6 6

By the time Momon reached the battlefield the battle was already over. Animusphere who was embarrassed and red to the very tips of the ears and tried not to look at Momonga also came with him, just in time to see how Caster's last spell finished Saber. So at the moment when Momonga stepped forward looking at the people in front of him, his surprise knew no bounds. But not at the level of self-destruction. This was expected and did not surprise him at all, but the crystal which unexpectedly shone in the crumbling smoke remains left over from Saber did.

"What's this?!" Momon was shocked in a split second before his strong emotions were extinguished by his emotion suppression. He whispered to himself almost unbelievingly "A data-crystal?"

What Momonga saw in front of him really turned out to be a data crystal. The sparkling silver uneven crystal looked exactly the same as the one in his game of Yggdrasil. Moreover, judging by the size and brilliance it was a good mid-level data crystal.

"This is, she dropped loot after her death?!" Momonga quickly headed for the flashing stone, then picked it up. And indeed in his hand was a real data crystal.

"So, this means, the rest of the monsters..." - From that thought Satoru's pupils widened. All other monsters probably dropped data crystals when they died as well. And he... He violated the first main rule for any player in a DMMORPG.

He did not collect the loot!

With horror at the realization of this, he squeezed his hand. No, maybe if he hurries back, then he still has time to collect the drops...

"Hey, Master." Caster drew his attention to him. "Something is dragging me back, so sorry and bye. If you call me next time call me as a Lancer!"

Immediately after these words Momonga felt his connection with Caster become thinner. And although he could resist it he chose to simply allow it, allowing Caster to crumble into black smoke, like the many defeated monsters and Servants before.

"Monsters and Servants from whom I did not collect their drops..." Momonga clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. What carelessness, he should have checked out this possibility from the very beginning!

"S-senpai..." Mashu who appeared next to him with her ragged breath reminded him that besides the missed loot there was something else in the world. "Senpai, we won..."

"Mashu." Despite the fact that at this moment Momonga strongly wanted to make a command like 'get ready and run back to inspect all the destroyed monsters for data crystals!' he still restrained himself and merely smiled and nodded to the girl. "Thank you Mashu. It's all thanks to you."

"Huh?" instantly the girl was confused bt these words, but she immediately looked away. "N-no, this is all thanks to Caster..."

"Really?" Momonga looked at the girl with surprise, after which he tried to remember. "But, as I remember Caster said that he would not have stood a chance without your intervention, or something like that..."

"S-senpai!" However Mashu as if she was not exhausted just a moment ago, instantly covered herself with her shield to hide from the eyes of Momonga. "Do not say such embarrassing things please!"

However Momonga reply was interrupted by yet another new voice.

"Just imagine it!" The voice seemed to Momonga to be vaguely familiar. "It is surprising that only you were able to get this far! This is beyond my predictions. No, I must say that this is beyond even my wildest dreams."

"I didn't like your fashion taste right away." Momonga instantly replied withthis. But instead of answering to the Servant the only person in Momonga's memory who wore a fur coat at work only looked at the man condescendingly. Even scornfully, it can be said, before choosing to ignore the seemingly lowest - although Supreme, unknown by everyone - life form.

"Professor Lev!" Mashu instantly shouted but noticed something was off. Instead of rushing to the person she jumped in front of Momonga, shielding him with her body. "No, you are not Professor Lev!"

"Forty-eight candidates." Taking a step forward the man shook his long dark hair and sighed. "But who would have thought that the only one who would get so far would be the most useless of them?"

"Lev..." Only at this moment did Olga realize what she is seeing in front of her. "Lev! You are alive!"

Ignoring her intuition's bell-ringing voice that told her that there was something wrong here, Marie rushed forward with a joyful smile.

"Lev! Lev!" She rushed forward with a clear desire to hug the man who appeared but restrained herself at the very end. "Lev, you survived! I don't know what I would have done without you!"

"Chief!" Mashu tried to call out to her while trying to keep her eyes on the man in front of her. But Animusphere ignored the attempt to reach her.

"Ah, Olga!" As if just noticing her, Lev sighed. "Apparently you also had a hard time..."

"Yes, Lev!" Looking into the eyes of the man devotedly, Olga Marie shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Will you help me, Lev? I can't do it without you!"

"Of course, it always happens that way. You plunge into some deep shit and then I end pulling you out of it." The man sighed, then rubbed his nose. "You know, this was one of the reasons why I set the bomb under your feet, yet here you are, bothering me as always. Honestly I'm starting to think that it is some form of curse."

