As if answering her daughter's call, Grant raised its front limbs, stretching its two front legs wide in a threatening stance.
A great deal of mucus flowed from its gaping maw, and upon touching the ground, it emitted a fierce acidic stench.
Crack.
Huge boulders were pierced by Grant's spider legs and shattered into two pieces as easily as tofu.
——Creak, creak... screech!!!!!!!!!
A terrifying, bizarre roar, as if from the depths of hell, echoed throughout the nest and lingered for a long time.
"Here it comes!"
Just as everyone tensed up against the fearsome monster, Grant's first move was 「Nest Operation • Death Grip」.
Thick torrents of silk shot out from the nest walls on both sides, targeting Gagaran.
In the blink of an eye, she was completely wrapped in silk from both sides, with only her head and feet exposed.
Gagaran let out a cry of terror, but immediately, she could no longer make a sound.
Because she felt an incomparable pressure—unimaginable that such pressure could come from seemingly fragile silk.
Her neck veins bulged, her face turned red, and driven by the increasing pressure, she kept shaking her head, like someone buried alive in an avalanche trying to find a gap to breathe.
The air in her lungs was completely squeezed out. The powerful magic armor 「Stare of Annihilation」 creaked, its small edges crumbling and even embedding into her muscle tissue.
Her entire body was squeezed so tightly that there was no space left. Her warhammer was bent out of shape—and so were her bones.
Realizing her fate, she threw her head back, wanting to tell her companions to stay away, but instead of a voice, only a continuous flow of blood gushed out from her mouth.
It felt as if a pear was stuck in her throat—probably her internal organs.
——And then.
"Gagaran!!"
Lakyus trembled as she saw the benefactor who had helped her leave home and embark on her adventure being crushed like a tomato.
Blood spurted from the head like rain, accompanied by fragments of meat; it also flowed from the feet, pooling into a large puddle.
Then the silk loosened and retracted into the nest walls, leaving behind a "mass" of twisted steel and blurred flesh.
"Monster!!"
Lakyus completely forgot to shout her usual long string of technique names and directly unleashed all the dark energy of the magic sword Kirinram—to its maximum.
A black greatsword several meters long appeared. Lakyus gritted her teeth to wield it, her calves bearing a pressure that would normally break bones. All her magic power seemed to be torn out and devoured by the sword.
She swung it fiercely at Grant.
And nothing happened. There was no terrified cry from the opponent, no repulsion of the dreadful nightmare, not even a scratch on the foe.
It was like sweeping a toothpick across a rock face.
"What—how, is this possible?!"
Grant began to move at incredible speed, perhaps slightly faster than Demiurge's 「Demonic Aspects • Eight Limbs' Swiftness」.
In the blink of an eye—before Lakyus could adjust from her swinging stance—Grant was already in front of her.
A foul stench assaulted her, fear surged in her heart, and then—
"Ee—aaaaah!"
The magic sword flew out of her hand, and Lakyus fell backward. Not from impact, but because her left calf was pierced by Grant's talon and pinned to the ground.
The monster's saliva dripped onto her leg, immediately corroding the smooth skin, spreading like rust. But this pain seemed trivial compared to the calf bone being pierced.
Then, Grant subtly moved the talon stuck in Lakyus's calf. Realizing what the monster intended, Lakyus cried out:
"Don't————! Ugh——!!"
Grant's talon twisted in Lakyus's calf like a screwdriver, splitting her calf bone in two.
But she was aadamantite-rank adventurer after all. Lakyus didn't howl again—amazingly, she only pounded the hard ground frantically with her hands until her fists turned bloodred.
「Crystal Knight Lance」!
The huge blue-white crystal lance shattered like foam before hitting Grant.
「Magic Resistance Break Maximum • Crystal Dagger」!
But the result was the same.
"Dammit!!!! 「Teleportation」! 「Teleportation」! 「Teleportation」!!!"
However, the effect of 「Dimensional Lock」 still persisted. The only thing that escaped the young girl's lips were meaningless cries.
Grant understood her daughter's wish and decided to leave those harassing her with low-level magic for last.
