Ainz clenched his fist.

 The particles of sand leaking from the shattered hourglass moved against the wind and flowed into the magic circle surrounding Ainz.

 And then — the super-tier spell activated instantly.

 “[Tribute to the Black Bounty (Ia Shub-Niggurath)]!”

 A black wind blew, racing past the Kingdom’s army, which had just finished changing its formation.

 No, there was no physical wind blowing. Neither the scattered weeds growing on the plains or the hairs on the heads of the Kingdom’s soldiers had been touched.

 There were 70,000 men in the left wing of the Kingdom’s army.

 Every single one of them was slain in an instant.

 Part 2

 What on earth happened?

 Nobody could answer immediately.

 Every living creature that comprised the left wing of the Kingdom’s army —not just humans, but their horses too— had suddenly collapsed to the ground like puppets whose strings had been cut.

 The ones who realized the answer first were the Imperial troops, ranged against them.

 It took a while for the human mind to properly parse the events that had just transpired before their eyes. So after a short delay, shouts of panic rose into the air, becoming a great wave that engulfed the entire Imperial Army.

 Certainly, they knew Ainz Ooal Gown was going to cast a spell after he had deployed his magic circle.

 However ─ who could have possibly anticipated this?

 Who could have guessed that he would cast such a horrific spell?

 Who could have imagined that he had cast a spell which could slaughter 70,000 people — a number greater than the entire Imperial army— in an instant?

 The Imperial knights doubted their eyes, even as they prayed to whatever gods they believed in.

 They prayed that the people of the Kingdom were not dead.

 They prayed that such terrible magic did not exist in this world.

 Of course, as they took in the truth before their eyes —that not a single person had stood back up from where they fell— they were fully aware that it was nothing but wishful thinking.

 Even so, there was no way they could accept it. There was no way they could accept this as reality.

 The man hailed as one of the strongest in the Empire, one of the Four Knights, Nimble, could only grind his teeth in naked terror and stare dumbly at the suddenly depopulated left wing of the Kingdom’s army.

 Nobody stood back up. That was a reality which was far, far too horrible to accept.

 No, the awful truth could not be described with just these simple words.

 Ainz Ooal Gown —this magic caster, all by himself— was a monster who could take the nations forged by men and obliterate them in the way that a child would kick down a sandcastle.

 That was a reality which was beyond the ability of any words to describe.

 The panic enveloping the Imperial Army gradually vanished like draining water. In the end, everyone simply fell silent, unable to speak.

 Yet, a strange noise rose up among the silence of the Imperial army’s formation. The noise was born of many sounds blending together into a great clamor. It was the sound of every single knight gnashing their teeth.

 This was the terror born of realizing that the Empire, where they and their families lived, now stood on the edge of extinction, just like the Kingdom.

 This was an understanding that if they dared to raise their hands against Ainz Ooal Gown, that same awful magic might end up being turned on themselves─

 Under these circumstances, Nimble suddenly thought of something. What kind of expression did a magic caster like this —who could work a sorcery that could slaughter the living in quantities that beggared mortal comprehension— what kind of expression did he have?

 Without moving his face, he spied on the monster standing beside him, Ainz Ooal Gown, but all he saw was indifference.