Chapter 8

The absolute first priority was to make sure Albedo was not being taken over by her own skill. True, his own skills also went somewhere he couldn't follow, but none had names attached to them; unless Nazarick itself was an entity, which was very much unlikely in his opinion.

Finding the Throne of Kings to be the best place to do the skill investigation, Momonga once again sat alone and retreated into his own mind.

Locating Albedo within |Nazarick| took some effort but navigating the labyrinth of the enormous skill was getting easier each time he did it. He cautiously approached her core and entered it to investigate |Ginnungagap|.

To his surprise, Albedo's |Seduce| skill activated and tried to ensnare him, but luckily, even within his own mind the emotional suppression worked like a charm and he was able to rationally explore it. There was no outside influence. Whatever the skill was doing was purely on Albedo.

'So she is doing it on purpose!' As much as he wanted to ignore the implications, Pero's and Buku's judgemental stares in the back of his mind prevented him from doing so.

Unbeknownst to him, Albedo squirmed in her seat as she casually chatted with her sisters, sensing Momonga getting in contact with her skill. 'I'll get you one day, Lord Momonga. You will be mine!' She reassured herself with a flutter of her wings.

Meanwhile, Momonga turned his attention to |Ginnungagap the Annihilator|, which much to his relief didn't show any signs of an unwelcome eldritch presence. 'Looks like there is nothing here. It's better to check from time to time nonetheless.' Momonga set a mental reminder to check on the skill at least every few weeks to see if there were any changes.

Next on his to-do list was to read through books on mathematics with the help of |Dark Sage|. During the initial search, he found two particularly interesting branches of this subject: the first was the paradox theory, and the second was complex numbers. By combining the two with higher dimensional geometry, Momonga hoped to gain some insight into the place where Rubedo's void part had come from, but instead stumbled upon something entirely unexpected; a solution on how to break Veldora's prison.

The barrier imprisoning the Storm Dragon was weaved with a net of imaginary spaces and paradoxes. |Dark Sage| until now had no means of unraveling it, but that wasn't the case anymore.

'Should I break him free? What if he turns hostile?' The suspicion was always there, but instinct told him that his worries were unfounded. Besides, Veldora had come to become like a brother to him. An unruly and careless brother, but a brother nonetheless.

'I guess there is no turning back. I am breaking him out. If anything else, Veldora getting his freedom back might serve as a deterrent for the other demon lords to not act hostile towards us.'

He quickly located Veldora's core within the labyrinthine web of skills that was Nazarick, and put his full attention to the net-like structure keeping it under containment. Not wanting to waste any more time, Momonga grabbed the first thread and tried to unravel it by solving the mathematical paradoxes behind it.

Unfortunately, the thread didn't give in easily as even with the full might of |Dark Sage| behind him his mind got overwhelmed.

Undeterred, he pressed on and for the first time in a while felt an intense headache.

He had to stop when the pain grew too intense, but by then the thread was starting to untangle by itself.

{ Hey chief, are you working on breaking my prison again? } Veldora's voice echoed in his mind through a message, sounding rather enthusiastic about it.

{ I think I have found a solution on how to break through it. Unfortunately, it will still take a while. The formulae that need to be solved are too complex for me to tackle them all at once. } Momonga messaged him back, sounding somewhat defeated.

It's not that he was giving up, but the fact that even with his skill he could barely start the whole process of untangling the prison's threads was not looking good.

{ Give me details on what you have discovered. My boundless mind will make short work of this pathetic prison. } Veldora said with a loud laugh that made Momonga's mind ring for a moment.

'Somehow, I doubt it. But let's see what Veldora can do.' Momonga mused before dumping all the relevant information directly into the dragon's mind.

{ This is weird. What sort of lunatic came up with all this? } Veldora asked in bafflement.

{ It is how the prison works. Now you see why the progress is so slow. } Momonga messaged back.

{ No worries chief, I got this. Prepare to meet the full might of Veldora! } He messaged back with an even more boisterous laugh.

Momonga just sighed at the dragon's antics and turned his attention back to the prison again. True to his word, Veldora had started to work on unraveling his prison, but his progress was not significantly faster than Momonga's.

Before long, Veldora messaged Momonga again. { Ugh, this is a nightmare. Chief, come lend me a hand and together we'll break it. } The dragon's voice carried an air of annoyed defeat, but also that of pig-headed stubbornness.

{ Sure, we can do it. } Momonga told him, putting all his mind back into the task.

Even though progress was that of a snail's pace and his headache grew only worse, Momonga carried on and continued solving formula after formula, paradox after paradox.

'I will not give in. I need… I need more calculating power! Sage, don't fail me on this!' He urged his own skill to give it's all. Soon his head felt as if engulfed in pure hellfire.

