"Victory and defeat"

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Oriana pov

I looked at the now-dumbfounded true vampire; her eyes popped out as if she could not believe what had happened. It was clear why she reacted that way: in front of her stood my body, whom she had fought with for several hours, standing there completely still, with the head pointing to the ground, and behind her another me that had just appeared, probably having the most satesfing grin on the face.

"H-How? T-That should not be possible..."

"Ohhh, but it is true, my dear Shalltear."

"Impossible; it must be a clone..."

"If you concentrate enough, you should be able to recognize the authenticity of the body." I interrupted her. "

"That-That can't be, how?"

"Hahh, you stupid child, so you really haven't noticed. Did you really think I would enter this fight unprepared?"

"How did you do it? Tell me. I know it was you who I was fighting. How could you come out of this unharmed?"

"Well... I think I could tell you to satisfy your curiosity, but... I see no reason to reveal anything to a dead person. You have already lost; you just don't know it yet." I taunted Shalltear, which seemed to snap her out of her confusion.

"What are you talking about? I can see that your HP is full again, but mine is as well. I admit I am in a tough spot, but I am still superior in close quarter combat, and though I have used all my mana and skills, you have used many of your skills as well, despite your blood being fully restored now," Shalltear said with great conviction.

"Haaa, stupid child," I said, opening my inventory. My hand disappeared in the pocket dimension, and I pulled out a large scythe. "It was my other scythe, which I only used in tough situations, but this time it was just to give Shalltear the coup de grace. I had already won this fight, and because of that, I had no further interest in it.

Slowly, I started to walk towards her, dragging my scythe threateningly across the floor. The only thing you could hear was the crunching of my shoes and the rustling of the scythe in the sand. Shalltear made herself ready, but I kept my two-meter distance from her and... walked past her in the direction of the other Oriana's body.

"W-What are you doing?" Shalltear asked 

"Finishing it," I said, and I swung my scythe.

Sploosh

The scythe entered the body of my other self and tore a huge hole in the torso. Black steam streamed out of the wound, and the scythe began to glow black and suck in the steam. Soon, the whole body was turned into black smoke and sucked in by the scythe. However, the black glow of the blade remained. I turned around and started to walk in the direction of Shalltear again.

"I am sorry to make you wait, but don't worry; now I will take care of you."

"Wh...?"

Sploosh 

Just like before, the scythe entered the body with no problems; it tore through the armor like butter and got stuck in the middle of Shalltear's stomach. I could have hit with more force, but in this case, it wasn't necessary.

"Haa, do you really think that is enough to kill me? I am resistant against weapons you..."

"Blurgh!" Shalltear spat blood into the sand and started coughing.

cough

cough

cough

"What is that? Poison?" She asked, but I just gestured to her wound.

"What?"

Her wound began to turn black and dissolve around the scythe. Like a piece of paper set on fire, her black flesh crumbled into ashes and was carried away by the wind. Although the phenomenon only affected her stomach and legs, it quickly spread to her other body parts.

"No...No, no no noooooooooo. This cannot be happening. What is this? No, let me alone." Shalltear panicked and tried to reattach her ashes to the body, but it didn't work. Her body continued to crumble and turn into ash.

"It is pontless Shalltear," I said, and she stopped her outburst. "You are going to die; it is already decided," I said, and Shalltear let out a quiet wimper. 

"Goodbye; may this be a lesson to you," I said, and with this, the rest of her body was turned into ashes and blown away by the wind. 

The only thing that remained in place was my scythe, which had stopped glowing.

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Ainz pov

"What? How can this be?" asked Demiurge again.

In the last five hours, all of the Guardians who were in the room, watching the battle with Oriana and Shalltear through the remote viewing mirror, had made similar statements. Again and again, they had been stunned by the things that they had seen in this fight, and more than once they asked him to explain what had happened, but he had always promised to explain it later. Still, like little children who could not wait for a treat, they asked again regardless.

"Well, I think now is a good time to answer your questions since the fight is over anyway." I said

"You already know this, but Shalltear is our strongest guardian, if we don't count Albedo's sister. Because she is our first line of defense, it is necessary for her to do as much damage as possible until she is taken out. You could say she is a pawn sacrifice, and though that sounds cruel, she has one of the most important jobs in Nazarik. With her build, if used correctly, she should be able to fight against multiple level 100 players and survive for a short amount of time." I explained

"She should be launched like an arrow to do as much damage as she can in this fight; however, she decided to rather play with her opponent, which was a critical error. Oriana is not an endurance fighter, but wasting time in a fight does benefit her if she has placed some seals around the batlefield. The longer a seal exists, the more potent it will become, and even though she should not waste too much time because her health will run out quickly, wasting some time is still viable. Apart from her seals that are part of every Blood Mage's arsenal, she has four special skills that can be considered trumpf cards."

