Overlord has no shortage of Nightmarish moments, especially the gruesome stuff that the Novel expands upon, though much of it is not included in the Anime (yet they can be inferred).
As such, you'll always get a kick out of reading the horrible fates of those who go against the Supreme One, Ainz Ooal Gown. Or even those unfortunate souls who cross his loyal followers, whom are tormented endlessly without anyone caring...
Warning: Spoilers Off applies to this page. Proceed at your own risk.
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General
- Four words: Do Not Taunt Cthulhu. Unless you want to end up like Clementine in the page image, just don't. Many a fugitive, foolish noble, and the occasional Slane Theocracy elite troop would underestimate Ainz (or his cohorts) and mistake them for guilible civilians or fools given they are nigh-on invincible in their native power bracket, but they'll be quickly learning Ainz and/or the NPCs of Nazarick are not the foolish weaklings they believe are, but Eldritch Abominations who can wipe the floor instantly with them, cannot be brought or reasoned with, and will not hold back doing things the ordinary people they love to trample upon so much cannot imagine.
- The sheer idea of having your human emotions forcibly suppressed is somewhat chilling, and it's exactly what happens to Momonga. Imagine being in a body that is slowly draining every shred of your empathy and humanity and you can do absolutely nothing to prevent it. Momonga at first is deeply shocked by this, but most likely either grew used to it or simply lost that much empathy already, and as the story progresses, Momonga is slowly becoming a monster without even knowing it.
- The world of 2138, Satoru's original world, is an extremely awful corporate dystopia Crapsack World. The air is so polluted that people need air masks to breathe, the rainwater is outright toxic, and fresh air is only a privilege of the rich. The corporations ruling over the world monopolize so much that free education is abolished and you'll have to pay for elementary school (which is only enough to make you a white collar worker) and the most omnipresent commodities in Real Life such as fresh foods and leisure facilities are now more privileges, while the commonfolk can only eat vitamin pills or flavored gel and submerge themselves in VR games like YGGDRASIL. As one of Satoru's former crewmates found out the hard way, if you know too much, the corporations can also vanish and kill you. According to Satoru, he even ran into bodies of dead children on the streets on the way to work or home, which could also had been played a part with his Lack of Empathy towards the deaths of other human beings. Oh and it's implied that the corporations actively polluted the environment and monopolized everything for the sake of total control.
- While none of their creators expected their creations to go around and act according to their backstories, just what kind of twisted mind comes up with the vicious monsters of Nazarick? In the case of Demiurge, Ulbert has already been established as a Misanthrope Supreme, which is at least understandable, but there are others like Solution Epsilon which is a horrific, sadistic man-eating monster created by Herohero, who is just an overworked Nice Guy if his final words with Momonga indicate anything.
- It's very easy to forget that the rank-and-file Death Knights and Soul Eaters Ainz routinely summons are small-potatoes back in YGGDRASIL and not the invincible city-and-civilization destroying death threats they are in the New World. Death Knights and Soul Eaters are approximately level 35 and level 40 respectively and wouldn't pose much of a threat against stronger enemies or players back in the game itself, and the Death Knight is only a slight annoyance to them just because it will always take 2 hits to kill no matter what. In the New World however, since a level 30 monster is considered legendary and the average adventurer likely has way less (made worse by how Ainz also buffs them so they're way stronger than their level), suddenly there are entire swarms of civilization-destroying Undead Abominations killing everything they come across.
- Just the concept of the plot of Overlord from the other side of things is Nightmare Fuel. Everything is normal in your fantasy world - sure monsters exist, but, the most legendary creature around is a giant hamster that is about RPG level 30. While Dragon Lords and God-kin can easily go way above that level, they aren't actively going around killing people for fun. Then, one day this huge tomb appears out of nowhere, and it is occupied by a host of creatures who, to the last one, qualifies as a Humanoid Abomination in terms of sheer power, and they are led by an Elder Lich, who not only holds absolute control over the rest, but is regarded in terms of power to be almost a Physical God. Not only that, but said Lich averts the Squishy Wizard routine, not because he isn't squishy, but nobody in your world is physically strong enough to do more than Scratch Damage against him, because in RPG terms a legendary creature/warrior is level 30-40 in your world (and you're likely less), but the Elder Lich (and all of his elite subordinates) are all level 100. Oh, and said Lich boasts a wide repertoire of magic that nobody in your world has any business casting, and you can easily assume the same for his other minions.
- Even worse? Said Lich is far from being the strongest player in his home world, just some of the most versatile ones. In fact, Momonga even admits that while his build is still strong, it's not good at player-versus-player and is more of a role-playing build. Imagine what happens if someone more combat-oriented like Touch Me or Ulbert went in to wreck some havoc — the entire New World would be flattened within several seconds.
- Ainz isn't even the first YGGDRASIL player who ended up in the New World. Every once in a blue moon, for whatever reason, YGGDRASIL players are deported from the game into the New World and they were so powerful that they're essentially revered as Gods by the New World. The Six Gods are YGGDRASIL players, the Eight Greed Kings are more YGGDRASIL players, and it's implied that the "evil deities" the Thirteen Heroes fought are leftover NPCs from the Six Gods' deaths. The only reason the Six Gods were taken down is because a large portion of their guild is still human or mortal and can die and the remaining undead player is still no match for eight players, and the Eight Greed Kings only came to a pass because they went infighting and became weaker and weaker, at which none of these are a problem for Ainz/Momonga because he is the only sapient and sentient person deported in and his player avatar is an undead. Last but not least, given the comments from New Worlders about Nazarick being unprecedented, these players are likely not even close to Momonga's level.
- The New World itself is a terrifying example of what a fantasy world would really look like. It's dangerous. Humanity can only thrive on one small part of the known continent due to dangerous predator races who very much see humans as food sources. And to add to the problem, the few human nations undermine one another even at the best of times. Learning magic is not as simple as just picking up a spellbook and hoping to become a legendary mage in a few years, since the average person is limited to Tier 3 spellwork. Magical research has barely hit its Renaissance Age, meaning that magic is not a convenience the everyday person can use to better their lives. And humanity's lot was even worse before the Six Gods introduced Tier Magic and displaced Wild Magic, which is the only reason humans stand any chance against the predators who want to eat them. And these "Gods" were all YGGDRASIL players who got spirited into the New World like Ainz, which only goes to show how horribly helpless the New World is when perfectly ordinary people who get stuck in their video game characters on the other side of the world are considered eldritch abominations of the worst caliber. And that's even before Ainz and his equally overpowered NPCs show up to makes things infinitely worse.
Recurring characters
- Shalltear's true form. Vampires are associated with bats, right? Not in Shalltear's case. Try a lamprey from the darkest depths of hell. The first scene in which she uses this ability would not look out of place in a horror movie.Shalltear: MAIN DISH!
- Demiurge serves as a deconstruction of the Card-Carrying Villain, showing just how terrifying someone like that would be in real life. The most heinous things he does are stuff he does offscreen and heard only in passing or by proxy such as forcing his human "livestock" to choose between killing and eating each other's children (that he doesn't force them to eat their own children is considered "mercy" by his subordinate) or starvation, or the infamous "holy bludgeon" incident (read:his summon using the Holy Queen's body as a bludgeoning weapon against her own troops) during the Holy Kingdom false flag war. It's a good thing that Ainz is just not bright enough to figure out how insanely horrible he is while Demiurge assumed he did, and even if he would find out, his Lich body would likely prevent him from even showing disgust on that.
- Mare and Aura might not even look that bad unlike the other Nazarick NPCs that look and act like they are bad news and in fact look like adorable elf children, but under that facade is a ruthless apathy that makes them just as horrific as the other Nazarick NPCs. They're prone to acting like innocent children before they kill or commit atrocities without even so batting an eye. Just look at Mare's treatment of Hilda and massacre against the Baharuth Empire's elite guard, as well as Aura's off-handed slaughter at the Re-Estize Kingdom Magician's Guild building. They might not enjoy killing hundreds to thousands, but their childish, innocent demeanor when they are going through it makes them look even worse than if they are just sadists.
- The Pleiades might just seem like the resident fanservice girls and Quirky Miniboss Squad at first glance, but they are really no less unsettling compared to their Floor Guardian counterparts.
- Entoma looks like a beautiful maid at first glance, just like the others. She's really a bunch of insects mimicking a human girl—her face is a bug, her larynx is another bug (which produces a voice using stolen vocal chords), and the main body is also a giant insect that summons other insects in battle. Her lovely guise and her status as the Pleiades Token Mini-Moe belies her true nature as a monster that relishes human flesh.
- Solution Epsilon, a shapeshifting Blob Monster. She deliberately plays the part of a Shameless Fanservice Girl to lure her foes closer before absorbing them whole. Just ask Zach, eaten by breasts.
- Kyouhukou, the master of the Black Capsule is a massive cockroach in regal garb commanding a pit of cockroaches that are around the size of a thumb to a foot tall, and his purpose is to torture Nazarick prisoners for food and psychologically attack whoever comes across him. To make things worse, put aside the torture that the Eight Fingers experienced from him, according to Word of God there are real YGGDRASIL players that invaded Nazarick who were so disgusted about his lair that they logged out when they found out what they're dealing with, and there are entire imageboard posts complaining about how ridiculous it is. His affable, soothing speaking tone in the anime doesn't help matters.
- Neuronist Painkill is one of the most unsettling characters to be seen in the Light Novel. A bloated, downright ugly Cthulhumanoid in charge of torturing Nazarick prisoners, she enjoys torturing people as long as she could, sometimes even healing them so they won't die and prolong their suffering. If Ainz or someone else in Nazarick decides to send you to her, just hope that you'll be the one who dies first, because the ones who remained alive have it way worse. There are even times where she acts coy and intimate in front of a worker by rubbing herself all over him and claims that she is more beautiful than Albedo and Shalltear (although the latter is only in the side stories/spin-offs and is Played for Laughs), but her bloated, hideous stature makes this incredibly disturbing. In the anime, she also has the voice of a man to make her more disturbing that she already is.
- Renner is a morbid deconstruction of the Politically-Active Princess and the most horrifying person in the New World seen so far, discounting (actual) heteromorphs and Nazarick NPCs. The nobles in Re-Estize might as well as be stupid, corrupt, both or just beleaguered, but none of them are flat-out evil with a capital F like Renner. Just like Demiurge, the worst things she does are the ones she does off-page such as murdering the hostages Climb saved in cold blood just to keep him for herself and poisoning an entire orphanage of children and nuns to activate her race change item granted by Albedo. Early on, she also has a tendency to make some Nightmare Face mixed with a Slasher Smile in front of people she either knows won't tell anyone else about her or when alone. In the manga, whenever she does this, her dialogue is also written in a different font, as if a devil is speaking instead of a person. It's so bad that Albedo and Demiurge, who are both stated (and the latter shown) to be some of the vilest characters in the novel, calls her a "Spiritual Heteromorph" (read: she's so evil that she's essentially devil spawn).
- The fake Jaldabaoth that shows up in the Holy Kingdom arc is no Demiurge, but he's still nightmare fuel and especially in the Holy Kingdom's viewpoint. He brutally disfigures and kills Calca by using her as a "holy weapon" against her own soldiers, seemingly defeats and kills their only hope of salvation, the Sorcerer King, and can kill hundreds of soldiers just by walking around. All the Paladins, Priests, Angel summons and Remedios herself are holy warriors designed to kill demons like him and they literally can't do anything here. Even worse? That's a level 84 Evil Lord Wrath summon who's considered a "mid-level" for Nazarick standards that Ainz can defeat very easily if he's not holding back and faking defeat to further his plans against the Holy Kingdom. It's not even his fault that the Holy Kingdom army fell off like a stack of cards, the Holy Kingdom's army, whose strongest personnel is at the most an estimated level 30, is simply way too small potatoes to even budge him.
