Chapter Three: Battle with the Night Lich

Clang clang. One could hear the sound of precious metals banging against one another. Ainz spread the glinting coins on top of the table. He counted the gold and silver coins in stacks of ten pieces each.

"I have a lot of money though kuku."

It was an amount that an average person from this world would not be able to earn even after several decades.

Ainz looked around the magnificent room.

This was the most splendid room of the best inn in Re-Estize. The money to rent such a place was exorbitant. Ainz refused meal every time, all of it was useless to him since he could not eat.

"I hope today those adventurers will not offer me again to become part of their party."

Since the day he slew the Frost Wyvern, he had become really famous, on everybody's mouth was spoken the name of Momon. A lot of adventurers asked him to join their team. Sometimes even the prostitutes tried to seduce him, but he refused all the time.

"Hope there is a nice job for me today, like exploring ruins or a dungeon."

All the quests are about monster slaying or being the bodyguard of a merchant. How was that called an adventure?

Ainz got up and put his two greatswords on his back. He opens the door and went down to the first floor. There was nobody there, only the innkeeper.

"Good morning Lord Momon, did you sleep well?" asked the innkeeper with a pleasant voice.

"Yes I did, I'll be heading out."

The innkeeper respectfully bowed his head. Ainz walked on the streets of the capital, everywhere he went, the citizens were amazed by his dark armor. It was annoying for him a week ago, but now he paid no heed to them.

Ainz arrived at the adventurer's guild, opened the doors, and went inside. There were many adventurers teams that were looking for a job, and at that moment all the eyes pointed at the dark hero. Some looked at him with envy, some with great respect. The females looked at him with blushed faces. Ainz approached to the counter.

"Good morning, I'm looking for work."

"Ah lord Momon good morning, eh, the guildmaster want to speak with you at her office, please follow me."

The receptionists led him to the office, she knocked at the door, and she opened it.

"Lord Momon has arrived." said the receptionists.

"Ara, sir Momon good morning and welcome." she greeted him.

"Good morning guildmaster."

There were six women in the room, the guildmaster and five members of the adamantite team Blue Rose. Their leader rose from the chair to greet him.

"Hello sir Momon, I am the leader of Blue Rose, Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra, It's a pleasure to meet you."

"This our warrior Gagaran." she pointed at the armored woman.

"Yoo." greeted Gagaran.

"These are the thieves Tia and Tina."

"And this is our arcane magic caster Evileye."

Ainz did not know if the small girl was watching him or not, because of her mask. She was the strangest person he had seen in the capital.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Blue Rose, I am Momon the Black." said Ainz and bowed his head.

Momon and Lakyus sat in their chairs and waited for the guildmaster to speak. Now she had a serious face.

"Early in the morning, a request came from the small city of Re-Lytos. The request says that 2 months ago many people were missing. The citizens wanted to find out what was causing this, so they paid 3 adventurer teams. They traveled to the Forest of Sera where the citizens believed the people have been missing."

"So, what did they found out?" asked Gagaran.

"Only one adventurer came back alive."

The girls were shocked by this. Three adventurer teams getting destroyed means that there must be a powerful being that was causing this.

"What rank were those adventurers?" asked Evileye.

"Two teams were gold rank, the other one was platinum." replied the guildmaster.

"So, what did the survivor said? asked Tia.

"He reported that there was a massive undead army, the numbers were more than four

thousand."

"Wh-what… a horde of undead skeleton can slaughter an entire village, but more than four thousand… this is terrifying." said Lakyus with a scared voice.

"But how is possible that someone can rise such a large undead army?"

"It must be the work of an Elder Lich." said Evileye.

"Yes, It must be an Elder Lich, they are rulers after all." said Lakyus.

Elder Liches are powerful and intelligent undead magic casters. They rule over the undead, the adventurers need to destroy his minions first to be able to reach and slay the Elder Lich.

"Or the work of many Elder Liches." said the dark hero that was staying silent.

"Hmm, what do you mean?" asked Evileye.

"It is impossible for one Elder Lich te control thousands of undead, so there might be more of them, and maybe they have powerful magic items to control them." said Ainz.

They were surprised by Momons knowledge.

"So, are you accepting this job, Blue Rose… Sir Momon?" asked the guildmaster.

"I will handle the reconnaissance." said the dark hero who rose up from his chair.

Though they could not see his face, they could feel the confidence and determination brimming in his voice.

"A-are you sure?" asked the guildmaster.

"I have a trump card."