"I… will… not… let… this… stupid… thing… win!" he exclaimed with gritted teeth to an empty throne room.

Working in tandem for a moment, it felt like he and Veldora were a singular being pushing against the impossible odds that was the breaking of this paradoxical prison.

For once, the seemingly careless and lazy dragon was not holding back but going all out with the latent energies flooding the prison from all sides by using Momonga as conduit.

It was in this boundless sea of magicules that Momonga exerted himself, not wanting to be seen as the lesser by the dragon. 'I can't stop now. We need to push forward no matter what. We will not be defeated! Ainz Ooal Gown knows no defeat!' The old phrase he and his friends used to taunt enemies came back.

As if the universe itself responded to his demand, he felt a change starting within |Dark Sage|. The familiar Voice of the World only confirmed what he already knew.

< Request confirmed. Unique skill Dark Sage evolution into Ultimate skill Omniscience successful. >

His calculating speeds skyrocketed, as if switching from a mechanical computer to an electrical one. The intense headache was still there but at least the work now went on much faster. Seemingly Veldora was doing his part at a much greater speed as well.

After a minute or so the work was finally done and the net fell apart. His now much greater skill, Omniscience, instantly gave a list of all that was learned from breaking the prison. With an overstimulated mind and skull-breaking headache, he just let the skill finish the process on its own.

Confirmed. Ultimate skill Uriel, Lord of Vows acquired. The Voice of the World spoke again.

'What?! A Named skill- No, I need to fix this right away!' Momonga was about to delve into his own skill when an onslaught of messages came in.

All with the same report of the majority of Tempest having felt an intense shockwave of magicules. The weakest denizens had passed out and even many of the stronger ones were affected.

'What in the… Veldora!' Momonga opened his eyes and clutched his head with his right arm.

{ What did you do? } He angrily messaged the dragon.

{ Me? I… nothing?. } Veldora responded confusedly.

{ Half of the damn capital just passed out! You're telling me it has nothing to do with you getting out of that prison? } Momonga shouted in the dragon's mind.

{ Ohh, you mean my bottled up aura. Give me a sec and I'll reabsorb my avatar body and put the ring on. No biggie, right? } Veldora responded with an awkward laugh.

'No biggie? Really? This dragon… I should have known. At least no one died. Veldora surely can't be trusted to care about the consequences of his unrestricted presence.'

{ Albedo, how bad is it? } He asked his dutiful assistant.

{ Reports are still coming in. Most of those who passed out have awakened and are in mild shock. Lord Momonga, what happened? } She messaged back.

{ Veldora is out of his prison. There was a slight miscalculation on my part, and his aura that was bottled up within the prison was unleashed all at once. }

{ My Lord, you shouldn't be taking the blame for… Lord Veldora's careless actions. } Albedo said with a barely hidden anger in her voice.

{ I was helping him with breaking the prison, so responsibility for its consequences falls on my shoulders as well. } To stop her from arguing on the matter, he added. { Please update me when there is new information about the recovery of those who got affected by this incident. }

'Now where is that damn dragon? I should just send Buku after him. He could have warned me that there was so much scattered energy within his prison!' Momonga's mind filled with thoughts on how to punish the dragon for his carelessness.

As if sensing the imminent danger, Veldora appeared in the throne room in his human form and waltzed up to the throne with a face-splitting smile on his face. "We did it, chief. I am a free dragon once more!" the Storm Dragon declared joyously.

"You could have warned me!" Momonga interjected.

"Hey, give me a break! I was busy breaking the prison as well. Not to mention I needed to keep up with you when you picked up the pace. Luckily, my Investigator skill evolved into |Ultimate skill Faust, Lord of Investigation|." Veldora stopped for a moment and then as if a light bulb lit up above his head, "Hey, did you also get an ultimate skill?" he asked.

'Another skill with a name. Why do so many ultimate skills have names? I'll have to look into it.' "Yes. But that is beside the point. Most of the capital was affected by the sudden release of your rampant aura."

"Ey, ey, ey. Ease up, chief. How bad can it be?" Veldora said nonchalantly, completely ignoring Momonga's annoyance.

Momonga mentally sighed, "Just don't do that again. Your unrestricted aura is dangerous to the people around you."

"Um, yeah, about that... I can't keep it in forever, you know. I'll need a breather from time to time."

'The only place where he could reasonably do that is the eighth floor. Oh, Pero did tell me that Veldora got along with the four dragons rather well.'

"I think you can unleash your aura on the eighth floor. But no fighting anyone there, not even for sparing!" Momonga said sternly.

