The Nameless Thing
She faltered in her steps, usually so swift and precise, she cursed her belly and the blasphemous life dwelling within. She would have ripped that parasite out of her body if only she had the strength to heal herself and not bleed out.
Unfortunately, she was too exhausted even to keep running, let alone attempting such an invasive procedure by herself without dying.
She gritted her teeth in frustration at her impotence, she had never felt so weak in her entire life… so powerless… which seemed to be a trend as of late.
No! She should not think about that now!
She glanced back to make sure none of those long eared bastards was still behind her. Her rescuer team put their lives on the line to make sure none of them could come after her. They were so close to the border! Almost back home! Back to her life where she was was-
Her train of thought was interrupted when she felt her head impact with something hard, though she was pretty sure no trees had been in front of her ever since she left the forest.
She stumbled back, almost falling due to her balance no longer being what she was used to due to her enlarged belly.
Her hands immediately went for her weapon out of habit, her eyes fixed on the dark figure standing in her way. She had never been a particularly tall woman, but she never felt so insignificantly small before. This was not the first time an enemy of hers towered over her, plenty of demi-humans did the same, but none of them could compare to the sheer dominance this one was displaying. The instant chills that went down her spine were nothing like she ever felt before.
With two burning crimson flames in the place of eyes, devoid of any skin, and adorned in a gown of shadows. This was an undead the likes she never heard of before.
An undead on the border between the Elf Kingdom and the Slane Theocracy, what did she even stumble upon?
"Umu, have you been teleported here too? I guess those shitty devs didn't even have the curtesy to create equally levelled parties… or maybe it was gear based? They might have thought that would have been more balanced seeing how any idiot could get to level 100 with some effort."
The being spoke seemingly random words that she could hardly make sense of in her current state, or maybe even in a more calm one. But one thing was for sure, she was human and he was undead.
"Begone foul undead! Back off and I will spare your miserable existence!"
She could not afford wasting time with a battle right now, the Gods only knew how long the Scriptures could hold the elves off.
"You are one of those, eh? Listen, shutdown already happened, it makes no sense to keep up your roleplay or something… wait, are you pregnant? How did you manage to make the avatar look like that? And why?"
She had no further interest in listening to whatever nonsense drabble the undead was spewing.
"[Flow Accelerator] [Greater Ability Boost] [Greater Slash Strike]!"
She swung her scythe, the relic of the Gods that could even kille the unkillable at a speed no one who wasn't a God-Kin could even perceive.
"[Greater Hardening]"
With those words the undead proceeded to intercept her slash with his bare skeletal hand, blocking her in her tracks, something that was supposedly impossible.
The previous sensation of dread became an open abyss in her stomach, making her feel like she was falling into the endless void.
"[Energy Drain]"
She felt her already weakened and depleted body get sucked dry of any remaining stamina she had. Her vision started to blur as she felt her hands no longer capable of maintaining the grip over her weapon.
"Wait, you are not-"
That was all she could hear before her vision blackened and she abandoned the waking world.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
To say Suzuki Satoru was lost would be an understatement, both metaphorically and literally. He was just melancholically experiencing the shutdown and then he was in an open area under a breathtaking constellation of stars, he didn't think it was possible to make such a scenario with the realistic limitations of VR. He even felt a tinge of excitement at the thought of maybe being able to experience some sort of demo for a possible Yggdrasil 2.
That was when the world still made sense.
When the woman impacted his avatar, he thought that another player had just been randomly selected and teleported with him, maybe the shitty devs wanted to make them experience some sort of coop quest to introduce a new game? Her gear was quite good at first sight so that seemed promising, he then used [Discern Entity] to pry a little and discovered the player was just around level fifty before defensive magic kicked him out.
Then it turned out his initial assessment was mistaken, and that was no player at all, but just an NPC, and his previous curiosity apparently triggered her aggro. For some weird reason he could not understand the NPC looked heavily pregnant… the fact his aggression caused the possible quest to blow up briefly passed through his mind, but he was pretty sure such a blatant flaw would be noticed by all the AI that went over ready-to-be-released content.
Her sorry state prevented him from using any harmful spells, just limiting himself to blocking her attack and draining her HP, which he noticed was quite low and so stopped immediately. Though, the NPC seemed to faint… that should have not been possible by Yggdrasil logic.
And now he was here, in a summoned log cabin not far from where he first appeared. He carried the NPC with him, making sure to turn off his [Negative Touch] or risking harming her any further. He might not know what was going on, but leaving a pregnant woman, NPC or not, there in the middle of nowhere would have made Touch-Me log in only to beat him black and blue. And also, she seemed the only one he could actually interrogate for information.
While he waited for the NPC to wake up, he started experimenting a little, whatever this new… game? Was like. For once, he could smell things, which he was sure it was ana illegal feature, but maybe he was just not adjourned with the newest laws, his sense of touch was also greatly improved over the simplistic mechanics in Yggdrasil, and being undead stopped him from trying his taste sense.
He then tried to access his menu, which apparently was completely gone. He could have understood it if it was just a demo lasting at most a few minutes, but he had been here for the better part of an hour and this was completely illegal! Equivalent to kidnapping even! And no GMs answered any of his calls!
By the time the woman woke up he really didn't know what to think of his situation. All pointed toward something… very wrong and completely unlikely. Though, he needed to confirm something first.
The woman looked around herself with a confused gaze before her eyes snapped into focus on him. His undead features no hidden by a mask and gloves.
"Undead!"
She tried to move away, only managing to slip back against the bed's frame.
"Miss, I think you are confused, when I came across you, you seemed delirious… I would advice resting, even more in your condition, I would not be surprised if you were suffering from hallucinations, you had quite a high fever."
The dark eyes of the woman never left him nor there seemed to be any kind of hesitation or doubt at this attempt at making it look like she was seeing things before.
"Where is my weapon, undead?"
She hissed out, sounding more like a very large and pissed cat, not buying any of his bullshit. 'Oh well, it can't be helped' not that he came up with a genius plan in the first place, he just hoped she would be confused enough to doubt her own memories, which didn't seem to be the case.
With and heavy sigh he removed his useless mask and gloves.
"Can't blame a man for trying, your weapon is safe… it is quite the impressive item, I would have no qualms giving it back in exchange for information."
He tried to prompt her for a bit of cooperation, dangling her weapon as leverage. He would decide afterward how to proceed.
"You are a blemish upon the Gods! Give it back! I will not fall for your paltry tricks! Do your worse!"
The woman seemed ready to throw down, weapon or not. He almost facepalmed, what even was this situation? A bedridden pregnant woman trying to fight him with her bare hands? Was this a poor joke.
The silence was interrupted by a growl from the woman who almost doubled over, as her hands went for her belly.
"Damn it! Fuck! Not now! You damned…"
He lost the rest of the cursing as his mind rebooted to understand what he was looking at before it shifted into place.
Was she… giving birth?
He could feel a large amount of panic overtake him before a sensation of calmness washed over him, snapping his mind back into focus.
Only to realize he had no idea what to do.
"[Summon low tier undead: Pumpkin Carnage] [Summon low tier undead: Reaper Nurse] [Summon low tier undead: Reaper Nurse]"
The three summons raised from the ground making him mentally sigh in relief at the spells still working. They were all trash summons, but Pumpkin was the only one capable of using healing magic without him having to bring out the big guns, the other two were summoned out of desperation, he hoped their name meant that they had some medical experience, as farfetched as that seemed.
"Help that woman deliver her child safely."
He ordered as the three undead did not make a sound, simply turning around to ward the woman who was still doubling over in pain.
The two corpse nurses grabbed her and tried to push her back, only to be shoved off by the stronger human.
"STAY AWAY! You damned undead! Don't touch ME!"
She was hysterical, her bloodshot eyes darting around like a cornered animal.
Satoru moved forward, he had no intention of letting the only source of information he had go to waste.
"Stay calm, we are only here to help you deliver that child, or do you prefer to risk your life doing it yourself?"
All he got in response was a spit aimed at him that missed the target. He was starting to get annoyed at this woman's demeanor, but he still tried to keep his cool.
"You can either cooperate, or I will force you to stay still."
He tried to sound more assertive, even raising his hand and making a magic circle appear to make his point clear.
Finally, the black-haired woman seemed to realize her position and comply, even if begrudgingly.
The two nurses again tried to approach her, and this time she did not offer resistance, other than a grimace, as they stripped her of her armor, leaving her in her underclothes.
She was pushed down on the bed by the nurses, using the pillows to position her accordingly, not that Satoru had any basis to judge.
He almost winced when any remaining doubts that this might be some kind of weird quest were stripped away when the two nurses removed the woman's pants and underwear leaving her privates exposed for all to see.
What followed from there was a couple hours of misery, both for the struggling woman and for Satoru who was not at all mentally ready to witness the process. He tried to avoid looking as much as possible to try and preserve some of the woman's modesty.
The wailing of a newborn broke the routine of grunts and curses. He honestly was just happy it was over, the Pumpkin Carnage has been invaluable in continuing to use his healing spells on the woman who would have probably had a far worse time without the added help.
One of the nurses approached him offering him something. Out of simple habits he just accepted it without thinking, only to realize a moment later that what she offered him was none other than the baby who was still wailing, their face was completely red and the head was sporting just a few strands of short hair, the nurses had at least cleaned the baby from any remaining bodily fluids.
The infant soon stopped their crying as their eyes opened and met Satoru's. He almost had a double take when he noticed the child's peculiarity as their left eye was white while her right was black, he internally hoped that it didn't mean the child was blind on one side.
Those eyes were almost enough to make the other oddity go unnoticed. Their ears were strangely pointed, very much like the elvish ones he knew, even if far shorter. Satoru glanced from the baby to her mother to make sure he did not mistake the woman's race, but there was no doubt, she was human.
Though, having shifted his attention to the woman made him notice how the undead had covered her modesty and placed her lying down on the bed after the surely exhausting ordeal.
He moved toward her bedside, crouching down and offering the baby to her, only to receive an horrified and disgusted glare from the woman. It took him a second too long to realize that the gaze was not meant for his undead visage, but rather the small bundle he was offering to her.
"Kill it… kill it… kill it… get that monster away!"
He recoiled at the woman's venomous words, the baby starting to cry again as she raised her voice.
His skeletal visage was not capable of conveying shock, but that didn't stop him from experiencing it nonetheless.
What kind of reaction was that?!
He remembered Touch-Me once talking about he feared his wife would not love their children, as some parents had problems adjusting at first and might come to resent the child unjustly. But to outright at them?! With such passion nonetheless?!
He looked down at the crying baby… what was he supposed to do now?
