4 Carne Village

Enri Emmot could be seen carrying some water buckets through the village and greeting the other villagers with a big smile.

Things have been looking up for the village for the past few days.

They found a lot of rare herbs in the forest, their harvest was extra plentiful, and some monster corpses were discovered and sold for parts at a good price, good event after good event seemed to keep happening.

She hummed to herself as she remembered the best thing to have happened in the past few days, her mother, who came down with a horrible sickness, suddenly recovered. No one could tell why, but now there are talks of something blessing their little village.

She giggled at the thought, there was simply no way their humble abode would ever be blessed by anything, though the thought of it felt nice she supposed.

She arrived at her house, it wasn't anything spectacular, being your average village home made out of stone with a small chimney, but it had a very warm and friendly feeling.

She could hear her sister running around and smell her mother's cooking as she brought the two buckets of water inside.

They would be needed for the delicious soup her mother wanted to make today after all.

"Hey, mom! I brought the water!" Enri shouted at her mom, who was in another room, her mother responded immediately: "Good job dear! Put the buckets here for me!" "Okay!"

Enri walked deeper into their small three-room home and put the two buckets next to her mom in the kitchen.

Her dad was working in the fields right now, so he was outside, usually he only came home when the sun started setting.

She felt a bit bad for him since he had to work all day to provide for them, but she, unfortunately, couldn't help much with the physical work that the adult men take care of.

She was simply too weak, plain and simple as that, so she helped by picking useful herbs instead, her friend Nfirea was a skilled herbalist so she knew a lot more than the average villager.

She helped her mother cook for a while until some panicked shouts could be heard from the outside.

"I-ITS THE EMPIRE!" A man screamed with all his strength as he ran back to the village from the farming fields surrounding it, alerting the village of the impending danger.

An arrow was sticking out of his side, and as he reached the village, the adrenaline in his veins finally failed to keep him standing. He collapsed to the ground, most likely due to severe blood loss.

Enri ran outside just in time to see the man collapse, her eyes going wide at the sight.

She turned around almost immediately as did everyone else, all either desperately hiding or getting their family out of the village.

"MOM!" Enri shouted, desperate to protect her family from the bloodthirsty knights.

Her mom was already getting ready to leave, and Enri's little sister, Nemu, could be seen dressed in some thicker clothes.

Enri's mother told Enri the following, her voice shaky but determined to protect her beautiful daughters: "You need to take your sister to the woods, hopefully, they won't follow you there."

"What about you?" Enri asked, but the response she got was concerning, to say the least. "Don't worry about me, I can handle myself." "Bu-" "No buts! Now go!"

Enri knew all too well how little time they had, so she didn't argue anymore.

The trio left the house and looked around, the village was in a panic, everyone was desperate to run away and it showed, that people with barely anything on them were running away in random directions, their instincts overpowering reason.

Then, suddenly, as the first Baharuth knight stepped inside the village on his steed, time froze, or it certainly felt like it.

Enri looked up, and what she saw could only be described as horrifying.

A being that looked human but was covered in hundreds of eyes head to toe could be seen floating above the village, three pairs of wings stretched from his back, its form was that of a small innocent child, and its eyes each looked in different directions, leaving no escape from its vision.

Whatever that thing was, it felt good and holy, too holy, it felt like every sin, every bad deed, every tiny thing a person did wrong and right in their life was for it to read like a book, Enri felt her gut cramp and her brain ache as the entity even glanced at her, if its main two eyes looked at her, she would probably die on the spot or become crippled mentally and physically.

Her knees turned to jelly as she collapsed to the floor, only then did she notice the small winged angel-like creatures floating up from her shoulders towards the entity, but her mind dismissed them immediately, compared to the floating being in the sky, they were nothing but ants.

Her sister and mother also collapsed, not even their breathing could be heard, their bodies and souls shaking in fear-

-No, not fear. Terror, absolute, soul-crushing, mind-numbing terror, and even that was an understatement to the feelings the monstrosity in front of them inspired.

After what felt like hours but was in reality mere seconds, another entity appeared.

Like a Ying to a Yang, this entity was abhorrently evil, its undead face inspiring fear of death and reminding anyone witnessing it of their mortality, its aura seemed to cover the village in a shadow of dread and fear.

Its noble and gaudy clothing made it look like the wealthiest creature in the world, its two red eyes seemed to pierce anything they looked at, including people. Its staff, a golden mix of snakes circling one another, inspired further terror in Enri's heart.

Enri couldn't move, she wanted to move in front of her sister and mother to protect them, her brain, though numbed and in severe pain, still screamed at her body to act, but it refused, the instinctual fear of death and judgment now making it difficult for her body to even keep functioning.

She could only struggle as she heard her mother fall to the floor, her sister still conscious, though barely.

Then, the winged entity spoke for the first time, its voice sounded like a mix of hundreds of voices, children, adults, and elderly all mixed to make one cacophony of noise.

"DO NOT FEAR."

Enri would have had a sarcastic thought about that command if her brain had the capacity for it now, but surprisingly, she felt her mind calm down and her body moved according to her will again.

She immediately rushed to her mother's and sister's side, checking her mother's pulse, she felt relieved to feel her heart still beating with the same vigor and strength.

She shielded her sister from the two creatures, hoping it would not be too late to stop this from scarring her sister, though it was far too late now.

Merely glancing at this kind of creature would burn it into a person's memory, being this close and hearing it speak? That will never be forgotten by the mind, body, or soul.