Veldora smirked and tried to intimidate Momonga, but when he saw that the Overlord not only was unphased by his attempt, but the flames on his sockets grew ever more intense, he quickly backed down. "Sure chief, I will not fight anyone there. But you have to throw me a bone and figure out where and who I can fight. Can't lose my touch, you know?"

"I will look into it. But until we can give you a safe environment to fight within, there will be no fighting!" Momonga said and then went for the kill. "I'm sure Rubedo would love testing her abilities against the strongest target around."

Veldora's smile quickly faded at the mention of the creepy angel's name, but he just waved it away. "Sure, I'll put her in her place when the time comes. Now then, I have some birdbrain's ass to kick." He laughed evilly as he walked out of the throne room. "With my new skill, he doesn't even have a chance to win against me in chess!"

Momonga shook his head and slumped down on the throne with a tired sigh. 'Solve one problem and in exchange a few more arise.' He remarked and closed his eyes for a short rest. The headache seemingly planned to stay for a while.

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For the last few days, the release of the Storm Dragon Veldora was all everyone was talking about. Today was no exception. The moment he walked into the tavern that was all he heard from the other patrons.

'This is getting old. It's not like everyone hadn't seen him walking around before.' He found a quiet corner at the far end of the main hall and raised his massive hand to get the tavern maid's attention.

One of the goblinas instantly noticed and walked up to him with a polite smile. "Sir Rigurd, good to see you again. What can I bring you today?" She asked in a chipper voice.

"The usual, and please bring me a smoked cowdeer shoulder as well. I had a very busy day with all the latest events and didn't have time for dinner." he explained with a toothy smile.

"Sure thing, Sir Rigurd." the waitress said and flipped around, nimbly maneuvering between the tables.

Even with orc sizes in mind, the tavern was rather packed and there was not a lot of space to move around. With his wife being just as busy as him, they often dined in taverns either with friends or alone and met only at the end of the day. He wasn't the only one, as with the affordable food and the overly long working hours that most chose to take, few cooked at their homes.

Just as he leaned back in the comfortable tavern chair he noticed a familiar figure entering the tavern. If Rigurd could at least somewhat navigate the crowded tavern with some difficulty, then for someone of Geld's size it was a hard challenge.

Rigurd smirked and waved at the massive orc who was looking around and scratching his head in confusion on how to get deeper in.

Geld noticed him and waved back but still stood at the entrance. Luckily for him, one of the tavern maids noticed him and quickly guided Geld to Rigurd's table through the safest path possible.

Once he was safely guided to the other end of the tavern, she quickly took his order and walked off with a half jog.

"Hey Rigurd. With all the commotion going on I didn't expect to see you here." Geld said as he sat down on a chair that was at least a size too small for him.

"You know how it is. Liches' love busy work, so I have to only do the overall planning." Rigurd said dismissively. "But I could say the same about you. Aren't you the one who works till the sun goes down?"

"Lord Momonga ordered anyone to take it easy until it's clear the 'incident' has not left any lasting effects on my people." Geld responded with a groan. "I have no idea what to do with all this free time. I'm not used to just sitting around."

"Just relax a little. There are plenty of leisure activities to be found in the capital. Besides, you can lay back in the tavern for a few hours if nothing else fancies you."

"I guess…" Geld sighed heavily, as if he was sentenced to a torture room instead of ordered to take more time to rest.

"You know what the Lords say all the time. It's necessary to have leisure time as well, and not only work." Rigurd continued, but then his attention was captured by the siren call of the food that was delivered by the tavern maid.

She put the plates and mugs down with a smile and said. "Here you go, Sir Rigurd and Sir Geld. Have a pleasant meal!"

Both men quickly dug into food and didn't talk much during the meal. However, a nearby commotion pulled their attention away from the food. In the middle of the tavern's main hall was a small group preparing for a performance.

Curious to find out more, Rigurd watched as four figures prepared stools and sat down. In front of everyone else was a young kijin woman, and behind her sat a dragonewt with some sort of flute that looked way too advanced compared to the ones goblins traditionally used for music.

To the right of the newt sat a hobgoblin holding a drum between his legs, and to the left a goblina with a small string instrument she held in her hands.

The melodies they played were rather simple but the angelic voice of the singer more than made up for it. By the third song, the chatter among the patrons had died down completely and the customers were fully enthralled by the performance.

'Lady Buku had her hand in this.' Rigurd mused, remembering how she was showing the designs of various musical instruments and writings in a strange language that apparently translated into music when used properly.

He of course knew that the leaders of Tempest wanted to build a nation where people not only worked but had time for leisure and artistic activities too.

To see the first results of that vision was a pleasant experience to say the least.

Proofreading by Sad_Smiles, Kazuma, alassandro, Abyssalidiot, Somnium Hypnos, and I AM THE STRING CUTTER

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.