Overlord Premise Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Hey friends and fans! Kairomaru is bringing you a new story! This one is for a Series that has tried to stranglehold my Muse like Danmachi, but now the two are squabbling over it and I can actually think and plan again! Welcome to Overlord! Time to see how my style of tossing in a change or two effects this Series! Will it be a Shonen fest with the Power of Friendship? *Laughs uproariously* Fuck no! People are still going to die! Will it have an uncaring MC that just lets his most evil subordinates do horrible things because that’s how they were made? Nah…that’s boring! Let’s change it up and see how the New World reacts to the appearance of another Player!

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So, without further delay, please enjoy.

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Chapter 1 – Past, End, and Beginning

In the early 22nd Century there was a term: DMMO-RPG.

That word was an acronym for “Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game”.

These games were played by connecting a dedicated console to the brain via a neural nano-interface — an intracerebral nano-computer network, created from the fusion of cyber- and nanotechnology.

These were games allowed one to enter a virtual world and experience it as though it were real life.

And among the myriad DMMO-RPGs that filled the market, one of them stood head and shoulders above the others:

YGGDRASIL.

This game had been painstakingly developed and released in 2126.

Compared to other DMMO-RPGs of the time, Yggdrasil’s selling point was ‘player freedom’.

It had over two thousand basic and advanced job classes.

Every class had a maximum of fifteen levels, and so in order to reach the overall level cap of one hundred, one would need to take at least seven different classes. However, players could take as many classes as they wanted as long as they met each class’s prerequisites. A player could even take a hundred classes at level one each, although that was very inefficient. As such, in this system, it was virtually impossible to make identical characters unless one was deliberately trying to do so.

In addition, one could use various creator tools (sold separately) to fully customize one’s armor, weaponry, flavor text, appearance, and other cosmetic settings.

A vast playing field awaited its players. There were nine worlds in total: Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim. Each one at least three times large than the greater Tokyo area.

It boasted a massive world, numerous classes, and freely customizable appearances.

These features ignited the creative spirits of its Japanese players, and sparked what would later be known as a stylistic revolution. So popular was it that whenever the word “DMMO-RPG” was mentioned in Japan, listeners would immediately think of YGGDRASIL.

It was no surprise that such a successful game would want to celebrate said success. The developers of Yggdrasil did so in multiple ways, but the biggest one was a contest for the Players that had reached Level 100. A drawing to randomly select from all of them and grant the winner a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

-Congratulations! You’ve won!-

“Eh?!” A skeleton in a black robe exclaimed, his bony face not moving, but a voice heard all the same.

“Huh? What’s up, Momonga?” A man in bright silvery armor, known by his Player Name of Touch Me, questioned his friend and guildmate.

“I…I…the message…” Momonga pointed to the menu screen that only he could see. No other player could see his menu, just as he couldn’t see theirs.

“Easy, Momonga, take a second and breathe.” A birdman, Peroroncino, raised his hands in a placating gesture.

“I won…” Momonga got out after another moment to gather himself. “I won the Level 100-Only Celebration Contest that the Devs were running.”

“WHAT?!” All of the players within the meeting room of their Guild Base, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, exclaimed in shock.

“You won the contest out of all of the Level 100 Players in Yggdrasil?!” Ulbert Alain Odle, a demon with the appearance of an anthropomorphized goat, gawked at his friend.

“This is great news for Ainz Ooal Gown.” Tabula Smaragdina, a Brain Eater (a Race with an appearance similar to Cthulhu of Lovecraftian Lore), seemed pleased with the new boon for their Guild.

“True, you get a Unique Race that no one else can ever get.” HeroHero, a Slime of the high-tier Elder Black Ooze variant, nodded his ‘head’ to Momonga. “That could be a huge advantage for us the next time our Guild is raided.”

“Do you have any idea of what you want to be, Momonga?” Bukubukuchagama, a pink Slime with the voice of a woman spoke up next.

“Yggdrasil already has over seven hundred Races available though, so what’s left to pick?” Nishikienrai, a Half-Golem in full ninja attire, spoke up. He was pointing to himself as an indication of all of the various Races that Yggdrasil offered.

“You should ask for a new Demon Race, Momonga.” Ulbert offered his opinion, a laughing emoticon popping up in front of the Goat Demon.

“Nah, he should ask for an Angel Race even stronger than the Seraph Empyrean!” Luci★Fer, an Angel Race that had purposefully used Yggdrasil’s massive Player Customization features to make his character look like a marionette with visible joints and a masked face, spoke up, having just arrived in the meeting room a moment ago.

“Wouldn’t that be like a Fallen Angel, or something?” Touch Me looked between his two friends.

“Why not go with something like a Philosopher’s Stone Homunculus?” Tabula offered while tapping his fingers together. Everyone in the Guild knew that he was an Alchemy nerd, so his suggestion wasn’t unexpected.

“I’m pretty sure Momonga would still want to play as a Caster though.” Peroroncino looked at his friend, a smiling emoticon appearing in front of the Birdman.

“We should let Momonga decide for himself, he’s the one that actually won the contest.” Bukubukuchagama spoke up to quell the various opinions before it became heated and potentially led to an argument.

“I’ll have to think about it.” Momonga raised his hand up to his bony chin. “All of your ideas have merit. Coming up with something unique might require taking bits and pieces from all of them.”

“Let’s leave it at that then.” Touch Me agreed and the meeting room calmed down a bit. “We do have the matter of offering that one guy a place here in Ainz Ooal Gown to consider, everybody agrees that he’s not a spy for a different guild, right?”

“The fox guy? Yeah, he’s a solo player from what I’ve seen.” Nishikienrai confirmed, having done some spying on the potential new recruit. “We stopped recruiting for a while, we might actually be getting our next member for the first time in a bit.”

“Number forty-two!” Luci★Fer chuckled, the prankster of their guild clearly plotting something.

“I’m surprised he’s made it so long as a solo player, especially playing Heteromorph.” Ulbert commented on the other player’s survival in Yggdrasil. Heteromorph players had no penalties associated with being Player Killed, so the Humanoid and Demi-Human Races would often hunt them for the extra EXP they could get from it.

“It might be because he’s more about roleplaying than PK-ing.” Momonga offered his thoughts. He could understand that style of play, considering he did much the same. “I’ll go extend the offer while I think about the Unique Race issue.”

“Thanks, Momonga.” Touch Me thanked their Guild Leader for taking up the task. Momonga had always taken his role as Head of Ainz Ooal Gown seriously. Making sure the upkeep of Nazarick was taken care of, and things like adding new members had all been handled by Momonga since they’d disbanded their Nine’s Own Goal Clan and reformed as the Ainz Ooal Gown Guild.

“He should be in Midgard; he seems to stay there doing quests and stuff.” Nishikienrai explained to Momonga so that his friend would have an easier time finding the other player.

“Midgard? Why would he hang around there? It has the Anti-Heteromorph penalty.” Bukubukuchagama seemed confused. The only three worlds that didn’t have the Anti-Heteromorph penalty and were thereby ‘safe’ for Heteromorph players were Helheim, Niflheim, and Múspellsheim.

“If you stay out of towns and don’t bother anyone, Midgard is pretty safe, even for Heteromorphs.” Peroroncino shrugged to his older sister. “Everyone knows that a lot of the quests there are needed to get base classes completed, so PK-ing has lessened there a bit.”

“I think he’s farming the Wild Dog monsters near the huge forest, so you might want to look there first.” Nishikienrai recalled what he’d spied the other player doing over the last few days.

“Sure thing.” Momonga waved to his guildmates before using his Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to teleport outside of their Guild Base.

-Midgard-

“Greetings.” Momonga called out to the other player after seeing him finish off the last Wild Dog mob in the area. It would be a bit before the monsters respawned after being wiped out.

“Hmm?” The other player looked over at Momonga. His character had long silver hair and golden eyes with slitted foxlike pupils. There were two fox ears atop his head and he had a fox tail as well. “Can I help you?”

“It’s uncommon to see another Heteromorph outside of one of the three realms without the penalty.” Momonga wanted to break the ice, so went with a common topic. “A Werefox, right?”

“Yeah.” The Werefox player confirmed. “But I’m trying to do a quest.”

“I see,” Momonga nodded at the response. “I’ve actually come to offer you a place in our guild, Ainz Ooal Gown.”

“Oh…really?” The Werefox blinked at the Overlord. “I’m flattered, you guys are in the Top Ten right now. But…”

“But?” Momonga gently prompted the other player to continue his sentence.

“You guys are known as THE ‘Evil Guild’ and the enemy of almost all Players nowadays. Not sure I want to have that target on my back. I’m more of a ‘play my way’ kind of guy.” The Werefox replied while rubbing the back of his head.

“Understandable. We do take on that role rather well.” Momonga laughed, the matching emoticon appearing in front of him. “Well, if you ever change your mind, the offer is open, Mr...?” He prompted the male player for his name.

“Seimei, Abeno Seimei.” The now named Seimei replied. “Thanks, I’ll think about your offer before making a decision.”

“Abeno Seimei…Abe no Seimei…I see what you did there.” Momonga figured out the other player’s naming scheme quickly. “We both seem to like to roleplay more than anything.”

“Yeah, I’m trying to build up my Werefox as a ‘Kitsune’ as best as I can.” Seimei chuckled, a laughing emoticon appearing in front of him. “Still have to get the Illusionist Job maxed out, and I’m trying for Onmyoji when I get the chance later.”

“Good luck to you, Abeno. I hope your progress isn’t bogged down by PKers.” Momonga gave a friendly wave before teleporting away with his Greater Teleportation spell.

“Alright then…” Seimei shook himself as the Wild Dog mobs began to reappear in the area. “Just a few more levels and I’ll max out the Kitsune Racial Levels.” He chuckled as he took aim at the nearest mob.

After all, lying to other players was standard practice in Yggdrasil. He wouldn’t tell some other player how far along with his build he was. It was why he used an illusion spell to hide his second tail from other players. The ‘Kitsune’ Class wasn’t even known about by other players, or at least it wasn’t on any of the few sites that shared Yggdrasil information. He’d stumbled upon it by trying to roleplay as a Kitsune while playing Werefox. Fifteen Racial Levels in Werefox, maxing out Illusionist at ten Job Levels, along with maxing out Shapeshifter at ten Job Levels, had unlocked the High Racial Class of Kitsune. He wasn’t about to go spreading his discovery around. In Yggdrasil knowledge was power, so almost everyone hoarded it.

-Online Meeting with Yggdrasil Developers-

“So, Mr. Suzuki, have you come up with a Unique Race for us to grant you?” One of the developers asked over the video meeting.

“I’ve had some ideas, but I don’t have a definitive name for it or anything.” Satoru informed the group of devs with a sheepish smile.

“That’s fine. We can build up from ideas, this meeting is to help with that after all.” A different developer assured their contest winner.

“Well, my idea for a Unique Race is one that is both Life and Death, a being that perfectly exists between the World of the Living and the World of the Dead, a supreme Magic Caster that uses the knowledge from both worlds to surpass normal Magical understanding.” Satoru explained his general idea, developed from taking bits and pieces of his friends’ suggestions over the last week.

“So…you want your Race to be a God?” One of the developers questioned after a moment of silent thought.

“Well...huh, that does sound like a God, now that I think about it.” Satoru realized as he ran his words through his head again. He nearly flinched when the devs muted themselves and were clearly having a conversation between themselves. ‘Ah shit...I might've just ticked them off and lost my prize.’ He worried that he’d possibly offended the developers of his favorite game. What was more broken than a ‘God’ character?

“Fuck it, we’re down!” The youngest looking of the developers on the call chuckled after unmuting. The laughter of the other devs calmed Satoru’s anxiety. “Give us some time to hash it out. To make it truly unique, that means it can't be acquired through any other Race Tree. So, we'll need to build it from the ground up. Probably take some things from the Angel, Demon, and Undead Racial Trees to build it up properly.”

“Thank you very much.” Satoru thanked the developers for their acceptance.

“Just to be sure you understand, Mr. Suzuki, you will have to delete your current character before we can give you the new one.” One developer wanted to be as clear as possible about this since they all knew that a lot of time and effort went in to getting a character to Level 100 in their game. “As a Unique Race, you won’t be able to use Race Change Items anymore, and we’ll have to start you at the beginning of character creation with an altered character creation profile because of it.”

“Yeah…I understand.” Satoru nodded to the group of developers. It was a hard pill to swallow, having to give up his Overlord character that he’d worked on for so long. “My guildmates have assured me that they’ll help me level up again, so it shouldn’t take me as long this time around.”

“Very well, we’ll contact you once the new profile is ready for you to take over.” The head developer smiled at Satoru before the online meeting was ended.

-Yggdrasil Character Creation Screen-

“So, this is a ‘Godling’?” Momonga looked over his new avatar in the character creation screen. It was humanoid in appearance, but had two wings on its back, one pure white, the other jet black. Its skin was also a semi-pale complexion that seemed to have a slight glow. The eyes had a cool effect where they shifted through a myriad of colors over time too. Everything else about the new character was currently blank, just waiting for him to use the expansive customization tools he’d purchased over his time playing Yggdrasil. “It was nice of them to let me know that I still have a Race Tree. So, following normal Yggdrasil progression I should have fifteen Levels in Godling, then ten Levels in whatever Elite Racial Class comes after, and finally five Levels in the Rare Racial Class at the top.” With a giddy feeling in his heart, Suzuki Satoru got to work customizing his new character.

-Great Tomb of Nazarick-

“Little baby Momonga!” Bukubukuchagama giggled, using her ‘young girl’ voice from her voice acting career at seeing their friend and Guild Master as a new Level 1 character.

“Aww, he's like a little newbie now!” Ulbert was nearly cackling at seeing Momonga so weak.

“Ah…” Luci★Fer made a motion of his head as if he was smelling Momonga. “He has that fresh-out-of-the-tutorial smell.” The prankster cracked up afterward, along with several more guildmembers.

“You guys are having way too much fun at my expense now...” Momonga had the ‘deadpan’ emoticon show up in front of him.

“What? Us? Nooooo~” Everyone in the Guild Meeting Room teased in unison. It was like they’d practiced it beforehand!

“Fuck all of you.” Momonga muttered, turning away from his friends and practically pouting at their teasing.

“Alright, enough teasing Momonga.” Touch Me spoke up after a few moments. “Let’s help him start leveling up again. We can’t leave our Guild Master at Level 1, now, can we?”

With that the members of Ainz Ooal Gown that had held onto some of Momonga’s inventory items from before he’d deleted his old Overlord character returned them to him. A Level 1 couldn’t even equip some of the higher tier items, but Momonga quickly decked out his new character in the best gear that he could use currently.

“Time to do some power leveling!” Momonga chuckled and his friends laughed along with him. The large group headed out to grind with their friend in the highest level areas that a new Level 1 could survive in before terrain penalties and damage would just kill them.

-Great Tomb of Nazarick ~ Last Day of Yggdrasil-

‘Hah… I thought those days would never end.’ Momonga thought to himself as he sat in the Meeting Room, waiting and hoping that his friends would return to spend the last day of the game with him.

Yggdrasil had lasted twelve years online. But the player base had shrunk quite a lot nowadays. The once full-to-bursting servers filled with millions of players and thousands of guilds was just a shadow of its former self. Now, barely 800 guilds still existed, and even Ainz Ooal Gown had dropped from ninth place to twenty-ninth. The company was shutting down the servers to make room for their next project. Momonga wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it wasn’t Yggdrasil…it wasn’t the game where he’d been happy and had friends.

