Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Adon clutched the gold coin in his palm as tightly as he could, the noise of the screams from days ago still lingered in his ears. ‘Had I remained behind, or had I gone in at the wrong moment…?’ He shivered to think of it, the heads on spikes still stared at him every night, their open mouths full of words despite their deaths. ‘Come and join us. Come and join us.’ He pressed his fists against his ears, struggling to comprehend how it could have come to this.

  ‘Who in their right mind would… could… the boss was one thing, but Cerebrate? Somebody killed him?!’ Adon wondered what overwhelming form of nightmare walked among them that they could so easily dispatch an adamantite ranked adventurer.

  The nightmares since that day had yet to cease. And worse, the feeling of his own inevitable doom was hard on him. ‘They killed everybody, they’re after you too. Do you think they’ll let you live? Do you think anybody will protect a worthless nothing like you from a monster capable of killing an adamantite ranked adventurer and just ‘disappearing’? No. Whoever they are, whatever they are, they are after you. They will gut you. Tear out your intestines, torture you, gouge out your eyes, cut off your manhood and feed you your own balls. You are doomed. Doomed to suffer and there’s nowhere in this world you can hide. Nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere.’ Adon did his best to shut out the voice in his head.

  The road was empty, but still he avoided it, sticking to the woods, just out of view and only watching within. While the border with the Slane Theocracy was controlled, he knew it to be imperfectly so, and like all nefarious persons on either side, there were ways around that which he was familiar with.

  But still, Adon wanted only to avoid contact with anyone and everyone who might come his way. ‘Anyone might be a monster.’ He thought, recalling the group of children he’d seen pass by on the wagon the day prior. ‘It could have been one of them. Biding their time, maybe a vampire, maybe something else… no way to know.’ He shivered to think of it.

  Overhead, he heard the low rumbling of thunder. Despite being a smuggler of humans and goods, at his core Adon was a city dweller, spending little more than a few hours at a time away from preexisting comfortable structures. The coming rains were unavoidable, and the first drops were starting to come down. ‘Don’t make a shelter, or a fire, they’ll see you… the monster is after you, he’ll get you if you start a fire. Eat nuts, eat berries, hide under the roots of a big tree, it’s safe in the ground… if he finds you, all you’ll have is a slow and torturous death…’

  That much, Adon agreed with, he tucked the coin into his pocket and rushed into the hollow of a large tree, the darkness within enveloped him, and though he wasn’t very large, he still couldn’t stand up. He had to curl up tight into a ball and rest his head against the damp inner walls of the tree.

  There he closed his eyes, praying to the gods for a rest free of nightmares, hiding from the downpour that trickled into his hiding place to soak his pants and the flesh beneath, hiding from the world, hiding from the monster that he was sure was after him, and hiding from the nightmares.

  When he drifted off… the nightmares began all over again, added to by the thunder and pouring rain that crashed and raged outside, and invaded the world of his mind, unwilling to let him go for even a moment.

  ‘Please… stop.’ He begged the heads who called for him to join them.

  But they did not.

  Demiurge proved to be correct in his assessment. As the city emptied and they searched the surrounding area, an area full of abandoned humans was quickly discovered.

  The ‘ranch’ as Demiurge referred to it, was a wide open area with high fences made of sticky thread which reminded him of the sort used by Entoma in capturing prey.

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  The only area missing those threads was a single door that was made entirely of iron, far too heavy for a human to hope to move. Inside the ‘ranch’ area the humans themselves were in a sorry shape. Many of them were ‘fat’ but they were all either missing one or more limbs, or their limbs had been broken at some point and then allowed to heal, but they healed improperly, resulting in misshapen forms that would never allow proper resistance or use.

  It wasn’t hard to figure out what happened to the missing limbs.

  Ainz, Demiurge, Ulbert, and Pandora’s Actor saw the humans, who appeared more confused than anything as their wranglers fled and closed the gate behind them, long before the humans could hope to spot them.

  “Mein Vater, Lord Ulbert, allow me to approach the humans to explain matters. If we could then call for Yuri Alpha and Lupusregina to provide them with healing, they can be sent west without trouble. Naked or not, the weather is good, but they can find a bit of clothing within the city if they need it. I mean no offense, but they may appear distressed if demons or an undead approach them out of nowhere.”

  The trio traded brief looks, then uniformly nodded. “I could ‘shift’ but… better to save the mana.” Ulbert said matter-of-factly.

  “Alright…” Ainz hesitated, “my son. Go. But exercise care, you never know if some enemy has hidden among them.”

  “Vater!” Pandora’s Actor shouted with notable glee, and slowly drifted down toward the ground below. He landed just out of view, and shifted his shape to that of the hero ‘Momon’ removing his helmet to reveal the human face beneath.

  He then approached the gate and stepped within, the human cattle gasped, their gaunt, hollow eyes were in stark contrast to their overfed bellies, their naked bodies revealed marks of injury that could only be said to be born of the purest acts of sadism. Some of the humans present were obviously longer term residents than others, their bodies having fewer signs of abuse, or just having all their limbs intact, nothing having yet been harvested to feed the elites of Beastman society.

  “I am Momon. Here with Lord Ulbert Alain Odle, and His Sorcerous Majesty, Ainz Ooal Gown, and I am here to tell you that you are free. The beastmen are either dead or fled from these lands, which will now pass into the hands of Lord Ulbert of the House of Odle.”

  “Did you…” The nearest of humans asked, but Pandora’s Actor shook his head.

  “No. I was called here only as a herald, as Lord Ulbert is of demonic nature, and Lord Ainz is undead.” Pandora’s Actor explained as gently as he could, “I know, it sounds very strange to your ears, but much has changed since your captivity began. For now, all you need to know is that the beastmen are suffering constant defeat, have no hope of victory, and you are free to leave. The city,” he pointed behind him toward the distant walls, “is over there. It is now empty except for the dead of the beastmen. Take what you need, and travel west.”

  “Travel…?” The humans looked at one another, some pointed to the stumps of their legs, others to the broken limbs.

  “You will be healed by the servants of Lord Ulbert’s noble comrade. You need only line yourselves up, and wait. I swear on my name, you will be safe, and nobody will ever devour you again!” Momon thrust his finger up into the air in a declaratory fashion, shouting as loud as he could.

  The human cattle sucked in their breath and stared around them in every direction, fear etched on their faces at the ill omened declaration in the midst of beastman country… they waited with bated breath for the beastmen to reappear and devour the towering armored human before them who made such bold, brash statements.

  But nothing happened.

  No beastmen appeared.

  No roars.

  No growls.

  No hisses or barks.

  Just them.

  And the humans, realizing that deliverance was finally come…

  Began to weep.

  They didn’t stop even after the healing work was done, and they could walk again.

  Instead they wanted only one thing, which was raised up in one accord in hundreds of different voices.

  “Let us pledge fealty to our savior! I don’t care what he is, whoever set me free, my life is his!”

  “I suppose that’s my cue.” Ulbert chuckled.

  “I suppose it is, go on, and enjoy it. I certainly did.” Ainz said, and watched as Ulbert descended like a dark angel of heaven among the dwellers of a once endless living hell.