Intermission.

The sound of ethereal bells rang through the halls of the temple as the hundreds of white-robed priestesses sat down cross-legged around the basin of water in the middle. The overwhelming presence of white in this place was almost blinding to the eyes as everything in the temple from the stones to the pillars as well as the ceiling was completely snow white and shone brightly due to the incoming sunlight that beamed strongly throughout the hall.

This combined with the droning cacophony of strange prayers that echoed throughout the temple left everyone who came here into an almost hypnotized state.

The great hall of the temple consisted of six giant white beams holding up the dome ceiling of the temple that had a large hole through which sunlight flowed into the room. In the center of the room there was a single pool of water that seemed to be almost boiling at this moment as a strange light erupted from it and created an aurora of saintly light that danced above the basin.

The man looked on with tired but clear eyes as he saw the continuous flow of magical energy form up in the pool of water and the magical symbols on its edges glowing brighter and brighter which caused him to smile involuntarily as he nodded in approval of the spell formation.

He was one of the only men allowed in this place as this was one of the holy temples built during the era of the Six Gods and ever since had only accepted women into its ranks. Some said that the God of Water amongst the Six Gods was a kindest and most accepting of the six and that he built this place to start the foundation upon which the women's equality law in the Theocracy was based upon. After all one of their Archbishops was a women which was unacceptable in both the Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire. Ferdinand however had always secretly thought himself that perhaps the God of Water was just vain and liked to surround himself with beautiful women.

Naturally he would never say this out loud as even the head of the Clearwater Scripture was not allowed to boast such heresy without severe repercussions.

Whatever the purpose of this temple had been in the past, it was now not just a place of worship but a secret location where the Theocracy could perform secret rituals away from prying eyes. Which was precisely what they were doing now.

"What's the matter captain, you seem quite pleased? This spell that we have spent months preparing is finally ready and we have triple checked the location. Does the idea that we will be poking around the Sorcerer King's lair in a bit really entice you that much?"

From behind Ferdinand came a feminine and playful voice as a woman who wore an out of place blue cloak over her body walked up to him.

"Ah sorry Ralka. I was merely admiring the power of many that the world seems to have forgotten. Although it is supposed to be only the power of the gods that can rile magic beyond the 6th tier but with the continuous supply of holy energy from all these priestesses we can achieve a similar result and invoke and 8th tier spell by ourselves. It is quite inspiring to see that humanity together can challenge even realms that are referred to as 'divine' by scribes and bards."

Hearing his response Ralka merely chuckled as she looked towards the basin of water herself and had to admit she should be proud of herself for pulling this all off on such short notice. Due to the Thousand Miles Astrologer still being locked away inside her quarters she had been tasked of setting up the formation that would allow the Slane Theocracy to employ the 8th spell [Water Mirror] that could be seen as a high-level spying spell that could easily break through barriers and counter measures designed to repel surveillance spells.

The question was whether or not it would be effective against Ainz Ooal Gown who was said to possess power that rivals the Six Gods themselves.

From the very first day Ralka had said that she could make no promises and would take no responsibility if it failed considering that she as not just a member of the Clearwater Scripture but also head-priestess of this temple was responsible for its members and their wellbeing. Considering all of this naturally the Archbishops had accepted her terms and still had spared no effort in assisting her.

"It's starting…"

The water inside the pool started gushing and churning all of a sudden as the power almost exploded out of the pool and the water began flowing upward into the air above the basin, forming an almost sheet like thin veil of water that contorted into a screen of water that contained all the power of the spell within it.

"Now, Activate! Maximize Magic [Water Mirror]!"

Responding to Ralka's command the water screen began rippling and changing as it suddenly displayed the image of a wide field of green that seemed to stretch out endlessly with just one group of odd hills in the center that drew all the attention towards them.

"There! That's the Sorcerer King's lair! Come now girls a bit more! We need to see inside!"

It was preparing the spell that cost such large amounts of preparation, the actual controlling required only a slight amount of magic power in comparison but it needed almost all of the priestesses to be in synch as they had to control the magic together under Ralka's orders. Though naturally they had all been rigorously trained beforehand.

