There was only darkness in his view.

Slowly, carefully, he reached up with his hands… And pushed the object that was on top of him to the side.

There were more obstacles, and he gently removed each one of them… And after a while, he sat up.

Momonga looked around himself.

'...Indeed, that 'upgraded mana potion' is a dangerous item.' The thought practically echoed inside Momonga's head as he squinted his eyes to see his surroundings, as the fleshy body he inhabited had grown dehydrated and exhausted even despite its regeneration.

There were bodies everywhere.

'U-umu… W-wait, when did Yasaka come in here?' Momonga sweated a bit both externally and internally as he glanced at the blonde kitsune who was snoring a bit while hugging Ravel against her chest, and was having her waist hugged by Lady Phenix who looked to be sleeping peacefully while having her head against Yasaka's belly.

Momonga glanced to the other side and noted that Rossweisse was having a silly if peaceful expression as she was sleeping on her back on top of Akeno, and was drooling a bit while mumbling something. All the while Akeno, who was still completely out cold, was fondling the white-haired woman seemingly out of instinct as the black-haired girl's sleep-groping habits were seemingly as present as ever.

Momonga quickly made a head-count of the people in and around the huge bed in his bedchambers… And realized something worrying.

There were four kitsune women lying in a heap on a couch some distance away, which Momonga vaguely recalled to be the bodyguards that followed Yasaka around, and each of whom looked to be screwed silly. 'Oh… Oh no. Did I do that?'

Panic rose inside Momonga as he realized that he had flown entirely off the rocker during his experiment with the 'upgraded mana potion (magical girl variant)', and worried that he had done something that would compromise his cover image, or that he had done something unspeakable.

Momonga slowly glanced around… And noticed that 'One', one of the Cherubim Gatekeeper-maids, was standing beside the door and was in seeming calm and ease, even if she had a slight blush on her cheeks.

'...Um… Did she see what happened? Should I ask her?'

"Dunno. You could just ask me." Ddraig supplied helpfully, making Momonga turn his gaze to his internal 'soul-scape' for a moment and lift his eyebrow at the dragon inside his head. "To cut it short, you went Issei-mode, and started stacking bodies."

'That is… extremely worrying, thank you.' Momonga's worry increased even further as he glanced down and saw that 'One' had a thick stream of gooey white stuff running down her inner thighs from under her way-too-short maid skirt, and from the deepening blush on her face and slight sparkle on her eyes it was clear that the disguised Cherubim Gatekeeper had both noticed Momonga's glance and was ready for more.

Momonga kept looking around… And saw, much to his internal horror, that Venelana was on a nearby couch, and was lying protectively on top of Rias. And both of them looked like they had been filled like a turkey. 'Oh. Oh no. This isn't good.'

"I thought mother-daughter combos were sort of your thing?" Ddraig noted a bit dryly.

'It wasn't intentional! It just happened! I had nothing to do with it!'

"Do keep telling yourself that." Ddraig didn't sound convinced, making Momonga despair as he knew that he had fallen quite deep on the degeneracy hole and it was clear that someone had put a manhole cover on the entrance so that he had no way back up. And the culprit was possibly himself. "You could just embrace it and practice what you preach, honestly this time, o 'pretend god of lewd'. We've had this conversation like six times… I feel like we're doing an episodic TV skit from one of Serfall's shows. Like the one where Serafall strikes a 'moe moe' pose and the villain explodes in a shower of gore and Serafall goes 'teehee', but instead of cute moe and explosions, it's you going 'oh now, lewd things! My morals!' and then some girls get stuffed full..."

'Umu…' Momonga let out a sigh of internal resignation for multiple reasons, not the least of which being Ddraig's words just now, specifically the last sentences which struck dangerously close to home in regards to how things tended to end up as of late.

To distract himself he moved Xenovia a bit as she had hugged Momonga's leg and was drooling against his crotch while having the top half of Momonga's 'meat' down her throat.

It was somewhat impressive how she had somehow managed to sleep that way without either choking on the sausage or biting it off. '...Right. I suppose you have a point, Ddraig…'

There were strings of saliva connecting the meat to Xenovia's lips and Momonga saw rings of lipstick near the base of his dong, and quickly rubbed the meat against the blanket in sheer embarrassment, even if doing so did little to hide the evidence.

"Well, good. If so then I'll remind you once more the next time you pull the 'oh no, my morals!' routine." Ddraig looked to be filing his claws while leaning back on his pile of gold, looking every bit the bored dragon emperor of legend, which clued Momonga to the fact the dragon was feeling more pissed than usual.

After all, the last time Momonga had seen the dragon take that 'mental form' was when he had tried to fight Momonga when the dragon had been in his Inventory, and also when Momonga had nearly refused to give Rings of Ainz Ooal Gown to his fiance's… With the latter being a move that was still low-key bothering Momonga, but not to the point that he had thought it would bother him.

'...I feel as if I'm starting to get a bit detached from all of it…' Momonga sighed internally as he grasped the stray thought to distract himself from the present, and then double-took the stray thought as he couldn't feel sadness or terror from the thought but rather felt a weird mixture of resignation and eerie reminiscence- Like when he had visited the apartment of his family's, or rather, mother's apartment years after she had died and 'Suzuki Satoru' had been forced out of it by the landlords in Neo-Japan.

And since the building complex had fallen to hard times and disrepair due to financial troubles revolving around air filters, it had turned to a ghost building with no-one inhabiting it.