Volume 1
- The prologue shows the attack on Carne Village from Enri's point of view: soldiers armed to the teeth begin attacking everyone, her parents tell her to run with her sister while staying behind to buy her enough time to escape (which gets them killed, mind you), and she doesn't make it far into the forest before two soldiers catch up with them, one of which slashes her across the back as she shields Nemu. Then, just as it seems the situation can't possibly get worse, an imposing lich teleports to the place and effortlessly kills both soldiers, before shifting its attention to her.
- When Ainz offers Enri a health potion in order to heal her injury, Nemu tells her not to accept it, rightfully suspicious all things considered. Albedo decides to kill the poor girl for the perceived insolence in rejecting Ainz's kindness, but Ainz quickly calms her down before she can carry it out.
- The Death Knight that Ainz sends ahead of himself to fight the soldiers attacking Carne Village goes out of its way to prioritize the soldiers who attempt to flee. The soldiers even note how it seems to be enjoying itself, given the cruel and agonizing manner in which it kills its targets.
- When the Death Knight focuses on the commanding officer, he tries to order his men to defend him, even offering a reward in gold. It does very little to help him as the Death Knight skewers him even after he has collapsed to the ground, leaving the man screaming in pain and begging for help. The remaining soldiers are left too horrified to continue fighting.
- When Captain Nigun of the Sunlight Scripture prepares to kill Gazef Stronoff, he suddenly finds that Ainz has switched places with the Head Warrior. It all goes downhill from there as his ego is thoroughly obliterated:
- Before the fight begins, Ainz calls out Nigun for having the audacity of declaring to Gazef that he would massacre the villagers that Ainz had gone to the trouble of saving earlier. He then lays his demands:Ainz: Offer your life to me without resistance. If you do so, there will be no pain. However, if you refuse, you will die painfully and in despair for your own foolishness.
- First, Nigun mindlessly orders two Archangel Flames to attack Ainz (who is wearing a mask to conceal his identity, by the way) after he demands that Nigun and his men surrender without resistance, thinking that the magic caster standing before him is bluffing. While at first it looks like they have impaled Ainz, he reveals that he has a passive skill that nullifies low-level physical attacks before grabbing the angels by their heads and smashing them against the ground, killing them instantly.
- When Ainz prepares to retaliate, Nigun has his men send all the angels to attack at the same time. Ainz responds by using Negative Burst to disintegrate all the angels at once. Nigun then remembers Gazef warning him that there was someone in the village even stronger than him and realizes to his horror that the being in question is standing right before him and decimating his forces without a shred of effort.
- Nigun's men panic and assail Ainz with a barrage of spells. Ainz simply stands there and doesn't even get scratched. In desperation, one of the men tries to attack Ainz by using a slingshot, only for Albedo to step in and deflect the shot with enough force to blow the man's head clean off.
- Ainz points out that such an attack could not possibly hurt him, but Albedo retorts that she defended him because the attack was too weak to be worthy of being used against him. Ainz concedes that she's right and replies that, by her logic, the Sunlight Scripture had already failed to meet such a standard.
- Nigun's confidence is only shaken further when he sends Principality Observation to attack Ainz, who proceeds to effortlessly block its attack with nothing but his hand before using his other hand to incinerate the angel with Hell Flame.
- Backed against a corner and with nothing left to lose, Nigun decides to use his trump card. Ainz decides to take caution for once and asks Albedo to defend him. When Nigun summons Dominion Authority, a 7th tier Summon, a seemingly shocked Ainz expresses disbelief... at himself. For "putting up his guard against such child's play." note
- Nigun loses his composure at this and refuses to believe that Ainz's comment is anything other than a bluff. He orders Dominion Authority to destroy Ainz using Holy Smite, stating that no mortal could hope to survive an attack of divine caliber. The ensuing blast consumes Ainz and actually inflicts damage on him, but Ainz only laughs in response at finally being able to feel pain, leaving Nigun to drop his jaw in horror at the impossible sight that lies before him.
- Albedo's reaction is... different: she flares her mana and begins ranting and screaming at her beloved Ainz being made to feel pain. It's such an extreme reaction that it terrifies Nigun further.
- After Ainz calms her down, he decides to finish things by casting Black Hole. In a matter of seconds, it consumes Dominion Authority, leaving no trace of it behind.
- His spirit utterly shattered at this point, Nigun begs for mercy, addressing Ainz with the -sama suffix and offering Ainz any reward he wishes in exchange for his life (and his life alone) being spared. Albedo silences him and Ainz removes his mask, revealing himself to be a lich, before using the same threat Nigun used against Gazef earlier:Ainz: If I remember correctly... "Stop this futile resistance and fall quietly. As an act of mercy, I will make sure your death is painless."
- The last we see of Nigun in the anime is his horrified face as the realization of his looming fate slowly sinks in, leaving him too stunned to say anything.
- Albedo later reveals that Nigun and his entire company were sent to Neuronist. We later learn that Nigun was lucky enough to be the first to die. After being experimented on under Demiurge's supervision.
