Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

The seven Supreme Beings of the New World

Chapter nine: Wow, we're making great time!

While certain other shenanigans were going down, a completely different kind of story was starting to unfurl back in E-Rantel, over at this one inn called the 'Inn of Shining Gold'. It was a somewhat more high-end inn compared to what starting adventurers had access to, a place where only the wealthy could afford to stay. It was also somewhat implied that only those with rather considerable influence and/or income were even allowed to enter for whatever reason, so it was a good thing that everyone in the 'Inn of Shining Gold' had a good bit of the very precious metal that was in the inn's name.

Sitting at one of the tables in the dining area of the inn was a well-dressed blonde noble girl, who was tended to by some butlers. The noble girl slammed her right fist on the table, a sign that she was not at all pleased with the food that she was served. "What manner of farce is this?!" the girl screamed, "It doesn't taste good at all!"

The head butler of the servant troop, an older man with graying hair and a graying beard, nodded once in an obedient manner. "My lady…" the butler said, his tone having a hint of pleading in it.

"We're leaving at once, Sebas!" the noble girl said to the head butler, "Have Ricochet and the twins here help you prepare for my departure!" The head butler, apparently named Sebas, only nodded once more in an obedient manner, a gesture copied by the other three butlers. The noble girl got up, walked a bit away from her table until she spotted a lone table off to the side, where a man in a red riding coat sat, eating a more humble meal than the one the noble girl rejected.

As the man was more or less stuffing himself, the noble girl spoke up. "Zach!" Right away, the red coated man perked up, turned to face the noble girl. Zach looked a bit tired, or if the blushing covering part of his face and all of his nose was any indication he was a bit drunk instead. His shoulder length brown hair looked just a little bit unkempt, an indication that he might have been worn ragged in recent events.

Gulping a bit nervously since the noble girl addressed him, Zach asked, "Y-Yes?"

"Ready my carriage at once," the noble girl ordered, "I don't want to have to stay in a hovel like this any longer." Without another word, the noble girl turned to walk up the stairs to the second floor, most likely to go to the room she was using so she could gather some of her stuff, as she had made it clear that she no longer wanted to stay in the inn.

After the noble girl had disappeared up the stairs, Sebas turned to regard the other guests. He gave them a slight nod of apology, which was copied by Ricochet and the twin butlers. "We're very sorry for the interruption to your meal," Sebas said to the other patrons of the inn. Ricochet and the twins all apologized in unison after Sebas spoke his bit. The butlers then took their leave to follow their mistress so that they could attend to her as needed.

They were her butlers, after all.

…

In a hallway on the second floor, Sebas and the other butlers stood outside of one of the rooms. Sebas knocked on the door, and after a few moments, he let himself, Ricochet and the twin butlers inside. When they entered and closed the door behind them, the four butlers were greeted by the noble girl, who gave them all a respectful bow.

"If I may, Master Sebas," the noble girl began, her tone far more respectful than it was during her dinner, "I would like to take the time to apologize to you, as well as Sirs Ricochet, Shinra and Senku, for my rudeness towards all of you earlier."

Sebas held up a hand in a gesture to cut the girl off from any further apologizing. "There is no need for you to lower your head to us, Solution. We are currently acting as your butlers, and you are acting as the noblewoman that the four of us serve."

The noble girl, revealed to actually be Solution of the Pleiades combat maids of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, raised her head, although one of her eyes remained closed. "That is true, but even so I am a Pleiades maid, which makes me subservient to you and other highly ranked butlers that answer only to you and the supreme ones."

Ricochet nodded in confirmation to what Solution said. "Yeah, this mission is a bit weird as Master Sebas, the nekomata twins and I have to act as if you outrank us, even though the other way around is the truth. It is weird when we high end butlers have to pretend that a Pleiades maid or a World Heritage maid outranks one of us, especially given that both groups of combat maids are ranked equal to each other but below the four of us."

Sebas nodded along to all that Solution was saying with Ricochet and the nekomata butler twins. The head butler of the Great Tomb knew that he was going to be backed in his efforts by at least one of the other high-leveled combat butlers that answer to only him and the supreme ones, but he was a bit surprised when it turned out that all three among Ricochet, Shinra and Senku were available to assist him. Having the extra hands on deck would not hurt things.

Deciding to get things back on track, Sebas cleared his throat with a cough. "Well now, I believe that we must inform Lady Shalltear, who I am certain is tired of waiting, that were are soon to depart from here." As Sebas collected a suitcase from the bed that was in the room, Shinra made a passing comment that he was surprised that Shalltear, who was in trouble right now along with Aura due to the two of them getting up in each other's faces, was trusted with the job anyway.

Sebas actually knew what the nekomata butler was talking about; he was given a general account of the event by Demiurge, who got it from Albedo, that Aura and Shalltear got into an argument right outside of Lord Ainz's office while Lord Ainz and all of the World Heritage Lords were in the middle of a meeting. Also, Mare and Kinoko tried to diffuse the argument but were both shot down rather harshly by Shalltear and Aura. The male dark elf twin and the automaton archer girl were intimidated into cowering nearby while the two girls went on with the arguing.

