"Why is it that you won't attack?"
The monsters circled endlessly through the air.
They had lost their momentum.
It was because they had realized the difference in mana between themselves and the transcendent being facing them in the sky.
An absolute fact thrust right before their eyes.
For monsters that moved by the logic of strength, charging at an enemy they could not defeat was not productive.
Just like demons, who gathered according to reason, the monsters that served as their progenitors were no different.
They formed packs because they understood that numbers brought greater advantage than being alone.
And yet, as the standoff continued across that invisible line, Ainz felt the strange sensation of a puzzle piece not fitting.
'Shall I test it?'
"Despair Aura Level 1."
When Ainz spread his blackly rippling hand, the monster struck by the unavoidable attack twisted its whole body in agony.
"Do not worry. As long as you do not cross the line, I will not kill you."
As though stroking a fragile toy, he slowly took apart the monster's emotions.
The effect of Despair Aura Level 1 was to inflict fear.
And yet this monster, despite wanting to flee this place at once, did not run.
As if it were tormented by an obsession that it had to cross this place.
"So something is binding you."
He gathered the monsters' behavior and analyzed it.
'They have reason. However, they seem buried under a single compulsion to the point that their minds are no longer functioning properly.'
If these monsters were imitations of beasts rather than humans, then they must have copied animal instincts as well.
A battle they could not win was a disadvantage to them too.
There was no need to waste time in a place like this when they needed enough calories to move such massive bodies.
Even if they did hunt me, what lies inside is not flesh and blood, but only bones.
'Then they ought to flee. So why are they circling around instead of approaching?'
He drew upon the knowledge he had heard from Serie, who was little different from a living book of history.
'Monsters may form packs, but they do not create large-scale groups like demons. They are selfish creatures to the end, and with the intelligence of monsters, who can learn no more than pack hunting, such a thing is impossible.'
Her arrogant, listless voice replayed in his mind as he traced the problem.
'Where do you think it came from, that demons do not hide their mana? Back when they were still monsters, there was no easier way to flaunt power and reign as king of the pack than to display mana.'
There was no king among them with exceptional mana.
'Instead, there is someone controlling them. In other words, a mage.'
Controlling monsters.
'Then is it something akin to the abilities of a tamer?'
When he recalled the Tamer, one of Yggdrasil's job classes, countless possibilities opened up from that foundation.
Six thousand kinds of Yggdrasil magic. Within them, he recalled the directions of design the developers had once considered.
'Is it magic that manipulates monsters?'
Once he threw out the keyword, the skill trees branched apart, and after narrowing down several, the core of the magic came into view.
'No. Judging by the monsters' condition, they seem to be resisting the caster's commands. It appears fine control, enough to issue detailed instructions, is impossible.'
It gathers countless monsters to one place. In exchange, they cannot be controlled.
If named in Yggdrasil style, it would be a decoy. In this world, it would be magic that calls monsters. Let that be its designation.
In that case, the caster was simple enough to identify.
For humanity to understand and control monsters was impossible in the present age. The only likely candidate would be a being born as a monster, yet one that had cast aside that form in order to imitate humans.
'A demon.'
Even after abandoning their original form, if they could still imagine the workings of that brain, then while controlling monsters might be impossible, calling them would be simple enough.
From such trivial information, he had obtained this much.
It was thanks to the knowledge he had gained through his conversations with Serie.
If he had been alone, he would never have been able to reason this far.
Learning. What a sweet word that was.
To know was proof that one could stand above the other party.
Here, he declared it.
"There are no variables."
Upon a board perfectly arranged, mana began to bloom.
Not Ainz's mana, but another's.
"And that is the end of your attempt to buy time."
Far away, white flames swirled upward into the sky.
The mana released from restraint was so pure and beautiful it dazzled the eye.
"Yes. That is how a disciple of Serie should be."
He turned his back and looked toward the village.
The monsters no longer held even the slightest place in his attention.
The world shone black, and at its center a round point was inscribed.
*
"How...?"
A hole had been blown straight through.
And through it, Flamme could be seen.
Her eyes stared emotionlessly at the girl before her.
She was small, wrapped in a hooded cloak, a figure that stirred the urge to protect her, but beneath the hood she had cast back stood long horns.
She was a demon, the enemy of mankind.
"How did you notice?"
"Is that all you want to know? Well, for someone who uses magic that calls monsters, disguise was indeed the most suitable way to hunt."
"..."
"You slip into a village pretending to be a lost girl, lure in monsters, and destroy it. Effective, rational, and free of any loss worth mentioning."
This demon must have lived that way all along.
That was why, unlike simpler demons, she did not put the logic of strength first and draw attention to herself.
"Judging by your appearance and mana, you are not a demon who has lived very long. That is why, even after seeing the mana I deliberately kept restrained, you did not make your move."
To this demon, monsters were strength, and strength was mana.
Flamme approached to finish off the fading breath before her.
