Chapter 31

Momonga stood in front of a large and somewhat crudely built fortress, a red line visible in the sky directly above it. Behind him, both Rubedo and Albedo were clad in their plate armors, waiting for his orders. Benimaru stood behind them, holding a sheathed katana in one hand.

'The coward is running away and leaving his people behind. How despicable.' Momonga lifted his skeletal hand and pointed at the red line. "Rubedo, get him. I want to deal with him personally."

"As you command, my Lord." Rubedo said monotonously and flew up in the air, causing a shockwave.

Momonga started walking with a casual stride, with Albedo catching up and walking beside him and Benimaru trailing behind. Two ogre guards opened the fortress' gate and kneeled as he walked past. With their master's cowardly display, there seemed to be no fighting spirit left in the otherwise proudly martial race. Or they simply understood the power difference between themselves and the ones who decimated their peers.

As he walked on, none offered any resistance. Momonga stopped at the end of the entrance hall and motioned for one of the entrance guards to come closer.

The ogre obliged, but stopped a few meters away from Momonga when he noticed Albedo, who was preparing to strike him down if he made any sudden move. He promptly knelt and asked, "What do you wish from me, strong one?"

"Where is the throne room?" Momonga asked as he looked down at the kneeling figure in front of him. The ogre was doing his best to keep his composure, but it wasn't hard to see that his hands shook in fright.

{ Benimaru, didn't you tell me your people valued valor and honor? Yet this one is shivering before me. }

{ I know this ogre, my Lord. His is not afraid to lose his own life, but fears his family would be slaughtered if any of our kind displeases you. }

'Sense of helplessness is terrible. It makes even the most powerful warriors despair.' Momonga mused as he waited for the ogre's response. Considering the possibility of a possible ambush, his mind was constantly in an accelerated mode and everything went by in slow motion for him.

"That way, Lord." The ogre turned, pointing at the door to the left of him.

"Lead the way." Momonga replied casually, waving for him to move in a dismissive manner. There was no reason to put anyone at ease just yet.

The ogre bowed and ran ahead, opening the doors for the being whose full power he surely didn't want to witness firsthand. After a short walk, the trio reached the throne room with a lone kijin sitting on the floor in front of the throne with a katana resting upon his lap.

"Welcome, honorable Lord Momonga. My master has fled. I can offer only my head as a trophy. I have instructed the rest of the ogres to accept your rule without resistance." The kijin said slowly with a calm voice.

Momonga looked at him for a moment. The kijin showed almost no emotion in his stony expression, but there was a hint of a sense of betrayal reflected in his eyes. 'Calm, even in the face of death. His resolve is admirable.'

Benimaru stepped forward and said with determination. "Lord Momonga, please permit me to take his head."

"Wait a bit." Momonga said just as Rubedo teleported in and dropped Gelmud at his feet.

The confused majin looked around in panic, and then looked up only to face the burning gaze of Momonga.

"You! We can make a deal. I am a powerful majin. We can work together." When the demoness and kijin standing by the deadman twisted their faces in disgust, he flipped around on the floor and shouted towards the kijin while trying to crawl away. "Mundro, you useless ogre, defend me!" Gelmud shouted as Rubedo grabbed him by the collar of his suit, holding him in place.

"I am sorry, my master, but you left us all. We were of no use to you." Mundro calmly stated.

"You! I will get your head…"

"Rubedo, shut him up!" Momonga interrupted Gelmud as his emotional suppression set in. This sniveling worm made him angrier than he would have believed his now undead form was capable of.

Rubedo grabbed Gelmud's neck and squeezed hard enough to prevent him from talking, but did not snap his neck.

"Power…I can… Give you… power!" Gelmud managed to gargle out.

"Power? A pathetic, treacherous worm like you can give me power?" Momonga asked with a tone that betrayed his disgust.

"I…can…power." Gelmud continued to struggle.

Momonga motioned for Rubedo to loosen her grip. 'Let's see what kind of lie he plans to throw at me to spare his life.'

Once she did as ordered, Gelmud coughed and started to babble at a frantic pace. "I have an ability that makes my named subordinates stronger. Let me serve you, and I will give you unlimited power!"

