Shalltear bowed deeply to Ainz before setting forth. Every step she took was one closer to ending Arche’s life, but even if Imina knew it in her mind, there was nothing they could do about it. Imina and Roberdyck were both unable to move.
Shalltear walked past them without any sign that she had noticed them, without paying them the slightest bit of attention. Perhaps Foresight could close the distance between themselves and Shalltear immediately if they ran after her, but she seemed so far away.
“What’s this? Still not coming? If you have time to talk, you have time to fight… How unexpectedly honorable of you.”
He was not looking down on her. His sentiment was genuine. In response to it, Imina’s fighting spirit recovered somewhat.
“Wait! A question, please! What happened there, where is the mercy in that?”
“A priest… then, I will tell you. In my Nazarick, a death without further suffering is mercy enough.”
Silence descended upon them. They would no longer speak with words, but weapons.
“Let’s go, Rob!”
“Yes! Ohhhhhhh!”
With an uncharacteristic battlecry, the charging Roberdyck brought his morningstar down on Ainz’s face. It was a strike that considered nothing but the full use of his strength. It was precisely because he thought that Ainz would not evade it that he put all his might into the blow.
Although Ainz took a strike made with all of Roberdyck’s strength, he did not react with pain as expected. Roberdyck followed up his attack, reaching out with his bare hand.
“「Cure Moderate Wounds」!”
The healing spell was targeted at Ainz. When exposed to healing-type magic, undead would take damage instead. However, like the attack spell Arche cast earlier, it vanished uselessly against an invisible wall.
“Ahhhhh!”
Imina tensed her bowstring as she cried out. Then — she loosed. Although Roberdyck was next to Ainz, she was not nearly bad enough to actually hit him. Rather, at this range, there was no way she could miss.
Yet — the arrows struck Ainz, and fell to the ground without doing any damage whatsoever.
Ainz vanished.
It was the same tactic as earlier.
“Teleportation!”
“Not quite.”
As expected, the voice came from behind.
“I—”
Before Roberdyck could finish, Ainz’s hand gently settled on Imina’s shoulder. There was no hint of enmity in that gesture.
However, it had a telling effect. All the strength in her body vanished, and she slumped to the ground. Although her mind was fully functional and conscious, her body felt like a puddle of immobile, insensate slime.
“What did you do to her?”
Roberdyck asked his question in a trembling voice, as his eyes went from Imina to Ainz, who stood by her side.
“Was that a surprise? It’s nothing special.”
Ainz proceeded to explain in such a way as to break Roberdyck’s spirit.
“It was almost the same as just now. After casting a silent ‘Time Stop’ I moved over here and cast the same spell I used on that man, ‘Touch of Undeath’. And then, I just touched her.”
The silence felt as though the space between them had been frozen. The sound of Roberdyck swallowing was exceptionally loud in comparison,
“…He stopped time…”
“Oh yes. Anti-time stop countermeasures are very important, don’t you know? You’ll need to have them by the time you hit level 70. Oh well, you’re going to die here, so in your case, it’s largely academic.”
Roberdyck grinded his teeth.
He was lying. If only he could say that. If only he could deny everything this monster — this god—
was saying. It would be better if he fell to his knees and clutched his ears to shut the words out.
He understood that Ainz was very powerful.
However, even with that considered, stopping time and the like was something that should not exist in this world.
The march of time was a flow that could not be mastered or controlled by humanity. What could he do against a foe who was capable of such a feat? Cutting down an entire forest with a single sword would be an easier goal in comparison.
Ainz Ooal Gown. He was a being that the human race could never defeat. He was a man who stood at the cusp of divinity.
He gripped his mace in both hands—
— and he felt a light tap on his shoulder.
“Ah…”
Roberdyck’s body stopped moving. He did not have to look to know who had done it. It was Ainz Ooal Gown — that godlike being who could control the passage of time — who was supposed to be standing in front of him. When had he vanished from his field of vision?
The cold flowing into him made him feel as though he had turned into an ice sculpture. Thus, any feeling and freedom were stripped from his body.
“—It was useless, wasn’t it?”
So spoke the gentle voice which carried no trace of enmity to Roberdyck. The mace fell from nerveless fingers, to the ground—
Then, Ainz muttered as he looked to Roberdyck who had lost all will to fight.
“Well, that was a waste of effort. I think I might have actually broken a sweat.”
It was completely useless. Every tactic and trick he had tried could not do even the slightest bit of damage to Ainz.
The thoroughly defeated Roberdyck looked quietly at Ainz, and calmly asked him a question.
“I have something to ask. What is to become of us afterwards?”
“Mm? Is it because you’re a divine magic caster and you think you won’t end up in the same state as those other two?”
With that as a premise, Ainz began his explanation.
“Well then, about those two. Aura, take them to the Large Cave. Gashokukochuuou says he’s running out of nests.”
The dark elf’s ears twitched, and her eyes went wide.
“Ai-Ainz-sama! Mare! I can order Mare to go instead, right? Make him go there instead!”
“Oh, hm. Fine with me.”
“Understood! I’ll let Mare go instead!”
“As for that, I apologize. There will be no kind fate in store for them. As for you — the subordinate I sent in pursuit is also a divine magic caster, but the god she believes in is completely different from the gods you worship. When it comes down to it, I have no idea what the Four Gods you worship are. As such, I need to confirm the details on them. As their subordinates, you have names for them, but whether they’re the Four Gods or the Six Gods, these names are little more than job titles, like the Fire God, Earth God, is that it?”
“That, I don’t know about that.”
“I see… so they’re not superior beings who possess a mysterious power, they’re nothing more than great men of the past who’ve been deified—”
“—how could that be?!”