Chapter 119

Being engulfed in the darkness was no issue for Demiurge, if anything it was quite cozy being so surrounded by stone, that one was nearly 'encased' in it. But behind him he could feel his Master's slowed steps. "Does the mountain not please you my Lord? Should I destroy it for you?" Demiurge asked, but Ainz answered that with a shaking of his head.

Being a high level human meant his eyes adjusted very quickly to the darkness, but it wasn't perfect or instant. Ainz quickly covered for the hesitation, "It isn't that… I'm merely… noticing something odd."

"My Lord?" Demiurge asked, his heart did backflips in his chest, a chance at hearing one of his Lord's insights was invaluable.

Ainz put his hand along the stone wall and began to trace it, searching for something to cover his words he bought time by asking, "Dwarves do not see in the dark perfectly, do they?"

Demiurge shook his head at that, "No… not to my knowledge." Then he gasped, "Brilliant, Lord Ainz! How could I have failed to grasp that this whole area has been completely abandoned!"

Ainz coughed into his hand, 'What?' He caught himself before he asked the question and instead said, "Show me what you have learned." Speaking as if he were a teacher to a student.

"Since the dwarves have little wood and we see no evidence of coal burning, they must use some form of magic to light the tunnels, but there is none here. If there is none here and the gate was completely sealed, it means they took whatever magic items they had here with them. They then abandoned the area completely, though why… I do not yet know." Demiurge said and touched the wall in the same way as his Lord did. 'Please be pleased. Don't let me disappoint the last of them!' Whether it was a plea inside his own mind or a prayer to the Godly father that had abandoned him, even Demiurge himself was unsure of what the thought really was.

He kept his face serene as he spoke and waited for his Lord to answer. "Yes, very good, that's it exactly, Demiurge. Well done." Ainz praised the archdevil, "Continue then, if we follow the path, as this is a mountain we must eventually find the dwarves themselves, assuming they are still alive."

"It was only a few years, My Lord, is it really likely that they were wiped out since Zenberu's last visit?" Demiurge asked, but his Master only shrugged.

"Who can say?" Ainz finally added and they went deeper into the long cavern, the walls were not at all smooth, but they had clearly been cut back a great deal and widened to allow groups to pass through.

'This is not the tunnel that Zenberu saw, there's no way… for that matter his winding path didn't seem the same either… the entrance was much smaller… but I can't go back.' Ainz was now absolutely sure that whatever way they'd come, it wasn't the way Zenberu went when he was here. 'My own lack of skill with memory reading did this… I need a subject to practice on… who knows when this might matter again.' Ainz resolved, and allowed Demiurge to remain in front.

The path carried on for what felt like hours, the stale air of the cave blew gently, but with the gate smashed at their backs, the temperature dropped by at least a few degrees. No one came to inspect the sound of the crash, however. 'Either they have no guards or they're really bad at their jobs. Nobody would have missed that racket!' Ainz felt his pulse start to race, a mix of natural fear and excitement blended together in his heart while he drew deeper and deeper into the heart of the mountain until he heard the vague noise of shouting and saw a light source reaching the wall around a distant corner. Immediately and without even thinking, both cast the same spell. [Signless]. Thus disguising their presence, scent, and sound from detection.

"Worthless layabout! It's fine to be lazy if you're strong, but you're simply too weak to get away with it! How are you supposed to represent frost dragons in battle if you have to waddle to get there?!"

Ainz flinched, and immediately disliked the speaker. Whatever the race, he recognized the denigration from parent to child. "You can't spend all day in there reading books! Get out, grow strong, bully some quagoa or even go frighten some dwarves. Work those worthless wings and flap up to the sky. How will you protect any treasure you get if you can barely move?! How will you even get treasure?!"

It was a rough, roaring sort of voice, far louder than the one in response. It was enough, however, to draw Demiurge and Ainz to a standstill and listen.

"Father, knowledge is its own strength!"

A thunderous echo reached the pair in the tunnel, the sound of a backhand striking a face, a great thud as the one struck fell down.

"How is that for strength! What good did your books do you then?! Did they shield you from pain?! Did they teach you how to stop me?! Did they do anything but provoke me to strike your face and knock you down?! They certainly didn't cushion your landing!"

The sound of scraping claws over stone and heavy breathing carried to where they stood, secreted well out of the way and unable to see around the corner, they could still tell what happened. The one hit was dragging themselves up to their feet again.

"They taught me that you're wrong! The dwarves built this great library of knowledge… they made this city you're so proud of. We just occupied what they built, we made nothing ourselves… who is really strong there, father! We need them, they don't need us!" The voice was smaller, but still defiant.

Another blow landed, and the cracking sound was worse, as was the sound of the thud which followed. There was no sound from the smaller voice after that. Silence.

The bigger, rougher voice sounded again, it was almost like it was spitting for a moment. "Foolish young boy… you're not only no dragon at all… and you're no son of mine. A disappointment, knocked out by a single blow, lie there and think about this in your dreams."

Neither Demiurge nor Ainz moved a muscle during that time, the sound of the retreating heavy steps shook the stone ahead of them, and finally Ainz used a message spell to communicate with the Guardian. "We're going to see the unconscious one… he seems more likely to listen."

"Gladly, My Lord. Absolutely gladly." Demiurge answered before the spell died and they emerged out into the open.