Chapter Text
Triple checking her circuits, Shiraori couldn't even take the time to sigh in relief. She knew every second she spent not working on this was another second D could peer into her mind and learn what she was doing. She needed to find somewhere outside of the god's influence and fast.
Her plan wasn't so much as to simply run away as finding someplace she could retreat to once she had finished her work in this world. She knew that as long as she was here, D would stir up trouble and chaos for her own entertainment, so she was content knowing it would both save her from D and lessen the risk of things going wrong in this world. D was a scary existence to Shiraori, her strength the most obvious concern, but Shiraori was more concerned with D's strange effects on her mind. Whenever she was in contact with she god she seemed to fall more and more under her thumb with every moment, and Shiraori feared becoming some sort of pet kept to entertain its master.
She sighed, and let loose the accumulated energy into the circuits and reality itself rippled as the probe began to search for somewhere, anywhere outside of D's domain, but Shiraori didn't even have a single moment to even imagine victory before the connection to the probe was abruptly severed.
"... Little spider. You've done something very foolish. That was a very loud attempt to look through dimensions, if you wanted to visit another world so much you could have just asked."
Shiraori felt the sting of pain breaching through her passive conjuring to nullify the sensation as she was suddenly severed from the minds of millions of her clones, and she begun to feel a light feeling in her body as if she were floating.
"I'll just reuse you in side project of mine, you don't get to decide what happens to this world anymore. You're not a dragon though, so my colleagues might not appreciate it but whatever. They'll just have to deal with the unplanned content."
With a sudden jolt, Shiraori and a small group of her children were abruptly ripped from this world and pulled somewhere else in one of the most violent teleportations she had ever felt.
Ainz sighed, hoping he was finished talking with Demiurge and Albedo at least for a little while as the exhaustion of putting up the appearance of intelligence began to take its toll. He sat down on his throne as had become a habit whenever he went to rest and made a routine check for any abnormal status effects, and noting there to be none he nearly moved to teleport into his room when he noticed an unfamiliar button with a flashing red circle above it that he had skimmed over. He immediately clicked the button and a message overlaid the screen that if he had eyes would have made them as wide as saucers.
He stared in disbelief, confusion, then horror as he read a message from 'D' that read "A minor world enemy and their servants have invaded the world! This was unforeseen by our team and we apologize for the inconvenience. Please take this item as a token of our apology."
That's it?! He mentally shouted, and he scrolled down to check if there was more but found only a box containing a simple rendition of a sword glowing with a yellow light. He clicked the box out of instinct and a sword appeared in his hands that exuded a holy energy. The sword was very simplistic by Yggdrasil standards, given how strong it seemed to be. The sword was tossed away from him the second it made contact with his hand, though, as it felt like he was burning with the strength of a thousand flames when he held it.
"Shit-" he swore, but he quickly composed himself as the clatter of the sword attracted attention from his attendants. "Ahem, it appears I will need to speak to Demiurge and Albedo once more."
I thought the developers couldn't access this world... Their messages are written differently, and the developers never addressed us with an identifier, they just said 'the development team', they never used a name or title. Plus, that message was short, even for them! All of this is awfully strange. I might just be overthinking this, maybe 'D' just stands for 'Developer'? The developers still being in contact with me raises all sorts of questions, though. I definitely need to talk with them.
Time for another meeting, he thought, sighing as he stood up and raised a hand to his head out of deeply ingrained instinct as he cast Message. "Hello? I'm afraid something very serious has happened. I apologize for asking you to come on such short notice, but this is of the utmost importance."
"Strengthen my borders, make regular patrols, prepare monster hunting measures... Just what does he want?!" Jircniv shouted, gently setting down the letter from the Sorcerous Kingdom before tugging at his face with his hands.
I'll need to set aside a budget, but I don't even know if I could afford to fund a group that could combat something he even considered a minor annoyance... he began to think, forcing himself to view it purely logically and ignore the worries of what the threat actually was.
"It must be something serious if he sent the letter by teleportation, but then again that might just be out of practicality... He was strangely undescriptive, though, but even if he knew what it was, would he even tell me? And so soon after they accepted me as a vassal, perhaps this is a challenge, something to prove my worth? Yes... that must be it..." he thought, sighing as he began to think of a proper response.
I'll have to think carefully... If I ask for too much additional information too bluntly they might think I'm being ungrateful.
