Chapter 2: Set Stage

"AAAAHHH!"

The sound of an old man's cry of pain and loss echoed through the halls as Sirzechs Lucifer approached the Phenix family's Rating Game Recovery Room (which was named so because of Beelzbub's insistence, instead of naming it more sensible 'infirmary') after depositing Rias Gremory to Gremory family's Recovery Room, alongside her… Pawn…

Sirzechs couldn't stop his eyebrow from twitching in annoyance, however he was quite certain that any attempt to strangle the young man who apparently wielded [Boosted Gear], would lead to him getting an ear-lashing from his adorable but quite scary little sister. Still, the temptation was always there, and what are devils if not slaves to their temptations?

Sirzechs tried to put his thoughts to rest and forget the young man who was Sirzechs's sister's pawn, whom he had caught fondling his sister's breasts, right after the Rating Game ended but before either of them received medical help, and before Rias could regain consciousness, and failed.

Grayfia touched Sirzechs's sleeve and the Maou breathed out. "Indeed. I did hear Rias's warnings that Issei-kun was an… interesting person… but I feel I didn't quite set my bar low enough if he can still manage to limbo under it with such little effort."

"Perhaps setting it on the floor would suffice?" Grayfia commented dryly, causing the edges of Sirzechs's lips to lift ever so slightly. His wife's mild suggestions, even if made in jest, always brightened his day. "If not, we can always dig a trench and bury it. Or him."

"I fear you would have to bury me with him, in case Rias found out." Sirzechs jested back. "Regardless, we should concentrate on the conversation ahead. The head of the Phenix family seemed quite distressed from his message, and if that cry of pain was any indication, I feel we may need to fear the worst."

Sirzechs shook his head as the pair stopped in front of the double doors which would lead to the recovery room. A nurse stood before the doors and bowed to the pair. "We're here. Show us in."

Grayfia saw to the usual greetings and assurances expected of someone seeking entry to a place of healing of when the occupants could be in critical state and thus vulnerable. After the customary exchange of greetings and assurances was over, Phenix family's nurse led the pair to where Riser Phenix was supposed to be recovering from his sudden and unexpected loss in Rating Game.

Only, Riser Phenix wasn't recovering.

"AAHH!" The pitiable cry of loss coming from Lord Phenix tore at the hearts of the room's occupants, those being Lady and Lord Phenix, their daughter Ravel and two sons- Ruval, and another son whose name Sirzechs couldn't quite remember, alongside Riser's entire peerage- or rather, his ex-peerage.

The daughter seemed to be still in shock, while the younger son, much like his mother and the family's eldest son, wept quietly.

"Sirzechs Lucifer-sama, Grayfia Lucifuge." Lady Phenix greeted the pair cordially, or as cordially one can when trying to keep one's focus and calm on not shattering and breaking like her husband. "I fear you may have caught us at… inopportune time. Please…"

"It's… It's alright. I called for him. Thank you for answering this foolish old man's plea, Sirzechs-sama." Lord Phenix seemed to compose himself, his eyes still glued to the body lying on the recovery room's bed. "I'm certain that Sirzechs-sama has already realized, but my son… my baby boy is not regenerating. He's dead. He's…. dead…"

"How did this happen, Lord Phenix?" Sirzechs asked, putting as much sympathy to his voice as possible. The reason it didn't come naturally was because, to put it bluntly, the now-dead man had openly declared that he wanted to turn Sirzechs adorable little sister into a breeding sow. He congratulated himself for keeping his face as it was and not betraying his true feelings.

"I... do not know... he was dead when he arrived from the teleporter." Lord Phenix's voice cracked.

"The wards overseeing the Game must have malfunctioned to a great degree." Sirzechs sighed, swearing despair upon his old friend Ajuka Beelzebub as his invention, the Rating Game System, had malfunctioned to a unprecedentedly serious degree and had dumped the entire mess upon Sirzechs's lap. "First Issei-san, Rias's Pawn, was mortally wounded during the Game and he wasn't retired automatically. And it happened again with Riser-san in the same match! I shall see to it that the source of the malfunction is fixed, and the culprit is brought to justice. The chances of this being a freak accident are between zero and none."

"To me." Lord Phenix grunted. "Whoever was behind this, whoever tried… killed my baby boy. Bring them to me."

"That too may be justice, Lord Phenix, but sometimes justice should be brought to light and not to a torture chamber. Future lives…"

"I care little, Sirzechs-sama."

"Yet I must bear the burden of Maou, and act not only in the interest of myself, but also in our race as a whole. If this incident repeats…" Sirzehs breathed out with as much visible resignation as he could, while internally he was already calculating his next move on the mental chessboard. After all, he gained plenty of leverage from the lord's rudeness towards the reigning Maou, even though both knew that the lord could not be truly expected to control his emotions at times like these. "...Very well. Should I hear something, you'll be the first to know."

"Thank you, Sirzechs-sama. And at the same time, I must apologize. It seems my boy will not take your sister's hand in marriage due to his demise." Lord Phenix said. "While his language was… cruel… At times, please understand that for our family the battlefield is no place for pleasantries and courtship. A cruel jest that throws an opponent into an easily exploitable frenzy is a valid tactic, a threat made with cardboard swords is as valid as a threat with a steel blade should the enemy believe it."

"I'm certain he would have revealed his tender side to Rias, had their marriage come to pass." Sirzechs had to try really, really hard to keep himself from biting his cheek from the inside as he let the words flow out with as much fake conviction and sadness he could manage. "Yet, this leaves Riser-san's Peerage without King, have you perchance already selected your successor?"

"Is that not too hasty question, Sirzechs-sama?" Lady Phenix interjected, her gaze locked to the body in the room. "My son's ashes… flesh hasn't cooled yet, and we are already talking about who bears his burden…"

"That may be, I apologize for my rashness. I was merely wondering. If you require my assistance, I would be delighted to have them as my wards until you find another King to take them, as I believe that your youngest doesn't qualify as a King just yet." Sirzechs nodded his head just so slightly it could theoretically constitute an apology. "On a different note, I believe my presence here is detrimental at the moment- a family should mourn in peace. In parting however, may I request to see the doctor's reports once the cause of death is verified? Seeking who did this would be easier if I knew what they did."

"...You may." Lord Phenix said before Lady Phenix could deny him. "Albeit, I can tell you right now if you wish. Please leave us afterwards. I fear re-telling it may… affect our mental state even further. Furthermore, the information contains some... details I'd rather not reach Beelzebub-sama's ears."

"Of course." Sirzechs agreed somberly. 'Hm? Information that shouldn't reach Beelzebub?'

"He… didn't die from a wound." Lord Phenix said with a voice that was barely past whisper. "Nothing is wrong. All organs are as they should be. No wounds were observed. However, the only Devil energy in his body comes from ambient radiation from within the Underworld. He's… empty. The Pieces don't recognize him. A King Piece, which was quite shocking as we didn't know he had acquired one, fell from his chest, and won't go back. And the King piece itself seems… inert, like if it was just a regular chess piece. Phoenixes aren't supposed to die like that- even if we are killed we'll be reborn from the ashes of our old bodies. Our souls go in cycles, even though our memories grow anew with each death, our souls are eternal. Now… nothing of it remains. No fire rose from his body to burn him to ashes and be reborn. He just lies, like a corpse. Like a dead human. Riser… my boy has suffered his Final Death."

"This is… worrying." Sirzechs blinked as Lord Phenix indulged in his mysticism of Phenix family's signature abilities, even though reality of them wasn't quite as mystic- indeed, while Phenix Devils were capable of regenerating from even normally fatal injuries, they didn't actually reincarnate from ashes, albeit one could call it so when Phenix Devil was burned to death and regenerated from the ash, which in turn would allow them to take a different body shape or appearance. 'So Riser had somehow acquired a King Piece... I may have to ask Issei what he saw. And protect him from Phenix's wrath- no doubt they'll place the blame on him once they realize Issei was closest to him when Riser died, regardless of what I'll do or say. The insults that boy had leveled against Phenix's heir before the altercation won't help his cause either. Perhaps I'll need to find a suitable decoy that the Phenix family can chase until they calm down.' "I shall see what can be done- saving Riser may be beyond our grasp, but vengeance…"

"Vengeance is always in our grasp." The old Lord gruffed out. "Go in peace, Sirzechs-sama. Thank you."

Sirzechs exited the recovery room, Grayfia in close tow.

"Well then, let's hope Issei-san saw something." Sirzechs wondered aloud. "This might get ugly."

Grayfia could only nod in agreement.

"ISSEI-KUN!"

"RIAS! SOMEONE HELP HER!"

"ISSEI! NO, STAY WITH US!"

"HENTAI!"

"ASIA, QUICKLY!"

Screams surrounded Momonga as soon as the red-headed man and gray-haired maid dropped him and the red-headed flasher-girl to what looked like infirmary. 'I seriously need to figure out some kind of defense against forced teleportation… I wonder if [Dimensional Lock] would prevent that? It's a wide-area general teleportation blocker so maybe, but it also stops me from escaping unless I use [Gate]...'

He resisted the instinct to cast [Dragon Lightning] as an incredibly noisy flock of girls seemed to bubble around him and the red-headed girl. Mostly because the girls seemed to bubble with worry and panic, rather than attempting to attack Momonga. He thus concluded that the group was either friendly, or at least in non-aggression pact with the red-headed girl and Momonga. 'Is this what young people look and act like these days? So noisy!'

"Please lower your voices." Momonga said, or rather attempted to say, as his sentence was somewhat wobbly considering the amount of blood he spurted out with each word. 'Right, blood-flooded lungs. Speaking with life-liquid might not be advisable.'

A girl who looked like a nun placed her hands on Momonga's chest while a woman clad in a shrine maiden's outfit grabbed the red-head girl and placed her into an infirmary bed on the other side of the room.

Before Momonga could ask what the nun was doing a green glow seemed to enter Momonga's body, followed by a hiss of pain escaping the nun's lips. "I- I can't, I can't heal him, I-Issei-kun, please… please… God, please!"

Momonga felt a miniscule, barely noticeable dip on his health bar as the word 'God' was uttered, and he instantly returned to high-alert combat mode. 'Right, these wounds on my body need to go… [Silent Magic: Stitch]'

[Stich] was a third-tier spell that allowed flesh-based undead to either attach new body parts to their bodies, or reattach lost body parts, or repair wounds. It was particularly useful for low-level necromancers that specialized in flesh-based undead like zombies as it allowed them to make amalgamations from lower-tier undead, like attaching Corpse Vulture's wings to a Skeleton Warrior to make a flying undead.

The resulting undead was around level 20-30, depending on what 'ingredients' were used, but there were limitations on how high level amalgamations it could create. In the past Momonga had tried to [Stitch] two reanimated Flesh Horrors captured from Hel together, but unfortunately the pair of level 60-something undead had just turned into a single level 20 creature of writhing mass of limbs and muscle.

The spell didn't do much to restore skeletons either, outside allowing simple bone reattachment, and its health restoration wasn't much to talk about at higher levels either. But from what Momonga gathered his current body was likely either 'alive', a puppet, or a zombie. Thus having cosmetically intact body was enough, having actually working organs wasn't a high priority.

The wounds in his chest closed and the damage to his internal organs disappeared, leaving particularly nasty scars in their wake thanks to the spell's nature. The newly regrown flesh above his heart looked like if someone had torn at it with a rusty power drill, mangling flesh into an uneven spiral scar. Momonga felt the bones of his left arm click in place and the limb twisted back into place from its earlier limp and dislocated state, causing the nun in front of him to jump in fright. "I-Issei? Y-you can regenerate?"

"Issei?" Momonga blinked as he answered instinctively. 'Issei, huh. So this 'body' I'm in… controlling… occupying? It is called Issei?'

