Chapter 157

The stream of quagoa entering the city of the dwarves brought great dismay, dwarven parents clutched their children, dwarven elders hid themselves away, and dwarven warriors looked with hatred on even the smallest quagoan infant.

But they were silent, silent because they saw what they were fighting against when they saw Quadwar. The mutilated life of both races blended together in a single tortured being.

The city thus gained almost seventy thousand new occupants overnight, and finding where to put them proved a massive undertaking that was solved by their King.

"Warriors all move to live beside the wall, and the quagoa who plan on fighting take the same positions. Any homes left empty can be occupied by a few quagoan families." Ainz suggested, to which the council answered simply…

"Won't that be uncomfortable for everybody?"

"Did anyone ever say war was a comfortable experience?" Ainz retorted, standing before the council. "I can augment your food supplies from my kingdom, at least for some time, but we don't need to do this for long anyway. Jaldabaoth will be here soon, I would like to conduct an expedition down into the bottom of the Great Rift to see if it is possible that the item sealing his armies is at the bottom, if it is-"

The dwarf council immediately drowned out their King with cries of alarm.

"My Lord! Perhaps you could survive a trip to the bottom, but nobody ever has, we have no idea what is down there. Maybe the item, maybe not! But if what is down there is too great even for you, then Jaldabaoth will destroy us all with or without his armies!" The eldest council member had his entire body shivering as if he were freezing, his trembling hands were outstretched as he implored his King, "Don't do that, we know we can kill demons now… let him chance destruction. If he fails, all our problems are over, if he succeeds, we can fend off his armies while you handle him…"

Ainz could only concede on that point. "This is a considerable risk… but very well. If he succeeds, you will face his demon armies, I will handle the rest."

In the few days that followed, scattered survivors of Jaldabaoth's torments, and then the less than handful that faced his assault on the quagoa position, made their way back to the dwarven city.

Ainz' [Gate] spell was used in public for the first time in the city square, and skeletons pulling carts of fish harvested from the frogmen and the lizardmen lake, as well as from the farms in former Baharuthian territory, began to make their way into dwarven and quagoan bellies alike.

While it wasn't rich fare by any means, as the citizens and the quagoan allies lined up in good order for food, the reputation of the King began to grow with every filled belly.

The Dwarven Commander made a point of being seen walking with Pe Riyuro through the city streets, and the quagoa began to marvel at the runecrafted armor they were being equipped with… and in particular developed a fondness for the metal claws that were added on as a sort of 'bonus'.

So armored quagoa became a common sight in the last city, not least because the quagoa refused to take it off, and joint drills began, with the dragons taking flight while dwarven long range weapons were practiced and the infantry of both forces drilled in front of the city.

The seething hatred was not gone, but under the threat of annihilation, it was buried, and a grudging professional appreciation for their differences began to take shape.

Quadwar's public display in the city square was almost constant, anyone doubting the need to cooperate, quickly ceased to doubt it when they beheld the monstrosity. If this disturbed Quadwar, he said nothing of the sort, only telling the story of the escape to whomever would listen to it.

Ainz, of course, drew from all the stories and mythologies he could think of to piece together the story of an ancient past in which the quagoa and the dwarves had lived close to the way they did now, and explaining Jaldabaoth's hatred for them both.

"It was a glorious age, like nothing I've seen in this one… my Kingdom was widespread, our accomplishments… well some of our artifacts seem to have made their way into popular stories and even actual use in the world outside the mountain." He sighed and often looked away from his listeners, constantly stuck thinking, 'Why… oh why am I like this?!' While he continued to 'overact' for reasons that were beyond his comprehension, the races of the New World seemed to absolutely eat it up like a starving man at a feast. Not for the first time he wondered, 'Is there something wrong with my tastes, or theirs?'

But he endured the struggles of those swiftly passing days until a bell over the city began to toll for them all. The cause of the alarm was quickly obvious when the nine meter tall Jaldabaoth spread his arms and wings out, and swept down on the now empty fortress beyond the Great Rift, and smashed it with a punch.

The shattering stones flew far from where they sat at rest, some striking the very walls of the dwarven city where they shattered into fragments before landing as pebbles below.

"Ainz Ooal Gown! He is among you, is he not?!" Jaldabaoth bellowed and flames gouted from his mouth and between the crag-like gaps in his stonelike flesh.

The city was silent but for the bells when the voice of the Demon Emperor rang out.

Within the city, Ainz looked over the sea of faces, "My part has come, it's hard to believe he came alone, but here he is… wish Your King luck!" He shouted and flung his leg over Hejinmal's bowed neck.

"Hail His Majesty! Long may he reign!" The call went up, and Hejinmal's wings beat and the frost dragon rose above the dimly lit city of stone.

"You were right! I am here, Jaldabaoth!" Ainz pointed with a dramatic and showy flourish that made him cringe within.

