Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Dance!
"Lady Rias!"
"She's awake, hurry up and…"
Momonga kept his eyes closed as he lied still, pretending to be asleep as the other side of the room burst in activity. 'Oh? The flasher-girl is awake. It's been… six hours?'
Keeping track of time while pretending to sleep wasn't easy, and Momonga didn't trust his luck enough to sneak in glances to a wall where the infirmary's clock hung. If someone saw him awake they'd start questioning him again about his 'mental state' and he still needed some time to ponder on the whole affair of him being where he is, what he is, and so on and so forth. At some point someone had changed Momonga's clothes from the battle-worn and smoke-smelling uniform to a hospital gown.
Fortunately it appeared that his caretakers-slash-jailors seemed to be content with letting his twitches and turns count as just bad nightmares, and not Momonga's emotion suppression activating again and again as Suzuki Satorou came to terms with the fact that his situation was most likely the following:
One: He was undead occupying a human body in what was equivalent to human player's starting zone
Two: The body he was occupying was likely a direct vassal of the faction's king, based off the doctor's words from before. Possibly a royalty or a noble.
Three: The moment anyone realized the 'host' was dead, or at least that's the conclusion Momonga had come to, the faction would likely seek his demise.
Four: The world he was in likely had multitudes of powerful beings who had the ability to teleport others at will and were capable of creating elaborate and long-term traps, not to mention likely had arrays of other game-breaking abilities he hadn't seen.
Five: And most importantly of all, all of it was likely real, as Momonga had attempted to log out quietly multiple times while he 'slept', to no avail. And the boobs he had fondled had definitely been real, so with the two facts he could fairly reliably degree that reality around him was indeed real.
Six: It was real for YGGDRASIL logic as well- he wasn't entered into the host body as Suzuki Satorou, a average salaryman, at least as far as he was aware, but as Momonga, his in-game avatar, and thus had access to spells and abilities associated with Momonga. He concluded that not only were skills and abilities from YGGDRASIL applicable, but also bosses, enemies and items who would likely also exist in this world.
'So, let's hear who the red-head is… if she was with me during that fight she's got to be someone from 'Issei's side. Perhaps a royal escort or something, based on her lack of clothing back then?' Momonga's ears picked up more steps from the outside and heard as the doors to the infirmary opened, accompanied by a pair of footsteps. 'Hm? The doctor and the nurse stayed to look over the redhead, so… who are these?'
"Ah, Lucifer-sama!"
Momonga froze.
'Luc- Lucifer? As in that Lucifer? The one from that Raid that broke entire raiding guilds, and who Ainz Ooal Gown managed to clear only because at the time we had the rare metal mine and could manipulate market enough to get practically unlimited health potions and buff items, and even then it took the whole guild and all our non-single use World items to beat?' Momonga resisted the urge to freeze as the very real monster outside his bed walked past it. 'If he's here, then we're in Hell, the christian mythos's afterlife for sinners, which likely means there's a living realm and the realm of God… ow, even thoughts cause damage? Alright, that makes sense and also explains why the name is taboo- don't speak the lord's.. ow, name in vain and so on…'
While Momonga was having a panic attack on the inside the pair of footsteps reached the area where the red-headed girl was currently waking up, at least if her groggy voice was anything to go by.
Then Momonga heard something coming from the girl that caused his newly reanimated heart to stop. Literally. "Ah… Big brother!"
'Oh no. That'd mean she's… Gabriel, perhaps? Lucifer was the first angel to fall from heaven and was punished to be the lord of hell, so his sisters would be angels, which means… In this world both Gabriel and Lucifer fell from heaven and were punished...' Momonga thanked his emotional suppression once again to keep himself at least in moderate mental stability as he realized what he had been doing to the red-headed girl when he had been forcibly teleported away from the battlefield. .'..Ah. I fondled Gabriel's boobs in front of Lucifer in Hell. At least this means I'm not in a human player's starting zone, but am I in heaven, or hell? Where does this fit in the christian timeline? Before genesis, or something? Although, it's not like I know much about that, all I know about that mythos is from YGGDRASIL's raids...'
Voices of conversation flew over Momonga's head as he struggled to not break down and panic despite his emotion suppression. He remembered to re-cast [Silent Magic: Stitch] again on his heart this time though, before anyone could react to the beeps of his heart rate monitor coming to a stop.
'I'm so dead.'
The thought was further fortified in his head as an object hit his bed, causing it to almost topple over. "ISSEI-KUN!"
Realizing that fighting his way out was a definite no-go with literally the ruler of hellwithin the room, and knowing there was snowball's chance in the very literal hell he could bullshit his way out with the Lucifer, the Lord of Lies himself, Momonga fell back on his tertiary tactic: Ignoring his problems and hoping they eventually go away.
A soft body seemed to flop over him for a moment before it froze for a bit and withdrew slowly, making Momonga realize that the owner of the body was the red-headed girl. 'Now I can tell people apart based on the softness of their breasts. Great. This has to be an eroge.'
"Careful there, Rias. Your body is still in need of rest. Riser Phenix's attacks, from what I saw in the observatory, targeted your joints so you won't be able to pull high-speed movements until you've rested enough for them to heal completely." the same soft voice Momonga had heard in the corridor after getting teleported rang in the room. "From what I've gathered you'll be fine with just rest now, Rias. Oh, and the marriage is also cancelled, I have confirmation of it from Lord Phenix himself. Might I inquire about Issei-san's condition?"
"G-go ahead and tell us, please." the red-headed woman's, Rias's, voice was shaky.
'Rias? I don't remember her as part of christian mythology… is the bible… owww… different here?' Momonga thought as he focused more on the speech while making sure his body appeared to be sleeping.
"Ah, it appears that Hyoudou-sama has suffered and recovered from a heart attack. His heart rate flatlined and returned shortly afterwards on its own. A remarkable display of self-healing." The voice of the elderly doctor invaded Momonga's ears. "Ah, but I am missing the subject, my apologies Sirzechs-sama."
"Not at all, please go ahead."
"It appears that Hyoudou-sama suffers from extensive amnesia. I've not had the pleasure of meeting him before he was assigned to my care, so I cannot tell if his personality has changed from my own perspective, but his fellow Peerage tells me that his behaviour has been quite unusual and even disturbing. Non-violent, of course." the Doctor coughed and continued. "I personally didn't recognize any disturbing patterns in him, he seemed like a reasonable and polite person, perhaps even regal. If I had read that he was a heir of a noble family of devils I would have believed it without a doubt, in fact I had to re-check the paper when I read that he was a mere human in a ordinary family before his resurrection into Gremory Peerage."
"I believe that's the 'disturbing' part." a dry female voice interjected whom Momonga attributed to the maid he had seen in Lucifer's presence before, and assumed to be with him now.
"Grayfia-nee!"
"Please continue." the soft, velvety male voice urged with a twinge of humor.
"Regardless, I've had a report that he possessed [Sacred Gear] called [Boosted Gear], however I was unable to find it in his body or his possession. Furthermore, the Pawn piece in his body has become… worrying. I am not at all versed on the subject of Peerage system nor Pawns, at least when it comes to the mechanical and mythical parts of Pieces themselves, but I feel as if it had mutated far beyond what a piece should be able to mutate."
"I'll forward your findings to Beelzebub, he designed the system so he should be able to tell what's wrong with him." Lucifer's voice caused the hairs on Momonga's host body's neck to stand on end.
'Beelzebub too? That's two top-tier raid bosses in the same dungeon…' Momonga was starting to feel sympathy to a group of five level 20-ish newbie elf players who had invaded Great Tomb of Nazarick in the past when the guild had been out together, only to return to base when the elves had entered the first floor of the dungeon-slash-base. In the end the elves had to fight against 41 level 100 players with World-tier items at the same time. And considering that Ainz Ooal Gown at the time had thought that the elves were just a distraction or rearguard of a larger invasion, they all had gone all-out. 'Hold on what was that? Sacred cog or something?'
"I-Issei-kun doesn't have his [Sacred Gear] anymore?" Rias's voice was shaky. "H-he was hurt so badly, and… he sacrificed his body and his gear… a-and even his memories to save me from Riser?"
"It appears to be so." The doctor agreed. "At least as far as we know of his injuries."
The soft weight settled on 'Issei's stomach and Momonga realized that the red-headed girl was crying on his hospital gown's stomach part. 'Well, this is awkward.'
"We'll have to evaluate if he can stay in your Peerage still…" Lucifer's sound broke the gloom that had been filled with sobs until his interruption.
"No." The girl's voice was resolute. "I won't just toss him away like a spent battery. I'll find a way to restore his memories. Bring back his [Sacred Gear]. Make him whole again. He did this for me, it's the least I can do for him."
"Of course, Rias, but please consider that [Boosted Gear] has likely moved to reincarnate in someone else. With that in mind, The Welsh Dragon, Ddraig, within the gear would likely know what happened so seeking out the new owner might be in our best interests anyway." Momonga could tell Lucifer's tone was calculated to the extreme in order to not upset the red-headed girl. "With that in mind, it might be wise to consider Issei-san's current strength as well. Going against [Boosted Gear] might be dangerous. If Issei-san's strength has returned to level of a low-ranked devil or is perhaps even weaker due to losing his lost memories, broken body and lost gear, he might not survive the conflict, as I'm assuming the new owner of the gear might be opposed to having it torn from him."
"B-broken body?" The words came with a sniff, originating from around 'Issei's midsection.
"Ah, Lucifer-sama would be referring to the state of Hyodou-sama's body. He is currently suffering from multiple organ failures and myriad of other altercations, and I'm honestly baffled how he is still alive. Even his heart seems unstable as it beats irregularly, and it even stopped just a moment ago before restarting." The doctor's voice came again. "At this point all I can say is that either there is some unknown force at play, or his Piece has mutated somehow into a pseudo-regenerator and is pretty much the only thing keeping him alive, if barely. The fact he hasn't woken up during our conversation and during erm… Rias-sama's physical interaction suggests that he may have fallen into abnormally deep slumber or perhaps even into a light coma."
Momonga resisted the urge to freeze up as he heard the doctor's speech, cursing his foolishness. A undead like him didn't really need organs so he hadn't kept casting [Stitch] on all his damaged organs to reanimate them in addition to repairing them, which in retrospect was foolish as he was in a hospital, a place where patients's health would be constantly monitored. The fact the doctor had checked his heart rate earlier should have been enough warning for him and he cursed his carelessness again. 'I'm literally in the same room as Lucifer. Overlooking details like that will get me killed.'
Although even then, the state in which [Stitch] would leave his organs could only be called 'horrifying' rather than 'healthy' mainly due to the spell's necromantic nature. '...It turns out that pretending to be a living being while undead is harder than I thought…'
Breath was forced out of his lungs (alongside some residual blood still within them) as presumably Rias hugged his body hard enough to compress his chest. It seemed that the blood now on his lips didn't sneak past the girl's notice. "N-No… Please…"
Momonga sighed internally. 'This is going to be a long night.'
As the dawn came Rias Gremory looked like… well, like she had spent the whole night crying, which she had.
"Rias, are you quite alright?" Akeno asked seriously as she placed her hands on the King's hands. "You look awful. I thought you'd be glad that the marriage contract with Riser is now history. Also, where's Issei? We haven't heard from him since he came from the Game with you, spouted bunch of nonsense and flopped over on the bed."
Rias took a choked breath in and breathed out equally shakily. The breakfast laid before her seemed thoroughly unappealing despite being made of the best ingredients found in the Underworld and made by the best chefs employed by the Gremory family. The rest of her Peerage didn't seem to share the opinion as they were gorging themselves on it with varying degrees of class or vulgarity.
The breakfast was held in a hall-like room that had a table spanning its entire length, with enough seats to fit a hundred people. One side of the long walls showed a spectacular view of the Underworld scenery outside, and another wall held a fireplace of grand proportions, in which danced a warm yellow flame. Depending on the meeting or circumstance the flame would change between colours to create an appropriate mood.
At the moment only four people were sitting around it and eating though, and two maids were standing by near the entrance to assist should any of the diners need something.
Rias's appearance wasn't missed by anyone in the room, but seeing that Akeno had charged straight into the issue they likely felt that they couldn't do much to improve the situation outside listening while eating. Thus, breakfast.
And in truth, seeing the rest of her peerage happily eat away cheered Rias up slightly. 'If only Issei was here with us…'
"There's been a… issue with Issei. As I imagine you've realized." Rias shook her head as Akeno looked like she'd ask again. "He's… well…"
Akeno's hands tightened on Rias's.
"He has a long-term amnesia from Riser's final attack, which means he can't even recognize us anymore, and he's lost his [Sacred Gear], and his body is on the verge of breaking down. My Piece is the only thing keeping him alive anymore. H-his heart stopped four times this night alone and his lungs must have ruptured at least five times because when I hugged him there was blood everywhere and his spleen exploded a-and regenerated at one point..." Rias burst out in quick succession, instantly causing the munching around the breakfast table to come to a crashing end. Literally as Asia dropped her plate on the floor.
The vice grip Akeno applied on her hands caused Rias to pause and then vince as Akeno shook her hand. "T-thanks, I needed that…"
"It's nothing." Akeno sighed. "Issei's condition is that bad…"
"It's all because of me! I should have just forfeited at the start, I knew we wouldn't win, I placed all of you in danger and I-Isse…" Rias's starting panic was quelled as the rest of the peerage piled on top of her, causing the chair she was sitting on to wobble and then fall on its back with all its occupants.. "A- ah…"
"No." Koneko's speech was short and to the point, as was usual for the girl.
"She's right. We came of our own choice. After all, we knew the risks when we became your Peerage. Er, except for Issei-kun, I guess." Yuuto commented while patting Rias's shoulder. "Anyway, Issei-kun knew the risks that would come from opposing Riser Phenix so fiercely. My only shame as a man is that I couldn't sacrifice my body, mind and soul to earn you victory like Issei did… His love for you is truly one of a kind."
"P- please, never speak like that again… I don't want anyone else to… to..." Rias's breath hitched and Akeno looked at the boy with a glare that said 'Shut-up-now-or-else'.
Akeno offered Rias the sleeve of her shrine-maidern's outfit, and before a rational thought entered Rias's head, she blew her freely running nose on it. The raven-haired shrine-maiden was initially completely stunned by the action but the shock turned to tease in a heartbeat. "Oh, I intended for my King to rest her head upon mine arms, but if I am to become a rag for thine juices I shall do my best to drain you and sate your needs, until my now fluid-covered body fails me or the flow of your passion runs dry."
Rias's face turned as red as her hair. "Akenoooo… Nooo!"
"...As much as it pains me to interrupt such a heartfelt confession, even Maou's must eat. May I intrude myself to my sisters and her peerage's breakfast?" A soft voice caused Akeno's face to turn as red as Rias's, evening the scores as far as embarrassing each other was concerned.
"Ah, brother! Grayfia-nee!" Rias turned to look at the reigning Maou, Sirzechs Lucifer who was looking down at Rias with Grayfia in tow behind him as the pair entered the dining room. "H-how is he?"
"Stable. Well, considering. It seemed almost as if his body's deterioration was hastened by our presence alone. I wonder if I have an unknown aura or some such that interferes with Issei-san? Last I checked, all my Auras were under control." Sirzechs didn't seem at all affected by fatigue after spending the night alongside Rias while the red-headed girl was trying her best to cry all over Issei and succeeding. Nor did Grayfia look any worse for wear despite standing in attention beside Sirzechs for the whole time. "Now, it might be advisable to get some food into our respective systems before we go through some information that has been recently released and see about our actions today and in the future."
"That sounds pretty ominous…" Rias muttered as she shooed her peerage back to their seats while Sirzechs sat on the end seat of the table and Rias sat on the opposite end. The rest of the breakfast was a fairly sombre affair and it seemed that Rias couldn't force much more than a few morsels down her throat.
"Excellent. Now that we've had our fill, or at least attempted to do so…" Sirzechs seemed to sigh at Rias before continuing. "May I request that the service staff leaves the room?"
The two maids by the doorside bowed elegantly and exited without sound, which was then followed by Sirzechs waving his hand and a red pentagon enveloped the devils present.
"A isolation spell?" Rias asked while the others reacted to the spell with degrees of wonder or apprehension. "Noise isolation, right?"
"We need some privacy and like in all places, the Underworld too has walls that listen and doors that talk." Sirzechs explained while nodding at his sister and her peerage. "Now, I'll begin by listing a few facts. First, Riser Phenix is dead. Permanently and without rebirth. He died instantly after he stabbed Issei-san, completely ignoring Phoenix Regeneration and Rebirth From Ashes."
Rias let a choking sound, which was pretty much followed by her peerage doing the same.
"Second, from what I've observed, Issei Hyoudou has learned to regenerate. But can only regenerate in a way that causes horrible scarring to the point it is outright detrimental to the user. Literally, his self-healing causes more damage to his body than the damage his body had sustained in the first place."
"Gha!" Rias's attempt to clear her throat failed spectacularly as the one-two fact combo came too rapidly.
"Thirdly, the Phenix family has issued a blood feud against whoever killed their son or helped someone in the attempt. Considering Issei has somehow learned a ability that can be only learned by being part of the Phenix family, I have a feeling someone might jump to conclusions since Issei was, well, connected to Riser during the moment of his death. Or their death, as Issei's condition is still quite critical."
"R-Rias, breathe in!" Akeno was struggling valiantly as she hacked Rias's back while she herself looked like someone had tripped her over thrice in the span of a minute.
"Y-you did that on purpose!" Rias pointed an accusing finger at Sirzechs. "Wait, he's…"
"Fourthly, I asked Ajuka Beelzebub to analyze the Piece within Issei Hyoudou. He entered the room after you left."
Rias felt her blood freeze. "I- Excuse me, I need to return to Issei's side…"
"Don't worry, I told him 'no live or dead vivisections and/or autopsies' and 'don't try to twist my words like saying 'you didn't tell me not to perform non consensual organ harvesting' or 'since he's in limbo between life and death and thus neither, I can just open him like can of beans'" Sirzches sighed while waving his hand theatherically. "He's pretty much the only one who can make sense of what is happening to Issei-san, for better and hopefully not for worse, so he's definitely our best bet on allowing him to make a full recovery. Or at least a recovery. Okay, return him to a state where he won't spontaneously die from multiple organ failures and simultaneous heart attack."
Asia's head fell on the table with a 'thunk', followed by the now unconscious nun-devil flopping down from her chair and under the table.
Rias felt like screaming and clawing at her eyes while also wanting to cry for Issei's sake and strangling her dear brother and running full speed towards infirmary. It was somewhat fascinating how one could feel so many conflicting emotions at the same time. 'Well, he is a Maou, one that specializes in wordplay, so…'
Rias sighed as she forcibly calmed herself and placed her hands on the table (causing the redwood to crack) "Brother dearest…"
"Oh..:" Sirzechs's eyes widened and he got up instantly. "Ah, would you look at the time, I have some Maou business to take care of, Grayfia dear would you…"
The Ruling Satan of Underworld was pushed back to the chair with a firm grip coming from the maid beside him. "Dear, I believe Rias-sama has some high-importance and high-impact words to deliver to you."
"T-traitor!"
Momonga would have screamed if he could have afforded to do so.
First the red-headed girl had spent the whole night alternating crying on him and then hugging him. Normally he'd have no issues with the latter, but she was using so much strength he could feel his barely [Stitch]ed organs rupturing as she did so. That then caused her to hug even tighter and cry all over him, and he healed himself before either Rias or the LITERAL RAID-WIPING KING OF HELL beside her could call for the doctor, and she returns to crying, and round and round it goes.
When his tormentors finally left he thought he could afford to crack open a eyelid and take a look around, but he overheard Lucifer talk to Beelzebub in the presumed hallway outside infirmary, telling the Great Fly something about vivisections and nonconsensual organ ownership alterations.
What Momonga assumed to be Beelzebub then entered the room carrying an ominous item that let out chimes of metallic instruments hitting each other, combined with a good-natured hum. "Ah, so that one must be Hyoudou-san. Hm, yes."
A click rang in the room, making Momonga think about hand-held recorders sometimes used by doctors in old movies to record their procedures. "Subject unconscious at the start of the procedure. Irregular heartbeat varying from six to eighty. Heavy scarring visible, Piece clearly unstable. let me just get the extractor and analyzers…"
'Right, to hell with it.' Momonga decided as he cast [Teleportation], intending to land somewhere without humans.
Making a blind teleport was always a risk as one could land inside a wall or under earth, and if one couldn't expel the new matter from their body they would either spontaneously explode in a shower of gore and organs or just fuse with whatever they had teleported into. However, considering the 'person' present in the infirmary room, the former seemed to be the case even if he didn't teleport so Momonga decided to take his chances.
Momonga teleported into what seemed to be a bath.
In closer look the bath was currently occupied by a group of girls. Momonga's blood froze over as the girls looked at him in pure shock, and he looked back with equal shock as he recognized the well-endowed woman among the group to be one of the girls making the arena-circle of observers in his fight against the blonde fire-staff wielding man, and then recognized that the whole group of girls to be the same ones who had made the ring in the first place.
Once again he thanked whatever phenomenon that had gifted him the ability to suppress emotions or he would have otherwise collapsed into a panicked heap on the spot. "Oh. [Greater Teleportation!]"
Hell bent on staying alive, or at least as alive as Undead can be, Momonga teleported away while preparing mentally to be yanked back by whatever forced teleportation spell the undead-hunting girl guild had used before. He hoped that [Greater Teleportation] would be enough to resist the counter-teleportation since it could not only travel in three dimensions but also inter-dimensionally.
Momonga found himself in… nowhere. Literally. It was akin to a void of nothingness, an illogical anti-matter of existence itself. He could feel that even being in where he was, or rather wasn't, was draining his mana and health at a steady pace. 'Huh… and what is this then?'
"WWHHOOO?" a roar caused Momonga to discard his current line of thoughts and he turned towards the source of not-sound… and saw a daemonic red dragon of gigantic proportions, a creature that could have only fit inside the realm of non-existing.
"Ah. Hello." Momonga bowed like a salaryman would bow to a CEO out of reflex due to the creature's oppressive, disappointed and explosive aura. His emotion suppression activating at least dozen times in less than a second was also quite impressive, at least in his opinion. "Who might you be?"
"III AMM THE WOORLLDD EAATEERR, GREEAAT REEDD! HEED AAND DIEEE, YOUU WHOO HOLD THE AAURAA OF DEAATH!"
The dragon's voice seemed to be distorted by power and time as it flung it's wings open, the wingspan something that could encompass the entire world.
"Nope." Momonga decided that running was better part of valour, once again, and decided to see if he could screw up again by rolling a natural one on metaphysical D20 of teleportation for the third time in a row. Perhaps he would land in the heart of a dying star? "[Greater Teleportation]!"
His chances deposited the body-snatcher Overlord into a long hallway-like room with a long table, where the red-headed girl who had spent the better part of the night crying over Momonga was seemingly beating the tar out of Satan himself using what looked like half of a grilled trout.
The room seemed to freeze over as the room's occupants turned to look at Momonga who was clad in only his burning hospital gown…
Burning hospital gown?
Mononga looked down and saw that he had teleported into a lit fireplace. 'Ah, good, [Body of Effulgent Ruby] hasn't expired yet and these flames are probably low level so they shouldn't deal damage…'
'Yeah, escape is definitely out of the picture.' as Momonga stepped calmly out of the flame and sat down into one of the chairs flanking the table. "Ah, In fear of sounding like a beggar coming to knock upon king's gate for morsel of bread, would I be too bold if I were to ask to partake in thine breakfast?"
The moment the words left Momonga's mouth the burning hospital gown decided to retire from life and fell from his body to smoulder quietly on the floor as his emotion suppression was working overtime, with the boss handing out new projects each minute, and completely out of coffee. 'Oh, It was still on fire. I think I'm starting to go a little insane despite the emotional suppression.'
A small giggle escaping Momonga's lips didn't seem to help the shock the people in the room were in.
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