OVERLORD non-canon volume 10: light's downfall

Prologue

Inside the holy chapel of the six gods' conference room, the 6 archbishops focused their gaze on the man kneeling in front of them. Before them was the captain of the Windflower Scripture and head of intelligence in the Theocracy, Nagan Cyril Codan.

The eldest of the six bishops standing in the center right addressed him with clear and firm voice.

"Report."

The captain inhaled deeply as he began delivering his report.

"Yes! As our spies have stated, the initial takeover of the city has been completed peacefully. The city has stabilized under the rule of the instigators. Of course the Kingdom has made no attempt or preparations to take the region back. Not that they could even if they wanted to."

After the massacre at Katze Plains the Re-Estize had taken horrendous losses in more ways than one. The level of damage done to them financially, politically and on a military level could not be overstated and many groups in and outside of the kingdom already started to prepare for the seemingly inevitable downfall of the kingdom's current monarchy. Of course the Theocracy was one of such groups.

"Such outrage! How can a city just accept being ruled by that monster, why have they not revolted yet? Those heretics have no shame!"

The archbishop who spoke out was the one who represented the god of light and who formerly managed the sunlight scripture, until they had been utterly destroyed by Ainz. It was not difficult to see why he was so aggravated.

It seems that the enforcer of the city which has been appointed by the Sorcerer King is someone the inhabitants of the city revere as their hero and messiah. [Dark hero] Momon.

This statement caused a lot of murmuring amongst the archbishops.

The name of the new Adamantite adventurer Momon had come up quite frequently in the recent archbishops' meetings. After the defeat of the vampire that fought the black Scripture and killed two of their members, the Slane Theocracy had been very wary of him. But no matter how hard they search they could not find records of this man's exploits or information about him in any of the neighboring states.

"That human's appearance and the appearance of Ainz Ooal Gown cannot be a coincidence. Even more so because this human supposedly killed the vampire using a magic crystal. I have no doubt that it is the same one that we gave to Nigun Grid Luin of the Sunlight Scripture."

This time the only female of the six bishops responded. She was the head of the part of the theocracy that worshipped the god of the wind. Thus she was Nagan's direct superior.

The captain responded to the question he had anticipated with the prepared answer.

"No, that does not appear to be the case. I had it confirmed that the magic crystal used by Momon was different than the one given to Nigun. The head of E-Rantel's magician guild confirmed himself that the crystal Momon used contained magic of the 8th tier thus making it superior even to the one we possessed which could only summon a high tier angel capable of using the 7th tier spell [holy smite].

"What did you say, that report must be a mistake?!"

The archbishops were visibly aghast from hearing this statement. Not since the appearance of the six gods has the world seen that kind of item. To possess one that contains an even higher tier of power than theirs was unthinkable!

The archbishop of the light god was beginning to get madder every second he listened to the report laid out by the windflower's captain. Refusing to believe another word of what he had to say, simply due to the absurdity of it all.

The other archbishops found it hard to disagree. Ainz Ooal Gown and Momon both defied everything they thought they knew about the world and it was getting harder and harder to keep calm after hearing about both their exploits.

"Whatever the case with the magic crystal, the power demonstrated by the Sorcerer King overturned everything we knew about magic. There can be only one explanation to his strength. He must be a demon god of the same realm as the six gods who has come to lay waste to their creation."

The one who broke sound of quiet mumbling amongst the archbishops who were contemplating the implications such a crystal was the archbishops that represented the god of death and who presided over the Black Scripture.

His statement caused the other archbishops to freeze up and show a rare display of fear. Not a single one of them wanted acknowledge such a wild fantasy which with every report became more and more plausible.

The archbishop of death closed his eyes as if in deep thought and then continued to speak his mind.

"As commanded by our saviors the six gods we must protect humanity the greatest race of all on the continent. Before this plague turns its gaze on the Slane Theocracy we must eliminate this threat without a trace left of him, lest we face extinction."

"Easier said than done, that monster has clearly demonstrated what happens if we engage it in the field. Small wonder that my scripture got destroyed. We will be forced to use our nation's full power if we hope to destroy that monster along with his subordinates."

The archbishop of life was starting to lose the last of what remained of his temper. Ainz had fundamentally crushed any sort of military influence he had inside the theocracy, for without Nigun the Bishop of light had no way of executing missions in the name of the god of light thus costing him followers and losing favor from various parties such as the Draconic Kingdom which around this time would request the help of the Sunlight scripture for dealing with the beastmen attacking them.

"Even so his very existence is blasphemy to everything that we the theocracy represent. I understand that we cannot fight him in the field as he has clearly demonstrated that any such actions will result in tragedy. So now we have to think of defeating him not with armies but in a straight up fight. Even if we assemble our country's finest it might not be enough, we still have to worry about his subordinates and army of death knights."

The Archbishop of death was adamant about crushing the mysterious magic caster before he became a threat to the Theocracy, on this he would not bend. Even so the Archbishop of light would not allow for fear of this sorcerer to take hold of the highest religious group of the Theocracy.

"You seem to forget that we unlike that monster possess items granted to us by the gods themselves. Not to mention we have her as a last line of defense. And now with Kaire-sama finally healed the power of [Downfall of castle and country] is once again at our disposal."

For a long time after the fight between the Black Scripture members and the vampire, the eldest of the Slane Theocracy's God-Kin had been unable to recover from the effects of Shalltear's [purifying javelin] but a while ago as if it had never been there the effects of the curse vanished like snow beneath the sun and Kaire's wounds were easily healed with the Theocracy's divine-type magic casters. Needless to say it was assumed that this coincided with the destruction of the vampire.

"We cannot use the power of [Downfall of castle and country] again so rashly. After what happened last time we can now see that it isn't a perfect weapon."

The Archbishop of wind interrupted the Archbishop of light for she thought it was about time he calmed down.

"You dare criticize one of the five legacies left to us by the Six Gods, this is heresy!"

"Enough!"

The archbishop of death raised his voice. Even the archbishop of light flinched from him doing so as in all the years he had known him that had never happened even once.

"We have to consider that we may never get a clear shot at using that item. I am afraid that should the Black Scripture fail that we will be forced to release the light."

These words as if a bomb had exploded in their face caused the archbishops to scream out in surprise.

"What did you say?!"

"That thing must never be used!"

"May the gods have mercy on you for uttering such a phrase!"

Even the captain of the Windflower Scripture who would never display rude behavior in front of the archbishops could not help but make a face with his jaw dropped unable to find the words.

"Archbishop, let us be abundantly clear about something. That item was left to us for the purpose of starting off with clean sheet. Unless the end of the world is nigh we cannot under any circumstance justify using that relic."

The archbishop of death sighed deeply while making wry smile and nodded in understanding.

"Ahem, anyways apart from the last suggestion it is safe to say that we need to recall all active members of the Scriptures and focus on formulating a strategy against the Sorcerer king. For now there's no need to move our trump card. First have the 'Thousand Miles Astrologer' focus on divination to determine the level of power this Sorcerer King possesses. In the meantime we need to obtain more info on both [Dark Hero] Momon and the subordinates of the Magic Caster."

All archbishops nodded at the words of the archbishops of Wind. They understood what this meant for the Theocracy and what their new purpose was.

"Understand very well that the Theocracy's new priority is the destruction of AINZ OOAL GOWN!"