70
Ainz pensively walked along the corridors of Chaldea, at least as pensive he could be with a chatterbox walking alongside him..
"Just think about the new prospects that could be opened for you!" The identity of the chatterbox was, of course, Da Vinci. She is walking beside him, talking all the while, completely unaffected by Ainz's current skeleton appearance. it is as if she saw terrifying skeletons wearing a mantle all the time. However, given that it was Ainz her nonchalant attitude was understandable - "If we do it, then the increase in strength for the Servant will be simply unbelievable!"
Ainz sighed, what Da Vinci was talking about was inherently interesting, promising and even desirable. In fact, Ainz could say that using the Grail on the Servants was similar to obtaining a unique case for displaying a collection. As far as he knew, different Masters could receive the same Servants, not at the same time of course, but still the same Servant from the Throne of Heroes. On one hand, if Ainz used the Grail, he could turn his Servants into unique ones, one that will never be summoned to any other Master in their collection, but at the same time...
"I have to take care of the Servant's well-being," Ainz breathed at the thought.
Human experimentation... Officially, in the future world of Ainz they were banned. But like in many other cases, given that the government's power was quite fictitious and the world was actually run by the megacorporations, rumors about human experiments were very popular in the internet and too often it turns out that not all of it is untrue. Of course, it doesn't mean that all of them were true, but this did not mean that among hundreds of suspicious cases there was not at least one that is confirmed to be true...
'Bellriver was greatly interested about this issue…' - Ainz remembered his guildmate's interest in conspiracy theories.
Thus, if Ainz is now planning to take care of his Servants, then experiments on them were, if not completely prohibited, at least very much controlled. Ainz will only consider doing such a thing only if the Servant themselves chose to undergo the procedure and also if Da Vinci could give him enough evidence that there wouldn't be any side effects. Therefore…
"I'm sorry," Ainz bowed his head slightly, apologizing, "But I cannot agree with your proposal at the moment."
Da Vinci was silent after that. Ainz prepared to hear from her any sort of arguments to convince him of the usefulness of such a procedure or even her resentment, but instead...
"Alright," Da Vinci shrugged her shoulders.
Ainz blinked, metaphorically of course since his real body had neither an eyelid nor an eye, after which he glanced at Da Vinci.
She continued to walk next to Ainz, completely not showing any other reaction about his refusal. Ainz even wondered for a second whether her nonchalance was true or whether it was only a mask that hid her true mood. He was not allowed to think about it for too long before the doors that opened in front of him marked the end of the corridor.
'Women... I will never understand them!' - is the only conclusion that Ainz could come up with.
Inside the summoning room were the people that were expected, Roman, and the Chief. What was surprising to Ainz, other than the presence of Da Vinci, was the presence of Cainabel in the summoning room for some reason.
Ainz sighed and then looked at the vampire with interest. She, having felt Ainz's questioning gaze, bowed deeply.
"I apologize, my lord," Cainabel did not cease her bow for ten long seconds, trying to consolidate the fact that she completely submits to Ainz's authority. The appearance of Ainz's real body and a small incident that occurred during the last battle in the Singularity made her recall some problems in her behavior. "I just wanted to look at your future Servants in order to know and meet my future... colleagues in person."
Ainz simply nodded at these words, not particularly caring about what Cainabel just said. Ainz was not planning to make any sacrament out of the summoning of new Servants. It was a pointless gesture to meet the new Servants in person, considering that all the other Servants would know about them after a couple of days at most.
After that, Ainz threw a glance at Roman and the Chief, after which he headed for the summoning circle.
Unfortunately, the last Singularity supplied him... Not with the greatest amount of reagents for summoning. Part of the reason was because there were virtually no monsters in this Singularity - except for the manticores, the crystals from which were low-level at best, and partly because of the Dragon Witch - or should Ainz call her Jeanne Alter now? - destroyed the whole island, causing all the possible loot to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
However, even so, thanks to the drops from Stheno, Euryale, Baal, and the manticores, Ainz had enough crystals to summon four Servants. And…
"By the way," - Da Vinci distracted Ainz from pulling out the data crystals out of his inventory, - "As for the Grail - since you don't want to use it for palingenesis…"
Ainz, realizing that his intention was found out, hesitated for a second.
