Chapter 3766: Blind Arrogance (Part 1) "Because this is my house." Ainz confidently said as the water and air elements amassed at his fingertips. ’Behind you!’ The pain had awoken Night from her slumber, and with her help, Orpal could see 360 degrees around him. "Our house." Brinja was engulfed in a stasis array that kept her bones in place while a healing array mended the deadly wound Orpal had inflicted on her. "The reports about you were right, Narchat. "You do lower your guard when you think you have won." "I don’t think, I have w-" A wave of cold, electrified water crashed against the Dead King, drowning the rest of his words. The cold and water caused him no harm, while the worst the lighting they carried could do was give him another seizure. At least until the water turned into fire, stealing Orpal’s breath, and the lightning turned into a block of solid rock. Heat and stone fused into searing lava that followed the clone’s every movement, trapping him. Ainz was a genius, and thanks to Lith’s Void Magic lessons, he had mastered his first tier four Void Magic Spell, Swirling Cage. ’This doesn’t make sense!’ Orpal kept his thoughts to himself and focused on the enemy. ’How can he use spells, and where are my Upyrs?’ ’I don’t know about the Upyrs, but I can answer your first question.’ Night replied. ’Look around ourselves. We too are surrounded by a stasis field!’ Life Vision confirmed Night’s words and revealed a thick cylinder of energy trapping the Dead King in a thin, invisible, high-density energy wall. ’At some point, you have been enclosed in the stasis field. It’s not enough to stop someone as powerful as us, especially while releasing Frost Soul. Yet the stasis field can keep your bloodline ability from spreading. ’If you dispel Frost Soul, the pressure of the stasis field will increase several-fold, but you’ll be able to use all kinds of magic. If you don’t, you can’t use anything but fusion magic, Life Maelstrom, and physical attacks.’ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞 ’Why doesn’t the stasis field block his spells?’ Orpal struggled to get free from the Swirling Cage. ’Because this is the Distars’ house.’ Night replied. ’The arrays bear their energy signatures and don’t affect their own spells. Frost Soul only works at the moment someone draws upon the world energy for whatever reason. ’It does not affect a spell that has already been conjured. In our case, conjured from the safe side of the stasis field.’ ’In other words, Frost Soul allows me to move, but at the same time seals my abilities.’ Orpal’s clone roared in frustration and shattered the lava bubble by spinning around at subsonic speed. The air pressure alone sent Ainz flying, and the lava sizzling over the furniture. Being comprised of his mana, the spell couldn’t affect the Headmaster, but Brinja was safe only thanks to the stasis field isolating her. "You are a stupid man, Meln Narchat." She said, hoping to buy her husband some time. "Did you really think I would cling to the past instead of doing everything I could to kill you?" One thought, and the old arrays of House Distar faded completely and new ones replaced them. "That I wouldn’t prepare for this moment?" Brinja continued, moving Milla into a small, ventilated safe made of Davross to keep her safe. "I kept the old arrays because I trusted your arrogance to blind you. I risked my life to lure you into this trap. Behold!" The new arrays synergized with the stasis field, increasing the pressure on the Dead King and suppressing his physical strength with a Gravity Field. Two Upyrs rushed through the broken door and attacked Ainz, thinking him helpless. The Headmaster of the Black Griffon used the stasis field to repel their attacks and countered them with the tier five War Mage spell, Burial Ground. It infused the marble floor with darkness magic, adding its unmatched destructive power to the sturdiness of the earth element. Ever-growing pillars burst out of the ground, forming a net that trapped the Upyrs. They reverted to their full size, losing the defense of their equipment in exchange for the momentum to escape from Burial Ground before it became too strong. By doing that, however, they offered a huge target, and with Frost Soul still active, they had no defensive spell available. Ainz conjured the tier four Void Spell, Bleeding Heart. Spears of darkness-infused ice pierced through the thick hide of the Upyrs before turning into fireballs enveloped in healing magic. The ensuing explosion enlarged the spear-sized wounds while the light element accelerated the metabolism of its victims. The heightened heartbeat increased the Upyrs’ blood pressure beyond what the light fusion could repair, bleeding the Upyrs out in a matter of seconds. ’Be careful, these enchantments are not simple defenses.’ Night warned Orpal. ’They are specific counters to all our known abilities. On top of that, only academies are supposed to have enough power to fuel stasis fields. ’Be careful, this is but a fraction of the power hidden inside this mansion.’ ’Thanks.’ Orpal replied, and his honesty shocked the Horseman. ’Any advice about how to finish this?’ ’Just stop playing around.’ Night telepathically shook her head. ’It’s a flaw we share. We love playing with our prey too much and we often compromise efficiency for it.’ ’Fine.’ The Dead King stopped emitting Frost Soul and took a deep breath. Then, he released a blast of deep violet Origin Flames from his entire body. The mystical fire burned at the stasis and gravity fields, weakening their holds on him. Freed from the limits of the Vurdalak’s bloodline ability, Thorn roared into life. The Davross amplified every spark of mana Orpal imbued into it, and Baba Yaga’s enchantments turned the mana into a Wailing Wind. The souls of Night’s victims seemed to form from the darkness energy wrapping around the blade, weeping for their fate. Life Maelstrom amplified everything tenfold, and Orpal further boosted the Wailing Winds by activating the air elemental abilities of the Davross. Brinja and Ainz fought together, controlling the arrays of their house with mastery and indomitable will. Yet it wasn’t enough against the might of a Divine Beast, especially one who conjured Doom Tide the moment the stasis field around him crumbled for good. Dusk’s crystal absorbed the world energy around the mansion for hundreds of meters, compressed it to the extreme, and released it in a single, devastating blast. Without world energy, the arrays of the Distar Household lost their power. The explosion ripped the mansion open, destroying half of the Distar Household in its wake before it finally stopped. *** The sky above the Trawn Woods, at the same time. Lith flew at Dragonspeed, crossing the distance separating him from the Lark Household almost as fast as a series of Warp Steps would, thanks to the Life Maelstrom Valeron the Second had entrusted him with. He carried Friya, Morok, Nalrond, Tista, Protector, Bodya, and Solus on his back. She would have liked to save her strength and stay in her ring, but the Nidhogg didn’t know about the tower, and she wanted to keep things that way. Yet against an unknown number of Upyrs and their bloodline abilities, Lith couldn’t afford to leave someone as powerful as Bodya behind.