“I took the day off to make sure I could meet with anyone that showed up…but it’s pretty boring alone.” Momonga talked to himself, something that had become a bit of a habit ever since everyone else had quit Yggdrasil. Currently Ainz Ooal Gown had four members that were still ‘active’ but Momonga knew it had been almost a year and a half since anyone else had logged in. The rest of his friends’ accounts had a gray color to their names indicating that they hadn’t been on in more than two years. “I guess I’ll look over everything, one last time.” He brought up his menu and looked over his own character first.

-Character Page-

Name: Momonga

Race: Primordial Deity

Level: 100

HP: 60

MP: Error

Physical Attack: 35

Physical Defense: 70

Agility: 40

Magic Attack: 90

Magic Defense: 95

Resistance: 95

Special Ability: 100

-Character Page-

Momonga lightly chuckled at seeing the error on his MP. He’d found a way to use a combination of skills and levels to break the cap on his MP stat. As the only one of his Race, he was the only one that had figured it out. Since he never reported the glitch/bug/exploit to the devs, it had never been corrected. The numbers were the base amounts that were then multiplied by his level modifier. It was a system that was easy enough to understand for the game.

After looking through his basic stats, Momonga shifted over to his Racial Levels and Job Levels. He certainly played differently after gaining his Godling Race, which he’d eventually leveled up to God, and then to his current Primordial Deity.

-Racial Levels-

Godling – 15

God – 10

Primordial Deity – 5

-Job Levels-

Necromancer – 10

Master of Death – 10

Eclipse – 5

Priest – 10

High Priest – 10

Master of Life – 5

Elementalist (Fire) – 10

World Disaster – 10

“Ulbert…” Momonga sighed at seeing the World Disaster job. It had been Ulbert’s gift to him before he’d logged out for the final time.

Only fifty players could have the World Disaster job at any time in Yggdrasil. The only way to gain it was to have levels in the Disciple of Disaster job and then PK one of the current holders. The two had worked it out during Ulbert’s last time in Yggdrasil. Momonga had let Ulbert PK him to lose five levels, he’d sacrificed five levels from his Master of Life job, but with both Priest and High Priest jobs, he hadn’t lost much that the last five levels of Master of Life had given him. After that, Momonga had PK-ed Ulbert and taken the World Disaster job, his five levels in Disciple of Disaster automatically converting to the upgraded form of the job. After that, Momonga had grinded to get the World Disaster job level to 10, just as Ulbert had maxed it out when he’d had it.

All of his friends had given away their gear as they’d had to quit the game one after another. Momonga had placed it all in Nazarick’s Treasury to keep it safe, hoping to return it to his friends if they came back. But that day had never come.

“There’s still plenty of time.” Momonga shook his head, the long black hair of his character moving slightly. “It’s still morning, some of them could show up.” He looked for something to distract himself and decided to look at all of the various NPCs that his friends had created with the Great Tomb of Nazarick’s NPC Levels. “Tabula loved writing backstories, so I’m sure there’s plenty to keep me busy while I wait.” He brought up the console and picked a random low-level NPC to start with and began to read.

The next several hours passed like this, with Momonga reading through the various backstories that his friends had written for their creations. It was when he’d gotten to the Pleiades Battle Maids that he startled at an unexpected discovery.

“And she’s in love with Momonga?!” Momonga cried out in embarrassment as he read over Narberal Gamma’s backstory. “What the hell Nishikienrai?! Are you trying to say I’ll never have a girlfriend IRL?! Come on, man…” He put his hand over his face with a sigh. “This had better just be a random joke.”

It turned out to be a group joke, actually, much to Momonga’s embarrassment.

“Momonga is her chosen mate.” Momonga read from Lupusregina Beta’s backstory. “You too Beast King Mekongawa?!” That was sort of expected, perhaps. Nishikienrai and Mekongawa were friends in other games too, like Aberage, which Momonga had never played.

The next part of the joke was revealed as he read Shalltear Bloodfallen’s backstory. Peroroncino had been a good friend, but he was kinky as all hell, and it showed in Shalltear’s design and backstory.

“She loves Momonga above all others.” Momonga almost wanted to hide at this point. How could his friends write this stuff?! Did they know he’d eventually find it in the lore of their NPCs?

“Momonga is the one who holds her heart, the only man she’ll ever love.” Momonga nearly slammed his head into the immense marble table in front of his character. “You too, Tabula?!” He had just read the last part of Albedo’s backstory, which had taken quite a while with how much time Tabula had spent on it.

“One day, she wishes to be married to Momonga.” Momonga did slam his head into the marble table at that, a small red-colored ‘0’ appearing to show that no damage had been done. “Bukubukuchagama, WHY?!” He nearly wailed after reading Aura Bella Fiora’s backstory. “I’m not a creep…I’m not…” He refused to pick his head up off the table for a while.

The ping of a notification gave Momonga something to distract himself with and he quickly opened the new message. It was from Abeno Seimei, the one that had decided to turn down the offer to join Ainz Ooal Gown. They may not be friends, but Momonga considered them acquainted at least. The other player sent well wishes to Momonga during the holidays and such, even though they never played together or anything. This message was similar to that.

“Yo, Momonga, hope you’re enjoying the last day of Yggdrasil. It sucks to see it go though. Hopefully the company’s next project is Yggdrasil 2, right? There are a bunch of celebration animations all over the game today, you should check some of them out. Later.”

“Nice to hear from someone.” Momonga was happy to get the message. He often wondered if Seimei was alone in the world like he was. No parents, no girlfriend, no IRL friends. Momonga quickly shook his head to get rid of those depressing thoughts. They’d begun to creep into his mind in the last year especially.

Hours went by after that. Thankfully there were no further surprises in any more of the NPCs’ lore for him to find. Momonga was briefly bursting with joy when the last of his guildmates did eventually show up to chat for a while. Unfortunately, it only lasted so long. Soon enough, only HeroHero and Momonga remained in Nazarick together, the Elder Black Ooze having hopped on late in the night not too long before the Servers would shut down.

“It’s really been a while, HeroHero. Although this is the last day of YGGDRASIL, I didn’t expect you to show up.” Momonga admitted to his friend. HeroHero may be one of the last remaining members, but of the four that remained, he was the one that hadn’t logged on in the longest time.

“Indeed, it has, Momonga.” The Elder Black Ooze raised a tentacle-like hand. The man’s voice sounded worn out, like he barely had any energy. “I was almost surprised to see that the Guild still exists. You’re character is looking as good as ever.”

“Well, it is the Guild Master’s job to perform upkeep and everything.” Momonga put up a smiling emoticon. “Thank you for the compliment, but I’m just wearing my standard gear.” Momonga’s standard outfit was a magnificent robe of a silvery color that looked as if someone had spun moonlight into thread and woven with it. It was edged with black and a golden color that was reminiscent of the sun. It wasn’t excessively flashy or gaudy, but it was a Divine Class robe that empowered his casting while buffing him against his weaknesses. “You stopped coming online after you changed your job IRL, so how long has it been... almost two years?”

“Ah… seems about right. Wah, it’s been so long… this is bad. I’ve been doing so much overtime recently that my sense of time is starting to go weird.” HeroHero’s slime body sagged in his seat.

“That’s really bad, right? Are you okay?” Momonga worried for his friend.

“My body? Well, it’s a mess. I haven’t had to see a doctor yet, but I’m almost there, it’s pretty bad. A lot of times, I feel like I want to run away from it all, but then I think about how I need money to live and then I go back to work like a whipped slave.” HeroHero sounded defeated, but that was what their dying world had become.

“Uwah…” Momonga lowered his head in an ‘I can’t take it’ gesture. “That’s terrible.”

As though following up on Momonga’s comment, HeroHero delivered a grim monologue, his words laced with an unimaginable reality.

The two of them complained loudly about the foolishness they encountered in their working lives. Subordinates who did not know how to report, communicate, and discuss things, spreadsheets that changed by the day, being scolded by their superiors for not meeting various KPIs, working late every day until they could not go home, gaining weight because of their irregular lifestyles, and the increasing amounts of medicine they had to take every day just to keep going. HeroHero’s grievances burst forth like a broken dam, and Momonga lent his ear to him.

Many people were adverse to discussing reality in a virtual world. It was fairly normal for people to not want to talk about their offline lives in a game.

However, this was not so for those of Ainz Ooal Gown. After all, there were two conditions one had to meet to be a member. The first was that everyone had to be a working member of society. The second was that they had to play Heteromorphic characters. Because of these rules, the topics they discussed often revolved around their jobs in the real world. Any member of the guild would field these questions and, as such, the current conversation between the two could be considered standard fare for the guild.

After about ten minutes, the torrent of words that flowed from HeroHero dwindled to a trickle.

“Hah...I’m sorry for making you listen to my whining. I can’t complain much IRL.” HeroHero sighed heavily. At least he had a job and a roof over his head. Many weren’t so lucky in their world run by mega-corporations.

“Don’t worry about it, HeroHero. I made you come online despite you being busy, so listening to your complaints is the least I can do. I’ll hear you out, no matter how many you have.” Momonga put up a smiling emoticon.

“Ah, I’m grateful for that, Momonga. I’m glad I could meet a friend after signing on.” HeroHero laughed a bit and seemed to have recovered some of his old energy.

“I’m very happy to hear you say that too.” Momonga nodded to the Elder Black Ooze.

“...Although it’s about time for me to log off.” HeroHero lamented that he had to be up in just a few hours to go back to work.

“You’re right, it is getting pretty late…” Momonga agreed, even as the sadness welled up in his chest.

“I’m sorry about this, Momonga.” HeroHero apologized, his voice conveying his feelings.

“Well, if it’s like that, then it’s a shame… time flies so fast when you’re having fun.” Momonga had greatly missed having his friends around. Now it was all about to come to an end.

“I really did want to stay with you to the end, but I’m about to fall asleep.” HeroHero seemed to shake himself as if to keep awake.

“Ah…well, you do sound pretty tired. Then, you should log out soon and have a good rest.” Momonga wanted the best for his friend, even if it was at the expense of his own feelings.

“I’m really sorry, Momonga. Although, how long do you plan to stay, Guild Master?” HeroHero questioned, seeing that there was only a bit of time left before Yggdrasil shut down.

“I intended to stay on until I was automatically logged out once the servers shut down. I wouldn’t want anyone to log on at the last minute and be greeted by an empty guild.” Momonga explained his plan for the night. It would suck only getting a couple hours of sleep before work tomorrow, but he’d make that sacrifice for any friend that showed up.

“Is that so? You really were the best person to be Guild Master.” HeroHero chuckled at Momonga’s kindness and dedication to their Guild.

At this moment, Momonga was grateful that his character couldn’t show his facial expressions. If it had been able to do so, HeroHero would have seen his face twist up. Even then, he worried that his voice would betray how he truly felt, so Momonga kept quiet, in order to suppress the feelings surging up within him.

He had worked hard to maintain the guild precisely because he had built it up along with everyone else, but hearing words like these from one of his guild members sparked a mix of complicated emotions in his heart. However, these feelings dispersed like mist as HeroHero continued.

“Momonga, you must have kept the guild going as its leader so we could come back to it at any time. Thank you very much.” HeroHero thanked him sincerely, having enjoyed being back in Nazarick for the short time that he’d been able to log on.

“It was a Guild built by everyone, so it’s my job as Guild Master to keep things going so that the members can come back at any time.” Momonga waved off the effort it had taken, since a portion of it was still covered by what they’d all collected together.

“Yes. We had fun with the game because you were our Guild Master, Momonga. I hope that when we meet again, it’ll be in YGGDRASIL 2.” HeroHero wished for such a future, even though it wasn’t likely.

“I haven’t heard anything about a second game… but like you said, I’d be glad if we could meet like that.” Momonga nodded to him, trying his best to hide the pain in his voice.

“I’ll look forward to it! I’m having trouble staying awake… I think I’ll log off first. I’m glad I could meet you in the end. Goodnight.” HeroHero apologized for leaving, but if he lost consciousness while playing then the neural interface would log him out anyway.

“...” Momonga wanted to say something, but he hesitated for a moment, and then he spoke. “I was very happy to meet you too. Goodnight.”

A smiling emoticon appeared in front of HeroHero.

Momonga sent the same emoticon back.

“Let’s meet up again somewhere.” HeroHero nodded to Momonga before logging out.

And so, the last of the three guild members to come online that day vanished.

Silence descended once more; it was as though nobody had ever been here in the first place. Nothing was left behind.

Momonga looked at the place where HeroHero had been sitting, and he muttered the words he’d wanted to say. “Today’s the last day of the game, I know you’re tired, but we’ll never have a chance like this again, why don’t we stay together until the end…?”

Of course, there was no response, because HeroHero had already returned to reality.

“Hah...” Momonga’s sigh came from the bottom of his heart.

In the end, it was better that his words had remained unsaid.

During their talk, he could already tell how tired HeroHero was from the sound of his voice. Still, despite his fatigue, HeroHero had still responded to the e-mail that he had sent, and logged on for the last day of YGGDRASIL before it closed down. He should have been grateful enough for that. Asking him to stay on would not just have been a matter of being inconsiderate, but actively caused his friend trouble.

Momonga stared at the seat HeroHero had occupied until just now, and then turned to look at the other thirty nine seats. Those were the places where his old friends had once sat. After his eyes had made a full circle around the table, Momonga returned his gaze to HeroHero’s chair. “Let’s meet up again somewhere… huh?”

Let’s meet up again somewhere.

See you again.

He had heard these words several times before, but they had never come true.

Nobody had ever returned to YGGDRASIL.

“When and where will we meet again?” Momonga’s shoulders shook violently, and the words he could no longer hold back exploded forth. “Are you kidding me?!” He pounded the table as he shouted.

The YGGDRASIL system registered this action as an attack, and in a split second produced the same red ‘0’ for damage as it had when he’d slammed his head into the table earlier.

“This is the Great Tomb of Nazarick that we built together! How could you abandon it just like that!?” After he shouted the words in his heart, the only thing left in there was emptiness. “No, that’s not right. They didn’t abandon it lightly; they simply made the choice between reality and fantasy. It couldn’t be helped. Nobody would betray the guild. Everyone who made that decision must have found it painful…” Momonga muttered as if he was trying to convince himself, and then he stood up. He walked toward the wall, where an elaborately decorated magic staff was kept.

Seven serpents twined around the body of the staff, which resembled the staff carried by Hermes Trismegistus. The serpents’ mouths gaped open in agony, and each mouth held a gem of a different color. The grip was exquisitely carved out of crystal and glowed with blue light.

Anyone would be able to recognize this staff as a supremely high-quality item, and it was a Guild Weapon that was unique to this guild. One could call it the symbol of Ainz Ooal Gown.

This staff, which should have been a treasure held by the Guild Master, was instead kept in this room as a decoration.

That was because there was nothing else which represented the guild quite like this.

Guild Weapons were typically kept hidden away in safe places and not used for their tremendous powers because a guild would be disbanded if its associated guild weapon was destroyed. Even Ainz Ooal Gown, a guild which existed at the peak of YGGDRASIL, was no exception to this.

That was the reason why the weapon had been kept here, and Momonga had never touched it, despite the fact that it had been tailor-made to complement his abilities.

Momonga extended a hand to the staff, but stopped halfway. This was because at this moment…in the last few minutes before YGGDRASIL shut down for good, he realized that soon the glorious memories he had made with his friends would be lost forever, like tears in rain. The confusion he felt over this realization made him hesitate as he struggled to come to a decision.

