Chapter 200 ~ Dead of Night

Shimmering magic. Brilliant cascading light. Auroras. 

Light of the myriad colors of the rainbow filled the room, blanketing it in protective arrays of anti-divination magic. 

The old herbalist, Lizzie Bareare watched in shocked awe, her jaws slackened, as her eyes filled with a sight she had never witnessed before. 

Her ears, though still working quite well for her age, did not hear the series of spells Momonga and Aika had uttered that created the scintillating wave of lights and magic. 

"Alright… This should be enough."

Momonga let out a soft sigh as though exhausted. However, given his physical prowess which was that of a level 100 character which still held true in his human "Double Life" form, it was more of a force of habit rather than true exhaustion from casting spells. A habit to sigh heavily that had stemmed from decades of the exhausting life he had led as a salaryman, both physically and mentally. 

He nodded to Aika, and Aika responded in kind. Then, she brought out thin air the Mirror of Remote Viewing, shocking Lizzie, the only "regular" mortal in the room, from the sudden appearance of the mirror. 

"Now, let's see where the rat had brought little Nfirea has gone~"

The silverish, opaque surface of the mirror rippled from its center, like a still lake as a drop of dew fell on its surface. 

It was then that the image of a dark, moonlit crypt that lay abandoned outside of the city appeared on its surface. 

Meanwhile, Yuuji stood silently on the side. He took a step back and let Momonga and Aika, who were much more skilled in such magic, to do what needed to be done. 

As he waited, he tapped into the power of the magic that resided within his ring and connected his mind with Albedo through the magic of telepathy.

["Albedo."]

["Ah, my love! What a pleasant surprise! I've longed for your voice. So much."]

Yuuji smiled softly under his white gold draconic helmet and responded. 

["Me too. It is nice to hear your voice once more. I've called to inform you that we are getting ready to proceed with eliminating the pest in E-Rantel."]

["Understood, my lord. I shall have all agents within the city and within the capital city to begin spreading news of your, Aika-sama, and Momonga-sama's might and heroism."]

["Thank you. Then we will proceed as planned."]

["Uhn. Be careful, my love."]

Yuuji chuckled inwardly at the cuteness of the Guardian Overseer of Nazarick. 

She must have known very well that nothing – absolutely nothing – that existed within that crypt could ever possibly harm him, nor Aika, Momonga, or even Lupu. However, despite everything, she still conveyed her worry for him, for no amount of assurance and trust could ever stop a woman from worrying for her beloved. 

["I will. And I will return as soon as I can, before I go to Re-Estize for the next phase of our plan. At that time, how about we spend the whole day together?"]

Somehow, even though they were only telepathically connected, Yuuji could hear the delighted gasp that escaped Albedo's luscious lips physically. 

["T-That would be wonderful~! I would love that! I can hardly wait for it!"]

["Me too. Then, I will be going now."]

["Yes. I love you."]

Yuuji smiled one more time as he heard the clear disappointment and reluctance in her voice. 

["I love you too."]

It was then that a shout brought him back into reality, making him look towards Lizzie and the mirror. 

"Nfirea!"

Lizzie gasped as the view in the mirror slowly passed through the dilapidated, ruined walls, broken, moss-covered rocks, and into the depths of the abandoned crypt where she saw her grandson, stripped off his clothes and now dressed in pure white cloth, a silver circlet around his golden-haired head, and hordes of undead skeletons around him. 

"By the Gods…! Y-You need to save him! Please! I-I'll do anything! I'll give you everything!"

Momonga turned towards the old lady as she gazed up at him. 

From her perspective, being much shorter than Momonga, she could see the face beneath the hood. He was not someone from the Kingdom, not even the Empire or the Theocracy. Perhaps a mix of some other country she had only heard of. And she was surprised by how… ordinary his countenance was.

She had heard of her grandson's description of the other three's appearance, and he described them to be beyond beautiful. But never had she ever heard of the black wizard's appearance as he had never seen them as well. 

She saw an ordinary face of a seemingly ordinary young man… But the moment her gaze met his eyes, her body shuddered and froze. 

To be seen through so utterly and completely was a feeling she had never felt before. Even to her own grandson, the only living family member she had left, she was a grandmother to him. 

But in that very instant, she felt as if everything about herself was revealed to the seemingly ordinary man before her. She was no longer the skilled herbalist of E-Rantel, nor was she Nfirea's grandmother. She was Lizzie Bareare.

She couldn't help but think. Was this how it would feel… to be in the presence of an omniscient God?

Momonga stared at her for a moment, his geass allowing him to see her stats, backstory, skills, and various other information about her. 

And he could indeed see numerous skills related to potion making and herbalist and alchemic classes. Having her as an asset would allow Nazarick to create potions, new ones, and monopolize it for themselves. 

Momonga glanced at Aika and Yuuji, and receiving their nods, he turned back towards Lizzie to give her his own. 

"Very well."

Leaving those two words, Momonga turned and followed Yuuji, Aika, and Lupu out of the herbalist shop to take care of their part of the deal. 

"W-Wait! D-Do you even have a way to deal with such a massive horde of undead?"

Yuuji stopped, and looked back. 

Then from his figure, a soft golden light began to emanate, and a wave of warmth that calmed the old, anxious heart of Lizzie filled the room. 

"Fear not. They will burn in from my sheer presence."

And in that moment, she felt her heart slowly drop as she slowly realized what she had done. 

Although she had never seen their capabilities in person, she had heard many things from her dear grandson. And upon meeting them, and being in their presence… She knew deep in her heart.

"No… It's worth it. This old life of mine… for Nfirea. It's not even a comparison."

Lizzie shook her head, before the Swords of Darkness entered the herbal shop once more after they saw Yuuji and the rest left. 

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Albert Lance had had quite the boring day. 

As a guard usually stationed at the main gate of E-Rantel, most of his duties involved paperworks and the normal inspection of the travelers, merchants, adventurers, and or people coming in and out of the city. 

On a good day, he would be able to meet one or maybe two beautiful village girls who would come into the big city on their first errand to sell some produce. He had heard, and actually seen, some of his fellow guards meeting their wives while they were on duty. It was one of the greatest benefits to being a guard assigned at the gates. He looked forward to his turn. 

Meanwhile on a bad day, he and the other guards might find contraband items that would mean extra paperworks that he would have to do 'till the candles ran out. 

But, that wasn't the worst thing that could happen. 

Night shifts were, by far, the most challenging. Though not in a conventional meaning. 

There was a place which occupied roughly a quarter of E-Rantel's outer ring, which was also most of its left quadrant. 

It was E-Rantel's communal cemetery. While other cities may have their own graveyard, none of them were as massive as this one. 

This was in order to suppress the spawning of undead. 

Although many things were unclear about the spontaneous genesis of undeads, these vile creatures were observed to spawn frequently from places were the living came to an end. And of these, people who died sudden, violent deaths and were not properly revered had the highest chance of coming back to unlife. 

Thus why battlefields and ruins tended to be infested in undeads.

Moreover, there was another problem with the undead. If left unattended, the undead would spawn more powerful undead. This was why city guards and adventurers were often dispatched to patrol graveyards day and night to exterminate weaker undeads as soon as possible. 

A wall surrounded the graveyard. A wall that separated the realm of the dead and the living, and keep it that way. While it was only four meters tall and was not comparable to the city walls, it was wide enough for people to walk on top of it. The large doors set into its side, the one Albert was now standing behind on guard, were sturdy and could not be easily breached. 

There were staircases to the left and right of the doors, and watchtowers along the length of the wall. The guards would take turns observing the graveyard below them as they yawned from the watchtowers, in shifts of five men at a time. 

Their yawns were infectious, but Albert could not blame them, else he would be a hypocrite. 

This was why night shifts were, by far, his least favorite duty. 

At first, the atmosphere of the place simply gave him the creeps. After all, a massive graveyard, mostly ruined, where skeletons would sometimes just pop out of the ground or zombies with rotting flesh barely hanging onto broken, yellowed bones and begin attacking the living was something that came literally out of a horror story book. 

