“Hey… Why do you think we haven’t met any… opposition? Aren’t we supposed to fight? This test…”

  Hekkeran spoke, his eyes still locked oh ahead while he trusted his rades to watch his babsp;

  “Maybe… we misuood. Are we supposed to fight…? Or just to follow and trust in Arche’s words?”

  Imina suggested, simirly fused as she scratched her ears.

  “Perhaps… Or maybe we are beio the fight. We’ve heard screaming, who knows how many are still alive. I only… Who say?”

  The cleric spoke, before ging his mind and simply clutched his mace tighter against his body.

  Soon, they reached the four way interse they were told of, and stopped. And a few moments ter a figure appeared.

  “You finally came…”

  CZ’s familiar, monotone voice resounded, alerting them. And all began tthen their grips on their ons, not actually brandishing them, but to have it ready to defend themselves.

  “Yes… Now please give us back Arche!”

  Hekkeran demanded with more ce tharuly felt. Just by being before her, he could feel cold sweat dampening his already drenched shirt anew.

  He just wao get Arche bad leave with everyone, and never e back. But to his disappoi, the maid shook her head.

  “I don’t have her. I’m only here to lead you to her. If you stay with me, you’ll be safe until you get to the arena. After that… Well, the rest is up to you.”

  “...How do we know we trust you?”

  The beautiful albeit expressionless girl looked fused and replied in a deadpan tone.

  “I never lie… I am created by the Supreme Beings. I have no reason to lie to you. Follow me, and you will see Arche.”

  She turned, and walked further into the dark halls, not waiting for them to follow suit.

  Hekkera his team’s eyes on the back of his head, but uo think of what else to do, he followed.

  Then, they finally realized why the maid had warhem to stay close.

  Monsters he had only heard of, demons of wrath, elder liches, and bizzare creatures with numerous tentacles and strange horns, all were present all along around them. They could only barley see the few that was touched by the faint torchlight as they passed, but their instincts told them that more must be lurking within the darkness.

  If they hadn’t obeyed… Hekkaren didn’t even want to even begin to think what would’ve happened if they entered these things without the maid as their escort.

  It was a long walk, spent in utter silence, until a pair of maids from another hall came and fell in beside the pink-haired maid and began chatting amiably, as if Fht was ent.

  Ead every one of them were peerless beauties. tradictory as it was, it was the only way Hekkeran, Roberdyck, and even Imina could think of when they saw them.

  The pink haired maid treated the duo of maids very differently. While she was still expressionless, they could tell there was warmth in her voice that was absent when she was talking to them.

  The trio bade farewell and parted as they saw, in a distance, a portcullis rose up to reveal a much brighter area beyond.

  “Go there… You’ll find what you’re searg for.”

  CZ said, and they looked following her gaze.

  Up ahead was erected a dark iron wall in the middle of the sands, and to their dark wall, was their rade, ed in s.

  “Arche!”

  The trio shouted and rushed past where CZ stood. Their attention was solely focused on Arche and they moved so quickly that they almost missed the two pairs of figures who stood beside their bound rade.

  One was a masked robed magic caster, and by his side was a dark-feather winged young man. On the opposite side of the wall was a devilishly handsome man- no, multi-winged devil, and to his side, a Goddess in the form of a demohat personified a heavenly ag beauty at the same time.

  “Halt!”

  The masked magic caster bellowed with a voice of thunder and held a gloved hand out over the forehead of their captive panion. In his other hand a golden staff of incalcuble value snapped down to point at the trio in a gesture that could only be called threatening.

  The waves of sand they kicked up as they ran stopped instantly, fear of what the unknown figures might do was visible on each of their faces and none of the three could even make an attempt to hide it.

  The same noble voice then ra once more, the staff the mysterious caster held in his hand swept out in front of him, and the bright lights grew brighter as the fmes of torches tripled in size, illuminating a vast number of stone golems serving as stand-ins for an audienbsp;

  "My name is Ainz Ooal Gown. Wele to the Great Tomb of Nazarick; Our home."

  The robbed magic caster spread his arms in a grand, weliure.

  Arche’s eyes widened as soon as he spoke.

  “You guys… You… You came for me…Heh, I k… I knew you would…”

  The little blonde caster said with a pride so great she was choked on the emotion.

