The two of them nodded silently to Climb’s proposal.
Gazef raised his sword, pointing it at his enemy’s eyes. Strength suffused every fiber of his being. in the eyes of Climb who stood behind him, Gazef’s body seemed to grow larger before his eyes.
This was an overwhelming sword aura. He had never seen the true pressure the Kingdom’s Warrior-Captain could exert. Yet, his body seemed distant and illusory, like a mirage.
“Stronoff-sama…”
This was the last time he would see Gazef alive.
“It’s not guaranteed.”
“—Eh?”
Suddenly, Brain issued a denial to Climb from where he was standing, by his side.
“There’s no guarantee Gazef will lose. The chances are extremely low, but there’s still a chance of victory. That guy has a killer move, you know? The martial art he uses as a trump card?”
“The ‘Sixfold Slash of Light’?”
Brain smiled calmly.
“No. It’s an ultimate martial art that far surpasses it. That fellow learned it.”
“What, what is that?!”
As Climb prepared his bell, he looked to the raised sword, and to Gazef’s face, filled with his laser-like focus.
The steely face of the man hailed as the Warrior-Captain, by all the surrounding countries.
“Ah. It came from a former adamantite-ranked adventurer of the Kingdom. It was a martial art invented by Vestia Croft Di Lofan, but he could not use it because of his advanced age. If my greatest secret move, the ‘Nail Clipper’ is the result of using multiple martial arts at once, Gazef’s killer trump is the strongest single technique. Who knows, that blow… it might even be able to reach Ainz Ooal Gown.”
Perhaps that was why he had asked for a one-on-one duel, Brain said while his eyes did not leave the scene before him.
Climb swallowed. The hand holding the bell felt heavy. Once he rang it, Gazef’s fate would be sealed.
“Want to swap with me?”
“…Thank you. But… I’ll do it.”
What, Brain mumbled, but he did not say anything else.
Climb raised the bell. He could only pray that victory went to Gazef.
And then — louder than expected— the bell rang.
His consciousness focused to the absolute limit, Gazef stepped in with an unbelievable speed—
Without missing a single moment, Brain and Climb opened their eyes and watched—
— and faster than any of them, the world went quiet.
“Like I was saying… time-stop countermeasures are important.”
Because Ainz had instantly cast a ‘Silent Time Stop’, Gazef, his sword raised high, was frozen in front of Ainz.
No attacks would work while time was stopped. Even if he used attack magic to barrage Gazef, it would cause him no harm. Because of that, Ainz cast a spell while keeping track of the time.
“「Delay Magic: True Death」.”
This was a ninth-tier spell.
Because ‘Grasp Heart’ was a more convenient spell, he did not use this one often.
If no spell could affect an enemy while time-stopped, then all one needed to do was delay the activation of the spell until the moment the ‘Time Stop’ ended. Although it was a simple combination attack in theory, the trick was getting the timing right, which was extremely difficult.
As such, only about 5 % of all magic-users could pull it off.
After much training and practice, Ainz was in that 5 % as well.
“…Farewell, Gazef Stronoff. I never hated you.”
The spell ended, and time returned to the world.
Right after that, the other spell activated before anything else.
— Gazef slowly fell.
“Eh?”
“Wha-what?”
Climb and Brain had no idea of what had just happened.
In the moment Gazef had charged out, he had suddenly fallen over.
Ainz stepped forward to catch Gazef’s body.
His sword fell from nerveless fingers, and fell to the ground.
The battle was over.
Yet, there was no way to comprehend it.
Nobody knew what was going on.
“What on earth happened…?”
“The hell should I know!”
Brain gave voice to an angry cry.
“What’s wrong? Get up! Gazef!”
And then Brain’s earnest hope was flatly denied.
“He is dead.”
Respectfully, perhaps even reverently, the Sorcerer King Ainz laid Gazef upon the ground. After that, he slowly closed the man’s wide-open eyes.