Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 68

Ainz slowly turned his gaze toward Baal.

The figure of the Demon King that before looked, if not confident then at least ready for battle, did not look as if it was capable of any more resistance now. The towering figure looked resigned.

"Interesting" - Ainz wondered - "If I cast a curse on him now, will I strengthen his despair or will it paradoxically weaken?"

Even if Ainz did nothing, the Baal's chances of escaping without giving Ainz any time to react were close to zero. But, on the other hand, if he did indeed manage to somehow escape, Ainz would have needed to waste a few more hours finding him at worst. Therefore, by finishing off now with a spell, Ainz would have cut off any opportunity for the Demon King to escape. This could either increase his desperation by showing him that he had no opportunity to escape. Or instead it could strengthen his will to live, showing that no matter how illusory the chance of Baal extending his life, a very small chance it may be, he could still take it and then deliver more troubles for Ainz.

Ainz observed the figure of the Demon King.

Baal still maintained his human form, but all the pomposity, confidence, and posture of a battle ready Demon King was already destroyed. Baal did not even bother standing and just fell to his knees, with his gaze focusing on nowhere. More precisely, of course, in the absence of actual eyes, Ainz could not really determine where, if anywhere, Baal was looking at all, however, his defeated appearance suggested to Ainz that he had achieved the desired result.

Good.

Ainz then looked at Euryale, who continued to look at him with an unbelieving look and resignation.

The whole point of the battle was to sow despair in Baal's soul, and this goal has been reached. This meant that the hatred that Ainz was supposed to possess had subsided. On the other hand...

Ainz looked at Euryale.

Just letting Euryale go, or even just killing her with a simple spell, did not seem like a good to Ainz. He had many more experiments that he needed to conduct after all.

However, he had already conducted the most atrocious of them on Stheno, so he planned to deal with Euryale relatively quickly.

"Deicide, rank E-" - Ainz's skill responded instantly.

After a second, Euryale took a step back. No words escaped from her mouth, and no exclamations, but her hands began to tremble the moment when Ainz's skill was activated. The skill produced such an amount of dread even at its very minimum level.

The strength of this skill depends on two factors. First is the rank of the skill itself, and last but not least is the rank of divinity the target possessed. After all, the best poison is tailor made. In other words, the eternal goddess Euryale, possessing a full-fledged core of a goddess, was the best experimental subject in order to test this skill in the field.

"Rank E-" - At this rank "The Divine must not fight this adversary."

Euryale took half a step back while slowly retreating she still continued to attack, firing another shot from her useless bow.

"Hm" - Ainz slowly took a step towards Euryale - "So, the skill at this rank has no full-fledged permanent effect. Perhaps some slight influence on the enemy in the form of fear or other sensation... However, it is too weak to fully influence the enemy... "

"Rank E" - At this rank "The Divine must fear this adversary."

After a second, Euryale, who had so far continued to shoot in a senseless attempt to somehow harm Ainz, froze in place.