- Before the fight begins, Ainz calls out Nigun for having the audacity of declaring to Gazef that he would massacre the villagers that Ainz had gone to the trouble of saving earlier. He then lays his demands:
Volume 2
- Clementine's death at the hands of Momon (Ainz), as shown in the page image. Despite boasting more than enough power to kill any other human adventurer with relative ease, Clementine finally meets a man who not only proves to be completely immune to her attacks, but also refuses to take her seriously in the fight despite having absolutely no swordsman skills. Naturally, this pisses her off enough that she breaks out some impressive moves and tries to go for an instant kill, only to fall for Momon's trap and end up getting squeezed by him. He then reveals to her that he's not even human in the first place, at which point she attempts to escape his grasp but is helpless to do so since he's.... well, a monster. The next few pages describe her slow and agonizing torture as her spine gets crushed and the access to her lungs become clogged, making it harder to breathe. She then suffers a massive freak out and does anything to try and escape since she realizes she's about to die (clawing at his face with her nails and biting Ainz's head with her teeth!). Finally, Ainz grasps her with both of her hands and Clementine sports the face posted above before Ainz finishes the job and her spine pops out of her mouth. God damn... Ainz is ruthless. The Manga adaptation adds to the ruthlessness of Ainz's lethality in this scene, by delivering said Killer Bear Hug One-handed.
- Before her fight against Momon, Clementine shows him the number of adventurer badges on her armor that she kept as Creepy Souvenirs, each of them representing an adventurer she killed. In the original novel, we don't see the exact count. In the anime, we do see the badges, and their number realms up to dozens at a bare minimum and up to the hundreds.
- Clementine herself is pretty terrifying for a New Worlder's perspective. A giant hamster equal to level 30 in the New World is considered a "Legendary Creature" and anything at around 40 to 50 is considered an abomination. This woman, on the other hand, is around level 40, and is a monstrous Cute and Psycho bandit who enjoys mass murder and Cold-Blooded Torture and is now seeking to kill everyone in an entire city so her associate can transform into an immortal lich. The New World effectively has a virtually unstoppable rogue criminal in their hands who not only relishes in wanton cruelty, but could easily evaporate anyone trying to stop her...until Ainz shows up and kills her instantly because he's a very powerful level 100 player. Had Nazarick and Ainz not shown up in time, there's a very high odd that E-Rantel would be evaporated and turned into a zombie city.
- The Slasher Smile Clementine uses as her default expression is rather unsettling in the manga and the anime.
- Ninya's Cruel and Unusual Death at the hands of Clementine left her body in a grisly state. She suffered a particularly gruesome case of Eye Scream as well, with one of her crushed eyes leaking out like a tear. Ainz's decision to give Clementine the Cruel and Unusual Death described above was in response to what Clementine did to Ninya.
Volume 3
- Demiurge's solution to providing Nazarick with parchment is to flay humans alive and heal them (normally severed body parts disappear when healing magic is used, but apparently this only applies to major wounds).
Volume 5
- Tsuare shows just how awful the whole Disposable Sex Worker trope really is. When Sebas first encountered her, she was being thrown out like garbage in a sack and on the brink of death. The chapter illustration and the description of her pitiable condition don't pull any punches either. The injuries inflicted on her were so awful that she was barely recognizable as a human, made worse by how this was done by ordinary humans.Solution Epsilon: "...She is suffering from syphilis and two other sexually-transmitted diseases. Several of her ribs and fingers are broken. The tendons on her right arm and left leg have been severed. Her upper and lower incisors have been pulled out. Her organ function is diminished and she has a fissured anus. There are signs of drug addiction. In addition, there are countless traces of contusions and lacerations. This concludes the basic summary of her condition. Do you (Sebas) require a more detailed explanation?"
- The corrupt patrol officer who worked for the Eight Fingers and tried to extort Sebas for rescuing Tuare is an incredibly nightmarish Hate Sink that would otherwise be easily qualifying as Complete Monster in any setting other than Overlord. He has a serious gore fetish of him beating pretty woman to a bloody pulp, to the point that he beat a few to death and only didn't go worse on his current slave because he had to pay a sum for it, with multiple pages of him beating her to a bloody pulp in gross detail. If this is what Re-Estize has as its law enforcement, the whole Kingdom is pretty much doomed from the inside out. Unfortunately for him, the "person" he tried to ruin this time is Sebas, who is no rich butler but an incredibly powerful Eldritch Abomination that can't be brought, silenced or coerced. He quickly learns with his life when Sebas responds to his extortion threats by cleaving a massive bloodbath in his brothel before brutally murdering him too.
- Princess Renner's and Climb's backstories count as well. Born a girl, as the third child of the Re-Estize Kingdom, everyone expected that she'd be a Brainless Beauty and act like it. As an innocent child, she had no way of knowing this, so when she showed exceptionally sharp intellect, every last person in the castle and among the nobility, without exception, treated her like an absolute monster, with overwhelming fear and contempt, until she became one. Climb, on the other hand, a commoner orphan, living in the slums had a childhood so horrific, he didn't know what "horrific" means, as he had no basis for comparison. Not a night went by that he didn't go to bed hungry. He had no stable means of income, or support. When he built a proper house with his own two hands, to provide shelter from the elements (an incredible feat at the age of 5), a group of adults came along and completely smashed it, for fun! The only reason Climb's alive today? Princess Renner found him, in the same slums, hiding under a makeshift roof of rags to try and keep himself dry, and took him in because he's the first person, ever, who looked upon her and her intellect with genuine admiration as opposed to the fear and contempt she was used to. Even as an adult, both of them are still treated with abuse by those near to them. Renner is either feared as an abject monster, or regarded as a total fool, and Climb is constantly bullied by the "noble" knights of the kingdom, and the commoners don't have any respect for him either, despite being the bodyguard of the "beloved" Princess Renner.
- A rather disturbing scene after the raid against the Eight Fingers brothel has Renner figuring out which face should she make in front of a maid who hated Climb that was about to report about his first victory against the Eight Fingers. Then she talked to herself about how she will kill anyone who dares make fun of Climb when she was talking to the maid.
Volume 6
- Renner's remarks to Zanac and Raeven about her desire to chain Climb up and treat him like a personal pet that she refers to as a "puppy".
