[|||| =LEVEL 15= ||||]
My skin turned a purplish black, my fingernails to claws, and my arm grew more skeletal and longer, so similarly to Esdeath's demonic form. I willed the affinities away and the darkness faded. I summoned the demonic affinity again along with chaos and my skin turned to the dark purplish tint. I reached down onto the table and picked up a knife made from ice as I set my arm on a metal cutting board.
"Physical force…" I pressed against my arm with the edge of the blade. A thin line of dark red appeared. I pulled the knife away and it healed in just a few seconds. "Unchanged." I wasn't too disappointed.
"Direct energy attacks…" I tossed the knife onto the table and picked up a cattle prod. I hated this part. Still, I pressed it against my skin and muffled a yelp. I flicked out my hand a few times and drew on a little ice affinity to soothe the injury. "Unchanged," I muttered. Then I sighed.
"Direct magical attacks…" I drew the revolver inlaid with runes and altered with weak corruption dust to fire a magical beam instead of a bullet. I didn't have much of the dust, having not had the affinity for long, but Poledina had once tried to make grimm into dust. He had a lot of time to crush them into pieces. I pointed the revolver at my hand and fired with a wince. Then I blinked in surprise. "Wow, that is really good."
I was impressed. I didn't even feel that. For a moment, I wondered if I had actually hit my hand. I didn't see a mark on the table, though. Just to make sure I held my hand to the barrel of the gun and fired. The black flash didn't blind me and I flexed my hand.
"Extreme resistance to direct magical attacks. Soul attacks?" I put a question mark there for now but aural attacks were almost always linked to direct magical ones. A defense against one usually proved to be a defense against the other.
Unfortunately, I was already running late for today's personal time. I had been in my lab for hours after dinner and getting the chaos demon changes started was the most I would do. If I went further to the other effects of the morph I would get distracted and take another hour of tests.
Just for fun, and because I really wanted to keep experimenting, I changed the color of my hand a few times. It turned a cloudy whitish blue with blizzard, like poor glass with a blue tint or some translucent rock. The affinity detached and space cycled in. My arm turned faintly yellow and the muscles faded while purple markings spiraled up to my elbow, where the transformation stopped and my body was normal.
Void was next and my arm turned pitch black, like an empty sky, and my arm looked dessicated, as though I hadn't eaten in years. I could faintly see impressions of my bones through my skin in places. Lastly I tried purity. Though it and the demonic affinity resisted somewhat they merged after a delay. My arm turned a pale, porcelain color with gold markings similar to the space transformation. I clenched my fist briefly, still fascinated by the foreign muscles and claws.
"Still weird," I murmured, letting the demonic affinity fade from my body, leaving me normal and healthy again. A glance at my papers showed all the tests I had done. How resistance scaled with the level of transformation, what affinity had what resistances, what extra limbs I sometimes gained or physical abnormalities, normally wings, how my magic changed, and less obvious changes, though I hadn't had enough time to really research that.
It was a little hard to do experiments on myself sometimes and Esdeath wasn't all that happy to be shot in the hand. Granted, there was probably a better way to test magical resistance, but there wasn't much of a generic magic attack with how varied affinity was. Corruption shot was the best I could think of.
"Hey, Kuroka." I nudged the sleepy cat with my elbow, where she was asleep on the table. She was a heavy sleeper. Even gunshots didn't wake her up somehow.
"Hn, wha? Oh." She wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth and rubbed her eyes sleepily.
"I'm done now."
"More sleep." She laid her head back down and I gave her my best eyeroll before scooping her up. "Nice," she murmured.
"What time is it?" I wondered, looking at the clock. "Oh." Two in the morning was a good time to fall asleep. I didn't mean to stay up so late. I walked to my lab's door, opened it with magic, and started the walk to my room.
"Finally," Ophis' sleepy voice said to my right. I didn't even look at her as I walked.
"I didn't get to finish most of the tests I wanted," I said to her, still walking.
"Too bad," she said in monotone, stepping beside me.
"Is Esdeath already in?"
"Mm," that was a yes. "She wanted to do some stuff before we went to sleep. She even put on that skimpy stuff."
"She actually thought I'd be out of my lab? I haven't even finished studying the blizzard affinity."
"Still?" She leaned forwards so I could see her looking at me with surprise, however much she expressed it.
"I've got the basics but I need to investigate more spells for it. A few of my storm based spells change when I try using a blizzard affinity. Some of them work fine, but all of them are changed at least a little. I can use just lightning but it's surprisingly difficult. I need to incorporate ice into everything to-"
"Enough," she said, sounding more tired than before.
"Fine, fine. I do want to see how you like the void demon form."
"Void… demon?" She sounded curious.
"The demonic affinity is a complementary affinity. It doesn't do anything without another, kind of like chaos but more so since chaos can do at least some small things by itself. I don't like using the demonic affinity with my magic but it's very receptive to being expressed on my body. It's the only affinity I have that allows me to use the body of worlds technique with multiple affinities."
