Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz)

Darkness. Deep. Cold. Silent.

EeDeChi found herself in the middle of nothingness. She looked around, but all she could see was boundless blackness. It felt as though she were floating in the chaos before the world was born.

Since jumping into the spatial rift, she had remained in this state for several hours. Her chest was filled with sadness and guilt, tormented by an endless, overwhelming sense of shame.

Surrounded by cold and silence, her heart, however, felt as if it were being roasted over fire, suffering in pain.

After what seemed like an eternity, EeDeChi finally realized she could no longer stay in this place. But she futilely flailed her limbs, like a turtle suspended in the air, unable to move an inch.

Where exactly is this place? EeDeChi couldn't help but begin to ponder. When she jumped into the rift, she hadn't thought much about it—after all, it was her only way of escaping.

But what exactly is a spatial rift? EeDeChi ransacked the sparse physics knowledge in her mind. She vaguely recalled that some amateur physicists before her transmigration believed that "spatial rifts" were extremely unstable wormholes, maintained by dark matter, acting as gaps in spacetime.

But considering this was a world of swords and magic, thinking about higher-dimensional physics seemed absurd.

Fortunately, not all of the void was dark. Occasionally, a faint white light flickered far in the distance, like stars fading out in the night sky, impossibly far away.

EeDeChi remembered that when she first fell into this chaotic void, the spatial rift had appeared to her as a white glow. But as she fell deeper, the light grew further and further away, until it finally vanished from view.

Perhaps those white lights were other spatial rifts, paths that could lead out. EeDeChi desperately waved her limbs toward the light, trying to "swim" toward it, but it was in vain.

There were no reference points around her. She couldn't tell if she wasn't "swimming" correctly or if the light was simply too far to reach.

"Pain..."

A long, vast sigh echoed through the void, vibrating in EeDeChi's eardrums.

Her back chilled, and she swiftly turned her head in panic, shouting, "Who? Who's there?"

No one responded. The surrounding space remained eerily silent and profoundly dark. EeDeChi drew a giant sword from her spatial ring and swung it wildly in the void.

She was anxious. Could it be that someone from the Great Tomb of Nazarick had followed her? It wasn't something just anyone could have the courage to do—leaping into a spatial rift.

"I... I'm in pain..."

In the endless depths of the void, a soft sigh echoed again, faint and ethereal, as if it came from the farthest reaches of eternity.

The strangest part was that the source of the sound seemed both distant and near at the same time. The sighs surrounded everything—front, back, left, right, above, below—everywhere was filled with the sound of sighing.

A chill ran down EeDeChi's spine. She gripped her sword tightly and shouted, "Come out! Stop pretending to be some kind of god! !"

"Damn it... otherworldly... abominable bugs..."

Amid the sighs, there was a faint trace of anger: "...Go... away..."

A shiver ran down EeDeChi's back. She stood on high alert. In the blackness before her, a flicker of light appeared, like a silver needle piercing through black velvet.

The white light gradually expanded, eventually becoming wide enough to fit a person through, like a hole opening up.

EeDeChi carefully scanned her surroundings. After confirming there were no signs of an attack, she put away the giant sword into her spatial ring, moved her limbs, and "swam" toward the white light in a frog-like stroke.

She plunged into the vast white light.

And fell into the forest.

"Ah!" EeDeChi rubbed the back of her head. She had fallen from the sky, unprepared, crashing into a pine tree. After scraping against the branches, she fell heavily into the snow-covered ground. Snow from the branches fell and splashed across her face.

She wiped the snow from her face and stood up. Surrounding her was white snow and deep green tree trunks. The dense pine forest stretched like giant spears, stabbing through the snow. This was undoubtedly a forest in the midst of winter.

Having finally escaped, EeDeChi felt no joy. She was the only one who made it out. Leaning against a tree trunk, a wave of sadness and guilt washed over her.

For a long while, EeDeChi finally straightened her back. From her spatial ring, she took out Barrett's body and placed it gently on a flat patch of snow. She gathered some wood and managed to start a small fire.

Then, with both hands resting on her sword, she whispered softly, like a quiet sob, her once bold spirit now gone.

"If Gods... Deny Salvation's Hand, With Sacred Blade... I'll Reprimand!"

...

Barrett slowly opened his eyes.

Before him was the bright green branch of a pine tree, covered in a thick blanket of white snow. The sunlight filtered through the layers of branches, and the snow glistened like diamond.

Is this heaven? Barrett sat up. Wait, that's not right... I killed so many people and monsters, I should be in hell instead.

The air carried the distinctive chill of winter, filling the lungs like a sip of clear, refreshing liquor. Beneath him, thick snow piled up, soft and cushiony. The bark of the pine tree beside him was weathered, with deep grooves and ridges, rough and cracked to the touch..

The snow particles on the ground were clearly visible, each tiny fragment like a work of art. A humble campfire burned at his feet, its flames lightly dancing like a graceful dancer.

The feeling of being alive had never been so intense.

Barrett stretched lazily, standing up and brushing the snow off his backside. He noticed the black-haired girl crouching by the tree roots, her expression lost and forlorn.

"Did you make it out? Captain," Barrett asked, glancing around. "By the way, where are Sean and Stella?"