"It's not that I am opposed to using the Grail in such a function," Da Vinci continued her thought, after which she glanced at Cainabel, who stared back. "The summoned Servant is a very interesting outlier... But still - do you plan to use the Grail for summoning another Servant from, hmm, Yggdrasil?"
Ainz nodded slowly. That is indeed what he planned to do.
As Cainabel existence showed, such a summoning was possible and did not even bring any special downsides in itself... Besides the fact that Cainabel was summoned much weaker than the Raid Boss that Ainz remembered, and also the unfriendly personality of the summoned Servant.
"Hm, that's what I thought," Da Vinci sighed, "It took me three days to repair Chaldea after the previous summon..."
Ainz, feeling guilty, bowed again, - "I apologize."
"I'm not particularly bothered by it," Da Vinci only flicked her hand at the summoning circle, "Just use the Grail at the end so that Chaldea breaks at the end of the summoning without interrupting the summoning of other Servants."
After saying her piece Da Vinci walked away, muttering to herself, "It will be necessary to somehow modify the ritual of summoning given this new feature."
Ainz, thinking, nodded once more, after which, laying out the crystals, he took a step back.
A second later, obeying the commands from the summoning console, the rings surrounding the summoning circle began to rotate slowly.
Ainz was deep in thought for a second - which of the Servants that he met in the last Singularity would he like to meet most? Not that he spent much time with them, but of all the possible options, the most desirable option for him was…
"Umu!" An exclamation that sounded like a thunder from the blue resounded, after which the figure of a beautiful girl dressed in a red dress slowly emerged from the dimming streams of light which emphasized her golden hair and emerald-colored eyes. Eyes shining with superiority and complacency, "You made the right choice! You will understand that your choices were not wrong!"
After this, the attention of Nero, radiant with complacency, focused on Olga-Marie, then Roman, then lingered on Da Vinci and Cainabel for a second and only after focusing on all the other occupants of the summoning room then she looked at Ainz.
For a second Nero froze at the sight of the undead wrapped in a mantle saturated with powerful magics, but after a second the girl's slowly fading smile was replaced by a new one, a recognizing and joyful smile, - "Ah, consul! What a pleasant reunion- to see you again!"
"Hm?" Ainz blinked. "Consul?"
"Of course!" Nero, completely unbothered by Ainz's appearance, perhaps it is because she was already acquainted with Ainz's true appearance in the last moments of the Singularity, took a step towards the magician, and then extended her hand, "As emperor, I am the ruler - which means you, my Master, is my main adviser - and therefore the consul ~ umu."
"Ruler, pff…" Cainabel exhaled with a laugh, laughing at Nero's actions. But Nero, either not hearing the ridicule or deciding to ignore it, just looked at Ainz with a joyful look, extending her hand for the sake of concluding a contract.
"Consul Ainz Ooal Gown," - Nero smiled a good-natured and joyful smile toward Ainz, who was a little bewildered by the pressure of the girl's exuberance, - "I recognize you as my Master ~ umu!"
"Um... Yes... Umu," Ainz nodded, accepting the girl's hand, then blinked.
Honestly, Nero was one of the best options that Ainz could hope for. In addition, having signed the contract between Master and Servant, Ainz looked instantly at the girl's parameters ...
"Umu!" The girl concluded joyfully, after which she looked at Ainz, "Your mana supply is so big!"
Ainz choked a little at the ambiguity of the phrase, after which he glanced at Nero's abilities.
Imperial privilege... Wow, this skill sounded just horribly unbalanced!
Thrice-setting sun... This skill was even more unbalanced!
Ainz looked at Nero in bewilderment, to which she answered him with a joyful smile.
She had such overpowered skills?! It was a pleasant surprise that she did not become a huge problem for him in the Singularity!
Ainz blinked once more and felt a smile creep over his face - of course, metaphorically given his lack of a face and such features. Such a successful summoning was clearly a good omen.
The next summoning somewhat cooled Ainz's ardor.
"My name is Altera - descendant of the Huns and a warrior of the God of War…"
After that, Altera, a girl with mocha-colored skin and snow-white hair, stopped her introduction immediately, without leaving the circle of summoning, when her gaze met Ainz.
Ainz, knowing that his true appearance would bother some people, turned off all the passives that would further scare all the people around him, at worst killing them outright. Of course he kept the passives that would obfuscate his true abilities, not to mention the ring that would hide the level of his overwhelming Mana. Of course such abilities are not needed in Chaldea where there are no enemies, but Ainz was not one to scrimp on his defenses even in his home base. And yet, looking at the, supposedly, normal undead, eyes glowing with a crimson flame - Altera clenched her teeth.