"Body of worlds?"
"You know where I turn my body to ice or lightning or light?"
"Oh, that."
"Mhm. And void doesn't have a body or worlds based form. But with demonic affinity, a purely complementary affinity, I can infuse my body with void."
"… Oh!" Now she got it, her eyes widening in realization. "So you mean… it's a sex thing."
"Maybe," I admitted, beginning to climb the stairs. "I look… unhealthy when I use it. Like I'm starved. I feel perfectly fine but I'm not exactly good to look at."
"Whatever," Ophis said uncaringly. "Lets try it."
"Not tonight. You're too sleepy."
"What about-"
"No. Sleep." I opened the door to the master bedroom to see Esdeath almost asleep in my bed. She opened her eyes when I arrived but the sight of Kuroka asleep seemed to disappoint her, where she laid back down. I set Kuroka onto the bed and stripped, tossing my clothes into a hamper in the corner, and went under the covers. Kuroka squirmed under somehow and then stripped herself but she just threw her clothes around haphazardly and hugged me. Then Esdeath moved in and got her own part of me to latch onto. Ophis valiantly stayed away from me, staying on the other side of Kuroka. A hard choice for her, I knew.
"Goodnight," I said. The others echoed me and everything was silent.
[|||| =-= ||||]
I woke up to an explosion.
"The hell?!" I yelled, jerking upwards from the ground where I was apparently laying, but all I saw was a smokey cloud and voices muttering around me.
I snarled in anger at whoever disrupted my sleep and decided that it was a great day to test out my new affinity. The demonic affinity merged with the blizzard and the two meshed onto my skin. Claws sprouted on my hands, white icy horns grew from my head, and my skin turned more muscled and, of course, the cloudy blue and white color.
"Ẅ̴̢̢̢͖̤̤͙̺̙́͛̾̿͑̊͛̓ͅḫ̺̤̪͕̹̋̂̑̽͒ỉ̴͈̰͇̥̱͗̐̀̉͢͝ͅc̝̯̮̰̹̬̜̉́͐̇̆̽h̡͓̖͙̦̓̉̊̓̉͛͜͝͞ ḭ̧̙͚͔̙͈͂͛͒͛̀̍͞d̶̯̘͕̩̩͔̩̣͗͋͐̈́́͗̌̎͝ì̸̡̢̧͚͉̟̰̮͙̑̊̚͠ŏ̢̞̙̣̙̓̈́͊̽͒̓̚͟t̨̖͙̫͔̼͑͐̾̄͋̀̈̀͐͞ w̸̨̙͔̭͓̬͛̓̐̆̐̅̚̕͟ȍ̴̢̳̗̥̖̠̩͆̓́̕̕ḱ̢̧̢̡̼̻̲̱͖̄͗̓̽͘̕͡e̢̡̼͚̰͕͈̐̈̇̋̏̂̓̚̚͜ m̰͈͍̠̖̞̲͂̿̏̂̂͆͂̑̕̕ͅě̢̘̤͙̩͎̫͒̒͑́̎̏͜͜͞͠ u̟̤̗̭̻͙̯͊̋͛̂̀̕̕͜p̷̢̢̛͓̘̥͖̟̜͎̿̄̌͘͝?̘̣̓̈̍̂̽̔̌̌̚͟" I spoke. Then I scowled scarily, showing off my teeth.
Several people around me cried out at the warped, piercing voice. I felt a little bad about that but not too much. They shouldn't have summoned me if they didn't like the results.
"Perhaps I should rephrase," I spoke in a slightly deeper voice than normal. It sounded like I was growling my words a little bit. "Which one of you idiots woke. Me. Up?" I flexed my blizzard affinity and a strong gust of wind blew away all the smoke in the air away, though some snow was present in the wind. It wasn't my problem.
Around me were young kids, about sixteen or seventeen, and an older man, possibly a teacher. They looked at me in fear except for the teacher, whose face was stiff with wariness.
"My apolo-" he was interrupted by a howling sound as a black figure wormed its way into the world from nowhere. Out of thin air a European dragon crawled into existence. It wasn't made of uniform scales and flesh but pitch black snakes with black eyes. Writhing, slithering snakes in a facsimile of a dragon besides two nearly glowing steely grey eyes and sharp white teeth that grew from somewhere in it's maw.
I took all that in but more than that was the presence it exuded, an oppressive and overbearing thing that screamed of raw power, possession, and… void.
Ophis? Wait, that's Ophis! … Wow, she looked scary. It was kind of awesome. I had never seen her look like a dragon before.
"WHO STOLE MY MATE?!" she snarled malevolently. Her head looked around once, looking over the students. Then she saw me, standing near her right foot, and her tone immediately softened. "Beloved… who stole you from our bed?" she asked, a hint of malice still in her voice. I looked over the children and the older man, who all looked terrified now, and started towards a conclusion.
