Harbingers of Change

Chapter 20

Kagali nervously paced in circles over the soft rug of her living area, contemplating her and her family's immediate and long-term future. Her instincts had proven right about Yuuki ever since they first entered Tempest, honed over centuries of espionage and subtle warfare, and yet she had ignored them. It nearly cost her one of her most precious creations and cost all of them their freedom while simultaneously making enemies of one of the most shrewd humans she had ever met.

She had a new master, who was no doubt even more cold and calculating than Yuuki at times. It was simple to witness and learn of how he cared for all those below him, but she, by all means of her own self-admission, was nothing more than his property at this point. There were no guarantees she or her four creations would not be used as sacrificial lambs despite Nazarick's Thrall assuring her otherwise.

The chains around the souls of her and her children ensured none of them could betray Nazarick or even disappear from its ever-present gaze, traced wherever they went. In a sense, this skill, this entity, its innermost machinations were a mystery and ever more dreadful even compared to its rarely seen owner.

'I have to try and see. I have to find a way out should I ever need it. But what if my attempts are noticed? That would ruin all the trust I have been building.'

The risk was there for sure. But it was a risk she was determined to take.

'I won't attempt to break the curse. Just look at it. It should not trigger anything.'

Finally, Kagali decided that the risk was worth it and sat down, cross-legged, on the same soft rug that was receiving abuse in the form of her pacing for hours.

With a long exhale, she calmed her mind and reached within. The chains around her soul were there, clear as day as both a prison and a warm assurance that she now was a part of something bigger. Encased in something more than herself.

Now that she had a clear view of them, all that remained was to carefully follow the chains back to their source and be extra careful to not trigger any traps that likely had been put up as safeguards. Step by step, her consciousness moved through the dark abyss of nonmaterial space where the skill existed. The chains went on as far as the spiritual eye could see, never-ending and always strengthening.

'Why is it so empty? There's nothing here!' She stopped soon enough realizing that the path was too easy. 'I better stop for now.'

Kagali opened her eyes and exhaled. There was no way of telling if she didn't find any traps because they weren't there or they were beyond her perception. She shuddered, reminded of the time she had spent in the void, thoughts flickering.

'I will have to wait for a more opportune time to see what assurances I can get.' She slowly stood up, straightening out her suit. Yet her momentary sense of peace was shattered when a dreadful presence engulfed her.

{ Done with sightseeing? } Momonga's voice invaded her mind.

'He saw! This is bad!' Kagali froze up, clenching her hands into fists before remembering that the undead overlord was likely elsewhere. She had been careless once again in the pursuit to ensure she and her children had a way out, should they be betrayed again.

{ My Lord, I was not trying to- } Kagali did her best to sound calm and collected as it took all her willpower not to break down in fear.

{ Do what? Break free? } Momonga replied, a hint of amusement in his tone.

{ I just got curious. You have my word. } 'He was expecting this. I should have known.'

{ Come to my office. }

Kagali heard the door open and gulped, swinging around and coming eye-to-eye with the last person she wanted to see; Rubedo.

"Do not make my Master wait for you."

The creature's flat tone sent shivers down Kagali's spine. Rubedo motioned for her to follow.

Kagali nodded and did as told. The walk through the castle likely would be the last moments of her life. She straightened out and walked head up towards her grim fate, preparing for a final showdown if the worst occurred.

"You are lucky Master didn't give me free rein. To be so ungrateful about the gift you have been given. To suspect his motives. You are truly a despicable creature," Rubedo spoke, a sliver of fury seeping into her voice.

"What do you know of my motives? What do you know of how it feels to be betrayed?" Kagali retorted, matching the creature's overall emotionless tone.

"I will enjoy consuming you to discover it," Rubedo replied, both falling silent as Kagali failed to think of a response.

Every step felt like an eternity, they had finally arrived at Momonga's office, where the Overlord awaited her. As Rubedo opened the door, Kagali met the undead's burning gaze.

"Is this it, Lord Momonga?"

"You have accepted death. Curious. It wouldn't be much of a punishment for your attempts at tempering with my safeguards if that was the case."

Momonga took a few steps forward to Kagali, towering over the elven woman. His skeletal face gave no clue to what he was thinking, not that Kagali would dare to peek into his mind even if she could.

'Did he just imply…' "They have done nothing wrong. If I deserve punishment, then I will accept it, but my children have done nothing wrong and do not deserve to suffer for my mistake," Kagali hissed, akin to a cornered cat.

Momonga motioned for Rubedo to stop, who was already removing her hand to unleash her true form upon the defiant Kagali. He leaned closer to her as his aura of dread started to seep out.

"I thought you would be smarter, more cautious. But I am curious about your motives. What made you think you could just go around the chains and not be noticed?"

"I guess I can give you answers, lord. I have been betrayed before, held in chains and tortured for no other reason than sick and careless amusement, by my own father nonetheless. I care for my family, first and foremost. What would happen when I or the others outgrow our usefulness? You can torture and kill me if my crime befits it, but my children deserve better," she spoke, her tone full of spite.

"I have no use for someone I need to constantly keep in check."

Momonga turned around and strolled up to the window. The evening time hid the sun behind the other side of the castle, but the day was still bright enough to send ominous patterns through.

Kagali walked up to him and stood by Momonga's side.

"I have no intentions to go against my oath. The Moderate Harlequin Alliance has never betrayed a client who has kept the same loyalty towards us. What I did was to see if I could make some assurances in case we are discarded, as Yuuki did before."

Momonga didn't reply to her, he understood where she was coming from. 'Her situation is no different from ours. She wants to protect those she cares for. But she can't go unpunished. I can't show such weakness.'

"There is a saying among humans, 'Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.''' Momonga turned to face Kagali, the fire in his eyes flaring. "You wanted to see Nazarick and find a way to break free. I will give you just that. If you survive it, there will be no further punishment."

So far only he, Pandora, and Veldora could observe Nazarick as a whole, and each had an ultimate skill that made it possible. Demiurge and Albedo had both tried in the past under Momonga's insistence, only to fail repeatedly despite their incredible intellect. Kagali, on the other hand, only had the Unique Skill Planner, which would only be somewhat useful when it comes to the totality of Nazarick.

"I don't understand," Kagali asked, confused. 'Why would he let me see how the curse worked? Is he just as arrogant as Yuuki? Or does he have a plan for me afterward?'

But the moment her new master's finger tapped her forehead, she understood her mistake, terribly so. An unstoppable torrent of information flooded her mind, instantly overwhelming it despite Planner working overtime as she channeled every magicule she could into it. She did her best to remain conscious, but it proved to be a fruitless endeavor, as the last things she saw were the glimpses of a higher dimensional structure her unprepared mind could not comprehend. The only things she remembered were seemingly endless chains, sprawled across the world, tightening ever closer with every passing moment.

Kagali finally awoke from the pain of someone slapping her face, hard. She slowly opened her eyes, a mother of all headaches threatening to split her material skull in half.

"Agh." She let out a groan as Rubedo pulled her to her feet violently. The void creature seemingly wanted to see her in agony, almost pulling her arm out of its socket.

The vision slowly returned but the headache was here to stay. Kagali glanced around to figure out where she was, confused as her mind rapidly recuperated.

'I'm still in Lord Momonga's office. Was that his skill that I witnessed? I have never seen anything like that.'

"You survived with your mind intact. I believe I underestimated you," Momonga stated, his back turned to her as he stood watching the sun set over Tempest.

"Give me more credit, my Lord. I have spent centuries without a body, keeping my mind together with nothing but a burning desire for vengeance," Kagali replied with a strained voice, clutching her head with her right hand.

"This was a glimpse of what you would have to overcome. It's not just me. To break free, you have to overpower the entirety of Nazarick. With millions of souls standing in its defense, including your children as well, working in tandem to end you."

"What awaits me now? I understand that there is no way out for me. I won't go against Nazarick or you, my Lord. What you showed me gave me an understanding of where I stand." Kagali openly admitted her defeat. There truly was no way out for either her or her children.

"Trust and loyalty is a two-way street. I did not expect you to become fully loyal after being enslaved, it would have been foolish to do so. You were given this second chance because I believe you and the other four are useful, for now."

Momonga turned around to stare at her with his intense burning gaze. Kagali met it head-on despite the trepidation filling her very being.

"There is one thing I want for you to understand. You are now part of Nazarick, and we take care of our own, even the lowest of the low. You have my word that, so long as you serve me loyally, that loyalty will be repaid in turn. Perhaps even greater, if the Tempestian natives are an example."

For once she didn't fight her instincts and instead listened to them intently. Maybe it was the connection to Nazarick that clouded her judgment, but she believed her master's words were true. As long as she was loyal to him, Momonga would not throw her aside, and let her and her children thrive as useful servants. She would be just that, a servant, but it was fine. She had seen countless others take up a similar oath to the skeletal king, and she had once been subservient to a king. She knew her place.

