The stale air betrayed the hidden nature of the passageway. Buku followed Draudillon down the rolling staircase from the secret entrance in the queen's bedchambers. The Dragon Queen's descent was laced with reluctance despite her swearing her loyalty to Nazarick.
'She fears what's in the book that much. Better take it as seriously as she does.' Buku mused while watching Draudillon undo another carefully constructed arcane trap. The fourth one in the last few minutes.
The sanctuary that hid the secrets of wild magic was constructed with misdirection in mind. The staircase split twice. The illusionary and real stone walls were so indistinguishable that even Buku had difficulties not falling for the traps.
After ten or so minutes, they finally reached a chamber with a black book encased in leather sitting on a pedestal. Draudillion approached the book and stood by it, awaiting a reaction.
Buku looked around. Something was off. Another trick? Was the Dragon Queen already betraying her? And there it was—more illusionary walls. Buku smirked. This book was a fake, and Draudillon wanted to see if she would fall for the cleverest trap yet.
"You know, I don't like being taken for a fool." She spoke in a low tone.
"I ask only one thing. Please ensure no one else besides you and other gods gets to it. The safety measures my great-grandfather put in place are not enough. This one is written as a misdirection. It holds enough secrets to make its reader understand the wild magic. I could have given that tome to you before I accepted the gods." Drauddilon stroked the book. "The real one… There are things in it I would not dare to look at. Horrible things."
"It will be for us to decide what to do with it." Buku stood beside her and picked up the book, "You think we want to doom the world that is our home now as well? Do you think I don't know what a doomed world looks like and what it is to dream of escaping hell?"
"I didn't mean to assume you would-"
"Yet you did! You thought we would use anything as a weapon without so much as thinking about the consequences? Yours isn't the only copy, so what do you think will happen when a dragon tries to use the nuclear option, or something even worse, you were too afraid to know about?" Buku hissed, her face twisting into a bestial snarl.
"I apologize, I just… You have to understand. Those things-" Draudillon shuddered. Whether she feared Buku's wrath or the true book's contents, the Goddess couldn't tell.
"It is our responsibility now. Now lead me to the real one!" Buku pushed her towards one of the illusionary walls to see if the Queen would try to mislead her again.
This time, there was no deception. After another series of traps and illusions, she stood in the real chamber with the real book on a pedestal. Buku approached as Draudillon watched with bated breath. She was about to grab the book, but stopped the moment her fingers grazed the tome clad in dragon skin.
There was something off about the book—a sense of wrongness. Subtle energies peaking around the corners of her mind. 'Ohh, you little shit. Trying to scare me?' Buku got annoyed at herself for fearing a mere book. She opened the tome and flicked through it to prove to herself that she was not afraid.
Symbols she had not seen before danced on the pages—moving and morphing as if the book were a living creature. The energies trying to pierce her mind's defenses grew stronger, but they were of no concern. Her divine mind was far stronger than the magic protecting this book. But that likely would not be the case for the mortal minds. It became clear why Draudillon feared it so.
'I can't just toss this at tentacle face and be done with it. This needs a proper meeting with Ainz getting involved.' She reasoned as she secured the book in her inventory and called for a meeting of the Gods.
Aureole immediately opened the gate to the conference room. Buku motioned for Draudillon to follow and stepped through, benignly first to arrive. Tabula was next to show up, closely followed by Ainz, Ulbert, and Pero, with everyone taking their seats.
"Albedo is resting and won't be present. We can start. Buku." Ainz declared and motioned for her to reveal the reason for the emergency meeting.
Buku dropped the tome on the table. Her friends no doubt would instantly feel the book's subtle influence as well. Tabula jumped to his feet and reached for the book, only for his hands to be slapped by her. "Not so fast!"
"Do you even know what this is?" Tabula roared in response, his guttural voice reaching a normal speaking pitch for once.
"No, but I sure as hell won't let you just grab it and run into your lab to do who knows what with it." She retorted at the brain-eater's outburst.
"Let's not resort to bickering. Tabula, if you know what this book is, then explain to the rest of us." Ainz once again leaned on his authority.
"Fine. But this book is never to be left just lying around!" Tabula pointed at the tome and then took a long breath. "Kitab al-Azif! This is the al-Azif. The real one."
"And we should know what this is?" Ulbert asked as he leaned back in his chair and lit a cigar. "Buddy we need for you to get your shit together and explain."
"The Book of the Dead. The Necronomicon. This is the tome of Outer Gods and the Old Ones. These magics are what even demons avoid. The gateway to the outer voids."
"So it's dangerous? That was kinda a given." Ulbert shrugged.
"Tabula, you are still not making sense." Ainz leaned forward, taking the book in his hands. "Draudillon, could you provide insight on why this knowledge was not used against players of the past?"
"Even dragons can go mad by using it too much. Death is a far better option than using the secrets to their fullest extent. The last section is hidden. I know there is something so dangerous in it my great-grandfather warned me I would lose my sanity if I tried to look at knowledge not meant for mortal eyes." Draudillon lowered her head.
"I see. Then we'll proceed with utmost caution," Ainz opened the book and put it back on the table.
Buku then noted that a light bulb went off in Tabula's head, as hard as reading his expressions was. The brain-eater leaned forward and started to flip through the pages, but did not try to grab the book or leave with it.
"That's it! That's it! I should have known!" Tabula mumbled as his spindly fingers moved over the pages.
"Care to share, buddy?" Pero finally joined the conversation.
