["Can I not shoot?"]
[Just as Stelle started to ask, the gun in her hand went off with a "bang" on its own. The female leader dissipated like a wisp of cloud in the gunshot.]
["—Clearly not." Herta said flatly. "The role you're playing is the last bounty hunter in this pack. After firing, you left Swarm Star."]
["I have a question." Stelle watched the surrounding scene gradually collapse and fade. "The female leader used insect powder sorcery on the bounty hunters—so why is the hunter I'm playing the only one who stayed awake?"]
["Who knows? Maybe because of love?" Herta spread her hands. "Okay okay, don't sweat the small stuff. Anyway, after you killed the female leader, this marks the complete end of the bounty hunters on Swarm Star. From here on out, it's the Elidishna army's domain."]
[The scene shifted, and Stelle was back in the Elidishna army camp. The overwhelming stench of insects filled the air. The sticky mud on the ground was mixed with glowing green insect blood—every step pulled long strands of mucus.]
[A few soldiers sat around a burning pile of insect shells nearby, incinerating mountains of bug corpses. The crackling explosions from the flames sounded like dense drumbeats.]
[After the bounty hunters fully withdrew, the Elidishna forces' slaughter of Swarm Star insects only intensified.]
[Yet amid the killing, one coleopteran insect silently spread its wings. Amid blood, shell fragments, and mucus, it soared into the sky—leaving behind all the chaos, slaughter, and endless smoke that had no end in sight.]
[Its ascent held no grandeur. Sticky blood from its kin trailed from its wingtips in long threads, like an umbilical cord not yet cut at a newborn's birth. Occasionally, pieces of carapace peeled from its body, falling like teardrops into a sea of fire.]
["Herta, you're not going to tell me that little bug is the Propagation Aeon, are you?" Stelle lowered the binoculars in her hand and spoke to the air beside her.]
["What else? You think an Aeon's ascension is all thunder and starlight welcomes?"]
["Uh..." Stelle couldn't help feeling disappointed.]
["Stelle, you know that even before Screwllum ascended to Aeon status, he was just a stellar computer built by Zandar to solve all things, right?" Herta suddenly changed the subject. "Before ascension, they're all ordinary—ordinary to the point where... you can barely even notice them."]
["So what did they go through in the middle, from ordinary to Aeon?"]
["...Good question, Stelle. If I could answer that, would I still need you to help test the Simulated Universe?"]
[Stelle scratched her head sheepishly.]
["Hey, everyone come look at this!"]
[In the distance, a soldier called out in surprise, beckoning the others. Stelle followed him through the camp. After opening a protective barrier, the sight before them made every soldier present gasp in unison.]
[Countless dense swarms of insects suddenly froze. Their compound eyes all turned simultaneously toward the sky, as if seeing something invisible to humans. Immediately after, they began to converge and cluster, mating and reproducing on the spot in an unbelievable manner.]
[The tentacles of some gigantic swarm worm and flying insect intertwined with each other, "sticking" together in a bizarre posture. Even as someone set flames to burn these insects, in the final second before becoming ashes, they continued their mating motions.]
["So gross..." Stelle felt her stomach churn.]
["Looks like Propagation has been born." Herta sighed. "The locust calamity that will sweep across half the universe... is about to begin."]
——
Overlord.
An Aeon had already been born?
But he hadn't seen anything at all.
Ainz, who had also heard Herta's voice, used some magic to enhance the vision of all the present Floor Guardians, trying to spot any trace of Propagation in Swarm Star's dark red sky.
"Lord... Lord Ainz!"
His thoughts were first pulled back by Mare's terrified voice.
Retracting his gaze, Cocytus was already kneeling in pain on the ground. His teeth chattered nonstop. His six limbs twisted in an extremely uncoordinated posture, even cracking his exoskeletal armor with a grating sound that set the teeth on edge.
"That impulse... Lord Ainz, I..."
His usually deep voice had turned hoarse, as if something was fighting him for control of his body.
(Cocytus's condition is clearly the result of mental magic... Could the Great Tomb be under attack?)
(But Demiurge already set up domains and barriers in advance. Under normal circumstances, any magic that could affect the Great Tomb should trigger a warning. What is this situation?)
The sudden appearance of something inexplicable by common sense left Ainz momentarily flustered.
But he quickly calmed down. He observed that not all the Guardians had suffered the same mysterious attack as Cocytus—only he had.
Assuming a mental attack could affect a Lv100 Cocytus with such force—even ignoring pre-established barriers—then logically everyone in the Throne Room, including Ainz himself, should have been affected without exception.
Could it be... that only he was special?
"Lord Ainz, if this is a mental attack, it shouldn't target only Cocytus." Demiurge beside him also noticed the anomaly. "Your subordinate suggests sending someone to inspect the interior of the Great Tomb."
"Mm."
Just as Ainz was about to designate a Guardian to go, he suddenly received a warning of enemy intrusion.
—From the ninth floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
"Eh?? The—the ninth floor?!" Albedo immediately widened her eyes.
The Throne Room they were in was on the ninth floor!
Not only that, the ninth floor was the layer she personally guarded. How could someone dare cause trouble right under her nose?!
Even more importantly, she could understand someone targeting the Great Tomb with an enemy attack—but to reach the ninth floor, they would have to pass through floors one through eight. Yet all the eighth-floor Guardians were here, and not one had received any report of intrusion!
"Heh heh, the assault is coming from the servant quarters... interesting." Ainz let out a low, muffled laugh. "All Guardians except Cocytus—come with me."
Through teleportation, the group arrived at the servant quarters in the blink of an eye.
But what followed—
The scene before them practically hard-stunned everyone present.
Among the battle maids, Etoile (the spider person) was lost in "intimate exchange" with Terror Public (the giant cockroach). Her wide maid sleeves brushed over the newly formed spiracles on the insect shell. Those holes immediately sprayed warm mist laced with pheromones. In an instant, the entire room filled with a foul, nauseating odor.