- Just imagine yourself among the city guard, defending your city from an invasion, at the direct orders of your king and princess. The invaders are demons and their hell beasts of all shapes and sizes. As if the fact that they can tear through your mightiest barriers like paper, and your resistance is, at best, merely an annoyance, wasn't enough to bring despair, imagine a giant toad ...thing ... that chases after anyone who runs in terror, swallows him whole, and then has his terrified face appear on his skin! What's worse, if this particular demon feels threatened, it unleashes some kind of hellish wail.
- Renner's threats in the previous chapter came to fruition when it's implied that she killed all the hostages Climb saved from the Eight Fingers brothel offscreen for no reason other than to keep Climb to herself like a slave mutt and was only lying to him that they were killed in the Demonic Disturbance. It's a grim reminder that the golden princess might as well as be the vilest person in Re-Estize. The Nobles in Re-Estize might be corrupt and stupid, but they aren't this evil.
- The fate of the Eight Fingers' leadership. They are bad people for sure, but the absolute nonchalance with which Mare and Aura condemn them to a fate worse than death (which likely also involves throwing them into Kyouhukou's lair, plus liberal application of healing and resurrection magic) is really unsettling.
Volume 7
- The entire Volume itself is basically one big nightmare for the unlucky workers that signed up to explore Nazarick. As you can probably imagine, it doesn't end well for any of them.
- To go into more elaborate details (which this series loves doing), four worker groups were hired by a noble to investigate a large tomb and salvage any treasures. The fate of these four groups are as followed:
- The group called Green Leaf (who was planning on letting the other groups take the risk of getting slaughtered and if they came back with riches, probably rob them blind. However, they were attacked by the combat maids and were easily killed by a bunch of mooks (by Nazarick's standards).
- Heavy Masher gets cornered and exhausted after fending off wave after wave of undead skeletons and finally calls it quits, when they go up against a bunch of elder liches. Unfortunately for them, they were already caught in a trap and ended up being transported to Kyouhukou's lair, where he released a tsunami of his cockroaches towards them. Just reading about how the cockroaches ended up entering the workers mouths and ears all while being eaten alive will send shivers down anyone's spine. Then, one of the workers wakes up and is chained up in a torture room and has a massive Oh crap moment when he meets Neuronist Painkill, who proceeds to put him through the worst pain he'll ever experience and plans on having fun with them for as long as she can.
- Tenmu, led by an arrogant swordsman and his elf slaves end up meeting a group of Lizardmen and Hamsuke (A giant cute hamster) and ends up getting challenged to a duel by said hamster. He then proceeds to get stomped on by this badass hamster and is basically half dead. Guess what happens when his elf slaves see him in this condition? Kick the crap out of his corpse with everything they have and spit on it for good measure. Not a single tear was shed for this man by his elves and from the way it was implied that he had abused them severely, the bastard had it coming.
- And finally, the final worker group Foresight have it the worst as they are transported to a giant forest with a Colosseum and meet the master of the tomb, Ainz himself. As Hekkeran (the leader) realizes that it would be best not to go up against him, he tries to bluff his way out of the situation that almost seems to work until he (understandably) screws up and Ainz sees through the bluff and ends up royally pissed. After a little skirmish and Foresight believes they might have a chance at winning, Ainz takes off a ring that conceals his true power which causes one of the girls, Arche (who can measure magic power levels) to vomit all over herself in sheer terror over how ridiculously powerful Ainz truly is. It all goes down hill from there as Foresight tries to buy time for Arche to escape but fail completely as they're all knocked out one by one, with Hekkaran and Imina condemned to being "nests" for one of Nazarick's servants and Arche ends up cornered by Shalltear who reveals her true form and scares the poor girl so much that she passes out. She then proceeds to get killed while unconscious. That was the merciful fate requested by her comrades.
- In the anime, Arche gets a fright upon seeing Shalltear.
◊ - The reason Arche was so horrified when she felt Ainz' power? She saw a gigantic pillar of blue flames engulfing his skeletal body like a Super Saiyan Blue.
- And the reason Ainz got so angry and slaughtered the group? Hekkeran dared to say he came in the name of a Supreme Being. And when he said they told him to give Ainz their regards, instead of Momonga or Satoru, Ainz was so enraged even his body's emotion suppression couldn't keep up, he opens his mouth and he starts screaming in fury as his power flares up, wreathing him in black and purple energy. Needless to say, he killed Hekkeran first.
- In the anime, Arche gets a fright upon seeing Shalltear.
Ainz: You... You pieces of shit! The place where I— That my friends and I together—! The Nazarick that we created! You trample in our home with your dirty shoes! On top of that! My friends! You try and lie in the name of my most valuable comrades! YOU PIECES OF SHIT!! AAAARRGH! AAAAAAAAHHHH!! - If this volume has taught us anything, it's that unless you're someone Ainz respects enough to watch out for (like Gazef), personally invited by Ainz (like Nfirea and Enri), strong enough to fight the monsters inside or able to escape from the tomb before getting trapped and cornered, invading Nazarick is the same as signing your own death warrant.
- Also crossed with Tear Jerker — after Arche gets killed by Shalltear, her younger sisters are still eagerly waiting for her to return home while it's clear to the reader that this is not going to happen. What makes this truly nightmarish is a Word of God statement that the two sisters, obviously children, are sold by their parents to slavery before they died from overwork. It's so disproportionately nightmarish and distasteful compared to the actual on-page atrocities that there are fans who actually invoke a Death of the Author on Maruyama's explanation, and is one of the few Nazarick atrocities that absolutely no fan is going to laugh or get impressed at (despite being an indirect one). Thankfully, the Web Novel gives them a much more merciful fate, courtesy of reader polling.
Volume 8
- An off-screen example, but harrowing nonetheless: Demiurge not only conducts experiments to see if humans and demi-humans can interbreed (with everything that implies), he also solved the food-shortage at the barns by having the livestock "exchange" their young, then cook them and eat them while the original parents watched. Considering that his "livestock" consists of kidnapped humans...