When Lord Ainz and the WHLs, all looking annoyed with the interruption, came out to investigate, they saw what was going on, and gave Shalltear and Aura a bit of a scolding while Roberto and Kurama went to check up on Mare and Kinoko. Demiurge also told Sebas that he saw the two female floor guardians carried off to solitary by Cocytus and Sasuke while the supreme ones thought of punishments for the girls, who were carried as if they were sacks of potatoes.

Sebas had no idea what was done to discipline Aura (if she had even received her punishment already, that is), and it turns out that Shalltear was sent on her mission anyway, but she was given a very stern warning that messing up here would worsen how much displeasure from the supreme ones that she would draw. The head butler of the Great Tomb could only suspect that Shalltear was fully intending to pull out all the stops to atone for her shame.

With the suitcase gathered, Sebas turned to face the door. "By the way, is that Zach fellow doing his job properly?"

Solution nodded once in the affirmative to Sebas. "Indeed," the Pleiades member replied, covering her closed eye with her left hand. "As we speak, he's meeting in an alleyway with a rather filthily dressed man. The two of them are discussing plans to attack us while we are on the road to our next destination."

Sebas nodded once to acknowledge that he was following along. "Wonderful. It all going according to the plan that the supreme ones have created."

"If I may make a request, Master Sebas," Solution began, a bit of a self-amused smile on her face, "If it's alright with you and Sirs Ricochet, Shinra and Senku, I'd like to have that man. I heard him say that he can't wait to get a taste of me, so I think that I would like to…return the favor, as it were."

Sebas wore a look of consideration on his face. "…Let's ask Lady Shalltear about it first, but I'm certain that she wouldn't mind." Ricochet and the nekomata butler twins all nodded in agreement with the head butler of the Great Tomb, with the three of them saying that they thought that their respective creators (Roberto for Ricochet and Kurama for the twins) probably wouldn't mind it all that much if Solution 'had that man', citing how they tended to favor the combat maids a bit.

Solution, for her part, simply cracked into a smile that seemed both impossibly wide and a little bit on the unsettling side.

In the dark of night, the carriage driven by Zach the coach driver rode out of E-Rantel. With a bit of an amused sneer on his face, Zach picked up a lantern and opened and closed a little cover on it, blocking the light and then letting it shine. There was a similar signal happening out in the dark-covered distance. It was clear that Zach and the people making the signal out in the distance were in cahoots with one another and up to no good, but the folks in the carriage couldn't even be bothered to care about it.

"So, I take it that the target has taken the bait?" Shalltear said in a casual tone as she filed a nail. Sitting on either side of the vampire valkyrie was one of her Vampire Brides, some of her NPC underlings. Sitting across from the undead were Sebas, Solution and Ricochet; the nekomata twins were standing rather than siting, leaning against the inside of the carriage opposite of the door to get inside.

Sebas gave Shalltear an affirmative nod. "They had taken it, as Lord Anubis would say, hook line and sinker."

"Well that sounds fantastic," Shalltear remarked, sounding happy with the development, "It would be quite the boon if we were to get ahold of the kind of magic or martial arts user that the supreme ones are looking for."

Sebas and the others nodded in agreement with Shalltear's remark, but then again all of them have the desire to appease the supreme ones that they were all created to serve. "By the way, Lady Shalltear," Sebas began in a casual, curious tone, "If you wouldn't mind indulging me, is there any specific reason that you and Lady Aura seem to have great difficulty in getting along with one another?"

Shalltear had a bit of a smile on her face as she thought about her relationship with the female dark elf twin. However, the smile quickly faded as she remembered that the very relationship is the reason why both she and Aura were both in trouble at the moment. "…I don't think that we have as bad of a relationship as what you may be implying, but the reason why we get up in each other's faces from time to time is because my creator, Lord Peroroncino, decided for me that I would do so. I think it has to do with how Lord Peroroncino, and the creator of Shorty and her brother, Lady Bukubukuchagama, are actually siblings."

The head butler of the Great Tomb, along with the other high ranking combat butlers, all looked surprised by the revelation. "You don't say, Lady Shalltear," Sebas remarked.

Shalltear only nodded in the affirmative in response. "The supreme beings actually spoke of it on one occasion, actually."

(FLASHBACK)

Back when Shalltear was still nothing but an NPC, she was standing nearby while Peroroncino, the person who created her, was talking to Ainz (who still went by Momonga at the time) and Anubis outside of a small mausoleum that led further down into the Great Tomb. The birdman member of Ainz Oowl Gown gave a troubled sigh as he spoke to his fellow guild members, who both took note of their friend's trouble.

"What seems to be the matter, Peroroncino-san?" Momonga asked in a concerned tone as he and Anubis addressed their friend.

"I just found out that my sister voiced one of the main characters in the new adult game that I just got," Peroroncino explained, his tone making it clear that he didn't like the hand that he was dealt by fate at all.

Momonga's avatar nodded a bit to show he was following along. "Bukubukuchagama-san is quite the popular voice actress, yes."

