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Overlord of biblical proportions: The new Three-Sided War (12)
🕑 Added 2024-06-02 22:23:20 +0000 UTCMomonga never had a love for dancing. It's not that he was a complete klutz and couldn't learn to dance, it's just that up until this point, Momonga didn't really have a use for this knowledge. After all, did he have many reasons to dance before now?
However, when Momonga found out that by learning it he could postpone going to school, Momonga became acutely interested in the noble art of dance. To be more precise, the victory dance.
All these worries about school, lessons, classes and missed hours suddenly evaporated when Momonga found out that Albedo had gone behind his back to negotiate with the school principal. And not only did she manage to recruit him as her agent, which in itself was already great, but when he had found out that she also achieved the miracle where he did not have to attend school classes?
For these actions, Momonga almost kissed Albedo… Almost, simply because he has too much work to spend in bed, which would inevitably happen should he have kissed the Succubus.
Although, perhaps, he should still give her a gift for such an accomplishment…
But if he did that, then he would have to give a gift to Shalltear too, right? Momonga absolutely did not want to play ‘favorites’ after he decided that he should treat his harem equally and not cause competition and resentment among them… And Shalltear did accomplish her mission, so he could also give her a reward.
On the other hand, what exactly could he give Albedo as a present?
And Shalltear too, of course. The youkai she had delivered had already been processed by Demiurge and were now awaiting their fate, locked up on the fifth floor… More precisely, their bodies.
Unfortunately, Momonga could not just let them go freely after they had seen Nazarick, after he determined that such an information should be kept in complete secrecy.
"Hmm, this is what people go on dates for, right? To find out what exactly the other person likes…" Momonga sighed, pondering, frowning about Albedo and Shalltear.
"I am absolutely certain that if I say I want to reward them, they will definitely…"
Momonga paused for a moment, he could vividly imagine the girl saying something like ‘we don't need anything, Lord Momonga, just to serve you further’.
“Actually, no, that's what Demiurge would say… But not Albedo and Shalltear, especially now that they are in a relationship. Ah, there’s that.”
Knowing their character, Momonga was definitely sure that they would not be at all against a reward in the form of sex…
Thinking about such a possibility, a shiver traveled through his spine.
Knowing Shalltear's endless list of fetishes and Albedo's heavy love for him, Momonga wasn't even sure if he wanted to know what kind of sexual activity they would choose as a reward. He wondered if he could even perform adequately…
"Hmm, in that case… Yes, definitely, a date would be necessary, if only to establish boundaries. Seeing that I just got freed from school for the near future and with the demons leaving the city for some reason, I got time for a short break. A time that could be spent on dates with the girls."
Momonga nodded to himself, seeing the wisdom in such a decision, even a niggling uncertainty still bothered him.
"Although… I would prefer to do something more productive. Maybe something like reading and investigating the information about Kyoto and the youkai of Japan…? But at the same time, can't a date with the girls be called special actions to maintain order and give rewards to my subordinates? It can be said that this is also part of my job…"
Momonga pondered about it for a moment, inevitably drawing a parallel between himself and the disgusting bosses from his past who spent all their free time with women and used company money for gifts, after which he shook his head.
"This is different, right? I’m not sexually harassing my subordinates or using company money for frivolous purposes, it could even be said that it was business expenses! Even if it felt like the same thing… Ahem! Well, perhaps a date would be the wrong reward, but if so, then how can I reward Albedo and Shalltear? Or should I take the path of least resistance and just reward them… With sex?"
Momonga had greatly enjoyed the sexual encounter he had with Albedo and Shalltear, and he was generally not averse to a repeat performance. Especially if Albedo and Shalltear themselves would be happy with it, he did want to reward them for a job well done.
However, for some reason… The thought of rewarding his subordinates in such a way brought an image of himself dressed in black latex, standing over dozens of girls who were in chains, in the throes of passion reaching out to him…
No matter how his flesh-body reacted to such an image, it was not a future that he wanted.
