Grand Foreigner (Chapters 1- 200)

Chapter 88

"Oh..." - the now heartless Hector slowly took a shuddering step back, - "Oh, heh... All that effort to make and sell the trap... and you're not even hurt one bit"

Ainz, looking at his soon to be dead opponent, slowly lowered the hand that just recently had crushed Hector's heart. Almost immediately Ainz felt a surge of sharp pain - not in the physical sense of the word, but rather like a sharp headache - piercing his mind. After the pain subsided a small drop of muddy brackish-metallic liquid fell on his lips .

"Hmm..." - Ainz raised a hand to his lips, after which he felt a few more drops of blood falling on them - "So, the level of damage to the body casting 'Grasp Heart' is insignificant... Hmmm, the fact that it's just caused a small amount of damage rather than a complete destruction of the body part. It's rather interesting..."

Grasp Heart, one of Ainz's favorite spells, a spell of instant death, is certainly one of the best attacking spells that Ainz knew of. It is very simple to cast and its effect is very straightforward.

Back in Yggdrasil, casting it would apply an instant death curse on the target, and if the target's resistance is not enough, then they would simply die. In the New World, using it would cause an effigy of the target's heart to appear in Ainz's grasp, and should Ainz crush it, the target's heart would also simultaneously be crushed. If the spell's effect is not resisted, all that remains would be a corpse with no outward injury.

At least this is what is supposed to happen in most cases, the spell's instant death effect could be resisted. Although even if the target survived the instant death effect due to one of the possible methods; specialized equipment, abilities that resists instant death effects, racial immunity, or even spells — there is still an additional effect of the spell that still makes the spell invaluable even to those that can resist its main effect. Should the target survive, they would then be in a stunned state for a couple of seconds, if Ainz were to use it in Yggdrasil of course.

In the New World, the target would be under an indescribable amount of pain that would cloud the consciousness of any opponent, literally paralyzing them. The paralysis would give Ainz at least a couple of seconds - all the time in the world essentially - in order to properly react and continue the battle - or to retreat.

The only problem with such a spell, at least as Ainz is concerned, was the fact that the spell was of the ninth tier. A tier of spells which Ainz would not use because of the very real possibility of damaging the body provided to him by Da Vinci irrevocably. However, on the other hand, Grasp Heart was one of the spells in the lowest rank of the ninth tier of spells that Ainz knew of. It could even be said that the spell is even comparable to a spell of the eighth tier. All in all this spell was the one best suited for Ainz's small experiment.

He could have dealt with Hector without resorting to magic of a probably higher rank than his body could tolerate. But the small tinge of regret that Ainz felt when he had to kill Hector made Ainz change his plans a little. In addition, he really wanted to conduct some small experiments...

"Wow," Hector continued to sway on his feet, coughing all the while with blood, glancing at Ainz who is slowly descending from the sky opposite him, "It really was a stupid plan..."

"Yes, I'm sorry," Ainz slowly breathed out, feeling the sharp fit of pain that pierced his mind a couple of seconds ago slowly receding, turning the sharp pain into a dull aching pain somewhere in the front of his head, "For what it's worth, the trap was quite interesting to unravel. Its many layers all in order to kill the one who is searching for the Grail. First a fight, then, if the enemy is too strong to kill reliably, a feigned surrender while dangling the Grail as bait. Next is the path to the Grail, it is littered with traps that would kill any one unwary instantly. And lastly, the Grail itself is one big trap. A very insidious trap which preys on the enemy's relaxed state of mind after overcoming the myriad traps. A very interesting trap that relies on the power of a Noble Phantasm that would kill when touched. Lastly if all else failed, and the enemy survived after they activated the Noble Phantasm or if they somehow bypassed it altogether, a giant explosion to end them or to finish off the weakened enemy. A well-made sound trap."