The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown had been made from everyone’s hard work. Everyone had adventured every day, with the sole purpose of assembling the guild weapon.

Back then, they had held contests to see who could collect more raw materials more quickly, and there had been many disputes over the appearance of weapon. But slowly, after everyone’s opinions were gathered, the weapon gradually took shape.

That period of time had been the prime of Ainz Ooal Gown, when all his glorious memories had been made.

People had dragged themselves online after a grueling day at work, others had argued with their wives because they played until they neglected their families, and some even laughed and said they had taken special leave to stay home from work and log on to the game.

There were times when they had spent entire days doing nothing but talking about silly things for amusement. There were times when they would draw up plans for adventures, and times when they went looking for treasure. They had also mounted raids on enemy guilds’ home bases and laid siege to their strongholds. Once, they had been attacked by a World Class Enemy (an immensely powerful, hidden boss monster) and the guild had nearly been destroyed as a result. They had also discovered many previously unknown resources, and they had placed all sorts of monsters in their guild base in order to eliminate invading players.

“It would be dumb to ask for a vote.” Momonga let out a humorless chuckle. He took the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown in hand, equipping it into his empty right hand slot. When everyone had been here, all decisions were made by majority rule. Now that he was the only one left, his word was law. So, why not at least equip the Guild Weapon that they’d all worked so hard on at least once, right?”

YGGDRASIL’s equipment was classified according to how much data each item possessed. Items with more data were ranked higher. From the lowest to the highest rank, they were Low Class, Middle Class, High Class, Top Class, Legacy Class, Relic Class, Legendary Class and, what the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown reached, Divine Class. Even though the weapon probably had data comparable to a World Item, only World Items were part of that pinnacle class.

For a Level 100 player like Momonga that had been playing for years, all of his standard equipment was of similar rank. On his fingers he wore nine rings, each with a different ability. There was also his necklace, his gloves, his mantle, his robe, and all of the other equipment like his bracelets and his belt, each of which were Divine Class items as well. If they had a price, it would be a jaw-dropping number for sure.

In the corner of Momonga’s vision, he noticed various indicators which showed his stats increasing just from equipping the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. He could say without reserve that he’d never been more powerful than at this moment. With a sigh, he left the Meeting Room, also known as the Round Table Room, and headed down the hallway. Guild members had a ring reserved for their use. Anyone who wore that ring would automatically appear in the Round Table Room when they logged into the game, barring special circumstances. If any guild members returned, they would do so in that room. It was why Momonga had waited there all day for anyone to show up. However, the Primordial Deity character knew that the other members of the guild would not be coming back here. In the last few minutes of the game, the only player who remained in the gigantic Great Tomb of Nazarick was Momonga himself.

The Guild Master suppressed the emotions that were rising like a tide, and walked through the halls. This place was like a castle built of alabaster; a magnificent world suffused with a regal atmosphere. If one raised their head to look to the ceiling, they would see crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling at fixed intervals, radiating a warm light. The broad hallways had brilliantly polished stone floors, which reflected the light from the chandeliers in a way that made it seem like twinkling stars were embedded in its surface. If a visitor opened the doors on either side of him, their attention would be captivated by the decadent furnishings within.

A third party observing this scene would probably be staring in awe.

The much-hated Great Tomb of Nazarick had once been attacked by the largest invading force ever assembled in the game’s history. Eight guilds had banded together with their allies to bring a force of over fifteen hundred players, mercenaries, and NPCs to bear on Nazarick, but in the end, they had been miserably defeated.

That legendary dungeon was now reduced to this. An empty place devoid of anyone but the single lonely person that wanted to hope for the return of his friends. Many of the players that despised them would probably laugh if they could see it now.

When their Guild had conquered the Dungeon and taken it over as their Guild Base, the Great Tomb of Nazarick had been a six floor dungeon. After a lot of time and real world money, it had grown to a ten floor dungeon as the members of Ainz Ooal Gown and changed it to suit their desires. The First to Third Floors were modelled after a tomb. The Fourth Floor was an underground lake. The Fifth Floor was a frozen glacier. The Sixth Floor was a rainforest. The Seventh Floor was a sea of magma. The Eighth Floor was a wasteland. And the Ninth and Tenth Floors were the realm of the gods, or in other words, the home base of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Momonga passed one of the Homunculus Maids on the way to his destination. She was a buxom blonde beauty and her uniform was incredibly detailed. That had been Whitebrim’s doing, while their AI routines were created by HeroHero and five others all working together. The NPC maid followed her routine and stepped aside to bow to Momonga. He waved to her, even if she was just a program it felt wrong to not acknowledge the hard work of his friends. He continued on and came to a grand staircase that could allow ten people to walk side-by-side up it simultaneously, with their arms outstretched at that. The whole of Nazarick was grand and beautiful and Momonga wanted to walk to the Throne Room instead of teleporting to take it in one last time.

He noticed the Head Butler, a gift to him from Touch Me a few years back, Sebas Tian. His hair was pure white, even the beard and moustache near his mouth. However, the old man’s back was ramrod-straight, like a sword forged of steel. His face was wrinkled and gave onlookers the impression that he was a kind and gentle person, but his keen eyes were like those of an eagle sizing up its prey. At Sebas’s side were the Pleiades Battle Maids. Since he’d spent some time reading through their backstories today, he knew each of them by sight.

The maids wore gauntlets and greaves of gold, silver, black, and other colored metals. Their armor was designed to look like the outfits of maids in manga. They did not wear helmets, but instead white headdresses. In addition, every girl was armed with a different weapon. They were the very picture of battle maids.

Their hairstyles were also varied; they wore their hair in buns, ponytails, long and straight, French curls, and so on. The one thing they had in common was that every single one of them was attractive. The exact way in which they were attractive also varied within them; one was sporty and athletic, one resembled a demure Japanese maiden, one of them had a seductive allure, and so on.

‘Yuri Alpha, Lupusregina Beta, Narberal Gamma, CZ2128 ‘Shizu’ Delta, Solution Epsilon, and Entoma Vasilissa Zeta.’ Momonga rattled off in his head, now that the information was fresh in his mind. He did look at Lupusregina Beta and Narberal Gamma for a little longer than the others because of the ‘love text’ he’d found in their backgrounds, but he put that aside for now. It would be wrong of him to change the settings of his friend’s creations.

Originally, Sebas and the combat maids were intended to be a last line of defense against invaders. However, if enemy players could penetrate this deeply into the tomb, they would be able to handily defeat Sebas and the maids, so they were little more than speedbumps to buy time. However, no player had ever made it this far, so they had been waiting here for orders. Without orders, all they could do was wait for a chance to be of use.

Momonga tightened his grip on the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. He knew it was foolish to feel pity for NPCs. They were nothing more than a collection of electronic data, and the closest they could come to real emotion was a very skilled set of AI routines. “Follow me.”

Sebas and the maids bowed respectfully, to show they had heard and acknowledged the order.

Leading them away from this place was not what the guild members had intended for them. Ainz Ooal Gown was a guild that respected the will of the majority. It was forbidden for an individual to selfishly manipulate the NPCs that everyone had made together.

However, this was the day when the curtains would fall on everything. Given that, his friends would probably forgive his indulgence.

As Momonga thought about this, he continued moving forward, followed by the sounds of many footsteps.

Eventually, the group arrived at a vast hemispherical dome-shaped hall. Four-colored crystal lamps glittered from the ceiling, and there were seventy two niches in the walls. Most of them were filled with statues. Each statue was modelled after a demon’s appearance, and there were sixty seven of them.

This room was called ‘The Lemegeton’ and it was named after the Lesser Key of Solomon, which was a magical grimoire.

The statues in the niches were designed to resemble the seventy two demons mentioned in that book, and in truth they were golems, made out of extremely rare magical alloys. There should have been seventy two of them, but there were only sixty seven, because their creator got bored of the project and quit before they were done.

The four-colored crystal lamps on the ceiling were a type of monster, and the moment an enemy entered their range, they would summon high-ranking elementals of earth, water, wind, and fire, in addition to bombarding them with area-of-effect attack magic. If these crystal lamps all attacked at once, the firepower they unleashed could easily defeat two parties of Level 100 players, which would be roughly twelve people. This room could be said to be the final defensive line of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick.

Momonga led the servants behind him past the magic circle, and laid eyes on the giant doors before him.

The majestic set of double doors were over five meters in height, and covered in intricate carvings. The left side was shaped into a beautiful goddess, while the right was made to resemble a cruel demon. So realistic was their design that even from across the room, Momonga thought that they would attack him.

Still, while the carvings looked like they could move, Momonga knew that they had never moved before.

“Will these two statues attack?” Momonga wondered to himself.

He was right to feel so uneasy. Even Momonga did not fully grasp the secrets of all the mechanisms in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. It would not be strange if one of the retired guild members had left a strange sort of present for him. And the one who had designed this set of doors was just such a person.

In the past, that same person had designed a very powerful golem, but shortly after activation, a flaw in the combat AI made itself known and it attacked everyone around it. To this day, Momonga still had his doubts about whether that ‘mistake’ had been on purpose.

“Hey, Luci★Fer, if they really attack me, I’ll be mad, you know.” Momonga called out to the prankster of the Guild.

However, Momonga’s caution in reaching for the doors was unfounded. As he touched them, they opened by themselves, although they did so slowly, in deference to their massive weight.

The air changed.

Although the atmosphere from earlier was filled with quiet solemnity, the scene before his eyes now exceeded that by far. The air became a pressure that weighed heavily on the entire body.

It was an exquisite piece of work.

And in this wide, high room where even packing several hundred people inside would not make it feel crowded. The high ceiling and the surrounding walls were a predominantly white color, with golden decorations as highlights. The numerous chandeliers which hung from the ceiling were made of precious stones of all colors of the rainbow, and they emitted a fantastic, dreamlike radiance. Numerous flags emblazoned with different symbols hung from flagpoles sunk into the walls. A total of forty-one of these flags swayed gently in the wind, from the ceiling to the floor. In the center of this room that was tinted gold and silver, there was a flight of stairs about ten steps high. Atop these stairs was a gigantic throne, carved out of a single piece of crystal, whose back was high enough to touch the ceiling above it. A huge red banner hung down behind it, proudly displaying the symbol of the guild.

This place was located in the deepest reaches of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. It was also its most important place: the Throne Room.

“Ohh…” Even Momonga could not help but gasp at the sheer magnificence of this room. He felt that it was easily the second most impressive location in all of YGGDRASIL, if not the first.

This was the most suitable place for him to welcome the final moments of the game.

As Momonga advanced through the room that seemed to absorb the sounds of his footsteps, his eyes fell on the female NPC that stood by the side of the throne.

She was a beautiful woman who wore a pure white dress, and the faint smile on her face was that of a goddess. In stark contrast to her dress, her hair was a flowing, lustrous jet-black that reached down to her waist. Although her golden irises and vertically-slitted pupils were somewhat odd, apart from those she could easily be considered a world-class beauty. However, a pair of curled horns sprouted from the sides of her head. In addition, a pair of black-feathered wings emerged from her waist. Perhaps it was because of the horns, but her divine smile seemed like a mask that concealed her true feelings. She wore a golden necklace that patterned after a spiderweb. It extended from her shoulders down to the tops of her breasts. Her slender wrists were covered in a pair of lustrous silk gloves, and in her hands, she held a strange weapon that looked like a wand of some sort. It was roughly forty five centimeters long, and a black orb hovered at its end, floating lightly in the air but holding its position at the end of the wand.

Momonga had never forgotten her name, but after the reading he’d done early today, he knew everything that he needed to know about her. She was the Overseer of the Floor Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Albedo. She was in charge of the seven NPC Floor Guardians. That made her the highest-ranked NPC character in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. Because of that, she was permitted to await orders within the Throne Room, in the deepest reaches of the Tomb.

However, Momonga turned a sharp look on Albedo, or more specifically the item in her hands. “I knew there was a World Class Item here, but how is it that there are two of them here now?”

In YGGDRASIL, there were two hundred ultimate items in the game, known as World Class Items.

World Class Items possessed unique abilities, and some of them were so balance-breaking that the user could even request changes to the game’s rules from the developers. Of course, not every World Class Item possessed such insane power.

Even so, a player who possessed even a single World Class Item would be catapulted to the highest echelons of fame in YGGDRASIL.

Ainz Ooal Gown possessed eleven of the World Items, the most of any guild. Even that was far in excess of any other guild. The guild in second place only possessed three World Items.

With the permission of the other guild members, Momonga was allowed to possess one of these ultimate items, and the rest of these World Class Items were scattered throughout Nazarick. However, most of them were stored in the depths of the Treasury, defended by its Avataras.

The only reason why Albedo could possess such a rare treasure like this without Momonga’s knowledge was because the guild member who designed Albedo had given it to her. However, since today was already the last day of the game, Momonga felt that he should respect the wishes of his friend, Tabula, who had given the item to Albedo, and so he did not take further action.

“This is a good place.” Momonga’s words were directed to Sebas and the Pleiades as they reached the base of the stairs leading to the throne. After that, he began climbing the stairs, but stopped when he heard footsteps behind him. Momonga could not help but laugh, although his character’s face could not show any expression.

The NPCs were merely inflexible AI routines. If he did not give a specifically-worded command, they would not recognize it as an order. Momonga had forgotten this and thus he had not properly commanded the NPCs.

After his guild members left, Momonga had begun solo hunting by himself to a nearly ridiculous degree in order to earn the gold needed to maintain Nazarick. He did not build friendships with other players and avoided them, as well as the high-difficulty areas he used to visit when his guild members had still been around. Then, he would deposit his earnings in the Treasury before logging out. This had been his routine almost every day. As such, he did not have much contact with the NPCs.

“Hmm, I think it was…Stand by.” Momonga took a second to recall the proper command.

The sound of footsteps stopped.

After Momonga had given the correct command, he ascended the final steps and arrived at the throne. He stared openly at Albedo, who stood by its side. Though he had entered this room before, he did not recall her eyes tracking him in his memories.

“Am I just overthinking it?” Momonga muttered under his breath. He knew Albedo had ‘love’ for him in her backstory too. So, maybe he was just being paranoid?

Momonga sat on the throne, scanning his surroundings with eyes filled with satisfaction and a little embarrassment. He noticed that Sebas and the maids were still standing by in a dormant state. It seemed a little lonely, and a little odd, to have them standing motionless like that.

‘I think there was a command for that.’ Momonga recalled the words he had heard before, and extended a hand before lightly bringing it down. “Kneel.”

As one, Albedo, Sebas, and the six maids fell to one knee in obeisance.

‘Good.’ Momonga nodded to himself for remembering.

Momonga raised his left hand to check the time on the in-game watch that Bukubukuchagama had given him years ago.

[23:55:48]

He was just in time.

In all likelihood, the GMs were probably flooding the public channels and setting off fireworks. Momonga, who had put his heart and soul into this place and cut off all contact with the outside world, had no interest in that. Seimei had said that things were going on too, but none of it mattered to the last member of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Momonga leaned against the back of the throne, careful of his wings, and slowly raised his head to look at the ceiling. He thought that even on the last day of the game, some invaders might come to Nazarick. He would wait for them. He would accept any challenges in his position as Guild Master.

He had sent emails to all the guild members, but only a few had come. He would wait for them. He would welcome his comrades back in his position as Guild Master.

“A relic of the past, huh?” Momonga sank into thought.

Although the guild now was just an empty shell, he had enjoyed his time with it.