Kagali kneeled before Momonga, declaring, "I must apologize, Master, for doubting you. In repentance, I wish to share something I had not taught anyone, not even my beloved creations or my most trustworthy allies; the ritual of how to create deathmen. The same ritual I used to create my children, Birthday."

Momonga motioned for all parties to sit down, as this would likely be important information given over a long duration of time if Kagali's tone was anything. The ability to utilize large amounts of corpses to create new powerful beings was an immensely potent way to bolster Nazarick's forces.

Over the next few hours, she explained the complex ritual that required thousands of corpses to create new, sentient or sapient deathmen, and the most ideal bodies and materials that could be supplied to provide far stronger resulting vessels for the intended egos. The more consistent the races were when sacrificed, the more magic the cadavers contained, all of the factors that played into the mass production of her and her children's current bodies.

It was a risky move, supplying more information to the man who could use it to rip apart her children by quite literally knowing them inside and out, but there was no better time for her to trade the information. Tempest was on the brink of war with the church and that would guarantee plenty of corpses to work with, raising her value in Momonga's mind.

"It seems we will have plenty of resources to test this out. I will rely on your expertise to assist me and smooth out my attempts at it," Momonga replied after absorbing the information with ease.

Truth be told, his God of Death could perform a similar feat through sheer brute magicule force, but the ritual Kagali taught him was far more refined and allowed him to manipulate the creation of the deadmen with much greater finesse for even stronger souls. It even required fewer magicules from himself so long as the carcasses used held magicules. This meant he could potentially raise hundreds, if not thousands of deathmen at a time.

'He must have some sort of skill that lets him learn information instantly, or at least an incredibly high functioning Thought Acceleration. It took me decades to figure it out, and he required only minutes to understand the intricacies of the ritual.' Kagali couldn't help. but to make an observation about her new masters' intellectual capabilities.

Kagali returned to her quarters with a new understanding of the true depths of power and her place in the world, but this time with a heartfelt assurance that she had found her true calling; to be a loyal servant of Lord Momonga and do everything she could to further the goals of Nazarick. She finally understood what Tear felt, albeit from a far less violent view. Perhaps knowing that she had found another person to discuss rare death magic with, and knowing that her children would be safe and developed, led her to feel this, but nobody knows the mind completely.

X

Compounding Yuuki disappearing without a trace and the church still planning the crusade, Momonga couldn't help but assume the worst; the sword that Hinata would use against him and his friends likely was capable of the impossible feat of killing a true dragon. He had his suspects, particularly the entities he had encountered before in the dream, but he had no way to confirm nor deny this without coming into contact with the sword. Even Veldora could feel overpowering at times, and the statement of Kagali regarding its power feeling like the true dragon's lent itself to other mythical entities such as Velgrynd and Velzard being involved.

These assumptions meant one thing, no matter the variation. Hinata needed to be dealt with as quickly and as covertly as possible while ensuring minimal exposure to danger. Using Buku for the strike or anyone named for that matter was a large risk even if Rubedo was present and could tank the attack.

This is where his ultimate skill God of Death came into play. With the old game mechanic of losing experience points now nonexistent due to compatibility issues with this world's system, Momonga could summon high-tier undead so long as he had enough magicules to fund it, and that meant he could use it in immense amounts. He had even set up an automated function via Omniscience to ensure his natural magicule capacity was never capped out by summoning shadow demons for Demiurge anytime he neared 99% capacity.

He would create a covert strike team consisting of high-level undead and send them off in secret to test what Hinata was capable of. If they managed to capture or kill her while also retrieving the sword, then the main problem of the incoming attack would be solved and the rest of the enemy armies could be dealt with directly and easily by either himself, his friends, or their underlings.

The three types of summons in mind required ludicrous amounts of magicules to create, but at their base power, they were approaching a floor guardian in terms of raw power, not counting ultimate skills. They would have many intrinsic skills such as Magic Resistance, but they were ultimately expendable.

The creation of a death emperor, a death empress, and an imperial harvester consumed a sizable chunk of both his own reserves and depleted Nazarick's reactor reserves by a noticeable degree, but it would be worth it.

Each of the three high-tier undead served a different role. The bulky, plate-clad death emperor was a warrior with impressive defense and offensive abilities. Over two meters tall, towering over even Momonga in his fully armed form, he held a massive one-armed mace as his primary weapon. Unlike how he was in Yggdrasil, where he had a rotten face, now it was a ghastly white human face, giving the impression of the powerful creature being chiseled out of fine marble.

