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Overlord of biblical proportions: The new Three-Sided War (6)
🕑 Added 2024-03-21 09:34:30 +0000 UTCStepping inside the house behind her seemingly completely incapable of feeling fear and embarrassment friend, Murayama, Katase swallowed a nervous gulp as she looked around… To find the house looking like a perfectly ordinary house that could only be imagined for an ordinary Japanese resident. Nothing in Hyoudou's residence gave away the fact that it was in fact the residence of Kuoh's most notorious pervert, Issei.
No pictures of up skirt shots, no shrines to the stolen panties, displaying Issei's hunting trophies. It was the most ordinary looking house imaginable.
Switch out a few of the decorations and furniture, and Katase would find herself in her own home.
Of course, Katase was not crazy enough to go up to Issei's room. And, Katase thought with a shudder, she never planned to. But nothing in the Hyoudou's couple's house suggested that this was the home of the King of Perverts, as Issei loudly proclaimed once, lair…
Or maybe Satoru's appearance had been like a miracle of the Lord, causing Issei to dismantle the aforementioned trophies placed around the house and dispose of them. But, if that was the case, then Katase would rather not know about it and keep any vestiges of faith in Issei's humanity intact. No matter how pathetic and insignificant it was.
Instead, following Mrs. Hyoudou and Murayama into the kitchen, Katase was confronted only by a dinner simmering on the stove and the picture of the housewife herself. Who, having reached the dining table, only turned to the girls with a charming, calm smile.
“How about some tea?”
“Green tea for me, if it's not too much trouble!” Murayama instantly took advantage of the offer, causing Katase to barely keep from tsk’ing irritably at her. Such an offer was clearly a gesture of politeness, and based on that same politeness, both girls should have actually declined the offer. But Murayama clearly didn't care about the rules of decorum at the moment, instead choosing to take advantage of her hostess's hospitality.
She, however, if she was unhappy with Murayama's decision, did not show it at all, a friend who had just started openly ogling the kitchen, forcing Katase herself to follow her friend's example,
“And me too, black tea, please!”
Mrs. Hyoudou simply nodded to the girls, turning away, allowing Katase to cast a disgruntled look at her friend, making her shrug her shoulders as if to ask ‘what about me? It was an offer!’.
For the few minutes while Miki made tea, Katase fell into silence, feeling distinctly out of place being in someone else's house alone with Satoru and Issei's mother. Her eyes roved around the room, not like her friend who was opening trying to find something scandalous, instead looking her best to find a distraction for herself before stumbling upon… A Bible?
A rather rare book to be seen in a Japanese home.
Looking closely, Katase was surprised to note that the book on the corner of the kitchen cabinet was indeed a Bible, and judging by the bookmark, it had been used not too long ago. By Mrs. Hyoudou?
It came as a surprise to Katase, Christians are a small minority in Japan, and even among the Christians in Japan, it was highly unlikely to find anyone who kept a Bible at home. Especially someone who was actively reading it… Ah.
‘Right, her husband had disappeared out of nowhere…’ Katase bit her lip at the mere thought of it, as if Mrs. Hyoudou could suddenly read her mind. But it was definitely something inappropriate to do, especially in the presence of Miki herself, even if she only thought about it.
Not that Katase knows exactly of the Hyoudou family’s situation, but rumors had a way of spreading, seemingly even in a vacuum, especially when they involved such odious individuals as the Perverted Trio. That, and the fact that she was interested in Satoru made her especially sensitive whenever his family was mentioned.
And from what she had managed to gather it wasn’t pretty, even if she did have to separate the really out there rumors. It wasn’t easy, though some are much easier to be discounted, like the rumor that Satoru was the one that had thrown Mr. Hyoudou out of the house.
Even if the rumor was supposedly by ‘direct’ witnesses, who ‘definitely’ watched it happen first hand.
But Katase did manage to learn a few things about her crush. That he was Mr. Hyoudou's illegitimate son, that he had come from Kyoto to find his family after his birth mother died, that he was emancipated, and that he made money through loosely legal means like underground fighting. The last bit, she had even managed to find out straight from Satoru himself.
And the one detail that would make her asking about the bible insensitive, was that Mr. Hyoudou had run away from home after Satoru showed up.
Katase wouldn't say what she knew about psychology, but even she was pretty sure that in such traumatic circumstances, turning to God wasn't the strangest way to find relief from the tragic circumstances.
Of course, being Japanese, the expectations would be to turn to Shintoism, or Buddhism; Christianity was a much rarer choice than the other two, but why not?
In any case, Katase had scant knowledge of Christianity, perhaps nothing more than a few stories about Jesus being either the messiah or God? Or was it the both of them at the same time? It was quite confusing. Well, there’s that and about Lucifer… Though, her knowledge about the religion came mostly from Anime, since the Christian motif is quite commonplace there.
With her lack of knowledge, judging whether or not it was weird for Mrs. Hyoudou to turn to Christianity in this case was clearly not something Katase was going to do.
Glancing at Murayama, however, Katase found that her attention was not on the book on the table, but on Mrs. Hyoudou herself. So Katase was forced to follow the direction of her gaze and look at the mature woman, trying to see what Murayama saw in her.
A mature woman who had aged gracefully, a mature beauty, the kind of woman Katase would probably have wanted to look like at the same age… And someone with an excellent figure that was hard enough to expect from a housewife, and clearly generously sprinkled with good genetics. A MILF if she wants to be crass about it.
Despite the stressful nature of her separation from her husband, the two didn’t know whether to use Miss or Misses to call her. And here she was quite cheerfully pouring tea, at the very edge of humming a wordless song to herself, showing her excellent mood…
Throwing a glance at the Bible just lying there, Katase nodded to herself, religion does work wonders, it seems. Being able to keep such a great mood even in the face of such a tragedy and calm even under such strange circumstances… Indeed, Ms. Hyoudou was a woman of enviable willpower.
On the other hand, if any other woman were Issei's mother, they would probably have turned to ashes in shame long ago, so perhaps powerful willpower was a natural state of being for Ms. Hyoudou.
In any case, returning back to the table with three cups of tea, Ms. Hyoudou then sat down across from them, sliding a cup towards herself, taking a slow sip. After a brief pause as Katase and Murayama took their own sip of tea, Ms. Hyoudou raised her gaze to them, smiling slightly.
"What exactly did you want to talk about… Satoru?"
Murayama, not paying attention to the unusual pause in the older woman's voice, smiled apologetically. Glancing around to check if anyone was eavesdropping on her, as if there would be ninjas hiding around the open kitchen, as she leaned forward conspiratorially, playing with her eyebrows in violation of all etiquette.
"Have you noticed that all the strange things began to happen in your life after Satoru appeared?" Murayama asked in a hushed tone.
Katase wanted to sink into the ground from embarrassment at both Murayama's actions and words. She ducked her head, focusing on her cup of tea, cursing Murayama under her breath and regretting that she had once again gone along with her friend's antics.
However, she couldn't help but keep listening, hoping to glean some interesting information despite the humiliation.
Miki took a nonchalant sip from her cup, seemingly unsurprised by Murayama's question.
"Strange in what way? Money starting to disappear from the house, or living, talking, indescribably powerful gods appearing in my life?" Ms. Hyoudou joked, causing Katase to blush even more and sink deeper into her cup at the humiliating metaphor used to make fun of the two mischievous schoolgirls.
Murayama, oblivious to the rather obvious teasing in Ms. Hyoudou's words, pushed forward with the grace of a drunken elephant in a china shop. "The latter! Did some strange people start bothering you? Maybe Satoru started disappearing periodically and got involved with a group of strange-looking fighters? Or a large sum of money suddenly appeared in the house? Or maybe he sometimes whispers, 'This power cannot be contained, I must resist!' while wrapping bandages around his arm, or covering one of his eyes…!"
