For a moment Ainz doubted his ears. His brain couldn't understand what he was hearing. And in that brief moment, that long, eternal moment, time had frozen to him, as he processed the information, wondering if what he had just heard was correct. And when he finally understood the words that were just uttered, a explosion of joy welled up inside him that could not be contained. His emotional suppressant went off so many times in the space of a few seconds, that one would think something was wrong with him.
And when it finally managed to contain the torrent of happiness that was inside, he began to think logically. Though he didn't want to, he couldn't let a false name harm the great tomb. I mustn't get ahead of myself, this could be a similar situation to what those Rats pulled a while back. Though Neia does respect me, and the situation would gain no merits through saying that name. Could this be a ploy from a third party to try and lure me out? Have the people who attacked Shalltear finally made there move!?
A maelstrom of hatred consumed his soul, roaring so loud that it left no room for any other emotion. Even the crowd that surrounded him, could feel a shift in the air, as if the warmth of the world had left this single spot, leaving only a soul chilling cold. If his foe had not only brainwashed Shalltear, but also used one of his treasured friends names as a ploy, mere torture would seem merciful compared to what he was going to do.
This was not the time to preserve his image. He couldn't care less if all the respect he had gained in his facade as a great ruler vanished to the wind if it meant seeing his friends again. He needed to know. Now.
"M-miss Baraja, please tell me more, I must know who this person is at all cost. Every. Last. Detail. No matter how minuscule. Tell me!"
Neia and the crowed were shocked at the shift in the behavior of the undead king. So far the side he had showed them was nothing less then perfect. But the sudden paradyme shift left a few dumbfounded. The reason being was that the person they were talking to was not Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, but Suzuki Satoru, the wage slave, who had finally emerged under the hope that his friends were still out there.
Neia however had told him everything she knew, because she knew that her lord must have a reason for it. And after hearing everything, from his appearance, to his actions, to the words he spoke, all doubt in his heart was washed away, leaving only one answer.
Touch-Me had come to the new world.
Ainz backed away from the startled Neia, dropping the scepter he was holding onto the floor and began to hyperventilate. (though his body shouldn't have allowed this.) The amount of bliss that was coursing through his non existent veins was so great, that his earlier happiness would seem like simple content. If he had his old body, he would surely be crying by now.
I need to assemble the guardians! "I-I apologize, but I will need to postpone this meeting for another day! This is extremely urgent! [Gate!]"
"But Wai..."
Before Neia Could Finish her sentence, Ainz had practically lept through the portal, leaving a very confused and uneasy crowed of bystanders, wondering what could panic the Undead monarch so.
[Message] "Albedo! I need you to summon all of the Guardians, including Victim, the pleiades, and Sebas to the throne room immediately! Make this a top priority!"
{"O-of course Ainz-sama, but what matter is so impor..."}
Ainz once again had cut the conversation to a end, as he couldn't spare the time for meaningless chatter. His desire that he had longed for ever since he had first arrived in the new world was within his grasp.
"Don't worry Touch-Me... I will find you, and when I do, I will ensure that I give you the best welcoming in history!" Ainz headed for the throne room, saying such childish things as he went, preparing for the search party that would surely be sent out.
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As the guardians all gathered into the throne room, the mood in the air could best be described as worry. Very rarely did the most highly rank people of there respective floors all meet in the same place like this. Considering lord Ainz asked for the pleiades to be here as well as victim, the situation must be anything but normal. For all they knew, Nazarick may be endanger from a unknown force!
While all of them had gathered previously for a reward ceremony, they had been given prior notice, and the summons was not this urgent. Which could only mean something unprecedented had happened.
Once all of the members who had been requested had entered the room, That absolute ruler, began to ascend the dais, and sat down, to give his speech.
"my faithful guardians, I cannot thank you enough for arriving on such short notice. I realize that this was out of the blue, but this matter simply could not be delayed."
"There is no need to thank us lord. Heeding to your beck and call is what we were created to do. There is no need to stand on ceremony for our sake. However.. I would like to ask on behalf of everyone else what matter requires all of us present. For something of this scale, it must surely be a great threat." Asked Demiurge. All of the others in the room nodded, signifying that they agreed with his assessment.
"Nothing of the sort Demiurge. You see, when I went to the holy kingdom earlier, I learned a piece of crucial Intel. I am happy to report that I have more or less confirmed the existence of one of my friends in the new world"
The air froze. The guardians, whose very souls were giving there full attention to there master, seemed to increase in intensity by several dozen levels at once. The fact that they may once again be able to see another one of there exalted creators again, filled them with such immense joy, they very nearly showed there lord a disgraceful side of themselves by shouting "really!", but they manged to suppress it. Barely.
"Yes.. it would seem that miss Baraja was saved by a Touch-Me on one of her excursions, Her words have confirmed his presence, so I hereby declare that we focus all of Nazarick into finding him!"