"Umu" A flash of Emotion Suppression flowed through him before Momonga could unravel the complex tangle of emotion he was feeling at that moment. Momonga breathed a sigh of relief, and thanked his lucky stars that whatever emotion he had felt at that moment, was drowned out.
He did not plan to open up new fetishes in himself until he at least sorted out the old ones -
"Peroroncino… I'm not sure exactly how, but for some reason I believe you are the one to blame for this!"
Momonga could practically swear that from the very moment he decided to have relationships with the girls, the invisible spirit of Peroroncino was currently circling over him, alternately transmitting to him two thoughts. ‘I'm so proud of you!’ and ‘Why couldn't I be in your place, damn you, it should have been me!’, it was a tricky emotion to parse out for sure…
For a moment, Momonga imagined Peroroncino's bodiless spirit circling around him, after which he dispelled it, deciding to return to the question of his own sexual adventures and relationships with girls a little later. That is, after he dealt with the information more important for his immediate plans. The captured fallen angels and youkai provided a lot of it, after all.
Some of the information, of course, Momonga already knew, and Demiurge did everything possible to ensure that the information obtained from the captured targets was as complete, accurate and truthful as possible. So, Momonga was confident that the captives did not and could not lie, so he didn’t need to worry about that as he perused the documents filled to the brim with the result of that interrogation.
In addition, Demiurge himself added a lot of additional thoughts and conclusions to his observations, which greatly simplified Momonga's work, Thoughts and conclusions, for example, about the current major players in this world.
For instance, the Great Red Dragon, which the locals simply called the Great Red, was one of the most powerful beings of the modern world. A Dragon that he had already defeated and consumed, which calmed Momonga’s paranoia a little, but at the same time made him question the locals’ assessment of the Dragon.
Yes, this Great Red was definitely stronger, much stronger, than a level 100 player, if not for his [Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown], his full set of [Divine Class] items and his [World Class Item], Momonga would not have been able to win the battle with him. However, it was the Great Red's enormous power that ultimately destroyed him. The Dragon had possessed immense strength, but did not know how to use it correctly or effectively, at least not to the level that Momonga did.
The fact that the Dragon had initiated combat with Momonga without knowing any information about him, or even preparing any special defenses, had spelled the Dragon’s doom.
If the Great Red had combat experience comparable to Momonga's, which was not too impressive compared to some gods fighting for millennia that he suspects the gods of this world have. But, it still consisted of twelve years of continuous battles with creatures of equal level of power. It was, after all, Momonga’s constant honing of his own abilities and tactics that had allowed him to fight above his weight class that a Role-play build should have limited him to.
If the Great Red had any battle experience at all, then even all of Momonga's abilities would not have helped him defeat such an opponent in battle… At least alone. He would most likely need the help of Nazarick or at least to use a [World Class Item] to defeat the Dragon.
He had faced World Class Enemies before, so he already has experience fighting enemies that are much stronger than him, and even equipped with the powers of AI behind their strategic skill.
Of course, Momonga would have won in the end, but even so, he still had to take into account that such creatures in this world, enemies that greatly overpower him. But, before his paranoia could rear its ugly head again, fortunately, as the captives told him, such a creature was extremely rare.
In fact, the only one who was comparable in strength to the Great Red was the Dragon of Infinity, Ophis – the Ouroboros…
The name of the Dragon evokes thoughts of the [World Class Item] of the same name in Momonga, causing him to tense up for a second before deciding that it was most likely a coincidence. But he still decided to take a closer look at Ophis.
Even if her combat experience was even lower than that of the Great Red, if the information that Ophis had lost a fight against the Great Red was true at least, the existence of a creature with a level of power exceeding the 100th level was definitely important information for Nazarick… And if Momonga fails to take her under its control, then she was too dangerous to be allowed to exist freely.
Especially considering the information that the Infinite Dragon had created an organization full of powerful creatures under her. The Khaos Brigade… or is it the Chaos Brigade?
“Hmm, is this a typo? What a weird place to have such a thing. Just need to correct it… There we go, the ‘Chaos Brigade’, quite the interesting name for an organization that wanted to keep themselves secret.”
Luckily for Momonga, as it turned out, one of the criminals from Kyoto did some business with the Chaos Brigade, an organization that Ophis had assembled in order to defeat the Great Red… And this made Momonga worry because there was no Great Red in the Dimensional Gap, and that's where Nazarick was located.
And the fact that Ophis was right now gathering a whole army to invade the Dimensional Gap, therefore basically reaching the doorstep of Nazarick itself… Did not please Momonga at all.
According to the gathered information, Ophis' organization was extremely fragmented and most of it joined Ophis only nominally, pursuing their own goals, so the invasion might not happen at all. But Momonga could not take that risk.
The organization still existed and was quite large, containing a large number of fairly strong individuals. Strong mostly by the standards of this world, but even with Nazarick’s defenses, Momonga could not simply dismiss their threat, especially when he lacked the information about what force the Chaos Brigade could bring to bear.
In the past, the Great Tomb of Nazarick had successfully withstood the largest raid in the history of Yggdrasil, a thousand and five hundred participants had invaded, and they never broke through beyond the Eighth Floor,
But this did not mean that Momonga wanted a repeat performance. Especially considering how many resources he would need to spend on restoring Nazarick to full preparedness again, the cost of reviving alone…
“Ah, yeah, gathering information on the Chaos Brigade needed to be put in the highest priority.” The possible cost of life was too much, and especially since he hasn’t ascertained for sure if the denizens of Nazarick could be revived, just like in Yggdrasil.
And lastly, such a large conflict would definitely reveal the presence of Nazarick to the world, which Momonga would like to avoid for as long as possible.
However, according to Demiurge's analysis, there was no reason to panic at the moment. Although Nigredo had just finished inspecting the other worlds and the other factions, Demiurge had already determined that the Chaos Brigade’s organization is… Well, to call it split, would be like calling the ocean wet, filled with factions that hated each other and pursuing disparate goals, the only reason that it hasn’t imploded on itself was because of Ophis.
In fact, Ophis was less a leader and more of a cash cow that the factions wanted to use for their own ends. The factions within the Brigade have their own leadership structures that don't intersect with Ophis very much. Ophis, in turn, either allowed them such an attitude towards herself, or, which was much more likely from Demiurge's point of view, simply did not understand the current situation.
Demiurge himself could not speak confidently, however, about why exactly such a situation had developed, but he saw the most likely reason as the same reason why the Great Red had lost so easily… An evaluation that Momonga pretty much had to force out of the Demon, as Demiurge simply regarded the Dragon losing to the Supreme Being as something to be expected.
‘I had to couch the question in so many hypotheticals that I even got lost on what I am asking about mid-way!’
Lack of practice with their own power, and lack of battle tactics, were traits shared by the two Dragons, even worse for the Infinite Dragon, she was extremely lacking in social skills and the ability to judge people’s intentions. Having spent her entire life since the start of creation, alone in the Dimensional Gap before being kicked out by the Great Red, Ophis was insanely weak to social warfare… Or just basic social battles, or manipulations.
In other words, manipulating her was as easy as doing so to a three-year-old child who had just learned their first words.
As a result, even if Momonga had decided to completely forget about the Chaos Brigade, there’s a great chance that everything would be alright.
There was more than a good chance that the Chaos Brigade would never venture into the Dimensional Gap to complete Ophis’ goal.
After all, such a thing was not to the interest of any of the members of the Chaos Brigade, except for Ophis herself. After all, even if they did accomplish Ophis’ mission, killing the already dead Great Red, not that the member of the Chaos Brigade knows that, would mean the end of their patronage to the Dragon of Infinity. Which is the last thing they want.
But Momonga was not the kind of person who left the safety of himself and the things he cared about, to the mercy of fate. Even if the number of level 100 opponents in this whole world was relatively small, every one of them a source of danger, any possible invasion, a possible disclosure of information about Nazarick.
No, leaving anything to chance, or worse, a sheltered girl’s understanding of her situation, was beyond foolish.
That was why Demiurge's message came just in time. After all, according to the information Demiurge had managed to gather, the Chaos Brigade, or more like Ophis, was trying to gather as many combatants under her wing as possible, regardless of their motivation or nature.
She has taken the foolish, if only in Momonga’s opinion, in trying to replace quality with quantity, to try to bridge the gap of strength she has with the Great Red by recruiting as many people as she could. All it takes to join, was to give a verbal agreement to someday help Ophis with the killing of the Great Red, not even a contract or a magical geas, a verbal agreement. Not even one where the recruit needed to swear oaths or anything binding in any way, it was basically a glorified pinky promise.
If there’s anything that exemplifies the Dragon’s sheltered nature, then such a haphazard, and barely functioning recruitment practice, was number one amongst the many other examples.
Worse, Ophis herself was only too happy to shower the new recruits with abilities and enhancements. If there was any silver lining in Ophis’ practice of recruitment, is that she is quite proficient in talent scouting, approaching everyone with notable strength for recruitment. It was something that Momonga could at least respect the Dragon for, scouting for talent is not easy after all.
Now, if only she could learn the least amount of discernment in her recruiting effort, then Momonga would have a better opinion of the dragon. Alas, the only reason that the Chaos Brigade isn’t filled to the brim with spies, is both because of the scattered nature of its faction, planting a spy in one of them would only mean gaining information about one part of the Chaos Brigade. And seeing that all the factions have different goals, it wouldn’t give any information about the general state of affairs of the Chaos Brigade.
And the second reason is because, well, why bother sending spies?
It was not like Ophis was hiding her intentions or goals. The only one that would have any incentive in sending spies on the nonexistent progress of the Chaos Brigade in defeating the Great Red, is the dragon in question itself. And the Great Red, if he was not already dead, is somehow even worse than Ophis in regard to caring about the outside world. As the unchallenged strongest has no need for duplicitous tactics like espionage or traps…
The political squabbles of other worlds and factions were of absolutely no interest to the two Dragon Gods.
To deal with the Chaos Brigade, Demiurge's proposal was very simple.
Infiltration with a spy, or better yet, several at once, get close to the disparate factions, and if at all possible, gain influence on Ophis herself. Ophis certainly had not the slightest desire to intervene in the squabbles of other worlds, and was too strong for any other faction to cope with her in case their espionage efforts were found out… That is, except for Nazarick.
Nazarick was strong enough, and very much an unknown, that he could take the risk and try to influence Ophis, and if necessary, destroy her. Ophis, like her organization, could not remain free or without watchers, as an excessively dangerous external factor in any long-term plans.
And if her elimination became necessary, in any of the ways, the remnants of the Chaos Brigade, those that do not tear each other apart immediately at least, will become easy prey for Nazarick.
However, if that was the plan for the Chaos Brigade… Who could Momonga send on such a dangerous mission? Ophis after all, despite her naïveté, was still someone dangerous, but Momonga couldn’t send someone especially powerful either.
According to Demiurge, although level 100 creatures were not unheard of, they were a rarity, existences that are carefully monitored in this world by all the players. And, even if Ophis would not have any question about her ‘lucky’ find, if Momonga were to send anyone powerful, their identity would definitely be found out by the other Factions.
And with Momonga’s presence already noted by the Demons… The appearance of someone so powerful so close to Momonga making an appearance, might draw some uncomfortable attention, or worse questions about the possible connections Momonga might have with the ‘new’ arrival.
So Momonga could not send a level 100th NPC on this mission… At least not without having them hiding their real strength.
“Actually yeah, that would be the best course of action, sending anyone weaker would only mean that they wouldn’t be able to do anything should an emergency arise after all. But who to send? At least there’s already a premade disguise available?”