He turned his eyes to look at the huge flags hanging from the ceiling. There were forty-one of them in total, the same number as there were guild members. Each of them displayed the personal symbol of each guild member. Momonga extended a bony finger and pointed to one of them.

“Mine.”

Then, he turned his attention to a nearby flag. That flag represented one of the strongest players in Ainz Ooal Gown…no, in all of YGGDRASIL. He was the one who had started the guild, and the one who had gathered the ‘Original Nine’.

“Touch Me.”

The symbol on the next flag he pointed to belonged to the oldest member of Ainz Ooal Gown, who was a lecturer in a university in real life.

“Shizyuutensuzaku.”

His finger moved faster than before as he shifted to the flag which belonged to one of the three female members of Ainz Ooal Gown.

“Ankoro Mochimochi.”

Momonga fluidly recited the names of the various symbols’ owners: “HeroHero, Peroroncino, Bukubukuchagama, Tabula Smaragdina, Warrior Takemikazuchi, Variable Talisman, Genjiro…”

It did not take long for him to name all forty of his former comrades. Their names were still branded deeply in Momonga’s brain.

“Yeah, it really was fun…” He sprawled tiredly on the throne.

Even though the game did not have any subscription fees, Momonga had still spent a third of his monthly salary on it. It was not because his salary was high, but because he had no other hobbies, so he funneled all his income into YGGDRASIL.

There was a cash gacha in the game where players could pay for a chance to win a prize. Momonga spent nearly his entire bonus on it, and barely managed to get a rare item out of the experience. When he heard that one of his guild members, Yamaiko, had won that item for the cost of a lunch, Momonga had been so envious that he wanted to roll around on the ground. Now, he chuckled at the memory.

Because almost all of Ainz Ooal Gown’s members were productive members of society, most of them were willing to spend money on this hobby, and among them Momonga was one of the bigger spenders. That was how dedicated he was. Adventuring was fun, but his greatest joy was found in playing with his friends.

To Momonga, whose parents had passed away and who had no friends in real life, the guild Ainz Ooal Gown was a shining memory of the good times he had spent with his friends.

And now, this guild would disappear.

His heart was filled with regret and reluctance.

Momonga gripped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown tightly. He was just an ordinary salaryman, and he lacked the financial power or connections to change that fact. He was just another player who could only watch the closing time as it approached.

The time on his watch read [23:57]. The server would shut down at [00:00].

There was little time left. The virtual world would end, and he would have to go back to reality the next day. That was only natural. Nobody could live in a virtual world, which was why everyone had left, one by one.

Momonga sighed as he remembered that he had to wake up at four in the morning tomorrow. He had to sleep the moment the servers shut down in order not to affect the next day’s work.

[23:59:35, 36, 37]

Momonga set his watch to count out the seconds.

[23:59:48, 49, 50]

Momonga closed his eyes.

[23:59:58, 59—]

The countdown finished. He waited for the curtains to fall on his fantasy world.

He waited for the automatic logout to take him back to reality.

[0:00:00...1,2,3]

“...Hm?” Momonga opened his eyes.

He had not returned to his familiar room. This was still the Throne Room in Nazarick.

“What’s going on?” Momonga muttered to himself. The time was right. He should have been forcibly logged out by the server shutdown.

[0:00:38]

It was definitely past midnight. The clock could not have gone wrong because of a system error. He shut off the count and, in his confusion, he looked around him, searching for any clues in the vicinity.

“Could it be they delayed the server shutdown?” Momonga wondered to himself. Perhaps they had extended play time as a form of compensation? Although numerous reasons appeared in his mind, they were all far from the truth. However, the most likely reason was that an irresistible force had cropped up, and extended the server shutdown time. If that was the case, the GMs would have made an announcement. Momonga hurriedly worked to open the message panel he had closed earlier only to stop halfway in shock.

There was no command console.

“What… on earth happened?” Momonga was filled with panic, frustration, and suspicion, but he was also surprised that a part of him was still calm considering the circumstances. He decided to call on other means. Forced connections that did not require a console, the chat function, a GM call, even a forced logout.

None of them responded. It was as though they had all been deleted from the system.

“What the hell is going on!?” Momonga’s angry voice echoed through the Throne Room.

Today was the last day of YGGDRASIL, yet all these things were happening on a day that should have marked an end to the game. Was this some kind of prank they were pulling on the players?

Momonga was quite unhappy that he could not meet the end of the game in style, and the words he muttered clearly illustrated the anger inside him. There should not have been any reply to his hostility towards this unexpected situation.

However...

“What’s wrong, Lord Momonga?”

It was the first time he had heard this beautiful woman’s voice. Momonga was startled, but he still searched for the source of the voice. When he found the one who had spoken the words just now, he lost his ability to speak entirely.

The person who had answered him was the NPC raising her head: Albedo.

“Is something wrong, Momonga-sama?” Albedo kept asking him questions.

Momonga did not know how to respond. As it was, there were far too many things he did not understand, so his thought processes short-circuited. “Forgive me.” He could only stare dumbly at Albedo, who was standing by his side.

“Are you alright, Lord Momonga?” Albedo’s beautiful face drew close to Momonga’s as she studied him. A faint fragrance entered his nostrils. The scent seemed to restore his ability to think, and his mind, which had been hitherto out of commission, slowly returned to normal.

“No… nothing is wrong… no, nothing.” Momonga was not the sort of person who made a habit of speaking politely to dolls. However, hearing Albedo’s questions instinctively made him want to respond with deference. Her movements, her speech patterns, her whole being radiated an undeniable humanity.

Momonga still had the feeling that something was terribly wrong about Albedo and himself, but he had no way of understanding exactly what the problem was. All he could do in this ignorant state was to suppress his fear, shock, and other unnecessary emotions. However, Momonga was a common person, and could not do that. Just as Momonga was about to cry out, the words of one of his guild members came to mind.

“Panic is the seed of defeat, so you must maintain your calm and think logically. Remain calm, look beyond your surroundings, and don’t waste your effort on unnecessary details, Momonga.”

As he recalled these words, Momonga slowly regained his composure and silently thanked Punitto Moe, the Zhuge Liang of Ainz Ooal Gown.

“Is something the matter?” She was close to him now. Albedo was so close he could feel her gentle breaths. Her lovely face dimpled in an adorable way as she asked her question. Momonga, who had calmed himself after much effort, was in danger of being driven into panic again from her nearby face.

“The [GM Call] function does not seem to be working…” Entranced by Albedo’s limpid eyes, Momonga could not help but answer the NPC.

In the real world, Momonga had not received romantic attention from the opposite sex, let alone those of a sexual nature. Although he knew that she was just an NPC, he could not help but be moved by her realistic expressions and movements.

However, as his passions stirred within his heart, a part of him stayed steady, unmoved by his rising emotions. Momonga grabbed onto it like a lifeline and used it to maintain what calm he could. It was strangely even more effective than a mantra or any breathing exercise as he felt himself buoyed by this stable part of himself.

“...Please forgive my inability to answer the Supreme One’s questions about this ‘Gee Em Call’. I apologize for not meeting your expectations. Nothing would please me more than a chance to make up for my prior mistake. Please, command me as you see fit.” Albedo bowed her head to Momonga.

The two of them were conversing. There was no doubt about that.

Learning this fact shocked Momonga so greatly that he could not speak.

‘Impossible. This should be impossible.’ Momonga thought to himself, his mind whirling.

The closest thing NPCs could come to conversations was with macroed responses to being addressed in a certain way. There was audio data for roars and cheering for players to download, but actually allowing an NPC to engage in a real conversation was an impossible task. Even just a few minutes ago, Sebas could only accept simple preprogrammed orders.

Why had such an impossible event occurred? Was this phenomenon limited to Albedo?

“A moment, please.” Momonga gently dismissed Albedo, and seeing disappointment flash across her face as she retreated was a further surprise. Momonga turned his eyes from her body to the butler and the six maids, whose heads were still lowered. “Sebas! Maids!”

“Yes!” Sebas and the Pleiades chorused out as one, and then the butler and maids raised their heads.

“Approach the throne.” Momonga spoke what he knew wasn’t a programmed order.

“Understood.” They responded as one, and then rose to their feet. After that, they proudly strode to the front of the throne before dropping to one knee and lowering their heads again.

Momonga had learned two things from this quick experiment. The first was that he did not need to specially enter commands on a keyboard; the NPCs would understand his intentions and execute his orders. The second was that Albedo was not the only one who could speak. At the very least, all of the NPCs in this room were exhibiting anomalous behavior.

While Momonga thought about this, he suddenly felt that there was something very wrong about himself and Albedo. Something that should’ve been obvious but he felt as if he’d overlooked. In order to discover exactly what that something was, he fixed Albedo with a piercing gaze.

“I-Is something wrong? Have I made a mistake…?” Albedo worried at the gaze from Momonga.

“Eh!” He uttered, finally realizing what the problem was, but he did not shout. The seemingly unmovable part of him was keeping him stable as long as he held onto it.

Albedo’s unexpected breadth of facial expressions. The reason why her mouth could move and why she could speak.

“Impossible…” Momonga hurriedly placed a hand on his jaw as he spoke.

His mouth was moving.

This should have been impossible, going by what he knew about DMMO-RPGs. A character’s mouth would not move with their words. The basic premise was that external appearances were fixed. Because of that, facial expressions were impossible to design.

“Impossible…” Momonga could feel the certainty he had in the world evaporating away, replaced by an ever-growing uneasiness. He suppressed his desire to shout out and latched more firmly onto the unmoving part of himself. A sense of stability filled his being and he exhaled softly. Momonga slapped forcefully at the throne, but as he expected, no damage values appeared. Another test down as more and more evidence piled up. “What should I do…? Is there anything I can do?” He knew nothing about what was going on. Nobody would help him even if he got angry or if he panicked.

Then, his first priority should be looking for clues.

“Sebas.” He could see an earnest, sincere expression on Sebas’s face. He looked like a real person. It should be fine to give him orders, right? Although he had no idea what would happen, he could assume all the NPCs in Nazarick were loyal to him, right? For all he knew, the people in front of him might not be the NPCs that everyone had made together.

Numerous questions rose up in his mind, floating on a sea of uneasiness that was kept at bay as Momonga clung tightly to the strangely stable part of himself. In the end, the only choice he had for reconnaissance was Sebas. He glanced briefly to Albedo, but then Momonga steeled himself and decided to order Sebas out.

The mental image of a department chief giving orders to his subordinates appeared in his mind. Momonga took on his best superior, commanding attitude, and spoke. “Exit the Tomb and investigate the surrounding region. If you encounter intelligent creatures, interact peacefully with them and invite them to the Tomb. Attempt to accommodate the other party as much as possible during negotiations. Do not stray more than one kilometer from the tomb and avoid unnecessary combat.”

“Understood, Lord Momonga. I will do so immediately.” Sebas accepted the order instantly.

In YGGDRASIL, NPCs made to protect a guild base could not leave it under any circumstances. However, it would seem this ironclad restriction had been overturned.

No, he could only be certain of that once Sebas returned.

“Select one of the Pleiades to accompany you. If battle begins, retreat immediately and tell me everything you have learned.” Momonga furthered his order and saw only acceptance in Sebas’s eyes. The butler stood to his feet and with a motion of his hand Solution stood as well. The two walked from the Throne Room and Momonga watched them go until the doors shut behind them.

That was simply another experiment begun, there were plenty more to do as he tried to gain as much information as possible.

Momonga let go of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

The staff did not fall onto the ground, but floated in the air as though someone were still holding it. This was in complete defiance of physics, but it was a common sight in the game. There were quite a few items in YGGDRASIL which would continue floating in the air when left unattended.

Momonga folded his arms as he thought about his next move. “I should contact the game company.” The game company would know the most about Momonga’s present situation. The problem was actually contacting them. Normally, simply using the ‘/shout’ command or a GM Call would put him in touch with a GM instantly, but if these methods did not work either.

“Message, perhaps?” Momonga hummed lowly.

Message was a standard spell used to communicate in the game. Normally, its use was restricted to certain places and conditions, but perhaps he might be able to make good use of the spell in this current situation. The problem was that this spell was originally designed to communicate with other players, so it might not be able to reach a GM.

And in this extraordinary situation, there was no guarantee that the spell would work either.

“However…” Momonga knew that he had to give it a try.

Momonga was a Level 100 spellcaster. If he could not cast spells, his mobility, his ability to gather information, and of course his fighting power would plummet drastically. In these unknown circumstances, he had to verify that he could use magic, and quickly.

‘Now where can I go to test my magic?’ Momonga pondered, he looked slowly around the Throne Room and then shook his head.

Although this was an emergency situation, he had no desire to conduct magical experiments in the silent, nearly sacrosanct Throne Room. He contemplated suitable locations for magical testing, and a promising place came to mind.

There was one more thing he wanted to confirm, in addition to his own abilities.

He wanted to be certain of his authority. He had to know whether his powers and privileges as the Guild Master of Ainz Ooal Gown still existed.

So far, all the NPCs in the Throne Room were loyal to him. However, in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, there were several NPCs with levels equal to his own. He had to make sure they were all still loyal.

Momonga glanced at the still kneeling maids, and then at Albedo beside him.

Albedo was smiling. It was a beautiful smile, but it seemed to be concealing something else behind it. As he wondered what that ‘something else’ might be, unease crept through Momonga. He wasn’t any good at reading a woman’s signals, he barely interacted with any women, even at his job. The building unease flowed away as Momonga held fast to the stable part of his being. Whatever this was inside of him, it was currently a lifesaver.

‘What can I do to ensure loyalty remains?’ Momonga questioned himself internally. He thought about rewards, but the idea of giving away any of his old friend’s items didn’t sit well with him. A conversation from long ago between his friends came to mind. One comment stood out among the rest.

“In a chaotic and uncertain situation, the thing that will establish order the fastest is power. Overwhelming power is the one thing that has been relied on since the dawn of Humanity.”

“You’re not wrong, Ulbert.” Momonga whispered under his breath. He held out his hand and the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown flew into it quickly. The seven gems set in the top almost seemed to glow slightly, as if begging him to use their immense power. Be it animals or humans, those with power made the rules. Putting on his strongest voice he spoke up again. “Pleiades, head to the Ninth Floor and repel any invaders from the Eighth Floor.”

“Understood, Lord Momonga.” The remaining maids responded promptly. They all stood to their feet and headed for the large doors.

A great weight seemed to lift off Momonga’s chest at the instant compliance, and at the same time he looked at the person who had stayed by his side. That person was Albedo, who had stood by, awaiting orders.

She smiled, and asked him, “Then, Lord Momonga, what will you have me do next?”

“Ah, ahhh… got it.” Momonga let go of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, letting it float next to the throne, and as he did that, he spoke. “Come to me.”

“Yes.” The smiling Albedo drew closer.

Although Momonga was wary of the black wand and orb she had been carrying, that caution passed in an instant, and he decided to temporarily ignore its existence. Just as he finished thinking that, Albedo was close enough that he could embrace her if he wanted.

‘She smells nice…wait, what am I thinking.’ Momonga cast out the thoughts which had risen up inside him again. Now was not the time for such things. He reached out his hand to touch Albedo’s.

“Mm...” She let out a little noise.

“Hm?” Momonga looked at her face immediately. A strange expression flickered across Albedo’s face. Momonga drew his hand away, like he had received an electric shock. ‘What’s this? Did I make her feel uncomfortable?’ It only took a second before Momonga found his answer.