"A-Ainz-sama, I beg your forgiveness for going against your on judgement, but could it be possible that the girl was mistaken? The words of worthless humans can hardly be considered proof. For all we know this could be a ploy to lure us in. let me go out in search of him with my team for this reason." Albedo asked in a slightly worried tone, which Ainz found odd.
The other guardians bathed her in suspicious gazes. Sebas very nearly glaring at her. Their lord was the master of the supreme beings, therefore he could not have gotten such things wrong. While it was true that a testimony from a human isn't the best proof, there master must surely have found a way to prove it that they could not.
"Nonsense Albedo. For one thing, Neia shows a level of loyalty to me that rivals those from Nazarick. And she had mentioned several key details about him that can not be faked, considering there is no way for anyone to know about him. Your team was sent to find them in case there was no definite proof, so we could quickly find the answer. But now with this, there is no longer a need for it. Since we have more or less confirmed his general location, I will have Nigredo Survey the area with reconnaissance magic, and send out our entire supply of eyeball corpses."
Since Ainz had practically enough death knights to replace the citizens of the country if he wanted to, he had began focusing his skills on higher tiered undead to use in there stead as a main force. So because of this, he had hundreds of eyeball corpses languishing in storage at the moment. Now was the perfect time to use them.
"of course my lord, I apologize for going against your decision, please forgive me.
"of course. You were simply following earlier orders. I am not petty enough to censure you for that. Now my guardians, while we are searching for Touch-Me, I would like Nazaricks security level raised to maximum. The enemy may see this as a chance to attack, so we must not lower our guard."
"Lord!"
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"DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!"
Albedo began screaming to herself in the room that Ainz had given her, while pounding her fist into the wall. This, however was a futile endeavor, as the Great Tomb of Nazarick could not be injured by mere fist, though the fact that she was only hurting herself but continued anyway just showed how deep her wrath was.
"How dare you pieces of filth return to my loves home! He is the only one who deserves to rule it! Not you scum!" While Albedo knew that she shouldn't be saying such things so loudly, as speaking such words to any member of the tomb was essentially saying "please kill me painfully ", she could not keep her ire controlled under the circumstances. even so, screaming her true feelings was a dangerous move.
"Damn that girl, had she not told Ainz-sama he was her, my team could have found him first without any witnesses. This just made things a lot harder."
For starters, Ainz had essentially removed her dream team from existence as they were no longer required. Its power was the only way to ensure that her plan would work. The second was the fact that with another supreme being present, having him suddenly vanish would raise questions. Questions that could not be asked.
"I just don't understand. Why does our lord place such importance on those who abandoned him. They don't deserve his boundless mercy. They should have been tossed to the side, just like they did with him!"
However she couldn't sit here forever, Nazarick had entered maximum security mode, and as overseer, she had to fulfill her task.
"Momonga-sama, when will you allow me to hear you great name once again?"
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Touch-Me had been wandering in the forest for a good few hours now. And while he had encountered some villages, he choose to stare from a distance, as if what that girl earlier said was true, then entering the cities in broad daylight was a bad idea. As people would freak out upon seeing the imposing warrior.
"Damn, this just got way more complicated." While heteromorphs were targeted in YGGDRASIL, that was only by players. There was no such mechanics with NPCs.
"Maybe if I get to high ground I can spot a distance settlement that isn't populated by humans. At least there I may be able to get some more answers." so with his plan set, he scaled the tallest tree in the area in the blink of an eye. Anyone who was watching him may just think he used a teleportation spell.
As he reach the top, he saw something that he was desperately hoping was not coming for him, in the distance, where he had just come from, were hundreds of eyeball corpses. There were so many it looked like a swarm of flies. Eyeball corpses could range from between level 70-90 and were immensely good at surveillance. If he really did piss off a higher up, than this may be the search team.
This was beyond bad.
Firstly, since all he had right now was a generic steel sword, he could not harm the eyeball corpses. Much like players, certain high level enemies resisted attacks below certain levels, as well as weapons without enchants. Since touch me had none of his old gear, he could do nothing to harm even one eyeball.
And second, was that eyeball corpses were specialized in scrying magic. Even a stealth specialized character would find it hard to sneak past just one sufficiently high leveled eye.
And there were over 500 of them.
To Touch-Me, he may as well have been under a spotlight ringing a bell, and would have less of a chance to be found than right now.
As he was thinking of what to do, one of the eyes seemingly looked directly at him. It may have been his imagination, but he couldn't risk it. He needed to run.
Faster than the eye could see, he sprinted off to find a crevice or cave that he could hide in, until he found a small ditch that was underneath a incline. He immediately jumped in and proceeded to pray that they had not seen him.
While only minutes had passed, to Touch-Me, he felt like he waited for what seemed like hours. When he was finally sure that he hadn't been spotted, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to leave the literal hole he found himself in...
only to run face to eye with one of the corpses.