The Bloody Valkyrie

While Shalltear’s eyes moved from one person to another, her gaze stopped on a certain man.

That one… is he strong?

Although the surprised Shalltear wanted to gauge how powerful he was, she was not of the warrior class and could not get an accurate handle on his strength. Merely that not only was he stronger than her two vampire brides, but even above Pleiades’ Solution.

Shalltear observed him.

She had described him as a man because of his equipment, but his face was androgynous.

Whether to call him a man or a woman, he seemed to be both and neither at the same time. Short with a youthful face, probably still in the midst of his growth— it only made his gender harder to determine.

His jet black hair was long enough to touch the ground. His sharp, ruby-like eyes held hints of caution as he stared at Shalltear. With his spear which looked plain, unlike his armor, the man charged at her

“—Use it.”

A voice like a cool lake; hearing his command, a rumble of agitation ran through those around him. Shalltear did not understand what that meant, only that he had ordered them to use an item of considerable power. Perhaps even one that rivaled the power of Shalltear’s divine class item.

Although the humans followed the voice and started to move, Shalltear ignored them completely. She was cautious of only one person and everyone else did not pose much of a threat.

At the center of their movements was a woman dressed in strange clothes.

It looked like a one-piece dress for women with a deep slit down the side and a round collar.

The color was a silvery white, with the image of a five-clawed dragon soaring to the skies stitched in gold thread.

In Ainz’s world, it was something called a Cheongsam.

However, the face of the woman in the dress was wrinkled with age. Her exposed legs reminded one of burdocks or dried potatoes. The clothes did not fit with her appearance. It was to the point that one would want to narrow their eyes; to the point that Shalltear looked away.

But that was to be the last small feeling of incongruity.

Everything could have been changed by the smallest of whims.

If Ainz hadn’t captured Nigan, if Ainz hadn’t countered the Slane Theocracy’s information magic so strongly, if the theocracy hadn’t made the mistake of believing ‘the Dragon King of Calamity has resurrected’, if Shalltear hadn’t been distracted— everything would have changed. However, the fact that so many ifs coincided, in other words, meant that it was inevitable.

The name of the dress was ‘Bewitching Calamity, Kei Seke Koku’.

An item left behind by the God who saved mankind, the subject of their worship. It held a power that even Shalltear did not possess.

—shudder

Even as the highest level Floor Guardian of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, Shalltear’s body trembled. It was a warning, almost like a sixth sense.

With her instincts setting off alarm bells, Shalltear moved her eyes and fixed it on the old woman.

This was a human whom she had to kill, no matter what.

Hit with this realization, Shalltear began to move towards her. The man with the spear blocked her way.

“Move!”

Shalltear smacked him in earnest. A normal human’s weak body would have been torn to pieces, but the man was simply blown away and did not die. Not only that, he still retained his fighting spirit.

Shalltear concentrated on the old woman as the focal point and cast her spell.

“「Mass Hold Species」!”

A number of them had their movements constricted. The reason Shalltear tied them down was because she deemed them to be more than enough to make up for her previous failure.

As the thought passed through her mind, Shalltear’s heart became overlapped in white.

The feeling of a portion of her mind falling away. She didn’t know what it was. And when the truth of what was happening dawned on her, an enormous shock passed through her and even the undead Shalltear trembled in fear.

Mind control.

She, an undead with absolute immunity to mind control effects, was having her mind dominated. Shalltear furiously filled her heart, now almost dyed in white, with hatred. As her head swarmed with the countless thoughts of the worst case scenario—

“KUUAAAAAAHHH!!”

—she screamed and resisted, blood pouring down her eyes. This mind control that was trying to dirty her, the Floor Guardian of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, she resisted.

But as if ignoring Shalltear’s desperate struggle, her consciousness continued to be dyed white. She did not even have the luxury of using her teleportation magic. Losing her focus for even an instant would immediately render her completely under the spell’s effect.

Shalltear used her class skill and created a ‘Purifying Javelin’.

A huge javelin imbued with divine energy was still capable of dealing significant damage even if the user had an evil alignment. More importantly, throwing it while using additional MP gave it the effect of never missing its mark.