The death empress had a build of a slim woman clad in a midnight dark hooded robe, hiding most of her now human-like face, which was just as pale as the death emperor's. She was designed to be a high-damage arcane caster, albeit a glass cannon. She held a two-handed staff with a skull at the end in her hands, capable of dishing out high-damage bursts.

Finally, the imperial harvester was an assassin type who was designed to be a high-speed, high-evasion hit-and-run type fighter. His tall, spindly frame was clad in black leather, and he held two hand scythes. Medium hitpoints, he would complete the trifecta and allow for the three to fight to their best without worrying about weaknesses.

No healer was needed because he was sending these off to test her immediate offensive capability, not Hinata's ability to fight an extended duel. If it came to an extended duel, he would rather not fight at all and use thousands of expendables to stall for time due to the increased hazard level of one-on-one fights if the rumors around her were true.

The moment each of them was constructed they kneeled, lowering their heads and awaiting orders. Momonga finished creating all three before speaking.

"The task I am about to give you is extremely dangerous. Should you survive, I will grant each of you a name and turn you into the leaders of my personal strike force."

"Our lives are not important, Lord, only your wishes matter," the Death Emperor spoke in a low, smooth voice.

The trio would be decent enough to test and see how dangerous Hinata truly was, but since they were unnamed summons, if killed they would leave no soul behind. Naming would solve the soul problem to a degree, but it also would create a connection between him and the summon that would not be easily broken, and Momonga was not about to stoop so low as to send someone he named on a possible suicide mission. He also didn't know if Hinata was well-versed in soul magic and could trace the naming back to him specifically, perhaps even using it against him.

For a moment he was stuck, unsure who he could send to die, as anyone currently connected to Nazarick wasn't a good option, but then he remembered that Demiurge had reported capturing a few dozen humans via the Free Guild's more cooperative stance with Tempest and kept them within the realm formed by his own skill.

Most were Yuuki's hired lackeys who tried to stir up trouble through violence or propaganda, but there were a few church clerics thrown into the mix as well. Knowing the sadistic demon's overeagerness to spread suffering, Momonga had ordered him to have a cautious approach and keep up the Free Guild's appearances.

{ Demiurge, are any of the humans you captured still alive? } he contacted the demon.

{ Yes, Lord Momonga. Do you need them for some specific purpose? } Demiurge replied instantly.

{ Can you bring me one? I wish to send it to die by Hinata's hand. }

Before he could end the message there was a knock on his office door. The maid opened the door, letting in Demiurge, who dragged in a chained human behind him.

"This one is the most cooperative." Demiurge bowed and dropped his victim in front of Momonga with a hard yank on the chain.

The human let out a pained moan and remained unmoving. His clothes were in tatters and there were signs of physical abuse on every inch of his skin. The mental abuse unseen was likely even worse.

'Let's see if I can enslave someone forcefully.' Momonga crouched and tapped the man's forehead. His soul did try to resist but was easily overpowered moments later.

One thing was clear out of the bat; the chains around his soul weren't as stable as the ones on those who accepted willingly and required more upkeep in terms of mental and magical power.

"Remove the chains. He will not resist," Momonga ordered, standing up.

Demiurge complied as told, but the human didn't move. At this point, he didn't feel any pity toward the wretched creature. All this human amounted to was a resource that could be used for experiments, and said experiment this time was successful, sparing its life. The church of Luminism was proven to be an enemy that would not allow Tempest to continue existing, and thus anyone associated with it was an enemy of monsters by default.

If in the past he would have felt sick at the mere notion of studying a tortured human being, then now there was nothing. There was only us and them. Religious humans were the ones seeking conflict, and he was about to return the favor in spades. Those who treated him with kindness, he repaid twofold. Those who hunted him down would be repaid their injustice a thousand times over.

The plan now was simple. The surprise group, led by the death emperor, would ambush Hinata when she was alone at night, and either try to kill or kidnap her if possible. The human was instructed to obey every order the undead would give to him, and pretty much attempt a suicide rush toward the leader of human forces to test how she felt on felling her own race's kin.

All that remained was to see how it played out.

Edited by aidan_lo

Proofreading by Sluethen, Aurodium, aidan_lo, FantasyTroll, Dtrackt, LightFlan and Alassandro

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (https://discord.gg/WmGKVU3XG2WmGKVU3XG2) where additional chapters are available or if you are interested in becoming a beta reader (gives access to chapters months ahead of regular readers).