"The enemy who killed Albedo has disappeared."
Demiurge adjusted his glasses, his demonic eyes scanning the ruined street.
"Where could he have gone?" Shalltear screamed, wiping Albedo's blood from her face. "There are only scattered, low-level undead on the outskirts! Such terrifying combat power couldn't possibly be wasted in a place like that! He wouldn't retreat!"
"Ainz-sama!" Demiurge gasped, his brilliant mind instantly connecting the tactical dots. "The opponent's target is Ainz-sama!!"
Demiurge adjusted his glasses with increasing, frantic frequency. At the same time, the tactical layout in his mind became clearer and clearer. Realizing that the enemy who possessed the power to defeat a Guardian was now approaching his master's location, Demiurge had no heart to care about Shalltear's emotional breakdown anymore.
"We must return!" Demiurge urged, massive leathery wings unfolding from his back.
He immediately launched himself into the air, flying desperately back in the direction of the city center. At the same time, he activated the message ring on his finger.
"Ainz-sama! Do you read me?!"
"I hear you, Demiurge."
"Be careful!" Demiurge yelled over the rushing wind. "The enemy who killed Albedo may be approaching your coordinates!"
"I know, Demiurge," Ainz replied, his voice deadly calm.
After replying to Demiurge, Ainz Ooal Gown hovered in the air, watching the two figures charging straight toward him across the rooftops.
The opponents had absolutely no intention of hiding their approach, standing tall and proud right under the Overlord's nose.
"Yo, you came over too, Ban," Meliodas grinned.
"Huh?" Ban smirked, lazily twirling his holy staff. "Did you really think I'd be foolishly clearing out small fry all day over there? Isn't it way easier to just take out the caster directly?!"
When the two Captains of the Seven Deadly Sins met, there were no so-called soft words or emotional reunions. Instead, as soon as they met on the roof, Ban playfully put his Captain in a rough chokehold, ruffling his blonde hair.
Setting Meliodas back on his feet, Ban looked up at the massive skeletal mage hovering in the sky without saying another word. Since his Captain was here, the decision on what to do next would naturally be made by him.
"Hey! You! The bony mage!"
Meliodas cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting up at Ainz.
"Can you take back all your skeletons?! As long as you don't involve the civilians, my team won't interfere with your revenge against the humans!"
Meliodas's voice echoed loudly through the concrete canyons of New York City, and Ainz Ooal Gown wasn't the only one who heard it.
The Avengers, who were currently several blocks away desperately evacuating civilians into subway bunkers, heard it clearly over the ambient noise.
"Whoa, sounds like our overpowered helpers are about to wash their hands of this," Tony Stark commented over the comms.
"This is bad," Steve Rogers muttered, gripping his broken shield.
Although his tone was somewhat flippant, Tony Stark's expression inside the helmet was incredibly solemn. The entire Avengers squad combined couldn't even defeat one armored knight like Albedo. And right now, Meliodas, who had just been holding off that exact opponent entirely on his own, was already able to pull away to negotiate with the leader.
They all knew very well what that represented. Either Albedo had been completely defeated, or she was already dead.
"Captain..." Natasha's face was extremely grave. "Should we contact Fury? Meliodas is the outside help he brought in. If the boy agrees to walk away..."
No one on the team wanted to fight this apocalyptic war against Nazarick. But at this stage, Meliodas could choose to walk away on a moral technicality. The Avengers, however, had no such choice.
The Overlord had already slaughtered thousands of innocent humans. This was no longer just a political war between two shady organizations. It had developed into a survival war between the Undead and humanity. Having experienced the nightmare of the Black Harvest, no human would ever allow such a terrifying existence to remain on their planet.
"Fury! You heard that, right?!" Steve yelled into his earpiece.
"Hold on, Captain. I'll get in touch with Meliodas," Nick Fury's voice crackled through the static. "The President has already sent me a secure notice. Regarding the nuclear missile launch... he promises to give S.H.I.E.L.D. a full explanation. You guys continue with your current mission. Evacuate the civilians as quickly as possible."
After hanging up the call with Captain America, Nick Fury's dark face was incredibly gloomy.
This war with Nazarick was an absolute, unmitigated disaster for S.H.I.E.L.D. The apocalyptic mess created by those stupid council members and the military had to be cleaned up in blood by his agents and the Avengers. Not to mention that an international metropolis like New York had literally become a land of death.
Although he sounded full of confidence when talking to Steve about persuading Meliodas to stay in the fight, at this actual moment, Fury had no confidence in his heart at all.