But after a while, it was the drowsiness that stemmed from hours upon hours of seeing into the dark, creepy land of the dead and ruin that made him hate this duty. 

After being assigned to this duty a number of times, he had long since been desensitized by the creepiness of the graveyard. 

In fact, if he could, he wished he could feel it again. At least, the alertness would keep him awake and prevent him from having his pay cut by his boss when he found him nodding off. 

"Another quiet night…"

Albert nodded half-mindedly at his fellow guard – John if he remembered his name correctly – before letting out a sigh. 

"Yup, there were only five skeletons earlier, right? That seems a lot less compared to the past."

"Hm, could it be that the souls of the dead were called back by the Four Guards? That would be pretty lucky for us if it were true."

Albert simply hummed while thinking to himself how much less boring it would be if it wasn't true. He wasn't asking for much. Maybe 10 instead of 5 would be nice with an even mix between zombies and skeletons for variation. 

The other guards, drawn in by the topic, began to speak up:

"Well if it's just skeletons and zombies we can deal with them. Though, taking out a skeleton with a spear is a pain."

"I think the most troublesome ones are the wights."

"For me it's the Skeleton Centipedes. I'd be dead by now if the adventurers standing guard nearby didn't chase them away from me." 

A shiver went down Albert's spine, just imagining what it was like to suffer his fate of being chased by such an abomination. 

"Skeleton Centipedes? I heard that the powerful undead only show up when you let the weak ones get away. So all you need to do is kill them all when they're weak and the strong undead won't appear." 

"Yes, that's right. The captain chewed out the squad patrolling the graveyard last week. While it's nice to have them buy a round for us, I'd rather not have to go through that sort of thing again." 

"Still… when I think about it, I've got a bad feeling about the lack of undead right now."

Albert looked at the one who just said that and raised a brow.

"Why's that?"

"... I don't know. Just feels like we missed something out during our watch."

He shook his head dismissively. 

"You're thinking too much. They aren't that many undead normally. They say they only pop up frequently when they bury the corpses of those who died while fighting the Empire. So on the flip side, this is what happens when there aren't any big wars, right?"

Hearing his logic, the other guards nodded in agreement. 

Certainly, they've buried human corpses in their own villages, but they've never heard of undead appearing that often. 

"That means Katze Plains must be crazy, huh?"

"Yeah, didn't they say something about an unimaginably strong undead creature showing up?"

It was a place where the Empire and the Kingdom often clashed in fierce battles. Infamous for the amount of blood the dirt there drank up and the amount of corpses laid bare, it was a place known for the proliferation of its undead. 

Adventurers hired by the Kingdom and Imperial Knights would often go there to hunt down the undead. It's important enough that the Empire and Kingdom's support corpse had to build small towns nearby to support their personnels.

"I heard –"

John who was about to speak suddenly shut his mouth, prompting Albert to raise a brow in confusion. 

Looking at him, John seemed genuinely alerted as he tried to listen in to some sound beyond the gates.

"Oi, don't scare me–"

"Quiet!"

John looked straight at the graveyard, as if he could see through the darkness. But, curious by his actions, Albert and a few other guards also turned to look at the graveyard one after another. 

"…Didn't you hear it?"

"Were you imagining things?"

"Though I didn't hear the wind blowing or the grass moving… I think I can smell dirt. Didn't they dig a few graves just now? It smells just like it did then…"

"Come on, don't joke about this sort of thing."

"…Eh? Ah, oi! Look over there!"

The other guard pointed to the graveyard, and everyone else looked toward the spot he was pointing at.

There, they saw two guards sprinting for the doors. Both of them panting heavily, their eyes bloodshot, with sweat-slicked hairs stuck to their foreheads. 

Immediately, Albert felt his heart dropped as a sense of dread filled the depth of his rapidly beating heart. 

Guard patrols in the graveyard moved in groups of at least ten. So why, in the name of the Four Gods, were there only two people there?

"Open, open up! Hurry up and open the doors!" 

No weapons could be seen on them, and judging by how they were running for dear life, they must've panicked and fled. 