"Trumpf cards, my Lord?" asked Albedo.

"Yes, I for myself have a fiew up my sleeve. For example, my [dark wisdom] or my [Eclipse] class can be considered trumpf cards. Oriana used three of her special skills in this fight; the only one she did not use was her [true form] because it is not that useful against Shalltear. 

"The first she used was [Moonrise]. It is a skill that lets you, when activated, gain speed and attack damage to a certain extent as long as you hit the opponent, but the buffs disappear if you don't get a successful hit on the same opponent for the next 5 seconds. If you hit something else, or if the opponent is killed, in this case, the skill switches on cooldown and cannot be used on the same day again."

"So it is a 'one-time-use skill' my Lord?" asked Demiurge

"That is correct; the same goes for her most powerful AOE spell [bought by blood]. Theoretically, you are able to kill 100–1000 players." 

"Theoretically, my Lord?" asked Albedo.

"Well, first of all, there is the long charge time for the spell; it also looks very flashy, which often results in the caster being attacked." An attack on the caster results in the failure of the spell, which would be a tragedy for the caster. That brings us to the first cost of activating the spell. Just to be able to activate the spell, the castser has to sacrifice 99.9% of his HP, and now the spell is only taking 20% of the enemy's HP. To further enhance the spell, you have to fulfill certain conditions to add more percent damage to the spell. If you are hit while casting your spell, it will fail, but you will still lose your HP."

"The only advantage this spell has is the range and the fact that you always do percent damage on the opponent's HP. The spell ignores equipment or immunities and directly targets the user's HP." To still use the spell, one has to use their own HP and bring themselves to sertain death, which makes the spell more of an 'all or nothing' trump card, which most of the time is not even able to kill a single enemy" 

"Her last skill is her magnum opus, her pride and joy, and her greatest trump card. [Blood puppet], a skill that allows the user to create a puppet with the same levels available to the user at the moment of use. That means the user can create a puppet that is level 100 if they are max level. It is also possible to create multiple puppets, though in this case you have to divide the levels of the created bodies. With this, the user can even create 100 level 1 bodies."

"SO. SHALLTEAR. HAS. BEEN. FIGHTING. A. PUPPET. THE. WHOLE. TIME?" asked Cocytus 

"No, that is not what I think. Oriana is also able to possess the bodies she has created with that skill; based on that, she has probably fought in her fake body and only switched back the moment she cast her spell. That is one of her favorite tricks, after all, because she can't die as long as she still has a body she can possess. The only condition is that it has to be a body created by that spell; a normal clone would not be enough." 

"Still, it is also possible she did not fight Shalltear; in YGGDRASIL, she could change the body to a certain extent; the body's appearance, size, and skills were adjustable to a certain extent, but she was unable to change her gender or race. The flavor text was also customizable, which could theoretically give her doll a similar awareness to that of an NPC." 

"But how was she able to kill Shalltear at the end? If I remember correctly, Shalltear still had almost full HP." asked Demiurge, and he adjusted his glasses.

"Oh, that scythe, right? It is her personal world item. Normally, the guild places every world item in the treasury, although there are exceptions. Either because the world item is tied to the user, like with my red orb, or... like with Orianas, it has to be used under such special conditions that only she is able to use it correctly."

"The name of her item is called [favor of death]. If the special effect is activated, you are able to use the scythe's special ability [a soul for a soul], which lets you kill the next target instantly and with a 100% chance of success. There is only one condition...You have to kill one of your allies."

"...!" all NPC's in the room froze.

"I don't know how it works in the new world, but in YGGDRASIl the 'sacrifice' had to be one of your party. Summons and mercenary NPCs, however, were not considered sacrifices. But with Oriana, it is different; since her puppet can be customized, it technically counts as a party member. That gives her the ability to use the skill very consistently."

"Haah," the NPC's breathed out a breath they didn't know they had been holding.

"Well, I suppose we should go to the throne room now. Oriana will be back soon. Her fight is over after all," I said and got ready to go. However, since the NPC's had no intention of moving and were still staring at the screen, I decided to leave.

"[Greater Teleportation]"

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