"Murayama!" Katase interjected, unable to bear her friend's questions anymore as they started veering from simple information gathering to the most hackneyed of anime clichés.
"What?!" Murayama shot Katase with a look of insulted innocence. "You have to check all the options! What if there's an ancient evil spirit sealed in his hand, and you're not prepared?"
"Murayama!" Katase called out again, her face now reddened by more than just mere embarrassment, having the relationship she has with Satoru being aired in front of his stepmother, casting an apologetic glance at Miss Hyoudou. "I’m sorry, she just doesn't know what she's talking about…"
Miss Hyoudou, not at all angered by the foolishness she’s hearing, instead looked at Murayama with interest. "On the contrary, I'm curious about what caused such questions, it’s Murayama, right? Did you see something incredible happening near Satoru?"
"The school exploded!" Murayama replied as if it were an interesting but ordinary event. "We've received reports that no one was injured, but it happened! We have to find out the truth!"
"Murayama!" Katase tried to stop her friend, even going as far as placing her hand on Murayama’s mouth, as she apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, we're not implying anything, and we didn't mean to say…"
Miss Hyoudou squinted her eyes at the two girls, for some reason, making Katase shiver. Did Murayama finally angered Ms. Hyoudou? This is bad, she needs to stop her chatterbox, conspiracy-nut friend, before she makes her crush’s mother hate her!
"No, it’s fine Katase. But, that's a very interesting question, Murayama. Why exactly did you think Satoru had something to do with the Academy explosions? I don't know any more about it than you do."
"Just a hunch. Satoru had fixed the Perverted Trio, a miracle in and of itself and had even involved himself in underground fights, and he also wasn't taken down by the shinai, so we were just curious!" Murayama once again gracefully swung away from Katase’s attempt to muzzle her, even deftly dodging the kicks she had sent her way under the table.
"So naturally, we decided to see if everything was related to Satoru! My detective instincts are tingling!"
At Murayama’s declaration, Ms. Hyoudou fell silent, clearly thinking about something deeply, causing Katase to cast an exasperated look at her friend, who only shrugged her shoulders in response, as if not finding anything strange in her words.
Miss Hyoudou, however, seemed clearly immersed in thought, as if analyzing some information in her head, making Katase inwardly perk up a bit. Even if she wasn't expecting any information from Miss Hyoudou at all, she was at least curious to know what Miss Hyoudou was thinking about at the moment.
However, after a dozen seconds and finishing her tea, Miss Hyoudou just glanced at the book lying not far from her on the side table, a Bible, then nodded to herself and looked at the two girls, smiling slightly. "Hmm, perhaps in that sense I can tell you something small… How would you react to the information that magic really exists?"
***
Recently, Momonga had found very few reasons to be in a cheerful mood.
Indeed, instead, Momonga found himself constantly on edge. The incomprehensible movements of the demons, the problems with acclimatizing to the new world, Miki's messed up life, and most importantly that hell school, the thorn in Momonga's side. School… He could feel himself aging whenever he has to attend that institution.
With so many troubling things having over him, it was easy enough to understand why Momonga had been in a completely unhappy state of mind recently.
The information about the permanent existence of undead if summoned when a body is used as a sacrifice material, was an unexpected and extremely joyous fact for Momonga. One of the very few he had received recently.
Any opportunity to strengthen Nazarick without actually depleting the scant remaining resources that were irreplaceable in this world, like gold from Yggdrasil itself, was immeasurably valuable. Especially considering the fact that bodies were one of the most easily replenishable resources, Momonga could imagine.
Nazarick itself held millions of bodies, a virtually infinite number thanks to the self-healing mountains of bodies. In some places in Nazarick that had once served solely as an interior detail but had now become actual bodies, more than just a ‘cosmetic’ item. The fifth floor alone had at least tens of thousands bodies frozen into ice, alongside the corpses found below the Derelict Rope Bridge, Nazarick was not bereft of corpses.
