After Merlin (235) (Patreon)

After receiving Ainz’s question, Merlin thought about it for a moment, glancing at Ainz as if trying to figure out if he should trust Ainz's abilities before answering with a slow nod of his head. "It is possible, however… Why?"

Faced with a response like that, something that Ainz had not expected, the last Master of Chaldea blinked in surprise before looking at Merlin, "I beg your pardon?"

"I'm saying it's possible," Merlin broke out into his usual joking smile again for a moment, before, properly assessing Ainz's willingness to reduce Gilgamesh's kingdom census by one court mage, hurriedly corrected his attitude "I mean, where exactly would that lead? For what purpose do you want to touch the black sea of Tiamat?"

Ainz instantly prepared himself to explain to Merlin the simple idea of entering the black sea and scouring that for the Grail. Before realizing that, while such actions were logical, since it would probably not affect him in any way, since Ainz was not a living thing… The Grail was not the main issue at the moment.

In the previous Singularities, Ainz had already encountered situations in which the Grail was not the main requirement for breaking the Singularity, and obtaining it did not provoke its resolution. And there’s no doubt that the current Singularity, prepared directly by the Grand Caster, was clearly such a situation. 

Even if Ainz had taken the Grail for himself, the awakened Tiamat and the black sea engulfed world around him would not disappear at just that.

At the moment, the world was already effectively destroyed. While the Apocalypse had stopped at ninety to ninety-nine percent of its fulfillment, that’s not exactly a victory. It might have been relatively easy for Ainz to obtain the Grail under the current circumstances, relatively speaking, given the difficulty of having to find the Grail itself in the black sea of Tiamat. But what next? 

The Singularity could not be solved without destroying Tiamat herself… Actually on that matter…

"What if we destroy Tiamat?" Ainz looked up at Merlin, causing the mage to momentarily freeze, looking at Ainz as if he had just grown a second head, before explaining why such a thing was patently ridiculous.

“Tiamat is practically indestructible. Of course, the key word is 'practically', technically speaking it’s possible, in the barest sense of the word. Tiamat is the embodiment of all life on earth, in a sense, you could say that all life that exists on earth is an imperfect clone of her. And so in the event of her demise, she will simply use this 'imperfect clone' to incarnate again, to transfer her consciousness and her power.”

And Ainz had to agree, killing Tiamat would be practically impossible, would be much easier if Ainz was willing to kill all of Humanity and all living beings, something made much easier in this Singularity. But, well, that would be kind of putting the cart before the horse in Ainz’s case. 

Unheeding of Ainz’s planning, Merlin continued.

“With her level of power and existence as a Beast, she is virtually impossible to destroy. If she is destroyed, she will simply rise again, and again, and again… Until there is no more life left on earth descended from Tiamat.” 

Merlin delivered this information lightly, as if talking about the weather. 

"Only then will the destruction of Tiamat be possible, but that would require the destruction of all living things in the world before that, which is hardly the outcome you would want, right?"

At these words, Ainz paused, listening to Merlin as plans and ideas arose in his head.

Enemies capable of resurrecting, in Yggdrasil, weren't anything too special, most of the Players and a significant portion of the bosses were capable of such tricks. However, infinite resurrection…

In Yggdrasil, a few World Enemies were capable of such a trick, with their destruction only possible if some special conditions were met. Sometimes while in battle and sometimes before or even after the battle, where without the conditions being fulfilled, they would revive again and again. 

They were World Enemies after all… 

But finding out that Tiamat shared such a capability… It tied Ainz's hands considerably.

Certainly he had many tricks already in his repertoire aimed at blocking resurrection, but Ainz doubted that a simple spell like True Death, which could block all low-level resurrection spells, would be enough to deal with someone like Tiamat. The only Instant-Death spell in his repertoire that might be able to do so, his Noble Phantasm…

Ainz regarded his Noble Phantasm with great suspicion, not something he could rely on. 

Being transported to this world had changed the effects of even his Super-Tier Magic, his very powerful but still rather straightforward ability, its effect on the world around him was unpredictable and had already caused several problems before. What about his Noble Phantasm, an ability that, strictly speaking, did not exist in Ainz's repertoire before at all? 

Ainz was well aware of the effect of [The Goal of All Life is Death], he had used it many times before in Yggdrasil, but in this new world? Especially when used in the current circumstances, when the world around him had already been effectively destroyed by Tiamat?

The unintended damage it could cause was immeasurable.

"Well, I think this is a good place to stop! There’s a lot of information that needs to be chewed over, after all!" Merlin, seeing the pensive Ainz, seemed to have gained a measure of his usual boldness again, leaning back in his chair before theatrically wiping his face with the palm of his hand. 

"Gee, I've certainly said a lot! How about some tea?"

"I guess that’s true… I could do with one." Mashu, apparently, just getting out of her own fugue, got up from her seat and headed to make some tea, or more likely ask the servants where she could make the tea.

"In that case, make me one too! Make it extra sweet!" Merlin didn't seem at all embarrassed, imposing his demand on Mashu, and faster than Alturia could wrangle him or for Mashu to complain. Merlin had slipped away from his seat like a serpent, quickly moving towards the exit, and disappearing behind them. Only to quickly open them again, before the people inside could breathe a sigh of relief at the annoying mage’s leaving. Throwing one last huge smile, so sincere that it seemed to mock everyone watching at once. "I’ll take Black tea with three spoons of sugar, leave them on the table, I'll come back for them later!"

Then, a moment before Alturia would have made a hole in Merlin, and the wall immediately behind him, with a diameter just right for her spear, Merlin disappeared again over the threshold of the room, leaving Ainz and the five Servants in the room. Mashu at least simply sighed, and went out of the room as well, probably to make that tea.

"And this is the Merlin of this world? How… disappointing" After a second of silence, Arthur spoke up, glancing at the spot where Merlin used to be, then turning her gaze to Alturia and Mashu and bowing her head slightly, saying an apology with a dash of genuine sympathy. "My condolences."

"Thank you," Alturia also didn't pretend to be a confident king who didn't need anyone's words of encouragement, and nodded slightly, accepting Arthur's sympathy.

‘It seems that just now a friendship has been born between the two versions of King Arthur. Perhaps, of course, I should be worried that this friendship was born out of contempt and hatred for Merlin…’ Ainz thought for a moment before shaking his head. 

‘Though, under the current circumstances, there is absolutely nothing I could do to make them reconsider. If the Merlin in Yggdrasil was like this as well, then I definitely wouldn't worry at all about the fact that there was a Merlin for the human factions whose counterpart didn't exist for the other races. He would probably also rank highly in the most hated NPCs ranking alongside Medb.’

Ainz wondered for a moment what the forum might look like in that case, filled with a million posts about how much the players hated Merlin. Maybe the amount of hate posting could surpass Medb’s? 

Ainz dismissed the thought a few seconds later when Mashu, apparently having actually taken Merlin's advice, reappeared in the room. "Ainz, green tea without sugar?"

"Yeah," Ainz nodded, taking a moment to look at Mashu with a pile of ceramic cups and mugs on a tray.

"Hmm, the tea isn't bad, but Merlin, although he answered most of the questions, which, judging by the brief interaction with him, is rather atypical behavior for him, left behind the most important question of all, unanswered." Jacques, taking another cup from Mashu, took a sip thoughtfully before casting an interested glance at Ainz. 

"What's next?"

Ainz, taking a sip for a chance to think out a response, sinking into thought.

"What's next, hmm?" Ainz shook his cup before taking another sip, raising his gaze upwards. 

‘I'd like to know the answer to that question too…’

***

"Ha ha ha ha ha, and you call that ruling! I could create a kingdom ten times more powerful even if I had ten times less subjects!" Ozymandias laughed deeply, casually answering Ainz's previously unspoken question. 

Could Ozymandias interact with Gilgamesh without his explosive patronizing laughter? 

Judging by the fact that, his laughter was currently loudly resounding in the room? No, no, he couldn't

"Of course, that was because I didn't use even a twentieth of my abilities to create this kingdom! And this being a human. If I were a Servant, I would have surpassed all your accomplishments using only a hundredth of my power!" Gilgamesh, contrary to his character, which was more predisposed to tear the head off a person impudent enough for disrespecting his kingship, responded to Ozymandias' words with an ease and even amusement that a less knowledgeable person might call ‘friendly’.

Siduri, who was listening to such a conversation, however, was a much more knowledgeable person and therefore knew perfectly well that despite the ‘friendliness’ of their interactions, anyone that dared to point that out would be gone in an instant. The two kings pooling their power to eliminate the person who had such a foolish thought, before staring each other down, proclaiming that they could never be friends.

After that, they would instantly return to their ‘friendly’ teasing and bickering.

Siduri was an extremely skilled assistant, so skilled that she could, without exaggeration, be considered one of the reasons for Uruk's continued existence as a state. After all, when King Gilgamesh had returned from his quest for immortality, his kingdom was completely destroyed and devastated, abandoned without people. Only Siduri was left to express to the returning Gilgamesh all the grievances accumulated by the people who had left when Gilgamesh completely forgot his Kingdom and went in search of immortality. 

After Gilgamesh's return, she also became the first, and for a while, the only resident of Uruk and Gilgamesh's vassal. Thanks to this, Siduri could confidently say that she knew more about Gilgamesh than any other person in Uruk and could even predict his answers and actions with a very high degree of certainty.

However, in the end, she was not Gilgamesh. 

Siduri was just a human in the position of counselor, while Gilgamesh was two-thirds god and King of Uruk, their perceptions were completely incompatible with each other. And so, she could only know that Gilgamesh and Ozymandias would refuse to call each other ‘friends’ and would not allow any thought that they might be so. And yet, by their actions, they acted like the best of friends. 

She couldn’t understand why it was so.

"Hmm, that's it! You can watch with adoration as the great King Ozymandias himself demonstrated to you the qualities of the greatest ruler and sorted out the petty problems vexing your kingdom!" Ozymandias lifted his chin as if expecting applause but received only joyful, faux-mocking laughter from Gilgamesh.

"Worthy? Ozymandias!? Indeed, you are worthy of becoming the best of my officials, in the future, if you only apply, I will certainly find you a position worthy of your outstanding talents!"

After that, the two rulers laughed at what was said as if it was the best joke each of them had ever heard or said, despite the fact that each of them had made such a remark in all seriousness. Fully realizing that each of them would take what was said seriously and yet not react in any way to what was said.

It was extremely confusing, but Siduri would not voice any complaint, and not just because such an action would be taken very poorly by the two Kings.

After all, watching Gilgamesh, and Ozymandias as well, was an extremely entertaining pastime for Siduri. Even though she was well aware of exactly what decision one or the other would make at any given moment, watching them was still a unique experience for her.

Ozymandias, however, ignoring all his previous proclamations, pushed aside a huge stack of documents, completed, something that would have required weeks of work from a whole group of officials in the past. He then crossed his arms and looked up at Gilgamesh, causing Gilgamesh to push aside the huge stack of documents and look back at him without having to look if they had been done properly. They are, of course, Ozymandias’ pride wouldn’t allow otherwise. 

"Let's move on to the more important question. Why?" Ozymandias asked.

"Why else?" Gilgamesh replied calmly, before both kings were silent, as if the two expressed incoherent questions, represented some complete meaningful dialog that had just taken place between them. Trying to comprehend such a meaningful, and yet stilted dialogue, took all of Siduri’s capacity. 

After all, even if Siduri was versed in how Gilgamesh acted and thought, she was not fully privy to his thinking. And therefore, what meaningful dialogue could be understood from just the two short exchanges, were still a huge mystery to her as well.

However, perhaps the main quality necessary for Gilgamesh's counselor was the ability to keep a calm expression on their face and react to everything going on around them with equanimity. To act as if everything going on around them, even the most extraordinary, was a completely ordinary event. 

And so, even in this instance, where she couldn’t understand a single thing, Siduri only silently tried to demonstrate her ability to blend in with the walls, waiting for Gilgamesh to give her an assignment. After all, Siduri was absolutely certain that Gilgamesh was perfectly aware of her presence in the room, just not paying attention to her. 

In Gilgamesh's mind, the servants were natural extensions of his hands, feet, eyes, and ears, and therefore, paying attention to their presence or absence was as silly as trying to draw attention to the fact that there were five fingers on each of his hands.

Ozymandias smiled, then shook his head slightly, before continuing further:

"The great King Gilgamesh was defeated by a mere primordial mother? I expected more resistance from one who considered himself my equal." Ozymandias started, making the context of the dialogue a little clearer to Siduri. 

"Running behind walls and waiting out the enemy are not the actions I expected from the King of Heroes."

"If you had met me in my time of great accomplishments, I would have executed you for a single word implying that this would be possible." Gilgamesh replied with a smile, not at all preventing Siduri from determining that the words he was saying at the moment were deadly serious. 

"After all, there is no honor more worthy that I can bestow upon a monster than to be destroyed by my hand. Mortals have the right to die in an honorable battle with other mortals, while the king destroys Tiamat, such a thing is to be expected, another legend among my myriad legends, worthy to stand above my other feats…"

Gilgamesh stretched his words for a moment, as if to allow himself a fraction of time to reflect on his past in the sense in which old men recall their turbulent youth, before turning his gaze back to Ozymandias. “But times have changed, and with them, I too have changed.”

Smiling wryly as if he had just admitted some great fault, her King continued.

"Although the death of mankind in a great battle is a fitting end to the legend of Gilgamesh, human history began with my kingdom, Uruk, the first city, the great city. It served as the foundation for the creation of civilization, and my myth served as the basis for every myth that followed. The death of mankind does not cause me regret, that is the role of the followers of the greatest king, but the complete destruction of civilization will leave no mention of Uruk and will break the chain of human history." Gilgamesh spoke with arrogance, as if he was talking about something predetermined and therefore completely obvious and unworthy of discussion, like the sun rising in the east. 

“Not for the sake of people, but for the sake of mankind, as such a suicidal war cannot happen.”

"When I can ascertain that humanity is capable of existing outside of my splendor, then I will go into battle with the advancing hordes of Tiamat, a fitting end to the legend of the greatest hero, Gilgamesh," The King spoke of his subsequent suicidal attack as something taken for granted, a completely routine and preordained event. 

"There are no options other than this."

"Really?" But contrary to the way Ozymandias and Gilgamesh had hitherto found common ground, before either of them could utter a sentence, Ozymandias allowed himself to question Gilgamesh's words, putting a hand to his chin as if in slight reverie.

Gilgamesh responded by shifting his gaze to Ozymandias, then somewhere to the side, then back again, causing Siduri to once more become lost in the puzzling ways of thinking of the great kings before her and where exactly this dialogue had turned.

"Your words are enough for me to accept the value of this Master," Gilgamesh nodded, but did not continue his words, causing Ozymandias to stare at him silently at first. Then, after a second, realizing that Gilgamesh did not plan to finish his thought, Ozymandias pondered again and suddenly grinned as he spoke.

"The great King Gilgamesh, prophet among kings and king among prophets, is unable to see the nature of one’s Master, is he not?" Ozymandias broke out into a smug smile, causing Gilgamesh to suddenly laugh back.

“I will have you whipped in the main square," Gilgamesh muttered as he continued to laugh before calming himself a few seconds later. "Hmm, I knew that outside interference in the current Singularity would come from one side or the other, yet this scoundrel dares to hide himself from my gaze! My eye, that sees through every grain of sand falling through the cracks, could not see his nature! Shamelessness, impudence, I am surprised and delighted!”

"But?" Ozymandias continued, evidently already knowing the end of the dialogue as well as Siduri, but wanting to end it on the necessary note.

"But," Gilgamesh said slowly, before humming to himself. “how can I trust the existence of mankind to an unknown variable? To die in battle is a worthy death, but to die according to chance and folly… If I were the Gilgamesh that defeated monsters, I would have sent my armies forward long ago. However, at this time, I am Gilgamesh, King of the people of Uruk. The death of Uruk is predestined in human history, but not a thoughtless death due to chance at the hands of a distraught mother. I, and my armies, will only support this… Ainz if he can prove himself worthy of support. If not, my current strategy is capable of winning without my greatness displayed on the battlefield.”

"That's it, huh? A test for Ainz, hmm?" Ozymandias looked at Gilgamesh with a slightly sly smile before saying something seemingly unrelated to the current topic of their conversation. "When I was in Chaldea, I also wished to test Ainz, to determine his abilities and value as my follower…"

After that, Ozymandias threw a sly look at Gilgamesh, as if to say that he knew some secret to which Gilgamesh himself had no access, which made the king-sage wrinkle his expression in dissatisfaction slightly for the first time during their whole dialogue.

After these words, Ozymandias looked away as if he was talking to the wind, and then he said, "Anyway, I think that Ainz will still be able to surprise you… And only your reaction will depend on whether this discovery will be unpleasant for you, or intriguing, as it did for me."

***

If Ainz didn't know about how he could deal with the current situation, and where the Grail was, he would definitely be busy searching for that and gathering information at the moment. At most, he would have put himself to the sidelines and let his other, far more skilled Servants handle the search and make plans.

If Ainz knew where the Grail was and could somehow retrieve it, then he would certainly have dealt with it and would already be preparing a plan for further battle, since that has been the case in all Singularities so far. Finding the grail, equals fighting the enemy for possession of it. After all, how quickly Ainz could get back to Chaldea depended on the speed of the Singularity's resolution.

However, the current state for Ainz was unique. It was the first time he had ever encountered such a problem. 

He simultaneously already knew where the Grail was located and didn't know how to get it, and most importantly, there was nothing he could do about it.

This strange situation had a definite effect on his Servants. And so, after spending a few more minutes at the table without giving any concrete thought as to the resolution of the current Singularity, they left Ainz's presence. Each going off on their own to explore the Singularity, interact with the surrounding city, and ponder the question that Ainz was currently concerned with as well. A question that, in all fairness, had plagued all of humanity throughout its existence in one way or another.

What to do next?

Ainz had never faced an opponent like Tiamat until now, at least in this world after he had left Yggdrasil, and Merlin's description did not help Ainz's confidence at all. On the other hand, of course, Ainz himself had gained some confidence in his own abilities after facing the many challenges he had, albeit not to the point of throwing himself into Tiamat's arms with no backup plan. 

But even assuming that Ainz could destroy Tiamat… What next?

Even assuming that Ainz could enter Tiamat's black sea unhindered and even find the Grail after days of searching and bringing it back, what was to come next? The world had effectively been destroyed and as Merlin had mentioned, even the death of Tiamat was likely not capable of unequivocally fixing the current state of the world. 

So, even if Ainz, somehow, destroyed the black sea, Merlin did say that they are somehow a living being after all, and Ainz had plenty of capabilities to destroy that, it would likely take years to rebuild the Singularity. Chaldea does not have years to spend rebuilding civilizations that needed to adhere to the Proper Human History, so to not just somehow create another Singularity by their careless actions. 

Of course, that was just an academic thought, as stated before, Chaldea didn’t have years.

So, should he use the Grail, for example, or Wish Upon A Star to restore the reality around him? Ainz wasn't sure that it was that easy to arrange. Most likely, Ainz would have needed to bring in additional forces to accomplish such a thing, not to mention that this option also didn't guarantee one hundred percent accuracy in restoring the world. 

And, again, it was built on the assumptions of an easy victory over Tiamat, an event that Ainz wasn't at all sure of. Him defeating Tiamat, that is.

At the same time, however, it was certain that while Gilgamesh and Merlin's plan sounded credible, which Ainz approved of in all cases, it required tens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years to bring to fruition, literally. And while Ainz preferred a slow but steady plan with no possibility of losing, centuries of work on the current Singularity did not suit Ainz at all. 

Ainz certainly enjoyed visiting the various Singularities and its unique vistas and civilizations. In theory, he could imagine a seaside vacation in one of them, at best that meant maybe a couple of weeks. 

Under current conditions, where Ainz was literally in a kingdom literally besieged on all sides with a black liquid like fuel oil, even a couple of weeks seemed like torture to Ainz!

Add in a cloud of toxic unbreathable air, with a chance of acid rain that could eat even through flesh, and Ainz would feel like right at home! Which is not a good thing!

But what could Ainz do?

If there was some unique solution that could settle all the problems, it was unfortunately doing its best to escape Ainz's gaze.

Ainz, after spending a few more minutes strategizing out all possible ways to eliminate Tiamat, ones that he could without more information about Tiamat’s capabilities. So, mostly thinking of ways of making her stay in one place while he casts a strong instant-death spell. He finally came to the conclusion that all of his plans were in one way or another tied to the unsolvable problem of rebuilding the destroyed Singularity. 

He could only sigh and tried to distract himself from such considerations by shifting the focus of his reasoning. After all, the current problem seemed unsolvable to him, and if the problem was unsolvable, then it wasn't worth it for Ainz to overstress his head trying to solve it.

Instead, Ainz could focus on solving concerns that, at least at the moment, seemed within his capability to solve, specifically, something like destroying monsters or trying to deal with the Alliance of the Three Goddesses mentioned by Merlin.

Unfortunately, Merlin escaped before Ainz could get him to talk about the Goddesses in great detail, allowing Ainz to gain a modicum of commiseration for Arthuria at the same time. After all, hatred brought people together as much as love, especially hatred of Merlin.

Besides, even if Ainz himself couldn't figure out the solution to the Singularity yet, at least he could assign his Servants to solve the smaller problems. Ozymandias, in particular, was near Gilgamesh at the moment.

While the likelihood of Ainz being able to place another Servant close to Gilgamesh was low, at least judging by the character of Gilgamesh himself, Ozymandias, who instantly found common ground with each other, was the only one that he could assign something like that. 

There were monsters constantly advancing on the borders of Gilgamesh's kingdom, as well as goddesses to be found, who at least were possible for Ainz to visit. And by traveling to this Singularity, Ainz had chosen the strongest of his Servants, so at least Ainz could trust them with these functions. 

Perhaps destroying the monsters was pointless in terms of solving the cause of the problem, but it certainly couldn't make things worse.

"In that case, hmmm… We'll have to find out from Gilgamesh where the Goddesses are at the moment, and if they are alive… And where his armies are, and send help to them," Ainz nodded silently to his thoughts before noticing the figure of a familiar girl approaching him. 

‘What was her name…?’ 

“Siduri, I think?” Speaking out loud, the attentive secretary picked up his voice.

“Mister Ainz?” Siduri spoke out in a questioning tone, not because she had forgotten Ainz’s name, but simply as a measure to start a conversation. 

“His Majesty invites you to a welcome dinner in honor of your arrival.”

"Hmm?" Ainz had been to a welcome dinner once before when he was in the Singularity of Rome. Since then, he had been constantly on the run and dealing with the problems of the Singularities, and had not been able to rest. Now, with the black sea engulfing the entire world, such a celebration seemed all the more unnecessary to Ainz.

‘On the other hand,’ Ainz logically argued to himself, ‘if the current problem can't be solved, there's no point in worrying about it.’

"Okay, would you mind pointing the way?" Ainz asked, only to have Siduri nod and then walk away, Ainz needed no invitation to follow after her.

After all, if Gilgamesh had prepared a plan that was supposed to be in effect for several hundred years, why wouldn't Ainz take the opportunity to take a brief respite from constantly dealing with the Singularities. Just for one evening?

After all, what’s the worst that could happen?