"I understand why you needed an avatar of destruction, Master," Altera nodded slowly. In the end, as a Servant, she had to obey her Master and fulfill his will.
After a second, Altera's gaze came upon Cainabel, which only expressed a crooked grin on her face. For a second, Altera wanted to squeeze her blade more tightly, however, the realization that it would most likely be useless in any case caused her to slowly nod, "However, I don't understand why you could need me if you had that thing on your side."
Ainz blinked, looked at Cainabel, and then at Altera.
'Ah yes…' - A sudden realization came to his head - 'Cainabel killed her…'
Prior to this, Ainz did not have to face such problems - all the Servants he summoned were not killed by him... Except for the Witch, with whom he then resolved the situation quite simply, of course not by Ainz's own actions, the Dragon Witch simply decided not to remember her loss anymore...
'Ahem, if a new player joined the guild, who previously had a conflict with one of the other players in the guild…' - Ainz tried to recall the experience of other guilds with which a similar situation occurred - 'Then they usually…'
"Altera," Ainz called to the girl, after which he pointed to Cainabel, "This is Cainabel. She will help you around."
Altera, having heard this, froze for a second, looking at Ainz, before bowing slowly, - "If this is the will of the Master."
'You can't leave the conflict to boil for a long time or it can develop into something even worse…' - at least, Tabula said so to Ainz, looking at how Touch Me and Ulbert constantly go at each other's throats - 'And there is no better way to bring the two closer than to force them together to walk a path full of dangers and difficulties. In this case, they will definitely become real friends…'
This phrase had some kind of ending, but Ainz, to be honest, forgot it and decided to ignore it in any case, as insignificant. Knowing Tabula, he had in the end some mythological reference or inserted a phrase in Latin...
The ending he had forgotten was "...or they will kill each other."
"Anyway," Ainz nodded. "I hope you will become good friends."
Altera looked at Ainz in confusion. Cainabel only smiled, "By all means, my lord."
Ainz smiled and exhaled. Apparently, he managed to resolve this conflict. However, the good thing in this case was that Ainz himself did not kill Altera, because of which her reaction to him was not so strong. Everything would have looked much more strange if instead of Altera in her place was...
"Ufufu…" -Stheno, for example... - "To manifest a Goddess, what an interesting and pitiful person…"
A second later, a new Servant appeared from the summoning circle.
Her lilac hair, fashioned in two long pigtails to the floor, framing her face, beautiful in her innocence, and a white dress, not at all suitable for her age, diverging just above her left thigh, giving an onlooker an opportunity to look at her legs.
"What's..." - at that moment Stheno's gaze reached Ainz, "...your name..."
The continuation of the phrase turned out to be so mechanical and unnatural that for a second to Ainz it seemed as if at the end the Stheno's voice changed to that of a robot - and not of the best quality.
Ainz froze. Stheno froze. There was silence in which Stheno, whose eyes focused on Ainz, stopped responding to the whole outside world - her pupils randomly narrowed and expanded, as if their owner was in a crazy panic and was focusing wildly around the room as if looking for an escape route. However, Stheno's body stood frozen in one place, completely immovable. Perhaps even paralyzed - as if all the muscles of Stheno froze in one position and ceased to obey their mistress.
"Khm," - Olga-Marie was the first to break the silence, "And what, actually…"
"AAAAAAAA!" Stheno screamed uncontrollably, after which she tried to run away from Ainz, but because of the panic that overwhelmed the girl's head, she could not control her own legs, instantly stumbling herself and plopping down on her ass. However, this still did not stop her from running away - and Stheno, without even trying to get back to her feet, crawled away - "GO AWAY! GO AWAY FROM ME! MEDUSA! EURYALE! ANYONE, SAVE ME!"
Olga-Marie, looking at the panicked behavior of the one who loudly proclaimed herself as a goddess, slowly turned her gaze toward Ainz, - "Have you... did something happen?"
"AAAAAAAAA!" - Stheno, hiding in a corner, could not think of anything better to do other than to scream, looking with horrified eyes at Ainz, who slowly raised his hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. Stheno, seeing Ainz's hand and remembering for a second what happened in the Singularity, could not restrain herself and with a disgusting sound regurgitated all the absent contents of her stomach onto the floor next to her.