  And now, seeing the… beings before them, Hekkeran truly had no idea what to do. To fight the beings who had a servant that could crush him at a moment's notice was simply unthinkable.

  Especially the multi-winged devil… It felt like he was looking straight into the darkest nights, a bottomless abyss, and ao the infinite. A gnce was enough to make it feel like the air ushing him to the ground.

  Imina came to the idea first and k, ying her bow beside her, bending one knee while the other bent back, and lowered her head.

  “Lord Ainz… What do we have to do to get her back? Please… Whatever she has doo offend yhtiness and your friends… There must be some way to make it right.”

  Following her lead, Hekkeran and Roberdyck simirly id their ons in the sands while bowing their heads.

  “Please, great lord… She has sisters that need her care. They’ve dohing to you.”

  Hekkeran asked with the greatest humility he could muster.

  “Her sisters are here as well, for the same reason she is.”

  Their eyes widened in shock at the revetion.

  With the Furt’s household burned down, they thought her sisters would’ve been engulfed in the fmes as well.

  The s that bound Arche to the iron wall went taut and rattled as she yanked herself against them.

  “Please! Just leave! Leave me be! Saying goodbye to you was my final request! You’re my friends! My only friends! I don’t want you to pay for my mistakes! Just be tent with a goodbye! Stand up! Walk out of here! Our lives are over! Don’t give up yours!”

  “No.”

  Hekkerane replied with certainty, gring at Arche through teary eyes, and the two others showed the same vi.

  ‘So you’re a rich girl… Why would you be in a pce like this?’

  ‘Because I want to be an adventurer!’

  “This pce is for workers, little girl. Go use your daddy’s pull to get you in there.’

  ‘My father is who got me bcklisted from there… so it’s either w or nothing, and I’m not just going to do nothing. Just give me a ce… ANd my name is not little girl. It’s Arche. I’ll be useful, I promise.’

  “...Screw it.”

  Hekkeran so the present and reached slowly for his sword.

  “... To my uanding, if we could do well in a fight, you might let someone go.”

  “Hekkeran! Just… Why don’t you listen to me o time?! You don’t have to do this!”

  Arche shouted to where she was secured.

  Then, from her side, Ainz raised his head to look past the trio.

  “... Yuri, is there anyo alive amongst the invaders?”

  “No, my lord. Besides the three before you, everyone else has perished or wishing they were.”

  Ainz then turned his masked face back at the trio in the sands.

  “Do you think you win? Do you think you eveertain me?”

  Ainz asked as if an ant had challenged him to an arm wrestle.

  Then, from the side, the multi-winged devil stepped forward, the bell-like king of his jet-bd crimson armor resounding with every step. From his hand, a beautiful, celestial sword appeared, glowing in heavenly starlight, juxtaposing the darkhat he seemed to embody.

  It was as if he was looking at not only death, but the eternal darkhat would wele him soon after in its pitiless, bottomless eyes.

  “No… But my rade is over there. Her sisters are there. It doesn’t matter. I ’t simply walk away with them in danger! Whatever she did… even if she were to suffer from it… even if I ’t fight… Let her walk out! A me take her pce!”

  His every word, his promise was ripped out of his throat as if by hooks as he shot from his kneeling position to a stand to fight his adversary.

  “If a fight is worthless, then take me instead! I’ll make my goodbyes! Just let Arche and her sisters leave! Please… you’ve shown your power… Powers beyond mortal imagination. I beg you… Please show grace…”

  “You wish to trade your one life for their three? I’m no mert, but I know my numbers. One life is worth only that… One I will permit. Arche may leave and you may take her pce, but her sisters…”

  ““I’ll stay too!””

  Imina and Roberdyck shot up in unison as they made their decration.

  “My Hekkeran is staying, so I would’ve stayed anyway. But if it could save my rade’s little sisters, fair trade… I robably nearing the end of the road anyway.”

  "I am a priest, who would listen to a priest that would leave a child in merciless hands?"

  Roberdyk asked rhetorically.

  "There… you have your three lives. We will be substitutes for them. Whatever punishment she and her sisters were to suffer, we'll take for them. One life, for one life. That is what you said, isn't it, Mighty Lord?"

  Hekkeran asked, words tumbled out in a frantic rush,

  "Please… it costs you nothing. Py god with our lives and hers, alter their fates, I… I beg you."

