Climb raised the bell. He could only pray that victory went to Gazef.
And then —louder than expected— the bell rang.
His consciousness focused to the absolute limit, Gazef stepped in with an unbelievable speed—
Without missing a single moment, Brain and Climb opened their eyes and watched—
—and faster than any of them, the world went quiet.
"Like I was saying… time-stop countermeasures are important."
Because Ainz had instantly cast a 'Silent Time Stop', Gazef, his sword raised high, was frozen in front of Ainz.
No attacks would work while time was stopped. Even if he used attack magic to barrage Gazef, it would cause him no harm. Because of that, Ainz cast a spell while keeping track of the time.
"ÒÇîDelay Magic: True DeathÒÇì."
This was a ninth-tier spell.
Because 'Grasp Heart' was a more convenient spell, he did not use this one often.
If no spell could affect an enemy while time-stopped, then all one needed to do was delay the activation of the spell until the moment the 'Time Stop' ended. Although it was a simple combination attack in theory, the trick was getting the timing right, which was extremely difficult. As such, only about 5% of all magic-users could pull it off.
After much training and practice, Ainz was in that 5% as well.
"...Farewell, Gazef Stronoff. I never hated you."
The spell ended, and time returned to the world.
Right after that, the other spell activated before anything else.
—Gazef slowly fell.
"Eh?"
"Wha-what?"
Climb and Brain had no idea of what had just happened.
In the moment Gazef had charged out, he had suddenly fallen over.
Ainz stepped forward to catch Gazef's body.
His sword fell from nerveless fingers, and fell to the ground.
The battle was over.