The students all had various creatures with them, though a few had mundane ones too, all bound to their souls except for one slightly short pink-haired girl. Most of them had affinities in line with basic elements and no higher ones, earth, water, fire, a few metal ones and… the pink haired girl had void. I was seeing where this was going.
"You, teacher," I said normally with a look towards the man. It sounded like I was still growling slightly. Whatever. "You're summoning creatures to serve as companions, aren't you?" The man took a moment to respond, looking between me and Ophis' intimidating form with a pale face.
"Y-yes. This is… the familiar summoning… ritual. Everybody does it." He kept looking in fear at Ophis, who growled at the word 'familiar', causing him to falter.
"She did it," I pointed at the pink-haired girl, who looked shell-shocked, glassy eyes staring into nowhere. Ophis' power swelled. "Don't murder the girl because she made an honest mistake," I chided her. She paused and sighed, which caused the clothes of the students to flutter behind them, before she shrunk down to her normal form.
I looked to the girl again, who looked ready to pass out. "Now, did you mean to anger me and my possessive little dragon?" Ophis walked over to me and I hugged her while she glared at all the students.
"… No!" she squeaked after everyone began to look at her.
"Good. Don't do so again. Now goodb-"
"Ineedafamiliar!" she blurted out. Everyone looked ready to throw things at her while she looked aghast that she even spoke.
"Use this." I collected some fire affinity in one place as I dropped the demonic form. I couldn't use other affinities than the paired one while the demonic affinity was active. It was the first one that I thought might be common here and not powerful enough to destroy this world's balance of power. I couldn't make a strong one anyways. A weak petty fire elemental formed, the literal weakest elemental grade possible.
It was supposed to look vaguely humanoid but as weak as it was it looked like a mass of fire with four stubby limbs. I tossed it at the girl with some motion magic and she tried to catch it, only to drop it when she touched the flames. She fumbled to barely catch it when she wasn't burned. If I hadn't been telling the elemental to not burn anything through a pulse of aura she would have been burned. She paused for a moment before trying to kiss the elemental. Her face half submerged in it's mass before it squirmed and a strange marking of blue flames showed on it. I saw her soul link with the elemental and it turned black, contaminated with void but unable to be snuffed out with their souls linked. Their souls were basically one now.
"Great. Bye." I scratched Ophis' head and used the void to teleport back to my bed. Esdeath and Kuroka blearily latched onto me but not before Ophis squeezed between me and Kuroka. She just wrapped her arms around both of us.
"… I didn't know you were so possessive," I whispered very quietly to Ophis.
"They interrupted cuddles. Mine." She was a dragon. That made sense. I may want to ward her off of using murder as her first method of punishment, though. I might check up on that world later but as it was I was still tired. Sleep now.
[|||| =-= ||||]
I was going to try something new. I was going to change a world in one way and let it go on without me for awhile. I'd return once a day to check up on what my change had done but not more than that. I'd have a history in the world, albeit a small one. I felt like barging in and fixing all the problems was growing a bit boring, and I would feel bad making problems, so I was going to see how a more 'hands off' approach worked. It would be fun and I could always spend an hour fixing problems if my actions screwed up some things. It would even out somehow.
Either way I found myself staring out of a school locker, feeling ready to put my plan into place. Three girls were waiting in ambush, skulking around two corners in vigil. One was nearly a supermodel, a redhead without the ever common freckles. She looked the most excited and was looking at the locker with an imaginative gaze. I wondered what fantasies were playing out in her head before deciding that I didn't want to know.
Just to assure myself that my plan was foolproof I glanced to the side and saw that my preparations were holding fine. I nodded to myself and continued my inspections.
The second was an athletic looking girl, the only one that was black. She looked more… anticipatory. She didn't look like she was planning anything malicious but more like she was just waiting for the right moment. It reminded me a bit of a cat waiting to pounce except far from cute.
The last one looked a little bored and was the plainest of them all, a cute girl if a bit doll-faced in a very average way. She was pretty, sure, but pretty in the girl-next-door kind of way. I didn't think she would play much of a part in what was coming. The only way she really registered for me was that her makeup smelled too much. Then again I had much better senses than any human. I had used some mind affinity to shut off my sense of smell after I got close to the locker under invisibility. It really had an intolerable stench of rot and decay.
The moment I had been waiting for didn't take long, maybe two minutes or maybe three. A fourth girl was walking up the staircase. She wasn't pretty or athletic like the others. She was a bit too plain, too tall with too thin arms and legs. If she used some makeup, aura, or exercised often enough she would be beautiful but she didn't do any of those things so she was just average.
The girl walked a bit absently to the locker I was near, the one that stunk. The others, the ones that were hidden, crept closer to her, being careful to not make a single sound. Only the black one was half decent at it.
When she got close the girl's face scrunched up and her nose wrinkled in disgust. She clearly smelled the locker. Still, she persisted, perhaps out of curiosity, and entered a code into it. She hesitated before opening it for just a moment, where the other girls were right behind her. She was apparently too distracted by the smell to notice them.
Opening the locker revealed heaps of vile cloth tinged green, yellow, and a faded red. Bugs whizzed around and inside the material, making the scene a disgusting one. I had seen worse, and smelled worse cutting people apart but this was a special brand of disgusting and I was glad that I didn't have my sense of smell. I could taste the air, though, which wasn't very pleasant at all, but I wasn't that comfortable blunting more than one of my senses.
The girl staggered back from the smell and bent over to vomit. She only had a moment, though, when the girls struck, pressing forwards onto her back. Her eyes widened in surprise, fear, and after the briefest of delays a terrified understanding.
If I hadn't intervened she would have been shoved into the horrible locker, legs deep in the filth. Instead through a twinge of mind affinity her hands shot out to the sides of the locker, pushing herself back from going inside.
"Finally growing a spine, Taylor?!" the black girl taunted. She looked viciously gleeful. The anticipation was gone, transformed into some sort of thrill in her actions. I felt a hint of loathing for the girl myself. She was truly a terrible person.
The girl, Taylor, didn't get a chance to speak before the redhead stepped back and rammed her into the locker. Her arms buckled under the force and she stepped unwillingly into the locker, her shoes squishing in a way that made my stomach pretty unhappy. I wondered if I should intervene here instead, but I still waited for just the right moment.
"Hah!" the redhead cheered. The other girl punched her victim in the face while their lackey pushed her fully into the locker as she was stunned, her head clipping the top in the process. The locker door began to shut on her and she barely managed to turn around to stare in horror at her assaulters. I finally began my plan.
Mind affinity reached out to Taylor and I sacrificed my own INT temporarily to boost her mental processing speed. Her thoughts were running through me and my aura, which was basically my brain anyways.
"You're about to lose it," I told her in the moments that the door was slowly closing. "Your freedom. You're about to be trapped in this… place. It's terrible, isn't it? But you could get out."
"How?! HOW?! PLEASE, NONONONONO!" she screamed into my mind, panicking and crying. The locker door was half closed now.
"Well you had to resist but you didn't." I felt bad doing this, but I wasn't going to pull a Hermione. I made that mistake before. The tactic was valid but I couldn't target a person's insecurities to break them. I had to press them to make them know they were there and guide them to grow past them. I wasn't teaching Hermione, not really. I hurt her. I wasn't going to hurt Taylor. Somewhere in her I believed she knew all the things I was going to tell her. She just hadn't faced them yet. This would hopefully be a metamorphosis for her. I just had to be gentle.
"Calm down. There is another way." I cheated a little and used mind affinity to calm her down just a bit.
"How? Please… how?" With her message came the unintentional sensation of filth on her legs, squeezing in as the door closed. The fear she was feeling and how desperate she was to get my help.
"Power. It's simple, isn't it?"
"I don't HAVE power!" she said. It felt like she was crying for her helplessness combined with self-loathing. Dust, she had so much baggage coming through with every message.
"But what if you did?" I felt her realization, albeit a small one. She realized that I was offering her something. She just wasn't rational enough to not talk to the voices in her head offering promises of power.
"I… I would make it right! I'd stop them! I'd… I'd be a hero." The end came at barely a whimper. I couldn't help but get the impression of a withered dream and a sense of failure along with a giant heap of more self-loathing.
"You would join the protectorate?" I asked, projecting mild curiosity.
"Yes!"
I didn't use words. Rather, I connected the dots that were already there. Sophia Hess, the athletics, the 'hero' Shadow Stalker, a history of violent vigilantism, the bullying, how she broke into her locker all the time, and how the school looked away from her bullying.
The mental connection seemed to freeze with pure shock. Then anger, a blistering, righteous fury. Genuine hatred bloomed as flickers of ways to torture and murder the girl passed through her head.
"It's unjust, isn't it? Don't you want to change it? There's not much fair in the world. Do you want to change that?" Unfortunately I hadn't done this quite right. Crystal clarity passed through her head.
"What do you want?" she hissed at me. The door was almost closed, mere inches before it slammed shut. I gave myself a moment to cheer that she wasn't such a sad sack of self-deprecation anymore. Anger was much better. It didn't weigh her down and tint her messages so much.
"Dedication. A life debt. I will give you the power to change everything. Power to challenge Sophia, the school, Lung, the monsters that roam your world if you so wish. But you have to give something of equal value. I want you." She rebelled against the idea, balking against the idea of selling away herself of all things. An image of herself forced to murder and torture passed through me.
"I wouldn't make you do that. I want to make the world a better place even if it means nothing in the end. But I can't be everywhere and I value my family over all things. You will fix your world. But you will do so with my shadow over you. I will give you independence, but on a leash, albeit a long one. But aren't you already held down by so many? Don't reject me out of hand when you wither under the authority you suffer under already." My words gave her pause. The locker was just an inch from closing now.
"… I agree," she whispered quietly in her mind. With that I gave another impression. A pact sealed, an agreement struck. I impressed upon her the weight those words held to me and gave the ghost of a threat that should she ever break her word I would do a vague something that I didn't properly define to her. She seemed to quietly understand me.
"Now," There was just a sliver of light but my message was filled with sharp teeth and a hint of viciousness. "Change the world. There are too many idiots and horrible people fucking things up. Don't hesitate to beat them down on your path. You are the rules. Act like it." My soul connected with hers. A blast of murky aquamarine filled the locker and I filled the slot where my worshippers fitted in. Where they only had a hint of my power, less than a percent of the access to my affinities, I gave Taylor as much power as I could. I felt satisfaction as her first perk appeared when I used observe on her.
Devotee of Abyss - Due to being under the patronage of Abyss Mavros, who has deemed to patron you, you are granted a maximum of one percent of each of his strongest three affinities, though the amount of affinity available to you may be variable upon his will. Additionally, you may focus and communicate with said patron, though he may choose to ignore you, and he may transfer power to you as he sees fit. In exchange for these boons your pools of energy are completely under his control and your energy regenerations will fuel his pools of energy when not in use for your own reserves of energy.
Taylor didn't have a lot of mana regeneration or aura regeneration, though she had a fair bit for a puny normal human. I anticipated that she would get a much bigger mana pool soon enough. Escalating was in her nature, wasn't it? But either way even a single percent of my affinities was a lot for somebody who had nothing. Twenty million points of blizzard affinity was enough to consume the city in a snowstorm even with her tiny mana pools. The void was equally impressive since I had already tested that the powers of her world worked based on affinity sometimes. Other times they didn't use the stuff, but most of them at least used a little affinity to work. Now she could cut that bit off and ruin their day.
"I am Abyss. Call to me if you desperately need power and I might grant it, though with your three powers you should be fine if you are cautious," I whispered one last time. "Now feel the cold inside you… and let just a sliver of it be free!"
I stopped our link and watched. I heard the locker slam shut and the lock click. The three girls laughed and exchanged high fives for a whole three seconds. Then the locker exploded and they screamed.
Snow and harsh winds flooded the halls. All the halls. I used my space affinity to make myself intangible and laughed, though nobody heard me over the roar of the storm. I felt that sliver of blizzard affinity work hard within me to do Taylor's wishes. Her fury was channeled into it, making it work ever harder for her.
I teleported outside to see the school in chaos. Snow was slowly collecting on the grounds. Winds whipped and after a second a boom rang out as a lightning bolt wildly shot out to hit a flagpole. My grin split my face and I felt like I had just unleashed something scary on the world and I had a wonderful show to watch.
The downside was that people definitely knew that Taylor was a cape. But to me that was a good thing. Some people worked best under the spotlight. I felt like Taylor was one of those people. She needed to be put under pressure to grow stronger. I had given her a pep talk, an ego boost with her power, which was off the scale compared to most of the people in her world, and most of all she knew she wasn't alone. When she was at her darkest point I held out a hand and gave her something she needed.
I would be keeping an eye on her, of course, but I would let her suffer the consequences of her own decisions for the most part until I decided to come to this world in full. Now that would be a party. I couldn't wait. For now, though, I teleported back inside the school, now filled with snow and frost, and stopped the camera I set up before teleporting it into Taylor's bag, the girl herself looking in shock at her three tormentors and the snow around her.
[|||| =-= ||||]
I had stuck around for another half an hour to see how things went. Taylor had a brief fight with Sophia and accidentally sent a bolt of lightning at her, though it was a very tiny one thankfully. I wondered how much of her power she had unleashed. It was probably about ten percent. Two million affinity was quite a bit, after all. She would likely scale it down even more and get a feel for it later. For now, though, she got a private escort to the protectorate building and a long, long talk.
I was just happy that she found the camera I had left for her in her backpack. Tangible proof that I had existed was important and if it helped to pin Sophia Hess to the wall then good. Screw that girl. Besides, Taylor's face when she opened it up and saw the lone video on it? Priceless. I could feel the sheer joy she had through our link and how she immediately felt a bit better about our deal. I had restrained myself from sending a message to her but still sent a distant feeling of satisfaction to her. The upwards turning at the corners of her lips showed how she felt that.
I witnessed a brief series of hugs and fury from her father and then legalities and a lot of accusations and red tape got involved so I got bored and left. I didn't want to have to deal with that mess.
Really I just wanted to take a break for the rest of the day but only Ophis was home at the moment and she was asleep in her quiet room. Esdeath had gone out somewhere to do something, quite possibly hunting down rogue devils for sport, and Kuroka was out too. I didn't know where. Maybe she was with her or doing recon on her sister or doing some late work stuff. I wasn't going to ask but she'd probably tell me later.