His Unique Race had a few equally unique abilities and skills, and among those abilities was the ability Deity Aura, which passively buffed allies and debuffed enemies within range. Said range was usually only within arm’s reach by default, he had to actively increase that range to spread the effect. Was that the reason?

Although, even if it really was the reason, he still had some questions to ask.

In YGGDRASIL, the monsters and NPCs that appeared in the Great Tomb of Nazarick would be recognized as belonging to the Ainz Ooal Gown faction. Since every member of the guild was also flagged as belonging to Ainz Ooal Gown, there should be no problems even if they attacked each other.

‘Could it be that she no longer belongs to our guild? Or has friendly fire been enabled?’ Momonga pondered curiously, the latter possibility was probably more likely. With that conclusion in mind, he apologized to Albedo. “Forgive me. I forgot to deactivate my Deity Aura skill.”

“Please feel free to keep it active, Lord Momonga. It feels incredible...I mean…as long as it is you, Lord Momonga, I would gladly continue…kya!” Albedo’s face turned red and Momonga suddenly realized that his skill hadn’t caused her discomfort by debuffing her, but some form of pleasure by buffing her instead.

“Ah… mm. Is… that so… No, no, I must still apologize.” Momonga was caught off-guard by Albedo’s adorable reaction and the way she shyly covered her face, and his reply ended up being less dignified than he had hoped for.

Momonga turned his eyes from Albedo, who was still mumbling to herself behind her hands, and began thinking about how to temporarily deactivate the passive skill…and then he suddenly knew how to do it. To Momonga, who wielded the power of a Deity, it was as simple and natural as breathing. He could not help but laugh at the strange situation he found himself in. After all the shocks and surprises that he had received so far, this was hardly worth panicking about. It was almost frightening how well he had adapted to this sudden realization.

“I’m going to touch you.” Momonga gently informed Albedo.

“Ah.” Albedo quickly had her hand back out for him to take hold of.

After deactivating the skill, he touched Albedo’s hand. Thoughts like ‘Her hand’s so slim.’ and ‘Her skin’s so white.’ raced through his head, but he cast aside these male desires and focused on one thing: the pulse at her wrist.

It was there.

It was a steady rhythm, just as it should be.She was a living being, so it was only natural.

Yes, she was alive.

Momonga released her hand and pulled the sleeves of his robe up to look at his own arms. They were the semi-pale complexion of his character, with the slight glow when he looked at his skin for long enough to recognize it. He placed his fingers to his wrist and felt his own pulse. It was there…he had a pulse…his character had a pulse.

He shifted his gaze to Albedo again.

Momonga saw himself reflected within Albedo’s golden eyes. Her cheeks were pink, probably because her body was rapidly heating up. The changes in her body surprised him.

“What’s this?” Momonga couldn’t help but utter. ‘Is she not an NPC? Is she not pure electronic data? Why does she feel like a real person? What kind of AI could do this? More importantly, why is it that YGGDRASIL feels like the real world...’

Impossible.

Momonga shook his head in denial. There was no way such a fantastic scenario could have occurred. But once the idea took root in his mind, it was not easy to eradicate. Momonga was not sure how to proceed given the changes in Albedo. There was only one thing left to check to try and verify the insane thought.

The next step…yes, the final step. If he could confirm that, then all of his suspicions would be vindicated. Was this real life, or was this just fantasy? He had to do this. If she attacked him with that weapon of hers, it could not be helped.

“Albedo… I, may I touch your breasts?” Momonga asked as clinically as he could manage.

“Eh?” Albedo’s reply should’ve been obvious.

The air between them seemed to freeze.

Albedo’s eyes went wide.

A sudden wave of depression nearly washed over Momonga as he considered his words.

“I have to do this,” What the hell was he thinking, saying that to a woman? He wanted to scream “Despicable!” at the top of his voice. Indeed, using one’s superior position to commit sexual harassment was the most despicable thing imaginable.

But he had no choice. Indeed, he had to do this.

As Momonga tried to convince himself with all his strength, his composure gradually returned to him. That unwavering part of him bolstering his resolve. Resuming the air of a proper ruler, he spoke again. “That...should be fine, right?”

It was not fine at all. Was the immediate response from his civilized mind.

In contrast to Momonga’s nervous request, Albedo seemed to be overflowing with joy. She gave him a beaming smile. “But of course, Lord Momonga. Please, help yourself.” Albedo straightened herself up, presenting her ample chest for Momonga’s inspection. It took him a second to realize that he’d swallowed unconsciously.

Albedo’s breasts swelled up through her dress. And now, he was going to touch them.

As opposed to his tension and nervousness, the quiet, calm part of Momonga’s being was unmoved. He felt the oddness of the that core of immovability, but it was helping him calm down once more. He chanced a peek at Albedo, and found that her eyes were shining, jiggling her bosom as though to say ‘Hurry up and touch me.’ without words.

Not knowing whether it was because of excitement or embarrassment, Momonga steadied his hands, steeled his resolve, and reached out. The first thing he felt was something hard under her dress, followed by a soft, yielding sensation as his hands pressed against them. His fingers sunk into the large tits, alighting his nerves with sensation.

“Fuahh...haaa...” As Albedo mewled, Momonga had completed yet another experiment.

If he wasn’t insane, then there were two possible explanations for his present situation.

The first was that this was a new DMMO-RPG. That was to say, the moment YGGDRASIL had shut down, a new game, ‘YGGDRASIL 2’, had immediately taken its place.

However, in light of this experiment, the probability of that being the case was vanishingly small. That was because R-18 actions were strictly forbidden in these games. Even R-15 actions might be banned, depending on the game. Violators would be publicly listed on the game’s official website, and their accounts would be deleted, or worse.

Once the records of these R-18 actions were publicly released, they might be punished for damaging moral culture and thus violating the Social Order Maintenance Act. As such, most people would consider these acts off-limits.

If they were still in a game world, the company should have made it impossible for players to do such things. If the GMs and the game company were watching, they would have prevented Momonga from performing any lewd actions. However, there was no sign of any resistance or opposition.

There was another possibility...the absolutely impossible chance that the virtual world had become reality.

‘Impossible.’ Momonga promptly rejected that idea. How could such an illogical, foolish thing happen? But on the opposite side, the more he thought about it, the more strongly he felt it was the right answer.

And then…Momonga remembered Albedo’s scent.

In accordance to the software legislation for virtual reality games, such games were not allowed to provide sensory data for smell and taste. Although YGGDRASIL had food and drink items, consuming them was little more than changing a value in the game system. In addition, the sense of touch was heavily limited, in order to prevent confusion with the real world. These limitations meant that VR systems were not very useful for the sex industry.

‘However, none of these limitations are in effect now.’ Momonga realized and his mind reeled. Countless questions like, ‘What about tomorrow’s work?’ and ‘What’ll happen if this keeps up?’ flashed through his mind, but then he cast them all to the back of his mind. “If this virtual world is just a simulation of the real world…then the quantity of data involved must be unimaginable…” Momonga swallowed again.

Though his mind could not comprehend the situation, his heart could. His hands finally left Albedo’s ample bosom. He realized that he had been groping her for a long time, but Momonga justified it to himself by saying that he had no choice but to grope her for that long, and it was definitely not because squeezing her supple flesh felt so good that he only reluctantly let go of her…or something.

“Sorry, Albedo.” Momonga apologized, but didn’t expect the response that he received.

“Fuahh…” A sensual moan came from the red-faced Albedo, and Momonga could practically feel her body heat raising the surrounding temperature. After a moment she shyly asked. “Will I have my first time here?”

“Eh?” Momonga was caught entirely off guard by her question. His mind was suddenly frozen, and was unable to parse her question. ‘First time? What’s that? What’s this all about? And why does she look so shy?’

“May I ask how you wish to dispose of my clothes?” Albedo questioned, her hands gently running over her dress.

“Wha?” Momonga suddenly forgot how to use words.

“Would it be better if I disrobed myself? Or would you like to unwrap me, Lord Momonga? Or if we did it while I was wearing the dress, afterwards…it would get dirty…no, if you want me to wear this dress, I have no objections, Lord Momonga.”

His brain finally managed to make sense of Albedo’s words. Although, whether that was from his own doing or because he was once more grabbing onto the unmoving part of his being like a lifeline was up for debate.

After a long moment to settle himself, Momonga finally spoke. “Enough, that’s all for now, Albedo.”

“Eh? I understand.” Albedo straightened up, shaking herself slightly.

“Now is not the time for… no, there’s no time for that sort of thing.” Momonga felt his own desires begin to calm down as he focused on the immovable core of his being.

“My, my apologies! I allowed myself to be ruled by my desires despite the urgency of the situation!” With a swift movement, Albedo made to genuflect in apology, but Momonga stopped her.

“No, all this is my fault. I forgive you, Albedo. That aside…I have an order.” Momonga spoke up, once more in control of his thought and emotions.

“Please give me any command you desire.” Albedo bowed respectfully.

“Tell the Guardians of each Floor, with the exception of the Fourth and the Eighth Floors, to meet at the Colosseum on the Sixth Floor in an hour’s time. I will contact Aura and Mare myself, so there is no need to inform them.” Momonga almost wanted to pat himself on the back for sounding so professional.

“Understood. Allow me to repeat the order; aside from Aura and Mare of the Sixth Floor, I am to inform all the Floor Guardians to meet one hour later at the Colosseum.” Albedo repeated back to him for confirmation.

“Correct. Go.” Momonga nodded and waved his arm to the side slightly to dismiss her.

“Yes.” Albedo swiftly departed the Throne Room.

As he watched the retreating Albedo, his eyes unconsciously dropped to her fantastic rear as her long hair swayed and let him see it framed by her white dress. Momonga let himself sigh, in a way that suggested he was thoroughly exhausted when she was at the door. Once Albedo left the Throne Room, Momonga groaned painfully and spoke to no one. “What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?” He needed time to vent and time to process all of this. Hopefully it didn’t take the full hour he’d given himself with his last order to Albedo.

-

“To me, Demons of the Lemegeton!” The golems which heeded Momonga’s command were made of rare metals. They moved before him with an agility that belied their heavy bodies, then took the ready stance they had assumed earlier.

Now that Momonga had decided to go with his theory that virtual reality had become reality, his first concern was to guarantee his own safety. Although the NPCs he had met so far had readily obeyed him, there was no guarantee that the others he met would react in the same way. Also, even if they were all friendly, he did not know when danger would next appear.

Momonga’s life and death hinged on whether or not he could use such things as Nazarick’s facilities, the golems, his items, his magic, and so on.

“Well, that’s one problem solved.” Momonga muttered in relief as he looked at the golems. He then ordered them only to listen to him. That way, even in the worst-case scenario (if one or more NPCs revolted) he would have an ace in the hole.

Momonga, satisfied with the mighty-looking golems, looked down at his hands. He wore nine rings on his ten fingers, and only his left ring finger was bare.

Usually in YGGDRASIL, one could only wear two rings, one on each hand. However, Momonga had used permanent cash items (which were very expensive) to let him wear a full ten rings, one on each finger, and use all their powers at once. This was not unique to Momonga; most players who valued power would spend that money too.

One of the nine rings Momonga wore had an emblem on it which resembled the symbol embroidered upon the large red banner behind the throne.

That ring was called the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Every member of Ainz Ooal Gown possessed the magic ring that Momonga wore on his right ring finger.

Although he could use the power of ten rings at once with the aid of cash items, when he applied the cash item, he had to decide which ring he wanted to assign to which finger, and that decision was irrevocable. Even so, Momonga had removed the ring on his left ring finger and sent it to the Treasury. The reason why Momonga had assigned that somewhat weaker ring to that finger was because it would be very useful under certain circumstances, but he rarely wore it because it had a constant effect.

The power of the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown was unlimited teleportation between named rooms of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, and it would even allow one to teleport into the Tomb from the outside. Since Nazarick was warded to block teleportation into or within itself (except for a few specific areas), this ring was very handy.

The only places where this ring could not teleport its wearer was to the Throne Room and the various guild members’ personal rooms. This ring was also required to enter the Treasury, which was why he could not do without it.

Momonga sighed deeply, some worry creeping up within him.

After this, he would be using the ring’s power. He was not sure if the ring could still do everything that he expected of it, but he had no choice except to test it out.

As he unleashed the ring’s power, the world before him instantly turned black.

A second later and the scenery in front of him changed, his surroundings were now a dark tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, he could see what looked like a giant lowered portcullis. Within the tunnel were artificial lights.

“It worked…” Momonga muttered to himself, relieved at the successful teleport. That was another successful experiment. He walked down the wide and high passage, toward the portcullis ahead of him. The stone floor amplified the sound of Momonga’s footsteps, and at times he could hear echoes. The torches that lined the tunnel flickered constantly, and as a result, the shadows they made seemed to dance. Bathed in the light of several torches, he cast several shadows at once.

A scent tickled his nose as he drew near the portcullis. Momonga stopped and took a deep breath. It was a strong scent of earth and grass: the smell of the jungle.

Much like his encounter with Albedo a short time ago, the intensely realistic scent, in a world that should not have possessed such things, only served to further convince Momonga of the reality of the world he was in.

As though it sensed Momonga approaching, the portcullis swiftly raised itself into the ceiling at just the right moment to let him through. Past the barrier, what Momonga saw was a circular arena, surrounded on all sides by many tiers of audience seats.

The colosseum was an oval in shape, one hundred eighty meters on its long axis and one hundred fifty meters on the short axis. It was forty meters tall and modelled after the arenas of the Roman Empire. There were Continual Light spells cast everywhere, illuminating the grounds in white light, so one could observe the entire Colosseum like it was day. The audience was composed of many clay dolls (golems, in other words) which showed no sign of activity.

In this Colosseum, the intruders would be the stars of the show, while the ones watching from the VIP box would be members of Ainz Ooal Gown. The main event, of course, would be a brutal melee. Apart from the fifteen-hundred-man invasion, every single invader had met their end here.

Momonga walked into the center of the arena, and looked into the heavens. Before him stretched a black expanse of night sky. Perhaps he might have been able to see the stars if there were no light around him. However, this place was the Sixth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, so the sky here was merely a virtual imitation. But even that imitation required a massive amount of data, and as a result the sky here could change with the time of day, even showing an actual sun with appropriate daylight effects.

Momonga could relax himself in this virtual landscape because his heart was still human, even if his body was that of a Deity. It was also because he felt a sense of appreciation for his comrades’ hard work in building this place. A part of him wanted to just wait and space out here, but the present situation denied him that luxury.

Momonga looked around, but nobody was there. The twins should have been taking care of this place...

He noticed something.

“Toooooooh!”

After the shout, a figure leapt from the VIP box.

The figure jumped down from a height of about six stories, somersaulted in mid-air, and landed as though it were a butterfly descending on a flower. There was no magic involved, only pure physical prowess. It negated the force of the impact with a simple flexing of the knees, and it smiled broadly.

“Nailed it!” It made a V-sign of victory.

A child of about eleven had descended from above. Her face bore a smile that was as bright as the sun. She was adorable, and Momonga wanted to pat her head. Her hair resembled threads of spun gold, and it grazed her shoulders. Her mismatched eyes, one blue, one green, seemed as eager and sparkly as a puppy’s. Her ears were long, and her skin was dark. She was a Dark Elf, a species related to Forest Elves.

She wore a shirt of light leather armor, reinforced with red dragon’s scales. The emblem of Ainz Ooal Gown was proudly displayed on her vest, stitched in gold onto a white background. Below that, she wore a pair of white pants, matching her vest. A necklace with a glittering golden acorn pendant hung from her neck, and she wore a pair of gloves reinforced with plates of enchanted metal.