She raised another leg, swaying above Lakyus to choose a target, and then—
「Flame Explosion Formation」!
「Smoke Formation」!
From Grant's shadow, two ninjas flashed out left and right, casting combinable ninjutsu.
As expected, neither jutsu affected Grant, but combined, they created a fierce flame curtain to obscure the enemy's vision—
A spider leg immediately pierced through the thick smoke, accurately stabbing Tina's abdomen.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, but she still smiled, for they hadn't come to "attack"… She firmly grasped Grant's leg, twisting her spasming body in pain to lock it with her legs, just to bind one of Grant's legs.
Tia ignored Tina completely—simply signing "Sorry"—and dashed toward Lakyus. If it were Tia pierced, Tina would have done the same.
Her mission was to free her beloved captain from this cruel fate as soon as possible.
In other words, to kill Lakyus in the most merciful way.
But—
Their "swift" actions were far too slow in Grant's eyes.
Deliberately not piercing Tia, it let her run close. The moment Tia thought she'd succeeded and aimed to slash Lakyus's snow-white neck, silk sprayed from Grant's mouth and bound her.
Then the silk retracted.
Tia was bitten horizontally in Grant's mouth. Fine fangs crushed her abdomen, and blood and pink innards spilled onto Lakyus's chest.
Before being eaten, Tia could only say, "…Sorry, Ghost Leader…"
"Tia————Ugh!!"
Lakyus tried to rise and pull Tia out of the monster's mouth, but before she could reach, a new spider leg pierced her shoulder, pinning her firmly to the ground.
Then the arm trying to pick up the magic sword… then the other. Blood bubbles rose in her mouth, and she had to exert all her strength to stop herself from uttering ugly wails.
In her tear-filled vision, Tina, still clutching the spider leg, was slammed into the ground and split in two.
Finally, it was her turn. Grant's sharp talon hung high above her field of vision.
Slowly, slowly, it descended.
Piercing bit by bit through her eyes, gradually drilling through her last spark of life.
Ridiculously, Lakyus's final thought wasn't of her family, but of her uncle, the captain of 「Red Drop」, Azuth.
That carefree man would have surely avoided this, right?—she thought.
Then, her beautiful life came to an end.
Some distance away, Iburiel was kneeling on the ground—or rather, half-prostrate.
Supporting herself with her hands, enormous emotions surged like an endless storm in her heart. Tears that shouldn't exist fell large and heavy to the ground—they were blood. Forced up through the tear ducts by emotion, the blood of the undead.
——What's happening? What on earth… is going on!!!!
Her fingers dug into the hard ground, unable to stop even when her nails broke, like a spasm.
She kept asking herself, no, torturing herself.
What's happening?
Why has it come to this?
Who, what on earth, caused this?
The answer was herself.
A being who had lived two hundred years, a strong one in the eyes of mortals, a woman who is praised far and wide —「The Extinction (The Country Destroyer)」.
This person had ignored the clues she'd captured, ignored the constant warnings from two hundred years of adventure, and placed her beloved teammates in such a terrible hell.
For what?
For what had this woman committed such a ridiculous mistake?
——Love.
"Hah…"
"Haha, hahahahaha, hahahahahaha!! Love! Hahaha, hahahahaha! Love!!"
Edoma approached slowly, tilting her head in confusion.
"What's wrong? Why are you laughing?"
Had her actions not worked? Was this person actually driven mad with joy by her teammates' deaths? That was infuriating!
But she couldn't waste Lord Ainz's time. It was already a great favor that Lord Ainz allowed Mother to act. Though displeased, she had to proceed to the next step.
"…The original plan was for me to eat you slowly… but Lord Pandora Actor said you're an undead, without pain, so torturing you is meaningless…"
Edoma didn't know she was approaching a truly dangerous being.
A "bomb".
Iburiel wasn't listening to Edoma at all.
——Love. A small flutter in the heart over two hundred years.
Just because of this.
Just because of this!!!
Iburiel suddenly grabbed her own small chest.
Her fingers dug into her muscles, touching the bones. But she kept digging deeper, deeper…
"Hmm? What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?"
She was trying to tear out the "enemy" within her.