'Unlimited power? That reminds me of something. Yes, it would be fitting to test a rather suitable ability. I wonder if there is a way to take that ability from him directly. I could call in Solution to consume him but…' |Dark Sage| gave him another idea. |Degenerate| combined with |Dark Sage| could take Gelmud's abilities with the majin still being killed.

Momonga raised his right hand towards Gelmud and said in a theatrical manner, "Let me show you unlimited power." the lightning shot out of his fingertips and hit Gelmud, who was still held in place by Rubedo.

The majin let out an inhuman howl as the |Death Lightning| started to burn away not only his body but his soul as well. He wailed in absolute agony, unable to get out of Rubedo's unbreakable grip.

As his ability burned away Gelmud's very existence, Momonga sensed |Dark Sage| analyzing the bits that burned away. He could see the majin's memories in his mind's eye.

'There was a reason for his attack on us. Our sudden appearance disturbed the plans of a Demon Lord, who chose caution and dismissed him, stopping his plan to find out more about us. I should be careful when dealing with this Demon Lord, Clayman. He seems to be a careful and calculating man.'

As the soul slowly burned up, he saw more and more memories, until |Dark Sage| finally stumbled upon a skill that he was looking for and appropriated it by utilizing |Degenerate|. The skill called |Master| seemed too good to be true. If he took it for himself and combined it with |Nazarick|, his power would skyrocket.

As the last remnants of Gelmud burned away, Momonga put the new skill on |Nazarick's| skill list for later use and turned his attention to the present moment.

Mundro had not moved through the whole ordeal, and just calmly observed the total annihilation of his master. The kijin let out a short sigh and looked up facing Momonga with a calm and collected expression. He was a man who had come to terms with his choices and only needed to wait for the inevitable outcome.

{ Is this the current shogun of the ogres? } Momonga asked Benimaru.

{ Yes, my Lord. He took over the position by killing my father in a duel. Please give me the honor of gifting his head to you. }

There wasn't any particular reason to kill the kijin, but if Benimaru wanted revenge for the death of his father, Momonga had no reason to deny his dutiful servant.

"Proceed." He said to Benimaru, who walked forward and stood two meters away from Mundro.

The two kijin looked at each other in silence for a moment as Mundro slowly stood up. After a short deliberation, Mundro said. "I am no match for you, young prince."

"You killed my father in a duel and now will refuse me?" Benimaru snarled.

"Your father had a chance in defeating me. I can sense your power, and we both know how the duel between us would end. I understand blood needs to be repaid with blood. Permit me the honorable way to atone for my mistakes."

Benimaru unsheathed his katana and pointed at Mundro. "Why would I let you?"

Momonga observed the interaction, only vaguely understanding what was going on. For ogres, the highest virtue was honor, and to sully it was a fate worse than death. Adamant to not interfere, he continued watching in silence.

"You know our ways. Tell me, young one, would you not make the same choice for your master?" Mundro asked calmly.

Benimaru silently lifted his sword for a strike as the older kijin stood unmoving. 'He will just let me strike him down without combat? He… He will not give me the satisfaction of a one-sided duel.' The memory of the last moments of his father's life came back. Mundro and his father had been almost evenly matched. The duel could have ended in the favor of either one.

Now it wasn't the case. Unless Benimaru would be recklessly careless, Mundro would not have any chance. The power his master had granted him was so much more than Gelmud had given the older kijin. 'I can't take his honor away.'

"I would." Beniumaru finally said. He sheathed his sword, took a step back, and nodded.

Mundro walked to the side of the throne room and opened up a small box sitting on the table. He carefully took out a short sword and walked back to the throne. He slowly got on his knees and lifted up the sword, showing it to Benimaru and said. "Permit me to repay blood with blood."

"I permit it."

Mundro smiled and drove the blade into his abdomen and moved the sword up before he had lost control of his hands. "Thank you." he said with a gasping whisper as he slumped down.

Benimaru stepped behind him and after a short hesitation, cut off Mundro's head with one swift movement of his sword.