"I…" - Ainz thought for a moment, - "Stheno was punished for her betrayal…"
"AAAAAAAA!" Stheno did not think to shut up, continuing to scream, covering her face and especially her eyes with her hands. Stheno did not even remember the fact that she is a Servant and did not even try to attack, instead, just like an ordinary girl encountering a monster, she continued to close her eyes with her hands from the threat, hoping for a miraculous salvation at the last second from her imminent - and very painful - death.
"Could you be a little quieter?" Ainz asked Stheno, not particularly hoping for an answer, after which the girl instantly fell silent. It seemed that even the sounds of her breathing had disappeared and Stheno continued to stare silently at Ainz, waiting for the moment when he would move towards her, slowly raising his hand, in order to kill her again.
"Ahem," Olga-Marie spoke first, looking from Stheno to Ainz and back, "Perhaps I was wrong... I still can be afraid of you..."
"Ahem..." Ainz grunted again, after which he looked from Stheno to the other Servants, seeking support from others.
Altera, who was still silent, only gave Ainz a heavy look. Nero, smiling, simply blinked, looking at Ainz — she saw the battle — if one could call it that, of course — of Ainz and Baal, so she could imagine the scale of his "punishment" - however, even she was a little concerned.
Da Vinci studied Ainz and Stheno carefully, looking from both of them to each other.
Roman looked at Ainz in horror.
Only Cainabel smiled approvingly at Ainz - but for some reason, approval from Cainabel in this case did not seem like a good thing to Ainz.
'If I directed Altera to interact with Cainabel…' - Ainz thought for a moment and looked at Stheno, causing her to hiccup in surprise - 'Does this mean that I must now personally deal with Stheno and resolve this issue?'
Ainz took a step towards Stheno, but she, noticing the act, instantly started twitching, as if in a bout of seizure, all while not taking her eyes off of Ainz, as if trying to knock on the floor in a panic, but remembering the words of Ainz and not daring to make a single sound.
'Um…' - Ainz doubted his decision - 'Maybe later?'
Ainz turned around from the girl, making her almost cry with relief, and moved on to the next summoning. Indeed, perhaps with his next Servant the situation will get better?
Ainz has never been so wrong...
"I am Euryale," the appearance of an almost identical copy of her twin sister, Stheno, was noted with her tin sister's dilated pupils, "That's right, I'm a Goddess. It'll be one short life, but do your best to…"
Euryale's gaze then came upon Ainz, making her freeze in place, continuing to speak in a mechanical tone, similar to Stheno's voice, "Entertain me..."
Ainz froze. Euryale froze. Stheno froze. There was silence for the second time.
"Hmm…" - this time Olga-Marie broke the silence much faster, - "Another... Punishment?"
"Yes," Ainz nodded, looking at Euryale. Euryale, having noticed the movement, blinked, after which she turned toward her twin, Stheno, who was sitting next to a corner and with mechanical-like movements moved toward her prone sister. Walking up to her sister, Euryale slowly sat down next to Stheno, after which she hugged her sister mechanically, leaning the girl's head against her, staring blankly in front of her.
"And now I'm really interested in what happened in the Singularity," Da Vinci's voice resounded in the awkward silence, surprisingly out of place.
"This…" - Ainz tried to come up with a suitable excuse, - "It is not the most... Interesting story…"
"As interesting as your victory over Cainabel?" Da Vinci looked at Ainz with interest in her eyes.
"You... Defeated Cainabel?" Altera, who at that point remained silent, looked at Ainz in surprise.
"Wow!" Nero looked at Ainz with respect in her eyes, "Consul, you have done so much! For this I will declare you the Pontifex Maximus! Yes, since this title belongs to me by right - I have the right to dispose of it! Wear it with pride!"
"Oh-oh-oh..." - Ainz felt the fragile balance and reputation that he had in Chaldea quickly collapsing due to a series of ridiculous coincidences. After all, who would have known that it was Stheno, Euryale, Nero and Altera who would be summoned today...
Ainz tried to think of a way out of the situation, "Um... Exactly, the summoning is not over yet!"
Ainz, taking advantage of the momentary confusion, took a step forward, taking out the Grail as he went.
"Are you planning to use the Grail for summoning?!" Nero looked at him with even greater respect. "What a brash courage!"