Nfirea suddenly felt a tug on his collar as he was pulled to his feet, and Jugem fixed him with a wide eyed fearful stare. "RUN! RUN RIGHT NOW AND GET OUT! ENRI WOULDN'T FORGIVE US IF YOU DIED!"
Blinking as his hyperfocus on the herbs near the ground was suddenly broken, Nfirea saw the other goblins fighting off a group of pure white spiders that went clear up to his waist, and he instinctually followed their orders, his legs moving to sprint away before he could even fully process the situation. His attempt at running wasn't very helpful though, and he heard the muffled sound of Jugem swearing as an unbelievably strong shot of silk connected with the back of his leg, and he was suddenly ripped backwards as the rope sized thread was drawn in.
His arms and legs were bound by another spider smaller than the one that had captured him, and as he struggled to writhe around and avoid capture he caught sight of the rest of the goblins already captured and something that somehow topped the strangeness of the entire situation. A woman that could only be described as pure white in every aspect was lying unconscious on the ground with spiders around her that lifted her off of the ground and wrapped her in the same silk that held an iron grip on him and his friends. That wasn't the worst part, though. The moment he looked at her the thing he was immediately shocked by, even more than her unusual appearance, was the horrifying aura she seemed to exude, even while asleep and seemingly harmless.
He remained transfixed in awe and terror at the woman for nearly the whole hour she was unconscious, only looking away when he saw that the wolves they brought along had been butchered as easily and systematically as if it were something as simple as breathing.
Ugh... That sucked, how did she manage to make teleportation a crummy way to travel?
Shiraori awoke inside of a silken blanket with her head lying on a simplistic pillow, and as she stood up and stretched she saw her children immediately begin crowding around her.
"MOTHER!" - "We feared you would not awake." - "You are safe!" They exclaimed, the small group bombarding Shiraori with telepathic messages that exuded glee at her awakening.
"Hey... kids? Where are we? What happened?" Shiraori responded, patting the closest of them on its fuzzy head as she stood up and eyed the subdued group of goblins and the sole human.
"We suddenly appeared here." - "They attacked us, and we defended you." - "They spoke our language, and owned strange wolves." - "We have prepared you a meal." They answered in unison, and Shiraori almost denied them, but seeing their eager faces she gave in.
"... Alright. Bring that kid over here, I wanna talk to him." Shiriaori responded, and her children immediately went to work, dragging over a simple table and chair made that amounted to flattened blocks of wood they had obviously taken from the trees as soon as Shiraori awoke.
Nfirea stared at the oncoming spider in terror and shut his eyes as it swung down its scythe, but as it cut through the bindings and stuck a strand of thick silk to his back he looked up in confusion as it stared at him with what he could only assume was an expectant glare, pointing at Shiraori with one of its legs.
"Do you... want me to go over there?" he asked, and as the spider nodded, he let it lead him over to another hastily prepared chair where he was sat down and the silk attached to his back was stuck, more or less leaving him trapped.
"Um... hi?" he said, voice trembling as he struggled to look at the woman before him.
"You are?" she asked, and Nfirea blinked in yet more confusion.
"N-Nfirea, the, um, pharmacist for Carne village. Who are you?" he said, frowning as he saw the approaching spider holding the meat from the butchered wolves.
Shiraori didn't acknowledge the boy's question, only beginning to eat the meal the spiders had somehow prepared in only seconds.
"Where is Carne?" she eventually asked, looking up from her meal to see Nfirea glancing back at the captured goblins.
"A-Are you going to let us go after?" Nfirea asked, and Shiraori hummed.
A spider walked over to her, and they seemed to have a silent conversation for several seconds until the spider walked away and seemed to sort through the goblins based on some quality he couldn't determine. Some were dragged away and stuck to trees covered in more webs, but others were left where they were.
"Where is Carne?" Shiraori reiterated, and Nfirea took a deep breath, considering his options.
On one hand, she could kill us all, but she clearly wants information and is willing to negotiate. What's she going to do with the information, though? I wish Enri were- no, actually I don't. Her advice isn't worth risking her life.
He sighed, before turning back to look at Shiraori with a frown. "Uh, it was a small village of the Re-Estize Kingdom, but now it's a part of the Sorcerer Kingdom."
He waits for another question, but nothing comes and she continues eating the meal in front of her as she waits for additional information.
"How?" Shiraori eventually asked.
"There was a war between them because Ainz said that since they were here first, it was their land. They won the war by, uh, well, he used a spell that killed hundreds of thousands of people in a single cast and it scared them into just giving the land around here over to him."