Volume 9
- Ainz serves as this for the Emperor of Baharuth, for good reason. Through cunning, guile, money, more than a little charm, and rarely, the strategic use of force, Jircniv has always got what he wanted once he became emperor. Starting with Aura and Mare coming to his castle fielding a complaint from Ainz due to the events in Volume 7, this has been completely turned on its head. Aura and Mare alone were enough to completely eliminate his elite guard and the strongest warrior of the empire without even trying, but when Jircniv meets Ainz personally, everything he's used to gain power, and keep it, proves completely worthless. Ainz can't be bought—the most common and mundane objects in Nazarick easily eclipse the Empire's entire treasury. Ainz can't be blackmailed or lured into a Honey Trap—not only is every woman in Nazarick (bar Neuronist of course) a video game character who is far more beautiful than anyone the Empire has to offer, even including Elven slaves, but as a lich Overlord, Ainz cannot be seduced. Lastly, Ainz can create a near-infinite supply of Death Knights, one of which can easily destroy a country all by itself, and which even the mightiest mages in the empire cannot subjugate or control. The entirety of the first chapter is the emperor Jircniv desperately racking his brains trying to determine Ainz's end goal, with each scenario being more terrifying than the last. The scariest part about the whole thing? Ainz had no end goal, he was completely "winging it" during the entire negotiations.
- Sure, he deserved it, but Lupusreigna abruptly showing up in front of Barbro and his battered army to kill him is unnerving. What makes this really horrifying is that she approaches him in a pretty nonchalant and peppy manner, but she makes it clear she can't be bargained or reasoned with and she's here to kill. Shortly after, she summons an army of 30 level 43 Redcap Goblins to slaughter Barbro's army while she tortures him for half an hour until he dies. What doesn't help is the deranged Slasher Smile she makes when she announces Barbro will die right there and there is no way he can barter himself out of it. It's fortunately only described in the Novel, but we do see it in the anime◊ and the manga◊ and it's not a pretty sight. Her voice also changes to a deeper one in the anime whenever she's feeling sadistic on Barbro.
- Ainz shows up at the battlefield accompanied only by a little "girl" (that the Baharuth Empire recognizes was the one who slaughtered their entire elite force prior). The Imperials wonder what's going on, then Ainz reassures them that he did bring an army. He opens a portal, and the Imperials get to see Ainz' reinforcements: half a thousand Death Knights, a single one of which is a match for an army. And it's even worse in the novel, where they're mounted on Soul Eaters (three of which managed to kill over 100,000 beastmen).
- Ainz casting the Super-Tier magic "Ia Shub Niggurath" against the Royal Army. The resulting massacre horrifies everyone present including Ainz's "allies" from the Empire: first when the initial spell kills 70,000 people on the opposite side, then when it turns out is was just fuel for the summoning of 5 Kaiju-sized Dark Young that trample and kill everything they see — 100,000 more soldiers dead. The Imperials find themselves desperately whispering for the Royals to run instead of fighting. It's more horrific in the Light Novel than in the anime, where the whole thing, from the soldiers running and being ran over, to the Dark Young's viscerally horrible appearance and dissonant goat bleats, to the insanity induced to the Re-Estize and Baharuth troops is described in gross detail rather than presented through low-budget CGI graphics.
- Ainz's reaction to the carnage he unleashed — glee over breaking the record for summoning Dark Young is unsettling enough, but in the anime and the manga, it's made even worse by Satoru's inner monologue (which is a mere description in the light novel). Unlike most instances where this happens, none of Satoru's inner monologue contradicts whatever he's saying and doing on the outside. It's made very clear that the deaths of hundreds of thousands now mean absolutely nothing to him, and at this point it's safe to say whatever empathy he once had as Satoru is long gone.
- Even worse: One of the Dark Young returns from the front, causing the Imperials to trample themselves as they try to get away... all for nothing, because the thing was only there to serve as Ainz' mount. And when it's all done, Mare gets the terrified Imperials to keep shouting "Hail Ainz Ooal Gown" over and over.
- The Dark Young themselves are played for the horror that they are. A Dark Young is a Kaiju sized lump of tentacles, with several gnashing huge mouths and the hooves and voice of goats (hence Ainz calling them "adorable Baby Goats") and they are level 90 creatures, just one could have easily curb stomped the Kingdom's army; Ainz manages to summon five.
Volume 10
- This does not last long, but after Ainz occupied E-Rantel, it is now suddenly sprawling with undead (that Ainz summoned, of course) and became a ghost city. A large portion of the population are obviously terrified and either ran, hid themselves in their homes or met only in the mornings (because they don't know the undead Ainz summons aren't normal undead and can operate and patrol perfectly in the day), and merchants and clerics don't even bother entering the city. When Ainz, a horrific Undead Abomination shows up to meet the Adventurer's Guild, which has now been largely cowered themselves given the sheer amount of undead monsters openly running around in broad daylight, the owners are understandably terrified. The good thing is that Ainz turns out to be pretty reasonable and rational (due to him being just a salaryman in a video game character's body and not a "real" Elder Lich) and the undead don't attack innocents for fun, but it's still a terrifying sight to see.
- When the Slane Theocracy executives are discussing E-Rantel's occupation in a round table meeting, they reported that Death Knights said to be capable of destroying entire cities are openly patrolling the streets, civilization-destroying Soul Eaters are used as carriage, Elder Liches are employed as public servants, and at least one (that we do see in Ainz's viewpoint) is a level 70 Crypt Lord that no New World native has any business pissing off. Everyone who heard the reports are understandably terrified and thought it was just some insane rambling, and everyone in the city was in fact dead.
