ALL NOVEL 38. Uninvited Guest
Albedo PoV:
Albedo was going about her duties in the throne room as usual. Occasionally maids entered to clean the throne room in case the Supreme Being showed up unannounced. It was just another regular day at Nazarick.
Standing beside the throne of kings, a position reserved for her, she read reports about the workings of Nazarick, the progress of construction of the time sanctuaries, and reports from Demiurge amongst other things.
While Albedo, Demiurge, and Pandora's Actor were said to have similar levels of intelligence, administrative work was her forte without a doubt. While she enjoyed her work and had the zeal to finish it, Albedo sometimes wished she did not have this particular job.
The reason was that she could not accompany Lady White for longer periods of time. Albedo was very envious of the twin guardians who got to accompany Lady White on her trip. If it had been her in their place, this trip would have been a long awaited date.
Adding on that she had not seen Lady White in person for so long, Albedo was on the verge of depression. She did not even have the time to visit her room which she had reconstructed into her personal heaven to 'recharge'.
The only thing keeping her going now was to excel in her tasks and ask for a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown as a reward. She also had to display perfect management of Nazarick in Lady White's absence.
At least it should have been so, but her plans were thrown down the drains due to an intruder somehow trespassing within Nazarick's grounds. She was informed of this due to Nazarick's defence systems detecting an anomaly.
While she was very angry, she had to work hard to control her anger and view the situation objectively to take the best course of action.
An ant trespassing on Lady White's sacred grounds without her permission had to be crushed thoroughly. Despite having such a thought, Albedo knew that getting to the bottom of this intrusion was much more important.
She had to find out how and why they had infiltrated Nazarick after detaining that worm. Such a security risk had to be fixed immediately and Demiurge also had to be notified about this. It was primarily his job as the Defence Commander after all.
That said, this was the Marvel multiverse. Albedo had read of the miraculous abilities individuals and other relics possessed. Extreme caution was necessary.
She immediately said: "Open Master Source."
As a transparent window opened in front of her, she tried to read information about the intruder. The panel showed:
<Alert> Intruder Detected! <Alert>
<View Information Gathered By Defence Systems?>
<Yes><No>
Albedo immediately clicked <yes> without any delay.
<Number of Intruders detected: 1>
<Current Floor: 6th Floor of The Great Underground Tomb Of Nazarick>
<Turn on Defence Systems Deactivated Due To Unknown Anomaly?> <Yes><No>
To which she obviously clicked <Yes>. She would have to look into this 'unknown anomaly' in detail as well. How had she allowed so many security issues to persist on her watch?
<View Image?> <Yes><No>
Upon clicking <Yes>, the image of the intruder was visible to her. An amazingly beautiful woman with blonde hair and green eyes appeared in front of her. She was clad in green robes and also had a green tiara on her head.
Albedo immediately recognized her due to having read the comics extensively. This was Amora the Enchantress, a powerful Asgardian Sorceress. While she had an extensive range of abilities, she excelled in seduction.
Her brute force ability was not high in itself as she relied more on conspiracies, tricks, and obviously seduction. She lacked the physical strength of warriors like Thor but it could not be denied that she was a formidable sorceress.
She had even cast a curse that affected an entire world in one particular comic which even the king of Asgard, Odin had difficulty resolving.
Asgard was also one of the forces from whom it was better not to gain attention so soon and lose their advantage of being a hidden force. This issue had to be resolved without further delay and all information had to be extracted.
While she did not want to tell Lady White about Amora's infiltration, both as she had failed in managing Nazarick in her absence as well as the fact that Lady White might rush over quickly and face the intruder herself, Albedo knew she had no choice.
So she said: "[Message]"
'Albedo? Is this about the intruder?' She heard Lady White's voice.
She knew about the intruder. Of course, she would know. Not only was Nazarick in her pocket dimension but as the only true Supreme Being, Lady White was known to be omniscient by all of Nazarick's denizens.
Even if she might deny it due to her being humble and portraying an approachable attitude towards worthless servants like her, this fact would not change. She was now more worried that Amora had infiltrated after attacking Lady White so she asked:
"My lady, are you ok? Has that intruder attacked you? Are you hurt anywhere?"
'Everything is fine, Albedo. I have tightened the defences around Nazarick using dimensional magecraft and completely blocked any escape routes the intruder might have. Will you be able to deal with it on your own? It will take me a little more time to wrap things up here but if there are issues, I will be back immediately.'
Upon hearing everything was fine, Albedo gave out an audible sigh of relief which was followed by the feeling of her incompetence washing over her. Lady White had already done a major portion of the work and was already doubting her ability to finish the rest of it on her own.
Albedo did not think she would get the ring anymore. In fact, that thought was already out of her mind. All she could hope for now was that she did not screw things up further and let her impression in Lady White's mind go down even more.
After explaining her thoughts, Lady White cut the message spell and Albedo immediately got to work. The intruder infiltrated the 6th floor directly, meaning it might be possible that she knew of Nazarick's information beforehand and infiltrated only when Aura, Mare, and Lady White left.
While the method of infiltration was not yet known, Albedo, Demiurge, Aura and Mare all had a part in this massive error. It was funny that the only ones who did not screw up in the alternate dimension of 'Overlord' screwed up here.
Granted, Aura, Mare and Demiurge were not present in Nazarick and had duties to attend so the greatest fault was Albedo's.
After reviewing all of the abilities Amora displayed in the comics within a few seconds, she came up with a plan. She used a message to contact Shalltear and upon connecting she said:
"Shalltear, immediately get equipped and go to the 6th floor. An Asgardian Sorceress named Amora had infiltrated by unknown means.
She specializes in seduction and mind control magic which you have an immunity against but she is well versed in other types of magic as well. Her physical ability is not very strong and she seems inexperienced in close combat.
Capture her immediately for further questioning. Lady White will be here after some time and she expects us to solve this issue ourselves."
"~Very well. I will complete this task at the earliest and wash away my other self's sins. Wait for the good news~."
Shalltear might seem overconfident, but she had a change of mind and became more careful after reading about Overlord.
But Albedo's heart hurt when she heard the words 'wash away my other self's sins.' Albedo will not have this opportunity. At the very least she had to clean up after the mess she caused.
She immediately used another message spell and contacted Demiurge:
"Albedo?"
"Demiurge, return to Nazarick immediately…."
As Albedo explained the situation to the defence commander, the Asgardian Sorceress did not know what the future held for her. Only time will tell.