Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 17

As the Baroness took the fight to her two remaining adversaries, the ranks of Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Mages that had appeared out of the mist to rain destruction upon the fallen Blood Meat Hulk formed up neatly nearby. With someone engaging them in direct melee, the two Undead brutes did not turn towards them even after their fellow was abruptly slaughtered.

Ainz mused over the scene, reminded of those old shows where villains would duel a hero in the presence of their minions. If the fight became inconvenient, the villain would unabashedly display their cowardly, dishonourable nature and order the hero to be filled with holes. This never worked, of course: the hero would somehow survive to prevail. But those were just stories, and it seemed to work perfectly fine here.

It was quite the juxtaposition with Baroness Zahradnik’s apparent nature. She was upright and earnest, with a consistently stalwart disposition that would remind one of a hero rather than a villain. When it came to a fight, however, she seemed to possess no scruples whatsoever.

The Baroness invariably pursued the most effective methods of destroying her enemy as possible. It didn’t matter if what she did would be considered dishonourable, unfair or outright atrocious. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had something stashed away in her bags to envenom her weapons with.

According to Shalltear, that her opponents were mindless Undead was not a factor: anyone who she considered an enemy received a lethal dose of her cold efficiency.

“Shalltear.”

“Yes, Ainz-sama?”

“If we were to, say, send her to aid an ally at the head of an army, would our allies become just as horrified of us as their enemies?”

“What makes you say that?” He asked.

“Ludmila still operates according to the Sorcerous Kingdom’s policies in everything she does,” Shalltear answered. “She will also observe any limitations you place and work to accomplish specific objectives. If she’s instructed to play nice, then she’ll play nice in the most efficient way possible.”

“I see. Well, that’s a relief to hear.”

“Will you be sending her somewhere, arinsuka?”

Would he? There were clear benefits to doing so if the opportunity presented itself. If she had a firm grasp on the Sorcerous Kingdom’s national policies, Nazarick’s priorities, and could do as Shalltear said, the Baroness was an ideal operative in certain situations.

With the appropriate countermeasures, she was almost entirely indistinguishable from a regular Human being. The Sorcerous Kingdom was often seen as a nation of monsters by outsiders, so her presence might shift their perceptions. In addition, the risk to the NPCs would be lowered if they used local representatives for foreign diplomacy…

“A consideration for the future,” he replied. “Our administrators still have much to do in the Sorcerous Kingdom.”

He turned his attention to the fight below, where the Baroness appeared to be testing something again.

Is she trying to bait them into hitting each other as she did with the Wraith? Ah–whoops, there she goes…

With the crunch of several ribs – or perhaps all of them – the Baroness finally caught the brunt of one of the Blood Meat Hulks’ attacks. She flew several dozen metres before hitting the ground and rolled for a half-dozen more. To her credit, she popped back up to her feet once she regained control of her momentum.

As Ainz watched her health tick up again, he was reminded of what he had witnessed earlier.

“During the fight with her first opponent, she used that three-pronged attack and lost health. Did she force her limit?”

“Yes, Ainz-sama.”

Though he said it simply, ‘forcing’ one’s limit was nearly unheard of.

“Is that something she learned after she turned into a Revenant?”

“No, it’s something from before. When she grasped her first Martial Arts, it was discovered that she could do this at the cost of crippling injuries. I heard the veteran Adventurers were quite furious with her, but Mare and Pandora’s Actor were intrigued.”

“Umu. I find it intriguing as well. We should send her to Go Gin at some point.”

His wariness over Martial Arts had waned since the relative weakness of the region’s inhabitants was established. Interest in Martial Arts fell off almost entirely when it turned out that both Nazarick’s NPCs and his Undead creations appeared to be incapable of learning them.

The appearance of an intelligent Undead capable of Martial Arts stoked the embers of his curiosity, however. The Undead did not experience physical exhaustion, and it seemed she was perfectly willing and able to sacrifice health for the ability to exceed her level-based limits. What remained was to discover if the loss of ‘mental clarity’ required to execute Martial Arts was a result of disruptions and loss of focus caused by physical wear and tear, or if it was associated with the mental ‘stress’ that Undead could still feel.