- After being tortured and "baptized" by Kyohukou and his god-forsaken cockroach pit, Hilma, the former drug lord of the Eight Fingers, has became a lot more skinnier than the last time we met her in the Men in the Kingdom arc and is apparently so traumatized that she can no longer eat solid food. Even thinking about the "baptism" she experienced caused her to vomit. She likely realized that being a hardened lord of the criminal underworld is nothing in front of terrors beyond all mortal comprehension.
- A bombshell occurs at the end of Albedo's visit to Re-Estize as a Sorcerer Kingdom Emissary. Albedo privately meets Renner, then gives her a Fallen Seed (that changes her race from human to demon) and a Shadow Demon bodyguard. She also contemplated giving Renner more reinforcements, but backed off with the idea. It's also heavily implied that Demiurge met with Renner prior to unleashing his "demonic invasion". Re-Estize is under control of the Sorcerer Kingdom before anyone could realize it, and nobody will realize the smart princess they trusted is the one who sold them out to extermination even after they meet their graves.
- Emperor Jircniv really has it tough this volume. He can feel Ainz watching over him, but can not prove it because Ainz knows many counter-counter intelligence spells that even Jircniv's elite wizards (barring the possible exception of Fluder who can no longer be trusted) do not even know exists. Then, to add even more Paranoia Fuel to the mix, he proves that he can and will show up anywhere at any time by challenging The Empire's mightiest adventurer in the Imperial Arena, and briefly floating up to say "hi" to the Emperor and his Slane Theocracy contacts in the process.
- There was a Slane Theocracy spy observing the massacre in Katze Plains from far away, but due to the Dark Youngs' insanity inducing effects, she was reduced into a shut in who never left her room...or at least that's what the Slane Theocracy thought. We never hear about her after that. Said spy is also the "Thousand-leagues Astrologer", a.k.a. one of the strongest warriors in the Slane Theocracy. The Cardinals are all horrified, and for good reason.
Volume 11
- The Quagoa leader seeing Shalltear and Aura slaughtering his people, specifically telling him they will be cutting their population down to 10,000 (from 80,000). Realizing his species just became endangered, about to be enslaved and having his goals of having the quagoa thrive being killed by the dozen before his eyes, he breaks down and cries before his underlings. What brought this on? Not submitting immediately when given an ultimatum from a kingdom he's never heard of.
- The Frost Dragons ruled with almost no contest until the arrival of the Sorcerer King. His first action is to kill their patriarch; now they're left with two choices, submit or die. They were especially terrified when they witnessed another dragon attack him with all its might, with it doing absolutely no good and resulting in the death of another dragon.
Volume 12
- The way Demiurge massacres the frontlines of the Holy Kingdom. First, he dropped a giant meteor on the Holy Kingdom's fortress, allowing the Demi-Humans he unified to barge into the Kingdom unopposed, also catching Neia's father onto it. He's the lucky one — Demiurge then brainwashed his companion Orlando into committing suicide by stabbing his throat into his sword and ripped a demi-human's skin off from its body to Make an Example of Them.
- The infamous "Holy Bludgeon" incident where the Holy Queen is used as a bludgeon by Jaldabaoth (not Demiurge, but a high-level demon who swapped places with him) against her own troops, the narration describing the utter destruction of her body in excruciating detail. At least Clementine up there still HAS a face. By the time Jaldabaoth shows up again the top half of her corpse has rotted away. This is one of the most notoriously horrific Nazarick atrocities in the entire light novel and stacks up pretty nicely with the Katze Plains massacre, and is heavily speculated by fans to be one of the reasons why the entire Holy Kingdom arc had to be put into a movie adaptation rather than simply being broadcasted on the TV.
- When the Bafolk tried to raise hostages as human shields against the Holy Kingdom, Ainz kills both the Bafolk soldier and the hostage, said hostages being children. While a moment of awesome for Ainz since that makes clear that he will not cave in to hostages and the Bafolk had to fight him with their own dear lifes, it also demonstrates how far Ainz's Lack of Empathy towards mankind has taken him to. You do not see people getting out from a Hostage Situation by killing both the hostage and the kidnapper at all for obvious reasons, but there it is.
- The horrible conditions the captives of Jaldabaoth's Army go through. Humans were starved, tortured, used as shields, and in the case of food shortages, eaten, and these were the lucky ones. Some underwent experiments by the demons, like being skinned alive, having limbs cut off and replaced by limbs from other people or creatures, the replacement of organs and blood, etc. And they weren't even the only ones to enjoy Jaldabaoth's "hospitality" — Orcs, who didn't join of their own free will, were tortured so badly, that even trying to ask them what had happened to them would cause most to start crying or vomiting.
- At the end of volume 12, Ainz has a conversation with a doppelganger (a creature that can mimic other beings perfectly in both appearance and abilities if they are developed enough) in which it's revealed that they have infiltrated the Holy Kingdom's Liberation Army. The doppelganger also apologized to Ainz for their rudeness which implies that the doppelganger has replaced one of the people Ainz has been interacting with throughout the story, and every person he interacted with personally was a high ranking officer in a commanding position. Now imagine how terrifying it would be if you were a member of the liberation army and you found out that not only was one of the army commanders killed but then they were replaced by someone from the enemy's forces. Your country has been decimated, and everyone left who's still fighting is actually under the enemy's control without realizing it.
Volume 13
- Remedios' sister doesn't fare much better from the Holy Queen (who was used as a bludgeoning weapon and obviously murdered brutally by Demiurge's proxy). Her head is taken by a monster that can cast spells its victims knew.
- Evil Lord Wrath's final rampage against the 100,000 man strong Holy Kingdom army. The novel goes out of detail to show the names and background stories of people about to be melted and killed by the Evil Lord walking around and surrounded by an incredible heat. And just like what the novel always does, it describes the people being melted with intricate detail of people's fat melting away and guts spilling out as they get burnt to death.