As the sounds of the prayers changed into a much more harmonious choir of the same prayer seemingly controlling the spell the water screen contorted once again as the image seemed to almost fly towards the location of the hills until it finally revealed a large white monument that seemed embedded into the plains themselves.

"Just a bit further! There yes that's it!"

Ralka shouted enthusiastically as the spell neared the border of the Tomb of Nazarick. Ferdinand had his eyes wide open as the reason that he was here was because he had the best memory in the entire Theocracy. Even if there was just a spit second of an image that displayed the inside of the lair than he would remember every vivid detail about it down to the last crack of every rock.

"There one last time… By the Six Gods what is that?!"

The screen finally displayed the interior of the place and the sight caused Ralka and Ferdinand to gasp in pure terror. Although the appearance of dozens of Death Knights guarding the entrance was expected but still horrifying it were the other undead creatures that stood guard over the tomb that truly frightened the group beyond belief.

"A den of abominations…"

The sight of the monsters was repulsive to their very eyes as even from the screen they could sense just how powerful and horrendous these figures were.

Ferdinand at this time had to pour all of his concentration into what he was seeing and make sure that he did not forget a single detail of this nightmarish picture. Although he wished to look away from this sight and not have to remember this scene of fright for the rest of his life he had to as a member of Slane and as the captain of the Clearwater Scripture.

"Are those…"

Demons?

He could not finish this word as a deep low voice echoed throughout the hall of the temple even though its point of origin was unclear.

"Intruder detected! Initiating counter measures! Activating counter spell [Shockwave], activating counter spell [Collector Automaton]!"

The voice had barely finished speaking as a wave of energy again burst forward, although this time not from the pool but from the water screen itself!

The wave travelled throughout the temple as it blew away all priestesses sitting next to the pool as well as Ralka and Ferdinand who were powerless to resist the blast.

They were still better off than the priestesses who apparently due to them being connected to the spell earlier all had blood flowing from their nose and eyes. They did not know it yet but most of them had already suffered fatal damage it was just that the effects would only be shown at a later time.

By then of course it would be too late…

"We have to close the spell formation immediately!" Ralka shouted as she struggled to an upright position whilst clenching her broken arm.

Ferdinand was a bit better off as he was quite sturdy and was still looking at the screen with an aghast expression.

"Ferdinand? Do you hear me? We have to end this now!"

Ferdinand merely looked calmly at the screen of water and pointed out with a trembling finger.

"What… the hell is that?"

Looking over at the water screen Ralka now too saw that the water had turned entirely black and almost sludge like as the entire image of the tomb had disappeared and was replaced by a pair of red light that seemed to shine through the void as they seemed to peer into the group's soul. Everyone hoped that their worst fears would not come true and those lights weren't eyes and that whatever created those two lights would remain inside the void of the black screen.

However…

Very quickly whole array of sludge drenched tentacles erupted from the black screen as the tendrils reached out and grabbed anything that wasn't bolted to the ground. Not even the priestesses were spared from this as all the ornaments and holy jewelry that they wore on them were stripped from them by the tendrils along with even the robes they were as well as their undergarments.

Even when the guards rushed in and tried to fight the tendrils they too were robbed of all they had and stripped naked by the sludge drenched tentacles and left in a dirty mess without any way to attack.

At last when it seemed to have run out of things to take the black tentacles withdrew as the black screen of sludge collapsed along with the two red eyes that had been within.

All of this happened in a matter of minutes and the chaos and confusion on everyone's faces was indescribable.

After a while when it seemed like truly the danger had passed, Ralka who like the priestesses was covering her dignity with her hands could not help but shout out.

"Wha… what kind of perverted monster was that just now?!"

AA: surprise! A ninja intermission on the same day! My beta is in exams right now so it's unedited but please do look past that. Also this chapter intentionally was not given a day early to the discord fans since I wanted to make the fanfiction fans have a win as well.

The hardcore overlord fans might know this as the as of yet untranslated side story of when the Theocracy tried to spy on Ainz and failed. Since god knows how long of a wait it still is until that gets translated by frostfire I decided to write it out as best as I could.

Next part might be delayed until end of next week but you shouldn't have much to gripe about (even though we all know you will)

But for now and as always!

Burn in Hell Yen Press!

And…

GLORY TO AINZ OOAL GOWN!