Even though Momonga was no history buff, he had knowledge of the ritual that had just been performed. It surely could have come only from Japan's samurai culture. How ogres ended up adapting such a tradition was a mystery, but he likely would get answers if he questioned them.

Beniumaru picked up Mundro's head, walked up to Momonga, kneeled, and presented the head.

"Well done. Tell me, why did you oblige his wish? Didn't he kill your father?" Momonga asked, accepting the grizzly trophy.

"My father died in a duel with his honor intact. Mundro may have served your enemy, but he never lost his honor as an ogre while doing so. I could not take it away from him." Benimaru said quietly. "If circumstances were any different, he would have been an excellent servant for you, Lord Momonga."

"I will keep in mind the importance of the honor of your people. Prepare the unnamed survivors for naming." Momonga said and opened a gate to return home.

"It shall be done, my Lord." Benimaru said.

To carry out his master's will was the first priority but after that, he would need to give the honorable kijin a proper burial. Despite everything, he could not hate the kijin who murdered his father.

Through getting a name and becoming a loyal servant of Lord Momonga, he had understood Mundro and in a sense could call him a brother. A brother that had the misfortune of being named by an honorless and cowardly master.

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The skill he added to Nazarick when he killed Gelmud was far too interesting to pass by. The moment Momonga was done with his daily tasks, he sat down on the throne to investigate it.

Even if he took the skill as is, |Master| would give him a fraction of the power from the thousands upon thousands of monsters he had named, increasing his own power exponentially. However, his curiosity didn't let him just use it as is without trying at least a few other options.

He visualized |Master| to see its full properties. The skill by itself was a rather simple one, and basically did two things as a passive effect. First, it gave its user a fraction of the power of everyone who was considered subservient, and second, it buffed all underlings with a power boost on its own.

'Hmm, what if I just integrated it directly into |Nazarick|? In theory, it should use everyone connected to it, not just the ones I have named. I guess I could at least give it a try.'

Even with the help of |Dark Sage|, looking at |Nazarick| as a whole was very straining for the mind. Without the skill's help, it was pretty much impossible.

As before, his mind strained to comprehend the structure by using a four-dimensional layout, but this time he wasn't just wandering around, looking at parts.

Without hesitation, Momonga put |Master| near his own core in |Nazarick| and created a thread to connect himself with it. It wasn't too surprising that the two cores just fused together as he already served as the master of |Nazarick|.

The instantaneous flood of power increase was overwhelming, to say the least. The power jump was so great that for a moment he felt like he rivaled Veldora, but that likely was just his ego trying to come to terms with his new self as his own core started to grow and create threads everywhere.

The strain that was caused by skills attached to his soul also lessened by a noticeable degree. Same with the strain that was caused by mere observation of |Nazarick|. Both were practically gone.

With a sigh of relief, he now could look around much more easily.

'If I understand correctly, I can borrow the entire power of Nazarick if need be and also boost others. Hmm, what if I used the engine to just feed excess energy to everyone connected?' The thought was strange and in essence, everyone's growth would be fed by |Nazarick| itself and in turn, |Nazarick| would grow with everyone connected to it.

In a sense, it would be a cycle of infinite self-growth.

'I hope it will not cause some unforeseen side effects but knowing that there are beings that could harm us I need to try.'

After a short deliberation, Momonga directed some of the energy of the engine directly into growing everyone connected to Nazarick. The growth wasn't fast by any means, but the longer it went on the exponentially stronger everyone would get.

In a sense, it was an answer to a worry he had all this time: How to make everyone stronger to stand against the many yet unknown dangers of the world. Especially knowing that a lot more eyes were on Tempest after the show they let the numerous spies see.

There was no telling what the strongest beings were capable of. The three greatest currently known threats were the hero who imprisoned Veldora in the past, and Veldora's sisters, who could potentially strike at any time.

As long as none of them had a similar ability to just grow in power over time, sooner or later he would outgrow them. What's more, with an increased soul and mental capacity, he could more actively seek ways to release Veldora as his power was adding to Nazarick's whole, and the moment he would be fully free there would be another mutual jump in power.

Proofreading by I AM THE STRING CUTTING, Saphy, Somniun Hypnos, and Sad_Smiles.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.