The Bloody Valkyrie

“Although using this item is a bit of a waste, it is still best to release Shalltear from mind control as quickly as possible.”

Ainz spread his fingers. On one of his fingers, he wore a simple ring a simple ring that had no kinds of decorations whatsoever. It was engraved with three shooting stars that emitted a silver light, and was actually the most powerful of all the rings in Ainz’ possession.

“That is…?”

In response to Albedo’s puzzled expression, Ainz smiled proudly despite the fact that his face did not move, and revealed the ring’s name.

“This super rare item, the 「Shooting Star」 ring, enables the use of the magic 「Wish Upon a Star」 three times without consuming experience.”

This was the gacha item Ainz gambled his entire year end bonus away for.

Amongst all the guild members, only two people, Ainz and Yorumaiko, had this incredibly rare ring.

No. Rather than describing this ring as a rare item, perhaps it would be better called a symbol of stupidity, having spent so much money on the game to get it.

Embedded in the ring was the super-level magic 「Wish Upon a Star」. The number of possible wishes that appeared would be proportional to the amount of consumed experience. This meant that activating the ring/spell in exchange for ten percent of your total experience points would present a single choice, whereas consuming fifty percent would give five possible choices.

There were quite a few wishes to choose from. According to a strategy website’s statistics, there were allegedly over two hundred of them. Additionally, there were some wishes which appeared more easily, and wishes which did not appear so easily, therefore it was a horrifying magic where any carelessness could make the user waste a lot of experience.

Also, magic casters who wanted to learn this super-level magic had to reach the ninety-fifth level first. Even in YGGDRASIL where it was easy to level up, reaching this level would still require a considerable amount of experience, therefore people hesitated whether or not to gamble their experience points on such a spell.

When using this ring to activate the super-level spell 「Wish Upon a Star」, the possible wishes one could choose from would be completely randomised, just like normal. However, useful wishes had a comparatively higher chance to appear instead of joke wishes. Also, the maximum amount of wishes which would appear was ten, and the magic had zero activation time, therefore it truly was the most powerful cash item.

Using such a cash item——one which even had an element of gambling——would of course be a shame, but Shalltear was irreplaceable. But expending his own experience points here could affect the usage of his other special abilities which consumed experience points to activate, therefore the choice was still made with hesitation.

Ainz gazed at the ring.

Ainz hoped the activated wish was one which would dispel all of the effects on the target. Although there were many alternative options to choose from, what came to his mind was this most direct method.

Because it would also cancel positive effects, this wish was seldom chosen in the game, so Ainz who made this decision smiled.

“Well then, ring, I WISH!”

Of course, the magic item could also be activated without saying this. However, having to choose this strong desire most ideal for the situation from among more than two hundred wishes made Ainz shout out like this. It was the same shout as one would make while rolling the dice on a do-or-die gamble.

Because YGGDRASIL magic also had the same effect in this world, the ring-activated ability would definitely release Shalltear from the mysterious mind control effect. No, this was what he wanted to believe.

The outcome Ainz had feared the most would have been if the ring itself failed to activate, but it seemed to have been a needless worry. The ring released its magic without a problem and... The red light in Ainz’ eye sockets narrowed.

“What is...this…”

As if new information was being forced into his brain he felt… something unpleasant. Yet at the same time, and connected to it, he also felt a great sense of euphoria. A large variety of human emotions hit Ainz like a wave.

While the emotional ripples dissipated from his body, Ainz realised that this world’s 「Wish Upon a Star」 was changed from YGGDRASIL’s to the point that they were practically not the same.

When he knew about Enfrea’s innate ability, he had fantasised about the possibility of obtaining it by activating 「Wish Upon a Star」. This speculation was not wrong. In this world, 「Wish Upon a Star」 had already become a magic which made the realisation of one’s innermost desires possible. Although it would be based on the value of the consumed experience, 「Wish Upon a Star」 had become a magic which made the impossible possible. Moreover, if five levels were consumed—— five-hundred percent of experience, the magic would even enable the realisation of even stronger desires.