The relics of the Sunlight Scripture, scattered across the floor.
Still hovering a few centimeters above the ground, I glided forward and extended several tendrils from my body of black mist.
The ink-like tips made contact soundlessly with the blood-and-mud-caked metal armor, the parchment scrolls faintly imbued with lower-tier magic, and the shattered fragments of a crystal drained of all magical energy.
――Disassembly. Begin.
The [Omniscient Flesh] that composed my physical form began to physically read the magical structure of each object.
Hundreds of eyes flickered violently with blue-violet light, and the blank pages that had been waiting in orbit around me began to whirl with furious speed.
First, the scrolls and the armor.
…Magical circuit structure, enchantment depth, durability values of the materials used.
Data drawn up through my tendrils was cross-referenced in real time against the Yggdrasil database within my mind.
Seconds later, pale blue runic letters printed themselves in rapid succession across one of the blank pages floating in the air.
"…I see. Remarkable."
I murmured quietly as I read out the results of the analysis printed before me.
"The magic of this world—the New World—operates on laws that are completely identical to Yggdrasil's tiered magic system. The conversion efficiency of magical energy, the composition of the spell formulae; all of it is the base programming from Yggdrassil, unchanged."
"Oh? So the people outside use the same magic as we do?"
Ra tilted his golden wings ever so slightly, asking with evident curiosity.
"Yes. But they are at a desperately low level."
I flicked one tendril against the metal armor. A tinny, cheap sound rang out.
"The enchantments on this armor are, by Yggdrasil standards, starter-equipment garbage. The magic stored in the scrolls was nothing beyond elementary spells up to the Third Tier at best. Apparently they were using this as 'standard equipment for a national special forces unit' - but by our measure, it is the equivalent of wearing paper clothes and swinging wooden sticks."
"Shulululu…! What? That's priceless!"
Apep let out an eerie laugh from the depths of his belly.
"And these gnats dared raise a blade against our Supreme Master? Creatures who would be reduced to less than ash by the mere aftershock of Lord Ainz's Death Aura!"
"Precisely. They aren't even worth our time. What a dull world."
Ra, too, shook his head with an air of boredom.
For beings of their Level 100 caliber, magic of the Third Tier was less than a gentle breeze. Their contemptuous laughter was hardly unreasonable.
"But complacency invites death, both of you."
I quietly reined in the two great deities and turned the tip of a tendril toward the shattered fragments of the drained crystal.
"Within this crystal, traces remain of a summoning, the Seventh Tier angel, Dominion Authority. Even by Yggdrasil's standards, that is a reasonably high-level spell. And these low-level humans used it through an item. This suggests the possibility that they possess powerful artifacts."
And above all else, I dropped my gaze to the prisoner interrogation transcripts compiled by Neuronist.
"…'Martial Arts.' This is the greatest concern."
"Martial Arts? Are you talking about warrior-class skills?"
"No. Different." I shook my head, swayed the mist of my body from side to side. "The warrior-class skills of Yggdrasil were a system that activated by consuming cooldown time and stamina. But this technique called 'Martial Arts' recorded in the prisoner's memories is an entirely separate buff system… one that consumes a form of energy unique to this world, something akin to focus, to enhance the physical body."
New entries were added to the blank page as my reasoning took form.
"Magic follows Yggdrasil. But Martial Arts, a completely unknown law, coexists alongside it. This is precisely why Lord Ainz has been cautious about the outside world. What if there exists something, driven by laws entirely outside our knowledge, capable of killing even a Level 100? …It is far too hasty to assume the people outside are weak."
At my words, Ra and Apep fell silent.
They were professionals of combat.
The implication of an unknown system - the terrifying nature of an irregular factor - they had grasped it immediately.
"Now. This is where my work truly begins."
I switched gears and engaged my mental database at full capacity.
The man known as Ainz - Suzuki Satoru - was cautious by nature. The type to test a bridge by knocking on it before crossing.
And above all, like me, he was a former salaryman who had worked himself to death.
What was he seeking most right now?
Not a lengthy, jargon-laden dissertation.
What he needed was an "Executive Summary" - clear enough for anyone to understand - to dispel the anxiety of the unknown and give him the footing to decide his next move.
Three points. That's all. Point One: On the compatibility between the New World's magic system and Yggdrasil. Point Two: Discovery of the unknown system 'Martial Arts,' and a provisional threat assessment. Point Three: Proposed countermeasures and a recommendation for continued sample collection.
I assembled the orbiting pages around me, printing into the air a beautifully indexed report; one whose contents could be grasped at a single glance.
Bullet points throughout. Key items emphasized in blue runic lettering. For the section on the hypothesized magical pathways of Martial Arts, I even appended a semi-transparent holographic diagram so that the conclusion could be understood intuitively.
…Perfect. If I were the boss, I'd double the salary of any subordinate who handed me a report like this.
I transcribed the completed report onto a special magical scroll, and tucked it carefully away within my black mist, ready to be presented to Lord Ainz at a moment's notice.
This would cement my standing in Ainz's estimation as a capable mind. Not the kind of runaway over-interpretation Demiurge was prone to, but a position as the finest possible advisor; one grounded in nothing but fact and logic.
But my work was not yet finished.
Having executed the surface-level task to perfection, I opened, in the innermost depths of my consciousness — a place no one, not Ainz nor any other guardian, could ever access — one more "blank page" within my own mind.
What I would inscribe there was neither Yggdrasil data nor the magic circles of the New World.
An ink tendril carved its letters into a page no one would ever see.
『Objective: Systematic containment of Demiurge's inhumane schemes - the Happy Farm, the Kingdom Massacre - from within.』
『Targets for approach: Those within Nazarick who possess high karma values, or who hold special feelings toward humans.』
I listed three names and began constructing the approach scenario for each.
[Sebas Tian]
Currently on assignment from Lord Ainz, infiltrating human society within the Re-Estize Kingdom. I will propose to him, on my end, a regular exchange of information, under the pretense of organizing and backing up local intelligence. When his sense of justice brings him into collision with Demiurge, I will have the groundwork in place to support him with a full arsenal of logical arguments.
[Nigredo]
Administrator of the Fifth Floor's Frozen Prison. Her fierce, instinctual drive to protect infants would be a powerful check against indiscriminate slaughter. However, she is mentally unstable. I will draw from my vast reserves of knowledge to provide her with music to soothe the mind and magically-informed approaches to emotional regulation, building her trust first as a good neighbor, nothing more.
[Aureole Omega]
Area Guardian of the Eighth Floor's Cherry Blossom Sanctuary, youngest of the Pleiades, and an immortal human. As she resides on the same floor, she is the easiest to make contact with. As I did with Victim, I will use the pretense of information exchange between colleagues protecting the same floor, and through that, probe little by little for her true feelings on the treatment of humans within Nazarick.
There is no need to rush. Time is infinite.
I applied heavy encryption to the mental page and sealed it away deep within myself.
On the surface: the cold and flawless Archivist, governing all knowledge in Nazarick.
But beneath… quietly, and with absolute certainty, I would lay my pieces on the board… to overturn the game that the most powerful demon in Nazarick had already set into motion.
I annihilated the remaining debris on the floor with a clean sweep of magic, then returned to hovering motionless a few centimeters above the ground. One by one, I closed the countless eyes across my body.
The black mist pulsed softly like breathing during sleep.
Come, then. Lord Ainz.
The perfect report you sought is ready and waiting here.
And… to all who dwell within Nazarick.
Do not make the mistake of assuming that this mere dictionary will sit quietly gathering dust on its shelf forever.