The incarnation of death now spoke, its jaw not even moving.

Its voice was like a deep rumbling, not unlike an earthquake, it announced itself loudly to everyone around, inspiring fear and awe in everyone who heard it. It was the antithesis of the previous voice, which seemed to involve every age and gender, this voice was just one deep voice, all is equal in front of death after all.

"Now then..." It spoke like it was musing to itself, the other creature focused its eyes on it, allowing everyone to breathe in relief for a second.

"Let us deal with the remaining invaders."

Enri looked at the soldiers whom she completely forgot about, and needless to say, they were in a sorry state.

The whole time, the creature's eyes were focused on them, and it showed in their appearance.

Most were completely collapsed on the ground, moaning in pain, they were trying to move, if their twitching was an indicator that is, and some had pools of blood below them, their minds and bodies incapable of handling the stress of judgment.

The creature looked back, making everyone choke back their breaths in fear, and it summoned a weapon.

The spear was full of anger and malice, contrary to its inclusive and unified voice, the spear was the opposite, it was made to silence voices, and Enri could swear she saw a ghost bashing against the black gem within the spear, desperate to get out.

Death and the creature descended towards the soldiers, their auras getting progressively smaller and smaller until they felt like normal people, though their appearance showed their true nature.

Everyone stared at each other, their eyes wide in fear and awe.

When faced with things beyond human comprehension, the brain copes in interesting ways, one of those ways is worship, and a spark of zealot faith could be seen in the eyes of some villagers.

The soldiers who were still conscious were now free to move, and they screamed at the top of their lungs.

"How noisy, I DEMAND SILENCE!" Its voice roared with the elegance of a monarch while also being filled with the energy of an enraged warrior, causing everyone to stop doing anything.

And so it was silent, no one dared to make a noise lest they displease the entities.

"Now, you shall go and tell your masters, your OWNERS this: If they ever dare to come near this place again, I will come for them, and there is nothing in this world which will stop me."

It made sense, after all, what could stop them in the first place? Enri doubted anything on the planet could even slow them down.

The Knights ran, they ran so fast they broke through their limits, their fragile souls on the verge of cracking like a porcelain tea cup.

The two entities then turned their attention to the villagers, the winged entity took the appearance of a young child while the undead placed a mask upon his head, shielding the villagers from his piercing eyes.

"You are safe now, there is no need to worry," Ainz's voice wasn't very loud, but in a zero-noise environment like this, everyone could hear him.

The villagers looked at each other, their eyes filled with uncertainty and fear, the recent events ingrained in their brains forever.

Enri meanwhile helped her mother get up, her eyes opening.

Thoth noticed the woman having some trouble and approached, causing Enri to throw herself in front of her mom.

"Don't worry, I will only heal her, something so stressful would be bad for her heart."

Enri didn't trust the entity, why would she? It nearly killed everyone in the village merely by existing! But it's not like she had a choice in the matter, so she VERY hesitantly moved slightly to the side.

"Thank you! Now then." It thanked her extended a hand out towards her mother and said [Greater Recovery], her mom's skin returned to a healthy color and her eyes regained full awareness.

Thoth then took to the sky and cast a large-scale [Maximize magic: Area Heal].

All of the villagers immediately returned to their peak energy, their eyes wide at the miracles performed in front of their eyes.

Ainz also took to the skies and announced in a triumphant voice: "My name is Ainz Ooal Gown and this is one of my Guardians, Thoth. If you ever need help again, turn to my guardian's servants," Ainz pointed at the two small angels, "And they shall help you, should an emergency arise, they will protect you, in return, I would like you all to give me some information, where is the village chief?"

Everyone turned to the chief who looked like he wanted to disappear, but he stepped up anyway.

Thoth POV:

The following hours were nowhere near as exciting but were still of critical importance.

It seems like nothing else has changed significantly so far, the position of Nazarick and the diplomatic tensions were the same, so that was a huge relief for me.

Additionally, I noticed some children looking through the windows at us, so after getting permission, I left the home and followed them.

They looked rather scared when I followed them outside, so I made some toys with [Create Item] and gave them to them.

The children, innocent and trusting, took the toys and started playing with them, the adults observed carefully, but seeing me play with the children and making them laugh, they relaxed, albeit slightly.

Good, we need to establish a good reputation, Carne Village is of critical importance to Nazarick.

After the meeting Ainz went around the village and asked some questions, asking about recent harvests, the ground fertility, and other things like that.

He used some scrolls to boost the village's food production by nearly three times, he used cheap scrolls but fair enough, and he also pulled out a lot of Nazarick food for everyone to enjoy.

The adults hesitated a bit, but after I ate a whole plate and was perfectly fine, a few brave souls also tried, and then the whole village was feasting.

Great, they trust us a bit now, though they still maintain a respectful stance and keep their distance, but that doesn't need to be changed necessarily.

As the sun began to set, I noticed a large dust cloud in the distance.

Ah, Gazef is finally here!

I smiled a little at the thought of meeting the absolute chad of a man, the one who held out against the Sunlight scripture alone for a while through his sheer will.

I absolutely adore Gazef and will do my best to ensure his survival, unless he still decides to die for the corrupt kingdom, then he will have to die, Nazarick is more important than one human.

Though I will certainly not be the one to kill him, I refuse the extinguish such a brilliant flame.

And so, with anticipation, I awaited his approach.