A Godsend

At Nigun's command, his subordinates began summoning angels one after another. The angels, which Gazef Stronoff had cut down until only one remained, were soon back to their original numbers.

At the same time, countless weakening spells were aimed at Gazef Stronoff and fired.

"So this is magic. You can do anything with it? Damn it!"

Gazef Stronoff leaned on his sword, which was braced against the ground. His subordinates had suffered heavy casualties. He had hoped to give them a chance to escape by killing the enemy commander, but it seemed that wasn't going to work.

He was almost at his limit, while his opponent seemed to have barely expended any strength at all.

"Farewell, Sir Stronoff," Nigun said quietly. Setting their opposing positions aside, he respected men like Gazef Stronoff.

Not everyone was wholeheartedly loyal to their country. Even the Theocracy had its share of scoundrels, such as the disguised soldiers who had slaughtered the Kingdom's border villages to lure out the Warrior Captain, especially their leader, Belius.

He was a wealthy businessman in the Theocracy who had joined the army to gain some prestige. He was selfish and vile, which was precisely why the Theocracy had decided to send him on this mission.

In fact, most of the Theocracy's soldiers disguised as Imperial troops had some kind of black mark against them. A unit made up of such people was perfect for carrying out this sort of dirty work.

If they died during the mission or were exposed, the Theocracy could deny all responsibility without a trace and feel no guilt whatsoever.

After all, these people were no good. They had used connections and money to rise through the ranks at home. Such parasites couldn't be completely eliminated, so whenever dirty work needed doing, the Theocracy temporarily grouped them together for the task.

Just like this time. Nigun knew all about these men. Though he would have loved to cut down those scoundrels who threw their weight around in the Theocracy, he had to obey its orders.

No matter how much he admired Gazef Stronoff's loyalty to his country, they stood on opposing sides, and he had a duty to fulfill.

Just as Nigun closed his eyes and prepared to wait for his subordinates' angels to deliver the final blow to Gazef Stronoff, he heard exclamations of surprise all around him.

Nigun hurriedly opened his eyes. Gazef Stronoff had vanished. In his place stood a masked figure wearing an ornate black robe, alongside another figure clad in black armor and holding a battle-axe.

From their clothes alone, it was clear that these were no cheap, mass-produced items. They looked like first-rate magic items.

Nigun considered the situation. Gazef Stronoff, who had been driven into a corner, had disappeared, and these two mysterious figures had appeared in his place. They must have used some kind of teleportation magic, but given what had just happened, he couldn't tell what kind.

He recalled that Gazef Stronoff had said during the fight that a powerful Magic Caster was protecting the villagers in the village behind him. Nigun hadn't taken him seriously, but it seemed he had been telling the truth.

Nigun hated those disguised soldiers, but that wouldn't stop him from slaughtering everyone in the village once he had dealt with Gazef Stronoff.

He had no choice. It was necessary to keep the mission secret. On the road to humanity's greatness, sacrifices were inevitable.

"Greetings, everyone from the Slane Theocracy. My name is Ainz Ooal Gown. I'd be honored if you'd call me Ainz."

Though they were some distance away, the wind carried Momonga's words to them.

Nigun stared at Ainz without replying. He was watching the other man's movements and trying to gauge his strength.

Momonga didn't seem to mind. He continued, "The person behind me is named Albedo. I'd like to propose a deal. Could you spare a little time?"

"..."

"Boring."

Hades quietly uttered the word. Momonga had stayed in that building without moving, so Hades had zoomed out his Monocular a little. That let him take in the battle between the natives outside the village without losing sight of Momonga.

His "boring" was a judgment on the natives' battle. For a level-100 player like him, used to fights involving Tier Ten spells or even Super-Tier Magic, a battle where the highest spell anyone could use was only Tier Three was truly dull. It seemed he had overestimated these people.

Though he couldn't hear anything, he could still learn a lot just by watching. For instance, judging from their clothing, the natives were probably soldiers. Only an army would wear such uniform outfits.

Taking into account that Enri's father had said this was on the border of Re-Estize, Hades could guess that this was a clash between two countries.

Judging by the number of people in the two forces, neither was likely to be an elite unit. One group couldn't even manage to wear matching armor.

So this was probably a minor border skirmish. If forces like these weren't elite, then Tier Three magic was likely the baseline for a country's military strength.

If he used that as a standard for his estimates, a country's elite forces could probably cast Tier Six or Tier Seven spells, putting them around level forty or so.

Generally speaking, though, an army's strength couldn't be considered exceptional. The most important thing for an army was obedience to orders, not individual ability.

"Hmm..."

In other words, this world probably had people capable of using Super-Tier Magic—characters above level seventy. There might even be level-100 characters.

That estimate eased Hades's mind for now. At least the overall level of this world wasn't beyond his understanding, and its people used Tier Magic too.

"Huh! What..."

Hades's heart suddenly tightened, but he quickly relaxed. He saw Momonga disappear from the building. Since he hadn't seen any sign of magic being cast, he thought Momonga had used some special item to return to Nazarick.

But then the hulking man who had been about to be killed disappeared too, replaced by Momonga and Albedo.

Hades immediately understood. Momonga had used a Swap Doll. It was a cash-shop item in YGGDRASIL. Though it was a cash-shop item, it was only a consolation prize from a 500-yen draw. It could teleport a single person or an entire group.

It was usually used during guild wars. You'd send a scout to drop one in the enemy camp, then launch a surprise attack. But there were plenty of ways to counter it, and the item had a few restrictions, so it wasn't particularly useful.

"Is this guy planning to bully some kids...?"

Watching Momonga, Hades couldn't help but chuckle. The guy was actually going to fight those natives.

Excellent. Hades had been worried that the enemy might notice him in advance, forcing him to fly beyond the range of the naked eye and ruining his one-hit kill, leaving him stuck in an extended battle.

Now that Momonga had drawn the natives' attention, Hades could move a little closer and improve his chances of killing them in one hit.