The Ninth Floor's Grand Spa Resort was a paradise of steam and Romanesque marble. It was designed to relax beings who could shatter mountains with a sneeze.
Ainz Ooal Gown, however, was not relaxed.
He sat in the sulphur bath—well, his bones sat in it; he had no skin to benefit from the minerals—scouring a slime off his radius bone. Miyoshi, his personal slime-sponge, chirped happily as it dissolved a speck of imaginary dirt.
Touch Me.
The name rattled inside his skull like a trapped die in a cup.
Touch Me is alive? Here?
Satoru Suzuki's mind was a mess. Touch Me was the guild's conscience. The strongest warrior. The man who saved Satoru when he was just a weak skeleton mage being PK'd in the swamp. If Touch Me was here, everything would change. Ainz wouldn't have to carry this burden of absolute leadership alone. He could hand over the reins. He could... retire?
"A vacation," Ainz muttered, bubbles escaping his cervical vertebrae. "A real vacation. Where I don't have to kill three million people or pretend I understand what a 'geopolitical socio-economic restructuring' means."
But then the doubt crept in.
Why the Sea City? If Touch Me was alive, surely he would have made a name for himself as a hero? He couldn't help himself. He was a Paladin of Justice. He wouldn't hide in a damp aquatic ruin while the world burned.
Unless he was trapped. Or dead.
The thought of finding Touch Me's corpse was terrifying. But the thought of Touch Me judging what Ainz had done to the Sorcerer Kingdom... that was arguably worse.
"Miyoshi, that's enough," Ainz stood up. The slime plopped off respectfully. "I have a briefing."
He wrapped a towel around his pelvis—purely for habit, there was nothing to hide—and strode toward the dressing room.
Confidence, Ainz. If Touch Me is there, you greet him as an equal. You have kept the guild alive. He will be proud. Hopefully.
[Emotion Suppression]
The green light stabilized his trembling hand.
"Time to build a boat."
The Round Table – Operational Briefing
The mood in the meeting room was decidedly maritime, in that Cocytus was wet (he had just come from the Frozen Lake) and Mare was reading a picture book about colorful fish.
"The item," Albedo placed the parchment on the obsidian table.
It wasn't paper. It was treated shark skin. On it, glowing in bioluminescent ink, was a chart. It showed a coastline that roughly matched the southern edge of the continent, and then a jagged line leading into the Deep Blue.
At the end of the line was a coordinate marked with a crest.
A silver shield with a cross.
"The emblem of Touch Me-sama," Demiurge murmured, examining it with a jeweler's loupe. "And the text... ancient Draconic?"
"It says 'Sanctuary'," Albedo interpreted. Her smile was soft, maternal, and completely fabricated. "It suggests a place of hiding."
Ainz stared at the map.
Internal Monologue: Hold on. I know this layout. This isn't a map of the New World's ocean. This looks exactly like the raid map for 'The Drowning City of Z'rlyeh' from the 'Depths of despair' patch.
Ainz leaned forward. The topography was identical. In Yggdrasil, that raid was where Touch Me farmed for his specialized World Champion cape upgrade materials.
Why is a Yggdrasil raid map here? Ainz wondered. Did the map materialize because Touch Me had it in his inventory when he was summoned? Did he drop it?
"The location corresponds to the Azure Expanse," Demiurge said, pulling down a large geographical map of the known world. "A territory claimed by the Sea Dragon Lord, supposedly. We have no intel on the underwater geography."
"A problem," Ainz stated, his voice deep. "Nazarick lacks naval projection."
"Correction," Demiurge stood up, his tail swishing. "Nazarick lacks conventional naval projection. However, I have already devised 'Operation Dry-Dock'."
Ainz felt a phantom headache approaching. "Explain."
"Simple physics, Ainz-sama. We do not need to sail if we remove the water."
The room went silent.
"Remove... the water?"
"Mare casts [Earthquake] to disrupt the seabed, creating volcanic vents. Cocytus freezes the steam. We effectively build an ice-bridge to the target location while simultaneously boiling the local fauna for harvest. The resulting ecological collapse will allow our undead armies to march along the seabed unhindered!"
Mare looked up from his fish book. "So... no fish?"
"Steamed fish, Mare," Demiurge corrected gently. "Millions of them. Efficient."
"Denied," Ainz said immediately.
"Eh?" Demiurge froze. "But... the resource yield..."
"We are searching for a Supreme Being," Ainz improvised rapidly. I can't just boil the ocean! What if Touch Me is living there peacefully with mermaids? He'll punch me! "If we destroy the ecosystem, we might destroy clues. Touch Me-sama was... fond of justice. Destroying an ocean is unjust."
"Ah!" Albedo clasped her hands, eyes shining. "Of course! Ainz-sama wishes to honor Touch Me's legacy by conquering the ocean with finesse rather than brute force. He wishes to show that he can dominate even the environment without destroying it!"
"Yes," Ainz lied. "That. Precisely."
"Then we need a ship," Shalltear said, bored. "I have a dullahan barge? But it leaks."
"No," Ainz raised his hand. "We will use the Great Tomb's vessel."
"We have a vessel?" Aura blinked.
"Not yet," Ainz stood up. "But I have the data."
He pointed at the map.
"We leave in three days. Select the expedition team. I want individuals with high water resistance and underwater maneuverability."
"I shall volunteer!" Albedo stepped forward aggressively.
"You have wings," Shalltear snipped. "Wet feathers smell like wet dog."
"I have the Ring of Water Breathing," Albedo countered, her smile sharpening into a sneer. "And unlike you, lamprey, I don't go into a blood frenzy the moment I see a shark bleed."
"Ainz-sama!" Shalltear whined. "Take me! I want to see the ocean!"
"Silence," Ainz commanded. "Sebas. You are the only one with aquatic transformation traits, correct?"
Ainz paused. He vaguely remembered Sebas's true form involved dragons, but he wasn't sure if it was a water dragon. Sebas had never shown his true form.
"Wait, Sebas is busy with the human integration," Ainz corrected himself. Actually, I just don't want Sebas seeing Touch Me if things go south. If Touch Me attacks us... Sebas will be conflicted.
"Albedo. You are Command."
"Cocytus. You are Security. Ice floats, after all."
"I will lead."
"And the ship?" Demiurge asked.
Ainz grinned—or the skull equivalent.
"We're going to steal one. A legend."
The Ghost Sea – Northwest of the Kingdom
Fog rolled over the grey waves.
This stretch of ocean was known to sailors as the Dead Man's Cut. Ships that entered rarely returned.
Today, a single figure stood on the surface of the water, thanks to a [Fly] spell kept just inches above the waves.
Ainz Ooal Gown.
Behind him hovered Albedo and Cocytus.
"Ainz-sama," Cocytus rumbled, vapor pouring from his mandibles. "This. Place. Feels. Like. A. Graveyard."
"It is," Ainz said. "The records from the captured Kingdom archives mention a 'Ghost Ship' that terrorized this coast for two hundred years. The Katze Plains have land undead. Here... we have the admirals."
"Are we to recruit it?" Albedo asked, hand resting on her axe.
"Subjugate it," Ainz corrected. "If it's just a generated undead, I can dominate it. If it's a phantom vessel... I have items for that."
He expanded his Undead Control aura.
"Come forth."
The fog churned.
Green lights appeared in the mist. Lanterns.
A massive prow broke through the cloud. It was a galleon, easily fifty meters long, made of rotting wood and bone. The sails were tattered shadows. Skeletal crewmen swarmed the decks.
At the helm stood a wraith captain, blue flames for eyes.
"LIVINGGG SOULSSS," the wraith hissed, the sound echoing like cracking timber. "TOOOO THE DEPTHSSS!"
It was an impressive Level 50 Legendary Undead. A scourge of the seas.
Ainz didn't even raise his staff.
"Kneel."
He projected his intent. Control Undead.
The calculation happened instantly.
Target Level: 50.
Caster Level: 100.
Result: Absolute Domination.
The blue flames in the captain's eyes flickered and turned crimson.
The skeletal crew dropped their cutlasses. They fell to their bony knees on the deck. The ship itself groaned, the wood bowing in submission.
"M-Master..." the captain rasped, his will overridden by the Overlord's code.
"Convenient," Ainz floated up to the quarterdeck, his boots touching the salty, rotten wood. "It's a bit small. But it has Ghost Drive. It can pass through solid matter?"
"Yes... Master..." the captain chattered.
"Albedo."
"Yes, Ainz-sama!"
Ainz swept his hand across the deck.
"Redecorate. This rotting aesthetic is depressing. Make it worthy of the Guild."
"Understood!" Albedo pulled out a massive scroll—a World Item creation blueprint? No, just a regular high-tier crafting schematic she had prepared. "I brought the black lacquer and gold trim! And the flags!"
Six hours later.
The ship no longer looked like a wreck. It was sleek, painted abyssal black with gold filigree. The sails were replaced with fresh black cloth bearing the crest of Ainz Ooal Gown.
Ainz named it The Last Light.
"Destination," Ainz commanded from the helm, feeling a brief flare of pirate-roleplay excitement. "Coordinate Alpha. The Deep South."
"We sail!" Albedo cheered, posing at the bow like a figurehead.
The Last Light turned south, accelerating to impossible speeds as its ghostly hull ignored water resistance completely.
Nazarick – 7th Floor – The Lava Pits
While the master went fishing, Demiurge remained behind to "manage the assets."
He stood overlooking a vat of bubbling lava where raw materials (Adamantite alloy) were being forged.
"Demiurge-sama," a subordinate demon bowed. "The 'happy' bipedal sheep are becoming... scarce. The expansion into the Theocracy provided many, but consumption is high."
"I know," Demiurge sighed. "War consumes resources."
He adjusted his glasses.
"However, I have heard interesting things about the Sea City. Merfolk. Naga. aquatic variants."
He smiled.
"I wonder... is their skin water-resistant? Scrolls made from them could perhaps withstand water magic. An unburnable, unwettable scroll..."
He picked up a quill.
"Send a message to Ainz-sama's shadow demons. Tell them to preserve any exotic corpses. For science."
"At once!"
Demiurge turned back to his workbench. On it lay the Bellriver Scythe (which he was studying, unaware it was the same one Albedo claimed to destroy? No, wait. Ainz had this item on the expedition. Demiurge had a sketch).
"Touch Me..." Demiurge mused. "If the World Champion returns... will he appreciate my farm?"
He frowned.
"I suspect not. Ainz-sama is merciful, but Touch Me was... rigid. Perhaps Albedo is right to worry."
He burned the sketch.
"If the Champion is alive... for the sake of Nazarick's unity, it might be best if he remained lost."
The Southern Ocean – Zone: The Azure Expanse
Two days of sailing. The Last Light cut through the waves like a phantom.
Ainz stood at the rail. The sea was beautiful—an endless sapphire desert. But Ainz hated it. Every wave looked like a mouth.
"Depth reading?" Ainz asked.
Cocytus, who was staring into the water with intensity, answered.
"FIVE. THOUSAND. METERS. WE. ARE. OVER. THE. TRENCH."
"The map indicates the entrance is here," Ainz checked the sharkskin chart. "A dimensional rifts underwater?"
Suddenly, the ship rocked violently.
The ocean surface exploded.
Tentacles. massive, translucent tentacles, each thicker than a castle tower, erupted from the deep.
"Enemy attack!" Albedo shouted, instantly equipping her armor Hermes Trismegistus.
Ainz analyzed quickly.
Giant Squid? Kraken? No. Bigger.
The tentacles reached for the ghost ship, but passed through the hull due to the Ghost Drive phase-shift ability.
"Phasing is holding!" Cocytus noted.
"Wait," Ainz squinted. "Those suction cups. They have eyes."
Thousands of eyes opened along the tentacles.
And then, a voice spoke inside Ainz's head.
PROXIMITY ALERT. SYSTEM INTRUSION DETECTED.
Ainz reeled. That wasn't a monster's voice. That was a System Announcement voice. The robotic default text-to-speech from Yggdrasil 1.0.
"Albedo! Do you hear that?"
"Hear what, Ainz-sama? I hear only the screaming of a filthy beast!"
Albedo leaped. "War Declaration!"
She swung Ginnungagap down. The world distorted. Gravity collapse hit one tentacle, shearing it off.
Blue blood rained down. It hissed like acid.
UNAUTHORIZED USER. ADMIN PRIVILEGES REVOKED. DEFENSE MODE ACTIVE.
The ocean began to boil.
From the depths, a shape rose. It was a city. A spire of white metal and pulsing blue light. It breached the surface, lifting the ocean with it.
It looked exactly like a futuristic Yggdrasil guild base. Sci-fi aesthetic.
Ainz stared at it.
"That's not fantasy," he whispered. "That's from the 'Valkyrie's Downfall' expansion. That's a seraphim outpost."
"A guild base?" Albedo landed back on the deck, wings flaring.
"No," Ainz said, the realization hitting him. "It's a dev room."
Wait, does the New World have developer rooms? Admin tools?
The spire rotated. A massive cannon aimed at the Last Light.
WARNING. INTRUDER: UNDEAD. PURGE IMMINENT.
"Shields!" Ainz shouted. "Everyone, stick to me!"
"Wall of Skeleton!"
"Greater Magic Shield!"
"Body of Effulgent Beryl!"
BZEEEWWWW.
The beam fired.
It wasn't magic. It was raw data deletion. A beam of white code.
It hit Ainz's shields.
The first three layers vanished instantly.
"What?!" Ainz panicked. "It bypasses damage reduction?!"
Albedo! Get in front! No, don't! You'll die!
"World Item!" Ainz screamed.
He activated the Red Orb in his chest again. World Items trumps all rules.
The red barrier flared. The white beam hit the red sphere. The sound was deafening—like the universe screaming in binary.
The ship groaned.
"Hold on!" Ainz roared, channeling his mana into the Orb. "Cocytus! Dive the ship! Get us underwater!"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Cocytus slammed the ghostly wheel. The Last Light tipped forward, plunging nose-first into the sea.
The beam passed over them, vaporizing the clouds for a hundred miles.
Underwater, the silence returned.
The ship, now submerged and intangible, sank toward the roots of the metal spire.
"Ainz-sama," Albedo gasped, clinging to his robe. "What was that? That power... it felt like the Longinus."
"It was admin code," Ainz whispered to himself. "Erasure."
He looked at the spire.
The lights on the metal tower were pulsing a rhythmic code.
... - - - ...
SOS.
"Morse code," Ainz recognized it from his human life. "Someone is signaling for help."
"It says SOS," Ainz told them.
"Soos?" Cocytus tilted his head.
"Save Our Souls," Ainz translated grimly. "We aren't attacking a monster, Guardians. We're raiding a lifeboat."
He looked at the bottom of the structure.
There, frozen in amber-like magical stasis, was a figure.
A suit of silver insectoid armor. A white cape. A shield with a cross.
Touch Me.
He was floating outside the spire, trapped in the ice, looking like a fly caught in a web.
"Lord Touch Me!" Albedo shouted, her acting pitch-perfect, masking the killing intent spike that Ainz missed because he was too busy staring.
"He's there," Ainz felt a relief so profound he almost deactivated his passive buffs. "He's really there."
But then, Ainz saw what was holding Touch Me.
It wasn't ice.
It was a giant, translucent hand. And attached to that hand was a being sleeping in the silt of the trench floor.
A creature with forty eyes and wings of starry night.
The entity Tsaindorcus had called "The Sleeper."
Yggdrasil Boss: The Stellar Embryo. Level 100 Raid Boss.
"He's not hiding," Ainz realized, horror dawning. "He's lunch."
"Guardians," Ainz whispered. "Condition Red."
"We aren't here for a reunion."
Ainz gripped his staff.
"We're here for a boss fight."
Cliffhanger: The thing wakes up.
The forty eyes of the Stellar Embryo opened. They were all looking at Ainz.
A psychic wave hit the crew.
MOTHER?
The voice echoed in their minds. Innocent. Curious. Hungry.
MOTHER HAS RETURNED?
It looked at Ainz's dark aura.
NO. NOT MOTHER.
FOOD.