However, Nazarick's potentially endless supplies of bodies, did not at all mean that Momonga was going to neglect the hundreds of Fallen Angels’ bodies discovered by Nigredo at Mare's behest…
It was something that would need further experimentation, anything that would allow him to not think about the fact of just how the Fallen Angel corpses had come to be.
Seeing the devastated vista, as if some High-Leveled Player just decided that they wanted to test Yggdrasil landscaping capabilities by using top level spells to scoop out the surroundings, it was no surprise to see so many corpses. How Mare knows where to look and just when to do so, seeing that the corpses are still fresh, Momonga had no idea.
But, after Mare's comment that Momonga somehow ‘knew’ or even had ‘set’ up the event, Momonga was simply too ashamed to admit that he had absolutely no idea what happened at this place.
First Pandora's Actor, then Demiurge, and now even Mare, each one was prescribing some incredible plan or action to Momonga even when he had no idea whatsoever… Momonga could only hope that this would not become the standard behavior of his subordinates.
Momonga was completely unprepared to constantly talk and rely on his ‘great plan’, he imagined if he wasn’t an Undead, he would be dying from stress right now.
However, once he saw the body of the dragon sprawled on the ground free for the taking, all questions like ‘where did this come from?’ went away, leaving Momonga with only a burning desire to get the body. Quickly and measuredly, within a dozen minutes, the Nazarick army cleared the battle site, then returned to Nazarick with all the loot.
But, what else to experiment on? Right now, he just wants to test his other summon creatures spell to see if they also could be made to last indefinitely. The current experiment on if the undead summons using actual bodies would actually last indefinitely, only needed Momonga to wait until they disappear, something that doesn’t need Momonga’s participation at all.
So far, the Undead summon had lasted for three times longer than their previous summon duration. And unless Momonga wanted to continue the exercise that is akin to watching paint dry, he had concluded that, yes, the summons using bodies does last indefinitely.
So, Momonga had moved on to trying to make his other summons just as permanent. He had achieved little success so far.
But! Momonga hadn’t given up. After all, necromancy logically required corpses to make the summons permanent, but what could magic that summoned angels or demons require? Momonga didn't know that, but he very much wished he could check all the possible options before discounting the possibilities completely.
With the icy wastelands provided by the Fifth Floor could also serve as a huge freezer suitable for storing captured bodies, the capability of storing corpses is easy to come by, so he could experiment on many more varied corpses. Moreover, with Pandora's Actor ordered to take his form, and therefore his spells, if much weaker, and start resurrecting the Fallen Angels, there shouldn’t be a dearth of information about this world anymore.
Momonga had also tasked Demiurge to study the Fallen Angels to see if it was something unique that had made them suitable as sacrifices…
Momonga was quite surprised at how easily he had made the decision to essentially send the captured Fallen Angels for inhumane experiments. But their fate was sealed either way, even if any of them could survive the experiments, if not their psyches, they still couldn’t be released from Nazarick.
Even if Momonga could declare Nazarick's existence sometime in the future, he absolutely could not allow outsiders who knew about its internal layout or its abilities to leave. It was a logical decision, however, at the same time, Momonga had also noticed how virtually indifferent he was to the lives of the captured Fallen Angels.
Even in his past world, the real world, not Yggdrasil no matter how much he wished otherwise, Momonga's attitude towards life and death was quite unperturbed. But it was nothing unique.
The reason he chose to Play as an undead in Yggdrasil was not just because he wanted to release all his pent-up stress as a Neo-Japanese office worker in the role of a badass lich.
The people of his time had learned to look at death as an ordinary part of life. If Momonga hadn't learned to look at death coldly, he would have long ago gone insane watching the ‘cleaners’ of the city do their work. On the city streets, rows of dead orphans are often seen before they could be processed or, more often than not, cremated.
Given the rampant disease among the homeless, even megacorporations didn't risk turning them all into nutrient mixes.
