AN: there are some minor spoilers for Tensura anime-only enjoyers in this chapter.
Although the plan to tour his domain was far from done, for now, Momonga had to return to his other administrative duties. Albedo had dropped a massive pile of documents that needed his direct input at his desk, as she had received the work done by overlords at a breakneck speed and taken over the administration once again upon return. He was well aware that his head consort didn't want to relinquish any of her duties to either her temporary assistants or to Nazarick, seeing them as part of her worth, so another solution was needed.
There was the option to build up Albedo's team from the ground up with liches and other summons with enough intelligence, but he felt something more distinguished and unique was needed considering those undead were also being used elsewhere. Shalltear had set the precedent of having vampires and kerai as her agents across the world, and his other two consorts were growing increasingly envious of this fact that they didn't have their own special subordinates. Additionally, he needed to find a niche for Shion soon, since she and Albedo were still at odds after Shion's outburst that was caused by her ultimate skill and the kijin herself not having enough time to release steam via sparring.
'Perhaps it is time to let Diablo gather uncounted demon families and see if they can be utilized as specialized agents.' He pondered his options as he let Omniscience deal with the contents of the centralized education system proposal. If all things went well, they could serve directly under Albedo, who was originally a demon in-game, and they would surely be competent enough due to their centuries of experience in this world.
His attendant had suggested taking the white, yellow, and purple color demons into his service and there were thousands of deadmen bodies already prepared, just waiting for the green light. Of course, naming that many powerful demons at once would put a temporary strain on his energy reserves, and Nazarick's energy was already completely assigned to various projects and thus couldn't be wasted on side projects like this. That, however, wasn't a massive problem as his energy regeneration rate wasn't that far behind Veldora's, meaning he could afford to toss it at other experimental avenues.
'I guess I can let Diablo gather the demons,' The risk of Ker striking while the demon was traveling to other dimensions was there, but the absence of Diablo alone wasn't critical to the structure of Nazarick.
With that in mind, Momonga called Diablo in his office. His demonic attendant appeared before him the very instant he was called, already bowing, "What is your wish, My lord?"
"I have decided that you can gather the unaccounted demons. How long will it take and is there anything you require?" Momonga asked.
"Blanc, Jaune, and Violet might need some convincing, so hopefully I can deal with all three within a week. My Lord, I will materialize all three myself before you decide to give them names and bodies, as they might need to taste your power before properly submitting to your righteous rule," Diablo explained.
"Very well. Warn me at least an hour ahead when you are about to return with them so proper measures can be taken," Momonga ordered with an air of intimidation. If these demons needed a demonstration of power to follow the rule of the strong, he would give them one.
Diablo bowed one more time and faded from his view, departing the material realm. Momonga saw no reason to distrust his attendant's ability to deliver what was promised and expected a new set of servants soon enough. Hopefully, ones that could greatly aid his consort Albedo. He had yet to figure out something for Shion since most of the Kijin were already employed elsewhere, but he would figure something out. Perhaps pushing titles onto particularly strong hobgoblins to turn them into ogres?
The next thing on his to-do list was to continue experimenting with timelines, the only thing he thought to be mostly outside of Ker's jurisdiction. Since his energy reserves were full, about fifty percent of the total could be safely spent on attempting to gain insight. With Omniscience this task by itself became a trivial matter, just needing time and dedication. Momonga duplicated himself, with one part remaining in the office dealing with the administrative work, and the other, who took about ninety percent of his total power, appeared sitting on The Throne of Kings in case things went wrong while he was away.
'Nazarick, I plan to observe timelines and plan to spend half of my total energy on this task.' He gave his skill a warning within his mind.
'Understood. I will monitor your energy reserves, master,' Nazarick replied.
Now with precautions done, Momonga resumed observing Rimuru from the timeline he previously viewed, as well as other timelines, finding the slime with more ease than before. Though, perhaps more precisely they should be called parallel timelines, as the only thing putting them in any sort of order was Chloe traveling through them, and he had no clue where this one was in the grand scheme of things.
Last time, Momonga stopped watching the slime just as Rimuru became a demon lord and was now dealing with Clayman's actions while preparing for Walpurgis.
The weakest of the demon lords obviously lost in the end and Rimuru claimed his seat in the demon lord council by right of conquest. The details of these events weren't that important, merely being noted down on a script via Omniscience so he could read through it later, so Momonga concentrated more on observing the flow of time itself, paying close attention to the tight-knit structure that seemingly had no openings or weak spots for him to exploit.
'I guess I need to reach the point where Chloe does a time jump and see what exactly happens there,' Momonga mused.
As he watched Rimuru deal with Hinata and Ruberios' forces he once again saw Rimuru's kindness towards enemies, as not only was Hinata spared but was even saved from the treachery of seven Luminaries. It seemed that Luminous was unaware of what her subordinates were doing, as she appeared to deal with them herself, and Momonga sensed no duplicity in the vampire's actions. She was semi-competent at least, perhaps she could be repurposed once Shalltear got bored of her for a lower-level secretary in Nazarick if no other good options presented themselves.
What he did find odd was that not only Rimuru, but Veldora himself allowed Luminous to attack him and even cause some pain to the true dragon, draining much of his magical power. The vampire obviously lacked the means to end the dragon, as there was no influence from Ker or other hostile Gods in this timeline who could produce artifacts that could harm a true dragon, but they allowed it nonetheless.
As Momonga moved forward through the timeline at an accelerated pace he started to feel a presence watching him. There was no doubt in his mind that this presence wasn't a God, as it felt different, darker, more closer to Rubedo than Ra.