  A heavy silehen, the simirly heavy voice resounded once more.

  “You have no idea what she has done. What tortures and horrible viles my servants may subject them to. And who knows how long they might go on? A day, a month, a year, perhaps even more than a lifetime.”

  “I… I uand. But still… my offer stands.”

  Hekkeran said, closing his eyes and bowing his head, both in vi and surrender.

  The twin swords fell into the sands from nerveless fingers.

  “Hekkeran!”

  Arche shouted.

  “Imina… Roberdyck… You… dummies…”

  She slumped her head to sob.

  Their eyes were closed, those of Fht’s free members, waiting for the iable.

  Which was why they heard the noise first.”

  A slow, but steady g sound. Two pairs.

  Hekkeran’s eyes fluttered open.

  The source was… the magic caster and a multi-winged angel who stood where the devil of darkness was.

  There was fusion. And just then, the bewitg demoness snapped her fingers, and the heavy iron s dropped to the ground like heavy lead.

  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man y down his life for his friends. So it is said in the Gospel of Mark.”

  “What… I… I don’t uand…”

  Arche stepped down from the stand and rushed as fast as she could, diving into Hekkeran’s arms and giving him a tight embrace around his nebsp;

  “You did it!!! I told my masters that you would! I k!!!”

  Arche shouted in aement that pletely stuhe trio, her feet dangling just above the grounds as she held onto the still dazed and fused Hekkeran before pnting a kiss on his cheek and dropping down to the sands again.

  “I… Arche…?”

  “W-What in the world is going on?!”

  “It was a test.”

  Arche said and stepped back from Hekkeran so she could see her friends.

  Then, she began expining everything to them. Her father and mother’s debts. The dahat was ing. The arrival of Sebas. The sale of her sisters into svery that instead had them delivered to her now masters’ hands, and her own vow of loyalty to the one who had saved them all.

  “But… the fire? Your mansion…”

  Hekkeran stammered, and Arche looked behio her masters.

  “I didn’t set a fire… Lords and mistress?”

  “Nor did we.”

  Ainz answered on behalf of Yuuji, Aika, and Leloubsp;

  Arche bowed her head in silence for a moment.

  “Then… it robably my mother. She had her faults, but she loved my sisters. The thought of them being sold as sves must’ve been too much for her. She probably burned down the house with herself io punish… her husband.”

  “Damn…”

  Hekkeran whispered.

  Arche then expined her training, the experiments that greatly increased her body and magical ability, and finally, the Supreme Beings’ desire for loyal servants that were driven by more than personal gain.

  “A talent always be raised. Abilities, be nurtured. And experiences built. But ones loyalty and their nature, which has been molded sihe beginning, would be much harder to ge. And we wish to find those who think alike. Those who would choose their friends, their family, over any material gains in the world.”

  The multi-winged angel spoke, his golden eyes gleaming with brilliant stars and his hair shining with a divine halo. He waved his hands, and a refreshing summer breeze blew past them and their bodies glowed in golden light.

  “This is…”

  “Amazing…”

  “A divine blessing…”

  Hekkeran, Imina, and Roberdyck all looked around their bodies, and found all of their injuries, scars, illness, fatigue, old and new, all disappeared like it never existed, and rejuveheir energies.

  The cleric’s eyes shoh a look of reverence as he beheld the holiness before him, and unsciously held onto his holy symbol. This was the first time he had ever looked at a true God of Light, Healing, and Mer the eyes.

  Meanwhile, Hekkeran and Imina looked at the angel in shock. They recalled the figure of the devil that seemed like a bottomless abyss before in his pbsp;

  “A-Aren’t you… A devil?”

  The angel simply smiled.

  “I am. But I am also an angel. It's… a bit plicated. But I am both. And I am just like you.”

  As uneducated as they were in religion and those stuff pared to Roberdyck, Hekkeran and Imina could barely interpret the profoundness of his words. However, they still got the gist of it.

  He’s an angel, and at the same time, a devil. The embodiment of good, and the symbol of evil. Ahe same as them.

  Perhaps, what he was trying to say was that humans could be an angel or a devil themselves. Everything depended ohoughts and their as.

