Vow of Loyalty

"It is time to vow allegeance to the supreme leader."

Without a word, the guardians nodded as a singular unit, getting into position before their lord could move his head to follow them. The regeant in front, then the guardians in the back in order of the floors they have authority over.

Of course, as the first, the pure vampire that captivated the fairy took the first step, and he had to battle against himself not to move even so slighty to look at her taking her vow.

"Shalltear Bloodfallen, guardian of the first three levels at your service my lord."

"Cocytus, guardian of the fifth floor, at your service."

"Aura Bella Fiore, guardian of the sixth floor, at your service."

"L-Likewise... Mare Bello Fiore... At your service..."

Perfect first round of salute, even with their big difference in height, they all ended their step on the same line, and it is to be expected that once the remaining bow down to their lord, that perfect line will be maintained.

"Demiurge, guardian of the seventh floor, at your service."

It was his turn now. The motion, even though it was in a way the first time he made it, was smooth, as if he trained all his life to do so, and his afterlife too. The fairy bowed, a knee on the ground with no concern to his robe as his head lowered. "Falthène Life Heartmade, guardian of the tenth floor, at your service."

"Albedo, Regeant of the guardians, at your service." He didn't need to see her face to guess the smile on her face. "With the sole exception of Gargantua, guardian of the fourth floor, and Victim of the eigth, every guardians are here to vow their eternal loyalty to you my lord."

Falthène could have swear he heard a small noise, but it must just have been his imagination, as their omnipotent lord engulfed the guardians in his powerfull aura. Such spectacle of strenght in normal circonstences wouldn't even raise an hair on the skins of the guardians - for thoses that had such things - but equipped with the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, a relic that equaled the strenght of a world item such at the book of reality in it's purpose, they could feel the full effect of this skill.

"Stand up."

They lifted their heads in a single, synchronised motion as ordered.

"First, i thank all of you to have reunited today."

"There is no need. We have offered our lives and loyalty. There is nothing more mundain as obeying your orders to us."

No one dared speak while Albedo interjected. Out of respect, or simply agreeing with her words and not seeing the necessity of adding anything. Falthène's case was the latter. Now that he could see his face, the drowned could tell a certain embarassment. He could also tell that he wasn't the only one picking up on it.

"We apologize, ou weakness must be unsightly to you. But as weak as we are, your floor guardians will fight till our last breath to do your biding and honor the fourty-one beings that created us."

"We swear it !" It was surprisingly easy to act and react in accordance with the other guardian, so much that the fairy wondered if it wasn't the work of a skill at play here.

The overlord smiled, satisfied with the devotion of his subordonates it seems, the greatest honor he could give them. But it didn't end here.

"You are magnificient, my guardians. In this moment, i felt that you would carry my order to their fullest." He eyed each of them one by one. "I believe our Great Tomb of Nazarick is in an unknown and unexplainable situation."

Was it because of Falthène's use of the book ? He wasn't forbidden to use it on himself, only on Nazarick and members of the guild, but maybe as a butterfly effect, it created a problem. However, Momonga didn't stop there.

"I do not know what caused it, but our home has been teleported from it's swamp to a meadow. Do any of you have any insight to this ?"

He thought it over, no, his use of the book couldn't have caused this. The book of reality has a simple power and simples flaws, by rewritting reality with it's hypnotic power, it can only do so to the extent of what is written down to the letter. Reality will correct itself around the new truth written, sure, but not more than it needs to. For example, it granted Falthène a role that didn't exist previously, because it would be more than asked to take that role back from an already existing floor guardian. One of it's only restriction is also the impossibility to influence something or someone possessing a world item of an equal power to the book, and people with world items are somewhat resilient to it's effect, although to what extent is unknown. The Great Tomb of Nazarick housed a lot of items, amongst them world items and creations that rivaled their powers. The book could not have done something like that from an unrelated change.

"I can confirm that this wasn't my doing, my lord. This outscales my abilities." He didn't wait the permission from Albedo to answer. As her stare was turned towards him, he knew he had to answer himself.

"I'm sorry my lord, if it isn't Falthène we have no clue how such a thing could have happened without us realising."

He didn't take it to heart, this wasn't a doubt thrown at his loyalty, the magic of the book is simply the only answer that could be viable to them, as it's the only power that isn't registed either as magic or a skill. Had it not have such restriction, it could very well be the answer to this conendrum.

"Another question then, has anything unusual happened to the floor you have the guard of ?"

The others finally had a chance to talk, but the answers were the same. Nothing to report. Albedo concluded "Master Momonga, we need to check the fourth and eigth floor as soon as possible."

"Very well. I'll let you do that, but be on your guard when visiting the eigth floor. Take Falthène with you, if the problem stems from that place, he might be one of three person to be able to fix it."

He must reference Shalltear and himself, but that's too much praises for the two strongest floor guardians. Even them didn't have a hundred percent chance of survival when going to the eigth floor.

"I will take care of the surface..." Speaked up the vampire.

"No need, Sebas is already up there."

Without a fuss, she falled back in line. Sebas was a powerfull fighter, member of the four strongest npc in close combat, nobody had something to say if the chief of the pleiades was assigned to such a risky mission. The fairy turned his head toward Demiurge, who smiled back at him. It seems their lord was really something else, feeling a disturbance from all the way to the throne room, and immediatly dispatching one if not the most appropriate candidate for a scouting mission of such importance.

"He should be here by now..." And as if to answer his call, Sebas arrived apologizing.

"Please forgive my late return my lord."

"Do not worry." The fairy met back the stare of the butler. One of the only being between this walls that had a positive karma value. "Please do your report, it's an emergency and every guardian must be alerted."

"Very well. I did a kilometer round inspection surrounding the new localisation of the Great Tomb. We are indeed inside a meadow, i spotted no habitations, but several small critters, nothing humanoid however or bigger."

"Monster ?"

"No, they are devoid of fighting capabilities."

"What about that meadow, anything out of the ordinary ?"

"Nothing my lord, it's a banal meadow."

"What about the sky, no floating castle ?"

"None that i could see in the darkness of the night my lord. I will verify once again as soon as the sun rise."

"No need. Good work Sebas."

He put his hand on his chin, deep in thinking. The situation appeared clear, and a brief glance was exchanged between the three heads of Nazarick. Their home, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, was transported to a different plane of existence. Another dimension maybe, another world most likely, and was out in the open, able to be spoted from kilometers away if they were truly in a meadow, a very difficult position to hold.