Other than knowing Meliodas was Hawk's mysterious companion, Fury knew very little about the boy's psychological profile. How exactly was he supposed to persuade a god-like teenager to fight an army of monsters for a government that had just tried to nuke him?
And while the Director was agonizing over his negotiation strategy, a piece of excellent news was broadcast back to him from the center of the battlefield.
"Stop?" Ainz Ooal Gown's voice rumbled with dark, terrifying mana. "Impossible!"
The Overlord looked down at the two humans with absolute disdain.
"The humans were the ones who provoked this war first! As for when the slaughter ends... I have the final say!"
At this moment, Ainz finally displayed the true, imposing, terrifying manner of an Undead King. The surviving Floor Guardians and high-level NPCs hovering behind him all took a simultaneous, aggressive step forward in the air.
They drew their weapons, making preparations to initiate the slaughter.
"Well," Ban sighed, rolling his neck. "It seems the negotiations have failed, Captain."
Ban reached down, grabbing Hawk by his pink scruff and releasing him from his arm, letting the pig drop safely to the roof. He himself began to lazily stretch and loosen his muscles.
"Yeah!" Meliodas smiled cheerfully, his hand resting on his broken sword. "Then let the war begin!"
Nick Fury's tactical worries vanished into thin air; there was absolutely no need for his diplomatic persuasion. The Overlord of Death had absolutely no intention of listening to Meliodas's merciful compromise.
It wasn't just for the prestige and honor of Nazarick. More importantly, Meliodas and Ban... had just slaughtered the two most prominent Guardians by Ainz's side. Under such circumstances, how could the Supreme Being possibly agree to a ceasefire?
Ban's figure suddenly soared into the sky, launching himself directly at the Overlord.
At the exact same moment, from behind Ainz's back, Sebas Tian—dressed in a pristine, tailored butler's suit—leaped out to intercept the attack.
Before Ban's body could even get close to the Supreme Being, Sebas's iron fist connected with devastating, martial perfection.
BAM!
Ban was sent violently flying backward by a single, focused punch. He smashed cleanly through the glass and steel of several high-rise buildings along his trajectory, only stopping his momentum when he hit the pavement of the street below, carving a trench in the asphalt.
Sebas did not hesitate for a microsecond, diving down after him to press the attack.
"Aureole Omega," Ainz commanded, not taking his glowing red eyes off Meliodas. "Take all of the Pleiades! Go assist Sebas!"
"Yes! Ainz-sama!"
The six members of the Battle Maids, led by the current leader, the Guardian of the Cherry Blossom Sanctuary, Aureole Omega, rushed downward towards the crater where Ban had fallen.
"Your power is actually quite decent," Ban coughed, pushing himself out of the rubble.
Having taken a clean punch to the jaw and fallen to the ground, Ban wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth. He smirked up at Sebas, who had landed gracefully on the street a few feet away.
Sebas did not reply. His weathered, handsome face was merely solemn as he assumed a flawless martial arts starting stance.
"Tch. Boring!" Ban complained, picking his nose out of sheer boredom. Seeing Sebas's serious face combined with his overly neat attire annoyed him. He disliked these kind of stiff, serious guys the most.
And while Ban was leisurely complaining, Sebas did not stop his assault.
The moment his figure vanished from his stance, he appeared directly in front of Ban.
A continuous, blinding barrage of strikes commenced.
Endless shadows of fists and kicks flew. Ban's slender body seemingly had no power to resist under Sebas's flawless, Level 100 martial arts. Like a ragdoll, Ban trembled and jerked under Sebas's continuous, bone-shattering heavy punches.
Having already experienced the shame of failing to protect the Tomb from the nuclear shockwave, Sebas had absolutely no intention of holding back this time. He went all out from the very first strike.
Ban kept spitting out mouthfuls of blood. Countless dark bruises, cracked ribs, and shattered bones began to appear all over his body.
Sebas's gaze hardened. His fist opened flat, and he swept his palm like a razor-sharp blade directly across Ban's neck.
"Those who offend the Supreme Being..." Sebas stated coldly. "...die!"
SHINK.
When Aureole Omega arrived, leading the Battle Maids into the crater, what she saw was the brutal scene of Ban being cleanly decapitated by a bare-handed strike.
"What?!" Lupusregina Beta complained loudly, leaning on her massive weapon. Among the maid squad, she was the most cheerfully bloodthirsty. "We just arrived, and the battle is already over? So boring!"
However, the reality of the situation on the street changed instantly.
.....
.....
.....
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter