Kapitel 551: 61
After the War Chapter 9
Nothing put both fear and excitement into the heart of a seasoned warrior like hearing the news that new kinds of weapons were being developed.
Gazef knew little about the new weapons that were now mass-produced in secret, highly protected areas of the empire.
Of course, as an Apostle, he could have gained more information. But he was one of the most recent additions of the apostle council and hadn't even met many of them in person. There was another fact to consider before fully assuming his new duties; one of the most influential Apostles, and the right hand of the prime Apostle Neia, was the former princess of Re-Estize, Renner.
He already wasn't on good terms with her and trying any power moves now would be the height of stupidity. Renner at least didn't do anything to stifle him and his duties towards his God, Lord Takemikazuchi. Their only interaction of late was her congratulating him on the new role in a polite but cold tone.
Other than that, his life hadn't changed that much. For the last few months, he had trained an elite unit under the watchful eye of his God, who now served as one of Lady Buku's top generals.
What most unnerved him was the almost frantic preparations the Empire was going through.
By the looks of it, there was another conflict coming soon. It was hard to tell if it was just the conquest of the remaining nations of the continent or possibly preparations for another enemy like the one Emperor Ainz himself banished. He felt that the latter was more likely; not that it mattered.
In the end, for a soldier like him, the reason for war meant little. His duty was to stand as a soldier for the Empire, not to indulge in all the politics behind it.
As every other morning, Gazef was in the training grounds soon after sunrise, honing his martial arts.
As usual, none of the opponents that could stand up against him were present. Brain and Clementine, as followers of Lord Peros, were mostly training within the temple of the chosen ones and visited his training grounds once every other week or so.
As for the rest, Gustav, Acilia, and Remedios spent the morning hours praying and meditating, and wouldn't arrive for another hour or so.
Out of the three, Remedios still was the strongest and the only opponent he needed to go all out against. Of course, there were apostles that could defeat him within a blink of an eye, but as of late, they were nowhere to be seen.
Not wanting to waste any time, Gazef gripped his training sword and started to repeat his routine training motions.
Even with hundreds of people present, he had more than enough space to move without any restrictions when performing more flashy martial arts moves. The military training grounds were so vast that even a few thousand could train simultaneously and not bother one another.
In a sense, he could say he was very close to his absolute limit and all the training did was keep him to that limit, but that too would soon change. As an Apostle, he would meet Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown the next month and receive a limit increase. Such a gift was not easy to receive, but apparently, all Apostles were entitled to it at least once.
After an hour or so he stopped and took a water pouch from the bench and drank as he looked around. The vast training grounds were filled with hundreds of people each doing their best to hone their bodies and skills.
He then noticed a familiar figure. A teenage elven boy of a rather small stature for his age ran up to him and bowed. "Lord Gazef, I have a message from Lady Neia."
Like many of the former Slane Theocracy slaves, he was eager to join the military to be able to stand up for himself and the others. Unfortunately, he couldn't pass the base physical requirements and was denied an active duty role. Thus, he had to take an administrative role.
Luckily, his hard-working attitude caused him to be noticed by Gazef, and made his assistant.
"Let's hear it." Gazef casually responded.
The boy took out a recording crystal and activated it. A small translucent projection of Neia appeared above it. "An apostle meeting is planned tomorrow at noon in the central gathering hall. Participation is mandatory, unless your God has given you other duties."
"I see. Report to her that I will participate."
The boy bowed and ran off without wasting any time. If not for the recently constructed teleportation points, he likely would have to spend hours just to traverse the immense castle and the surrounding areas.
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Gazef arrived at the central gathering hall about twenty minutes before noon. Even so early, there should be at least a few apostles present, and that would give him a chance to know at least a few of them better.
The moment he opened the hall doors his face twisted into a stony expression. 'Of course, she had to be here.'
Renner was already present and chatting with Acilia. Climb as usual stood behind her chair as her dutiful guard. She quickly met his gaze with a small, clearly fake, smile and said. "Gazef, I'm glad you could make it."
Gazef bowed his head and said in a neutral tone. "Renner, Acilia." and sat down in his designated spot.
While absentmindedly listening to their conversation which mostly revolved around the worship of the Gods, Gazef patiently waited for the rest of the apostles to arrive. As of now, there were only ten of them with two Gods, Lucifer and Punitto Moe, not having chosen their apostles yet.
He sat and waited as one by one the apostles arrived and sat down in their spots. Neia herself came in about five minutes before the set time and greeted everyone in her calm, almost timid manner.
The last one to arrive was Nfirea and to his credit, he at least was on time. Just as he sat down, Neia stood up from her seat and spoke. "Everyone is present. We can start."
Beside her appeared a few elder liches that quickly went around the table handing out thick folders to each of them. "It has come to my attention that not all of you have received details about the next steps the empire will take. The information you are now given is still under the general secrecy rule, so be mindful with whom you share it."
Neia started slowly walking around the table as she continued her speech. "As some of you already know, the Gods have set their eyes on the world from which the players have come. From what I have been told, the beings living there are the same as regular humans, and so-called players were imprisoned in those weak bodies. By the time we will start our work there, all the players will be eliminated by the agents of Lord Pandora's Actor and we will only deal with humans."
Neia stopped for a moment, taking a breath. "That said, the technology and weaponry in particular are much more advanced there. The Gods and their children may be able to withstand such threats but most of us can face dangers we are not prepared for. Thus, from the next week and onward, all military officers will start weapons training to know what we are going up against. I urge you all to at least familiarize yourselves with the weaponry as well."
Gustav raised his hand with two fingers up and asked. "Where can we do that?"
"The location of the training facility can be found in the documentation that is given to you." Neia said.
"Mo… Lady Bukuma has provided individual trainers for all of you should you need them." Zesshi added in.
Once the meeting was over, Gazef returned to his living space located near the training grounds and thoroughly went through the document.
A lot of what was written there was alien to him, but he at least understood the general idea. The place called Earth was a ruined world with the very air being poisonous, yet armed with the weapons they had created; regular humans could easily dispatch an adamantite-level adventurer on their own.
The military plan laid out in numerous pages focused on infiltration and sabotage of their military network so the most dangerous nations would be crippled even before Nazarick arrived. If the plan succeeded, Earth would await the Gods with open arms.
Of course, this wouldn't be the case for every nation which numbered over one hundred.
What his role in this invasion would be was hard to tell, but he at least could rely on the wisdom of his master.
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Just a day after the meeting, Gazef arrived at the weapons testing area with his friend, Brain, and fellow apostle, Clementine. The young woman sure was easy on the eyes, but her insane bloodlust and excessive sadism were well-known facts among every circle.
The trio crossed the security point that in some sense was more of a formality, since the actual guardians of the area, namely demons and angels patrolling the skies, didn't need to rely on official documents to know who was allowed to enter the top secret facility.
A man in military uniform approached them and loudly announced as he saluted. "First Sergeant Johnson at your service! I'm instructed to provide assistance to you."
Gazef instantly noticed a small metallic patch on the side of his head that looked glued to the skin. Johnson noticed his stare and tapped the patch with one finger saying. "Auto translator. Courtesy of your research department."
Gazef returned the salute in the same manner as the man had done, while Brain did a sloppy imitation. Clementine didn't even bother to salute but just gave the man a very wide smile, showing her prolonged canines that she clearly had grown just to intimidate him, and said. "Show us the toys."
The man seemed to be unphased by her display and replied. "Of course, this way, ladies and gentlemen." He waved to his left.
"Can you tone it down?" Brain whispered to her. "You know Lord Peros will be pissed if you get out of line."
"I know how to atone for my 'smaller' mistakes." She smirked.
"Yeah, everyone knows that." Brain retorted.
There was not much point paying attention to their banter, so Gazef just looked ahead as the sergeant was leading them to a wide field with rows of targets in distance.
The man led them to a large table with a row of weapons that resembled the one the battle maid, Shizu Delta, used.
"These are firearms, starting from handguns." Johnson pointed at the smallest ones. "Most are small caliber and will not be very effective against armored targets."
He then pointed to a row of bigger ones. "Assault rifles. Highly effective against lightly armed opponents. Comes with both regular and magical ammo."
"These ones," He showed the next row that looked similar to the assault rifles, only with much longer barrels. "Are sniper rifles. Used for long-distance targeting and work against medium to heavy armor depending on the caliber."
The final one was much larger than the previous ones. "This one, and I know you folks are strong but it's meant to be static, is an anti-material rifle. It can easily penetrate heavy armor and even some of the shields your scientists have developed."
Clementine instantly grabbed the largest one and inspected it curiously. "Careful Ma'am, the rifle is loaded!" Johnson shouted in a drill sergeant voice.
"Just let her do her thing. If she gets hurt, no one will blame you." Brain calmly explained.
"I understand that there are recovery options we don't have on Earth, sir, but she is swinging around a loaded anti-material rifle. It will remove half of your body if she discharges the gun by accident."
"Just tell me how to use it and don't be a wimp!" Clementine said impatiently.
"Ma'am please put the gun down and…" Johnson ducked as Clementine was carelessly flinging the massive rifle around.
"Tell me how to fucking use it!" Clementine raised her voice.
"For your own sake, just tell her what to do. Even if we all go to the resurrection team, she'll just take it in the ass for a month or so to get back on Lord Peros' good side." Brain told the sergeant.
"Who told you?" Clementine hissed.
"You did. When you are drunk, you have the annoying ability to tell everyone everything even if no one wants to hear it."
"Whatever." Clementine said dismissively and then asked once again. "How do I use this thing?"
Johnson just shook his head and started to explain as he carefully approached Clementine and pointed at the various parts of the gun. The moment he had given her enough information, she aimed at one of the targets and took a shot. Although the sound was barely audible, the recoil of the gun was strong enough to make her fall on her back. She blinked and then exclaimed. "Whoa." As she jumped to her feet again
"Is this normal?" Gazef asked.
"Normal humans would've had their shoulder turned to mush. That gun is meant to be shot in a stationary position, not held like that."
"I think you better forget what normal is when you're dealing with gifted individuals." Gazef remarked and picked up one of the assault rifles.
The instructions on how to use it were easy enough but after a few rounds, it was clear that learning to aim it would take some time. It was far more precise than a bow but still was affected by wind and the distance of the target.
Still, seeing that this weapon, which could be used by a regular human, could kill a target at least three hundred meters away was a testament to what dangers the world called Earth would provide.
Clementine, meanwhile, was getting used to using the massive gun by standing in a position that dealt with the recoil and didn't break her concentration.
Once the trio had done enough tests on the targets, Clementine shouted at Brain. "Hey, try one of them on me."
"Sure." Brain responded, casually aiming one of the assault rifles at Clementine.
At this point, Johnson just stepped aside and let them do whatever they wanted. This world clearly defied common sense and these people were far more powerful than even augmented elite soldiers.
Brain aimed at Clementine's stomach, just in case it actually does serious harm to her. After all, pulling out a healing potion was easy, but calling in someone who could resurrect her and then explaining everything to their master was another. He took a shot which Clementine dodged by moving aside.
"Those are fast." She remarked and then said. "Again. This time I'm not moving out of the way."
She took a shot in the stomach at point-blank range and winced in pain as the bullet bounced off her toned abs. A moment later the spot became blue. "Hurts like hell." Clementine said while wincing and then smirked. "Now it's my turn."
"Hell no. You are not shooting at me!" Brain shouted at her.
"I didn't ask." She grabbed one of the assault rifles and aimed at Brain.
He took one look at her and started to run. She instantly ran after him while trying to shoot him. "Hey, come back."
"Sir?" The sergeant turned to Gazef with a confused expression.
"When it comes to the chosen ones of Lord Peros, just stay out of their way." Gazef calmly said.
"Understood, sir. I will notify the rest of the staff." Johnson said.
While the screaming and gunshots could be heard in the distance, Gazef just picked up another gun and resumed the practice. There was little point worrying about Brain and Clementine killing each other; his task was to learn about the new weapons, and he fully intended to do just that.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein