The ocean didn't just feel heavy; it felt personal.
Five thousand meters down, the pressure was enough to crush a steel tank into a marble. Inside the ghost field of The Last Light, the physics were negated, but the psychological weight remained.
The Stellar Embryo loomed over them. It wasn't a biological creature—not entirely. It looked like someone had sewn a nebula into the shape of a deep-sea abortion. Forty eyes, burning with blue fury, rotated independently in a mass of translucent jelly and stardust.
FOOD.
The psychic scream shattered the windows of the captain's cabin.
"Deploy!" Ainz shouted, abandoning dignity for volume.
Cocytus was the first to move. He leaped from the ghostly deck, passing through the phase-shield and into the crushing black water.
"Ice King's Breath!"
A torrent of white death erupted from Cocytus's mandibles. In the air, this would be a mist. Down here, at this pressure, it was instant solidification. A massive glacier formed around the Embryo's lower tentacles, locking them in jagged crystal.
SCREEEEEE.
The Embryo didn't care. The "stardust" in its flesh flared. The ice simply evaporated. Not melted—deleted.
"Space manipulation," Albedo noted, drawing her axe Ginnungagap in its true world-shattering form. "Ainz-sama! It creates vacuums to negate thermal attacks!"
"I see it!" Ainz lied.
Internal Monologue: I don't see anything! The water is too murky! Why didn't I prepare underwater vision gear? I'm undead, I don't have eyeballs, this should be fine! Ah, wait, [Life Essence] and [Mana Essence].
He cast the sensory spells.
The Embryo lit up like a Christmas tree in his vision.
HP: 100%.
MP: Infinite (Environment Source).
Race: World Disaster Class (Wild Magic Variant).
"It's drawing mana from the thermal vents!" Ainz deduced. "Cocytus! Stop attacking the body! Freeze the floor! Cut off the food supply!"
"ACKNOWLEDGED!"
Cocytus dove deeper, his four arms creating a blur as he engaged the seabed itself, turning the volcanic vents into ice plugs.
The Embryo shrieked, annoyed. One of its massive, starry wings swept toward the ship.
"Albedo!"
"My turn!" Albedo laughed, a sound that bubbled strangely in the water.
She kicked off the mast. In the water, her heavy armor Hermes Trismegistus should have been an anchor. But Albedo's stats laughed at hydrodynamics. She was a torpedo in a dress.
Skill: Aegis of the Demon.
She slammed her axe into the incoming wing.
BOOM.
The shockwave parted the ocean for a split second, creating a cavitation bubble the size of a stadium. The wing recoiled, black ichor bleeding into the water.
"Protecting the Supreme One makes me wet!" Albedo screamed—a line Ainz desperately hoped was due to the ocean and not the situation.
Okay, tank and DPS are active. What do I do?
Ainz stood on the prow. He looked at the Spire. At the figure frozen in the amber-ice, clutched in the Embryo's other claw.
Touch Me.
The silver armor was motionless. The white cape floated sluggishly in the current.
I have to free him without hitting him, Ainz realized. AOE magic is out. The Super Tier spell 'Falling Down' would boil him alive.
"Option B," Ainz muttered. "Necromancy."
"Summon High-Tier Undead: [Abyssal lord]!"
The water darkened. A rift opened, and a creature resembling a skeletal whale composed of drowned corpses pulled itself into reality.
"Eat the hand!" Ainz pointed. "Do not swallow the prize!"
The Abyssal Lord roared and charged.
The Stellar Embryo noticed the distraction. Three eyes swiveled toward Ainz.
ADMIN PRIVILEGE NOT FOUND.
INITIATING DATA PURGE.
The stars inside its body aligned. A beam of white light—the same code-deletion laser that had nearly sunk them earlier—began to charge in its central eye.
"Bad," Ainz whispered. "Very bad."
"Master!" The Ghost Captain hissed from the helm. "The hull cannot take a direct hit! The phantom matrix will dissolve!"
"Turn the ship!" Ainz commanded.
"Too late!"
Ainz stepped onto the railing.
If he couldn't dodge, and he couldn't block...
"Mirror of Remote Viewing!" Ainz shouted, pulling a totally unrelated item from his inventory. "Create sensor!"
He threw the mirror into the path of the beam.
"Draconic Spell: [Obsidian Wall]!"
"Tier Magic: [Maximize Magic: Shining Burst]!"
He was improvising. Creating layers of "trash" data in the path of the beam. Mirrors, light, physical rocks from his inventory.
The white beam fired.
It hit the debris.
DELETE.
DELETE.
DELETE.
It ate through the rock. Through the light. Through the mirror.
But the sheer volume of "garbage data" Ainz threw—he literally dumped a bag of gold coins into the water—slowed the processing speed of the beam.
It dissipated ten meters from the ship's bow.
"Money solves everything!" Ainz shouted in relief. "Keep firing coins!"
He activated his inventory and started dumping literal tons of gold currency into the path of the attacks. It was the most expensive shield in history, but gold coins counted as physical entities with separate item IDs, clogging the deletion algorithm.
"Albedo! Now!"
Albedo saw the opening. The boss was "lagging."
She shot toward the hand holding Touch Me.
Internal thought: Oops. My aim is slipping.
She swung her axe not at the wrist, but at the ice block itself.
"Rescuing!" she gritted out through clenched teeth.
Her plan: Shatter the ice. "Accidentally" cleave the dormant Player in half. Cry about it later.
CLANG.
The axe hit the amber.
It didn't break. It bounced.
"What?" Albedo's eyes widened. "It... parried?"
From within the amber, the figure of Touch Me moved.
The silver arm twitched faster than thought. A shield raised. A flash of light blocked a Divine-class weapon strike.
The ice cracked, shattering outward.
Touch Me burst free.
But he didn't help.
He spun in the water, his cape flaring. His helmet visor glowed a hostile, burning red.
System Alert: Defense Protocol Omega engaged.
Touch Me—or whatever this was—drew a sword.
"Identify," Ainz cast quickly, his heart nearly stopping.
Analysis:
Name: Sentinels Mark IV (Skin: Justice Champion)
Level: 85.
Type: Automaton / Doppelganger hybrid.
It wasn't Touch Me. It was a security bot wearing his texture.
"It's a fake!" Ainz shouted, relief washing over him so hard he almost cried. "Guardians! It's a lure! Destroy it!"
Albedo's expression shifted from murderous disappointment to murderous joy.
"A fake?" she purred, stabilizing herself in the water. "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried I hit Lord Touch Me."
She grinned.
"Now I can really swing."
The Abyss – 30 Seconds Later
The battle turned from a rescue mission to a scrapyard brawl.
The "Touch Me" bot was fast—it had the World Champion's moveset downloaded—but it lacked the gear stats.
Cocytus, freed from ice duty, intercepted it.
"A. MOCKERY. OF. A. SUPREME. BEING?" Cocytus rumbled, his four swords engaging the single blade of the Sentinel. "UNFORGIVABLE."
Sparks flew in the water. The Sentinel fought with perfect algorithms, parrying, dodging. But Cocytus fought with anger.
"Breath of Frost!"
Cocytus caught the bot's sword in one hand, ignoring the damage, and breathed directly onto its helm.
The metal froze, becoming brittle.
"Smash."
He headbutted it. The bot's head shattered like glass.
Meanwhile, the Stellar Embryo was losing patience.
ERROR. BAIT FAILED.
ESCALATING TO PHASE 2.
The spire behind it began to rumble. The "Dev Room" was activating its final protocol. Self-Destruct? No.
The metal walls of the underwater tower opened.
Swarms.
Millions of small, metallic fish—no, drones—poured out. They moved like a liquid silver cloud, swirling around the Stellar Embryo, latching onto it, forming armor.
"It's upgrading mid-fight?" Ainz groaned. "That is such a bullshit mechanic!"
"Ainz-sama!" The Ghost Captain pointed a skeletal finger. "Above! The water surface! Something is piercing the ocean!"
Ainz looked up. Through the dark water, he saw light. Not sunlight.
Lightning.
A massive bolt of electricity pierced five thousand meters of water, turning the surrounding sea into an electrified death trap.
The conduction shock hit everyone.
Ainz's Lightning Resistance IV negated it.
Albedo shrugged it off.
Cocytus twitched.
But the drones? They fried. The Embryo shrieked as its new armor short-circuited.
"Who?" Ainz spun around.
Descending from the surface wasn't a spell. It was a Dive.
A dragon. A long, serpentine dragon with scales of iridescent blue and a mane of storms.
The Sea Dragon Lord.
But he wasn't attacking Ainz. He was slamming his massive body directly into the Stellar Embryo.
CRUNCH.
The two leviathans collided, creating a shockwave that threw the Ghost Ship tumbling backward.
A voice, booming and regal, echoed in the water.
THE ABERRATION IS MINE, UNDEAD! STAY OUT OF MY GARDEN!
The Sea Dragon Lord bit into the nebula-flesh of the Embryo. Wild Magic flared—Tidal Bore. The water pressure localized around the Embryo increased a thousandfold.
The Embryo imploded.
Its starry flesh compressed into a singular point of light, then winked out. Deleted by crushing reality.
The swarm of drones went inert, drifting like metal confetti.
Silence returned to the abyss.
Ainz gripped the railing of his upside-down ship.
Okay. New player entered the chat. Sea Dragon Lord. Is he friendly? Hostile?
The Dragon Lord coiled his long body, floating in the dark. He was easily two hundred meters long. His eyes were the color of typhoons.
He looked at the wreckage of the fake Touch Me. Then at Albedo. Then at Ainz.
You, the Dragon Lord growled, bubbles escaping his jaws. You carry the stench of the Greed Kings. But... you saved my coral beds.
"Coral beds?" Ainz asked, tilting his head.
That Thing, the Dragon gestured with a claw to the empty space where the Embryo was. It eats thermal energy. It was killing the reef. I have been hunting it for a century.
The Dragon Lord narrowed his eyes.
Why is an Overlord cleaning up my ocean?
Ainz straightened his robe (which floated awkwardly in the water). He needed to posture.