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Faine stared into nothingness, ever since she woke up, curtesy of the crying of that blasted parasite.
She hoped this hell would come to an end. She had been a captive for almost a year, she, the trump card of the Theocracy, reduced to a sex slave for the worthless spawn of those false gods. Even after she was confirmed with child, the hateful bastard did not stop violating her body.
After that endless cycle of torment, she was finally rescued by the Scriptures sent for her, she was so out of it she didn't even remember which ones they sent. And when she was about to get away and finally get some relief, she was captured again, this time by an undead of all things… an incredibly powerful one no less.
If nothing else, that should have been the end of her torment, but instead she was taken and even forced to give birth. She hoped that the monster would murder that parasite, or use it for some ritual, or whatever as long as it died. But no! She couldn't have even that much! The bony bastard limited himself to leave the child in a crib in the same room as her!
Truly, undead were the worst enemy of the living, capable of understanding what would torture them the most with a mere glance. After all, there was no other reason for him to do as he did if not for torturing her.
AND THAT BLASTED HALFBREED WAS STILL CRYING!
She barely slept a couple hours and her body had not recovered at all from its captivity and the strain of giving birth. Still, she was the best the Theocracy had to offer, and so she forced her legs to suffer the strain of standing up.
She moved forward, almost stumbling, much to her shame, on her way to the crib.
She knew what the misshaped thing wanted. Her traitorous body made it clear enough with how much her breast hurt, full as they are.
Faine grabbed the abomination in her arms, almost disgusted at the mere contact, she exposed her nipple and let the hateful thing take what it wanted from her. At last, there was silence, and even her breasts began to hurt less. A bit of relief in this hellish existence of hers, even at the cost of pleasing the very thing she despised most in this world, second only to the bastard who put it in her.
She looked down in disdain at the thing that, after taking what it wanted, proceeded to snuggle against her bosom as if mimicking an actual child. She placed it back in the crib, unwilling to indulge the thing anymore than she already had.
"Have you decided on a name?"
If someone said that she jumped in place at the unexpected depp voice, she would deny that fact till her last day. She didn't even hear the blasted undead come in, his unholy presence only now making itself known to her.
"You do not name a thing that should have never existed to begin with."
She rebutted with all the venom she could muster. If she didn't know any better, it almost seemed the undead's gaze darkened at her words, probably just a trick of her sleep deprived mind.
"We will move soon."
Those words took Faine aback, implying the fact that she would still be expected to follow. She could not fathom why that would be, the damnable being had already taken everything from her, every last of the Gods' artifacts bestowed upon her were gone. No doubt being added to whatever collection of items the undead already possessed.
If nothing else, him taking her along would grant a chance for her to recover them. She could not bear to think of returning to her homeland despoiled, broken, and basically naked. Not once, in the more than 400 years since the Theocracy's creation, had anyone suffered such an humiliation or ever lost one of the artifacts, let alone a full set. She might as well march toward eternal shame or execution.
"I thought this would be a nice place."
The undead continued as if he expected some sort of opinion from her as he took out the map she was first given by her rescuers to indicate their escape route. One of the things the undead apparently took off of her while she was indisposed.
The bony finger of the monster tapping over the wasteland that was the Katze Plains. Figures… only an undead could consider that like a nice place…
"I guess the likes of you would enjoy being surrounded by your own kind."
She tried to sound as dismissive and insulting as possible even though the undead gave no sign he cared at all for her input.
"Umu, so there are a lot of undead here… it should work then…"
She half heard what he was mumbling under his breath, not that she cared in the first place.
"I need some sleep now, I know that is an hard concept for a monster like you to understand, but if you wish to keep me alive that is the price."
The undead did not answer her mocking words, simply limiting himself to leaving the room.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
This was a wasteland.
That was Satoru's first assessment after he set up a base in these so called Katze Plains. From the map he observed and the name he expected more of a large grass plain that went on forever, instead all he found was a deserted land.
Well, he should have had his first doubts when he saw how the territory remain unclaimed even with four countries bordering it. Alarm bells should have rung when the black-haired woman spoke of it as a nest for undead.
Apparently, he had been a bit too excited to see what this new world had to offer. And wasn't that just weird to say? He was in a new world. This was real, the birthing he had witnessed was a very shocking but indisputable awakening to the fact.
That was the main reason why he had to bolt out of there as soon as possible. After he consulted the map he borrowed, he noticed how they were in between two bordering countries and if the woman was to take as an example of an ordinary being around those parts, well… they might have been under levelled, by a lot at that, but their gear was top notch, not far from his own, which was a worrying prospect.
That is why he took everything and moved right away to somewhere he would possibly not be noticed. There was no point in investigating a wasteland after all, and mimicking himself among the roaming undead here would have been easy. For all he had seen till now, they were also extremely weak and posed him no threat. The worst thing he witnessed was a couple elder liches and a death knight. If humanity did not deem this land worthy of the effort of eliminating such weak undead, he very much doubted he would be discovered soon as long as he lied low.
He would have preferred using [Create Fortress, but the tower would have been too visible in such a plain environment, so he limited himself to using [Create Kasbah, a minor structure made or sandy rock that would mimic well among the wasteland. Of course, he was no noob, and surrounded it with all his best anti-information and defensive spells.
That said, his major worry was no longer his location, but rather his company.
As expected, the undead he summoned vanished after the time was up, leaving him alone with that psycho woman and an infant. As Suzuki Satoru, when thinking of motherhood, he could not help but envision his own mother and her caring side, even though the sweet memories were accompanied by the bitterness of what it all brought to. But when he looked at that woman, he could not see any of that, only hatred and contempt for a child who deserved none seeing how she was brought into the world against their will.
Speaking of which, he should check up on them. Maybe the woman was well enough now for him to interrogate her.
When he reached the room he was greeted by the loud crying of the baby and an unmistakable smell which prompted him to bring his hands to pinch his nose, only to notice in horror that he had no nose to pinch. In alternative he stopped breathing, only to notice he felt no discomfort like he would as a human, he just stopped breathing and sniffing, and it looked like he could do that indefinitely, which was kind of obvious in hindsight.
He entered the room noticing the woman just lying in the bed uncaring of the distressed baby. Satoru stared at her for a good minute before opening his mouth.
"Aren't you going to change them?"
The woman barely glanced at him in response to him addressing her directly before rolling her eyes.
"If it annoys you, then kill it."
Satoru was sure that if he didn't witness with his own eyes this woman giving birth, then he would have never guessed these two to be related at all by her horrifying attitude toward the child.
He might be undead now, but still, leaving an infant to the care of such a vile human being was even too much for him.
Satoru completely lost any hope in the woman and just took the bundle in his own arms leaving the room with the crying infant. He went straight for the first basin available and filled it with water before unraveling the child from the dirty cloth which he proceeded to burn without a second thought.
He turned back on the child that had by now stopped crying and was wondering at the fact they were half submerged in water. He grimaced at the mess that was their lower half, casting a quick [Clean] luckily did the job as it both cleaned the child and water.
Oh, she was a girl, he hadn't thought about the gender till it was blatantly displayed before his eyes. He let the baby girl splash her little fists into the water as she seemed endlessly amused by the ripples she created. Truly, the minds of children were such wonderful things sometimes.
After he let her do as she pleased for a while he once more raised her and created a new cloth to wrap around her.
Now that she was wrapped once more, her attention shifted back to him, those two heterochromatic eyes seemingly twinkling with untold mischief as she gave Satoru a toothless smile capable of melting even the heart of the most coldhearted monsters.
That was when Satoru knew, he was fucked.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Faine turned in her bed, her breasts hurt again. She never thought she would come to hate her body. The gospel of the Gods regarded the human body as a temple of perfection that should be cured and cared for but, for how blasphemous the thought may seem, she felt like hers had become more a vehicle of evil at the service of the monster currently sleeping away after feasting upon her.
And wasn't that such an uncomprehensible situation in itself? When the monster took the abomination with him, she thought that finally she could have some peace, that she would never have to see or hear that thing again. But she was mistaken, apparently a monster will recognize another monster as their own, and that monster brought back the now giggling abomination just a bit later. Those two were monsters alright, for no normal child could ever find pleasure in the presence of the undead.
"Aren't you going to eat anything? For your daughter at least?... Sorry, that was a foolish question."
If she didn't know any better, she might have interpreted that last part as a dry jab at her motherhood, or the lack thereof. But what would an undead know of parenthood, even more an unwanted one? And apparently that abomination was female, she didn't know if she should be disgusted such a being shared her own gender, or be happy that her future reproduction options will not be as rapid as if she was male.
She looked down at the hot stew the undead presented her with. To be clear, she had no intention of eating it, regardless of what her famished stomach demanded. Her body has been rather traitorous as of late.
Still, she was curious what kind of undead understood or worried about the comforts of the living… a clever one to be sure, to manage to look so sympathetic toward those he hates above all else.
"Maybe we have started on the wrong foot… would you tell me your name?"
The undead continued, regardless of her silence. She remained still, not moving an inch, not even acknowledging his existence.
"Umu… very well then, Takemi always said to take initiative, so… my name is Satoru, your average undead trying to live a tranquil enough afterlife."
Faine blinked as different things hit her all at once. First, she didn't know undead could huff. Second, this one was apparently a comedian of some sort. Third, and most important, that was a name strangely too similar to some of the names the Gods left in their personal gospels.
As if to mock her even further, the undead scribbled something on a scroll before offering it to her, only to reveal the familiar language she had the privilege of learning as a descendant of the Gods. A language known by a handful of individuals and never seen outside the Theocracy.
The dreadful thought of this monster reading her mind and discovering the Theocracy's secret passed over her, chilling her blood. But such a spell should not exist, the same way an undead caster capable of competing with her in strength should not exist.
"How do you know… the language of Gods?"
She addressed the monster for the first time since she woke up.
"Umu… I see, let's play a game then… I will answer a question of yours as long as you answer a question of mine, it sounds fair, right?"
Faine had no idea what kind of sick game you could come up with to reword an interrogation, but he was also offered information, as unreliable as it was, she could get something out of it if she could trick him.
Plus, she could not be forced to answer questions she didn't want to. With the assessment of that, she slowly nodded.
"Good, now then… what is your name?"
Faine blinked, of all the questions she could have expected, this was not one of them, as simplistic as it was. She might have even understood if he asked who she was, that would have forced her either to reveal her position or remain silent, but by asking directly her name, he chose to not investigate on her role or allegiance.
"Faine."
She answered curtly, as if even voicing that much had been physically painful.
"How do you know this language?"
She didn't hesitate a second after answering his questions before asking her own.
"I studied it, like everyone else."
'Bastard' Faine mentally growled at the non-answer. It was highly improbable that his answer was right, he should have been a follower of Lord Surshana, but if that was the case, he would have already mentioned as such. The other alternative… as outlandish as it sounded… was that he was an Outer Being, coming from the same distant world as the Gods, the Greed Kings, and the Evil Deities… but that sounded completely outlandish.
She was so rapt up in her own thoughts that she almost missed the undead's next question.
"Why do you hate that child?"
Faine took a second to grasp that question. Why did an undead care about any of that? It was already strange that an undead did not attack the living. In her experience, even those with the gift of reason, like elder liches, could hardly contain their hatred for the living. And yet, this one seemed completely unbothered by that fact, even wasting a question on it.
"It is a disgusting half-breed."
She had no intention of going into details about that thing.
A heavy silence fell over the room as the undead did not react to her words in any way.
"Why do you not attack the living? If you are trying to trick me into revealing something, you will be disappointed, no sane individual would ever trust an undead in any capacity."
For all this seemed like a waste of a question, she would rather try to understand her foe to try and find something that could help her come out of this with the artifacts and her life.
"I do not understand your question… I do not feel animosity toward those who don't antagonize me… I guess that would seem like a rare trait among undead."
The answer almost sounded like a guess, but the explanation, simple as it was, had Faine rethink their interactions. If what he said was true, could she have just passed him by and he would have let her go when they first met? No, that sounded absurd, there was no way it wasn't all planned. An undead bordering two humanoid countries, being in the exact place and moment when she ws escaping? The odds would have been abysmal. A far more logical explanation was that she had been targeted by a third party with no relations to the Elf Kingdom and Slane Theocracy.
"Where is the child's father?"
Her stomach tightened at the question, the little appetite she regained completely gone with those five words. She laid down on the bed, turning her back toward the undead and ignoring every other prompt to conversation, which luckily did not come.
She heard him leave the room a few minutes later.
She did not move for the rest of the day, only letting the filthy creature feed on her so it would not aggravate her nerves any further with its crying.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
It had been a month since Satoru came to this strange world.
He would be lying if he said that, even as a teenager, he never fantasied about the isekai genre, what kid born in the shitty world of 2138 hadn't?
Still, learning how to makeshift a diaper was never something he thought he would learn, at least not in another world.
It turned out life had still much more to offer him than he thought.
The baby was a strange case really, he noticed soon enough in his stay how his emotions were not what they used to be. He wondered if that had anything to do with his undead nature, he felt so… diluted, things that would have made him annoyed reduced to a mild frustrations, things that would have made him feel satisfied were now just making him feel content. And that was how the baby had differentiated herself from everything else. She was the only one that made him feel something deeper, in a strange way, a sort of responsibility.
Was it the fact he took part and witnessed her coming into this world? The fact her own mother clearly didn't want anything to do with her? the fact that as a male he felt some kind of natural response toward an undefended child? Or maybe a mixture of the three, or none at all. He couldn't say. He only knew he wanted to keep taking care of her, not like there was anyone else to do it.
But that didn't mean he had remained idle in his desertic fortress.
He visited the nearby countries. The newly formed Re-Estize Kingdom and Baharuth Empire. To think such countries were born just a mere half a century ago was outstandingly interesting, for someone like him who lived in a country with millennia of history, seeing the origin of a country was something that filled him with visceral curiosity.
Then there was the Draconic Kingdom, while not as young, it was still a nation with barely a century under its name, and so he was still eager to see where it would go. Considering his new body, he didn't think time would be much of a worry I the future.
And then there was the Slane Theocracy, a nation who stood its ground for a whopping four centuries and counting, nothing impressive by Earth standards, but here? They might as well have been around since the beginning of human life.
He also had to reassess his initial opinion on the average inhabitant of this world. To say it in the kindest way possible, they were trash mobs, something relegated to the first spawning areas of Yggdrasil, or sometimes even worse. He never saw anyone who could remotely come close to Faine, let alone himself.
Speaking of which, the black-eyed woman had not spoken to him for a whole week after he apparently brought up the wrong subject. He initially thought that the father, who most probably was an elf, might have died. But that theory was easily disproven by how Faine treated her daughter, that was not how you treat someone who is the last memory you have of someone you cared about.
All other options were quite concerning, both for the woman and the child.
For the moment, she at least seemed to take care of feeding, which kind of was the only reason why he had not separated the two. He very much doubted he could give the child what she needed at the moment. Still, he would not be gone for more than a day and left intelligent undead summons in charge of his base while gone.
For now, he would lay low, apparently not too long ago a catastrophe befell this continent. Evil Deities they called them, their recorded appearances most similar to mid-tier bosses from Yggdrasil.
Her only source of information, Faine, was quite unhelpful. Not because she didn't know, but rather because she would not share. He didn't push the matter any further. He had spells who could help with looking through the mind, but he had no idea how any of them would work now that this was no longer a game, he risked messing up her memories, or worse, rendering her catatonic, which would mean there would be no one else left to take care of that child or naming her.
That was probably what unsettled him the most. The child did not possess a name, and he didn't feel like it was his place to do so.
He tried to shake off the uncomfortable subject. Still, there was one thing that he should be really worrying about now.
What was he supposed to do here in this world?
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Faine was sure of it now, this Satoru, this undead. He was not from here, she had no idea if he was from the same place as those who came before, but certainly not from this world. He asked too many foolish questions, he clearly knew nothing of Martial Arts, or Talents.
But this went to her advantage. She would use this to make herself look cooperative. Trustful even. She would divulge information that should have been common knowledge and some more. Nothing dangerous toward her country, of course, just enough to make the undead assume she came around.
She needed the freedom to move without being constantly watched by the undead he left around. Not that she couldn't put down the likes of Death Knights and Elder Liches, these might be legendary creatures for the average adventurer, but she was a God-kin, and she would sooner fall on her blade than let one of those sacks of bones get the better of her!
Once she got those off her back, it wouldn't take that much to escape. Satoru was gone for most of the day and she could easily get far away if she planned her escape soon after he left, maybe even manage to cross the Theocracy's before he realized she was gone.
To accomplish that she was willing to suffer the humiliation of accepting food from her enemy, she needed to soon get back on her feet and start training again. But that wasn't the worst thing. Since, for some reason Faine could not fathom, the undead lord took an interest in that accursed thing, she also needed to care for it to a minimum. Feeding her and clothing her with what she was provided with.
She loathed it, even more now that the half-breed started growing hair. It was such an ugly thing to see her own hair attached to those of that rapist bastard. An half and half unnatural thing not meant to ever be born.
When she regained the strength to move freely, she had thought about killing it many times. She could easily snap its neck, or kill it a hundred other ways. But all of them would end with her own death by the hands of the undead, and then her country would never know where their precious artifacts disappeared to.
Speaking of which, the hardest part of the plan would certainly be reclaiming those. Faine had no idea where they could have been stored, she was not allowed out of a certain area of this fortress, being limited to her living quarters and an inner garden where some strange but very sweet fruits grew.
She would need to gain more freedom, meaning more trust, so that she could discover where they kept her items. But undead were patient by nature, so unbothered by time, so she will bid her time and come out on top in the end.
Still, there was something she could do while she worked toward that moment. Exercise and keep her mind and reflexes sharp.
The black-haired woman's entire body moved like flowing water as she struck imaginary foes and dodge invisible strikes, almost dancing in the room as she practiced her moves after a few months of little to no inactivity.
This was far from the best she could do, she knew that. The pregnancy certainly took a toll on her body, as did the captivity, but if she didn't start from somewhere she would never get better.
She almost slipped when babbling sounds interrupted her concentration making her almost misstep. Her eyes darted toward the only other occupant of the room. The creature observing her from its crib, those mismatched eyes glaring into her, as if the thing just found something interesting, the unintelligible babbling getting worse as the thing seemed to want her attention.
It was too soon for feeding, and the lack of smell indicated that there was no need for a change of clothes. That was all that useless parasite did, eat and shit, oh, and cry… luckily for her, the undead seemed to always calm it down, that being due to fear or some weird fascination it had for the undead creature, Faine could not say but was glad her sleep was less interrupted as of late.
She glared back at the thing, even though her expression didn't seem to be registered by the creature as it continued its endless babbling. She just sighed, asking the Gods for strength, as she just ignored it and kept on training.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Satoru had to thank the universe for his [Create Item] magic for, without it, he had no idea how much of his little funds would he had to spend to keep the growing baby clothed. That girl seemed to got through clothes like Ulbert went through archangels in the Empyrean Dungeon.
"Sasa!"
He heard the, by now, familiar high pitched squeal that symbolized the little minx spotting him.
She was a talker, always babbling something at whoever was available. And since she started crawling, it was an hassle trying to not lose her. Hence why he had created two Elder Liches for just that task. The exact same two Elder Liches that allowed him to discover how to break the time limitation of his summons by using corpses.
"SASA!"
Well, he better move before she started crying. Apparently the girl could not stand being ignored. The undead overlord entered the inner garden where the still nameless child was playing around, he sat down among the grass, a simple act that would have garnered the envy of most living things back into his old world, and let the child approach him.
Of all he could say about this strange child, not eager was certainly not one of them. Even though the girl couldn't even stand up, he found her trying to climb atop him multiple times, to not speak about how she constantly demanded to be picked up every time he was around. He was sure Yamaiko would have had her heart stop every time the child pouted with that adorable frown of hers.
With a sigh, he grabbed the child currently trying to climb on his knees and positioned her on his lap much to her cooing and giggling. The black and white haired child proceeded to run her little hands over his World Item, probably attracted by its strange glow, like a moth to a flame, except there was no risk of her getting hurt in this instance.
Satoru let her do as she wished as he analyzed his current predicament. Hiding in Katze had been a smart move, he was quite isolated from everyone else who could prove to be a threat. It didn't take a genius to realize that a multitude of creatures from Yggdrasil had already arrived here before him, not with Faine's precious information.
Considering none of them was still around, he could only deduce something killed them, something aside from each other like in the case of the 8 Greed Kings.
Speaking of kings, he had to decide what to do with that Re-Estize's ambitious ruler who wanted to take over the Katze Plains. When he first heard the new from his undead spies, he thought the man a fool, who would waste resources for such a barren and useless land? That was until he realized the king wanted to consolidate this position to get an advantage over Baharuth.
An ambitious man, and they might have had a chance if it wasn't for the fact Satoru was here. They would have still had to deal with hordes of undead, a couple Death Knights and a handful of Elder Liches. But if they used some of their best adventurers, it might have been achievable.
Unfortunately for them, they will meet more than a couple Death Knights. He didn't plan to use anything more powerful than that to not arouse suspicion.
It would be a good and inconspicuous way to acquire a great quantity of corpses. He hummed in satisfaction at his own plan.
He was taken out of his train of thought by a weird muffled sound. He looked down only to see the child had latched on to his World Item with her mouth, slobbering saliva all over the place, well… that was disgusting, but he guessed that was just part of the tour for babies to try and put everything they see in their mouths.
He grabbed the unruly child by her back, unlatching her from one of the most powerful items in all of Yggdrasil, before using a quick [Clean] to remove the mess.
Satoru brought the child to his own eye level. Mismatched orbs now piercing his own red dots, like a magpie observing transfixed by a shiny object.
"No, don't do that."
Satoru tried to sound as stern as possible. The child's smile fell, as an expression of deep concentration took over her baby visage as if she was trying to understand his words.
As soon as Satoru thought he had made his point, the loud sound of a fart echoed in the otherwise silent garden, curtesy of the now cheerful child who started laughing like a maniac.
Satoru raised his eyes to the heavens, wishing for patience.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Faine was confused to say the least.
She couldn't understand what she was witnessing.
It was such a mundane thing, looking at a father gifting a game to his daughter and then stopping to show her how to play and play with her for a while.
But here there was no father, only an unholy undead, there was no daughter, only an abomination, and they certainly did not share any blood ties.
Yet, the scene did not change. What would have looked like a bonding moment for any human family was now desecrated by the two currently filling the roles.
The half-breed laughed as the wooden blocks in her hands changed colors every time she turned them. She had no idea what kind of sick game the undead was playing at with this. Was he trying to fool her? She had already shown enough times that she despised that parasite, so showing any kind of love toward it certainly did not buy any points in her favor.
"Fafa!"
She cursed under her breath as the blasted thing called for her while waving around that color-changing cube as if to show her the amazing new toy she got. Faine could not stand the scene any longer, combined with that childish smile of the abomination, she just raised and left the room, much to the protest of the growing parasite.
She recognized the emotion that flickered in her human heart for a moment. Even if she would deny it to her dying breath, she recognized that oh so human emotion that that smile elicited. She buried it deep, under all her hatred and resentment, never to see the light of day again. She would not be fooled by that thing! Nor the undead!
Faine reached her room, slamming the door behind her, immediately disrobing from her more cumbersome clothes before starting to stretch her muscles, her boiling blood demanding an outlet for her rage.
Squats, pullups, pushups. She furiously worked a sweat, her muscles heating up at a worrying rate, but she didn't stop her furious workout. This usually worked most of the time, she would exercise until most of her rage and stamina were burned away, but this time… this time she really felt like her fury would not subside… maybe because, for once, the feeling was not directed at anyone other than herself.
The God-kin felt the missing sensation of a weapon in her hands… she really needed to start hacking away at something to work through this sensation.
The black-haired woman wondered if she could convince her jailor host to lend her a weapon… and an undead dummy.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
The undead stirred the eggs in the pan, this was his… what now? Tenth? Eleventh attempt? He kind of forgot by now… he had been at it the entire night, and this had become personal. His inner part was screaming at the waste of food, after all eggs were one of the few delicacies that could not be artificially made even back in 2138, and so were considered an extravagance few could obtain on the regular.
His mother bought exactly three of them each year, for his birthday, to make his favorite meal… the same meal he was trying to replicate right now. Luckily for him, eggs seemed to be a far cheaper good here, or else he might have burned through his entire savings.
He flipped the egg on itself, using a [Telekinesis] spell to make sure not to mess it up. It might have looked pathetic, but this was actually the first time he ever tried to cook something that wasn't a premade artificial meal in his almost thirty years of life.
As the omelet finally formed, he felt a sigh of relief escape his nonexistent lips. He took the omelet and added it on top of the rice he had got right on his second try before shoving it all in his inventory. As he discovered, his inventory had some kind of time magic mingling with it as food and other things could not rot, and remained the same as when he put them there even after months.
He hummed a familiar tune he could not put his finger on as he cleaned and set aside all the cooking instruments he used.
Today would be a year since he arrived here. A strange turn for his… life? Maybe existence would be a better term… Still, this had been the best year of his life still, his childhood excluded.
Maybe for most living in isolation, alone with an emotionless and mildly sociopathic woman, and a toddler who spent her time eating and expelling said food might have looked dreadful. To someone like him who had been used to working half of the day, sleeping the bare minimum to survive, and spending the rest of his day in a virtual reality to escape his real life? This looked quite similar to heaven.
The overlord wondered if he should get the child a room of her own now that she didn't need her mother's maternal milk any longer. He really wanted to separate the two since Faine unnerved him more and more by how she was looking at her own child with that absent gaze hiding her true thought and intentions.
Sure, the woman had been more cooperative compared to how they started with. No more undead this, undead that, but they were far from amicable… cordial might be the better word. Still, he would not trust her with a plant, let alone a child.
But maybe he should wait until said child was able to at least walk on her own. Not that she was far from it seeing how she tried to stand on her own feet everyday. He could admit, he admired her persistent, even when she fell back on her backside, she did not cry, she just pouted and tried to stand back up.
His emotions might have been suppressed as an undead, but he couldn't help but find that sight adorable. Maybe Yamaiko had always been right all these years, children were truly the best and most innocent beings on the planet.