A whip coiled across her waist and right shoulder, and there was a longbow on her back. The bowstave and grip seemed to be covered in strange decorations.

“It is good to see you, Aura.” Momonga spoke the name of the Dark Elf child. He was addressing the Guardian of the Sixth Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, Aura Bella Fiora. She was a skirmisher who was also able to summon and tame beasts.

Aura jogged over to Momonga. Well, to her, it was a jogging pace, but she was travelling as fast as one of her beasts at full speed, rapidly closing the distance between them.

Aura screeched to a halt. Her running shoes had hihiirokane metal plates on the soles, and they threw up clouds of dust as they ground against the floor of the arena. The clouds did not touch Momonga’s body; if she had planned that, then her skills must have been impressive indeed.

“Huu~” Aura was not sweating, but yet she wiped her forehead theatrically. Then, with a puppy-like smile, she greeted Momonga. “Welcome, Lord Momonga. Welcome to the level I guard!” The greeting was filled with the same respect that Albedo, Sebas, and the maids had for him, but for some reason it felt more relaxed.

To Momonga, this casual tone allowed him to loosen up. Being too uptight and authoritative was quite troublesome for Momonga, who was not experienced with such things. He could not detect any hostility on Aura’s face, and his Enemy Scan Skill revealed nothing.

“Mm, I’ll be intruding for a while.” Momonga nodded to Aura with a gentle smile.

“What’re you saying? You are the master of Nazarick, the Supreme Being right, Lord Momonga? There’s no place you’d be intruding if you visited!” Aura declared with a bright smile.

“I see… speaking of which, if you’re here, Mare should be as well, yes?” Momonga asked the Dark Elf.

Upon hearing Momonga’s question, Aura blinked in surprise, as though she had realized some great truth and turned around, shouting loudly upward towards the area that she’d jumped down from. “Lord Momonga has graced us with his presence! How rude are you going to be by not showing your face to him?”

There was movement in the shadows of the VIP box.

“Was Mare there too?” Momonga guessed with a suppressed chuckle.

“Yes, that’s right, Lord Momonga. He’s really timid… Oi, jump down here now!” Aura snapped at the person that had yet to reveal themselves.

An almost inaudible reply came from the VIP box. Judging by the distance between there and here, it was a miracle the other party could even hear Aura. However, that miracle was the result of the magic on Aura’s necklace.

“I…I can’t, Sis…” A male voice called back.

Aura took a deep breath and facepalmed at the response. “I’m sorry… he’s… Lord Momonga, he’s just scared, he’s definitely not trying to insult you.”

As a member of society, one had to know when to speak one’s heart and when to say things that were appropriate for the occasion. Momonga nodded and answered in a gentle way to put Aura at ease. “Of course, Aura. I have never doubted your loyalty, nor Mare’s.”

Aura sighed in relief, and then she became serious again before shouting angrily at the VIP box. “The Supreme Being, Lord Momonga, has come to visit us, but you as a Floor Guardian aren’t even here to meet him! You should know how disrespectful that is! If you’re too scared to jump down, maybe a quick kick will substitute for courage!”

“Uuu… I’ll take the stairs down…” Mare’s response didn’t seem to please Aura.

“How long do you want Lord Momonga to wait!? Get over here now!” Aura stomped her foot on the ground.

“I-I got it… e-eiii!” Mare had gathered up his courage, but his voice still seemed unsteady. After that, a figure jumped out of the VIP box.

As expected, it was a Dark Elf. This Dark Elf was particularly wobbly on his feet, completely different from how Aura had handled her landing. However, he did not seem to be hurt. He must have skillfully dissipated the force of landing with some athletic trick. After that, he immediately began running over as quickly as he could.

However, his top speed was still much slower than Aura’s. She must have thought so too, because she frowned and shouted at her brother. “Hurry up!”

“Y-Yes!” The child who finally arrived in front of Momonga looked almost identical to Aura. They were definitely twins, given the way they shared the same hair, the same eyes, and the same features. However, if Aura was the sun, then Mare was the moon.

He looked nervous, as though he was afraid of being scolded. Momonga was surprised by the stark difference between the two. However, from what Momonga had read of Mare’s backstory, he was acting in-line with what Bukubukuchagama had written. This may be confirmation that their backstories and character descriptions were now the truth of their personalities.

“I-I’m sorry I kept you waiting, Lord Momonga…” Mare nervously raised his eyes to peek at Momonga. He wore a vest of blue dragon scales, and a small cape that was as green as jungle leaves. His clothes had the same basic white color as Aura, but a short section of flesh peeked out below his short skirt. It was short because the rest of his legs were covered in white silk stockings. He had an acorn-shaped pendant on a necklace like Aura, but his was made of silver. Mare was much more lightly armed than Aura, with a pair of lustrous white gloves on his dainty little hands, and a gnarled black staff in his hands.

All of this made the NPC that was Mare Bello Fiore.

Like Aura, he was a Guardian of the Sixth Floor of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Momonga squinted and looked at them. Aura thrust her chest forward proudly, while Mare simply cowered under Momonga’s gaze. He nodded several times, amazed that the two of them were indeed the living incarnation of his friend’s hard work. “I’m glad to see that the two of you are in good spirits.”

“I’m positively overflowing with energy… although it’s been a bit boring recently. It would be nice if we had an intruder or two.” Aura grinned at the idea of some excitement.

“I…I would rather not have to meet intruders… they, they’re scary…” Mare looked down at the ground.

After hearing Mare’s words, Aura’s expression changed, growing annoyed. “Haa... Lord Momonga, please excuse me for a while. Mare, come with me.” She grabbed the tip of his ear and began leading him away.

“O-Oww… Sis, that hurts…” Mare complained to his Aura. But then, Aura began whispering into Mare’s ear. Even from a distance, one could tell that she was scolding him.

“Well, that’s nostalgic.” Momonga lightly chuckled, recalling several occasions were Bukubukuchagama had scolded Peroroncino over something stupid that he’d done or wanted to do.

To be fair, Momonga didn’t want to face any intruders yet either. At least not before he had time to test out his magic and prepare Nazarick to the absolute best it could be. Until that time, he was content to not be invaded by any outside force. Shaking himself from his thoughts, Momonga noticed Mare on his knees in front of Aura, and clearly getting a torrent of admonishment from his sister.

“That’s enough for now, Aura.” Momonga spoke up to end Mare’s chastisement.

“But Lord Momonga…” Aura looked at him like she still had more to say to her little brother.

“It’s fine.” Momonga stopped all argument. “I’d like for the two of you to assist me with a few tests.”

“Of course, Lord Momonga!” Aura bowed to him quickly.

“Y-Yes, Lord Momonga!” Mare was quick to bow low as well.

“Also, there is one more thing, Aura. I have already ordered the other Guardians here. They will arrive within the hour.”

“Eh? Then, then we need to get ready for…” Aura began, but was cut off.

“No, there is no need. All you need to do is stay here and wait for them.” Momonga stated firmly.

“Is that so? Hm… all the Guardians…that means Shalltear’s coming too?” Aura asked for confirmation.

“All the Guardians.” Momonga confirmed with a nod.

“Haa...” Aura’s long ears suddenly drooped as she exhaled heavily.

Momonga recalled that their backstories involved the two not getting along. But he was sure it was intended more playfully than anything serious, considering Peroroncino and Bukubukuchagama were siblings. Deciding to move things along, he address the twins.

“Firstly, Aura…” Momonga spoke to her and Aura straightened up from her bow. “I’d like to ensure that my Immunities and Resistances are all working. Could you try using your Tamer Skills on me?”

“L-Lord Momonga…are you sure?” Aura’s normal energetic tone was noticeably subdued.

“Of course, I trust you, Aura.” Momonga smiled at her and Aura’s face went a little red. It was adorable, really. “Knowing how your Skills work, they’re the best for testing my Resistances and Immunities.”

“Right, I won’t let you down, Lord Momonga!” Aura was back to full energy as a large smile covered her face.

This confirmed for Momonga that friendly fire was indeed an active part of the world. Aura had genuinely seemed hesitant at first, and now was convinced that she could use her Skills on him. Unlike in YGGDRASIL were friendly fire was turned off.

What followed was Aura trying out every single one of her Beast Tamer Skills on Momonga to try and circumvent his various Immunities and Resistances. When none of her mind-altering Skills had any effect, including the ones that could bypass Racial Immunities, Momonga was satisfied that his Psychic Immunity was still working perfectly. Aura had sparkles in her eyes at seeing Momonga not even slightly affected by her Skills.

“Now, Mare, I need to test my Element Resistances and Immunities, as well as my High Tier Magical Immunity.” Momonga looked at the boy with a kind smile to hopefully ease Mare’s nerves.

“Y-Yes, of course, Lord Momonga.” Mare bowed low before running a distance away to properly utilize his magic. The Dark Elf boy hesitated for only a few moments before calling upon one of his spells. “Fireball!” A swirling sphere of fire formed at the top of Mare’s staff before rocketing toward Momonga. The spell splashed against a briefly seen glow around Momonga’s body and dispersed harmlessly.

“It would seem Third Tier spells are blocked. That’s good to know.” Momonga muttered to himself. “Try something of the Sixth Tier this time, Mare.” He instructed and Mare agreed with only a slight stutter.

For the next few minutes, Mare blasted Momonga with all manner of spells. Momonga was thrilled that all of his Resistances and Immunities were working perfectly, just as they had in YGGDRASIL. It made a small mountain of tension drop from his shoulders to know that he wasn’t in as much danger as he initially feared.

“The targets are ready, Lord Momonga!” Aura waved after she, Mare, and two Monsters known as Dragonkin had set up a large line of straw dummies for him to aim his spells at.

“Clear the area, Aura, I would not want to harm anyone with my spells.” Momonga instructed and watched as the Elf Twins rushed a good distance away. Both of them came to a stop in a perfect position to watch his tests from though, clearly eager to see his power. Momonga pointed his finger, preparing to cast a spell on one of the straw dummies.

Momonga knew a fair number of pure damage spells. But his focus was more on summoning, support, with DPS coming as a more tertiary role when with his friends. As a result of his Job Classes, he could perform many spells that were effective on Undead and Living targets, but he was now faced with actually casting a spell for the first time since YGGDRASIL had seemingly become real. Using a direct damaging spell was his first experiment, even if his Job Levels didn’t particularly strengthen that type of magic. He glanced curiously at the children to the side, whose eyes were glittering in anticipation. He felt uneasy as he wondered whether he could live up to their expectations.

The reason for allowing Aura and Mare to witness this experiment was to impress his power upon them before the other Guardians arrived. In this way, they would learn that opposing Momonga was a foolish course of action. The two kids did not seem like they would betray him, nor did he feel that they would betray him. However, if he lost the ability to use his magic, Momonga was not confident that they would stay loyal to him. Aura treated Momonga like an old friend, but to Momonga, it was the first time they had met. He could tell that the twins were the lovingly crafted embodiment of his Bukubukuchagama’s hard work. However, there was no guarantee that their design and programming was perfect. In the face of countless situations and stimuli, a discrepancy or weakness might appear somewhere.

They were intelligent beings who could think on their own, so flaws in their reasoning must exist somewhere. If they were not programmed to be loyal to weaklings, what would that mean for him? In all likelihood, they were not written to be slavishly loyal. That would mean that whether or not they obeyed the order would depend on who the giver was. And it would be bad enough if they did not listen to him, but what if they betrayed their guild leader after finding out that he was powerless?

It was not good to have too many doubts, but blind trust was not a wise move either.

Momonga shook his head and decided that he would cross that bridge when he came to it before turning his mind to the present.

He cast aside the doubts in his mind, and focused on using the magic of YGGDRASIL.

There were over six thousand spells in the game, from Tier One to Tier Ten, as well as Super Tier magic. These spells were divided among various types and schools, and Momonga could use over seven hundred of them. A normal Level 100 player would only be able to use three hundred, so Momonga was an exceptional case. He had memorized almost all of these spells, and he considered which one to use now.

To begin with, because the restriction on friendly fire had been lifted, he needed to know how the effective radius of a spell would show itself.

It was like a power hidden within him. Just like how he had deactivated his Deity Aura, Momonga focused within himself. Suddenly, he knew…and Momonga smiled in delight.

He was fully aware of information like the spell’s effective radius, its cooldown, and so on. Knowing this information, being aware that his power still existed, filled him with a surging excitement and warm satisfaction. Unlike in YGGDRASIL, he felt that the magic was part of him. This was a sensation that he could never have experienced in the game!

Momonga channeled the jubilation in his heart into his fingertip, and spoke the words of his first spell, the same one that Mare had cast against him just a short while ago. “Fireball.”

The fireball struck the strawman unerringly, as he had predicted. It burst, releasing a wave of scorching flame that blew the strawman away. The inner part of the fireball exploded, turning the strawman and the surrounding area into a sea of fire.

All this happened in an instant. Then, besides the blackened strawman, there was nothing left.

“Heh…heh…hahahahaha!” Momonga couldn’t help but laugh in a mix of satisfaction and excitement. He’d just used Magic! And not in a game, but for real! He was quick to refocus and choose the next straw dummy that would be his target. “Napalm.”

A column of flame appeared beside the strawman, engulfing it in fire. Momonga paused a beat, then cast another spell on the remnants of the strawman.

“Fireball.” Momonga cast a second time. The fireball struck the remains of the strawman, scattering its ashes in a puff of smoke.

The recast time between spells was the same as in YGGDRASIL. The actual process of casting was faster than in YGGDRASIL. Previously, in order to cast an area effect spell, he would need to choose the spell, then move the area effect cursor over the desired area. The real casting process was much quicker than that.

“Perfect,” Momonga grinned, his voice filled with the same satisfaction he felt in his heart. He wasn’t powerless. If anything, he was more powerful than he ever was before. Suzuki Satoru was an average man, a regular office drone. But Momonga was a Deity capable of wielding powerful magic. The difference was greater than the distance between heaven and earth!

Seeing that he still had a few straw dummies set up, Momonga looked over at the twins. Aura had said that she was bored, right? And it would be good to see what the two of them were capable of in a fight. Not to mention he could test out the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown at the same time. Three birds with one stone.

“Summon: Primal Fire Elemental!” Momonga pointed the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown at the remaining straw dummies. The red gem in one of the seven serpent’s mouths glowed brightly. Every single strawman burst into intense flames simultaneously. The flames twisted around faster and faster, until the tornado of flame reached a width of four meters and a height of six meters. The crimson inferno threw off gusts of scorching air in all directions.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the Dragonkin protecting Aura and Mare with their hulking bodies. The searing winds made his robe flap violently. So intense was the heat that it would not have been unusual for a normal person to be burned by the wind alone. But Momonga had complete immunity to fire damage, so it had no effect on him at all.

Soon, the vast cyclone of fire, swallowing the surrounding air as it burned hot enough to melt metal, began to flicker and shudder as it took a humanoid form.

Primal Fire Elementals could be said to be among the highest ranking among all elemental monsters. They were over level eighty five. Momonga felt a mysterious connection to the Primal Fire Elemental, an assurance that he was the Master and the summoned Elemental his tool. It was a comforting feeling to be honest.

“Uwah...” Aura was watching it intently as she made noises of surprise. As she looked upon the top tier elemental, something that even her summoning powers would not be able to bring forth, Aura’s face bore a look of excited admiration, like a child who had just received a dearly beloved present.

“Do you want to fight it?” Momonga had a knowing grin on his face.