Shiraori seemed to take note, pausing her hand midway through cutting the food in front of her using what looked to be a knife made out of silk as she looked up at Nfirea with furrowed brows. "Tell me about Ainz."
"I... I don't think I can. He's... um..." Nfirea started, but midway through Shiraori opened her eyes and seemed to stare into his very soul and he froze as his entire body was filled with a deep sense of fear.
"N-No, I can't," he said, but as she continued staring at him he thought his mind might break under the stress. "A-ALRIGHT!"
The overwhelming sense of fear died down suddenly, and Nfirea clutched at his heart and gasped, completely winded as he tried to gather his thoughts. "Ainz... he's a very strong magic caster. The strongest I've ever heard of. He's a skeleton, um, and he has many powerful artifacts, and-"
Shiraori continued to listen to the boy's panicked ramblings until he ran out of breath and could speak no more, and she worried about who Ainz could be as she looked down at the conjuring laid under her usual passive enhancement conjurings. D had done something to her, no doubt to stop her from probing other worlds en masse for some reason, but the circuits weren't a specific preventative measure, more like a broad curse that effected her spatial magic in general. She couldn't escape this world if she tried, and seeing the power flowing through the circuits on her skin, she wasn't going to break it anytime soon.
"Anything else?" she asked, and the boy seemed to hesitate once more but gave in almost immediately after Shiraori pressured him using the Panic Evil Eye.
Nfirea's loyalty to Ainz strained against the fear flooding his mind and paralyzing his body for a few more moments, but as she continued staring at him he eventually gave in. "H-He has a s-secret identity as an adventurer M-Momon!"
Shiraori finally closed her eyes again, and Nfirea laid still on the ground and stared at himself in disbelief as Shiraori continued her meal in silence. After a while, a spider cut the strand of silk connected to his back and he rose to his feet slowly.
"Don't come back," Shiraori threatened, and he didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted out of the woods as fast as he could, followed by the few goblins who had been left on the ground, and they ran back to Carne as fast as they could.
Enri was worried. She had been pacing for nearly half an hour near the city gates as she waited for Nfirea to return home from his foraging trip but he didn't show up. He was always gone for long periods of time but being missing this long was unusual, even for him.
"Aw... is someone worried?" she heard someone say, and she jumped as Lupusregina suddenly appeared next to her.
"Ack- Um, yes?" she answered hesitantly, before taking a deep breath and calming herself. "Nfirea's been gone for a while now, he's usually back by now. I'm probably being paranoid but could you check on him, please?"
Lupusregina seemed to think it over, putting a finger to her chin. "I dunno, that seems like an awful lot of trouble. Maybe if you-"
"Please?" Enri said, and Lupusregina groaned, putting a hand to her head in exaggerated annoyance.
"Alright, ya slave driver. I'll go head over," Lupusregina said, letting out a wolfish grin as she tensed her legs to leap into the air, but suddenly she stopped, sniffing the air.
"Hey, he's here- wait, shit, I smell blood," she said, before leaping over the gates in one jump. "GET THOSE GATES OPEN!"
Enri ran towards the now swinging gates and helped the exhausted boy inside, looking back at the incredibly small group of goblins with confusion. "Are you alright?! Where's the rest of them, Nfirea?"
"T-Taken," he said, and Enri had to support him as he walked as the boy succumbed to his exhaustion, taking great gasps of air.
"What happened in that forest," Lupusregina said, and Nfirea took a final breath before preparing himself.
"I... Um, it's better if I talk to Ainz Ooal Gown directly about this," Nfirea said, and Lupusregina nodded gravely.
"... And they simply appeared out of nowhere?" Ainz asked to confirm after having heard the story from the boy.
"Didn't get the best look at it, Jugem saw them first, but they took him off somewhere. They kept 7 of us, don't know why they let us leave though," one of the goblins said, and Ainz nodded.
"I must admit, I am quite disappointed that you spoke of my secrets to these spiders, but you were simply trying to preserve your life, so I cannot fault you. I will not allow another slip up like this though, so I will have to relieve the goblins of their protective duties and install guards of my own."
"I'm sorry... I don't know what came over me," Nfirea said, bowing deeply, but Ainz simply waved his hand as if to brush away the boy's concerns.
"The person in the wrong is not you, it is the ones who interrogated you. I am incredibly concerned with their sudden arrival. Could you tell me anything more about these telepathic spiders? Please, any minute detail you could remember could be the difference between life and death for those that encounter them."
Nfirea wracked his brain, but he felt as if everything he could say was already said, until he tried to recall who exactly had interrogated him. "... Hm."
"What are you concerned by?"
"I... don't know. For some reason I can't remember anything about the one that interrogated me. I don't know why I would forget, it just happened."
Ainz suddenly leaned in. "... Memory magic, perhaps?"
Nfirea suddenly looked worried, furrowing his brows as he rested his head on his hands. "I... don't know. There aren't any gaps in my memories, but it's like everything tied to the spider that interrogated me is just gone. I don't even remember if it was a spider, all I know was they were pure white like the rest of them so I was just assuming. That's really weird."
"That is quite strange. I'm going to have to root these spiders out of the forest, they might endanger your village and the fact they were strong enough to beat your goblins is concerning, not to mention the memory magic. You may return to Carne now, I have no more questions as of this moment," Ainz said, and with a snap of his fingers a portal appeared beside the group.
After they left, Ainz raised his hand and formed a portal of his own to the throne room where Albedo was waiting for him, and he expected she greeted him immediately.
"Hello, Lord Ainz. You said you wished to speak to me?" she asked, and Ainz nodded, sitting down upon the throne.
"... Tell me, have you ever overheard any of us speak of World Enemies? The supreme beings, that is."
"I have, but nothing concrete except the fact they were very dangerous existences. Would you please enlighten me?"
Ainz settles back in his chair and hums, recalling everything he knew about them. "Well, imagine them as the pinnacle of strength- no, there is one group of beings above them, but anyways, a World Enemy is just something strong enough to endanger the entire world on it's own, hence the name. They are usually dragons or some derivative, but all of them have one thing in common that made people seek them out even if they were strong. When slain they would drop World Items."
"And these World Enemies, why do you ask me? Have you found one in this world?"
"No, that would be something grave indeed, encountering them would be a death sentence without the full strength of the 41, and even then, it would be very risky. No, instead I've been given a warning by the tier of beings above the World Enemies that one has invaded this world."
Albedo seemed surprised, frowning as she already began running plans through her mind. "... That is unfortunate, how are we supposed to deal with such a threat?"
"Well, that is the interesting part. In Yggdrasil they were barely more intelligent than mindless beasts and could not be reasoned with, simply tearing through everything in sight. Now in this world, I suspect they have become more intelligent. We may be capable of negotiating with them."
Albedo nodded, and stared down at the sword. "And of this blade, Lord Ainz?"
"Ah, that was included alongside the message as a gift. I could not hold it for long, it harms me the closer in contact I was to it, and based on experiments anyone with a negative karma is effected, with it getting worse the lower their karma is. It is frankly appalling how an item could exist with such strong stats without any enchantment."
"A true joke of a gift. I don't believe we have any capable of wielding it effectively in the whole of Nazarick."
Ainz leaned back in his chair as he hummed in consideration, his jaw shifting to form a wry grin. "There was one. Touch Me would have used it nicely. If he were only fighting low karma players... he could probably take on entire guilds at once and come out on top."
Albedo noticed the shift in his mood immediately, moving to change the topic to distract him. "Oh yes, and what of those spiders in the woods?"
"Ah. Them? I have minor suspicions of them being the World Enemy in question, but given that the message said it was minor and the fact they attacked one of the most valuable humans in this world... I'm starting to think we should just send an overwhelming force for our retribution. We cannot allow them to get away with attacking people under my jurisdiction, especially Nfirea, and even if they are the World Enemy we will have enough manpower to at the very least retreat with minimal casualties."
Albedo nodded gravely, ready to slay them if he only so much as asked. "Who will you send to fight, Lord Ainz?"
He took only a moment to consider his options, having memorized the capabilities of the NPCs well. "I believe we should send in a force consisting of Shalltear as our main combatant, with Sebas acting as additional pressure. You would do well as a tank, and with Pandora's actor... yes. I believe I've come up with my plan. Pandora's Actor will take on my appearance and will pretend to merely be a diplomatic contingent. I and Shalltear will speak with them, and Sebas will act under the guise of being a butler, and you will pretend to be a personal knight."
Albedo's hand twitched at the mention of Shalltear, but she easily composed herself and bowed. "If there is nothing more to say, Lord Ainz, I will go don the Trismegistus."
"There is nothing more. I will tell each of them the plan, you prepare yourself and come back as soon as possible."