The culprit behind all the tragedy—
Love!
Love!!
Where is love? This tumor! Where is it hiding in her body—
Her fingers finally grasped something soft.
Iburiel staggered to her feet.
With all her strength, without hesitation, she pulled out her own heart.
An organ that no longer beat.
A useless organ, an organ that had deceived her… the culprit behind this hell!!
——Destroy it. Destroy it all.
Iburiel's entire body began to emit an ominous "light"…
"Hmm? What's that…"
Ainz, who was watching the battle, of course saw this scene.
In the image, Iburiel was staggering, extremely abnormal.
She seemed on the verge of collapsing and dying, yet at the same time, it was as if some enormous power was surging within her, trying to break free and unleash itself.
"This is… Lord Ainz, it seems to be some kind of trump card…"
"I know," Ainz interrupted Demiurge, who was slightly nervous, narrowing the flames in his eye sockets.
Beside him, Renner thought to herself, "So it's starting."
Renner had withheld one piece of information.
Indeed, Iburiel hadn't told Renner about her innate special ability, but she had explicitly mentioned that her innate ability "has the power to destroy a city".
Renner hadn't revealed this information.
This was Renner's "test" of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
Although it sounded arrogant, as the sole bearer of this information, Renner could indeed do this. This was the power of information.
Renner wanted to know if the seemingly invincible Nazarick could ever be "threatened".
Her dream was to live with Climb in an "absolutely safe" manor, and she had to fully understand if there were any flaws or weaknesses in this manor.
Was it truly invulnerable? Did it have not even the slightest weakness?…
(Hmph… How could that be.)
Such a thing, Renner could assert, did not exist.
Any existence—all things in this world, even true gods, even the world itself—must have "weaknesses".
So-called "perfection" was just flattery for the vain.
Blindly believing the tomb was invulnerable was a naive thought.
(…If a force that can threaten Nazarick appears one day… I must then weigh which side has a greater chance of winning and choose to continue helping Nazarick… or betray the tomb.)
And for this future choice, Renner had to figure out Nazarick's flaws.
But Nazarick's power was so immense that Renner felt like a blind man touching an elephant, unable to recognize the tomb's true form. To obtain accurate information, she had to keep proving it with "experiments".
Blue Rose, or more precisely, Iburiel, was the tool Renner used to test Nazarick.
This was just the beginning. In future intelligence work, Renner would continue to accumulate puzzle pieces, eventually piecing together the true… outline of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
(Poor things… You shall become stepping stones to my happiness with Climb. If we have a daughter in the future, I might even use your names to commemorate you…)
(——Oh, the Sorcerer King is moving.)
「Gate」!
Demiurge and Albedo of course didn't stop him, and the Sorcerer King vanished into the darkness.
At the same time, Renner reached a conclusion.
——Nazarick is an invincible place, but not an invulnerable one.
(Well, as expected. It's inevitable.)
In Grant's nest, beside the crumbling Iburiel, a black door like an abyss quietly opened.
The being on the other side of the door had just extended a skeletal hand from the darkness when it chanted the decree of fate with some urgency:
——「Time Stop」!
Instantly, the flow of time was fixed.
(That was a close call. Indeed, overconfidence is the natural enemy of the strong.)
Cracks appeared all over Iburiel's body, and an extremely ominous light emanated from the cracks.
That light made Ainz feel great unease. That enormous energy was undoubtedly a mysterious trump card.
Ainz would never do the foolish thing of a shonen manga boss waiting for the heroes to unleash their ultimate move.
"…Though I think I'm overworried. But only a fool allows an enemy to unleash their trump card."
In the frozen time, Edoma was also frozen, so she didn't bow, while Grant immediately knelt in reverence. Ainz waved his hand, indicating it was fine.
And Iburiel, of course, was completely still.
Holding her own heart, her beautiful face was twisted, filled with tragedy and despair.
Ainz extended a finger toward her.
"Though it's very unfair to you, I'm sorry—I'm a selfish person. You'll return to Nazarick and tell us everything you know…"
The moment time began to flow—
——「Dominate Undead」. Stop what you're doing, Iburiel.
...