“Eh?” Aura perked up.

“Ehhhhh?” Mare looked shocked.

After a moment of hesitation, Aura grinned widely. Compared to a normal child’s smile, hers was almost scary. In contrast, Mare’s smile from the side seemed more like that of a child hoping to impress a parent.

“Can I?” Aura looked eagerly between Momonga and the Primal Fire Elemental.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine even if you defeat it.” Momonga shrugged to indicate that it was all right. The Staff could summon one Primal Fire Elemental a day. In other words, the Staff could summon another such being after one day had passed. As such, defeating it would not be a great loss.

“Ah, I suddenly remembered that I had something urgent to do…” Mare’s nerves seemed to have gotten the better of him.

“Mare.” A hand reached out and firmly grasped Mare’s arm, not allowing him to escape. His sister had no intention of fleeing. Aura’s smile stopped Mare in his tracks. Perhaps to Momonga it might have been a cute girl’s smile, but to the other person present, who looked almost the same as Aura, it was anything but cute, and Mare’s face froze solid as he looked on it. She dragged Mare in front of the Primal Fire Elemental. Mare’s eyes looked around, and he looked desperately to Momonga for help.

In response to his hopeful smile that blossomed delicately on his face, Momonga simply nodded with an encouraging smile.

The flower of hope promptly wilted.

“All right, try your best, you two. I’ll heal you if you get hurt.” Momonga promised, knowing that he’d need to try out his collection of Healing Spells at some point anyway.

“Kay~” Aura responded energetically, in contrast with Mare’s nearly inaudible and despondent reply.

Momonga felt that as long as Mare was around, neither of the twins would get hurt. Using the connection between himself and his summoned creature, he ordered the Primal Fire Elemental to attack the twins.

As the conflagration that was the Primal Fire Elemental approached them, the twins met its attack with Aura as the frontliner while Mare was the rear guard. Aura slashed at the Primal Fire Elemental, holding her whip in both her hands, while Mare used magic to deal damage.

“Well, it seems it’ll be an easy fight.” Momonga’s eyes left the one-sided battle taking place before him and began to ponder the other things he needed to investigate.

He had already finished verifying that he could use and activate his spells and equipped magic items. Thus, the next things he had to check on were his other items. Scrolls, wands, and rods were particularly important. All of them were magic items that could produce a spell-like effect. Scrolls were one-use expendables, while rods and wands had charges, which they consumed to produce their effects.

Momonga possessed many magic items. He was a hoarder by nature and did not like using expendable items because he felt it was a waste, to the point where he did not even feel like using high-end recovery items when he encountered a boss. This went beyond mere prudence to miserliness, which was why his stock of items was so great. In YGGDRASIL, all of these were stored in his personal inventory. Then, in this world, where had his inventory and all its contents gone?

Momonga recalled how he had opened his inventory in the past, and reached his hand into the air as though searching for something. It felt as though he was reaching his hand past the surface of a lake, and an observer would think that Momonga’s hand and part of his arm had vanished into nothingness. Then, like he was opening a window, Momonga swept his hand to one side. A hole appeared out of nowhere, and within it were many beautifully-crafted magic staves. It was exactly like the inventory in YGGDRASIL. He moved his hand in a scrolling motion. In the space revealed, one could see all manner of scrolls, wands, weapons, armor, cosmetic items, gems, potions, other consumables… the sheer number of magic items in there was awe-inspiring.

Thus relieved, Momonga could not help but laugh. With all of his inventory available to him, Momonga felt that he could guarantee his own safety even if everyone in the Tomb set themselves against him.

As he absently watched Aura and Mare’s intense battle, Momonga considered the things he had learned so far and what he needed to do next. Recalling his previous idea about using the Message spell, he cast it and attempted to connect with a GM.

“No good?” Momonga grimaced and started down the list of his friends. One after another the Message spell failed. “Maybe it doesn’t work? Or is there a range limit?” He pondered on the failures. Deciding he didn’t have anything to lose, he cast Message again, this time with Sebas as the recipient. There was a beep in his mind before he received a response.

“Yes, is there something that you need, Lord Momonga?” Sebas’s voice sounded inside his mind like a phone call.

“Sebas, how do things look on the outside?” Momonga questioned the butler on the task he’d given the former NPC.

“Well, Lord, there is a slight problem.” Sebas spoke, his eyes taking in the vastly changed landscape from the one that used to surround the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

“Grasslands?” Momonga blinked at hearing about the outside of the tomb. “No swamps?”

“No, my Lord.” Sebas denied. “Just a flat plain, with a clear sky full of stars much like the Sixth Floor’s sky.”

The Great Tomb of Nazarick used to sit in the middle of a large swamp filled with Demi-Human mobs called Tuvegs. It was covered in mist and the swamp itself was poisonous. To be on a flat plain was completely unexpected.

“I’ve called all of the Guardians to the Sixth Floor Colosseum. Come and share your findings within twenty minutes.” Momonga instructed, now curious as to just where they could be if this was still the game of YGGDRASIL.

“It will be done, Lord Momonga.” Sebas confirmed before ending the Message spell.

“RAAAAGGGHHHH!!!” The Primal Fire Elemental let out a death roar as it sputtered into a swirling flame and slowly burned out to nothing. The only trace that it had been there was the various scorch marks on the ground.

“Well done, that was impressive.” Momonga praised the twins with a proud smile.

“That was fun!” Aura beamed, as did Mare. “I haven’t exercised that much in a while.” She wiped her forehead with the back of her gloved hand.

“You two must be thirsty.” Momonga silently opened his inventory, and withdrew a magic item known as a Pitcher of Endless Water.

In YGGDRASIL, there were statuses like hunger and thirst, but neither of those applied to a Deity like Momonga, so he didn’t have to use items like this, even though he could. He used them almost exclusively on his mounts.

Momonga then took out a pair of beautiful glasses, filled them with water from the Pitcher, and gave them to the twins. “Aura, Mare, have a drink.”

“Eh? But that’s not good, right, Lord Momonga …” Aura looked shocked at the offer.

“Y-Yes, I can make water with my magic too…” Mare offered, in lieu of drinking from the glass.

Momonga chuckled lightly as he saw Aura waving her hand and Mare shaking his head. “Think nothing of it. The two of you have always done well. Think of this as my thanks to you.”

“Fuwa~” Aura let out a cute sound.

“Fuee~” Mare sounded like he simply couldn’t believe the kindness they were being shown.

Aura and Mare’s ears turned red, and they shyly, nervously accepted the water from Momonga.

“Th-Thank you, Lord Momonga!” Aura’s cheeks flushed as she brought the glass to her lips.

“To, to think you would pour water for us, Momonga-sama!” Mare seemed in awe as he took his glass as well.

‘Is this really that big of a deal?’ Momonga wondered in the privacy of his mind.

Aura took the glass in both hands and downed it in one gulp. Droplets of water escaped the corner of her mouth, down the smooth curves of her pulsing throat and into the jerkin covering her chest. A rather messy way to drink, for sure. Mare held his cup with both hands and slowly sipped from it. He was careful not to spill a single drop, it seemed. The differences between the twins were obvious even in the way they drank water.

“I have to admit, I thought you’d be scarier, Lord Momonga.” Aura spoke up, her cheeks lightly pink.

“Oh?” Momonga placed the Pitcher and glasses back into his inventory. “I can do that, if you’d like?”

“I like you this way! It’s the best!” Aura exclaimed brightly, a smile on her face. Mare nodded happily in agreement with his sister.

“I see,” Momonga let the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown float in the air next to him. With a soft smile, he placed a hand gently atop each of their heads and gently patted them.

“Eh…?” Mare seemed like he didn’t know how to respond. But a happy smile formed on his face after a second and his eyes were nearly sparkling in joy.

“Mm.” Aura had a smile of her own, clearly enjoying the affection. Her face was lightly red, as were the tips of her elven ears. If anything, she seemed to be gently rubbing her head against his hand, almost like a puppy would do.

A blackness suddenly rose from the ground not too far away. It formed a half oval the size of an average doorway. Momonga recognized it as the Gate spell, the highest tier of all Teleportation spells.

“My, my, it appears that I’m the first to arrive.” A woman’s voice emerged from the Gate, followed by the person themselves.

She wore a black ball gown which looked soft to the touch. Her skirt was puffed up into a voluminous bell shape. On top of that was a bolero edged with frills, lace, and ribbons, as well as a pair of long silk gloves. Together, they covered up most of her skin. Said skin was as pale as snow, and her looks could only be described as stunningly beautiful. Her long silver hair was tied up into a ponytail that descended from one side of her head, exposing her face. Her deep red eyes were filled with a seductive look of delight.

All in all, she looked to be fifteen years old or perhaps a short sixteen year old, and her innocent, youthful appearance combined the qualities of cuteness and beauty into a single whole. However, her breasts bulged proudly forward in a decidedly adult manner.

‘Shalltear Bloodfallen, a True Vampire, the Guardian of the First, Second, and Third Floors of Nazarick.’ Momonga did a quick mental review. He briefly noticed that Aura was glaring at Shalltear and Mare was slowly backing away from his sister. Perhaps Aura didn’t enjoy the fact that he’d stopped patting their heads when Shalltear arrived?

“Oh wow, Lord Momonga!” Shalltear quickly stepped forward, not even looking towards Aura and Mare. “The one man that I could never rule over, my eternal beloved!” She looped her arms around his shoulders as best she could while standing on her toes. She was a short and Momonga had made his character 183cm tall.

‘Eh?! What the?! Peroroncino this is way more forward than necessary!’ Momonga called out his friend internally. The kinky jerk had definitely wanted Shalltear to act like this! Her eager giggles were cute though and Momonga did return her hug with his left arm around her waist, almost out of reflex.

“Stop, Shalltear! You’re starting to drool on him!” Aura hand her hands on her hips as she called the vampire out.

“Hello, half-pint, I didn’t notice that you were here.” Shalltear let go of Momonga and looked over her shoulder at Aura. “Having such a foolish older sister must be hard, Mare. How ever do you manage it?” Aura was clearly getting annoyed as she scowled.

“Oh look, Shalltear’s faking having boobs again.” Aura scoffed, looking off to the side.

“What?!” Shalltear shrieked, holding her hands over her chest.

“How long can you hold that transformation, huh?” Aura needled the vampire. “Is that why you used a Gate? You needed to save time before you returned to your bug bites?”

“Grrr! Watch it, Elf!” Shalltear growled back at Aura. “You’ve got nothing but a boy-chest!”

“True. But I’m only seventy-six, I can still grow!” Aura pointed out that she was actually just starting her own ‘teenage’ years by Elf standards. “But you’re stuck in an Undead body. Maybe you should learn to accept what you have?” Aura shrugged, a smug smile on her face.

“How dare you!” Shalltear was quick to rush over and get into Aura’s face.

‘That’s about what I expected.’ Momonga nodded as the two girls bickered. He knew that Peroroncino had given Shalltear a few Job Levels in Shapeshifter, allowing her to alter her body to a degree for a period of time. Just another way his pervert of a friend could include more of his many fetishes.

“What a ruckus. Stop acting like children in front of the Lord.” An inhuman voice spoke up.

The one that had spoken stood two and a half meters tall, and resembled a bipedal insect. It looked like some fiend had melded a praying mantis and an ant together. It had a tail that was twice as long as its body, and it was covered in sharp spikes which resembled icicles. Its powerful-looking mandibles looked like they could sever a man’s arm in a single bite. It grasped a platinum halberd in one of its four hands and it was surrounded by a frightening aura of cold. Its exoskeleton was a dull blue color and sparkled like diamond dust. Protrusions which looked like icebergs bulged up from its back and shoulders.

This was the Guardian of the Fifth Floor, the ‘Ruler of Glaciers’, Cocytus. He was clearly of the mind to stop the bickering between Aura and Shalltear. So, he slammed the hilt of his halberd into the arena floor, and the ground around it began to freeze.

“I’ll stop once this Elf bitch pays for her words!” Shalltear had a black and purple fog surrounding her hands.

“Try it, vamp!” Aura had her whip at the ready.

“Enough.” Momonga reactivated his Deity Aura and both girls stopped what they were doing. “Aura, Shalltear, this isn’t the time to be playing around.”

“Forgive us, Lord.” Aura and Shalltear apologized in unison, both bowing to him.

“I’m glad you’re here, Cocytus.” Momonga greeted the Insect Warrior.

“I will always come when you call, my Lord.” Cocytus responded, giving a short bow to Momonga. Twin bursts of frosted breath escaping his mandibles a second later.

“Very good.” Momonga nodded to him in acceptance.

“Sorry everyone, I hope you weren’t waiting too long.” A male voice spoke up.

Looking over, Momonga spotted Albedo walking towards the group. Just behind and slightly to the side of her was the man that had spoken.

He was about 180cm tall, and his skin looked as if it was darkened from the sun. His facial features would pass for Asian back in the Momonga’s world, while his jet-black hair was neatly combed back. The eyes under his pince-nez glasses could not even be said to be narrowed. It was doubtful whether they were actually open at all. He was dressed in a Western suit, orange pinstripe with a matching tie. He gave the impression of being a professional businessman, or a skilled lawyer.

However, his gentlemanly appearance was hard-pressed to hide the evil air about him. He had a tail sheathed in silvery metal extended behind him, tipped by six sharp spikes. His pointed ears, the left one having four piercings in it, also gave away his non-human nature.

This was Demiurge, Guardian of the Seventh Floor, and nicknamed ‘The Creator of Blazing Inferno’ by his creator, Ulbert.

The Guardians lined up behind Albedo, and then the beautiful demon woman spoke.

“My Lord, we the Guardians, pledge our fidelity.” Albedo looked directly into Momonga’s eyes of ever-shifting color during her pledge. All of the Guardian then dropped to one knee and bowed their heads to him.

“Raise your heads.” Momonga spoke after letting them kneel and bow for a moment, his Deity Aura surrounding him and spreading out to encompass them all. ‘No problem. Just fake it as best you can. It’s just like a business presentation. All I need to do is sell the image I’m going for.’ He kept his face as neutral as he could, once more leaning on the immovable core inside of himself. “I’m very pleased that all of you have come.”

Aura and Mare both looked slightly confused at Momonga’s change in tone from when they were alone to now.

“Your words are wasted on us. We have pledged ourselves to you and live to obey, Lord.” Albedo spoke for the group, as were her position as Overseer. “I fear our abilities may not meet your expectations. Despite this, we will strive to meet them in honor of the lost Supreme Beings, our blessed creators. This we vow.”

“This we vow.” All of the Guardians chorused.

“Excellent, my Guardians, though I have no doubt that you will all fulfill your duties and my commands perfectly.” Momonga spoke, making sure to throw in some praise, knowing that it helped with motivation. The smiles he saw on the faces of the Guardians let him know he’d made the right choice.

“My Lord, forgive me for speaking up.” Demiurge spoke, his voice made soothing and pleasant by his Skill known as Command Mantra. It only worked on beings below Level 40, so to the Guardians it was nothing but a nice voice. “But the Guardians of the Fourth and Eight Floors are not present.”

“My subordinates are not here as well.” Cocytus took Demiurge’s speaking up as permission to speak himself. He didn’t notice Shalltear, Aura, and Albedo all flinching slightly at the mention of his direct subordinates.

“The Guardians of those two Floors are not to be moved unless necessary.” Momonga shook his head slightly to respond to Demiurge. “As for the Area Guardians like Kyouhukou, Grant, and the others, I’ll leave it to each of the Floor Guardians to inform them of what we cover in this meeting.”

