Beam's emotions had mostly recovered.
Finally, under the murderous glares of Yunyun and the others, he released Makoto's waist and wiped the tears and snot from his face with his sleeve.
Yu stepped forward. "Senpai, Nazarick's strength is more troublesome than I imagined."
"Especially since the Mrs. weren't chosen by the game this time. With our current combat power, I'm afraid..."
He didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was clear.
Makoto smiled and waved his hand. "Don't worry. I already have a countermeasure."
…
Sorcerer Kingdom, Throne Room.
Demiurge's body was placed in the center of the hall. The blood had already coagulated.
Ainz sat on the throne, both hands on the armrests.
His skull face had no expression, but the red pupils in his eye sockets flickered violently, like the calm before a storm.
Suddenly, the aura of death surged from his body, like a burst dam spreading in all directions, shooting into the sky and expanding over the entire Sorcerer Kingdom.
Pedestrians on the streets stopped, their faces pale. They looked up toward the throne room, not knowing what was happening.
Merchants in their shops put down their work, hiding behind their counters, trembling.
Children were held in their mothers' arms, their eyes covered.
"I'll kill them... kill them all... those damned humans!"
Ainz's furious voice echoed in the hall.
This guy clearly forgot that he used to be human too.
Heiji stood in the corner of the hall, his face pale.
Saguru and the others had the same expression.
They had used lies to gain their current status.
If Ainz ever learned the truth... they didn't dare to imagine what their fate would be.
Ainz's rampant death aura lasted for several minutes.
Finally, that black aura began to recede, like the ebbing tide, slowly retreating from the dome of the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Ainz's emotions, under the debuff of [Forced Calm], barely regained their composure.
"Return to Nazarick."
Ainz's voice was cold.
Instantly, the Floor Guardians present collectively cast teleportation magic.
With a flash of light, they disappeared from the throne room.
After the light faded, only a few humans remained in the hall... Heiji, Saguru, James, Jodie, Andre.
Ainz hadn't done it on purpose. He had simply forgotten.
After all, he had just been completely blinded by rage.
After a moment of silence, Andre was the first to speak. "How about... we run?"
Saguru glanced at him and shook his head. "If we do that, we'll die even sooner."
Two years of getting along had allowed them to figure out some patterns.
Demiurge, Albedo, and these other highly intelligent strong individuals had probably already seen through their previous words as lies.
The reason they didn't expose them was to spare Ainz's feelings.
The two people Kaito had mentioned, Bukubukuchagama and Peroroncino, were called [Supreme Beings] within Nazarick, the people Ainz cared about most…
Even if Demiurge and the others knew in their hearts that these people would probably never return, they ultimately chose not to burst that bubble out of consideration for their master's feelings.
But if Heiji and the others ran away, that lie would collapse on its own.
Albedo and the others would no longer pretend to be stupid. The pursuit force would be on their heels immediately.
…
Great Tomb of Nazarick, Underground Treasury, guarded by Pandora's Actor.
Gold coins were piled into mountains.
That wasn't a metaphor. It was an actual mountain... hundreds of millions of gold coins piled in the corner of the treasury, from the floor to the ceiling, shimmering with dazzling golden light under the magic lamps.
Ainz stood before the gold mountain. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly raised his hand.
Gold coins flew out of the mountain, gathering in the air into a golden river, flowing toward the magic circle in the center of the treasury.
Three hundred million gold coins. While it's not a small sum, Demiurge was worth it.
The magic circle lit up. Bright light enveloped Demiurge's body.
The light grew brighter and brighter, more and more dazzling.
Demiurge's body stood up from the light.
Ainz did not use ordinary resurrection magic.
Ordinary resurrection magic would lower the resurrected person's potential, forcibly weakening their level.
Demiurge was a level 100 guardian. After resurrection, he might be cut to level 90 or even lower.
His combat ability would probably drop to around level 60-70, requiring retraining.
For a strong warrior, that was worse than death.
Moreover, if the deceased carried certain negative status effects, those effects would still remain upon resurrection... which was why Ainz had spent 500 million gold coins to resurrect Shalltear back then.
Besides resurrecting his subordinate at full strength, the more important reason was to remove the effect of the item that had been controlling Shalltear.
Demiurge didn't need anything removed, so the cost was much lower.
Demiurge walked out of the magic circle, knelt on one knee before Ainz, his forehead nearly touching the ground. "Ainz-sama, this subordinate severely lost composure, causing you to expend such an enormous cost to resurrect me. This subordinate is extremely frightened."
Ainz waved his hand. "It's nothing."
He looked at Demiurge kneeling on the ground, then looked up, his gaze sweeping over all the Floor Guardians present. "You, and this Nazarick, are my everything. Everything else is insignificant."
At this moment, the Floor Guardians present looked at Ainz with eyes almost identical to those of Makoto's subordinates looking at Makoto.