Nigredo and Demiurge's research had determined that there were hundreds of worlds, dimensions really, existing adjacent to each other. Most of which, however, were much smaller than even Kuoh. They were the seat of power of ancient extinct religions, preserved exclusively in the form of half-forgotten gods who simply missed the right time to die, deprived of followers, territories, and their holy places, all degraded. Because of which, these once powerful gods of these relics rarely exceeded level 60, some even falling to level 50 and even 40.
That is, even by the standards of this world, they were very insignificant. The leader of the Fallen Angels, their ‘cadre’, the highest-ranking fallen angels, the ones that still live anyway, were of level 60 and above. And so calling these dead religions’ gods as gods was already a big stretch.
Still, strictly speaking, they are not completely powerless, but in the grand scheme of things they were not players, but at best ‘factors’ or ‘roadblocks’ to be taken into account just for thoroughness’ sake. And not the most significant ones at that.
Demiurge had already outlined a plan that would make use of these forgotten religions to increase Nazarick’s influence on the world. Sure, they were weak and disunited, but together they still carried potential both as agents and as a source of unique artifacts and knowledge about the new world.
Momonga supported Demiurge with his full enthusiasm.
Even if these forgotten religions’ effectiveness was small and ineffective, for a collector like Momonga, ‘old and no longer revered’ meant that these forgotten religions were rare specimens! Unique, discontinued and the most limited of limited editions, things that are utterly unique for his collection!
After all, a collector does not strive for their collection to be the most ‘effective’, but to be the most unique and rare of them all. What true collector could refuse a unique lot just because it was ‘ineffective’!?
Moreover, there were a literal uncountable number of them, religions come and go in the long history of mankind, no one would notice their disappearance, and they were easy enough to subdue.
And to go back to Momonga’s previous thought, these dead religions, with a pantheon of dead gods, forgotten by all, made the perfect identity to be used as a disguise to spy on the Chaos Brigade!
Sure, Ophis might be old enough to actually remember them all, but Momonga doubts that the Dragon of Infinity would ever bother doing that.
Demiurge had already forwarded to Momonga a whole plan for the formation of his own faction of ‘Old Gods’, which Momonga tried his best to read… Only to get lost on the first page of the document when he tried to pronounce all the names of the identity that Demiurge had listed in his notes with their assigned duties.
The Demon had even created small notes and dossiers on how each identity should act and how to best infiltrate using the information collected by Nigredo. In any case, even if Momonga was ready to spend all his free time reading the thick tome that calls itself a document, Demiurge clearly already understood such matters much better than Momonga himself could.
So, Momonga agreed, with a clear conscience, even when he hadn’t read the document, of Demiurge's proposal and his plan.
In any case, Demiurge carefully selected forgotten religions in whose ranks there was no one of level 70 and above left. Weak enough for the religion to be controlled by relatively small forces of Nazarick, and during the implementation of Demiurge's plan itself, determine with whom of them in the future Nazarick could ‘cooperate’ with, and who represented too unreliable partners.
Moreover, it was among such ‘insignificant’ religions that a perfect infiltration agent could be made to contact the Chaos Brigade, or more likely, Ophis herself. A ‘Level 70’ NPC would not attract too much attention from the other Factions, after all it would make sense for even a ‘dead’ religion to still have their strongest champions, as weakened as the religion might be. And a level 70 could insert themselves into the Chaos Brigade and be strong enough to acquire Ophis’ attention. Strong enough that the spy could be given the same carte blanche treatment the other strong people in the Chaos Brigade have, and be able to create its own faction.
In any case, the question of whom to send to spy in the Chaos Brigade was still paramount.
Albedo and Demiurge are definitely unavailable. Demiurge is the architect of the whole plan of creating a false faction, Momonga would definitely need his help to manage the whole thing, he couldn’t even get through the first page of the plan. While Albedo is the manager of the church and Momonga's growing monetary business.
Shalltear is… Snrk, he couldn’t even entertain the idea. Sending her to anything that Momonga didn’t want destroyed is a fool’s errand. Even her recent success in Kyoto was reliant on the fact that she technically didn’t have much restriction in how she would accomplish her mission. To have her be in a position where she couldn’t just destroy everything, or worse, having to hold her tongues should anyone hurl insults at her? No, just no, espionage was the last thing that he wanted to send Shalltear on. And well, she did deserve a break for a job well done.
There’s Cocytus? Who could fit in theory, however he is too eye-catching, and Demiurge has already noted that among the old forgotten religions there is unlikely to be anyone that Cocytus could disguise himself as. After all, a gigantic ice bug is too ‘unique’ of an appearance to make do with a poor disguise.
Sebas on the other hand fits better. Demiurge had found something similar to Sebas’ identity as a dragonoid in the dragons of Sanamahism… However, there’s a huge demerit in taking on this particular religion’s mantle, as the old religion was in contact with the Indian pantheon, which was very active, and would definitely notice the substitution.
Pandora's Actor would be the perfect choice, as with there being no longer any need of him to play the part of Issei now that the school is under Nazarick’s control, with the Principal of Kuoh Academy joining Nazarick. Using him as the nominal leader of a new faction in the Chaos Brigade… It was possible, but not necessary if there were other options, Pandora's Actor was too valuable for him to be used as the first choice.
He was the perfect silver bullet for any infiltration after all, or at the very least, the best that Nazarick has to offer… Of course, there was one other important matter to consider.
"No, he has already been punished, and had professed that he wouldn’t be ‘reinterpreting’ my words again… And hopefully it will stick. So that leaves only two choices remaining, well, one…" Momonga sighed internally and nodded to himself
"So, Aura and Mare."
Most of the forgotten old gods were related to hunting and nature, and therefore it was easy to fit the two dark elves among them, one of whom was a [Druid] and the other a [Ranger]. As for them being the hundredth level, it was also easier for Aura than others to hide her real level. Given that her personal strength among all level 100 NPCs of Nazarick was the second to last, inferior even to specialized level 90 creatures or some Area Guardians. She was a [Ranger] specializing in taming animals after all, if she had to fight in the front line by herself, something terribly wrong had happened.
And Mare, in turn, thanks to his timid nature and character, had the ability to dull the vigilance of potential opponents. Of course, sending two potential agents at once was wasteful, never mind the fact that Momonga felt like he was sending children into danger without protection, but given Demiurge's help, they had to cope with their task…
Momonga's stomach twisted unpleasantly at the thought that he was making young children work for him made him feel like scum, especially since it brought parallels to his old bosses.
But, they were level 100 creatures, moreover, protected by [World Class Items]. In the worst case scenario, they were more than able to retreat from the enemy and escape.
In addition, as Demiurge reported, most of the creatures of Nazarick who didn’t already have a job of their own, wanted to participate in the implementation of Momonga's plans…
"I will have to give Demiurge a strict order to closely monitor Aura and Mare and help them deal with any problems they encounter… Or worse, any danger." Momonga shook his head, doubting whether he was making the right decision by involving children in the execution of his plans. But the two of them had asked for a job, seeing the other level 100 NPCs with a job of their own, and Momonga didn’t want to stifle their growth.
"At least in this position, they will not need to do anything more dangerous other than communicating with the other factions and monitoring subordinates in the form of old religions…. As it seems to me, this should be at least a fairly calm place for them, away from the cruelty taking place in the world."
At the same time, Cocytus, leading Nazarick’s forces as a general, will begin the subjugation of the weak and scattered old religions. Well, Cocytus' presence was perhaps a bit overkill with regard to the weakened religions, but well, he was also asking for a job, and conquering the old religions and gathering potential pawns would be… No, not pawns, if Demiurge was right, some could even be ‘worthy’ enough to join Nazarick’s subordinate ranks.
It could even be said that this would be Momonga's first step in making a place for his own, a ‘state’ even?