"L-Lev?" Having blinked several times the Animusphere looked at him with incomprehension. "What are you talking about, Lev?"

"Though you died, after all." Lev sighed. "Your body, I mean. To be more precise you couldn't participate in rayshifting while you were still alive, but after death you were able to somehow accomplish this. Do you understand this? If you were able to rayshift then this is because your body was destroyed and all that was left of you, is your soul and consciousness. In other words. even if you return to Chaldea you'll just die instantly. Good, no more of you bothering me, at least."

Momonga looked at the girl. Strange, so she was dead all this time? So technically she was an undead, but for some reason it was not recognized by the abilities of Momonga. Although rather despite the fact that she was simply incorporeal, but formally a living spirit all this time, so she still was alive. So the ability of Momonga and could not identify her as a ghost.

Incidentally, precisely because the weight about someone else's death did not constitute such a defining trait for aServant with the personality of'grinding mobs for the sake of a drop', Momon could so easily think about the possibility of death or non-existence of Animusphere.

"But, I confess, it will be a pity if you just disappear without a trace." Lev hesitated at that moment after which he sighed. "Well, consider this as my gratefulness for all the years I spent under your command and all the years that you gave Chaldea. I will show you what is happening right now."

A moment later Momonga found himself inside Chaldea in the main hall where the central simulation of the Earth was located.

"Forced teleportation." Momonga said unsatisfied by himself. In Yggdrasil traps and sophisticated combinations of it involving various types of teleportation of enemies were quite a common problem, so all players gained counter measures to similar abilities at the higher levels and late game, whether by increasing their parameters or by finding suitable equipment. Momonga himself was no exception, even more so - both his characteristics and his equipment granted him protection from such influences, so he even forgot to think that his protection acted only in his true Servant's body. "This human body really is too weak...".

However at that time while Momonga himself was busy with his thoughts Animusphere looked first at Lev then at the main Chaldean simulation where with each passing moment more and more horror manifested through her pupils.

"Lev... Lev?!" Olga's gaze fell on the huge globe which was a simulation of the whole planet hanging in front of her. "It's just an illusion, right?!"

"Oh, I assure you it's not. For this demonstration I connected space and time so that you could look at everything with your own eyes." The man, with an exaggeratedly careful movement pointed to the huge, painfully red core of the simulation. "Not a single point of blue that represents humanity. And you know why? All thanks to your mission and your leadership! It is thanks to your intervention that humanity will not die in two thousand sixteen, you broke the timeline which means that humanity has already been destroyed!"

Having uttered this last phrase, Lev clapped his hands.

"It's amazing, Olga!" The man grinned. "Your incompetence is worthy to be recorded in the history books - the only independent decision you ever made ended the existence of all mankind! I'm not even sure if I should be surprised, delighted or horrified!"

"But okay, jokes aside." The man sighed after which Animusphere suddenly rose into the air. "If it is time for our parting then let me give you a parting gift. All the time you treasured your Chaldea so much, so you can be one with your treasure!"

Slowly, the body — although in this case it should have been called a 'spiritual body' of Marie flew to the floating red core of Chaldea.

"No! Wait! Wait! STOP!" Instantly, in a second that was necessary to realize the direction of her movement, the girl screamed. "YOU WILL KILL ME!"

"I will kill you?" For a second the movement of the girl in the air stopped. After which the man straightened his hideous fur-lined coat and pretended to be surprised.

"Oh no, I'm not going to kill you! Chaldea is more than just a simulation. This is the whole history of mankind! This is not just a map, it is an interweaving of thousands of mythological lines. It is the door to any point of the existence of all civilization, it is the core that supports billions of space-time pockets. Chaldea is a whole world, united in a masterpiece of magic and technology! Do you think that you'll just die if you touch it?"

"Oh no!" Lev stretched his lips in a smile. "The forces of Chaldea will split you into atoms, smear a thin layer of you on it's core, absorb all your mana, information ingrained to you, your soul and your mind, supported by the power of Chaldea, will be forever locked in an agonizing state unable to live or die completely."

'So is it a world-class item?' Momonga looked surprised at the core of Chaldea in front of him. If you think so, then it looked like one. Not only by functions, but the description itself 'However, I don't remember that world-class items would destroy players too weak to handle it... Although, I suppose, different worlds have different rules. Or, perhaps, even in Yggdrasil there were similar objects. After all the shitty developers did not let the players to find all two hundred...'