"Issei-kun, i-is everything alright, Issei-kun?" The nun seemed incredibly nervous but didn't appear to be hostile.

Thus, Momonga's first thought of comboing [Dragon Lightning] and [Napalm] to create an electrified flame storm in the room due to the attack he received on his health slowly seeped away. It practically disappeared as he realized that the nun had flinched in pain as well when the word 'God' had left her lips, thus the 'attack' on Momonga was likely not intentional. 'Right, what was that just now?'

'Ah, so that is a 'Taboo' word. How quaint to make 'God' a taboo.' Momonga sighed internally as he thought about it and realized what had happened. Taboo words in YGGDRASIL were usually expletives or other words deemed unsuitable for use by government mandate, which would cause between moderate and heavy damage to any player using them in the game system. A 'punishment from above' as the developers put it. Most of the 'banned words' included things of historic and political nature, and the most severe punishments could result in the chat logs getting transmitted to a corporate sub-contractor, which would then lead to a knock on the door outside the game. 'For 'God' to be a taboo... I suppose that the people here take religion really seriously. I have to be careful about that...'

'I'll have to interrogate her later and see what she knows.' Momonga began formulating his plans and setting them in motion 'For now, since I know nothing about this Issei character, perhaps it'd be best to feign ignorance or pretend amnesia. If these characters were close to this Issei character they could tell us apart instantly otherwise. I can probably use that spear to the chest as an excuse… I'm assuming this 'faction' I'm in custody of is opposed to the faction that attacked me and is aligned with 'Issei.' However, I have no guarantees that they are not like just like every other human faction in YGGDRASIL, that being anti-heteromorph and anti-undead. I should keep my true nature hidden as long as I can… Assuming this world works even slightly similar to YGGDRASIL.'

"Excuse me, but could I know your name, miss?" Momonga asked the nun, taking in the scenery around them and figuring that using polite, if outdated patterns of speech would be appropriate. Since the humans around him weren't instantly hostile, or at least weren't hostile yet, he should probably be courteous at least until the situation deteriorated, or until he got his bearings and figured out the W's of 'What, where, why, who'. "I seem to have forgotten some things. I fear my injuries might have scrambled my memories somewhat."

"Huh?" The nun stared at Issei in blank shock. "I- Issei-kun… I-I'm Asia! Don't you recognize me?!"

"I'm afraid not, my lady. May I..." Momonga shook his head but had to cancel another instinctive counter-attack as the nun dived in and hugged his waist in blind desperation. '...I'll need to lower my readiness level a bit, while it's possible to question a corpse I think making enemies in the middle of nowhere by counter-attacking against something like a hug would seriously mess my faction relationships...'

The nun sobbing into Momonga's torn and ruined clothes seemed to garner the attention of the room's other occupants. He went quickly over each of them.

'A shrine maiden, possibly a disguised succubus based off of body type, possibly a caster or a mage, a cat-girl, approximately ten or twelve years old, perhaps an assassin? A late teenage boy in school uniform wielding a katana, hm, swordmaster, so if this nun is a healer, they have fairly balanced party just lacking a tank and a secondary healer, who must be...' Momonga's quick categorization was interrupted as the white-haired girl sent him a quiet but deadly glare. 'Ah, so, she is an assassin.'

"Hentai." The white-haired girl whispered with disgusted tone, looking at Momonga and turning her eyes towards Asia. "Get away from Hentai-Issei, Asia. He'll feel you up."

"Hm?" Momonga's eyes widened as the words clicked together and he glanced at the nun who looked like she was barely past childhood. 'Wait, if I'm 'Issei'... Don't tell me this 'Issei' was a pedophile who attacked underage children?!'

He thanked the emotion suppression for activating and taking care of the rising bubble of varying emotions, mostly centered around Momonga's now-shattered hope of making good first impressions. Or second first impressions as it were. And then suppressed the emotions again as he contemplated another, dreadful possibility.

"Ah, Asia-sama. May I inquire…" Momonga felt the nun freeze, causing hold around his waist to tighten as he tried to carefully word the sentence. "...Were we perhaps in a relationship before I was stabbed?"

Asia seemed to blush deep and buried her head in Momonga's chest. "I-I- I- I…"

The horrifying moment came to an end as the white-haired cat-girl pulled the nun off Momonga, much to his relief.

"Hentai, stop trying to seduce Asia. Pervert. Pedo. Die and fall into a river." The white-haired girl intoned in an emotionless voice, causing Momonga to die a little inside. The girl then turned towards the nun. "Asia, Rias needs healing. Doctor healed her but [Twilight Healing] could help reduce the pain and make her recovery faster."

"R-Right, Koneko-san…" the nun, still blushing, was dragged to the red-headed girl's bed while a elderly-looking man in a doctor's outfit left said bedside and walked towards 'Issei'.

"Ah, Issei Hyoudou-sama. My apologies for not seeing you sooner, I believed that Asia-sama was needed to heal your wounds, since your wounds were far more severe than Rias Gremory-sama's. And to be fair, Asia-sama's [Sacred Gear] would have been much better at healing you than anything I could have done." The doctor bowed to Momonga, causing him to bow in turn as having an elder doctor bow to him made Suzuki Satorou more than a little uncomfortable. "Ah, please don't move too much, Hyoudou-sama. Your wounds have barely healed. And… Ah, It seems Asia-sama's healing wasn't quite enough to prevent scarring. My apologies."

The doctor bowed again, causing even more intense discomfort for Momonga.

"Please, it's perfectly alright. Scars are but a mark of life lived. If fault must be placed, let it be placed upon our enemies." Momonga decreed, causing the eyebrows of the girls in the room to practically hit their hairlines.

"Hentai is weird." Momonga turned his eyes on the girl Asia had called 'Koneko'. The girl had scrunched her nose in a way that was somewhere between confusion and disgust. It made her look cute in a way a kitten would look cute if caught staring at a cockroach.

"Hm, Hyoudou-sama. May I ask how you are feeling?" The doctor interjected. "Are you feeling light-headed, confused…"

"Confused, doctor." Momonga nodded severely, clasping his hands together as he saw a chance to strike the iron. "I have no recollection of events leading to me being stabbed with what appeared to be a spear made of fire. I hope someone could explain to me what happened for such an event to come to pass?"

"Ah, amnesia then?" The doctor tilted his head. "Were you struck in the head during the fight, Hyödou-sama?"

"I am unsure." Momonga sighed. "As I have said, I have little recollection of the events."

"I see." The doctor looked into Momonga's host's eyes. "True, your pupils are somewhat dilapidated. Paling skin, symptoms of shock and likely blood loss. Faint heartbeat?"

The doctor placed an instrument on Momonga's chest, causing the Overlord within to panic before he used another [Silent Magic: Stitch] to restart his host's heart which he realized had long stopped beating. Cosmetic features like beating heart weren't needed for the Undead so his first cast had likely ignored it. "Ah, there it is. Irregular heart rhythm. Hm, cold skin… I must ask you to lie down and rest, Hyoudou-sama. You have lost a lot of blood as well, but Asia-sama's healing should have restored most of it. My staff shall observe your recovery as well as your Kings and with hope your memories will return post-haste after enough rest. Your amnesia might be short-term only but I'll inform your King once Gremory-sama wakes should preparations for long-term amnesia be necessary."

"Very well, thank you for your hard work. Please confer my deepest apologies and deeper thanks to my... King should I not be conscious or able at the time." Momonga nodded resolutely while he breathed out in relief inside his head and turned his host's body so it lay on the bed. 'My King? I have no king, and I have no nation but Ainz Ooal Gown… Ah, 'Issei's king. I hope I don't have to pretend to be subservient to some dusty old snake… Well, phase one of operation 'Use random excuses to make my way out' is a go'

If Momonga had caught the looks of pure shock on the faces of the girls on the other side of the room he might not have felt so victorious.