Peroroncino gave off a distressed emote face from his avatar. "Aww, and I was really looking forward to the adult game, too…"

"It makes sense that you can't enjoy that kind of game if your sister plays a character in it," Anubis remarked, giving off an amused smirk emote, "But hey, silver lining, just think about all the tissues and lotion that you'll be saving by skipping that game."

(FLASHBACK OVER)

Back to the carriage, Sebas looked a bit surprised as he and the others finished hearing the story that Shalltear was telling. "…A voice actress, you say? What sort of class is that?"

"I'm not too sure," the vampire valkyrie replied, "But from what I can figure, it's a class where they use the power of their voice to imbue souls into others that lack them. Long story short, it's a class that gives life to others."

"That's quite the story, Lady Shalltear," Ricochet remarked, "Thank for telling us about-" The doppelganger butler was cut off when the carriage that everyone was riding in suddenly came to a screeching halt. There was then a banging on the door of the carriage, followed by the shouting demand of a man outside for the people within to come out. "…It seems to me that we've gotten to our destination," Ricochet said dryly.

Shalltear held up both of her hands in an 'I got this' kind of gesture. "Don't worry about a thing, everyone." A bit of an amused smirk found its way onto the vampire girl's face. "I got this."

…

Outside of the carriage, a large group of bandits were gathered outside, waiting for the occupants to come out. "Hey, I was the one who brought them here," Zach said to one of the bandits, "So let me have a go at one of them afterwards, alright?"

The bandits were waiting with a bit of anticipation as the carriage door finally opened at last. However, to Zach's mild surprise, the person who came out was Shalltear, not that he knew who she was at all; to the red coated man, Shalltear was just some unknown pale-skinned girl in a dark gothic dress. To her credit, Shalltear did have (or at least appeared to have) a rather ample set of…assets…on her person.

"Heh, bad luck little lady," one of the bandits began, his tone self-assured, "If you agree to stay quiet, we won't take your life." With a self-amused, somewhat perverted smirk, the bandit walked up to Shalltear, his hand reaching out to inspect the ample…assets…that were in plain sight right on the vampire girl's person. However, just as the bandit's hand got within a few inches of inspecting the assets, it simply fell down without much fanfare.

Shalltear, maintaining a casual demeanor, simply looked down at the human who had almost touched her in an inappropriate manner. "Don't touch me with your filthy mits, lowly human." The bandit, a bit confused, actually had to look at his hand that he was reaching out with, only to see that not only was the hand in questioned severed off, but so was the upper half of the forearm that said hand was on. The bandit didn't even realize that his hand and part of his arm had been lopped off until he looked at it and saw the massive bleeding.

As the bandit began crying out in a mix of surprise and pain, accompanied by some screams of alarm from some of the other bandits who saw what was going on, Shalltear had a bit of an annoyed scowl on her face. "…You make too much noise," Shalltear remarked as she raised a hand up, then motioned with it to make a single swiping motion that ended up decapitating the bandit whose hand she lopped off. The bandit's head fell to the ground and rolled for a second before stopping.

The headless body of the bandit fell over unceremoniously to the ground as Shalltear stepped down from the step leading up to the carriage's door in order to begin her work with the large group of bandits. All of them were stunned with fright as they were confronted by this horrifying little girl that just killed one of their own seemingly without issue. What's more is that one of them suddenly noticed that all of the blood from their slain fellow was being drawn out, as if by magic, and collected into a sphere of blood above the little girl's head.

"A magic-caster?" one of the bandits remarked, now even more afraid since the little girl was clearly skilled in the use of some rather potent magic. On cue, all of the bandits took their weapons out in order to fight the little girl because, despite the fact that she's, well, a little girl, she was clearly a very dangerous being that should not be underestimated by any means.

Despite the large number of men before her, Shalltear wasn't concerned in the least. If anything at all, she didn't want to fight them as she considered them a waste of time. "You two," Shalltear said as he two Vampire Brides came out from behind her, "Clean up the mess." Acting on the orders that they were given, the two Vampire Brides went right to work on wiping out all of the bandits, slaughtering them without issue or mercy.

Having seen enough for a lifetime, Zach tried to run away. He didn't get all that far, though, as he was soon met up by Solution. "Mr. Zach, come this way," Solution said, sounding like she was alarmed by what was going on. However, what was on Zach's mind was that he suddenly noticed that the top of Solution's dress was down just enough to reveal a notable but not censor worthy amount of her generous…assets. The red coated man gulped a bit before he cracked a bit of a self-amused smile, reaching for his goal as the Vampire Brides slaughtered the bandits that he was in cahoots with.

…However, Zach's hands were suddenly stuck in a bluish mass that was a part of Solution, a part that suddenly appeared when Zach made contact. The mass was sucking Zach inside, making him cry out in fear as he was dragged into the inside of Solution, who only grinned her impossible and unsettling smile as her slime person biology allowed her to suck up and consume humans such as Zach.

Within seconds, the red coated man was fully sucked in, never to be seen by anyone in any form ever again. Watching as Solution consumed her prey were Shalltear and the combat butlers. The vampire valkyrie shrugged indifferently, not caring in the least what had happened to the drunk-looking coach driver with the red coat. "Well this is a darn shame," Shalltear said in a casual tone, "We failed to find anyone of any worth." As Shalltear remarked about the lack of any worth that she and the others had found, one of her Vampire Brides came walking over, carrying one of the bandits with her.

"Lady Shalltear, we found the nest that these humans came from," the Vampire Bride stated, as if she were giving a status report to a superior officer, "There's a man named Brain among them who can use martial arts. From what I was able to gather, this Brain fellow was able to fight on equal terms with Gazef, the royal head warrior of this kingdom."

Sebas perked up a bit at the mention of Gazef's name. "I believe that's the man considered the strongest person in the kingdom." Turning to regard Shalltear, Sebas went on, "I believe that Lord Ainz mentioned encountering that Gazef fellow when he, Lord Kurama, Albedo and Aura were in Carne Village."

Shalltear wore a look of consideration on her face as she absorbed the info that she was being given by the Great Tomb's head butler. "Well now, I believe that this Brain fellow is worth a look, then."

"Lady Shalltear," Sebas said, "I'm afraid that we have to part ways here. Solution, the other butlers and I have a mission in the capital to collect information."

The vampire valkyrie nodded once in understanding. "Very well. Let's meet back up again over in Nazarick, then." With an acknowledging nod, Sebas rounded up Solution, Ricochet and the nekomata twins, loaded them all back into the carriage, and took off for the capital. Shalltear, with her two Vampire Brides by her side, saw the party off. When the carriage was out of sight, Shalltear had her Vampire Bride that captured the bandit lead her to the human nest, so as to get this Brain fellow.

A distance away from where the bandits were slaughtered by Shalltear's Vampire Brides, a cave that was repurposed into a bandit hideout was crawling a bit with activity. In a back hidden room in the hideout, a man was sitting on a cot, wiping the blade of a katana with a cloth to clean it. This man had lightly tanned skin and blue, shoulder length hair. He wore a black shirt, tannish pants, brown boots, and a belt that the scabbard of his katana hung from. As this man sat on his cot, he heard a ruckus going on outside of his room. With a bit of a curious smirk, the man got up, remarking aloud, "The hell's going on outside?"

The man left his room, walked through the bandit hideout cave. As he walked, the man was encountered by one of the bandits, who had a look of relief on his face. The blue-haired man also noted that this bandit fellow had clearly been running from something that utterly terrified him. "Mr. Brain!" the bandit said, identifying the blue-haired man as Brain, the very person that was being sought out by Shalltear (not that Brain knew that yet), "We're being attacked!"

"Well that much is obvious," Brain replied dryly, "How many?"

"Just two," the bandit replied, drawing a bit of surprise out of Brain. What further surprised Brain was when his fellow continued, "Both of them are women!"

The blue-haired man, although his interest and curiosity were piqued, was not anywhere near as alarmed as his fellow. "I got this," Brain said as he walked in the direction that his fellow came from, "No need to come. Go strengthen our inner defenses, or something." The bandit watched as Brain walked towards the direction that the terror was in, surprised that he was being so calm about the horrors that were lying in wait ahead.

…

A splatter of blood smacked into and partly coated a lantern that was hanging along the wall of the hallway in the cave hideout as Shalltear slew another bandit. The body fell to the ground as the remaining blood from said bandit was collected by the power of the sphere of blood that was floating above Shalltear's head. As her blood orb collected blood from the slain bandits, their bodies were all drained dry, leaving them looking withered and wasted away. Shalltear gave a passing thought about how the bodies all looked prepped for one of the forms of mummification that Lord Anubis liked to use when he would create another mummy servant.

As Shalltear, with one of her Vampire Brides walking ahead of her, walked through the hallway cave, they stopped short when the Vampire Bride was slashed across her chest, leaving a rather large gouge in her person as she stumbled back. Shalltear soon saw the person responsible for attacking her servant, a blue-haired man with a katana. When the Vampire Bride regained her footing, the gouge on her upper chest area healed up instantly, the speed of which caught ended up catching the attention of the blue-haired man. The blue-haired man straightened up, rested his katana over one of his shoulders.

"A vampire, huh?" the blue-haired man remarked, "Huh, this might actually be fun."

"Are you alone?" Shalltear asked, "If so, feel free to call in all of your friends. I'll wait." Although she sounded innocent enough when she made the offer, the vampire valkyrie clearly had a hint of smug self-confidence in her tone.

It was a hint that Brain not only picked up on, but fond some degree of amusement in. "No need for that," Brain replied casually, "They'll just get in the way, regardless of how many gather."

It was then Shalltear's turn to be amused by the hint of smug self-confidence that she picked up in the words and tone of her opponent. "Well aren't you brave." Shalltear's Vampire Bride tried to stand between her mistress and the blue-haired man, but Shalltear patted her on the shoulder to get her attention, then gestured for her to stand off to the side. Obeying Shalltear dutifully, the Vampire Bride walked over to one of the walls of the cave hallway and stood up against it with her back to the wall.

Brain couldn't help but find some amusement in how the girl before him gestured for her vampiric companion to stand off to the side so that she (Shalltear) could confront him alone. "My name is Brain Unglaus," Brain said as he courteously gave his name, something he did on instinct as he was about to formally fight an opponent. He stood before Shalltear silently, as if he was waiting for something. The vampire valkyrie, for her part, also stood silently. After a few seconds of silence, Brain gestured to Shalltear with his free hand. "And you are…"

"Oh! You were asking for my name!" Shalltear remarked, sounding a bit surprised. She gently grabbed the sides of the skirt of her dress, lifted the skirt up slightly to do a curtsy. "My name is Shalltear Bloodfallen. Here's hoping that you're at least somewhat entertaining."

Brain's first impression of Shalltear was that she was a foolish monster that saw her power as unbeatable. He returned his katana to its scabbard, but kept his hand on the hilt as he crouched somewhat, assuming a stance that suggested he was going to whip his katana back out at a moment's notice. "I'm going to combine my God Flash technique with my Field technique," Brain thought as a red circle of glowing energy appeared on the ground around him, spreading out like a ripple in the water panning outward. Eventually, the red circle was large enough to encompass a fair area of the ground in the hallway.

Shalltear was a little impressed, mostly because she never saw anything like this before. She looked up from the ground where the red circle was and over to Brain. "…I'm guessing that you finished all of your prepping? Well now, I suppose I ought to start trampling you now." The vampire girl began to walk towards Brain, uncaring to whatever the blue-haired man had just done to prep himself to fight her.

"I developed both God Flash and Field in order to fight Gazef," Brain thought, "But if I combine the both of them…" Shalltear continued to walk forward, eventually crossing over the red glowing circle that was on the ground. "…Whistling Wind!" Brain exclaimed in his mind as he quickly drew his katana out, at a speed that no human being could possibly hope to keep up with, much less be able to block.

…But then again, Shalltear isn't a human. Casually, Shalltear caught the blade of Brain's katana with a simple pinch with her right thumb and index finger. The blue-haired man couldn't believe what he was seeing, even though it was right there in front of him. "…Now do you see?" said the vampire girl before Brain, "I am cruelty. I am cold. I am terror itself. I am also the true epitome of pure beauty, but that's another tale for another time." Shalltear let go of Brain's katana and did a jump backwards to give some distance. Brain, although he was a bit shaken, reaffirmed his resolve, straightening up and assuming another stance for fighting. "…Or is it that you don't have any martial arts in your arsenal?"

A look of mild confusion briefly flashed across Brain's face. "…Is that what it looked like to you just now?" Brain asked, right before rushing forward to swing his katana at Shalltear who, for her part, merely blocked the attack. …With her left pinky's nail. Brain began unleashing a mass of katana strikes at Shalltear, who not only proceeded to block them all with her aforementioned pinky nail, but gave a (somewhat exaggerated) bored yawn as she foiled every last one of Brain's attempts to strike her.

Eventually, after a few moments, Brain stopped attacking, breathing a bit hard in exhaustion as he lowered his weapon. "…Huh? Tired already?" Shalltear asked, "Sorry about that. See, here's the thing." She took a single step forward towards Brain. "I can only notice a change in strength in meters." Another single step. "A change millimeters is too small for me to notice." A third step. "Even so, if you can use martial arts, you'll still have some use to my lords."

Brain was beyond shocked, beyond able to register what he was seeing, what he was facing at that very moment. So maddened by the sheer depth of his opposition that Brain actually began to laugh a bit, before he let out an alarmed, frightened cry as he turned around and ran away with all due speed, hoping against all reason that he would be able to get away from the monster that had just shown him that, for all of his efforts and cultivated power, he was so far down the totem pole of power and strength.

"Oh, so we're playing tag now, are we?" Shalltear remarked aloud, "Huh, you sure do like to play games. I wonder if it's a human thing. Regardless…" The sphere of blood flew to Shalltear in tendrils that came out of the sphere, going to the vampire girl as she absorbed it, becoming enveloped in an aura of glowing purple energy. "…I have to end this really soon, so I'm afraid that there won't be much play time."

Deeper in the cave, a barricade had been set up, with a lot of Brain's bandit fellows taking shelter behind it. One of the bandits heard a noise in the distance. "…Commander," the bandit said to one of his fellows. The commander signaled for the men to aim their crossbows in the distance, in the direction the noise was coming from. After a short while, however, the bandits were all a bit surprised, as well as relieved, to see that it was Brain running for them.

However, the relief morphed into confusion when the blue-haired man ran past them, up to a sheet door, and went inside, leaving the bandits be. They also took note that Brain was very clearly rattled by what he was running from. The bandits were beginning to wonder what in the hell had their gang's trump card so frightened, but they soon got their answer when they heard another noise coming from the distance that Brain just came running in from.

What the bandits saw shocked and horrified them; by all appearances, it was a young teen girl, no older than fourteen, but she was FAR from being normal. She was pale-skinned, had very long and pointed ears, her white hair was very long and looked somewhat wild, and she wore a simple garment that was a dress that ended at her knees and the sleeves reached halfway down her forearms. What's more, she had a very long, pointed tongue sticking out of her mouth, which ended up being a circle of sharp, pointed teeth.

"Oh, so hide-and-seek is after tag?" the female creature remarked as she made her way forward, raising her head up and showing her horrifying face to the bandits, all of whom aimed and fired their crossbows at her. This was about as effective as pouring a bottle of water into a lake, as the creature simply rushed forward, unaffected by the bandits' efforts to strike her down. She jumped at one, latched on and bit down on the side of his neck, sucking out all of his blood until he was fully drained and dead, looking much like he was in a mummified state as his bloodless remains fell over backwards onto the floor of the cave.

The bandits were soon slaughtered one by one. One of them tried to escape, but he was not only caught by one of his ankles by the female creature, but looking around, he saw that all of his fellows had been killed and fully drained of their blood, looking fully withered. The soon fate ended up being dealt to him when the creature ended up draining all of his own blood. When the dead bandit who had tried to flee fell over into the room he was trying to get into, the creature that killed him entered the room herself.

Looking around for Brain, the creature smashed a large pile of crates, thinking that Brain was inside. However, nothing was in any of the crates, although smashing all of them did reveal to the creature that there was a hidden passageway. The creature cried out in anger, realizing that Brain had used this hidden passageway to escape her and ultimately get away. The creature went on with crying out in frustrated anger, up until the one Vampire Bride approached her.

"Lady Shalltear," the Vampire Bride began, "A number of humans are on their way here." The creature, revealed to be a transformed Shalltear, considered this info for a bit before she rushed out of the cave to confront the humans that were outside. There were a total of six adventurers; three generic warriors, a magic-user, a holy magic-user, and Brita (not that Shalltear knew or cared who Brita was, mind you).

All of the humans looked rattled by the vampire girl's monstrous appearance. "So it was a vampire!" one of the male adventurers declared, sounding as if his suspicions had just been confirmed, "Everyone, prepare your weapons with silver!" The adventurers went about putting a silver liquid on their respective weapons, hoping that the addition would help with fighting the vampire that stood before them. "Don't look into their eyes!" the same adventurer warned, "Also, we're going to try to fight so we can escape!"

"I want to kill them, but I know I have to capture them," Shalltear thought as she considered the humans in front of her, "I want to rip them asunder and bathe in all of their blood!" The vampire girl rushed forward, slaughtering the three male warriors without issue. As she finished killing the third male warrior as his blood and the blood of the first two began being collected into a giant magical sphere of blood above Shalltear's head, the vampire felt something crack against the side of her face, breaking and slightly burning her with some sort of liquid.

Looking down, Shalltear saw the smashed remains of a potion bottle. What caught her attention about this was that the smashed potion bottle remains were clearly from a red YGGDRASILL potion. Looking up, Shalltear saw that Brita was clearly the one who threw it, as the female adventurer was still in the stance of having thrown something. Brita then tried to run away from the scene, hoping that she could get away with her life.

Shalltear was never going to allow any of the humans to get away, mind you, but the fact that Brita had a red YGGDRASILL potion caught her interest. Calming down somewhat, she turned to face her Vampire Brides, the second one having just joined up. Shalltear pointed over in the direction that Brita was fleeing in. "Capture that human woman alive." The two Vampire Brides nodded obediently as they turned to go after Brita. While that happened, Shalltear turned back to face the two magic-casters, killing them both without issue.

…

By the time the two Vampire Brides caught and brought Brita over, Shalltear had fully changed back to her normal appearance. The female adventurer was thrown onto her butt on the ground, with Shalltear grabbing her face, forcing her eyes open, then looked into her eyes. Shalltear used one of her vampire powers to completely enthrall Brita, making the female adventurer willing to do whatever she said.

Holding up the top half of the smashed YGGDRASILL potion bottle, Shalltear said, "Where did you get this potion from?"

"A man in a fully covering suit of black armor gave it to me at an inn back in E-Rantel," Brita replied, her voice sounding notably charmed and yet subdued at the same time.

Shalltear was surprised by this revelation; from Brita's coerced confession, Shalltear learned that Brita was given the potion by one of the Supreme Beings, that being Lord Ainz himself. She was worried about this woman as she must have been given orders by Lord Ainz, or perhaps he was trying to create friendly ties with the female adventurer. Regardless of what was going on here, Shalltear questioned her enthralled captive further. "Why did you come here?"

"We were looking to track down some bandits that used to be soldiers," the hypnotized Brita replied, "Something seemed to be a bit off, so we split the team. We had a ranger stationed a bit of a ways away just in case something cropped up. At this point, I suspect that he's heading on his way towards E-Rantel as we speak."

Shalltear was instantly alarmed and worried, as this was a major slip-up on her part. If those humans ended up getting away, it would prove to be a major breech of security for the Great Tomb, resulting in Shalltear, who allowed it to occur, to get into even more trouble, draw even more displeasure from the Supreme Beings. There was no way that Shalltear was going to let this slide, especially since Aura would no doubt hold this little mess-up over her head.

The vampire girl rushed out, eventually made her way to the top of a large tree a bit of a ways away from where she was. Using one of her powers, Shalltear summoned a number of shadow creatures to assist her in cleaning up the mess that she had inadvertently made. "Consume every human in the forest, my children!" Shalltear ordered as her shadow creatures rushed out to do the bidding of their master.

As the shadow creatures rushed out, Shalltear let out a frustrated scream. "I can't believe I allowed two humans to escape!" the vampire valkyrie exclaimed, "The supreme ones are bound to scold me for this serious mess-" Shalltear was cut off mid-sentence when she saw a bright bluish-white flash in the distance in the forest. "…Some of my children were defeated?" Even more enraged by what she knew to be the sign that some of her shadow creature were killed, the vampire girl transformed back into her monstrous form and rushed off in the direction that she saw the bluish-white flash of light in.

A number of humans were standing around in the area that they found and killed a number of shadow creatures in. Some were wearing notable suits of armor, but aside from one young adult man with long black hair, most of them looked like hired hands. There was also a rather elderly looking lady in the group, wearing a white with gold highlights qipao dress with a dragon-esque pattern on the body. This lady was flanked by two bodyguards.

"The creature is coming this way," one of the random men in the somewhat large group remarked, assuming a stance to be ready to fight at a moment's notice. The others in the group all looked poised to fight the oncoming creature that was surly making its way towards their direction. The elderly lady in the qipao dress was ready, if absolutely necessary, to use the power hidden within her dress on the creature. All in all, the humans were as prepared to face the undead horror that was making its way towards them.

…They never considered the possibility that the undead had some non-undead allies doing unrelated activities nearby. One such example was a maid outfit-wearing girl with long, icy-blue hair. A dead human ranger laid on the ground at her feet next to a small burlap bag filled with various gathered herbs, his corpse peppered with arrows. The maid girl turned her head in the direction that the human group was in. Despite the massive distance, the maid girl was able to see the humans clearly; it probably had something to do with that white crosshair pattern on her one visible blue eye, the other one covered by an eyepatch.

"…Those humans are undoubtedly here to gather the herbs that Setsuna wants to use in experimenting to create a new poison that she can apply to her long dagger to deal more damage in the long run," Kinoko Roku remarked aloud to herself, readying her bow with an arrow. "Those herbs belong to Setsuna since she said that she wanted them," Kinoko remarked as she raised her bow and took aim, "They're trying to take what Setsuna already has dibs on. They're essentially trying to rob her, so those humans all have to die like this human ranger at my feet."

The automaton archer girl considered all of the humans that were in the group that were after Setsuna's claimed herbs, until she spotted the elderly lady in the dress. "...That one looks like the only magic-caster in the group, so I'll eliminate her first to save as much trouble in the long run as possible," Kinoko said as the arrow she had readied on her bow glowed with a blackish energy. She then released the string of her bow, allowing the glowing arrow to fly at the intended target…

…

The humans in the group waiting for the undead monster to come in were waiting with caught breaths, nervous about the monstrosity that was headed their way. As they waited around, some of the humans heard what sounded like a very faint whistling sound. "…Hey," the young adult man with the long hair remarked aloud, "Does anyone else hear that whistling? It sounds like someone had just-"

The long-haired young adult man stopped short when he and everyone else heard the sound of a head exploding. Turning around, the long-haired young adult man saw that the elderly lady in the qipao dress had suddenly been killed, evident by the fact that her head exploded into giblets and one giblet bit had an arrow sticking out of it. All of the men were shocked by the sudden death of the elderly lady, her headless body falling over unceremoniously to the ground.

The men had no time to ponder the elderly lady's sudden death, as the long-haired young adult man turned around and saw, to his shock and horror, that a hailstorm of arrows was falling down from the night skies above, the metal tips gleaming in the moonlight. The long-haired young adult man used some manner of defensive skill that he had in order to protect himself from being killed, although he did end up taking an arrow to the knee.

The rest of his fellows weren't as lucky, as out of everyone in the long-haired young adult man's group, it was just the long-haired young adult man himself that ended up being the only survivor. Having no time to consider anything aside from the fact that there was an unseen archer shooting at him and his party, as well as the fact that he was now alone in facing the powerful undead horror that was coming his way, the long-haired man quickly took out a magical item and used its power to get himself out of there via teleporting away.

…

A few seconds after the long-haired young adult man had teleported away, Shalltear in her monstrous form finally rushed out into that area. However, she noticed that all of the humans in the area were already dead and on the ground, their remains peppered with arrows. It was due to the sheer confusion that she felt seeing this scene that Shalltear transformed back to her normal form. "…An internal struggle for power of the group?" Shalltear remarked aloud as she tried to guess at what had gone down. She walked over to where all of the dead humans laid, figuring that, at the very least, she could loot all of them.

As such, Shalltear ended up taking everything that all of the dead humans had on their persons, using her Vampire Brides as beasts of burden to carry everything for her when the two undead underlings of hers showed up to assist her. Shalltear didn't give too much thought to some of the swords that the humans had or the dress worn by the dead headless old woman, but if the Supreme Beings saw value in looting anything and everything from those that they slain, then the vampire girl figured that she'll take what all was left behind by those who killed the humans.

With all of the gathered treasures in two large sacks carried on the backs of the Vampire Brides, Shalltear took her leave, feeling fairly safe in the notion that who or whatever killed all of these humans had also killed the two humans that escaped her. The vampire valkyrie wished that she could meet who or whatever saved her all of this trouble, but she had more important things to take care of, such as giving a report of her work on her current mission thus far to the Supreme Ones, as well as bringing to them all of the looted treasures that she had collected.

The treasures gathered by Lord Ainz and Uncle Kurama during the Theocracy men incident were unimpressive to the standard that Nazarick had, which is what Shalltear suspected was the main reason why all of said loot from the incident was given to the humans. Due to that standard, she had a lot of doubt that any and all of what she had gathered would impress any the Supreme Ones, who she was suspecting would do with her gathered loot what they did with what they gathered from the Theocracy men a while ago.

Regardless, Shalltear had a slight sliver of hope that this gesture of hers would get her at least some measure of atonement for her part in the spat that she got into with Aura, an embarrassment that the two female floor guardians were both still in trouble for. It was with seemingly foolish hope of even some redemption that Shalltear, with her two Vampire Brides carrying her loot for her, made her way back to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, to drop off said loot and give a status report of her mission thus far to the Supreme Ones.

Shalltear never discovered that Kinoko was in the woods nearby, gathering herbs for Setsuna to use in making some poisons.

To say that the World Heritage Lords that were at Nazarick were impressed with the qipao dress from the gathered loot Shalltear brought to them would be the understatement of forever when Pierre recognized said qipao dress as the World Item known as Downfall of Castle and Country. "Dudes, when Ainz and Thor get back, we have got to tell them about this!" Anubis said as he gestured to where the World Item laid on the long table in Ainz's office, along with some of the other gathered loot Shalltear returned with.

"Yeah, no kidding," Perseus replied dryly, his arms crossed over his chest as his lone cyclops eye regarded the pharaonic werewolf cleric, "Shalltear brought a friggin' World Item to us. That in and of itself brings up a number of facts that we need to keep in mind for the future."

Kurama nodded in agreement as he and the others stood around in Ainz's office, where they were taking inventory of what Shalltear brought to them. "First off, this confirms that there are other World Items in this world. Knowing that even a single World Item can on its own induce a major change that would alter the very world itself, the fact that World Items that are not in our collection is a major red flag we need to take measures to protect our interests from."

"There's also the fact that, given what Downfall of Castle and Country does, we dodged a huge bullet," Roberto remarked, "If the persons that Shalltear collected the item from had used it on her, we would be in a LOT of trouble, as it would fully bypass even Shalltear's total resistance to mind control as an undead. And with Shalltear under their control, they most likely would had made her lead them to our doorstep, and that's a can of worms I don't want to ever see opened."

"A good thing that can of worms will be remaining closed, then," Pierre commented, "As the opener for that can was not only never used, but handed to us on a silver platter, with a nice little bow on top." The gargoyle swordsman gave a single nod, an amused looking smirk on his face. "And we have mademoiselle Shalltear to thank for that."

The other World Heritage Lords (that were present) all nodded in agreement with Pierre. "I don't know about you guys," Perseus remarked, "But in regards to how Shalltear and Aura are both still on disciplinary probation for their little scuffle earlier, I think that we ought to at least think about letting Shalltear off the hook for her part."

"I was going to say we should not only let Shalltear off the hook in full," Anubis began as he raised a hand, "But that we do something to reward her. I mean, it's clear that she's more than made up for her part in the little screw up with Aura earlier." The werewolf cleric's suggestion was met with nods and remarks of approval from the others, with Pierre saying that they should at least wait for Ainz and Thor to return so the seven of them can discuss it together.

END, CHAPTER NINE

Author's notes;

Shalltear not rebelling is the first major deviation to the plot that I was talking about. …Well, it's actually part of the first major deviation; the second part will crop up in the next chapter. Anyway, I apologize in advance if this seemed really cheap to some of you, but Shalltear not being brainwashed is necessary for this AU story, given that there are a couple of elements that I want to explore. Also, it allows for the second part of the first major deviation to occur, and that is necessary for a rather simple explanation.

As we all know, when Shalltear rebelled in the series proper, Ainz alone resolved the matter. With what I have in mind, Ainz and all of the World Heritage Lords are going to have fun teaching those who dared to interfere with the plottings of the Great Tomb a lesson in why doing so would require their lives as a lesson fee. But what, exactly, is the second part of the first major deviation to the plot, you may ask? Well, the next chapter will fill you all in on that, but I'll leave you with this hint to give you something to consider;

Part of the reason why I royally screwed the guys who normally would have brainwashed Shalltear over as much as I did is because they're from the Slane Theocracy, and I hate those f***ers with a burning passion (so forgive me if I take a few liberties to bully the Theocracy here). But the Theocracy isn't the only entity from the series proper that I do not like in the least. There exists a character from the Overlord series, who didn't appear yet in the anime (at the time t his chapter came out) mind you, that I hate about as much as the Theocracy, give or take. I've even given a hint as to who this person is in an earlier chapter of this AU story.

This person will be playing a very important role in the second part of the first major deviation, which will crop up in the next chapter like I said. Anyway, I think that I've said enough, so I will be seeing you all next time.