OVERLORD: GOD OF THE NEW WORLD - CHAPTER 32 (Patreon)

[Alastor POV]

After killing the dragon lords I went back to Nazarick to rest, I felt tired and somewhat groggy as if I hadn’t sleep in a while, perhaps it had to do with the spell I had casted to eliminate them, regardless of the cause, I was tired, and wanted some rest.

At my arrival, I was greeted by Ainz, who tried to lecture about the risks of going alone on such dangerous invitations. I knew in part he was right, but right now I was too tired to deal with his overprotective attitude, so I asked him to lecture me later.

At my room, I jumped on the bed, and immediately drifted off to the sweet embrace of sleep, letting my body relax and breathe in comfort.

However, while I wanted a normal session of rest, I was not given that, in my sleep, I saw images, visions of sorts, and they were all about me, the me before coming here, these images woke me up a few times during, until I reluctantly decided to stop sleeping to analyze what the heck was going on, and a few hours in, I understood what.

This was what Brightness had meant to do with his ritual, pathetic really, showing me what I already know… truly a sad attempt to change what cannot be changed. But, I had to give the old dragon some merit, he had managed to annoy my beauty sleep, and that is something not many can boast about, so in a way he had won something.

“Are you okay?” Ainz inquired, opening the door of my room.

“I am, why?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

“You were screaming a few minutes ago,” Ainz replied, and I looked at him, confused at this piece of information.

“A nightmare… probably,” I replied, wondering why had I screamed, my dreams were nothing but images of my past, my past before coming here, my past before reincarnating the first time. Regardless of what those visions showed me, nothing was so bad I needed to scream, my life before here was… normal, nothing bad… or extreme.

“I see,” Ainz sighed, “Well… if you need me, message me.” he added before closing the door, sensing I wanted to be left alone.

Screams… what would possibly force me to scream… “Fucking dragons…” I chuckled, “Well, I can’t really put all the blame on them… had I killed them sooner none of this would’ve happened, whatever they did to me is because I played with my food for too long.” I sighed.

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[Draudillon Oriculus - POV]

Karmic Reverence, the ritual my grandfather had created a few hundred years ago with the help of Platinum, all in the hopes of turning a strong player into a force of good and hope for this world. The ritual according to my grandfather was not a sure shot, for there was no way of knowing if it would work, for one, Karmic Reverence took many factors into the table that made the ritual a very risky bet.

For one, If the target was inherently evil, the ritual would do nothing at all, but… if the target’s soul had any good karma within, including past karmas, Reverence would work.

But even if it worked, there was no guarantee it would actually do anything. For it to work, the target had to actually want to be rid of the chains of evil within him, all the ritual does is open the door for change.

“Did it work my queen?’ One of my advisors asked.

I looked at him and sighed, “Chances are it didn’t, the ritual was a risky bet, for my grandfather considered this Alastor to be soul trapped within the evil karma of his own making, like the most players, according to him… when they appear, they are innocent, unsure about how to act in this world… but…. In time, the karmas inside their new bodies… break their old self into pieces, creating a mix of the two… a monster, an amalgamation of souls.” 

“Without the Dragon Lords, we have no protection against them.” My advisor replied.

“That’s not entirely true… players, while strong, are not unkillable. Chances are there is something out there strong enough to kill them, it's just that we haven't found it yet.” I replied, in a world as big as ours, beings of untold power were a possibility, maybe even a player with a good karmic balance.

“But… if there isn’t?” My advisor asked, his hands shaking.

“Well… we either fight for our freedom, against certain doom. Or we kneel to save our skins, either way we suffer.” I replied, with a faint smile adorning my face in a grim undertone, if there truly was nothing out there capable of matching these players, then… our destinies we set on stone.

“Life serving, or freedom in death.” My advisor chuckled, “I suppose there is something poetic to that.”

At that I smiled, “There is, life is but a fleeting moment, no kingdom lasts forever, and no God remains the same, we might perish, but eventually… all players will perish as well.” 

“One can dream, my queen.” 

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[Demiurge POV]

Alastor-sama had once again shown us how truly magnificent and supreme he truly was, killing all the Dragon Lords without breaking a sweat, as expected of our supreme God. 

Not only he had eliminated possible threats to the sanctity of Nazarick, but he had done in a way that showed his supreme and unmatchable intellect as a whole, to think he was moving one hundred steps ahead of all of us, only Ainz-sama could possibly keep with this level of superior intelligence.

How grand, how supreme, how mighty! Eliminating the Dragon Lords was but a simple show for the kingdoms around, giving them a taste of fear should they try to stop us from taking the world under Nazarick’s mantle, and not only that, but with this unreachable display of strength he had also let everyone know, Nazarick was a force beyond their mortal dreams, to think those were only two out of twenty reasons I calculated he made this perfect move.

“To serve under such intelligence… there is no greater pleasure than that!” I declared for everyone to hear, for everyone around knew and understood how lucky we were to have them leading us.