Overlord Volume 12

The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom is the twelfth light novel volume in the Overlord series. It was released on September 30, 2017. It details about the Roble Holy Kingdom seeking aid from Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown to battle against the allied army of demi-humans commanded by Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth.

Main Summary
The 12th volume, where justice is confounded. Featuring the attack of the heinous Demon Emperor, Jaldabaoth.

The Holy Kingdom, which takes great pride in its long peace and which is defended by a Great Wall, is assaulted by an allied army of demi-humans.

The supreme commander of the allied forces is the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth. The Holy Kingdom faces destruction at the hands of the cruel and merciless Demon Emperor.

The liberation army that seeks to aid the suffering citizens' requests aid from the Sorcerer Kingdom, a nation of the Undead that are also the mortal enemy of the Holy Kingdom. Led by the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown, the Holy Kingdom sets out to destroy the Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth.

Full Summary
The Roble Holy Kingdom is a human nation that occupies the peninsula to the southwest of the Re-Estize Kingdom. It is a highly religious country, led by the Holy Queen Calca Bessarez, who could use divine magic and was closely affiliated with the churches. They are not as religiously-oriented as the Slane Theocracy due to their religious differences. The entrance to the peninsula is the Great Wall, built to withstand invasions from the Demi-Human Tribes of the Abelion Hills located at the east of the Holy Kingdom.

Somewhere in the fortified station in the Great Wall, Orlando Campano, a corporal of the Holy Kingdom's Army waits for his shift to be over. Platoon Sergeant Pavel Baraja arrives to get Orlando's shift report, but Orlando wants to tell his superior something before the shift change. Orlando tells Pavel that he wants to go on a warrior's pilgrimage and wants to quit his position. Pavel didn't stop him and tells him that he should have gone on his warrior's journey earlier or because there are no more demi-human attacks. Orlando tells Pavel that he doesn't enjoy slaughtering demi-humans and wants to fight strong people. He also asks Pavel for the details about the death of Gazef Stronoff whom he heard had died in battle. Pavel informs him that the higher-ups are debating about how it's going to affect the surrounding countries. Pavel also informs Orlando how Gazef was killed by the Sorcerer King in a duel and that the latter also massacred an entire army. The reason why Orlando wants to go a warrior's pilgrimage is to visit the Sorcerer Kingdom. Pavel states that he is going to miss Orlando when the bells suddenly rang, which meant demi-humans are sighted.

Additionally, Pavel notes that the enemies consist of multiple races alerting him that this time they are a united front. As they're preparing for an assault, a single figure steps forward from the assailants. He introduces himself as Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth and states his intentions for the Holy Kingdom. Pavel and his archer's fire at him, to no avail. The demon then drops a meteor on them, killing all of the rangers. Demiurge, satisfied with his actions, turns to return to his unwilling subordinates. He stops for a moment to kill Orlando, who tried to attack him, before commanding the demi-humans to attack the now devastated wall and the invasion of the Holy Kingdom begins.

Once they've learned about the invasion of the Holy Kingdom by an army of demi-humans, Calca Bessarez, the Holy Queen issues a mobilization order through the entire nation. During a private meeting with Remedios Custodio and Kelart Custodio in the city of Kalinsha, Calca ponders the future of her nation. Despite reassurances from Remedios that the Holy Kingdom would survive Jaldabaoth's onslaught, she is worried about the financial aftermath of the Holy Kingdom. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted when Jaldabaoth himself invades and attacks the city. The Holy Queen and her advisers go to confront the Demon Emperor.

Remedios and her Paladin Order are the first to arrive at the location in order to engage Jaldabaoth in battle. She tries to defeat the demon alone only to have him avoid her strikes. Later on, Calca and Kelart arrive at the site together with adventurers. Calca tries to parley with Jaldabaoth, but the demon reveals that he only wanted to survey the city, to see if there was a being in the Holy Kingdom that could match him in power. The demon wishes to ensure his mission is a success this time around and not to repeat his failure again like last time in the Re-Estize Kingdom.