"I... I got them killed," EeDeChi's voice was filled with sorrow. "If I hadn't dragged them into staying..."

But there were no "ifs" in life, and time couldn't be turned back.

Barrett watched the girl huddled by the roots of the tree, unsure of what to say. He was never good at comforting others.

"Don't call me Captain anymore," EeDeChi muttered, drawing circles in the snow with her finger. "My teammates are all gone. What's the point of having a captain now?"

She took a box out of her spatial ring, emptied it with a clink. Half a chest of gold coins spilled out, gleaming brightly as they hit the white snow, bouncing and rolling, making a pleasant sound. These were the riches given to her by the Emperor of Baharuth, many of which had already been spent, but she still had nearly two thousand gold coins left.

EeDeChi shoved the gold coins into a bag, along with Barrett's spatial ring, and handed it all to him.

"Severance pay. Take it. The Last Defender of the Way team... is disbanded. You can go now. You don't have to continue with me on this journey."

Barrett took the spatial ring, stuffing the heavy bag of gold into it. He stared at EeDeChi, and, almost without realizing it, saw a faint crimson ripple in her black eyes.

After a brief silence, Barrett sighed softly, then turned and walked away, his footsteps in the snow growing fainter and fainter...

EeDeChi remained crouched on the ground, leaning against the tree roots. She blankly stared at the flickering flames of the campfire, her body curled tightly in on itself.

The fire hadn't been replenished for a long time, and the flames no longer danced. The once lively flicker of light grew weaker and weaker.

Gradually, the temperature around her dropped even further, becoming colder, just like EeDeChi's heart, slowly sinking into an icy pit...

...

A thick, oily piece of pine wood was thrown into the fire, causing the nearly extinguished flames to leap up and roar fiercely.

"The sap from pine trees makes great kindling," Barrett's gentle voice rang out.

EeDeChi looked up in surprise.

He walked over and said, "I have nowhere else to go. Ainz Ooal Gown definitely remembers my face. I guess I'll have to stick with you until the end."

"Thank you," EeDeChi whispered. The bright flames flickered in her eyes, casting a cheerful dance in her pupils.

"Am I a terrible person? A useless captain?" she asked Barrett.

"Yes."

"I thought you'd say 'No' to comfort me," EeDeChi said, hugging her knees, resting her chin on them, and curling up next to the tree roots.

"Why would I lie?" Barrett replied.

EeDeChi shrank even smaller.

Barrett, both frustrated and amused, watched her dejected posture. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind, and he reached out to rub her black hair.

EeDeChi swatted his arm away, looked up at him as if she wanted to glare fiercely, but in the end, her eyes softened.

"Wait!" she suddenly remembered something and jumped to her feet. "Do you remember how Ainz Ooal Gown resurrected Arche?"

"A small copper can with gold trim," Barrett recalled the magical item Ainz used to bring Arche back to life. "Don't tell me you plan to sneak into the Great Tomb of Nazarick and steal the copper can to resurrect Sean and Stella?"

"No!" EeDeChi replied, as if she had just found a new purpose. "Ainz Ooal Gown and the Eight Greed Kings came from the same world. I'll bet I can find a resurrection item in the Eight Greed Kings Desert."

"Alright then," Barrett nodded. "How did you escape the siege at the Great Tomb of Nazarick?"

EeDeChi recounted the entire battle in detail.

"The Great Banishment?" Barrett caught a key phrase. "A power on par with Super-Tier Magic, area-of-effect damage, no mana consumption, and no cooldown time! Such a powerful skill, why didn't you use it sooner?"

"The Great Banishment has a strong negative effect. When used once, the Favorability Level drops by 33%, and it takes a long time to recover," EeDeChi explained.

She used "The Great Banishment" twice in total. The last time she shouted "The Great Banishment" was to confuse Ainz and the others, so they wouldn't interfere with her breaking the spatial rift. In other words, her Favorability Level dropped by 66%.

"'Favorability Level'? What's that?" Barrett asked, confused. "Is it something like the 'Justice Value' you talked about, something that quantifies certain things?"

"Exactly. 'Justice Value' measures a person's moral alignment, while 'Favorability Level' measures how well-liked you are by the people around you."

She murmured, "If the Favorability Level drops by 33%, people become strangers; if it drops by 66%, friends turn into enemies; if it drops by 99%, the whole world becomes my enemy!"

EeDeChi continued explaining:

"If I lead a team to hunt down Ainz Ooal Gown and use 'The Great Banishment' once, my teammates would ignore me; use it twice, and they'd glare at me with anger; use it three times, and I'd find myself facing the World Against Me, with my teammates attacking me, joining the enemy in trying to kill me."

"That's a strong negative buff!" Barrett exclaimed in shock. "But your Favorability Level dropped by 66%, so why don't I hate you right now?"

"Because you died before I used 'The Great Banishment,' and then were resurrected. It's like being reborn as a newborn baby, so you weren't affected by the negative consequences."

Barrett thought for a moment. He finally understood why EeDeChi had pulled out the copper seal several times before but always put it away.

"Let's set out on the road again," Barrett said, trying to sound casual. He looked up at the sky. In the distance, smoke rose from the forest, and flames were burning...