Ainz stood in the field. The night sky loomed overhead, stars glittering like gems in a sea of void.
Aura stood in the field. Eyes empty, her usual, tomboy self, gone without a trace.
The forest around them was quiet. No creature dared approach them, titans of power that they were.
Suzuki Satorou, the man behind and still within Ainz Ooal Gown, clenched his fist.
'I should have predicted this. I was foolish, moronic.'
It was only natural to be cautious. Ainz had everything to lose and nothing to gain.
He glanced to his right, and Thoth stood there, hands folded behind his back, though his heavy expression betrayed his emotional state.
There were tear marks on his cheeks, a silvery glitter where liquid once flowed. Her loss had hit him hard, but Ainz would find a way.
'If what Thoth said is true and this was the work of a World Item... Then I will have to kill her and revive her, it would be the only way.'
Ainz pulled a small ring from the void of his inventory, wrapped it around a body finger, and called upon the powers of a shooting star.
"Shooting Star, grant my wish!" He bellowed, the stars above growing brighter as they seemed to hear his plea, "Lift all status conditions affecting Aura Bella Fiore!"
The stars sputtered and dimmed in silence.
'The spell failed... So it must be true.'
Ainz did not doubt Thoth's words... Yet he still hoped it wasn't true.
His fist clenched as he slammed the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown into the floor, causing the earth to shake in trepidation. His emotions were promptly silenced. Though a bitter taste of grief and vexed desperation remained.
Suzuki sighed and turned to Thoth.
"I apologize for the childish outburst." He said, his voice imposing, still slightly aggravated.
"It's fine, Ainz," Thoth said passively, not even registering his casual tone.
He glanced at Aura before looking to the right.
'I hope I'm wrong and she isn't stuck in that void. God, please, let it be true.'
His wings were not out; they hid themselves in his back, but he remembered their reaction far too well. He wasn't the only one who cried.
Ainz silently nodded and looked to the right, following Thoth's brief look to a line of collapsed trees.
'If I recall correctly, he had punched Shalltear through fifty or so trees with full strength... I cannot blame him for not containing such wrath.'
But it was not Shalltear's fault, or so Ainz thought. It was all his fault, he convinced himself.
'I should have anticipated this. I'll give every Floor Guardian a World Item to protect them, and be far more strict on educating them. I'll have a chat with Cocytus about teaching Shalltear to restrain her impulses.'
His mind wandered to those who were behind this, his anger swelling, but cooling once more.
'Demiurge said that it was a group from the Theocracy, so there may be a player at hand there. I should investigate at some point, but I must first secure the safety of Nazarick.'
His eyes blazed, 'Either way, as I feared, we will not be unchallenged in this world. I will carve out a safe world for Nazarick and the Guardians, lest this occur again.'
His grip over the staff he and his friends forged tightened more, trembling slightly as his grim orbs settled onto Thoth's detached expression, akin to a turtle hiding in its shell to escape thought and emotion.
'I will never stand by as a child of my friends cries. Not again.'
With a silent "Umu," Ainz turned to Thoth.
"Thoth, let's head back-" Ainz paused, and pondered, 'He was quite close to Aura from what I could tell, and he seems quite saddened by her temporary state...'
His tone softened, "Actually... There are many summons from Nazarick in the area, but keeping a Guardian here would make sense. Stay here with her and protect her while I prepare in Nazarick to rescue her."
Thoth could only bitterly smile, "I will, thank you."
With a nod and one last sentence, "I'll come back with a World Item for your safety soon." Ainz vanished.
Thoth walked over to Aura and looked around.
'Her legs would probably hurt by now, right? It's been a little bit, her constitution might be crazy, but...' As Thoth was about to send a message asking for a chair, he remembered something.
"Right... I would trigger combat if I touched you, huh, princess?"
Thoth chuckled. He did not get a fraction of emotion back.
He then sighed, looking down at the floor. In shame, anger, perhaps as a way to detach, he could not tell why. But he simply could not look into her eyes, not when they were so soulless, like how he used to be.
"Sorry." He knew she could not hear anything, which is why he spoke at all. Now, more than anything, he expressed himself.
"They're probably gonna have a meeting about what to do, Demiurge and Albedo will escalate and mobilize Nazarick, we know it was the Theocracy, so that country will not last long..."
Thoth trailed off, a frown forming on his face
'A lot of people will die, and I'm sorry for them.'
It was dark and cold.
Aura was frozen cold. An empty, bottomless void where her mind should be, where a fractured remnant of it still is.
It felt weird. She couldn't feel her body - smell, touch, sight - all remained just out of grasp.
"Man... Fucking Shalltear!" She complained. As she should.
"If that moron just didn't lose herself like that! Am I trapped in like a prison or something?"
She tried to shift, and couldn't. She tried to press against the boundaries holding her in place, but found none.
There was no prison, there was simply nothing. Nothing but her thoughts.
"...Kinda depressing..." Aura muttered, her voice losing a bit of its spark as she sighed.