As much as Momonga wanted to keep Nazarick hidden, that was impossible, it was simply too powerful to be able to simply stay on the sidelines without attracting attention. While Momonga didn’t want to outright scream of Nazarick’s existence to the world, being isolationists would only mean that they would be alone in the future should any danger arise. Being stagnant would only mean losing slower.
Still, creating a nation out of the bones of dead religions is quite… As much as Momonga found the action distasteful, it was not the worst option available. The anonymity of taking the mantle of leadership from a faction greatly overlooked by the players and the movers of the world could only mean good things.
Perhaps it was enough to call Momonga paranoid, after all, he knows full well that Nazarick is powerful, even the most powerful existence in the world. But, as the cooling corpse of the Great Red, and the hapless Ophis being manipulated so easily had amply shown, being the ‘strongest’ means very little if you don’t know how to wield that power correctly.
Momonga would not be satisfied until Nazarick itself adapts to this world as much as possible and becomes as strong as possible, and probably not even then. Momonga knows himself after all, being paranoid is just a state of being for him,
Unfortunately, the plan to take over the dead religions’ seat, somewhat left Momonga himself exposed, as an unknown god who appeared out of nowhere his involvement in the newly emergent ‘faction’ would be blindingly suspicious. But Momonga, or rather, Satoru, was already an extremely suspicious person for the demons anyway, so what’s a few more eyes aimed his way? As long as it hid the existence of Nazarick, he was okay with a few risks.
Though it was not all negatives; perhaps information confirming that he was indeed one of the old gods against the background of their stirring would, on the contrary, give a certain legitimacy to his words. An unknown god suddenly appearing on the world stage again, would probably quickly lose their strangeness when a lot of other gods also popped out of the woodwork.
Okay, in any case, that was enough about future expansion, Demiurge had informed him of something else that’s important.
Demiurge had found the place where the Fallen Angels had retreated to. Very much weakened after the recent major battle with the demons, that is their ‘battle’ with Sirzechs, a person he was just talking minutes before he had unleashed a massacre on the Fallen, were a people that Momonga wanted to try to lure to his side for many reasons.
Firstly, an ally was better than an enemy, and a subordinate was better than an ally. Secondly… Momonga already had an angel who fell long after the death of the Biblical God, one who fell during the death of God, and a naturally born Fallen Angel, both are either two-winged or four-winged. This despite the fact that Azazel was twelve-winged.
That is, Momonga lacked six, eight, ten and twelve-winged angels for his collection, as well as the fallen who fell in the times before the death of the Biblical God!
He had to complete his collection! Letting them die out completely would be such a waste…
Ah, and those additionally had to have a chance for redemption and so on yadda yadda, but Momonga didn’t really care about that.
However, according to the recent information that Demiurge had found, the fallen had ensconced themselves in the territory of the vampires. This meant that any attempt to get to them, even with just offers of future cooperation, at the moment meant interfering in the affairs of the vampires.
And although Nazarick had enough vampires, including Shalltear, that Momonga really didn’t feel the need to ‘collect’ them, the vampires of this world were a fairly small and weak faction, very insular as well. Small and insular enough, that the appearance of new Vampires among them would be too suspicious…
If someone as strong as Shalltear were to appear? A member of a race that was widely known as being weak? The amount of eyes and spies such a thing would cause would be completely unheard of.
Worse, was the reason why the Vampire was so insular in the first place, they were a minnow swimming in a sea full of sharks. Being neighbors next to the Greek Pantheon, which according to Demiurge boasts the strongest Necromancer in the world in Hades, someone that Momonga really wants to meet. And the Scandinavian Pantheon that boasts two of the strongest gods in the world, both that are equivalent to level 100 NPCs, Thor and Fenrir. Alongside a bevy of no less powerful gods, it was a faction that Momonga didn’t want to risk tangling with.
Oh, and how could he forget? There’s also the Vatican right at their doorsteps, filled to the brim with Angels and Saints. It was no wonder that the Vampires tried their very best not to poke their head out of their territories, it was a survival tactic.
Momonga still did not even know how exactly he needed to treat the angels, given the fact that he was perceived as the very Biblical God that was supposed to be their creator by the angels in his retinue. Of course, Momonga had already managed to ascertain that the inhabitants of Nazarick were loyal to him, sometimes, too loyal, but he definitely would not like to create a precedent. And so handling the other Angels was a very delicate subject.
After all, in addition to possible indignation among the inhabitants of Nazarick, indignation could easily arise among the angels themselves. Momonga accepted the Fallen Angels under his wing, Angels that had forsaken the Heavenly Edicts and had their wings blackened as a result. They were almost like zealots in their desire to be of use to their Father, Momonga, perhaps as a way to earn forgiveness for their sins.
Then, shouldn’t it follow then, that the normal Angles, one that had stayed ‘loyal’ to him, should be easily and be gratefully welcomed under his employ? Absolutely not!
After all, Momonga had absolutely no idea how the real Biblical God behaved! They could easily call him out as a fake, and he would have no choice but to discard his collection of Fallen Angels!
Of course, it would be possible to capture some Angel and get confirmation from them whether his disguise, if you could call it that, would be able to pass muster with the Angels. But if he wanted to do that, Momonga would need to capture one of the high-ranking Angels who had regularly interacted with the Biblical God in the past.
Such a thing needed to be done with absolute secrecy, where the presence of Nazarick needed to be kept very hidden… He would also need to somehow hide the disappearance of the Angel from the wider world and the Heavenly Faction.
Momonga thought about it for a moment, trying to imagine a possible solution to such a situation…
Only a single name came to mind – Pandora's Actor.
Given that school was now under Nazarick’s control and with the Demons leaving Kuoh for a few weeks at least, Momonga could recall Pandora's Actor from his post for those few weeks. He sends him to capture a high-ranking Angel, and then orders him to take their place and deal with the interrogation himself…
“Hmmm, no, that wouldn’t work… With Heaven being as strong as it is, Pandora Actor’s disguise would not be able to hold. No one of the seventieth level and above would be fooled by his disguise, while the abilities that would allow him to hide his nature, on the contrary, would only make him stand out even more among other angels.”
Not to mention that after those few weeks, Momonga would probably need to recall Pandora's Actor back, what then? Send the captured Angel back? Even considering the possibility of memory cleansing, it still presented a risk. Not to mention just how much energy and time Momonga would need to spend on creating false memories for the captured angel… Energy and time that could be easily wasted should the Angel notice any disparate facts in their memories.
In the end, Momonga found that the situation was more complex than he could ever solve, which meant only one thing, order Demiurge to gather the information he wanted. He felt somewhat guilty in piling more work on the Demon’s hands, especially since his current work was too important to drop, but he had no other choice.
Still, wasting Pandora's Actor skill by not giving him any work, at least now, when there was no need to pretend to be Issei, sit heavily with him.
And so Momonga raised his hand to his temple and instantly made contact with the person in question.
"Pandora's Actor? Your current act as Issei Hyoudou is on pause, at least for a while. Go to the church and contact Asia Argento, she will give you information about the angels and modern Christianity… Yes, ahem, I'm not sure exactly how religion has changed over the past, and more information is always better than less. After that, she will help you adapt, in the near future you will have to go to Europe… No, I’m not sending you to the Vatican, but it’s close, not too close, but close enough to the Holy See that you could gather information about them…"
‘I listen and obey, mein weiseste Vater!’ Momonga twitched from the too loud of a response, having already forgotten about the habits of his embarrassing son.
"No German!" Momonga chastised instantly, then froze for a moment as an image of the world map appeared in his mind. There’s one perfect place, a place where one could observe the vampires and the Vatican without the danger of being too close. It was also perfectly situated where an agent could also observe the Greek and Scandinavian Pantheons.
"Actually, you know what?" Momonga sighed, every bad action had its positive side.
"Perhaps you will actually need to get better with your German in the near future… You are going to Germany."