"NO! NO! PLEASE!" The cries of the Animusphere resumed with a new force as soon as her body moved toward the sphere again "SAVE ME!"

Was it worth anything to Momonga to save her?

The question of the salvation of mankind has been spinning in Momon's head since the end of the brief briefing, but he could not get an answer to this question.

On the one hand it was noble, it was right, it was natural.

On the other hand he was not concerned. Yes, millions, billions will die, the death of all civilization will follow... He did not care. Even if this world burns to the ground he would not care. He will always be able to call his Nazarick and live in it until the end of the universe, not even concerned about the end of the world outside the walls of the Great Tomb.

He was not disturbed by the death of people, the end of civilization, none of this was able to shake the heart of the undead.

But still…

"I JUST WANTED RECOGNITION! I JUST WANTED TO GET ANYTHING!" First the foot of the Animusphere passed the line denoting a safe distance from the core. Mashu would liked to rush forward in a reckless attack but the power of the creature that took the form of Professor Lev before her, literally paralyzed her.

Something in the soul of Momonga gave him no peace.

Memories of his Nazarick returned to him. However along with his own desires, in his mind were pictures of his friends, his Ainz Ooal Gown.

HeroHero, always tired, he came to play with them even when, due to constant stress and overwork he eventually started to have kidney problems. One day he even missed the preparation for an important raid.

Touch Me, a good-natured advocate of justice. Always ready to help, be it a battle in a game or a difficult life situation in the real world.

Ulbert Alain Odle, an underrated, crammed magician. He was a poor man from the lower strata of society. He had nothing but one game and his friends who played said game, so he went to every battle ready to fight to the death, even to the death of his real body.

Peroroncino, a stupid younger brother, always eager to fight with succubi, harpies or any monsters whom had a beautiful girl's bodies. After all reality has proved to him that growing up is not fun at all.

Bukubukuchagama, always cheerful, she took care of all her friends and was like an elder sister to the whole guild. She never missed an opportunity to laugh at her real younger brother though.

Bujin Takemikazuchi, the brave meathead. Nishikienrai, obsessed with his ideal build. Tabula Smaragdina who created her own lore within their guild...

They all came to mind in his head and they were all united by Ainz Ooal Gown...

"NOBODY EVER RECOGNIZED ME!" At the moment the foot of the Animusphere crossed the first protective contour. "NO ONE EVER LOVED ME!"

But they were bound by something more.

They were bound by the fact that they were not yet born. They will be born only decades into the future, if not centuries. They will be born in this world, in this humanity...

But without his intervention, they will never be born.

Momonga could have lived his whole life at the ruins of a lost civilization, enjoying Nazarick, but could he have lived his whole life knowing that he had become a part in destroying Ainz Ooal Gown? That he did not save his own friends? His family?!

"EVERYONE HATED ME! I NEVER ACHIEVED ANYTHING IN MY LIFE!" Animusphere's shout did not turn into crying only because the emotions, echoing in her head, did not allow her to close her eyes, forcing her to watch her foot cross the second protective contour.

But more than that, his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown were united by something else.

The Future.

The bleak future of the twenty-second century.

Sulfur clouds covering the night sky. Gas mask required just to exit from the territory of arcologies. Synthetic diets for maintaining nutritional balance. The depersonalised slaves of companies who have suppressed all the governments. Stories of beautiful cities and magnificent countries destroyed during the Third World War.

And only the digital space, as the only source of enjoyment in their lives.

"CHALDEA!" Death inevitably approached Animusphere. "LEV!"

"MOMON!" Looking for the last time at the only person who believed in her, Olga Marie Animusphere prepared herself for death.

And after that the world stopped.

The girl's leg stopped only a few millimeters from the core of Chaldea. A drop of sweat running across Mashu's face stopped motionless. Lev's smile froze, ceasing to seem pompous.

"Time Stop is a really terrific spell." Momonga took a step forward, and then another to stand in front of the creature who called himself Professor Lev.

"Sorry, Touch Me." Momonga sighed. "I cannot become a hero like you were. I have no altruistic desire to help people and there is no willingness to sacrifice myself for the sake of humanity. But even a good deed can be done out of selfish intent."

"I will control them and help them avoid going down the wrong path..." Satoru Suzuki, Guild Master of Ainz Ooal Gown, Eclipse of All Life, Momonga, said. "Even if for this I have to personally cut all those who disagree with me."

At that moment, in the eyes of the human body that was unable to withstand his power of magic, a body that is beginning to disappear, steel confidence appeared. "Delay Magic: True Death".

With a touch of a bone hand to the body of Professor Lev, it was all over.

A spell that did not bear hostile intent, did not bear damage and did not bear black malice, which is filled with the magic of death.

This spell just killed.

In Yggdrasil such a spell could easily kill even a level one hundred player, if said player did not wear the necessary equipment or did not possess the necessary skills to protect them. Moreover, it had an unpleasant additional effect, blocking most types of resurrection magic, except the one that only the most high-leveled specialized clerics could use and some rare and very valuable items. Which made such a spell one of the most unpleasant in the arsenal of Ainz, who specialized in Death magic. In addition to this, his abilities strengthened any dark magic, especially one that has been linked to the magic of death or insta-kill.

However, in the world where he was summoned, their own laws existed.

And because of this, the spell killed Lev instantly.

Turning into reality, the spell was changed according to the principles of Yggdrasil, then applied to this reality. Therefore the ninth rank spell gained strength that could not be imagined by the simple mind.

True Death was death and therefore it kills the target instantly, but at the same time it was 'true'. In other words it was not death from the sword, not death from poison, nor from illness or even from magic, no matter how strange such a concept sounds.

It was the 'true' death, death beyond which nothing exists. No death, no survival, no rebirth, no hell, no heaven, no ghosts, no abilities, no magic, nothing.

It was the death that comes at the end of the road. True, measured not just by a god, but THE God himself at the creation of the universe, the death that came at their hour.

In other words if we present this in the form of a graph, then the average life expectancy of a person varies within seven or eight decades, however, people live as much shorter or much longer. And yet, when they die, there would always be a physical cause. Whether heart failure or the brain has ceased to function, people die because their body dies. Their soul departs from the body, going to the next round of rebirth but it does not die.

And yet one day the moment will come when the long life of the soul will end and it will be destined to go to Akasha.

This spell made it possible to establish the moment of this 'final departure from the cycle of life' as 'this instant'.

It was even difficult to determine what it was better classified as, the magic of death or the magic of time, but like 'Time Stop' it certainly remained an incredibly powerful ability that only a couple of dozens of creatures could resist all over this world.

However, Professor Lev could.

More precisely, of course, Professor Lev could not do this, but the reason for the strength of the being inside him lay in the fact that at the moment when Saber was defeated it was he, or, more precisely, the creature inside him who took advantage of the opportunity to get to the disfigured vessel of power, the Grail, and merged his body and his mind with it, gaining access to an incredible power from the damned source.

In fact, this Grail did not exist in reality. Chaldea only created a perfect imitation of Fuyuki a decade ago, allowing a separate part of the existing world to be embodied in the form of a small pocket dimension. dividing the line of history into 'the one that really happened' and 'the one that Masters fell into', after which, should a need arise, Chaldea will be able to cut, like scissors, the real history 'Fuyuki that happened' and replace it with the 'Fuyuki into which the Masters fell'.

However even so, the created copy of Fuyuki was not an illusion, but a real world. One could even say that it was a parallel world, replicating the real world in all things , with the difference being that Momonga appeared into this one. However, all creatures, all abilities and all artifacts that appeared in it were genuine and possessed the same power as in ordinary reality.

So the Greater Grail created in this reality, despite the fact that it was not 'real' in relation to the real timeline and therefore could not influence anything except its own version of Fuyuki, possessed all the power of the original and bestowed upon Professor Lev incredible power within the created pocket universe. By merging his power and mind with the Grail, he became one of those who could resist the spell of Momonga. All he had to do was to wish for immortality and protection from dark magic or the magic of time to defend against such an ability. However, it was here that the crux of the problem for Professor Lev arose.

He did not wish.

Manipulations of death and time were incredibly powerful abilities, available only to a limited circle of the strongest. The mind of Professor Lev could not even imagine the idea that in Fuyuki he would be able to meet someone who could rule these two fundamental principles.

And so Professor Lev died instantly, as soon as Momonga wished to utter a spell.

Time again regained its passage after which the man called Professor Lev fell. Instantly without a magic support, the Animusphere fell also, having hit the steel partitions of the second protective contour. While still not understanding what exactly happened, she however almost immediately rushed away from the core of Chaldea.

Mashu who was watching Professor Lev a moment ago suddenly found her senpai standing in front of her.

"Senpai!" She tried to shout but immediately noticed the professor lying at the feet of Momon "What happened?! Senpai,are you... Senpai?!"

"It seems that this body has reached its limit" was the words of Momonga, feeling his body crumbling under the weight of his magic, exposing his body of a Servant. "Well, in that case..."

Momonga's spell spread across his body, changing it, clothing him with his clothes, activating his abilities and spells, allowing him to finally feel the correctness of his state. The uncontrolled pressure that struck in all directions instantly pressed Mashu and the Animusphere to the ground. Unable to withstand even a couple of seconds of Momonga's presence, the two girls fainted almost instantly.

"Hm" Momonga quietly remarked to himself, feeling how his emotionlessness subordinated his mind to logic "It seems that they cannot withstand my direct presence. Although I think I turned off my passive auras... What a pity..."

However he could not stay here.

"Gate" he commanded the spell which could reliably take him out of the temporal anomaly.

A moment later, the time anomaly cracked, after which reality began to change under the influence of the changed course of history, but Momonga was no longer interested.

"Hmm?" He glanced at the two unconscious girls, after which he lifted Mashu and turned to the unconscious Animusphere. "Unfortunately, apparently, you have already died. It is a pity, because I have to use a wand on you..."

With these words Momonga took a step inside the opened passage.

A second later the overlord's leg touched the metal floor of the central room from where all the masters would be sent to Fuyuki. The situation around him was still the room that have remained from the explosion, but there was no more blood, corpses and body parts around.

"Another pity" If Momonga could now find at least one finger left from the body of Animusphere, then he could use the resurrection magic of a lower level. However without a body all he could use to resurrect was 'True Resurrection' which did not require a body. And unfortunately the magic of such a rank could not be placed on wands, with a potentially infinite number of uses, but only in crystals, that he possessed a finite amount of "But, I suppose, if I already saved her, it would be too stupid to let her reamin dead anyway."

Thrusting his hand into the gap in space that appeared next to him in order to reach his inventory, Momonga extracted a crystal, and after a quiet sigh sent a command to it, unsealing the spell stored inside.

A moment later a ball of light appeared before Momonga, the usual effect of resurrection, after which sparks were scattered and immediately began to form the body of Animusphere, which looked exactly like she looked a couple of minutes ago.

Momonga looked at both the unconscious girls, and then turned away from them...

To suddenly meet face to face with a beautiful woman. Her black hair, falling down to an extremely prominent breast, framed a beautiful face, adjusted with perfect precision, emphasizing her blue eyes. She looked great...

If it were not for the staff that was instantly buried in Momonga.

"Who are you?" The girl's voice was quite high, but there was no playfulness in it.

Momonga thoughtfully looked at the girl. After having made his decision he bowed to her.

"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown" after all, he was not the only one who came to the defense of humanity and not by his own will. All of Ainz Ooal Gown took the side of humanity in this battle and only for their sake did he choose this path. So honoring them was the least that he could do for them. "However, I am also known as 'potential master number forty eight'."

The girl's eyes in front of him did not lose its steely edge but the staff in her hands became a little less pressuring.

"So, you are the forty-eighth master, Momon?" She looked at him again, after which she motioned with her staff.

"Yes." Ainz node, then looked at her. "However I understand your disbelief. And yet you have to believe me. In an hour I will be back and, I think we will be able to discuss with you the situation in which humanity found itself in."

With these words Ainz turned to the still-closed passage into the pocket world of Chaldea and took a step inside. He should at least try to collect as much loot as he could!

After a dozen seconds Roman burst into the ruined room but could only notice the Da Vinci, laying on the floor clutching her head. Her staff laid aside, as if discarded and unnecessary while her pupils frantically scanned around the room.

"Da Vinci!" Roman who has fallen into the inside didn't waste his time on sentiments. "What just happened?! I almost got crushed and I was in another part of the complex!"

Slowly, the gorgeous girl turned to the guy.

"Roman?" Glancing at him, she slowly ran a hand over her disheveled hair, then sighed. "We are in deep shit."

Luck: A++

Luck is the characteristic responsible for luck — accidental luck and risk, but in a more exact sense it means "the ability of a Servant to live through something" or "to resist something". Whether it is something with an ability that instantly kills a target, or an attack that can destroy a Servant and has only one weakness - luck is responsible for the Servant's chance that he will be able to choose or acquire the most favorable outcome from all possible outcomes.

Grade A++ - A special rank, which means that during his life the Servant had luck that cannot be ignored - most likely his ability to live through incredible events often became the defining theme of his myths and one of the main forming elements of his legend. At the moment, the Servant knows no defeat and he does not have to make any effort to achieve even the most incredible of victory.