Immediately, John ran down the stairs and let them through. And before the gates could even swing fully open, the two frantic guards had forced their way in before collapsing onto the grown, but still scrabbling on.

"Clos-! Close the gate! Quickly!"

The sheer horror and terror of his voice and the strange behavior sent a chill down the spine of all the guards. But, working together, they still quickly pushed the gates shut and barred them.

"What happened…? What about the others?"

The moment Albert ask that question, a haunted look appeared on their frightened faces.

"They, they were eaten by the undead!"

His eyes went wide, and he quickly turned to another guard. He was a junior of his, having become a guard just a few weeks ago and still learning the ropes. A young man of 18 with short, spiky wheat-colored hair coming from a village nearby to the city to make it big so he can marry his childhood sweetheart who's waiting for him in the village. 

"Randy! Go upstairs and look!"

"Y-Yes!"

He rushed and climbed the stairs. But halfway up, he froze.

"What's wrong?"

A look of pure horror appeared on his ashen-white face. 

"Un– Undead…! E-Everywhere! The undead are everywhere!!!"

Only now, with their attention brought to it, did they make out the sound which sounded like ten thousand horses galloping, coming from the other side of the wall. 

And everyone, not just little Randy, were stuck dumb at the scene before them. 

A field of undead – their quantities so great as to render all who saw it speechless – approached the gates of the graveyard. 

"Why, in such numbers…?"

"It's more than one or two hundred… There should be a thousand of them… or more…"

The magical lights illuminated countless undead, like shadows writhing in the

dark, and it was difficult to get an exact count.

And in a way, they did not want to count either. For even if they could, the result of it would only serve to make them despair deeper. 

Wreathed in the scent of rot, the shambling mass of undead pressed in toward

the gates like a wave of death. 

There were not only zombies and skeletons down there; there were also a few rarer and more powerful undead – Ghouls, Ghasts, Wights, Swell Skins, Corrupt Dead, and many more. 

It was a scene of death. And although they've worked near it frequently, seeing it right on their face made them shiver and froze. 

It was not simply the fear of dying to it. Some undead could turn their slain victims into others of their own kind. 

If things went poorly, they might end up becoming undead themselves and attacking their fellows. And while they had not seen any flying undead yet, they had a bad feeling — that if they did not wipe them all out, a flying undead creature would end up spawning sooner or later.

Frozen in angst, they watched as the wave of death came near. And soon, the undead tide washed up against the side of the wall. 

Doom. Doom.

Without a sense of pain or self preservation, the swarming, mindless creatures of unlife banged wildly against the gate. It was as if they knew that they could attack the living if they broke down the doors. 

Doom. Doom.

They did not need siege rams. The undead – who did not care if their bodies were destroyed by their non-stop battering – were siege weapons in their own right. 

"Ring the bells! Ask for help from the barracks! You two, go inform the other doors about this!"

The captain, who had recovered his sense by now, continued to give orders. 

"The ones behind, take your spears and stab the undead getting close to the doors!"

Albert and the rest of the guards snapped out of their angst and remembered their duty as they heard the orders. 

Immediately, they strengthened their grips on their spear and started thrusting savagely at the undead below them. 

The undead covered the land like a flood, so any thrust, no matter how skillful or unskillful, equally found a home in undead flesh. 

Tainted blood and rotted flesh spilled over the ground, and the guards' noses were soon inured to the stench of death and decay. 

Filled with adrenaline and the fear of death, they repeated the same motions over and over with equal amounts of savagery and panic. Several undead fell before their spears, but they were quickly replaced by countless more as they were trampled to paste by the ones behind them. 

However, with the undead's almost non-existent intelligence, they did not strike against the guards stabbing at them with their spears. Repeating the same simple actions eroded the guards' sense of danger. Even Randy, who was the most scared and panicked out of all the guards, began to think that he could live through the night at this rate. 

And then, as though aiming for that moment of negligence and hope – 

"UWAAAAAAAAH!"

A scream pierced the air. 