The feeling of nostalgia Suzuki Satoru had felt, the feeling of seeing things that he remembered to be full of warmth and life, at least relatively speaking, and which had now been cold, desolate and abandoned, had struck quite hard when he had known that they would never be the same again, not when the family had broken and his mother had died from overworking a long time ago…

And the part of Momonga that was Suzuki Satoru began to wonder if that trauma had contributed to how hard he had clung to the memories of Yggdrasil, the game itself, and the memories of his friends. To keep them from falling to the same state, to keep the candle burning even if he had to skim his own metaphorical and literal fat to replace the burnt tallow, (or rather, emptying his bank account to the game). Ensuring that Ainz Ooal Gown, or what remained of it at the end, would never fall to the same decay.

"Um…"

The internal self-projection of Momonga and Suzuki Satoru turned around in the cracked flat of his soul-scape in a flash to give a hard glare at the dragon who had managed to glance at something that neither of the two halves of the single entity wanted the dragon to see.

'You saw nothing.'

"...Um, Momonga-sama… Do you have mommy-issues, and that's why you did what you did to Phenix and Gremory ladies, and felt so worried about Rossweisse when she was about to become a mother?"

Momonga came to a standstill both physically and mentally, and masked his own ponderings by covering his face with his hands as Ddraig had seemingly made a leap of logic and had drawn weird conclusions.

While Ddraig's latter 'logical conclusion' regarding the denizens of Ero-World was something that Momonga discarded outright because he was fairly certain he hadn't gone after either of the two 'mothers' with the ero in mind, at least consciously, but he couldn't quite shake the claim of detachment issues just seconds prior.

'...No, I do not think it's 'mommy issues'... But… maybe… detachment ones…' Momonga finally came to a conclusion and sighed. He moved Kuroka a bit, as she was on the way when he climbed off the bed, and quickly scratched the cat-eared woman behind the ears and stroked her head as she snapped awake to look around in extreme alert. 'Ainz Ooal Gown… Or perhaps you're right, Ddraig. And it's all down to unresolved childhood trauma surfacing in my life, even though bringing that up does no good to my mental stability… But there's little I can do about it.'

"You're already doing something to it by acknowledging that the problem exists, no?" Ddraig pointed out mentally, all the while Kuroka was seemingly recovering from a near-heart attack upon being woken up by Momonga scratching her behind her cat-ears.

'Perhaps.'

It looked like Kuroka calmed down from the gentle rubbing, if shakily, and she finally flopped on her back after ascertaining that Momonga's head-rub didn't seem to be an attack. Even if Kuroka looked like she had nearly exited the mortal plane from sheer panicked surprise alone.

Momonga moved to rubbing Kuroka's stomach like that of a cat, and Kuroka let a low-tone and only slightly worried purr while closing her eyes and pulling her hands to her sides like paws, and squishing her boobs together with the sides of her forearms.

'...Haa, somehow Kuroka looks cute when she's shaky like that… Only, I'm not exactly happy that she's shaky because she's afraid of me. At least she's not actively planning my demise, I hope.' Momonga decided to be a tiny bit more honest with himself, which made his 'Overlord' side more than a bit worried that he was getting soft.

However he stopped himself before the proverbial other cat-paw would drop and he'd get scratched by Kuroka, as he had learned his lesson from his attempts to pet Koneko for too long. Although in retrospect it didn't look as if Kuroka had the courage to retaliate in the first place, as she was still quite shaky.

Momonga walked out of the bedroom and paused as he stared at the 'situation' that the quarter's living room was in. 'Um…'

"'Two', 'Three', what exactly… umu…" Momonga sweated while he audibly wondered what exactly had happened in the room, considering that it looked like there were quite a few stains all over the place and drag-marks that led to the bedroom.

All in all, it looked like a crime scene, complete with white chalk outlines on the floor that on closer inspection were not, in fact, made out of chalk… and two numbered maids were cleaning the white stuff up with toothbrushes?

'...Why toothbrushes? Surely a pressure washer loaded up with disinfectant or whatever would be a better choice? Or perhaps a flamethrower?' Momonga continued to sweat internally as he considered the logistics or logic of the two maid's actions, and Ddraig interjected mentally to tap and point at a mental picture with a lecturer's stick.

Momonga glanced 'internally' to note that Ddraig had donned a dragon-sized teacher's getup and was tapping a crudely-drawn picture of a stick-woman in a maid getup brushing her teeth.

Momonga got it, and promptly grabbed the toothbrushes away from 'Two' and 'Three'.

"M-muh…" 'Two' pouted a bit but resumed her usual aloof expression alongside her sister, even if 'Three' let a small, bratty 'tch' sound as if she was annoyed that she had been caught in the act.

'...Well, I suppose that it's good that the two are developing personality traits, I guess?' Momonga noticed the differing reactions from the usually-identical maids. "Listen, you can just clean normally. With actual tools. I can, u-umu…" 'I was about to say, I can 'supply' you two if you really want to taste that kind of thing… but in retrospect that's really lewd…'

"Oi, didn't you just promise to be more honest." Ddraig made an interjection.

'There's a line between intimacy and sexual harassment of an employee.'

"I don't think those two mind as much as you do, matey. Just tell them you're willing to fuck them so hard they'll have a month's supply of protein in their womb, or something." Ddraig commented while filing his claws.

'...Since when did you start using that crass language?'

"I'm going to start using even more lewd language if you continue to break your words about being honest, mate. This is a threat."

"Listen… If you want to, feel free to come to my bedroom tonight. This is not an order, but…" Momonga lifted the toothbrushes a bit and addressed the two maids. "If you want my… umu… " 'This is really embarrassing…'

"Just do it!" Ddraig made a sharp motion with his hands and clapped them together. "Believe in your dreams! Just do it!"