"The Grail was necessary for summoning someone like me," Cainabel made an offhand comment, "True, even with the absorption of the entire Grail, the body provided to me is somewhat... Constraining…"
"Constraining..." Altera spoke quietly, alternately looking at Ainz and Cainabel.
Ainz hurried to do everything that is necessary.
"The grail is ready!", Beating the silence, Ainz hurried, "You can summon the Servant now!"
"Yeah... Yes…" -Roman, who was silent the whole time, finally ceased to show signs of life, mechanically moving his hands. His actions turned out to be so similar to the actions of Stheno and Euryale that Ainz wondered for a second if some strange disease had struck them all at that moment...
After a second, the summoning ritual commenced.
Associative chains are powerful. Associative chains multiplied by the knowledge of the Eclipse of All Life and the power of the Grail are even more powerful.
At the time of the summoning, Ainz certainly wanted to summon a new servant from Yggdrasil. The Servant summoned from Yggdrasil was not only part of the collection for Ainz - they performed the same functions as the Servant who would undergo the palingenesis - that is, he was a unique exhibit. But at the same time - he reminded Ainz of his home, of his Yggdrasil. But associative chains are certainly a great thing.
Ainz had no concrete idea about whom he should summon from Yggdrasil - any of the summoned Servants would be close to him. However, at the time of the summoning, Ainz had a different intent in his head.
"Distract the attention of other people", which easily turned in his head into "find someone who could control these Servants."
Nero, Euryale, Stheno and Altera.
And in Ainz's head, on a subconscious level, there was an associative chain. After all, he knew the one who knew how to control these Servants. After all, he already controlled them in the past.
Of course, more precisely, a version from this world, but the associative chains are truly powerful.
In an instant when the summoning started the room dimmed and the summoning circle seemed to go berserk, similar to how it reacted to Cainabel's summoning. However, instead of disconnecting at the moment a capacity overload, the device only issued a few errors indicating the overload - then it exploded in a pillar of light.
"Oh, my dear friend!" - even before the light had finally subsided from the center of the summon, a voice resounded. The voice of the speaker was soft and soothing, but at the same time - pompous, as if the speaker was enjoying the sounds of his own voice - "Don't be afraid anymore, for I have answered your call. Rejoice, for my legions have also answered with me. That's right, my friend, today you are lucky to summon me…"
Then, when the light finally dimmed out, a man appeared in the center of the summoning circle - although it would be rather difficult to call him a man. The summoned, no older than two decades in appearance, had a beautiful face, as if it was sculpted by the hand of an artist - and was dressed in a suit, which could not be called another thing other than "the pinnacle of style". The Servant was wearing a gray coat, unbuttoned, which is why it hung on him completely without covering his gray classic suit and long tie. The tie stretched down to the very bottom of his chest. The Servant wears a gray scarf carelessly thrown over his shoulders. And his shoes were patent-leather black shoes, varnished and polished to a shine. Their hands were adorned with white gloves in which he held a cane on which he leaned on, not as a support, but, rather, for the sake of using it as an expensive accessory showing his status and power, all of it combined literally screamed that this guy was indescribably rich, important and influential.
"That's right," the guy continued to say, "For I, the Seventh Uninheritable Demon Emperor of Muspelheim, Baal have answered your call."
After that, taking a step from the summoning circle, Baal stared at Cainabel and then at Ainz.
For the third time there was only silence.
"Oh..." Baal blinked, then pointedly rolled up his sleeve, looking at his wrists, "Hmm, what time is it?"
"Ah yes..." glancing at his wrist, where there were no watches, Baal nodded. "Time to swear eternal fidelity!"
After this, Baal sank to one knee, leaving his cane. That, left without support, instantly catching fire, after which a second later it completely disappeared in a sheaf of smokeless flame.
"I swear allegiance to you, my lord," Baal bowed his head.
"Ainz... Killed you too?" Da Vinci looked at the new Servant interestedly.
"Ainz... Ooal Gown?" Baal blinked, after which, looking at Ainz, he immediately nodded, "Of course. If you take the whole Ainz Ooal Gown, then I was killed... Twelve thousand times?"
It seemed as if silence had become the normal state of this room.
"I will establish a new title for you!" Nero looked at Ainz in admiration.
Ainz only cursed himself.
It seems that his plan to "start taking care of the Servants" began from the wrong note...
Independent Manifestation - is a lesser skill included in YGGDRASIL.