REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!Chapter 49: The Killing Embrace
The fight between Ainz and Clementine had been going on for several minutes.
His two greatswords had not touched her once. She slipped through every swing like an eel, evading each of his massive cuts with movements so strange they seemed to have no pattern, never so much as catching the edge of her coat.
"You're just throwing your weight around with superior stats." Clementine bared her teeth in a sneer. "You don't understand feints at all — swinging like a child with a stick. Two swords in your hands, and if you don't actually know how to use them, one would be smarter. You really don't understand what it means to be a warrior, do you?"
Ainz was unmoved. He observed her movements with cool attention, quietly cataloguing the way a warrior actually fought. For him this was a valuable learning opportunity.
"Then attack me." His reply was even. "All you've been doing since we started is running, haven't you?"
Clementine's smile stiffened for an instant. He wasn't wrong — she was hardly as comfortable as she made it sound. His physical ability went so far beyond normal human limits that she couldn't find the right opening to commit to.
Finally, her patience ran out. She drew the short spikes at her hip, settled into a forward-leaning stance — a variant of a sprinter's crouch, the posture unusual but loaded with explosive force.
[Flowing Acceleration.] [Ability Binding.] [Super Evasion.] [Storm Step Break.]
Four Martial Arts activated simultaneously. Her speed climbed until even Ainz's dynamic vision nearly lost her.
Like a storm breaking over him.
Ainz swung his right greatsword — she drilled cleanly through its arc. [Impregnable Fortress] met the blade head-on, and the slender weapon that should have been shattered sent the blade ten times its own weight flying back, as though the sword had struck an invisible wall.
Clementine used the opening to drive inside his guard. A short spike drove precisely through the eye slit of his helmet. She released the enchantment.
[Thunder Strike.]
Lightning poured through Ainz's entire body.
A second spike followed immediately. A [Fireball] detonated inside the helmet. Clementine's imagination flashed to scorched flesh and the smell of burning. But there was nothing. No blood, no scream, not even a tremor.
Ainz's armor dissolved like smoke.
What lay beneath was revealed: no skin, no flesh. Only a pale white skull. The spike was still lodged in his eye socket, and he spoke as though he hadn't noticed. "Interesting. Magic weapons in this world have shown me something new."
"Undead... an Elder Lich!" Clementine's pupils contracted sharply.
She struggled with everything she had and found that the slender-looking arm bones held her like iron clamps.
No amount of force — not even strength enhanced by Martial Arts — moved her even slightly. She had been a member of the Slane Theocracy's Black Scripture, its strongest unit, and had believed fewer than five people in this country could match her. Now she was a butterfly in a spiderweb, thrashing its wings to no purpose.
"Why — why—!"
Ainz didn't answer. He pulled the spike from his eye socket and dropped it. The hollow sockets lit up with a dark red glow.
A wrenching sound came from close by. He was using his chest to squeeze her. The adventurer tags hanging under her coat — the trophies she wore — fell to the stone floor one by one with small, flat sounds. The pressure against her ribs kept building. Breathing became difficult. Her bones registered what her voice couldn't.
"Stop struggling." Ainz's voice was perfectly calm, as though discussing the weather. "You took your time with them, so I will take my time with you."
Vomit spattered across him. The red light in his eye sockets flickered with a brief disgust — and his grip did not loosen. It tightened.
The sound of bones breaking came from inside her.
Ainz opened his arms. Clementine's body rolled to the ground like something discarded. Her face was frozen in pain and terror; the pressure had forced visible damage past her lips. The woman who had been untouchable not long ago could no longer even convulse.
---
In the other part of the graveyard, Narberal had initially found herself in difficulty against Khajiit and two skeleton dragons.
Skeleton dragons had absolute resistance to magic of Tier 6 and below, and her strongest magic happened to be lightning — precisely the type being countered. Khajiit's Death Orb kept restoring the skeleton dragons' wounds as fast as they were dealt. The situation had stalled.
Then Ainz's voice reached her from across the grounds. "Narberal Gamma! Show them the might of Nazarick!"
Narberal smiled.
Her robe fell away, revealing battle maid armor of gold, silver, and black metal. Staff and short sword replaced the wand. She stopped dodging, and turned to meet the skeleton dragons directly.
"Skeleton dragons do have magic resistance." Her voice was cold. "Only against Tier 6 and below."
White arcing lightning gathered between her hands. The air all around her crackled.
"Double Maximum Strengthening — Chain Dragon Lightning."
Two dragon-shaped bolts of lightning erupted simultaneously and swallowed both skeleton dragons. The creatures that were supposedly immune to magic came apart in the storm, bones scattering like rain. The remaining current turned toward Khajiit.
Khajiit didn't have time to scream. He barely forced one syllable up from the depths of his throat — "Mama—!" — before the lightning struck through him. The charred body convulsed for several seconds where it stood, then collapsed and did not move again.
---
The battle was over. Ainz entered the inner shrine and found Nfirea.
A crown sat on the boy's head — threads of crystal woven in a pattern like a spiderweb. Ainz activated [Greater Item Destruction]. The crown dissolved into points of light and was gone. He caught Nfirea gently as the boy's body went limp, and carefully lowered him to the ground.
Narberal presented the Death Orb — black, roughly shaped, looking like a stone picked up from a riverbank. Ainz activated [Greater Item Appraisal]. The red glow in his eye sockets brightened.
"A Death Orb... and an intelligent item?"
He gave it a light poke. A respectful voice sounded at once in his mind: "A pleasure to meet you, great King of Death. I offer my complete loyalty and ask to be counted among your servants."
Ainz considered briefly. Taking it as a subordinate carried risks. Destroying it seemed wasteful — nothing like this had existed in YGGDRASIL, no item with genuine self-awareness. He applied several counter-measure spells for defense and then tossed it to Hamusuke.
"Hold onto this."
"Unbearably clamorous!" Hamusuke caught it and registered his objection at once. "This one would sooner return it to Master!"
Narberal's expression was puzzled. Ainz replied evenly: "Counter-detection measures have been applied. Keeping it with him is the safer arrangement."
Everything concluded. Ainz swept his crimson cloak. "Triumphant return."
---
When he pushed open the inn door, the entire hall went silent.
Every eye in the room found the same thing — the metal tag at his neck. Mithril. A man who had walked in as copper rank only a few days ago had come back as mithril. This overturned something in the understanding of everyone present. The innkeeper opened his mouth and found nothing came out.
Ainz took quiet satisfaction in the response, though he was faintly dissatisfied in his own mind — his original aim had been to reach orichalcum rank in one step. The Guild had been cautious: no prior record of achievement, the investigation not yet fully concluded, and so they had issued a conservative rating.
In the Guild's internal assessment, however, Ainz had already been categorized as possessing combat power equal to the Kingdom's only two adamantite-class teams.
The plan's first step had gone more smoothly than expected.
---
Back in the room, Narberal asked about the disposition of the two pharmacists. Ainz had already decided: Lizzy would bring her grandson to Carne Village, there to produce potions for Nazarick.
Narberal inclined her head and withdrew.
Ainz stood alone at the window and activated his magic.
[Message.]
Sebas's voice rose in his mind.
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