'Fine. Stop pacing around, it's making my nervousness worse.' "If you want my affection then you don't have to resort to things like these. Just come to my room at night." Momonga finished while lifting the toothbrush, hoping that he had read the room correctly.

Both of the two blushed and nodded in unison, and began to flutter a bit on the spot as if they were about to start floating like butterflies… But after a few seconds 'Two' and 'Three' got their emotions in check and nodded while their faces were as red as a tomato.

After all that, Momonga combined the act of cooling himself down and taking a bath by teleporting to the bottom of the lake that was next to Phenix's castle-mansion, mostly so that he could ride out the crushing feeling of embarrassment he felt. Which Ddraig had later, unsolicited and unhelpfully, described as 'breakthrough-level of post-nut clarity', which did not help Momonga's mental state…

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Venelana felt dirty.

Violated.

But she had done what she had needed to do, to ensure the survival of not only herself but Rias and their family as well.

The Lady of Gremory House sighed as she had noticed that the 'True God' had woken up and left the bedroom, and she had snuck into the concubine's room that was connected to Momon's master bedroom in order to begin her counter-attack.

Venelana sneaked into the small bathroom that was connected to the concubine's room, her mind clear even though her conscience and pride were not- After all, she would need some privacy for what she was about to do.

Venelana looked at the mirror that was in front of her as she stood in the bathroom, and looked at her own mirror image- That of a violated noblewoman with mascara running down her face, skin pale, and eyes bloodshot. 'I'm sorry, Zeoticus. I was violated. I… I didn't want this, but I needed to do this, for the safety of what is left of our family. For Rias. Forgive me.'

The mirror didn't answer her thoughts, so Venelana reached in front of herself and used [Power of Imagination] to produce a pregnancy test.

She already knew that she wasn't pregnant. It was a simple thing to test for with the power she had, but… There was a competition involved with such a thing. One that she couldn't afford to lose- No matter what.

The future of her daughter, nay, her entire house hung in the balance… And she couldn't fail.

Venelana bit her lip as she used [Power of Imagination] to cause the test to produce a fake positive result. '...I have a few months before my lie comes to light, at least as long as I can use [Power of Imagination] to fake the pregnancy if Momon uses his magic on me to check whether or not the pregnancy test is fake or not…'

'...I can't fake it for long, however. Momon will get suspicious if I don't show signs of pregnancy after a few months… I need to make the pregnancy real by then.' Venelana wiped the blood from her punctured lip on a piece of cloth and put her other hand on her chest in an attempt to calm herself, to freeze the terror and anger she felt so that neither would distract her from what she needed to do. 'I can act the part of a pregnant wife for now, and just ask Momon to bed me again during the internim so that my deception won't come to light until I'm truly pregnant. I just need a head-start to get the situation rolling in Gremory's favor. It's the last thing I can do for Zeoticus…'

She felt dirty, but she did what she needed to do- All to ensure that Rias would not come to harm, not anymore. To keep her away from Momon… And also to tie Momon to Gremory House, and that way ensure the house's survival. 'I need to win this 'competition', and thus take the role of Momon's harem manager… That should allow me to start building a powerbase, and even if I can no longer overthrow Momon, I can ensure House Gremory's survival, and Rias's safety by scheduling her dates with Momon so far apart that he won't be able to abuse her any longer… '

'Zeoticus, if you can hear me from what passes for beyond for our kind… Please do not hate me… Rias… forgive me. I did this for all of us.' Venelana sighed and stashed the tampered pregnancy test securely between her breasts so that it couldn't be confiscated if one of Momon's guard-maids had become suspicious of Venelana's momentary departure.

She then left the small concubine's bathroom in order to follow the stream of the fiancee's, lovers, concubines and hang-abouts who had populated Momon's bed last night, and who had started to gradually wake up and were groggily heading to the quarter's bathing facilities.

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All in all, it took nearly an hour for Momonga to finally get to breakfast from the time he'd woken up, and to his relief the quarters had been cleaned properly during the time when he had been in the 'bath'- Or rather, while he was reflecting on his actions in the deep dark bottom of the lake.

"Hoo…" Momonga tallied his list of to-do things, and marked 'ask Serafall about the 'mana potions and what happens when they age' for his first in the to-do list, followed up by contacting the war-leaders who were finishing up the clean-up of the 'civil war', or rather, the 'civil mop-up'- He had been keeping an ear on the battle and visited the front-lines a few times to keep appearances, but he would have to take more proactive stance now as the civil war came closer to conclusion in the background.

Momonga was fairly certain that he'd face accusations of cowardice in the future if he just let events roll forward on their own weight without at least making a show and dance of being one to push the metaphorical boulder.

He coughed to his fist to draw attention from the breakfast crowd as the wolfing down of food started to slow down. "Well, I suppose that the night was long and full of adventures."

"Indeed. However, I'd like to ask you to not touch my geisha bodyguards in the future. I'll have to take action if that repeats." Yasaka had a fairly massive tick of veins on the corner of her temple while she drank tea. "I'd use harsher words, but if I read things correctly, you weren't exactly in control of yourself last night?"

"Umu, yes. I was actually under the effect of Serafall's improved tantric potion. I did not realize how powerful it would be, and foolishly underestimated her ability as a potion-crafter." Momonga instantly tossed Serafall under the bus after Yasaka gave him the opportunity to shift blame. "I apologize for what happened to your guards."

"I'll convey those apologies. I'll also take the opportunity to provide them with paid leave at your expense." Yasaka noted with a slightly testy voice. "I would also provide them with therapy, but on closer inspection, it doesn't seem their spirits were broken during last night's… activities. In fact, I am left suspecting that some of them decided to intervene not to 'save me', but rather used it as an excuse to join in."

"I see. That lifts some of the guilt I hold in my soul over what happened. Of course, as I've inconvenienced you by my actions, I'll ask someone from my group to protect you in the meanwhile." Momonga offered in turn, making Yasaka smirk slightly to her tea.

"That won't be necessary, but I appreciate the sentiment." Yasaka clearly saw through Momonga's attempt at putting more of his people within Yasaka's ranks.

In truth it was a bit refreshing for Momonga to speak to someone who was clearly her own person and represented her own faction while also thinking for herself, even though the two of them were now married in all but ceremony- All the while Momonga was quite confident that Yasaka wouldn't betray him, for now. Or at least, not as long as Kunou still considered Momonga to be her father.

…However, the fact Yasaka wasn't completely submissive to Momonga was making his 'overlord' side quite worried, but the worry was swiftly crushed by the side of him that was looking for more 'human' interactions in addition to what Rossweisse provided.

Rossewisse, meanwhile, had a small pouting blush as she glanced at the way Yasaka and Momonga spoke, but she looked quite happy with the situation nonetheless. Or perhaps she was just focusing on her hefty breakfast.

The rest of Momonga's entourage stared at the interaction a bit, before Venelana seemed to gather her courage and coughed to her hand.

However, before she could say anything a low growl interrupted her.

"...Hentai, lolicon, pedo, rapist. Die. Jump in a trench and get a stalagmite up your butt." Koneko, with her body in her regular young shape once again, was grumbling aloud while her entire existence was black-and-white and there were metaphorical crack lines running through her entire body. "Pedo-god. Stub your toe in a drawer, bend over, and suffer the pain of a thousand deaths."

"Gheyyaah!" Kuroka looked like her soul had jumped out of her body in terror after hearing Koneko's muttering. "L-Lord Momon! I apologize for my sister's unsightly-"

"No, no, she has a point, after what happened last night. But, wasn't it Kuroka-san who came up with the method of resolving Koneko's issue?" Momonga noticed the incoming misconception as Yasaka had noticed Koneko's young body and lifted her eyebrow in a slightly ominous way at Momonga, and he immediately tossed Kuroka under the metaphorical freight train to save face and also to keep Yasaka from drawing comparisons between Koneko and Kunou. "I believed that you said it was the only way to save Koneko's life?"

"Yes! Definitely!" Kuroka was nodding her head with such speed that she was probably giving herself a concussion from G-forces alone. Yasaka looked to be slightly mulled by the explanation, while Koneko looked like she was about to jump out of the window from shame.

"Momon-sama. I would like to ask about yesterday's 'competition'... Were you planning on testing us for the, ahem, victor?" Venelana looked slightly green as she spoke. It looked as if she chose to speak when Rias was distracted, as the red-head was leaning closer to Koneko to whisper something to her ear.

Whatever Rias had whispered to Koneko didn't seem to help Koneko's fatal mood, but Momonga let Rias handle the fallout. 'Rias has known Koneko far longer than I have and would most likely have a better idea on what to do to salvage the situation… If I tried to explain to Koneko the, um, Kuroka's healing proposition, I'm certain I would just make things worse…'

…Not to mention that the 'Suzuki Satoru' persona inside Momonga was not very comfortable with facing Koneko after what had happened last night.

Instead he faced Venelana, as the noblewoman was seemingly trying quite hard to catch Momonga's attention without being too overt about it.

"Venelana-san, You mentioned a competition… Oh, yes, that." Momonga remembered what the woman was referring to at the last second. "Yes, the position of a… umu, 'harem manager'."

The Overlord inside Momonga rubbed his bony temple with his palm in a mixture of contemplation and annoyance over the inefficient and haphazard way the 'competition' had been set up and executed, while the Suzuki Satoru inside him was covering his face with his hands in shame and embarrassment for several reasons.

Ddraig, meanwhile, kept tossing imagined kernels of popcorn from his seat on top of the mental gold-pile inside Momonga's soul-scape, with the kernels aimed at both of the personality constructs inside Momonga's mind and occasionally bouncing off their heads.

"Yes, my lord. I would like to submit the results." Venelana looked cold as she reached between her breasts… And handed Momonga a pregnancy test. She looked sincere, even though [Actor] told Momonga that the woman was probably feeling very nervous.

'...Eh?' Momonga stared at the results, as did Rias who blinked and double-took the expression on her mother's face. 'Wait, wait, is this… Ddraig, am I reading this right?'

"Dunno. The line says 'pregnant'." Ddraig narrowed his eyes a bit as the dragon peered through Momonga's vision of the stick.

'...Huh.' Momonga paused mentally. '...So… Unlike Rossweisse going to an unfortunate conclusion and deciding to lie to me… Venelana provided proof. And… I'm going to be a father, for real this time? Uh… I didn't know pregnancy tests were this fast, but that's Underworld materials for you…''

"Your 'sons and daughters', you know, the ones with wings, are going to get sad if they hear you say that." Ddraig snorted a bit. "You have a role to play, no?"

'…Yes, that is something I need to consider when I speak of this…' Momonga noted internally with a level tone as the 'Overlord' in him had taken the reins since Suzuki Satoru was quite catatonic after the news. At least for a few seconds, after which the mental representation of 'Overlord Momonga' was suddenly kicked in the metaphorical butt and knocked off the mental driver's seat by the suddenly lively Suzuki.