But still, it was strange, he might be inured to seeing death, but not in causing or ordering it. Momonga could swear that in the past, in Neo-Japan, he had not been the cause of a single death due to his actions, unless very accidentally and indirectly. Even in Yggdrasil, Momonga, being part of the heteromorphic races and a member of a PK guild unlike Ulbert, for example, didn't attack NPCs for no reason and raided other Players only when he needed to. Not for the sake of wanting to grieve a bunch of newcomers when given the opportunity.
Of course, he still killed both NPCs and Players in Yggdrasil, and in very large numbers. Especially in the latter years, when mindless quest completion and combat became his only entertainment in Yggdrasil, but that was virtual, nothing that could ever be carried over into the real world.
Now, however, he viewed real, tangible living beings as… resources, perhaps? Material for experimentation that he could give to Demiurge to recycle.
Such a thought evoked in Momonga the faintest, only at the very edge of his perception, a feeling of some kind of disgust. But it was more disgust at seeing some leftover trash, or rotten bodies, than sympathy or anger.
Of course, Momonga couldn't be called completely unfeeling. He was willing to kill and die for the last will of his friends, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and felt some slight semblance of affection and responsibility for Miki, for example. But for the most part, his attitude towards other people was… indifferent, he guessed.
On the other hand, seeing that he was now a figure of worship, where blood sacrifices were being made to, maybe thinking of humans and Fallen Angels as resources was the right way to go about things? He really didn’t want to disappoint his subordinates NPCs.
In any case, with Pandora's Actor taking his form and his orders in hand, Demiurge departing with the bodies and captured Fallen, it left Momonga with one last thing to ponder.
That is what to do, with the corpse of the golden dragon.
In Yggdrasil, golden dragons were less common than red dragons, though still more common than, for example, sun dragons or magical dragons. But, they’re still a veritable living treasure trove of body parts suitable for cooking, crafting, or even enchanting.
Unfortunately, however, the body of the slain dragon, its most valuable parts, had been all but destroyed, so Momonga couldn't get its eyes, tongue, or fangs. Even so, it couldn't be called a useless catch, not at all.
On the other hand, standing right now in front of the mountain of destroyed loot, Momonga couldn't calm his mind, stirred up by the knowledge that he could use the bodies of slain humans to create permanent undead.
What could he do with the body of a Dragon?
Most of the undead that Momonga could create had concrete, unchangeable form, like the Death Knights or Elder Liches. But, he does possess spells where the summoned creature whose appearance, characteristics, and even abilities were a lot more flexible, and he could choose the specific Undead he wanted to summon, limited by certain criteria.
For example, Undead Beast, in Yggdrasil, when cast, Momonga could choose which beast he wished to summon, ranging from bear, boar, snake, and so on… Could he then raise a Zombie Dragon with an ability like this?
Momonga's instinct as a gamer told him that it was unlikely, given that the skill was a low-level one, and undead dragons were usually fairly high-level creatures… Except the Skeletal Dragon, of course, which was a mass of skeletons assembled into a dragon form rather than a single dragon skeleton.
Momonga had created a Death Knight from the body of a fallen angel, which was close enough in body shape to a Death Knight. What if Momonga had tried to create a Death Knight using the body of a dragon? Would the spell fail, or would it just create a normal Death Knight, pretty much wasting the Dragon corpse?
Maybe he should just dismantle the Dragon for its valuable parts, the ones that he could get at least, and postpone the experiment until he could find less valuable dragons… Maybe he should give a try with the more ubiquitous wyverns instead?
Well, if he wanted to go experimenting with Dragons, there should be a place swarming with them somewhere in this world, he had seen such a place after all. A whole mountain swarming with dragons.
Momonga thought about it for a few hard, long seconds before shaking his head, deciding to just leave the dragon alone for now, at least until Demiurge and Pandora's Actor had more information on the mechanism for creating permanent undead. Finally calming his mind that was too excited by such prospects, he nodded to himself.