When Remedios is fully buffed with magic, she began attacking Jaldabaoth offensively to no avail but was successful in knocking the demon away into a building. Remedios feels something is wrong, her instincts telling her that the demon couldn't have been defeated so easily and that her attack should not be able to knock him back that far away. She then orders Calca to use the Ritual of Holy Fire in order to make sure he is dead for good. Before Remedios and the others could speculate further, Jaldabaoth emerges from debris in a more terrifying demonic form. The paladins attempt to fight him but are stunned to learn that the demon's new form gave him some sort of immunity to their weapons. Remedios charges at the demon with her holy blade, but Jaldabaoth merely teleports to where Kelart and Calca stood. In order to make the people present on the scene faced utter despair, Jaldabaoth decides to use the Holy Queen as a bludgeon. As well as signaling to them that he has summoned a meteor from the sky, which as a result, crashes down on the city wall and destroying it.

Scene changes to Neia Baraja, a squire of the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army, walking through the streets of the Royal Capital of the Re-Estize Kingdom. She notes the heavy mood of the citizens within the Kingdom and thinks it is because they were defeated in battle not long ago. She later proceeded to the inn, where the ambassadorial delegation is hosted. Once there, Neia reports back to her superior Remedios that the nobles she tried to contact would not be able to receive them due to the lack of time. Remedios believes that this failure is Neia's fault. Gustav, however, came to her aid, explaining to Remedios that other nobles refused their requests for the same reasons. At the same time, he also requests for Neia to be present with them in the delegation meeting with Blue Roses.

During a meeting with the Blue Roses, the delegation came to realize that no help would come from the Re-Estize Kingdom, or its nobles, being that the only person able to defeat Jaldabaoth, Momon, has sworn fealty to the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. Upon realizing that Momon is now a part of the Sorcerer Kingdom, the delegation then proceeds to head to that nation and seek him out.

While journeying to the Sorcerer Kingdom, the delegation came across a strange mist and later, a Ghost Ship patrolling that country's borders. When the delegation reaches E-Rantel, the capital of Sorcerer Kingdom, the group is impressed to see that the statues are being used as the gates of the city. What awes them even further was the appearance of the Frost Giants tending to it.

Upon entering the city, the delegation was astonished by the various races that inhabited the city after its conquest by the Sorcerer Kingdom. Walking towards the Shining Golden Pavilion, the party came across a trio of dwarves along the way. After questioning them about the state of what's happening in this city, the envoys are surprised that the dwarves were technical advisers that came from the Dwarf Kingdom itself and that they were using the Undead to pave roads.

One day after arriving at E-Rantel, the delegation is granted an audience with the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. The delegation is surprised that they are allowed to bear their arms in the presence of the Sorcerer King. Silently to themselves, on the other hand, they disdain the simple and unadorned throne room of the Sorcerer Kingdom. During the exchange between the two parties, the Sorcerer King informs the delegation that he could only provide help within five years' time. Due to the unwavering insistence of Neia, Ainz is delighted and further cut down the time for aid into two years instead.

After the negotiations had finally concluded, the delegation returns to the inn. Remedios starts to scold Neia for interfering in the negotiations with the Sorcerer King. However, Neia counters back, saying that her effort had shortened the time even further than neither Remedios or Gustav were capable of on their own. After a series of arguments, Neia went outside the inn to cool off her head, but then suddenly, she hears an invisible voice coming from behind her and it directs the girl towards a back alley. Entering the back alley with nobody around but the two, the identity of the man speaking to her is soon revealed to be the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown himself. The Sorcerer King came to talk to her personally as the undead states that he has another proposal for the delegation. Reasoning with Neia, he wants to carry their second meeting out in secret without his servants around with him to take part and asks the young squire to help him get into the building in secret, to which she accepts without hesitation.

With the meeting taking place, Neia and the rest of the Paladin Order listen to his proposals and after deliberations have chosen that they are acceptable. Gustav scolds Remedios for accepting the proposal of the Sorcerer King so easily without considering the consequences. He reasons with her that if something bad were to happen to the Sorcerer King's life, then the undead controlled by him may end up being uncontrollable after his death and could cause havoc. After his explanation, Remedios told him if that did transpire, who would stand to gain more from the conflict would be the Holy Kingdom since they perceived both demons and undead as enemies of mankind. To carry out their plan accordingly, they order Neia to act as Ainz's personal guard as well as to keep a close eye on him.