- In the second part of the Paladin Arc it seems even worse than fans had initially predicted about the doppleganger acting as a mole situation in the Holy Kingdom. It turns out that the prince and brother of the previous ruler Calca was the one replaced by Demiurge after being eliminated with an instant death spell so there would be no obvious signs of death. The prince Caspond's body was then wrapped in a magical item to keep the body perfectly preserved in stasis for a later use. In the meantime, the Doppelganger's purpose is to make the Holy Kingdom prosperous, but weaken it to the point that the Sorcerer Kingdom can control it very easily, with Neia being taken advantage to be used as Demiurge's political pawn. Then, the doppleganger looks on over the people celebrating the end of the Demihuman war and chuckles that they should enjoy the taste of happiness while it lasts. That's right. The Holy Kingdom was already handed to Nazarick right before Demiurge invaded, because the Demonic Invasion was only a cover for Nazarick to subvert and undermine all of its institutions to it. Things aren't looking great for the people of the Holy Kingdom in the near future.
Volume 14
- An entire volume centering on the Sorcerer Kingdom not only conquering the Re-Estize Kingdom but them massacring every last being that thrived there.
- If Blue Roses leaves the kingdom without so much a second thought, you know right now how utterly screwed you are for messing with the denizens of Nazarick.
- When nobles of the Re-Estize Kingdom offer Zanac's head to Ainz as a gift in exchange for their lives being pardoned, Ainz is simply disappointed that the one noble he came to respect met an undignified end. He coldly grants the nobles' wish by sending them along with their families to Neuronist. He then instructs Aura to tell her to only kill them after they beg for death. Before Aura can leave, Ainz grabs her by the arm and calmly adds that they are to be killed slowly and painfully. Finally, Ainz declares that he's done with the Kingdom and commands Cocytus and Mare to make sure not a single soul survives.
- Mare casually and dissonantly murdering his way through Re-Estize through inducing massive earthquakes, to the point where he's crying like a child when he's surveying the Re-Estize Kingdom from above not because lots of people are going to die, but because they are going to run and survive the annihilation. Also Aura killing Vesture in one arrow to the head in the same, non-chalant manner as Mare, and she's already one of its weaker level 100 NPCs on her own and can still one-shot "experienced" New World veteran adventurers in one blow. All of this which remind us while the Fiore twins seem silly and don't seem to fit in an evil guild filled with undead, devils and monsters, they are still Nazarick NPCs created by an evil guild and are thus just as prone to moments of ruthless cruelty as something like Demiurge or Albedo would.
- To protect his "defenseless princess" Renner, Climb faces off against Ainz Ooal Gown. Needless to say, despite the fact that he's one of the strongest people in the New World at the equivalent of level 19, he is no match for Ainz and gets crushed almost instantly without even so much as scratching the Sorcerer King. As Pestonya resurrects him, he also finds Renner transformed into an Imp and offers him to turn with her being none the wiser. "From Bad to Worse" indeed.
- At least in the Men in the Kingdom arc, Renner does make a Nightmare Face here and there to remind you that she's bad news. But here, she does wear her façade of a wise princess pretty well to the point that if you're just reading this chapter, you can't see anything wrong with her at all. Then she poisons her entire orphanage as a sacrifice for her transformation into an imp and kills King Ramposa III offscreen, because it turns out this insane woman doesn't really care about anything bar what's convenient for her, and it just so happened that being horrifically evil is the easiest way for her to get what she wants.
- This◊ supremely creepy image of Imp Renner that occupies an entire page on the light novel. Her eyes are abnormally empty even when compared to when she's portrayed in the anime and that smile is pretty unsettling. And it's a close-up, even...
- Albedo's punishments towards those close to Philip is clearly not to be dismissed. She had them Impaled with Extreme Prejudice and not just that, she sent forth her weapons right up their targets' buttocks and out from the mouth.
- She also had Philip's associates' heads lobbed off. Given the contorted faces they gave when Philip sees them, the process was extremely painful.
- But none of them can compare to Philip's fate. Albedo informs him that she'll personally punish him and make sure it would be the most agonizing experience he'll ever endure as per request from Philip's late father who wants his son to suffer like he and the other villagers had endured. We don't see what happens next, but for all we know, it was something so horrific that it was offscreen.
Volume 16
- Delusionally believing Mare and Aura are his grandchildren, Decem Hougan, the Serial Rapist Elf King, tries to rape Aura while inviting Mare to join in his debauchery. It's an Elf that looks like a grown man trying to rape two children (or two beings that look like children) and is a whole new level of Squick enough for Ainz to get extremely pissed off and go out of hiding to fight him.
- Zesshi might be the strongest person in the New World by a distant margin at level 88 and a Blood Knight who seeks for battling powerful foes and an equally powerful descendant, but when she faces Mare, an opponent that is 12 levels stronger than her, she finds no joy in fighting him, and their battle is less of a battle than a long, drawn-out humiliation and breakdown on Zesshi's end. Mare only goes as much as to stall time on her before one-shotting her with a large spell when his distance with Zesshi is far enough. It makes you remember that despite given more menial political work to do by Ainz, our Villain Protagonists are still level 100 Nazarick NPCs that can easily destroy anything in the New World like a cleaver through a cut of meat. Even worse is Zesshi's aftermath; being sent to Neuronist Painkill to be tortured and interrogated. Given she did want to bear strong children like herself, just hope she doesn't get transferred into one of Demiurge's camps next to the Roble Holy Kingdom where she would assuredly get bred for parchment and meat supplies.
- Following Zesshi's capture and interrogation, Ainz finally learns that it was the Slane Theocracy that brainwashed Shalltear in Volume 3. He immediately summons Albedo and commands her, with barely contained rage, to drop everything except for anything related to Nazarick's defenses: they are going to utterly annihilate the Theocracy. If the Baharuth Empire got the "carrot" and the Re-Estize Kingdom got the "stick", there's no telling what the Slane Theocracy is about to get anymore.