If it was the former, an Undead warrior could theoretically perform Martial Arts nonstop. Considering the outsized effectiveness that some of them possessed, it seemed an overwhelming advantage in an otherwise even fight.

Heavy thuds sounded through the air as the Blood Meat Hulks once again came within melee range of the Baroness. She had returned to her previous method of fighting, rapidly inflicting light amounts of damage while mitigating risks to herself.

“She’s regenerated to full,” Ainz said, “but she’s still moving strangely…”

He glanced over to Shalltear, but she shook her head unknowingly.

The ground shuddered as one of the Undead brutes crashed to the ground. Buried by a shower of arrows and spells, it was dispatched moments later. With the fight reduced to a duel, the Baroness settled for a more direct approach.

Within half a minute, the Blood Meat Hulk was covered in punctures and lacerations. As expected, a Zombie-ish creature was no match for a competent warrior – even when they had several levels on them. A third vial of Holy Water was emptied, and Ainz flew down to join her.

“Do you always carry vials of Holy Water around?” He asked.

“Undead are frequently used in the Adventurer Training Area,” she answered. “The content of Lord Mare’s courses are never announced in advance, so we eventually got used to bringing everything we might need to every session. These are from nearly two months ago...the Infinite Haversacks make everything so easy to carry around that I’ve become used to stockpiling everything.”

That was easy enough to imagine. Two Infinite Haversacks could hold 1000 Kilograms’ worth of items with 100 per cent weight reduction. Not only that, the items held within took no additional space. It was a degree of convenience unheard of in the region.

The Baroness awkwardly leaned over, picking up an arrow from the ground. The entire thing disintegrated in her fingers.

“How does the equipment that manifests with these Undead work?” She asked, “At one point early on, I thought to order my Skeleton Archers to retrieve their spent arrows. Then I saw that they never seemed to run out of arrows. ‘New’ ones appear in their quivers, but they are always just as shabby as the ones from before. Other Undead seem to come with equipment of their own, but it all disappears when they are destroyed.”

Ainz pondered her question, having no real explanation. In Yggdrasil, everything was themed according to its location and ‘flavour’. A mob in an area with an oriental theme would have weapons that one might find in an oriental setting. Mobs that reflected a specific vocation – say, a Ninja – would carry and use the equipment associated with Ninjas.

As far as he had seen, this sort of ‘logic’ held out here as well. The region that Nazarick had ended up in was markedly ‘western’, save for a few exceptions that he thought must be the result of Player influence. A Skeleton never spawned with a nodachi, macuahuitl or khopesh around E-Rantel.

He rubbed his jaw in thought for several moments.

“Hmm…perhaps it might be best to explain like this,” Ainz said. “Rather than trying to figure out where everything comes from, it is easier to accept that everything manifests from an idea…or a theme?”

“A concept?”

“Umu,” Ainz nodded. “That might be the best word for it. Have you ever wondered why the majority of the Undead here have the bodies of Humans? Undead are not limited to Human form, yet most appear as such.”

Baroness Zahradnik looked over the ranks of her Undead forces.

“I always thought it was because Humans live here – or once lived here – so the Undead that manifest appear as Human remains.”

“And when you imagine these remains, what comes to mind? What does a fallen warrior wield? A villager? A farmer? Do you see that reflected here? Do you see any pieces of equipment that are foreign to this region?”

The Baroness fell silent, scanning the now-emptied area with a thoughtful look.

“No, I haven’t noticed anything that ‘shouldn’t be here’,” the Baroness nodded to herself. “I’ve always taken it for granted, but if examined from that perspective, it stands out quite a bit. The Undead here represent civilians and militia and are armed in the same fashion. All of the Undead Beasts are livestock or what should have been found naturally here before it became a wasteland. If we go deeper into the plains and encounter stronger Undead, we might find guardsmen, knights or members of the aristocracy. These ‘roles’ that once existed take shape in the appropriate species of Undead for them.”