"The hidden enemy, the one we are set up against. It's somewhere in this book. It's one of the old ones! How I didn't see that. This book, al-Azif, is an artifact both physical and astral in nature, its roots spread through souls in its presence." Tabula spoke frantically. Ulbert was about to interrupt him and ask for the short version, but Ainz raised his hand to stop the demon goat and motioned for Tabula to continue uninterrupted.
"Soul magic inherently is perilous, and now I see why none used it to its fullest extent, but at the same time, some constructs must already be in place. The Old One is sleeping. Regoz gave this hint, but it is possible that it will awaken, and the fuel to awaken it is souls. Every war, every conflict is feeding the sleeping beast."
"How do you know that? Is it written in that book?" Ainz asked.
"Speculation, but based on what I already know. Now with this, I can get a better idea. Investigate. Make preventive measures."
"Draudillon, do you have anything to add on the matter?" Ainz asked.
"There is one thing." She started. "The idea of seeking you out and asking for help in exchange for this was given to me by an entity. It looked like a human man, in a simple grey outfit-"
"So Regoz wanted us to have al-Azif!" Tabula exclaimed, interrupting the Queen.
"Who?" Buku gave a puzzled look to the Brain Eater, who spoke like everyone knew who this entity was.
Ainz, seeing that they would need to give the siblings a complete explanation, knew that Draudillon needed to be removed from the meeting. "We'll get to that. Tabula, sit down and let Draudillon finish, and then we'll discuss further."
"There isn't much to add. I didn't know the entity's name, but this Regoz knew that I had one of the few remaining copies and told me that my only hope for the salvation of my people was to trade this book for help." Draudillon said. The fact that the God of Knowledge knew about the entity confirmed that she had made the right choice.
"Who has the remaining books?" Ainz asked.
"The only ones that could have them are Dragon Lords. Which ones have them and where they are, I cannot tell. I got mine from my great-grandfather, the Brightness Dragon Lord, but he has not visited me since my coronation, and I don't know where he resides."
"Unfortunate. Very well. We'll take it from here." Ainz waved for her to depart through the gate.
Once Draudillon left, Ainz gave Buku and Pero the quick version of who Regoz was and the reality of the situation.
"You know, I would have been better off not knowing," Pero commented as he slumped in his seat.
"Stop being a wimp. So this book, does it have something we can use to get some leverage against Regoz?" Buku went straight to more practical matters.
"Unlikely. But I will look into it." Tabula replied.
"Let's return to the main topic at hand. Tabula, what do you think we are facing? You mentioned Old Ones?" Ainz asked, rightfully suspecting Regoz would not have helped them acquire such a tome if there was something to use against him.
"In short, they are… how to put it… world-level enemies on steroids. Some of them are supposedly older than the universe. I know little since there is as much fiction as there is fact about these entities. As I said, even demons do not want to deal with them, and you need to be a special kind of crazy to worship them. Some are more like beasts while others possess intelligence beyond our comprehension." Tabula continued to flip through the al-Azif.
"So we can assume one of them is hiding somewhere?" Ulbert asked.
"Probably… hmm… ohh…" Tabula mumbled as he put the book down and dragged his finger over a line of text.
"And you can just read it, like that?" Buku raised a brow.
"Put translation enchant on my eyes, saves time… here. The war of eternity disturbed the stars. The Dreamer moved. Cities sank, the old ones died. Dreaming eternal dreams, waiting for the stars to be right again. We might still have time." Tabula mumbled.
"Tabula, I want you to translate it and make copies for all of us so we can lock away the original," Ainz ordered.
"Sure… shit!" Tabula straightened out and added. "We need to clear the library and make sure there are no traces of eldritch magic left there. Don't use spells with Shub'Nigurath, Azathoth, Nyarlahothep, Yog-Sothoth or… Nevermind. I will make a full list of spells we should not use. Yggdrasil was littered with references, and something might actually work by accident." Tabula hastily explained.
"I know Iä! Shub-Niggurath!," Ainz said.
"Don't use it. At least not until we get a better sense of it. Who knows what might happen? The Old Ones are still the lesser threat compared to Outer Gods. I thought they were just legends, artificial creations as a byproduct of Earth culture, but there might be real ones. They are mentioned here." Tabula flipped a few pages and showed a picture of a creature that looked like a writhing, moving mass of legs, mouths, eyes, tendrils and vaginas.
"This just keeps getting better. Ainz, make sure our genius doesn't cause the end of the world. I'll be off dealing with something I understand." Buku stood up with a frustrated groan.
"Same. This shit is above my pay grade." Pero said and joined her before both siblings disappeared through the gate.
"On the bright side, we can actually prepare for whatever will just wake up and ruin our day at some point. Maybe we can preemptively wipe out dragons for good. They must be connected to these Old Ones." Ulbert mused aloud.
"Let's not be hasty. There is a large likelihood that many of them are hiding." Ainz shut down his idea for genocide.
"I will make each of you a translation with notes. After I clear the library and make everyone a list of spells no one should use." Tabula nodded.
"Take as many resources as you need. I'll notify Pandora to help you. Once again, we were careless." Ainz agreed.
Regoz had done another solid for him and the Great Tomb, but Ainz knew better to assume any benevolence, as he knew he was nothing but a figure on a chessboard. At least one of the movers of him and his friends was a cautious one, and they were doing everything possible to make sure Ainz had time to prepare.
Editing by Nick L
Proofreading by nate051499j6, Mfkzrocker, fvvck
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