Indeed, Momonga could trust Demiurge as far as scientific experiments were concerned, and with nothing else to do he decided to return back to the human world.
Having made that decision, Momonga nodded to himself, then reached out, using [Gate] finding himself back in Miki's home, happy that the world had finally taken mercy on him and given him something good, and seemingly without any unintended consequences!
***
Katase had left Hyoudou's residence in a state far more confused and more restless than she had been when she had visited just a mere hour before.
Perhaps Murayama's influence had poisoned Katase's mind before then, making her seriously consider the idea that Satoru had something to do with the school bombing. At most, she thought Satoru was some kind of underground fighter; at worst, the illegitimate son of a yakuza leader…
But absolutely, she had not thought about magic at all!
Katase found Murayama walking beside her, just as lost in thought as she was. Even if her friend’s brain had rotted, and she was seriously thinking about real life as some cliché anime plots, Katase doubts that she would ever think that the most implausible of them actually being real!
Miki, however, didn't say anything about Satoru or magic, speaking instead about the existence of magic before giving the two friends a meaningful look, forcing them to draw a rather obvious conclusion from her words. After muttering something about them ‘not being ready to know the truth yet’, she simply let them leave her house at their own pace.
Katase's first impulse was definitely to just dismiss Miki's words, the very idea of magic seemed too crazy, and it was more likely that she had just been taken in by some strange cult or something. ‘Magic’ to Katase was nothing more than the province of charlatan or con artists, scamming the Yen out of gullible people in some conference or church, it was fictional.
But her life had been one cliché after another for her to just dismiss this one so easily!
It was just further proof that her best friend had successfully corrupted her.
A mysterious, cool, hot newcomer with a mysterious background and past, her school being bombed to smithereens, and now talks of magic… It was all just unreal! Like a story from a stupid manga, whose author had slipped loose from the Editors’ leash!
"Murayama, you don't believe it, do you?" Katase, realizing that her self-confidence in the normality of the world was beginning to fail her, turned to her friend. As she was asking such a thing from Murayama, someone who had once believed that there are Vampires, and that they were actually aliens from the moon, Katase had made the wrong decision.
"I'd be happy to tell you that I don't believe in such a thing…" Murayama said with faux sadness in her voice, showing that despite the unreality of what was happening, she was glad that it could be true.
How could Murayama not want to be the heroine of her favorite anime? "But one has to face facts."
"What facts?! That magic is real!? We haven’t even seen any evidence, don’t be absurd!" Katase was immediately indignant, raising her voice, but it was nothing else than just denial. Realizing this fact, she instantly clutched her head.
"I mean, do you realize what you're saying?! This is absurd! Murayama, magic doesn't exist!"
"And explosions that blow up a school after a new student who suddenly transfers after the start of the school year, who has a very mysterious background, are real!?" Murayama's sarcastic response easily deflected Katase's complaints, causing her to indignantly mewl internally, unable to respond to Murayama's words.
No matter how one looked at it, she was also speaking the pure truth!
"But Magic? That’s just impossible!" Katase once again tried to deny her friend’s claim, but she still couldn't find the argument to do so, simply resorting to repeating her previous argument, which only made it even more pathetic than before.
Murayama, also well aware of this fact, didn't even bother to respond, instead just giving her a patronizing look that made her shrink back. Then, looking forward, Murayama opined more.
"In that case, we must go to a place that will hold the answers to at least some of the questions."
"I can’t~ I promised I'd be home in an hour, my parents are worried." Katase stretched out uncertainly, causing Murayama to roll her eyes.
"Do you want answers or not!" Murayama pressed on her reluctance with assertiveness, causing Katase to chew her lips, before slowly.
"If we want answers, there's only one way forward. We need to visit the most suspicious of locales!" Murayama raised her finger victoriously to the sky and grinned, her gaze fixed on some invisible target.
"Forward, to the abandoned church!"