Ainz produced a crystal and showed it to the guildmaster.

"...It can't be! It's impossible, unbelievable…" Evileye shouted.

All of them looked at Evileye. She was the strongest of the Blue Rose and the one who had more knowledge about tire magic and magic items. Seeing her act like that was rare.

"This is a spell-sealing crystal. How did you come to possess such a thing?!"

"Oh, so you know about this crystal miss Evileye. This crystal now contains a spell of the 8th tier."

Everyone in the room was shocked. Something like that existed?

"Ara ara, you are full of surprises, sir Momon."

"Where did you find that crystal?" asked the masked girl.

"This was a national treasure of the nation, I come from."

But of course, the 8th tier was a myth, so nations that possessed this kind of item must protect them at all costs, but most of the time they were kept secret. They were trump cards that should be used in a really dire situation.

"Sir Momon, what about your payment?"

"I don't mind discussing that afterward."

The leader of Blue Rose got up from her chair quickly.

"Wait sir Momon, we will come with you."

"Oh, come one...really?"

"Are you sure miss Lakyus? This mission might be really dangerous."

"Of course, we are adamantite adventurers, together we will destroy all those filthy undead."

"Filthy undead eh…"

Ainz saw the masked girl lowering her head.

"We'll be moving out as soon as possible."

Lakyus nodded confidently. They left the guild and went to take their magic items and other things for their journey.

After one hour, Ainz was leaving the city, he was raiding a golem horse summoned from Statue of Animal - War Horse. Blue Rose was waiting outside the city, and when they saw the golem horse their eyes widened. They had never seen such a thing before, the guildmaster was right, Momon was full of surprises.

"Yoo Momon, what is that?" asked Gagaran.

"Ah, this is a warhorse that I summoned with an item." replied Ainz.

"Amazing."

"You must have a lot of valuable items sir Momon."

"Yes miss Evileye, It took me years to find them, and please, just call me Momon."

"Call me Evileye then."

Ainz nodded.

"Momon you said that spell-sealing crystal was a national treasure of the nation, what happened to your nation?"

I should think, something fast.

"Ah my nation... It was completely destroyed from the war between a clan of vampires and Lycans."

Ainz remembered the old series of Underworld.

"Eh, that's horrible, but what are Lycans?" asked Evileye.

"Do you know what a werewolf is?"

"Yes, they are humanoids that can shapeshift into a wolf when there is a full moon."

"Umu, that's correct, but a lycan is a more advanced species that, unlike the werewolf, can, for the most part, control their transformations. A werewolf can only change under the full moon, and cannot control that. The same can be said for lycans, however they are also able to transform at any given time, whether under a full moon or not, should the need arise.

Blue Rose was shocked, Evileye has fought a long time ago a werewolf. They are fast and have a brutal strength. After a long fight Evileye mange to win because the moon was covered by the clouds, and the beast transformed back to his human form.

Fighting against these lycans must be a real nightmare. Evileye was lost in thoughts of how that war ended.

"So, who were victorious in that war?"

"The lycans, they destroyed all the castles that were ruled by the vampire lords, leaving none of them alive."

Evileye was an undead, but she felt fear. What if that werewolf was a lycan, would she had lost that battle?

"Wha-What happened to the citizens of your country?" asked Lakyus.

"Stop!"

"Well...only a few manage to escape. The vampires, captured humans for their blood, while the lycans offered them immortality and turned them into lycans.

A look of shock came over Lakyus as she heard this. She imagined how that war must have looked like, humans getting captured just for their blood, and the others turned into horrible monsters.

"How did you survive?"

"Stop asking more questions damn it!" Ainz screamed inside.

"I slew many vampires because they were really annoying, and there was a time that the Lycans helped me."

"Wait… those monsters helped you?"

"Umu, yes and they even offered me to become a Lycan, but I refused, but still they respected me and let me go without a fight."

"I hope they believe this."

"Ah, please don't ask more about this, because im trying to forget my past."

"And Lakyus do not call every non-human, a monster, because a human can be a monster too. Lycans had to fight for them for their freedom because they were slaves.

For example, goblin villages lived peacefully and didn't do any harm to humans, but still, they were attacked by humans of the Slane Theocracy because the were human supremacist or by the adventures just because they were goblins.

Blue Rose understood the words of the dark warrior, and they apologized.

They traveled for several hours until they reached the small city of Re-Lytos. Ainz and Blue Rose entered the city and all the people there had gloomy faces. The went to the adventurer's guild and told them that they had accepted the request. The guildmaster was grateful that the adamantite teams had accepted to come here.

Later they set off for the forest of Sera after getting some more information from the guildmaster. He said that deep in the forest is an ancient castle that was abandoned 200 years ago because of the rampage of the Demon Gods. The guildmaster believed that the one who was responsible for the disappearance of many citizens must be in that castle.

Now they were at the border with the forest, the sky was covered with grey clouds, that made the forest look even darker.

."All right! Now, let's move on."

The group entered the forest. There were no landmarks in the forest, and it was impossible to tell in which direction one was moving.

Ainz looked around as he surveyed the forest, and he saw no traces of any animals, there was no sign of life here at all.

Tia and Tina advanced carefully. They seemed to have concluded that there was no living creature hiding nearby. The group was filled with tension except for Ainz as they walked silently through the forest.

For Ainz, this was really beautiful. His friend Blue Planet would have loved this wonderful nature.

But at that moment-

"Well… this is somehow... sad..."

They have reached a part of the forest that was completely rotten. Only death prevailed in this place. The girls were observing if there were undead around.

Ainz saw the old castle that was surrounded by rotten trees. For him it was a shame now that Blue Rose know the location of the castle, he could have used it as a base if something went wrong with him being an adventurer.

He always loved those kinds of places. Old abandoned castles, large tombs, It reminded him of the entrance of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

"The undead, are coming this way." shouted Evileye.

There were thousands of undead coming from everywhere to attack Momon and Blue Rose.

"Alright then, let's destroy these skeletons." said the dark warrior.

He jumped in front of the skeleton warriors and hit them with his greatswords. Ainz slew 50 of them with just one hit. Bones and skulls flew everywhere, but the undead did not feel fear, they kept attacking the dark warrior. Ainz runs like a storm destroying every undead in his way.

The girls of Blue Rose were amazed… no.

The Frost Wyvern was far more powerful and Momon slew him easily, these undead skeletons are nothing to him.

"So powerful." murmured Evileye.

"Oi oi, Momon leave some for us man." said Gagaran with excitement.

Gagaran attacked the undead skeletons with her war pick. Evileye used [Fly] and started to cast magic on the skeleton warriors. Tia and Tina joined the fight too, and Lakyus stayed behind them.

After 30 minutes the entire undead army was destroyed. Piles of bones and skulls were everywhere.

Except for Ainz and Evileye, the others were a bit exhausted from the battle.

"Damn Momon, you have all that heavy armor and those big swords and you do not look exhausted. Just what kind of training did you do?"

Ainz didn't give an answer to Gagaran, but he turned his head to the castle and walked towards it, Blue Rose followed him.

They were 50 meters away from the castle, they didn't stop their advance. After some steps, the gate of the old gothic castle opened by two skeletons.

Five figures appeared from the gate. Four of them wore dark blue old and luxurious robe that covered their bodies of rotting skins and bones. The one in the middle was different, he wore a red and dark robe but he didn't have rotting skin like the others, he was a skeletal undead. All of them were holding a twisted staff on their right hand and a strange orb on their left hand.

"Is he an overlord like me?"

Ainz observed the strange undead, he had exactly the appearance of an overlord. He felt Evileye behind him that was trembling.

The strange undead seemed to be the leader here. He stepped forward and pointed his eyes to the Blue Rose and Ainz.

"You have done well mortals for destroying the army of death, but this is where your little adventure ends." spoke the strange undead.

The Blue Rose was ready to attack because it would be foolish to let a magic caster powering up, especially when the enemy was an undead magic caster who can cast [Fireball] multiple times.

"I have a question."

It was the dark warrior who spoke. The girls turned their eyes at Ainz confused, so did the Elder Liches.

"Ask mortal." he said while crossing his arms.

"What does he want to ask in a moment like this?" thought Evileye.

"What kind of undead are you? You will be offended if I call you a mere elder lich, right?"

Although the undead didn't have facial expressions, Ainz felt that he was smiling. He really was curious what class of undead was he.

"You are not wrong, every mortal that has seen my face thought that I am an elder lich. Well, you and your friends are going to die anyway, so I will tell you."

"I am an undead of the highest order, the night lich Alzur from Corpus of the Abyss." he introduced himself.

"Bu- but I thought they were just myths."

Ainz as an undead has a superior sense of hearing so he heard Evileye murmuring. He had never heard about these night lich's before, they didn't exist in YGGDRASIL, and Corpus of the Abyss? To him, that sounded like some kind of evil undead organization. But still, this night lich looked really weak.