“Yes, Lord.” All of the Guardians accepted his instructions immediately. The three girls relaxing slightly now that certain Area Guardians wouldn’t show up.

“Now then, the situation outside the Great Tomb of Nazarick is currently entirely unknown to us.” Momonga informed the Guardians plainly. “With this in mind I’ve had Sebas survey the surrounding area.” He noticed most of the Guardians’ eyes widen at that information.

In the minds of the Guardians, Sebas, a Level 100 NPC and a master of hand-to-hand combat, being given the task of reconnaissance could only mean that Momonga was taking the situation incredibly seriously. That put all of them on their guard as well.

“It’s about time for him to return.” Momonga mentioned and saw Sebas jogging over to them, until he reached the Guardians genuflecting before Momonga and went to one knee as well.

“Momonga-sama, forgive my lateness.” Sebas apologized promptly.

“It’s fine. Then, your report on the surrounding conditions.” Momonga wave off Sebas’s apology.

Sebas raised his head and looked around at the Guardians kneeling beside him.

“The situation is critical, so obviously the Floor Guardians need to know as well.” Momonga informed, motioning for Sebas to begin his report.

“Yes. To begin with, the terrain surrounding us for a kilometer in each direction is a plain. There are no signs of man-made structures. I spotted some small animals, but there were no humanoid or large creatures.” Sebas reported his findings.

“Were those small animals monsters?” Momonga questioned the butler for clarification.

“No, they were life forms which had no combat power.” Sebas shook his head.

“I see. Then, were the plains you spoke of covered in frozen grass which would cut you as you passed them?” Momonga asked, knowing that was a terrain hazard in parts of YGGDRASIL.

“No, it was simple meadow grass. There was nothing special about it.” Sebas clarified further.

“And you did not see any sky castles or similar buildings?” Momonga was starting to suspect that they weren’t in YGGDRASIL at this point.

“No, I did not. There was no sign of man-made illumination in the sky or on the land.” Sebas replied politely.

“I see, so there was only a starry sky… Thank you for your hard work, Sebas.” Momonga praised Sebas for his efforts, but was somewhat disappointed because he had not obtained any useful information.

However, the realization that he may not be in the game world of YGGDRASIL was unnerving, as it meant his knowledge of the various worlds and areas of the game was useless. But if they weren’t in the game world, then he didn’t understand why he could use YGGDRASIL’s equipment and magic.

He did not know why they had come here, but it would be wise to heighten Nazarick’s combat readiness just in case. For all he knew, this might be someone else’s territory, and he might be censured for having come here without permission. No, he would be lucky if that was all that happened.

“It would seem that Nazarick has been transported to an unknown land by equally unknown means.” Momonga spoke to the Guardians after he finished his thoughts. “Floor Guardian Overseer Albedo, and Defensive Leader Demiurge, I have a task for you.”

“Lord?” Albedo and Demiurge looked up at Momonga, ready to serve.

“Fortify our defenses, and work on a means to strengthen our information gathering.” Momonga ordered the two most intelligent of the Floor Guardians. “The rest of you, follow their lead and ready Nazarick’s defenses.”

“Lord.” Aura, Mare, Shalltear, and Cocytus nodded at his order.

“Mare, is there anyway to conceal the Great tomb of Nazarick?” Momonga looked at the Druid.

“Y-Yes, though it will be difficult if all we use is magic.” Mare spoke his thoughts on the matter of concealment. “But if we covered the walls with dirt and vegetation, we could pass for a hill.”

“You want to smear the glorious Nazarick walls with dirt?” Albedo nearly growled.

“Albedo.” Momonga raised his voice, his Deity Aura flaring and for a second it activated a debuff on the Overseer before returning to the buff function again. “Do not make needless remarks.”

“Yes, forgive me, my Lord.” Albedo apologized, bowing her head.

“Are you confident that dirt will be sufficient, Mare?” Momonga questioned the boy.

“Yes, I am, as long as you allow it, of course.” Mare nodded before a look came over his face. “Except…a single hill…”

“Right, one random hill would look unnatural.” Momonga agreed, catching on to Mare’s thinking. “Sebas, are their any hills in the area that we could blend in with?”

“No, my Lord, the plain extends as far as the eye can see in all directions.” Sebas shook his head.

“Fortunately, the land can be molded to suit our needs. Would making dummy hills suffice?” Momonga looked at the butler for his thoughts.

“Yes, I do believe we would blend in fine with such a landscape.” Sebas bowed his head in agreement.

“Excellent, then that is what we shall do.” Momonga decided with a firm nod. “Afterwards, we can use Illusion magic to hide any spots that we cannot cover.”

“Of course, Lord, it will be done.” Mare bowed his head low.

“Lastly, I would have each of you answer a question.” Momonga informed and the Guardians raised their heads. “In your own words: Tell me what kind of person I am to you.” He looked at Shalltear first. “Shalltear, answer.”

“Beauty incarnate. There is nothing in this world that could compare to your divine glow.” Shalltear didn’t hesitate for even a second before giving her answer, her eyes filled with love and longing.

“Cocytus.” Momonga turned his eyes to the largest of the present Guardians.

“A man who’s strength is unrivalled by any Guardian. You are truly worthy of ruling the Great Tomb of Nazarick; always and absolutely.” Cocytus answered proudly to his Lord.

“Aura.” Momonga’s gaze softened slightly.

“Compassionate. And your foresight always keeps you three steps ahead of the game.” Aura smiled at him brightly.

“Mare.” Momonga’s gaze remained soft for the normally nervous boy.

“You’re a leader that is kind as well as merciful.” Mare felt his face heat up at being under Momonga’s gaze, but he spoke from the heart all the same.

“Demiurge.” Momonga looked at the demon with more intensity than the Elf Twins.

“A wise leader who makes decisions and acts on them quickly. Truly, a man worthy of the title ‘inscrutable.’” Demiurge answered with a pleased smile.

“Sebas.” Momonga directed his gaze to the butler.

“The one responsible for assembling all the Supreme Beings. In addition, the merciful leader who did not abandon us, but stayed by our side until the very end.” Sebas bowed his head in reverence.

“And finally, Albedo.” Momonga looked into her slitted-eyes directly.

“The man who rules over the Supreme Beings, and our highest, most exalted master. As well as the man to whom my heart belongs.” Albedo answered, her cheeks flushed and desire clear in her eyes.

“Uh, I mean, yes.” Momonga had to suppress a choking cough at the sheer devotion he heard in Albedo’s words. “I have heard your thoughts and given you your orders. Go work faithfully in my name.”

“Lord!” All of the Guardians bowed low once again. Momonga used the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to teleport to just outside of his private quarters in the tomb.

“Why do they have such glorious views of me?!” Momonga wondered, folding his wings around his body like a feather cloak. He entered his bed chamber, now actually able to enjoy the luxury that he and his friends had created together for real. The worn out former salaryman now turned Deity collapsed on his bed for some much need sleep. If anything happened, someone would surely come to wake him up.

-Sixth Floor-

The pleasant power that they’d been awash in suddenly vanished.

Even after the departure of the Master of their revered creators, nobody raised their heads. After a while, someone sighed in relief. The tense atmosphere breaking from that simple action.

The first to get up was Albedo. Her white dress was stained where her knee had touched the ground, but she did not mind at all. She flapped her wings to swipe off the dirt on her feathers. After seeing Albedo rise, the others followed suit, though nobody dared to speak for a moment.

“I thought I was going to faint.” Mare spoke up, holding tightly to his staff.

“Seriously. It was amazing!” Aura was all smiles after their meeting with Momonga.

“To think that he would be this amazing…” Cocytus mentioned in awe. They all knew that the Supreme Beings were greater than them, but to feel how much power Lord Momonga had was simply incredible.

“When he shows his true power and authority, he’s even more glorious than I imagined.” Albedo nearly moaned, clasping her hands together in front of her chest.

“Indeed. Truly he exerts the right to rule without effort.” Demiurge agreed, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

“He seemed pleased with our vow of fidelity. I hope that is the case.” Cocytus mused hopefully.

“He acted different when he was alone with Mare and me.” Aura spoke up, looking at her twin. “In fact, he was super kind and gentle.”

“Mm.” Albedo’s entire body twitched, recalling how Momonga had been when they were alone in the Throne Room together.

“He even gave us something to drink because he thought we looked thirsty.” Aura praised, a cute smile on her face.

“That just proves that he’s a true ruler, through and through. His power and mercy make him amazing.” Mare had nothing but praise and glory for Momonga.

“It’s just as you say, Mare!” Albedo burst out with joy, quickly turning to face the twins. “He was incredible, wasn’t he? He sensed our feeling and acted on them accordingly. Just as any true ruler should.” She clasped her hand together again, her body swaying slightly as she struggled to contain her love.

“If there’s nothing more, then I shall return to my duties.” Sebas spoke up, getting the attention of the Guardians. “I do not know where Lord Momonga has gone in the tomb, but wherever he is, I should stay by his side.”

“Very well, If anything happens, please inform me immediately, Sebas.” Albedo looked at the Head Butler sharply. “Especially if Lord Momonga calls for me personally. I will rush to his side!” Albedo’s cheeks became a rosy red. “But if Lord Momonga wants me to join him in his bedchamber, then I’d need time to prepare! I would need to bathe first. Of course, if he wants me to go without bathing then I’d be happy to…” She was cut off by Sebas’s reply.

“You’ve made yourself clear.” Sebas stated plainly. “Now, if you all will excuse me, I must take my leave.” He bowed to them before walking towards the exit of the Colosseum.

“Is there something wrong, Shalltear?” Demiurge questioned, noticing the other Floor Guardian still kneeling on the floor.

“Are you hurt? Ill?” Cocytus asked the vampire.

“Oh no, I’m fantastic.” Shalltear’s face was flushed and she a grin on her lips. “I just got a little overstimulated is all. His power was so intense, that my underwear went through a small crisis.” Most of the Guardians deadpanned at Shalltear’s response, knowing of her many fetishes. Mare looked a bit confused. But Albedo…

“Disgusting bitch!” The succubus snarled, a purple aura engulfing her body.

“Don’t pretend that you aren’t thrilled over the gift he just gave us.” Shalltear smirked at the Overseer. “He shared so much of his power. If something like that doesn’t make you wet, then you must be rancid beneath that skirt!” A red aura began to surround Shalltear.

“You filthy parasite!” Albedo roared, her eyes glowing a baleful yellow as her aura increased.

“The Supreme beings made me what I am, I take pride in it! And a big-mouthed idiotic gorilla like you won’t change that!” Shalltear declared viciously, her eyes glowing red and her long ponytail whipping around from the power she was emitting.

“Keep flapping those fangs, lamprey! See where it gets you!” Albedo took a threatening step forward. The power clash between the two was stirring up dust from the ground.

“Right…Aura, I’ll let you deal with the women issues.” Demiurge waved off the whole mess.

“Whoa, not so fast! You can’t just dump this on me!” Aura pointed to the two snarling women.

“If it starts to get bloody, I’ll intervene.” Demiurge assured her as he walked away.

“Um…” Mare looked at the angry Albedo and Shalltear before quickly following after Demiurge.

“Goodness. Is this really something to argue over?” Cocytus rubbed one of his clawed hands across the top of his head, before walking after the other two males.

“You too, Cocytus?” Aura whined at being left alone to deal with these two.

“Their vitriol aside, I’d be quite interested to see the results of such a union.” Demiurge admitted, his hands behind his back and his posture perfect.

“What?” Mare blinked in confusion.

“It would be a great addition to our forces. And it would pave the way for Nazarick’s future.” Demiurge explained to the boy.

“I’m not sure I follow you.” Mare apologized to his colleague.

“Every great Ruler needs an heir, don’t they?” Demiurge simplified his thoughts. “Lord Momonga stayed behind until the end. However, one day he may leave to join the other Supreme Beings, wherever they went. Therefore, it would be nice if he left an heir that we could pledge loyalty to, agreed?”

“So, you’re saying you want one of them,” Mare motioned to the still snarling Shalltear and Albedo. “To give birth to Lord Momonga’s heir?”

“Blasphemy! If we do our jobs, that won’t be needed!” Cocytus thundered at Demiurge’s idea.

“Yes, of course, but instead of just serving one Lord, we could pledge ourselves to his Line.” Demiurge grinned, knowing how to get Cocytus on board by playing to his honorable warrior nature.

“Oh?” Cocytus perked up, twin jets of frozen air escaping his mandibles. “That would be kinda nice. No! It would be WONDERFUL!!!” He exclaimed raising all four of his arms into the air. “I can see it so clearly! I would be Uncle Cocytus!” The Insect Warrior began to ramble as he walked in a random direction, clearly in a daydream.

“By the way, Mare, why are you dressed in female garments?” Demiurge questioned the boy, now that they had a moment to speak plainly.

“This is something that Bukubukuchagama picked out for me.” Mare placed his hand on the skirt that he wore. “She said I was a crossdresser or something? Maybe they help me cast my spells?”

“Hmm…perhaps we should conduct some experiments and have the males wear female garments at some point?” Demiurge hummed thoughtfully, not one to disregard the opinions of a Supreme Being. “Cocytus, could you come back to reality, please?”

“What a magnificent scene. That his truly a future to wish for.” Cocytus was nearly gushing as he walked back over to them.

“I’m happy that you’re happy.” Demiurge sighed at his colleague. “Aura, have Albedo and Shalltear finished their little spat?”

“Yeah, the catfight is over, but now they’re arguing.” Aura shrugged helplessly.

“We are deciding who the Master’s Head Wife will be.” Shalltear retorted, breathing slightly heavily from the argument.

“Obviously the Ruler of Nazarick will have multiple wives.” Albedo continued, her breathing also a bit heavy. “It would be strange for someone of Lord Momonga’s position and power not to have a harem. But only one of us can be his official wife.”

“Yes, that’s fascinating.” Demiurge spread his arms wide, and everyone got the feeling that if he had normal eyes, he’d be rolling them right now. “But don’t you think we should focus on the task that Lord Momonga has set for us?”

“Yes, of course, back to work.” Albedo agreed, before narrowing her eyes at Shalltear. “However, Shalltear, we will be discussing this later, at length.”

“Looking forward to it.” Shalltear met her gaze without backing down, a bewitching smirk on her lips. The two had their differences, but they’d build their love a harem without issue, so long as both of them were in it.

“It’s time to begin planning.” Albedo spoke firmly, back in her role as Overseer of the Floor Guardians.

The world outside of the Great Tomb of Nazarick had no idea that a new god-like being had once more descended to their world for the first time in over a century.

But they would learn in due time.

-End Chapter-

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Changes! Changes again!

Momonga ISN’T an Undead this time! His playstyle is different! His repertoire of spells has a different focus! What will befall the New World because of this? The fact that he roleplayed AS a Primordial Deity (a Being beyond the division of Good and Evil) means that he kept his Karma rating at ‘0’ though. So perhaps he’ll not just let the NPCs with super negative Karma drag him along in this version?

The good news, potentially, is that since Momonga isn’t an Undead, he has no emotional suppressor. He can express his range of emotions just fine.

He DOES however have an unwavering core to himself that is unaffected by things in general. Part of being a Primordial Deity that has little concern for much of anything. That core will certainly be a useful tool when Momonga gets in over his head, as we’ve seen.

Me thinks Momonga’s new build will cause many waves within the New World. Whether it’s still absolutely terrifying for them all will have to be seen.

How will Nazarick proceed going forward?

Keep reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!