She wondered how Thoth was doing. Maybe he was already trying to break her out? Aura hoped so, she was already getting bored.
"Still... Why was Thoth so hesitant to help? He's usually always happy to... Even if he acts salty about it."
She knew him well. How could she not? She liked him after all.
"Shalltear better be sorry after I wake up, I'll have her do something for me... But what?"
She could ask her for advice regarding... Not safe for work topics. She had no expertise in the area after all.
Aura flushed. Well, mentally, she did; there were no cheeks that could flush.
There was silence for a while. The darkness was as omnipresent as ever, like the void that stretched from the edge of the universe into the infinity beyond.
"...Why am I so..." She didn't finish the thought, there were many words she could end it with. All of them would be quite fitting. None of them were kind.
"I could have stopped Shalltear in time if I stepped in, Thoth probably had a plan, and I messed it up by rushing in to save her. Why did I do that? Stupid..."
The reason was quite simple. Their creators, Shalltear and Aura, were siblings.
The apple of doubt had yet to fall from the tree, the sapling of independence left unplanted, so how could they be any different from their creators?
They were not sisters per se, but... Aura often felt for Shallter as she would for Mare. Except that Shalltear was too bratty, and Aura wanted to correct that.
...Maybe she would finally improve now? Aura doubted it, but Thoth would probably give her an earful.
Maybe hours, perhaps days, perchance even weeks had passed, or it could be minutes. There was no sun to measure with.
"Will I even get out at this rate? It was a world item... How long will I stay like this?"
Lord Ainz would come for her. He cares for his people, right?
"...If I knew this would happen..." She would have been more honest with her feelings for Thoth. Maybe he would have gotten her out by now if he knew how much she cared.
Maybe he already knows and doesn't care.
"..." She remembered their flirting.
"Gosh, how embarrassing!" She yelled into the void, remembering how she ran away like a fool not long ago. All it took was a little flirting, a light touch on her arms and legs, and she was reduced to that.
"Haaah... I'll ask Shalltear for some advice on that... I think she wouldn't mind." She chuckled, "I'll take what she said with a grain of salt. Just to be safe."
Time passed.
"Did Thoth know this would happen? Is that why he was so petrified, why he insisted on keeping me back?"
Aura would have smiled, perhaps teared up a bit.
"So he does care."
That is all she could say.
She would sleep if she could, let the time flow faster, but she couldn't. Her mind was propped up by an unseen pillar, one that refused to let her stand on her own, refused to let her sleep, let her do anything at all except be.
"I hope Mare is okay, he's probably freaking out without me around to help him out..." Aura felt a sense of duty, guardianship, weighed heavily on her shoulders.
How could she leave Mare behind? She should have let Shalltear take the blow. Her pets were left on their own, too. Were they getting fed? Did anyone miss her? Were they worried?
Lord Ainz probably was, Thoth too, he cared... She hoped.
Time passed again, as it always did.
Aura didn't think anything much of this time. She had gone through everything she could think about a while ago, and was running in loops like a headless chicken.
She wanted to be again.
That was all she could think as a comforting sensation, as if she was being held, filled her mind.
Thoth held Aura's hands.
He flinched and looked up, finding Aura non-responsive.
With a relieved smile, he stood up and sat her down, the sun now high in the sky.
A couple of days had passed, and Ainz would be here soon. Thoth knew what had to be done; he would kill her and revive her, that much he was told by Shalltear.
'...Shalltear...'
Thoth bitterly scoffed. She tried to approach him, offered to share shifts, apologize, and make it up to him somehow.
Thoth didn't care about her; he cared about one person, his one friend, perhaps the one who could be more than a friend, and she took that away from him.
Thoth was traumatized; he had enough emotional awareness to tell that much, but it's not like there is a therapist in Nazarick to fix him up.
He was on his own. Again.
Thoth sighed, he was very careful to hold Aura's hands and sighed.
'I know she probably can't feel me but... I hope at least a part of her can.'
Thoth leaned his forehead against her for the last time as Ainz appeared behind him, his voice looming, imposing in nature. He gripped a large, bark-like staff in his hands, his robes replaced by a thorny, vine-like suit.
"...Thoth." He said after a moment of awkward hesitation, "It is time. Please, step aside and watch from a distance with Mare."
As Thoth nodded, he hesitated a bit.
With a final bow, he kissed Aura on the hand, like a proper escort should.
With that, he walked away, pausing by Ainz's side as he handed him a ring.
He looked confused until Ainz spoke up.
"This is a World Item known as Guardian, I'll tell you the details afterward. Now go, Mare is waiting for you."
With a dramatic swirl of his hand, Ainz surged toward Aura, and Thoth looked at his back before promptly hurrying to join Mare on a cliff face overlooking the forest.
-x-x-x
Chat, is this real? A chapter that didn't take me thirty years to make? Shocking, truly.
Anyway, hope you liked it, gang, leave a review if you did! Comments and reviews are my main source of motivation. Also, feel free to share ideas, I might incorporate them if they sound cool!
Have a good one.