"Night lich huh… never heard about them."

"Of course not, no one has survived to tell the tale, now..."

The night lich pointed his finger at Evileye. It was possible that Alzur thought Evileye was a strong magic caster.

[Dragon Lightning]

White lightning in the shape of a dragon was coming towards Evileye. Before the spell reached her, she cast her spell.

[Crystal Wall]

A wall made of earth-element crystals raised to protect Evileye. When the Dragon Lightning hit the wall, it was destroyed completely.

"Annoying, they are not like the other adventures, all of you, use the supreme orb of death."

"Yes, master." obeyed the elder lich's.

The ground started to shake and then it cracked. From it, came out ten beings that were made out of bones.

"Skeletal Dragons."

They were beings that were composed of countless human bones, they were three meters tall and had wings.

"That's right after we are done with you, we will go to the cities of the Kingdom and kill and destroy everything. We will turn this Kingdom into the land of the dead." declared Alzur.

Ten skeletal dragons and five powerful undead magic casters will be really dangerous for the weak armies of the Kingdom.

"We must stop them now." shouted Lakyus.

"I will handle the skeletal dragons."

Like a bullet, Ainz run towards one of the skeletal dragons. The undead beast tried to block Ainz with his claws, but Ainz was to fast and powerful. He hit the skeletal dragon with his great swords and destroyed it. The human bones that the undead beast was made of, flight everywhere.

"What the…"

"Impossible!"

The undead magic casters were all shocked. There was no way that a skeletal dragon will be destroyed with a single hit.

"You bastard, I'm gonna kill…"

[Penetrate Maximize Magic - Crystal Dagger]

"Damn it! [Teleportation]"

Alzur vanished and appeared on the sky using [Fly] and was looking at the adventures.

"You little brat, eat this."

[Maximize Magic - Dragon Lightning]

It runs really fast, it didn't allow Evileye to cast a defensive spell, and she got hit.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

From the heavy damage, Evileye fell to the ground unconscious. The others were shocked that the strongest magic caster in their team was lying on the ground.

"EVILEYE NOOO!" screamed Gagaran.

She was running to Evileye, but she made a really bad mistake. She turned her back to the enemy.

"Gaah!" she released a cry of pain.

She was hit by four magic arrows and fall on her knees.

"Gagaran I will heal you." shouted Lakyus

[Middle Healing]

But it was too late.

"You forgot about me human hehe."

[Fireball]

She quickly cast [Magic Shield] but was sent flying and she hit the ground. She slowly rose up and was holding herself with her demonic sword.

"Don't… look… down… on me…" she released those words with difficulty.

"Super skill! [Dark Blade Mega Impact]"

With a horizontal sweep, black power flowed out in a vast, slashing wave. The elder lich's used [Fly] to doge the dark energy. Lakyus saw if the explosion has destroyed the undead magic casters. Suddenly from thick smoke that was caused from the dark energy of the demonic sword, two [Fireballs] one in the left and one on the right came in Lakyus direction. She used her Floating Swords to protect herself from the [Fireball] on the right, but the one in the left hit her really hard that sent her flying again and she hit a rotten tree.

"...Mo...mon…ple...ase..." they were the last words of Lakyus and she fell unconscious on the ground.

Gagara and Tia were to on the ground unconscious because they were hit by a rain of magic arrows.

Tina was using [Hide Shadow] a ninjutsu skill to hide in a shadow but she felt the three knife-like things pierced her body and now she was visible.

"Haha, I can detect life human, you can't hide from me."

[Lightning]

[Lightning]

[Lightning]

Tina was hit by three Lightning spells and fell to the ground unconscious. One more spell from the Elder Lich, she might lose her life.

Now everyone turned their eyes at Ainz's direction and they started to surround him. This warrior destroyed a Skeletal Dragon with one hit so they were preparing to attack him with full power.

"You are alone now warrior, kneel, and let me give you a quick painless death."

For a moment it was silence, but then...

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The dark warrior was laughing hard as if someone had said a really good joke. The undead magic caster looked at each other confused. Has he lost his mind because he was about to die, or was something else?

In that moment the dark armor vanished and what appeared was something unbelievable. The being in front of them was not anymore the dark warrior...or a human. The being was dressed in a black robe that it seems like it was sucking the light. He has a dark halo-like object glimmering right behind his head. It didn't have skin or flesh, on each of his skeletal fingers he had different rings and on his right hand, he was holding a golden staff that looked really powerful.

They took all step back, the undead in front of them looked really really dangerous, and the dark aura that hit them felt like a terrifying storm. The only thing that can be described about this being is "God of Death". They were undead, but if they were human, they would have died from instant shock.

"Ah, you guys are really amusing, kuku."

Death spoke, his voice really sounds like a god should sound.

"Wh- who ar- are you?" asked Alzur with a trembling voice.

Alzur was asking himself, why was this undead with these humans. It really reminds him of the time when the God of Death Surshana reigned the Slane Theocracy.

"I really wanted to talk with you… but now it doesn't matter."

[Maximize Magic - Call Greater Thunder]

A large thunder descended from the dark and grey sky. It was heading toward the skeletal dragons and the elder lich's. The only thing they saw for the last time was "white".

"Maaaaster!" shouted the elder lich.

The thunder destroyed the nine skeletal dragons and killed all the elder lich's. Their bodies turned into dust immediately. Alzur couldn't suppress his emotions, the tragedy that was witnessing in front of his eyes was truly horrifying. The four elder liches have been his subordinates for hundred of years. He was ruthless but he really cared for his subordinates.

The first subordinate he found was Igor. Alzur gave him this name, he found him wandering on the desert of Katze Plains and offered him to become his subordinate.

The second subordinate was Xuldo. This one was being chased from the Black Scripture in the Dragon Kingdom. At the moment he was about to die, Alzur intervenes and killed three members of the Black Scripture. Xuldo thanked him for saving his life and joined Alzur to become powerful and for more magical knowledge.

The third subordinate was Tanush. He lived inside a cave in the Baharuth Empire, but when a powerful magical beast throws him out from his territory, he was really desperate. The hippogriffs riders patrolled the territory every day and night so he tried to hide all the time till he crosses paths with Alzur. He told him about his story and went with Alzur to kill the magical beast that invaded his cave. Alzor wounded the magical beast really bad and let Tanush kill him. He was amazed by how powerful and wise Alzur was, so he became his subordinate.

The last one was Bilis. This elder lich was really different from the others. He tried to be friends with the humans and trade with them, but the priest of the village sent a message to the Sunlight Scripture to come and slay him. One day he was going to this village again, but he was ambushed by the Sunlight Scripture. Bilis barely escaped from the summoned other elder lich's heard the story and didn't talk with him because he was buddy with the mortals. Bilis was lonely, but later he encountered Alzur with the other elder lich's, when they were close to him, Bilis just bowed his head for respect, because he thought Alzur was an old and a powerful lich. Alzur saw Bilis that was bowing and offered him to become his subordinate that later Bilis gladly accepted.

Now they were no more, his subordinates were turned into ashes and the one who massacred them was this mysterious monster. If Alzur was a mortal, he would be in tears right now.

"Wha- what are you?"

"Your death."

"Wh-what?"

[Reality Slash]

At that moment the world broke like a mirror, he saw the undead god turning his back. Alzur fell to ground slowly, the only thing he was looking now was the broken sky, then his vision started to fade.

The fearsome night lich Alzur... died.

Ainz quickly went to see the condition of Blue Rose. They were beaten really badly. He lit a fire and gather them around it. Ainz saw that the mask of Evlieye had fallen but he saw something unusual. The mysterious girl was not a human but a vampire. Ainz didn't think much about it, so he put the mask back to her face.

He returned his gaze back to the night lich. Ainz saw that these guys used those items to summon the skeletal dragons and he was curious about them. Ainz collected the items and he observed them.

"Hmmm...how about…"

Ainz took off one of his gloves and used [All Appraisal Magic Item] on the strange orb but suddenly…

"Greetings to you, oh mighty King of Death."

"Huh?"

Those words echoed within his skull. Ainz continued looking at the strange orb.

"So you are an intelligent magic item, hmm."

He rolled the orb and continued examining it.

"Speak orb."

"You have my deepest thanks, oh supreme overlord of Death."

This reaction remained Ainz of the loyal Crypt Lord and Death Knights.

"Please, oh mighty ruler of death, accept this one to serve you for eternity."

Ainz thought It will be better to destroy it, but since it was an intelligent and loyal, it has some value. He thought to speak with the other orbs, but he didn't want to hire any more flattery.

"All right, I accept you all to become my subordinates. I will put you inside my inventory, so don't do anything weird inside there, okay?"

"Thank you very much, oh Supreme One!"

"Maybe when am alone, I will try to speak with him."