"You're claiming that you are pregnant with my child, Venelana." Momonga lowered the stick a bit to stare at the noblewoman who was looking away while having a cold expression on her face. It was quite difficult for the Suzuki persona to believe that the news were true, and the same was for the 'Overlord' persona- Albeit for different reasons.

Xenovia drew a breath from the side, nearly inhaling a whole chicken as she had somehow managed to stuff it between two slices of bread and then tried to stuff it into her mouth. The girl coughed a few times, helped by Irina who whacked the nun-turned-devil in the back.

The blue-haired girl turned towards Venelana and gave her a big thumbs-up as if the Gremory matriarch had won against her in a match- which, in a way, she had. "Good job, Venelana-sama! I am both glad and envious of your good fortune!"

"Uhh…" Irina blushed and looked away while she kept whacking Xenovia's back, causing a protesting 'muuh' from the blue-haired girl who had already cleared her airways.

Rossweisse, meanwhile, dropped the mug of (alcohol-free) beer that she had been drinking from, causing a bit of a fuss as the Cherubim maids immediately teleported all around her to scrub the white-haired woman's beer-stained dress while she sputtered and flailed a bit.

"Ugh…" Rias buried her head in her hands, seemingly more exasperated than anything over the news, all the while Akeno patted her shoulder in a reassuring manner. "Figures that my mom would get pregnant from my husband first… What did I expect…"

"...I believe that it concludes my victory in this… competition, yes?" Venelana didn't seem to be happy about the fact, but Momonga couldn't blame her. Not after what had happened, and after the whole 'issue' Venelana had with Grayfia and Momonga himself.

Lady Phenix and Ravel stared at Venelana with unreadable expressions for a long time, before turning to stare at one another as if they couldn't quite figure out what had happened… Before a lethal smirk spread on Ravel's lips and she began to chuckle to herself while giving Venelana a dangerous look from the corner of her eyes, which was soon mirrored by her mother in eerily similar fashion.

"Please stop thinking about that, you two." Momonga immediately defused the situation as it was clear that the Phenix mother-daughter duo was about to conduct yet another 'ploy', and Momonga was quite worried that it would become actually dangerous if Ravel and her mother joined their legendary 5-level abilities in [making harebrained schemes] in order to create a 'plan' that might just simultaneously evaporate Momonga's entire power-base by accident and perhaps blow up the entire Phenix castle-mansion as collateral damage.

"Of course, my lord." Ravel spoke after she jumped a bit in surprise, as if someone had poked her side with a needle, and then she put a napkin against her lips as if to cover her own sudden nervousness, much like her mother.

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Ravel glanced at Lady Phenix while suppressing her sudden internal fright.

She knew her lord 'loved' her, and her mother, so she wasn't too afraid that she'd face retribution for her wrongdoings, but the possibility of upsetting the beloved, cruel monster was always a harrowing prospect.

Lady Phenix sent a slight look under her eyelashes at Ravel, and the two of them remade their plan wordlessly.

'...Muh… W-well… I had planned on removing the Supreme Being's child's embryo from Venelana's womb, and transplanting it into mom's womb to grow… Just as the Supreme Being had earlier stated, when he cornered mom and told her that he 'wished mom to have his children'…' Ravel was worried that she had misunderstood the Supreme Being's orders, but her mother had managed to get the situation under control as she batted her eyelashes at Ravel in a way that reassured her.

'Ku- kukuku…' Ravel chuckled inside her head as she didn't dare to make a sound after failing to understand the true scope of the Supreme Being's orders- Not that she expected that she could have done so fully, but she hadn't been expecting to have failed so hard that He would choose to speak aloud and reprimand her and her mother.

However, it looked as if Lady Phenix had already deduced the correct path forward with the orders they had, at least if Ravel read her body language and slow blinks correctly. 'As expected of mom… Once you managed to get past that foolish attachment to dad and nii-samas, your ability to plan ahead is truly one of a kind… I love you, mom…I love you, master…'

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'I'm not sure what she was thinking, but I'm certain that it was nothing good.' Momonga sighed internally as Ravel and her mother blinked at one another like owls.

Murmurs began to spread around the table after Venelana's announcement and Momonga decided to use the lull as a chance to contemplate the future- That in the future he'd have a child of his own.

He reached for coffee with ever-increasing giddiness in the bottom of his stomach as the shock passed and allowed room for his human side to fully grasp the situation. 'I'm going to be a father! And this time for real!'

Momonga was so preoccupied with his bubbly, happy thoughts that he completely missed the crack in the sky that opened behind him, as his back was facing towards the open balcony of the breakfast room.

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Venelana suppressed her shaking hands with all her might, and after a moment slipped her hands down from the table and rested them on her thighs to keep her expression and body language as stable as she could.

'Did Momon buy it? I didn't tell a straight lie and avoided Momon's questions, so if he has some way of detecting lies from speech then it shouldn't go off… And if he had an ability to read minds from afar then he would have known that I was lying from the start…' Venelana stressed over the possibility that her deception had been seen through, but it looked as if the terrifying monstrosity that was clad in seemingly naive flesh was still acting in a peaceful manner. he even looked 'happy', at least as far as Venelana dared to analyze the expression on Momon's face.

The serene smile Momon had on his lips, however, creeped Venelana out quite a bit. It was… too happy. It was like the serene smile of an idiot who didn't think much about things and just went with the flow- Yet Venelana knew the true nature of the terror that hid under the seemingly young, tall man's skin. 'Is… Is he acting? Is that yet another mask of his? Does he know I lied and is just going along with it for some reason? I… I can't read him at all…'

'...Wait…' Venelana felt cold sweat on her brow as something suddenly felt unnatural, and she lifted her eyes to look at the sky that was visible from the balcony of the breakfast room.

A large crack appeared in the sky behind Momon, albeit a dozen miles away or so, and was soon followed by a loud sound that was akin to a combination of shattering of glass and muted crack of breaking bone.

A kaleidoscopic void of emptiness burst out from the cracks, and quickly spread on the pale violet sky of the Underworld like a bubble of oil spreading on water… And then the void spewed out forms.

Venelana muted a scream as she saw the massive form of an ancient dragon of myth, the legendary Infinite Ouroboros Dragon emerge from the gaping hole in reality… And with her were two more forms.

The unconscious, gigantic white-feathered dragon of infamy, Albion… Who was foaming from the mouth while used as a club by Ophis, who towered over the already-massive white dragon and was gripping it by the tail as if the white one was a weapon.

The 'dragon-club' was currently hitting the third form that had come out of the gaping reality-hole- A sickly, weak-looking Zeoticus Gremory, who was clad in a ragged, yellow cloak.

Venelana suppressed a scream by slapping her hands on her mouth, causing the teacup she had on her hand to fall to the floor and shatter as Ophis's 'club' swing hit Zeoticus's tentacled mass of terrors cloaked in a ragged gown.

"Sirches-nii! Wait- No! That's not-" Rias let out a gasp as she saw what Venelana saw… Only, it looked as if Rias had seen through the disguise of the terror that had broken into reality quicker than Venelana.

As soon as Ophis had hit Zeoticus's ragged body the man's body had become utterly alien, unknowable to the truest sense of the word… And then stabilized to the shape of Sirches Gremory, making Venelana immediately realize that the horror that had fled from Ophis to the Underworld was neither her husband or son.

Venelana's body grew weak and leaden from just looking at the monstrosity that seemingly tried to flee from Ophis's insane, blind rage… And she suddenly realized that it had not been the monster who had decided to break through the kaleidoscopic void of Interdimensional Gap into the Underworld's reality.

Rather, Ophis had hit the monster with Albion so hard that it had simply shattered through the boundary between the realities- Even if the brutalized monstrous eldritch shapeshifting creature looked to be completely unhurt by Ophis's blind rage.

"Umu… Hm?" Momon was muttering to himself and glanced behind at the sight of a duel of legends that was happening above the lake next to Phenix's main grounds. "Keep it down, will you?"

The ragged horror that suddenly widened to cover the entire sky with inky black tentacles responded to Momon's words with a scream of terror that caused Venelana's eyes and ears to bleed and her body to freeze utterly still against her will, even from such a distance, and she was not the only one affected… Albeit the reaction from others differed.

Ravel and Lady Phenix wiped the blood that had stopped flowing from their ears, albeit Ravel's stopped nearly instantly while her mother took some time, and the two turned to clap at the sudden, unforeseen battle of legends with a shared smirk on their faces, almost as if they were watching fireworks with no care for the world.

Akeno hugged Rias in fear while placing her body in front of her, and Rias in turn hugged Venelana in a similar manner

Kuroka let out a frightened mewl and dove to cower under Momon's chair while dragging once-again unconscious Koneko with her.

Yasaka paled and lifted her finger to cast a warding spell against the wave of instinctive terror that spread from merely witnessing the 'fight', but the spell failed to manifest, almost as if the unnatural monstrosity's presence alone in the Underworld was suppressing her magic

"Umu, I see…" Momon seemed to wake up from his 'happy' 'stupor' to actually notice what was happening in the sky. "Right. Yes."

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'W-what the heck?' Momonga blinked at the sight of a massive dragon battering Touch Me with another dragon, On closer look the larger dragon was using the smaller one like some sort of avian dragon-themed club.

Moreover, Touch Me's battered body turned to look like Bukubukuchagama as the dragon-club hit the knight in the head and squashed it, followed by looking like Peroroncino, followed by turning to sickly and rotten-looking Ravel, then equally pallid and hollow-eyed Rossweisse as the relentless assault continued, and…

'Oh. Right. It's… that thing. 'Hastur'. But… how… Why are they here?' Momonga connected the dots from his earlier encounters with that particular monstrosity. '...If I just ignore them, will they go away? Although, that shapeshifting thing looks like it's on its last legs… Maybe I could try to kill-steal it, like I did with the 'Cthulhu'-thing?'

Ddraig let out a muted, high-pitched whimper as it saw the massive dragon using unconscious Albion as a club against the monstrosity, and then the mental red dragon let out a higher-pitched whimper as it overheard Momonga pondering the pros and cons of third-partying the sudden fight. "M-momonga-sama! That is a really bad idea!"

'Although, if that fight starts to roll this way, this whole place will get flattened… Moreover…' Momonga ignored Ddraig as he smelled free experience for the taking. He then glanced in Venelana's direction, noting the woman's pale face and shaky posture that was repeated across the table, except for Ravel and Lady Phenix who seemed to be clapping politely at the fight in the sky, as if they were watching two gladiators duel, completely ignoring the fact the two's blood-shot eyes bled pus down their cheeks as they witnessed the shapeshifting form in the distance. '...Right. Venelana would most likely die, alongside others, if that battle spreads to this direction… And with Venelana… No. I can't risk it. I'll have to try to hide us and draw the battle away from here.'

Ddraig seemed to let out a relieved sigh before realizing Momonga's actual plan.

"Umu. Stay here…" Momonga stood up. 'Let's be quiet and sneaky about this, just in case that monster can hear all this way… [Silent Magic: Perfect Unknowable]...

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Venelana stared at the sky like a statue, utterly frozen still while beads of sweat began to drip down the side of her face.