Like a herbivore kicking away a lion that had come to hunt its prey, she arrived without hesitation.
Flamme's shadow fell across the face of the nameless demon.
How deep the shadow of fire was.
The fire of humans, which brought life and safety, was to demons both rest and weapon.
"I only wanted to become friends with the people of the village."
The monster born to deceive humans wrapped its words without the slightest guilt.
"Please spare me. I never wanted to do this."
How many people had she devoured in the darkness with words like those?
"My mother is waiting for me to come home."
Each time she heard such words, Flamme's eyes narrowed.
"You do not feel even the faintest trace of that, and yet you bark so well. Is that your last testament?"
She cut down the demon's nonsense, words with not a shred of sincerity mixed into them.
Realizing that begging for her life would not work, the demon gave up and smiled.
It was a frighteningly swift change of expression.
"Perhaps this was always my fate. By now, the monsters I called should have arrived. But they are not coming at all."
Even though she had stalled for time, the horde of monsters delayed by a single skeleton never came.
"If not you, at least they could have ruined the village."
The demon lamented it.
"What a shame."
A shadow fell over her head.
"You asked how I recognized your disguise."
Their eyes met.
"What made me realize so quickly that you were a demon was your gaze."
Eyes without even a trace of guilt.
The eyes of an outsider who did not see people as people, who had not once looked at anyone even as the village fell into danger.
At those words, the young demon looked briefly stunned. Then she offered thanks.
"Thank you. I'll be more careful next time."
"There will be no next time."
"No. There is. Right behind you."
Focusing her mana, the demon fired that mass behind Flamme.
Flamme turned her head and followed the path of the mana, and there she saw a boy.
The startled boy had collapsed to the ground. It seemed he had failed to evacuate in time.
The fired mana pierced through the boy's abdomen, and he soon fell over.
His mouth opened as he cried out something, but no sound reached her.
For some reason, it sounded as though he were calling the demon girl's name.
"I may not be able to kill a skilled mage, but piercing fragile flesh is easy enough."
The demon's voice was endlessly clear.
"I'm glad. I was able to make proper use of what I learned from you. You would surely make a fine teacher."
"Shut up."
"Ah."
With that, the demon's head flew off.
There had been no carelessness.
No matter how much the demon, now reduced to ash, might have struggled, defeating Flamme would have been utterly impossible.
It was only that the things around her were too fragile.
The ashes were swept away on the wind.
Flamme ran at once to the boy and pressed down on the blood flowing from his abdomen.
When she placed her finger beneath his nose, she could hear a faint breath, and when she put her ear to his chest, his heart still beat.
He was alive.
Perhaps because she had fired in haste, she had failed to compress the mana enough.
Carrying the boy on her back, Flamme ran to where the evacuated villagers were gathered.
When she pounded on the shelter door, the village chief received her.
"What happened to the monsters, Lady Flamme?"
"I dealt with them. This is urgent. Is there a priest here?"
"A small village like ours has no priest. If one is needed, we would have to go to the city..."
"No. It would be too late by the time we reached the city."
"We do have a doctor."
They took out the emergency supplies stored in the shelter and began treatment.
Behind the village chief, the boy's mother spotted him, rushed over in a single stride, and broke into sobs.
From what Flamme heard, the boy had been close to the demon girl. The reason she had been able to move freely through the village in the first place was because this boy had pitied her when he found her in the forest and brought her back.
When the boy realized the girl was not among the children who had evacuated, he ran out to find her despite his parents' attempts to stop him, and in the end he was harmed.
It was such a simple story.
Flamme frowned.
"How is he?"
"The vital point was pierced clean through. It might be different for an adult, but for a child, it is fatal."
"How much time do you think he has left?"
"At most, less than an hour."
Even if she ran to the city at full speed without rest, it would not be enough.
If only she could fly through the sky, she could cut the time down greatly.
No, even if she could fly, breaking through the horde of monsters the demon had gathered would still take time.
Flamme spread out mana detection to grasp the situation outside and discovered something strange.
"It is quiet."
"Pardon?"
"I cannot feel the mana of any monsters nearby."
The monsters that had been surging about only moments ago were nowhere to be seen.
The magic the demon had used was only magic that called monsters. The monsters once gathered would not vanish; they would remain where they were.
And yet all of them had been erased, and only an overwhelming presence remained in their place.
To Flamme, the wave of power there was familiar.
"Am I not too late?"
A deep voice sounded out.
The large man standing before her, appearing from nowhere, brought reassurance by his mere presence alone.
Flamme knew who he was.
The strange masked man, and her master's collaborator.
He was Ainz Ooal Gown.
"I understand the situation well enough."
Looking at the child on the verge of death, he slipped a hand into his robes, and a magic item emerged from within.
"Give him this."
The red liquid inside the luxurious bottle shimmered as though it held the blood of a god.
"He will recover completely."
It was a Yggdrasil healing potion, one that would rewrite the history of this world.
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