  Just then, the beautiful, celestial sword in his hand glowed brightly, momentarily blinding them. Then in its pce, a small, beautiful, white-haired girl appeared hugging the angel by his waist.

  “Master… Are we done…?”

  Hekkeran, Imina, and Roberdyck could not even begin to prehend what just happen. A sword turning into a… human? No… it’s definitely not human. But evehey’ve never heard of such a thing. They didn’t even know such a thing could exist.

  The angel smiled softly at the little girl, rubbed her head gently, and nodded.

  “We’re almost done. Wait just a bit more, okay?”

  She nodded, and buried her face against his waist in a tighter hug before he turowards the trio once again.

  “Any questions?”

  “W-What about… your sisters?”

  Hekkeran asked.

  “They’re doing great. They’re probably on the sixth floor pying in the ke. We got a little there.”

  Arche said, and couldn’t help but ugh when their jaws dropped when she casually mentiohe ke.

  “And… What about us…? We’re… not going to die or anything, really?”

  Imina pressed.

  “No. My masters want to offer you work, perma wive them your oath, your absolute loyalty… and everything you feared will bee a distant memory, while everything you ever hoped for will be in reach.”

  Arche said with an almost motherly warmth.

  “...Why don’t you just hire us? Why the theatrics? Why the “Arche the prisoner” routine?”

  Hekkeran asked, his entire body felt pletely drained of the will to even move, and he slowly sank to his knees again.

  "To see if you were worth it. The rest of your terparts wanted nothing but to steal, several even abaheir own team members to die. If you had touched even one single … you would have joihem."

  Ainz answered, and rapped his golden staff to the ground onbsp;

  "This precious tomb's wealth is more than just wealth. It is the many memories I built with my precious friends. It's ohing to use that wealth t greater glory to it. It is ao let thieves dirty my home with their footsteps and rob it blind."

  Ainz took up his floating staff again and approached the kneeling leader, standing beside Arche, he removed his glove and held out his hand.

  “I see… Well, Arche will still owe us a drink after all of this.”

  "So… you're… yoing to accept my masters’ offer?"

  Arche's voice went up a few notches in pitd she clutched her staff like it was the only thing keeping her afloat after a shipwreck.

  "Yes… we came all this way. If your masters value loyalty so much, value you so much… It's… we've traded worse odds. And if Erya died here, that is just further proof that this is the right choice."

  Hekkeran replied,and looked over his shoulder.

  "You with me?"

  "Anywhere."

  “Always.”

  The pair replied.

  Hekkeran took Ainz's hand at the fingers and raised his face up to meet the mask the caster wore and spoke.

  "Fht, mighty lord, has always found its strength in mutual trust. More times than I t, my rades are why I lived, and each of us say the same of the others. The words you recited a little while ago perfectly say what we've always held in our hearts, even if we didn't have a way to say them. Arche would never have gohis far, if it wasn't worthwhile many times over."

  Hekkeran stopped for a moment, thinking of what to say best to voice his vow. But in the end, he chose to not use any flowery words he knew he wasn’t eloquent enough to use, and simply spoke his mind a.

  “I promise I mean every word… I vow myself, Fht pledges itself, to yhty names. We shall carry out your will until our bodies break and we o longer move. Together.”

  Hekkeran kissed the ring of the Lord of the Tomb after his oath.

  “Very well. The oath is made. Now, begin to prove you truly mean every word.”

  Ainz looked down at Arche, who immedialtey fell to one knee.

  “Take your panions and… have a drink. Then, go to “the room” for their elevation. Lelouch, I leave them to you?”

  “At once, master.”

  “Yes. I’ll oversee their elevation.

  Then, with CZ leading them out of the Amphitheatre, Fht left for the first drink they’ve had in a while.

  “Yuuji, Aika, I think it's time for us to return to Re-Estize.”

  Yuuji and Aika nodded.

  “Sure. We’ll go first thing tomorronned.”

  “Okay~”

  Ainz then used “Message” to tact Lupusregina.

  [“Lupusregina, see about the prisoners’ fates a bae before we return to Re-Estize.”]

  [“Yes, my lord. But… five me for asking, my lord. Re-Estize, is it? Not e?”]

  [“We will revisit the matters in e when things have progressed further. For now, we’ll inform our “Ally” that the Kingdom of Nazarick had just been given its justification for war.”]

  VergsX