In a carriage of propriety of the Sorcerer Kingdom, Neia and Ainz travel towards the Liberation Army camp. While traveling there, Neia comes to the realization that the Sorcerer King isn't a fearsome undead as he looks to be, but radiates the grandeur of a king. She deduces that he is extremely magnanimous, acting like an ordinary person from time to time. In order to take down the heavy mood in the carriage and make Neia more comfortable, Ainz asks her what kind of jobs squires do, and what they entail. He asks her the reasons for her to choose to become a paladin, which she explains is because of her mother being one. Neia admits have no talent with swords but the bows, like her father. She complains about her eyes, which are from her father and talks about stories of her childhood. During this conversation, Neia tells Ainz that her father died defending the wall against Jaldabaoth and that her mother is probably dead too. Hearing her story, Ainz decides to lend Neia a bow, telling her that it's the product of dwarven Runecraft.

Arriving at the Liberation Army's hidden base, Ainz discovers that the army faces several issues which need to be addressed. This includes not hiding their tracks, a new base of operations, as it is believed by Ainz that the current location may already be compromised by the demi-humans. In addition, their food supplies are running low and winter is nearly upon them.

To increase the strength of the Liberation Army, Remedios put forth a plan to liberate the captured Holy Kingdom citizens from the nearby prison camps. At the same time, they would confiscate any food supplies that the demi-humans possessed and continue onto the next to a nearby occupied city. It was believed that if the Army managed to liberate high-ranking individuals and members of the Royal Family with ties to the South Holy Kingdom. It would force the nobles in the South to take action. As conscription is being used in the Holy Kingdom, most of the men are battle-ready, so they are hoping those that might be freed may join their ranks and help further recapture other cities and villages.

When questioned about this plan by Gustav, Ainz points out that the prison camps probably don't have much food, much less able battle-ready men, because of malnourishment.

Despite the warning from the Sorcerer King, the Holy Kingdom Liberation Army march on their first target, a village that was turned into a prison camp by the Bafolk and is located furthest from the Army's hidden base. However, they encounter a hostage situation and they back off, but the hostage got killed instead and replaced another one. Seeing their progress is not going anywhere, The Sorcerer King handle the situation by himself and kills the demi-humans along with the hostage. The undead tells them to finish off the Bafolks. Although the resistance force successfully freed more towns and settlements, the food supplies are not nearly enough to sustain the Liberation Army and its recruits. Eventually, they found the source of the food to be located in a small city ruled by Buser, which they manage to later liberate with Ainz's help.

As the city was liberated from the demi-humans, the Army discovers that one member of the royal family is interned there. Prince Caspond Bessarez was given command of the resistance forces and held an audience with the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. The Prince then decides to face Jaldabaoth‘s army in the city in a grand battle with the help of the Sorcerer King.

Alone, Ainz panics over how he is in the dark about Demiurge's plan, and that his attempts to advertise Runecraft have failed. He then hears someone knock on his door. Upon entering, he sees that it is the doppelganger which was assigned to assist him. The doppelganger apologizes for his disrespect earlier, but Ainz states that what he did was necessary. Ainz is asked which humans to spare, but Ainz, worried that not knowing who to spare would reflect badly on himself, states that there was no one in particular who warranted such attention. The city is soon beset by an army of tens of thousands of demi-humans, ready to destroy the Liberation Army and all who stand with it.

Chapters

 * Chapter 1: Demon Emperor Jaldabaoth
 * Chapter 2: Seeking Salvation
 * Chapter 3: Beginning the Counterattack

Trivia

 * Overlord Volume 12 doesn't have a prologue, epilogue, and intermission.
 * This is the second arc to have been split into two different books, the first one being the Men in the Kingdom Arc which were Volumes 5 and 6.
 * It is the second arc wherein which Jaldabaoth makes another appearance involved in attacking a nation, the first one being the attack on the Re-Estize Kingdom.

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