Oh boy, I hope I’m right…

It seemed to work the way that it did in Yggdrasil, so he had just gone with the idea. He had no idea how he would explain himself if they came across a Skeleton using a magical assault rifle.

“With the destruction of the Undead being comes the dissolution of the concept it once represented,” the noblewoman said. “What manifested the equipment is now no more, so the equipment naturally vanishes as well.”

“I would think that the economics of the region would be vastly different if it wasn’t the case,” Ainz said lightly. “Places like the Katze Plains would be treated as highly-valuable resources where all manner of materials can be procured. People would go in with wagons and come out with piles of weapons and armour to sell. The mightiest would delve deeply into the plains, seeking opponents that yield rarer, more valuable materials.”

“That does sound rather silly, Your Majesty,” the Baroness snorted. “I can’t imagine what sort of strange world it would be if one could do as you mentioned.”

Ainz decided to leave it at that, lest he step into some unseen pitfall. Baroness Zahradnik returned to the front of her company.

“Now that we’ve completed clearing the ruins,” she said, “what do we do with these?”

“You should keep them for the next place,” he replied. “We can have them follow along the shore of the river, and they won’t have any issues crossing should we investigate something on the other side.”

The Undead marched off towards the ruined harbour. Ainz, Shalltear and the Baroness started searching through the ruins.

Like their previous location, there was little to be found at all. No strongboxes or chests; no fragments of ancient books, stone monuments or carvings. No signs or lettering to be found in wood, stone, or metal. The buildings in the place did not have cellars – which made sense given that they were right by the river – and anything that should have weathered the ages like the towers had collapsed, their remnants scattered everywhere.

Given the size of the former settlement and how difficult it should have been for the Humans in the surrounding nations to access, Ainz started to lean in favour of the opinion that it had been purposefully destroyed.

Erased, as the Baroness had put it. But by who, and why?

“Is it possible that some great war occurred here?” The Baroness asked, “One so intense that it gave rise to the Katze Plains of today?”

“With how the surrounding nations seem to cling to the ghosts of their past claims,” he answered, “one might think that they are the echoes of such a conflict surviving to this day. One that they have forgotten the true reason for…or have kept hidden from the light of day.”

“What of the Sorcerous Kingdom? Your Majesty has ancient claims in the area.”

“Those claims were for E-Rantel,” he replied, “the events that caused this – even what existed here at the time – is not a part of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s history.”

Ainz held a tense breath. He hadn’t expected that particular fabrication to come around and haunt him. It was meant to be used once and forgotten. Usually a noble would question or challenge a claim, which none dared do since the battle of Katze Plains. That it would be brought up in this manner was entirely unforeseen.

“I see.”

With that, the Baroness continued her search, advancing towards the tower that loomed over the landscape. He eyed her strange movements: the ones that Shalltear had noted before.

“Why do you think she’s walking like that?”

“Her armour is mundane, so it must be something not working properly?”

“Hmm…”

Though he had already said as much, the realities of mundane equipment in this world still felt like a huge penalty to those who did not have magical equipment, which was most. This was probably because Yggdrasil did not have the same penalties. A Player’s avatar did not suffer any maluses for damaged equipment aside from durability changes and loss of defensive function.

After searching the base of the tower, which was similarly sealed from entry at ground-level, the Baroness activated her hairpin and rose along its stone walls. As she approached the top of the broken tower, she peeked over carefully before rising to alight on the stones.

“What do you see?” He called up to her.

“The inside of the tower is clear,” she called back down. “The interior has collapsed like the other one.”

Clear? There’s no boss? Maybe it’s a spectral type? No, she has Truesight, so she would be able to see it. A high-level Undead mouse, maybe?

He flew up with Shalltear to join the Baroness above the tower. Ainz was about halfway there when Baroness’ eyes widened in alarm. She rose all of three metres before a fleshy tendril wrapped itself around her ankle.

With a startled noise, she was yanked into the tower and out of sight.

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