Fanatically, loyally, willing to die for him.
If there was one difference, it might be their leader's orientation.
One spent his days firing at different girls. The other had nothing down there.
Secondly, although that bastard Makoto was often teased for being inhuman, he still had some bottom line.
Whereas Ainz, under the erosion of his undead mindset, had almost completely lost his human personality.
…
Sorcerer Kingdom, Throne Room.
Ainz and his group walked out of the teleportation array.
As it happened, Shuichi had also returned.
"What did your investigation uncover?" Ainz sat on the throne, his tone calm.
Having resurrected Demiurge had improved his mood somewhat.
The image of Makoto forcibly kissing his girlfriend and taking her to a love hotel for a building-shaking f*ck surfaced in Shuichi's mind.
This silver bullet's face darkened. He tried to keep the hatred in his eyes hidden, lowered his head, and reported: "Nishikawa Makoto is preparing to invade the Sorcerer Kingdom."
The red pupils in Ainz's eye sockets suddenly contracted sharply. "I knew it."
"Just as well. I was thinking the same thing."
Ainz added.
When Heiji heard these words, his fingers unconsciously tightened around the handle of his sword.
'The final battle was coming.'
…
A few days later, Axel.
Pandora's Actor stood in the center of the throne room.
His face was like a bowling ball.
Ainz had ultimately sent this son of his.
Among all the Floor Guardians, Pandora's Actor was the most skilled at escaping.
Ainz was a bit worried that Makoto might not follow the rules and simply kill the envoy, so he sent the one best at running away.
Makoto opened the declaration of war, glanced at it, and smiled, nodding. "Alright. Please relay to His Majesty the Sorcerer King that I agree."
Pandora's Actor gave a slight bow. "Then I shall take my leave."
When facing anyone other than Ainz, he wasn't so Chuunibyo.
And this matter was of great importance. Pandora wasn't in the mood to clown around either.
"Hey, Pandora." Yu's voice chased after him from behind.
Pandora turned around. His bowling ball face showed no expression. "What is it?"
"What kind of existence is Ainz Ooal Gown to you?"
Pandora was silent for a moment, then answered honestly, "Naturally, an existence as precious as a father."
Yu nodded with interest. "Is that so? Then if your father Ainz was also created by someone, just like you were created, would you also respect that person as you would respect a grandfather?"
Pandora's Actor didn't move, like a computer that had suddenly crashed.
He had truly never thought about that question.
In his view, as the Supreme Being who commanded the Supreme Beings, Ainz was the absolute supreme existence.
There was nothing higher.
How could he possibly have a grandfather?
Yu pressed. "Well? If you encountered such a person, how would you respond?"
Pandora was silent for another moment, then spoke. "If I truly had a grandfather, I would certainly show him the same level of respect as I do Ainz-sama."
The corner of Yu's mouth couldn't help curling up.
Beam, the Four Gay Bros, and the others also showed smiles they couldn't suppress.
Yu waved his hand, indicating he could leave.
Pandora turned and left the throne room. It wasn't until he crossed the border of Belzerg that he was still thinking, 'What were they laughing about?'
In the throne room, Makoto spread the declaration of war on the table.
"The battleground is the Slane Theocracy."
The Slane Theocracy was currently the only remaining powerful nation on the other world's continent besides the Nishikawa Grand Alliance and the Sorcerer Kingdom.
Ainz choosing the battleground there was quite thoughtful.
Mrs. Shizuka stood at the back of the crowd, her complexion not good.
Kazuha stood beside her, her head lowered. It was equally unclear what she was thinking.
For more than two years, they had relied on Makoto, giving him their bodies.
Now they were about to fight to the death with her son/her childhood sweetheart,
It was impossible for them not to feel conflicted.
Makoto looked at this conflicted godmother and goddaughter and smiled. "If I die, you can just go back. Although I don't think I'll die."
Kazuha looked up, her brown eyes carrying a hint of anger.
"How can you be so sure you'll win?"
After saying this, Kazuha herself was stunned.
She didn't know what she was angry about... whether she was angry that Makoto was underestimating Heiji, or that Makoto wasn't considering their feelings?
Makoto smiled and said, "I can't say for sure whether I'll win this battle, but your dark-skinned childhood friend is definitely going to die."
Mrs. Shizuka and Kazuha fell silent again.
Makoto smiled. "Don't worry. I'll erase your memories of him when the time comes. There won't be any pain."
Having come to this magical world, he had learned quite a few new tricks.
The most convenient of them was undoubtedly memory erasure.
It could be called an NTR artifact.
Back when he used it on Ran and Yukiko... can't forget your ex-boyfriend?
Fine, I'll simply erase your memory.
Back then, he had to beg Nayuta to use that technique. Now, he could do it all by himself.