'Hmm, this is strange.' Assuming that the entity could be reasoned with, Momonga attempted to send a message, { You could notify me If I am doing or about to do something wrong. }
There was no response. The entity seemingly was not interested in communication.
'I guess there's no other way but forward,' Momonga decided there was no point stopping now and all he could do was gauge the reaction of the mysterious entity as he moved forward in time.
Rimuru dealt with Falmuth in a rather roundabout way and generally hid his power from the Western world, with Hinata being instructed to report that her duel with Rimuru had ended in a draw. This obviously led to him being underestimated, which was sort of useful, but he had hidden too much, and far too many saw him and his nation as an easy target to exploit. Everyone wanted a piece of the demon lord pie after all, something he had avoided through his display of death magic during the Falmuth invasion.
The next was a prolonged festival and the creation of an RPG-like dungeon by Ramiris at Rimuru's request. While Momonga found the concept interesting from a militaristic standpoint, since it could be used to train up soldiers, from a financial standpoint it was rather silly as good gear and raw resources were given away like candy, with Rimuru's Tempest only taking an admission fee for entering the dungeon, which was but a pocket change of its earnings potential; Pero seeing this would likely have a fit.
As Momonga moved forward, carefully observing the weaved tapestry of time and its interaction with the space, a suspicion rose within. It felt like the spacetime itself was watching him. 'This is strange. Could reality itself be sentient?'
This realization came at odds with what he knew as a fact. Gods existed and were responsible for various aspects of reality. So how could reality itself have a mind of its own?
'I probably am missing something and it's more likely a hidden God that I am mistaking for spacetime,' He finally concluded. He lacked the means to answer this question so there wasn't much reason to dwell on it until he knew more.
Just to be safe, Momonga stopped his explorations and checked his energy reserves. There was still a lot of it left and it seemed his experimentation was growing more cost-effective as he went on thanks to Omniscience's optimizations.
The next set of events was Rimuru dealing with Mariabell as she and Yuuki laid traps for him in one of the ancient dungeons Jistav found. She obviously failed as Mariabell was too arrogant to see where she stood, and ultimately was killed by Yuuki who claimed her skill and discarded what remained of her shredded soul back into the reincarnation cycle. Additionally, Milim's long lost pet now turned chaos dragon was released and once again Veldora came to the rescue as Rimuru held the mindless beast at bay, not wanting to kill it because of Milim. Veldora's timely arrival and utilization of his ultimate skill managed to salvage what remained of the dragon's true self and forced it into reincarnation, gifting the newborn dragon, Gaia, to Milim.
One thing Momonga knew was that there was no need for him to do the same, as his Milim was now aware that her parents abandoned her, and that the pet dragon likely was a tool for yet unknown means to an end. They would have to unearth the slumbering Chaos Dragon at some point, but the safest option would be to totally annihilate the beast to prevent Veldanava's plans from coming to fruition. He would have to find something to replace it, considering Milim's emotional attachment to it.
The Chaos Dragon event was the first one where he noticed a slightly different pattern in spacetime. Whatever Veldanava had done had affected the reality in this precise point and Veldora fixing the chaos dragon didn't remove the anomaly, only stalling it.
'Strange. The treads seem looser here,' Momonga tried to manipulate them but the fabric didn't give in no matter what he tried. What happened was that the mysterious observer grew more present in the back of his mind. He could feel the entity everywhere, but there was no emotion to be read from the presence. It just was.
Undeterred, Momonga moved forward. If nothing else he was determined to find the optimal point of extraction, which his instincts told him was at the moment of Rimuru's death. Perhaps if full extraction turned out to be impossible he could capture Rimuru's soul and rebuild his physical form, which was spiritual by nature thanks to evolving. If he could access one timeline, he could access another, and he knew Chloe had left behind plenty of timelines to experiment with.
Next came Granbell's last assault. The former hero, overwhelmed with grief at losing Mariabell, set on to free Chronoa and defeat Luminous.
The culmination of this event happened in Ruberious, where Rimuru's and Luminous' forces clashed with Granbell's, Chloe jumped to the past together with Hinata's soul and it was the exact same version that merged with the Hinata of this timeline. The most confusing part of this was that the exact same version of Hinata remained in that timeline. Chronoa was ultimately made to see reason as her wrath subsided once she recognized Rimuru though, confirming Chloe's words.
And there was the point he was looking for. The spacetime structure at Chloe's jump point was altered, leading to the past. A neat tunnel existed, not only connecting the two points in time, but leading outside the spacetime itself. And there on the other side, he felt the familiar coldness of the void.
Momonga had long stopped fearing the void after repeated practice with Rubedo and traveling here, so the only thing slowing him down was his own cautious nature. He carefully poked around the tunnel and tried to understand how it was made. Although there were no clear answers, this part of existence was a lot more malleable to his will. Utilizing utmost caution, he tried to stretch the spacetime fabric to get a better understanding of its properties, and at this very moment the presence that was passively watching grabbed his very being and pulled him into the void.
Ainz felt like he was being torn through a veil that felt like wet fabric and sensed the entirety of himself present in the deep depths of the void. Far, far deeper than where he found Hinata. Deeper than even Rubedo had dwelled before her summoning. He was on the very doorstep of the center of the infinity, standing before the silver gate beyond which the most unknown of secrets lay that even Rubedo refused to know.
At this moment all the previous restrictions were gone and he knew one thing. He had just died and the veil he went through was the gates of death.
Editing by aidan_lo.
Proofreading by aidan_lo, IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, Malguis, Stac, Alassandro, KieraKieraARTS, Sluethen, fvvck, CakeEight, and clagan.
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