The other guards turned to look, and they saw something long and wriggly curled around Randy's neck.

It was a slimy, dark pink object with some parts that had become slightly yellowish from rot – an intestine.

The creature that had shot forth this length of intestine was an egg-shaped undead creature with a huge cavity on the front of its body. Within it, several people's worth of internal organs, churning and wriggling like parasites. 

The undead creature was called an Organ Egg, and it was using its writhing interesting to pull on Randy.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

"Randy!"

Before Albert could save him, Randy wailed and fell –

"Save- Save me! Someone save me!!! AAAAAAAGHHHHH! MARIAAAAAA!!!"

– His screams filled the air. The screams of a boy, barely came of age, echoed as the sound of groans, moaning, and bashing of undead played in its background. 

Every guard saw the terrible fate of their junior, eaten alive by the throng of undead. The armor, which he had put on especially well today to both impress his seniors and protect his body, as well as his attempts to protect his face only prolonged his suffering. 

His fingers, his calves, his face, all of them were picked clean. 

"F-Fall back! Get down from the wall!!!"

After seeing the Organ Egg's innards twitching, the guard captain ordered a retreat.

All the guards hurriedly ran down the stairs, and they could hear the sounds of the undead banging at the doors getting louder. The doors themselves began groaning under the strain.

The sense of doom grew stronger. The chances of them holding out until help arrived, or that no other strong undead would show up were very low. Once the doors opened, the tide of death would flood in, and only the gods knew how many lives would be lost.

And to make it worse… They saw a shape which was taller than the four meter high walls. It was a Necrosome Giant, a gigantic undead creature made of countless corpses.

"This is the end…"

Albert muttered under his breath. But in the dread-filled silence around him, all his fellow guards could hear his every word. None believed otherwise.

And just as the guards were fully consumed by despair, golden light appeared above. 

"Huh?

Everyone reflexively looked up, and saw the clouds upon the darkened night sky parted as golden light began to shine from seemingly beyond it. Like a ray of sun piercing through the darkened clouds.

The clouds parted, this time abruptly, as if something had forcefully rendered it apart. 

Then, a column of blinding divine light fell upon the giant, instantly disintegrating it along with numerous other undeads within its vicinity as it grew wider, filling all of their vision with the brilliant light of heaven. 

Like a hammer of judgment from the heavens, any creatures of undead and evil were disintegrated indiscriminately. 

"What…? What just happened…?"

No one could explain what had just happened. Was it truly heaven's judgment? A miracle? 

Just as they were all stunned in silence, they heard a clattering of metal. Everyone reflexively looked to the source of the sound.

Before their eyes was a warrior in full-plated white gold armor holding a beautiful sword that emanated a golden glow as wisps of gold floated up and disappeared into thin air. 

Beside him was a pair of women with heavenly beauty and a magic caster dressed in jet-black robes, who seemed completely mismatched to the other three.

At first, all they could do was stare in shock as they wondered who these people were. But in the next moment, as they approached closer, they could see the metal plate dangling from the warrior's neck. 

An Adventure!

However, that ember of hope was snuffed out when he saw that it was a copper plate. Adventurers of the lowest class could not possibly deliver them from this dilemma. 

In this state of panic, their minds had no reserves to connect the dots between the heavenly miracle that had just saved their lives and the copper-plated adventurers. 

But just then, the warrior began to glow with a similar golden light as the heaven's hammer of judgment. 

It spread out, and when it touched them, they could feel their hearts slowly calming down. The shaking of their arms and legs disappeared. Their body felt rejuvenated, as if they had just woken up from the greatest night of sleep. No, it felt even better. As if they've been reborn!

Strength filled every inch of their body as their fear was replaced by a bravery more than they had ever felt in their lives. 

They all looked towards the golden warrior of light, and even through the screech and groaning of the gates bashed by the undeads were still present, they felt… safe. 

Then, they heard the voice of their savior. 

"It seems we made it just in time. Thank you for holding on so far, brave soldiers. Leave the rest to us."

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AN: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter~! Please comment your thoughts~! I would love to hear what you think about it~!!!! 

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