Her eyes were bulging out like those of a prey animal who just realized that they had stumbled into a deadly and hungry predator, and her body felt as if it had been wrought from stone.

She tried to keep her eyes focused on the sky, to keep her eyes from wandering towards the utterly horrifying, unknowable existence that had uncloaked itself from Momon's shell, like a monstrous demon emerging from a spread-out human shell and overtaking the flesh to become something that was a presence without a body, a twisting warped hole in the very reality itself that corroded all around it.

The terror shifted its presence, if only slightly as if it was focusing its all-encompassing attention elsewhere.

Venelana fought hard to keep herself from whimpering, to keep herself from looking directly at the monstrosity that had decided to reveal its true, formless existence before the cadre of fools who had been ensnared by the monster and turned into its playthings.

'Is… Is Momon planning to fight here? In the Underworld? Is… Is he planning on ruining this world too, like he ruined the human world?' A brief, terrified realization passed through Venelana's head as she recognized a pattern.

"M-ph!" Rias protested as Venelana had covered her daughter's eyes and mouth with her hands in a desperate attempt to keep Rias safe. To stop Rias from seeing Momon's, no, The Supreme Being's true form as Venelana was certain that Rias's young mind would shatter if she saw her 'love's true form.

Moreover, Venelana stopped Rias from calling out to 'Momon' and attracting the monster's attention.

However, at the same time as Momon uncloaked himself-

The terror in the sky let out a scream as saw Momon's true form, causing Venelana's mind to crack and blood to pour from her nose and ears from the sheer after-image of the sound, and…

…The tentacled celestial-borne monstrosity expanded to cover the entire sky in a rotting mass of tentacles and diseased corpses, only to pulse back with similar speed in a movement that was not unlike that of an octopus vomiting out it's ink and then sucking it in immediately afterwards, as if it had realized that it had stained something with the substance that must not be touched.

Momon's existence seemed to blink in response, as if the monstrosity was communicating with the other monster somehow.

The sky-borne monstrosity that had taken the form of a decayed, rotting Rias before ballooning into a corpse star made out of rotting tentacles that encompassed the entire sky fled across the Underworld like a piece of dry ice skipping on the surface of water, before plunging down on something in the far distance- A travel that had likely encompassed hundreds of kilometers, passed in mere fraction of a second that was realized by the witnesses long before the movement took place.

The gigantic form of the Infinite Ouroboros Dragon realized that her prey had fled, and let out a roar of frustration that caused rocks to fall from the mountains around Phenix territory and nearly caved in the castle-mansion from the resulting earthquake alone… And the gigantic dragon turned its head towards Momon, eyes blazing red with uncontrolled, insane fury.

The gigantic dragon flung aside Albion that it had been holding by the tail, causing the hapless white dragon to crash into a forest and let out a mushroom cloud of dust and dirt.

After discarding the 'weapon', the gigantic form of the Infinite Ouroboros Dragon dove down towards the Phenix mansion with momentum that was like shifting of a tectonic plate- unstoppable and unavoidable, and full of mindless rage.

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'...U-umu? Did… those two just see through [Perfect Unknowable]?' Momonga had a feeling that his disguise hadn't been as good as he had thought, and that both the gigantic dragon and the form of 'Hastur' had immediately seen through the invisibility spell.

The rotting visage of Peroroncino had turned directly towards Momonga's 'hidden' form, followed by a scream that had not caused any damage to Momonga's health directly, but rather had triggered his immunity to mental ailments… After which Peroroncino had fled as a mass of tentacles and rotting feathers.

'...Wait, is it trying to get me to chase after it?' Momonga was immediately on alert. 'If [Perfect Unknowable] isn't enough to cloak me then… Hold on, I used that spell once before against that thing. Did it learn to see through it after that? If that's the case… It would have noticed me and recognized me from before… The first time I encountered that thing it also fled from me upon seeing me, so… yes, it must be trying to bait me into a chase. It tried to do so once before… If it's an Outer Being (raid boss) then it would be able to flatten me in single combat easily, so there must be a reason why it's trying to single me out. Moreover, the first time I saw it I was not fully in control of my mental faculties since [Emotion Suppression] had just recently broken, so I almost made a big mistake by charging after that thing without a proper plan…'

'...Yes. Chasing that thing, 'Hastur', would be a mistake. As I thought, I need to trap it instead of trying to pursue that thing, because it looks like it's trying to bait me into a chase and a trap. I've tried to use that thing's name to lure it out, like Serafall told me, but it hasn't reacted to it… However, how am I supposed to trap it when it seems to just pop out of nowhere at random times?' Momonga quickly shook the ponder out of his head as the issue of the gigantic dragon's meteoric charge remained, and was getting ever more pressing.

In fact, the gigantic dragon was looking directly at Momonga with a gaze that radiated insanity… And its massive wings opened as it dove down to a charge towards Momonga with a movement that was like a landslide made out of mountains coming down from the sky.

Momonga dropped [Perfect Unknowable] by casting [Detect Life] and other detection spells in the dragon's direction as it was clear that the dragon had already seen through the spell. 'Uh… Ddraig? Just to make sure… who is that?'

"Ophis. I'm certain of it. I've never seen her true draconic form, but there's no other dragon that could come close to that, except for Great Red, who is… well, not doing so well…" Ddraig sounded uncertain and stood beside a full pair of luggage trolleys in Momonga's mental-scape. "Partner. Listen… If you're planning on fighting her… Leave me out of it."

'...Didn't take you for a coward.' Momonga used headstrong 'thoughts' to cover his sudden worry. After all, he did not fancy his chances to fight the dragon with infinite health if it wasn't for the force multiplier was Ddraig… And even then Momonga was very much edging towards the solution of tossing his people into a [Gate] and fleeing rather than trying to fight the god-like dragon who seemed to be in full health… Or rather, in infinite health.

"Well, after what you did to Great Red, Tannin, etcetera, I'm getting a teensy bit worried over the fate of all dragons at this rate." Ddraig noted and nudged the full luggage trolleys next to him. "I'll be direct: Consider killing Ophis to be a trigger for my resignation letter. I won't be able to win against you… But I won't help you kill the rest of my kind either."

'...' Momonga wasn't sure if Ddraig was bluffing, but the flat, no-nonsense tone in the dragon's voice caused him quite a bit more nervousness. Not to mention that he didn't actually even have a way of killing Ophis in the first place, specifically when [The Goal of All Life Is Death] was on it's month-long cooldown after getting over-[Boost]ed during the 'Ctulhu-incident'. He kept that thought out of the forefront of his mind with all the mental fortitude he had, however- After all, he needed to have a convincing bluff to dissuade Ddraig from making drastic moves, and the dragon could read his surface-thoughts. '...Ddraig. I won't mince words: I need your help… Not to kill Ophis, but to stop her. In a non-lethal way. I can't guarantee her safety otherwise. I'd rather not kill her- After all, Ophis and I are friends, no?'

"...Yeah. Sure you are. But fine. What do you have in mind." Ddraig seemed to relent surprisingly easily, making Momonga realize that the overgrown lizard in his head had been testing him.

'...The next time you pull that attitude when we're about to fight against something, I'm going to capture Albion and start feeding him to you, scale by scale.' Momonga threatened mentally, causing Ddraig to pale and hide the luggage trolleys.

"I was… well…"

'No gold pile for a week. You can sleep on the dust.' Momonga imagined the gold pile in his mind away, as well as the luggage trolleys, leaving the dragon flat against the red dust of his mind-scape- The conversation had taken just a split second in real time as the whole 'negotiation' had been entirely mental. 'Now then, to more pressing issues…'

Said gigantic dragon-shaped 'pressing issue' was currently approaching Phenix castle-mansion like a meteor and with enough mass and energy to probably cause an extinction event if it actually managed to hit the ground.

"[Scale mail]- [Boost]... [Widen magic: Anti-Dragon Barrier]." Momonga had little expectations for the barrier that he cast after using [Boosted Gear]'s 'armor-form' and extended the barrier spell to encompass the whole estate and its surrounding areas.

Several flashes of light accompanied the six maids, or rather, Cherubim Gatekeepers assumed their true form and flew towards Ophis… But Momonga quickly sent all of them a [Message], instructing them to stay back as it'd be a waste to send them to die unnecessarily, specifically when they had started to develop personality traits.

Ophis's snout touched the anti-dragon barrier and broke through it as if it was a soap bubble, making Momonga nod internally as his guess on the difference of power between him and Ophis had been correct.

It looked as if Ophis's insanity only grew as the gigantic dragon broke through the barrier and beelined towards Momonga, opening its maw wide enough to swallow the entire mansion and the mountain it was built on in one massive bite.

'...Right. Straight-up fight is a no-go… In that case-' Momonga moved to the next step as he had not expected the barrier to hold Ophis, but rather had used it as a way of scouting just how well his abilities could affect the dragon in the first place. "[Boost]- [Boost]- [Boost]- [Widen Magic: Gate]."

A gigantic, miles-wide swirling portal of darkness appeared in front of Ophis's massive form, and the dragon, unable to change its course quickly enough, flew right into it.

Momonga closed the oversized [Gate] immediately afterwards.

'Right, that should give me some time-' Momonga nodded to himself and turned towards the group of people who remained at the breakfast table. "Umu, I'll be away for a while. Feel free to do whatever in the meantime. Venelana-san, let's continue our talk when I get back."

Venelana, whose eye-whites were bloody red and she was bleeding pus from her eyes, mouth and ears, nodded while keeping her gaze locked at the sky. Rias was letting out muted protesting sounds as Venelana was hugging Rias's face tightly against her chest.

The rest of the group were either unconscious, like Irina and Xenovia who were splayed on the floor, or in unresponsive state like Kuroka who had curled-up into a ball around Koneko while cowering under Momonga's chair. The only exceptions were Rossweisse, who had managed to erect some kind of runic array that was keeping her sane and had placed it in front of the majority of the people in the room, protecting them from the worst effects of the Outer Being's scream from earlier, and Yasaka who was holding to her head with both hands- Shaky, but seemingly otherwise fine.

"We'll be fine, so please…" Rossweisse breathed out while looking quite exhausted after casting her runes to diminish the effects of the otherworldly presence. "I'll… try to keep us… sane so…"

"Umu. Good job. In that case I'll leave that to you." Momonga nodded at the woman and turned to cast a [Gate], intending on having it drop him off near where he had sent Ophis- Namely, the surface of the Moon.

…And gigantic draconic claw stabbed from the [Gate] as soon as it opened and caught Momonga by his chest, crushing ribs and gouging a sizable chunk out of Momonga's health pool with a single attack.

"Ghbuh! Oh- that's-" Momonga's eyes widened as the draconic claw dragged him straight into the [Gate].

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A certain Vampire screamed in a mixture of surprise, terror, annoyance, rage, and horny as the decomposing form Peroroncino suddenly appeared into her bedroom though a door that had been long since blown off it's hinges, bulldozed right into her without even noticing her presence, tripped on her lance, and slammed its avian head against her chest.