Speaking of his old guildmate, he wondered when and where should he find an instructor for her education. He had no reference for that, nor could he take as an example the broken and capitalistic educational system of 2138.
Maybe he was worrying too soon, she was still a little girl more interested in trying to eat her toys than anything else. Plus, he should check if intelligent undead such as Elder Liches were capable of skills outside their race and job classes. In the Great Library of Nazarick they had some powerful liches as librarians which indicated their possible literacy and mathematic knowledge. Though, he wondered that, even if they had the knowledge, they had the skill to teach.
Bah! He was going too deep too soon, he will put that on the backburner for now.
Judging from the sunshine filtering through the small windows, dawn had arrived and he was eager to present the meal that took him the whole night to make.
As expected, he could already hear the sound of powerful blows landing from the training room he had created for Faine after she asked him for one. He obliged to her request for two reasons. First, he wanted to witness these so called Martial Arts for himself, second, he hoped that by being able to beat something on the regular, she would get all that violence and aggression out of her system, for the good of all of them.
He quietly entered the bedroom where both an empty bed and occupied crib were. The black and white haired child was turning in her sleep as she tried to escape the rays of the sun cascading down on her, as she pushed her face deep into her Gargantua-like plushie he had created months before when he was thinking about toys. He also made a Victim one and many other non-humanoid NPCs from Nazarick. Turns out [Create Item] was a far better skill in this world than its counterpart in Yggdrasil, seeing how the only limit seemed to be his creativity, contrary to the pool of items he could create in Yggdrasil.
Well, among all of his created plushies, he never thought the Gargantua one would become her favorite which she insisted came everywhere with her.
Was she lonely? Did she miss a friend? No, he was overthinking this way too much, she was just a child with a favorite toy.
He used one of his bony fingers to tickle her tummy making the girl start to giggle as she grabbed his finger with both hands trying to stop him.
"Sasa…"
She mumbled sleepily as her mismatched eyes fixed on him in recognition. Of all the nicknames he got in his life, which weren't many to begin with since most of them applied to his avatar's name and not his actual one, this was definitely the most adorable. Something he was sure Buku would be a fan of.
The toddler slowly stood up on her wobbly legs, never letting go of her plushie.
"Sasa, up!"
She demanded, like many times before, for him to pick her up. A request he obliged.
He settled her in the highchair he had created, bless his [Create Item] spell, and then proceeded to open his inventory and set the still hot omurice omelet in front of the child.
"Happy birthday, little one."
The black and white eyed child's jaw fell open as, for the first time, her grip on the Gargantua plushie lessened letting it fall on the floor. The golden egg seemed to have completely stolen her attention as she inspected it with great curiosity before gripping her spoon as if it was a shovel and digging in letting the still fluid egg on the inside spill out on the rice below.
"Oooohhh!"
Satoru chuckled at the exaggerated sound of the child who was still marveling at the sight of her special meal. This scene alone was worth all of his previous frustration at his many failures.
The girl finally got over her amazement and filled her mouth with a spoonful of omelet. Her eyes seemed to start sparkling as she happily giggled while swaying her feet up and down in excitement.
"Ahahah… is it good?"
Satoru could not help but laugh at the sight of the excited child.
"Good! Good!"
She repeated as she took another spoonful of the meal.
Like any of his strong emotions he felt his passive ability soon kick in, calming his own happiness, prompting him to internally sigh in disappointment at the suppression.
He still patted the girl's head gently as she ate away happily at her meal. If nothing else, his forced calmness made him aware of the presence lurking just behind the door that gave into the kitchen. A single black eye spying on the two of them from the slightly open door. An eye that soon disappeared when his red dots met its gaze.
Well, if nothing else, the poor child would not have to suffer the woman's glare today at least.
X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X
Faine prayed into the night, even as she got no answer to her calls, she kept on praying still, for that was all she could do while witnessing the outcome of a doomed endeavor of humanity.
A line of undead marched back and forth as they each dragged behind them one of more corpses. The whole process so efficient and orderly that Faine could have even found it fascinating if it wasn't for the dreadful nature of it.
They had started working while the sun was reaching the horizon and they kept on working with the same inextinguishable vigor even now with the moon high in the sky. Piling up corpses in a macabre mountain of death.
Men or woman, noble or commoner, whole or dismembered. It did not matter, they all joined the mountain, nonetheless. And she already had an idea about what such a pile could be used for.
Dark rituals were not new to the Theocracy, Lord Surshana was one of their glorious Gods, even though he did not take the life of precious humans to accomplish them, he rather use the inferior races who dared attack humanity for their sick and twisted pleasures to accomplish those rituals.
Re-Estize army had not been afforded the same mercy. Foolish as their actions were, she still hoped they would have managed to retreat when they realized how impossible their task was.
She lost the hope of that happening as every corpse passed her by. Tens of thousands must have been amassed by now. Seeing how humanity had already suffered a great blow to their numbers thanks to the Evil Deities, her heart sunk lower with every dead man who was piled up for no reason.
And to think… to think she had doubted her feelings toward that monster and the parasite after witnessing a tender moment she thought none of them was capable of.
Faine had truly seen them for the first time as a child and a being found himself taking care of them. The thought was blasphemous in itself, but her eyes did not betray them.
But now she understood. There was no mistaking it, the monster had truly shared that moment with the abomination in human skin, but that level of care could only be afforded because the monster saw another of its kind and not a human child he would have slaughtered without a second thought.