"Still protecting the weak little insects the same way you always did!" Jaldabaoth swept a hand before himself to encompass the whole, "Worthless animals can't even keep from killing each other! All that you did, and they forgot, falling to their deepest and most vile instincts. Pathetic worms that they are, if we leave them alone, they'll go right back to it again! Why bother with such trash, submit to me, and we can divide the world between us…"

The city was quiet, a way out was there before the eyes of their Savior, a perfect deal, half the world, if it could be managed, it was hard to imagine it would be refused.

Yet it was.

"No." Ainz replied in a soft voice that still echoed off the stone and back to every ear. "A king is a father to his people, they are his children, and he must watch out for them even when they're wrong… that is what you never understood, Jaldabaoth! You could never understand that, because you're a child, just a child with power… you never had responsibility before and don't know how to take it or handle it. So… I must put you down."

"How about we compromise? I'm going down now." Jaldabaoth taunted, folded his arms so that they crossed over his chest, stiffened his legs against one another, and then folded his wings in front of his body so that they wrapped like a cloak.

He then dropped like a stone toward the rift.

'Demiurge is really overplaying his role… it's… they seem to respond to it… but by god I can't let him spend too much time with Pandora's Actor or who knows what might happen?!' Ainz shuddered at the thought as 'Jaldabaoth' descended into the distant darkness.

Nothing happened.

Minutes passed into minutes.

'Demiurge is controlling the Evil Lord of Wrath… so… if something happened he would have reached out to me for sure.' Ainz thought, and Hejinmal simply beat his wings and waited.

"Do you think… could he be dead, master? Could something down there be stronger than him, if so, everything will be fine, right?" Hejinmal asked, looking behind him to his rider.

"Hejinmal…" Ainz chuckled, "has anyone ever told you that you should never set flags like that?"

"Master? I'm sorry, I don't understand." Hejinmal cocked his head in confusion just as the rumbling began.

Jaldabaoth began to ascend into view, and hordes of demons with him. Mocking, evil laughter rang out from the Demon Emperor as his wings beat at the air and demons of all kinds charged toward the city.

[Gate]. Ainz used the spell himself, and a void appeared before the city gate through which his 'death knights' began to charge, their massive tower shields began to cut into the demons on the ground, hundreds of them locked positions and began to advance.

The demon fliers began to attack the city walls, screaming with wild hunger for blood as they lashed out with claws. Armored quagoans began to leap bodily onto the small demons and tear into them so that pairs would fight like rats. Dwarven archers began to nock and loose arrows without even bothering to aim, flight upon flight enchanted arrows with holy magic and blasts from their lightning weapons doing what they could, began to rip into demonic hordes.

From far behind the city rose the beating wings of the survivors of the frost dragon clan, and they split the air with their roars and soared toward their demonic enemies, their frost breath shooting out and raking above and below as chaos enveloped the battlefield.

"Hejinmal!" Ainz shouted, and the dragon swept toward the demon emperor, [Thousand Bone Lance].

[Reality Slash].

[Cord Cutter].

Ainz spammed his magic attacks, choosing the flashiest he could while Hejinmal frantically raked out with claws, tail and breath to busy the Demon Emperor's limbs and allow his master to fight at his maximum potential.

'I'm going to die again… I can't hurt this thing, it's all I can do to use my frost breath to keep him from burning me too badly.'

The pair clashed back and forth charging like knights with lances over a tournament field, the demon emperor was several times the height of the white and gold cladded King, and yet to those spectators down below one thing was clear above all else.

'The Demon Emperor can't bring him down…' They hurled one another back and forth against the stone, the mountain shook, and loose rocks began to fall as pebbles from above, dragons picked up demons and threw them into the abyss, and howls of pain were as common as dust particles.

"Open the gates!" Pe Riyuro shouted to the commander, "We can turn the tide, we have to keep the wall clear!"

The dwarven commander looked at the headdress-bearing chief as if he were mad, then seeing demons clambering over the top where they got around the dreadful tower shield bearing knights, he nodded. 'Right, we have enormous numbers in reserve… if we keep the walls clear, we keep the demons out of the city… if they get in… if they get in it's all over…'

"Right! Open the gates! Take yours out first, we'll be right behind you!" The Commander bellowed the order, and the gates began to split, Pe Riyuro however was in no mood to wait. "My elites! My greatest of my great! My warriors all, this is it! We do or we die!" He shouted, and he rushed for the gap before it was clear, whether anyone followed or not, he didn't look behind him to see.

They did.

A roar hit his back that would have made a dragon proud, as tens of thousands of fierce quagoas rushed out after their ruler and broke to spread themselves in half on either side of the outnumbered death knights.

As the last of the quagoan warriors made it out of the gate, the dwarven Commander took up the signal horn that hung from his neck.

He took a deep breath, and blew it as hard as he could. "Are you going to let the quagoa show you up before our King?! Attack! Attack! Attack!" And he followed after the quagoas while the reserves poured out of every position and ran through the gate, their runecraft armor glinting in the dim light, the clatter of the thousands upon thousands of dwarves with their long halberds rushing into the fray was at least locally greater than that of the battle itself, when coupled with the thousands of pounding feet.