"We were... conducting a pest control exercise," Ainz said grandly. "The noise was keeping me awake. I prefer my oceans quiet."
The Sea Dragon Lord stared.
Then, unexpectedly, he threw his head back and laughed. A booming sound that vibrated the hull.
Arrogant. I like that. The Platinum Fool told me you were a monster who eats children. He didn't mention you had a sense of humor.
The dragon swam closer, shrinking his form using Wild Magic until he was a (relatively) compact twenty meters long.
I am the Lord of the Azure Expanse. Name yourself, Bone Man.
"Ainz Ooal Gown."
Ainz... Ooal... Gown. The dragon tested the name. I assume you are looking for the metal man? The one that thing was copying?
Ainz froze. "You know of the original?"
I know of a knight in silver who fell from the sky two centuries ago, the Dragon nodded. He fought the 'Gods' who lived in this metal tower. He destroyed them. And then...
"And then?"
Then he walked into the Great Rift. Deeper down. Where the water turns to oil.
The Dragon pointed a claw downward, into a crevasse even deeper than the trench.
He went to find the cure, the Dragon whispered. But no one returns from the Rift. Not even Dragons.
Ainz looked at the crevasse. It was pure blackness. Touch Me went there? To find a cure? For what? The Curse of the Players? Being transported?
"Will you stop me if I go?" Ainz asked.
The Sea Dragon Lord grinned, revealing rows of razor teeth.
Stop you? No. The Rift is filled with things older than Wild Magic. If you want to die, be my guest. I'll eat your bones when they float back up.
"Charming," Albedo stepped in front of Ainz, radiating malice. "Speak to him with respect, calamari, or I will turn you into sushi."
Hah! Try it, succubus.
"Enough," Ainz raised his hand. "We have what we came for. Information."
He bowed slightly to the dragon—a peer-to-peer acknowledgement.
"Thank you for the assist, Sea Lord. If you ever need... high-quality fertilizer... contact my subordinate, Demiurge."
Go away, Skeleton, the Dragon dismissed them, swimming toward his coral. Before I remember that I hate Undead.
Ainz turned to his crew.
"Helm! Surface! Emergency ballast blow!"
As the Last Light rocketed toward the surface, leaving the horrors of the deep behind, Ainz held the shattered helmet of the "Touch Me" bot.
Two hundred years ago, Ainz thought. The timeline matches. The 13 Heroes era? Or before? If he went into the Rift...
He felt a headache coming on.
Satoru Suzuki Logic: Touch Me is dead. He walked into a death trap 200 years ago. He's gone.
Ainz Ooal Gown Heart: He's waiting. A World Champion doesn't die to environmental hazards.
He looked at the helmet.
"Cure," Ainz whispered. "What were you trying to cure, old friend?"
Interlude: The Spy in the Walls
Back in Nazarick, the tension was subtle but growing.
Demiurge sat in his office, reading a report from the Doppelgangers stationed in the Holy Kingdom.
"Renner is requesting more 'tea parties' with the Area Guardians," he muttered. "She is integrating too fast."
He didn't trust the Golden Princess. She was a demon now, yes. But her intelligence... it rivaled his own. And her loyalty was to Climb, not Ainz. As long as Ainz protected Climb, she was loyal. But that was a transaction, not faith.
The door knocked.
"Enter."
A low-ranking homunculus maid entered. But something was off about her walk. It was too precise.
"Demiurge-sama," the maid spoke with a voice that was clearly layered.
Demiurge adjusted his glasses. "Which one are you?"
The maid smiled. "I am Faceless One #4. Reporting from the Kingdom of Re-Estize remnants."
"Report."
"We found... something." The Doppelganger placed a box on the desk. "Excavated from under the ruins of the Royal Capital. Where Jaldabaoth fought Momon."
Demiurge opened the box.
Inside was a shard of crystal. Dark violet. Pulsing with negative energy.
"Is this..." Demiurge narrowed his eyes.
"It is a fragment of the item used to summon the Evil Lords," the Doppelganger said. "But look closely at the fracture."
Demiurge peered at it.
The break was clean. Too clean.
"This was cut," Demiurge realized. "By a World Item."
"We believe," the spy whispered, "that during your battle with the adventurer Momon... someone else was watching. Someone stealthy. They tried to steal the summoning crystal."
"Who?"
"We found a single footprint in the dust. A footprint of a boot with a logo."
The Doppelganger produced a sketch.
It was a smiley face. With a dagger through it.
Demiurge stood up so fast his chair fell over.
"Seraphim?" he hissed. "The Seraphim Guild?"
The angelic guild. Ainz Ooal Gown's rivals. The "Good Guys" who pk'd hetromorphic races on sight.
"Are they here?" Demiurge asked, his voice shaking with a mix of fear and sadistic thrill.
"We don't know. But the footprint... it was fresh."
Demiurge walked to the window. He looked out at the dark sky of the 7th Floor.
"If the Angels are here," he whispered, grinning until his face threatened to split. "Then the script needs a rewrite."
He picked up a communication scroll.
"Connect me to Albedo immediately. We may have a pest problem worse than Dragons."