That left me with a few things to do, but I didn't feel like researching right now. I had just helped a damsel in distress and I wanted to do something proactive… like save another damsel in distress or beat up a dragon. But which one?
I mulled that over for just a second before I realized that actually thinking about 'which one' was ridiculous because there was an infinite number of princesses to save and dragons to slay. So I played 'eenie, meenie, miney, moe' with dimensions and left.
I opened my eyes, looking down far below me. I was falling. Then I stopped falling and went intangible. A crypt lay below me, looking a little decrepit but in good condition regardless if one ignored the moss and dirtiness.
Around the crypt several maids, though in unorthodox uniforms, and some demons chatted while taking some dirt powder from buckets and rubbing it on the few clean parts of the crypt. What the hell? Oh, it's a disguise. The crypt was likely new before but now they're trying to make it seem as though it's abandoned or older than it actually is.
I went a little closer and my magical senses tickled at me. The creatures were powerful. Not too powerful but hardly pushovers. Esdeath could handle two, maybe three of them. But they were just grunts, right? I could see no reason for maids that did menial work to be very strong. I should use some insurance.
"Ophis, I'm on an adventure but it's a bit dangerous. Would you-" I felt her soul press against mine and squeeze into me. My aura flickered around me before I adjusted to the change.
"Thanks," I said out loud. I was basically a god now. So I fell to the ground and started walking around, getting a closer look.
"-and if we get that part too well then people might get suspicious," a red-haired maid with twin braids seemed to argue. She had a little beanie on her head
"Shoot them," Another with an abnormal crosshair pupil and an eyepatch said in monotone. Her uniform had a small mantle of camouflaged cloth on it.
"Well yeah but Lord Ainz might be kinda mad. It's not what he ordered."
"Lord Ainz's goals are our goals!" A bullheaded demon proclaimed. "I'd love to devour any intruders whole yet Nazerick comes first!" I felt like I had heard enough and slipped down the stairs into the crypt. There were a few light enchantments on the crypt, probably wards to keep everyone out, but I slipped past them effortlessly.
I was a little disappointed by the halls around this Nazerick place. I was hoping for some sort of incalculable evil but all I saw were some skeletons reanimated through life magic. Lame. Observe called them death knights and they were somewhat strong but not overly so.
I went deeper into the crypt. It seemed average at first. It was all just graves and some little mausoleums. I found a few chests full of gold but they were warded to alert people if anybody took anything. I severed the magic on one and took the gold and a few magic items just for the sake of it. The place seemed kind of like a dungeon from RPGs with the chests.
I perked up a little when I found some stairs and descended. I flew down them in a moment rather than walk and looked around. It was more of the same…
I continued looking, taking less time to inspect everything, and came across a few vaguely interesting things. A chapel, a black room filled with insects and a giant cockroach - no way in hell I was going in there, and an impressive looking vault in the middle of a fancy graveyard against the walls of the crypt.
The vault was grand looking. It was trimmed with gold and made of black marble. In the center of it was a silver lock and a large keyhole almost as big as I was. It was also enchanted to the brim with wards and reinforcing magic.
There was at least a thread of magic leading away from the vault door. I hoped that it was a power source or a key and followed it to a small cottage in the corner of the graveyard. I almost wanted to walk in, but I hadn't come looking for a fight. The least I could do was try to play along. Hopefully there would be nicer sights down farther below the crypt.
So I knocked politely.
"Mrm! Coming!" somebody called out. I waited a moment before a youngish girl in a scarlet dress opened the door. She was paler than Ruby and had bone-white hair and red eyes. My first thought was albinism but I read some of her affinities, particularly a large one for blood. I glanced at her mouth to see some sharp fangs barely poking out. "Huh? Do I know you?"
"I need the key to get past the door. Would you mind if I borrowed it? I would give it back, of course," I said smoothly.
"Where'd your key go? I thought everybody got a temporary one while they worked up above." She seemed confused.
"I had mine with me but when I came down I found that it was gone. I don't really mind anybody borrowing mine but I didn't realize that they had until I got down here. If it's too much trouble I can go back up."
"Nah, just use mine," The vampire said with a grin and a wave of her hand. She turned around and walked off for a moment and came back with a large golden key. "Here. Bring it back after you're done with it."
"Thank you," I said with a smile. I had kind of been hoping for a fight, though.
"Mmm… I do know a way you could thank me." Her eyes trailed down me. I laughed, not expecting that.
"Maybe some other time. I have work to do right now." She seemed delighted by that for some reason and giggled.
"I'll see you around! Oh! What floor do you stay on? Nobody here likes it when I flirt with them."
"Well," I wondered if I wanted to lie. I didn't actually want to fight the vampire since I might feel a bit bad. She was cute and nobody had actually tried to hurt me. There was no reason to rob somebody's home, even if it was a crypt, and take all their loot. "I tend to alternate a lot. I mostly stay around the middle floors, though."
"Mm, I'll find you~" she said with a gleam in her eyes. I was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable and shrugged with another smile and left while the vampire laughed and turned back inside.
I opened the vault with the key and slid it through the mail slot of the cottage before descending deeper down. I was having a pretty nice time wandering around and I was happy to keep doing so.
[|||| =-= ||||]
Down farther in Nazerick things got much more interesting and I began requiring keys from the most powerful monster of the floor to continue. There was a large underground lake with a golem where I stole the key, a glacier where I simply asked the large bug guy to borrow it and he provided it without hesitation with a request that I return it quickly, a jungle and colosseum where I stole the key again since the two elves holding it were busy messing around with some giant hamster, and I finally arrived at a giant lava filled floor. I blitzed through that one with a scowl on my face, stealing the key from a demon in a red pinstripe suit seemingly chained to a desk, the poor guy.
I didn't find anything at all on the eighth floor besides some wolf creatures that I growled at and was growled at in turn. The key was in an unoccupied cave. It was the only time that there hadn't been a guardian. It was a bit eerie.
The ninth floor, though, was the staff quarters where I finally had some fun. It was actually nice looking for once. The walls were a pure marble with stylings of precious metals adding some flair to it. Where there wasn't marble or gold there was a rich red wallpaper. I thought it all looked a little pompous, but very nice. It also had the most amenities. I saw some ridiculous things like a nail salon, baths, and a grocery store. Why was there a grocery store down at the bottom of a crypt?! I supposed that everyone had to eat somehow.
I enjoyed myself a little bit, chatted with a bartender with a mushroom for a head while I enjoyed some drinks he made from magical ingredients, and eventually walked down the final set of stairs.
There was only one entrance to the tenth floor and it was beyond opulent. It was genuinely pretentious just how much precious metal was used to line the wall decorations and how much furniture had magical metals wrought into it. I recognized a few like orichalcum and adamantite, of which I had done some work with, and I knew that it served no practical purpose on furniture other than to look rich as all hell. It was the kind of wealth that I found myself a little disappointed with since the metal could be so much more useful than as furniture.
When I passed through some heavy gilded doors I looked around to see a throne room. But there was nobody sitting in it. I tapped my foot against the ground just to hear the echo of my footstep in the empty hall and felt a bit uncomfortable. Still, I had come so far. I may as well finish my exploration of the tomb. So I went down a door to the throne's side and walked down a much plainer hall with only a little gold lining it.
At the end of the plain hall I finally opened the door, not expecting anything, and saw a skeleton sitting calmly at a desk writing something.
"Yes?" he said, looking up. Red lights substituted eyes as he set his pen down. I took note of his huge reserves of mana. Almost five million points worth of it and a variety of affinities, though his death affinity was the strongest.
"Would you be Lord Ainz?" I guessed. The skeleton blinked, which is to say that his red lights disappeared and then reappeared a moment later.
"Who are you? How did you get here?!" he said sharply. A golden staff appeared in his hands and he stood up, a black mantle appearing over his shoulders.
"My name is Abyss and as for how I got here I just walked in after sneaking past the workers at the top of the tomb. Nobody thought to stop me for some reason."
"You…" Ainz was momentarily lost for words. "Impossible! The guardians would kick you out! That's what they do!"
"The guardians? Are they the strong ones in here?" He nodded. "Well the vampire flirted with me first of all." Ainz made a sort of grunt of despair at that and seemed to have a headache. It was impressive how he managed to convey that without facial muscles but he managed. "I stole the key from the golem after it didn't respond to me, asked politely for it from the warrior in the glacier, just picked it up and walked away while those elven twins were playing with a giant hamster, and I really don't like hot environments, they make the fur of my ears clump, so I stole the key that time too, and nothing impeded me on my way down here."
"The wards!" He sounded strangled.
"I specialize in antimagic." I shrugged. Ainz's bleached hand met his face with a clack.
"And you didn't even cast a spell," he groaned.
"Well some wolves growled at me on the third floor," I offered. "And I had to do some climbing on the lake on the fourth so I didn't get wet. I saw some creepy stuff beneath the water."
"This is a travesty… at the very least you're non-hostile. Could I ask for ten minutes of your time while I gather my subordinates?"
"Sure. I have nothing but time."
[|||| =-= ||||]
"For SHAME!" A dramatic gasp arose from the crowd of monsters all at once and small concerned mutterings echoed through the throne room hall. "For SHAME, citizens of Nazerick! Today is undoubtedly the greatest failure we have encountered in this world thus far, no, in EITHER of our worlds!" Ainz's tone was harsh with reprimand and he let the stunned silence of the throne room sink in for a few seconds. I felt some strange sort of magic trigger in his soul but decided not to ask, especially not in a public setting.
"This evening Nazerick was invaded," he said a bit more calmly. Another round of gasps ensued. "Without the slightest difficulty, without casting a spell, without drawing a sword, he made his way to the throne room and beyond where he found me alone in my office. Each and every one of you simply let him, an unfamiliar person, pass. Worse still, guardians, you lent him your floor keys!" He sounded furious at this point. Some of the powerful members, all of which were assembled on the stage beside him, stood in shock. The vampire almost looked to have tears in her eyes. A lady in a narrow white dress did have tears in her eyes with fury of her own mixed in.
"Thankfully for all of us, the intruder was not here to cause harm." He cooled his tone. "It is in light of this that I have called you here today. His entrance to our sacred home was a catastrophe the likes not seen before, yet it is without consequence due to sheer luck. Had he the intent to sabotage Nazerick we would be helpless to stop him as havoc was wrought on the sanctums of our tomb." Another ominous silence passed. Everyone looked frustrated or near tears at this point. I saw a lot of gripped fists in the crowd.
"Abyss, step forward," he commanded. I didn't like being ordered but I complied. I smiled innocently at the crows and a variety of hisses and growls met me. The guardians were looking at me in shock, fear, and anger in mixed amounts. I couldn't tell with some of them like the weird pink fetus thing with wings - where the hell was that when I was descending, or the icy warrior that had brushed me off when I asked for his key. "If you would relinquish our keys?" I pulled the few keys I had from my soul space, only the three of them I had stolen rather than borrowed, and handed them to the lich.
"Thank you for your compliance," he said with an incline of his head. "Now, would you please explain why you were here, exactly?"
"I was looking for a fight at first," I said calmly. I noticed how my voice seemed to echo throughout the hall easily. "But all the enemies I encountered were too weak to be worth my time until I met the guardian of the third floor."
"Shalltear," Ainz told me. The vampire winced with a hard blush of shame on her face.
"I had at first planned on fighting her but she didn't seem hostile at all so I asked for the key to borrow, making the excuse that my key had disappeared at the work site at the surface, which I walked past under a simple invisibility spell. I used it and returned it before leaving and continuing onwards. I stole the rest of the keys or simply picked them up in the few cases where there were no guardians present. Only the guardian of the fifth floor gave me a key willingly besides Shalltear."
"Cocytus," Ainz sighed disappointedly. "Abyss, you have my thanks that you have not approached us with ill intent. However, you put me in a difficult position. I cannot simply allow you to leave Nazerick should you put us at risk, yet you have committed no crimes against us. With this in mind I offer you this. Stay here, in Nazerick, and in time you may be known as another of us." The glares on me turned neutral in a split second as the Lord of Nazarick offered me his deal.
"While I appreciate the offer deeply I have to decline. I have a home and a family to return to," I replied.
"Nazerick is perfectly capable of providing for your kin. I would consider them under my protection," he responded.
"Thank you, yet there is one more factor of issue in your proposal, Lord Ainz," I said.
"Oh?"
"I am not subservient to anyone. In fact, despite being within your halls I consider myself to be on equal grounds with you." I anticipated anger from the audience so I immediately flared my aura channeling void and the blizzard. Frost crept up the walls and magic was released. Ainz's aura was released himself and his magic writhed under mine. He was a powerful mage but now powerful enough. He destroyed cities. I destroyed continents.
"I see," he said calmly. "Residents of Nazerick, evacuate while I and the guardians-"
"No." I sapped their magic with a controlled flare of void. The guardians synchronously stumbled, fell, or hunched over in pain. Ainz shook as his magic was torn from him but managed to stand tall. "I have no intention of killing any of you, Ainz, nor your family. When I found this place I was looking for a place in need of… vanquishing. Tell me, do I need to tear this tomb to the ground? Do you have any plans to kill innocents?"
"… I understand," Ainz said, though his voice was once more choked and a little pained as well. I pulled back my aura.
"Good," I said in satisfaction. "Don't do anything atrocious, cold blooded murder, terrorism, or generally harm people who don't deserve it and I'd be happy to be the best of friends with you, Lord Ainz."
"If I may, Lord Abyss." My gaze turned curious at the new addition to my name. "Would you introduce yourself formally so we may meet properly, as equals?" I blinked at that.
"I suppose so. I am Abyss Mavros, first apostle of the infinite dragon god Ophis as well as her lover, wielder of the void, and fledgling god. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"A pleasure," he responded a little stiffly, doubtlessly thinking the opposite. "I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of Nazerick and last of the forty one supreme beings. I hope we may work through our differences and emerge with a new understanding of each other." I smiled at that. It was a little flowery but about what I was aiming for nonetheless.
"Goodbye, Ainz. I'll meet you again soon enough, though I intend to see all of this world that I can in time. If there are others like you I think I'll enjoy myself here." I tapped the void and disappeared in an instant.
Those guys seemed like a lot of fun if they'd stop with the glares. I hoped that Ainz wasn't so straight-laced when he was away from his subjects but I doubted it. Maybe I should stay away from that world for the time being. Nazarick seemed like it was just forming a power base and I'd love some tour guides.