Ainz had an excellent view of the struggle, the demon army sacrificed some power for numbers, and it made them intimidating, but beatable. With the dragons sweeping low and raking them with breath or claws and the knights creating a wedge supported by flanking quagoa and dwarves on the wings to continue the push back, it was progress.

Bright spells of mines and white flames that might as well have been holy light as far as the watchers were concerned, raked over the Demon Emperor, who pushed himself back to make space to say, "How are your armies holding out like this?! How is this possible?!"

"Runecraft did not die out!" Ainz shouted back, and the charge renewed, 'Why… Why is Demiurge making him so… cheesy! Was he spending time with Pandora's Actor without my knowing, or… no… no… no he couldn't have gotten the idea to act this way from 'me' could he?!'

The thought was briefly broken when Jaldabaoth bellowed, "It doesn't matter! If I take you down, then my next wave will wipe them all from this world!" The charge was met with a blast of frost breath and a brutal onslaught of bone lances, but Jaldabaoth had his arms wrapped around the King and pulled him from his mount.

"Master!" Hejinmal cried out in alarm, and the dragons soaring over the armies of the dwarves and quagoa redoubled their efforts in desperation, the fall stopped the waves of charging demons at least, leaving limited numbers to deal with.

"We've got to help him!" Hejinmal cried out and turning to the backs of the demons, he began to charge with mad courage. 'I'm no warrior! I'm not my father I'm not my father I'm not my father… this isn't what I'm meant for…' He cried out in his head and did his best to let out a properly dragonish roar as he barrelled into the back with claws and breath flailing without much skill to speak of.

Luck however, was on his side as the armies advanced, the death knights and dragons began to be able to hurl flightless demons toward the great rift, and none climbed back up.

The smaller and weaker dwarves and quagoa were unable to do the same, but with their holy weapons they kept the worst at bay while the dragons and death knights did the heavy lifting for them.

The endless waves were gone, though the question of why was in every head as they drew closer and closer to the edge of the abyss that was the Great Rift.

When the last of the demons was hurled screaming below, and the last flying demon fell with torn wings or tumbled to their deaths in agony to land with a sickening thud, there was no battle cry of victory.

Nor could there be. 'Is Jaldabaoth dead?' That question was answered with the cries of battle in the darkness, occasional sparks could be seen that up close, must have been gouts of hellfire.

Then there was silence, and the chill of fate's pointed hand seemed to be leveled at them all as they recognized the sound of Jaldabaoth's laughter.

His hands open at his sides, his wings flapping, his maw, large enough to swallow a quagoa or dwarf whole, came slowly into view while he rose from the darkness of the Great Rift.

"Surrender!" He said, "And I promise you quick deaths… you beat my army… but you forgot one thing…"

He did not leave them wondering long.

'I am an army!' He laughed long and loud at dragon, dwarf, and quagoa alike, "And I cannot be beaten!"

"Get up…" Hejinmal whispered, cut in countless places that would leave many scars if no healing magic was used.

"No!" Hejinmal shouted at the Demon Emperor, though Jaldabaoth tried to appear unharmed, rivulets of burning blood were dripping from more wounds than could easily be counted, though it contributed to his horrifying appearance, Hejinmal could see through the facade.

"You're hurt! He hurt you! You're not a god! You can die!" Hejinmal bellowed out and like it was a call to action, halberds snapped to position, claws struck into combat postures, and the larger dragons wheeled around ready to charge again.

"Fools… if he couldn't defeat me…"

"Jaldabaoth!" The voice in the darkness was like the noise of ten thousand chariots and their horses rolling over a field, and from the darkness came a white blur.

"It's not possible! I killed you!" Jaldabaoth gasped as he was struck full in the chest and sent rocketing into the sky of stone, then straight through into the dark of night, exposing the stars for the first time to those who had never seen them.

"Now that we're out of range…" Ainz bellowed, [Super Tier Magic], [Hyper Nova].

A brilliant light engulfed their fresh view of the starry night, and a scream came from within it.

"Demiurge, store Ulbert's item." Ainz whispered close to his subordinate's ear as the roar of magic drowned all the world out beyond them.

As the Evil Lord of Wrath's eyes sparkled with his controller's understanding, and all were hidden by the burst of light, Ainz withdrew a scroll of duplication from his inventory and held it over the prototype Ulbert had made. [Duplicate] He activated the scroll, and a useless duplicate appeared in Ainz's open palm.

What Demiurge used to give the Evil Lord of Wrath, the appearance of burning up, Ainz wasn't sure, but it made for quite the dramatic show. The viewing host of the living below brought to a reverential silence when they could see that only one remained alive.

Then very slowly, the King began to descend again, and the ashes of Jaldabaoth came back with him like little black snowflakes.

In his hand, the King held the object Jaldabaoth used, "This will never be used again…" He said, and clenched his fist over it, seemingly shattering the object into pieces, and then burning it to ash with a single spell.