Prologue
"Hey over here I found another one!" a man in dark leathers called to his companions. As I turned to run I found myself held in place by a mass of thick vines. A group of six others come rushing through the forest weapons at the ready. "Hahah", one laughs, "She's only a level 50 this is too easy."
"Hurry up and kill her already this spell won't hold forever you know." Their magic caster, a woman by her voice, says.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask, "I never did anything to you. I just wanted to explore a bit not fight anyone!" the worry likely evident in my voice. They all begin to chuckle "Because you're a Heteromorphic race. This means we can kill you all we like without penalty. You get it now newbie? You chose the wrong side." As he raises his sword I close my eyes and sigh knowing that I'll just respawn in a safer area, I hear the whistling of the blade through the air and the crystalline shattering sound of a character death but not mine. I feel the vines vanish and open my eyes to see a man in silver plate armor towering over me striking a heroic pose with massive Japanese kanji floating around him. "Justice… Has… Arrived?" I slowly translate. "INDEED! You are saved my dear heteromorphic maiden!" the knight cries in an overly dramatic fashion. Rustling in the trees alerts me to more arrivals one sighs heavily before addressing me "Please ignore him he likes to play the knight in shining armor and takes it way to seriously."
Looking them over I see multiple different races all of them heteromorphs, a skeletal magic caster, a ninja, a pink slime, a birdman, a goat man in a black suit that looked straight out of the 19th century, and a man that looked just like a samurai from feudal japan among many others. "Thanks, but who are all of you?" I ask. "Oh sorry we're the guild Ainz Ooal Gown we were on our way to a dungeon when we heard the commotion, I'm Momonga by the way nice to meet you." The skeletal mage, Momonga, says. "I'm Éire nice to meet you too." I reply shyly. "Momonga may I speak with you for a moment?" The silver knight asks while leading Momonga away. "Sure Touch Me what is it?" the skeleton replies. After a few moments of hushed conversation Momonga calls over all of the other players as they huddle together I begin to fidget and that feeling you get when people are talking about begins to creep up my spine. About ten minutes later the silver knight, Touch Me gives a cry of victory and turns to me. "Hey Éire, do you want to join our guild?" he asks. "W-what? Why? Y-you only just met me." I stammer. "It's fine if you don't want to I just thought you looked a little lonely out here by yourself." He says nonchalantly waving his hand.
"I-I'm not refusing you just took me by surprise is all."
"Oh? Is that a yes then?"
"Y-yes thank you very much."
A sharp kick to the back of my seat awakens me from my dreams of happier times with my friends as a young child begins to wail and my music player's batteries having long since died. I take off my headphones and gaze out the window of the passenger airliner at the city below. After the plane touches down I quickly grab my carry on and head toward baggage claim then hail a cab to make my way back to my apartment. Entering the building I remove the government issued gas mask and head toward my room. I dump my things into my bedroom before flopping onto the couch pulling out my phone to check my e-mails. Work e-mail probably congratulating us on the find. A whole lot of spam, and emails from that dating website I signed up for years ago. I think as I read through the countless entries. Just before I close the app I get the new mail notification, seeing who it's from I immediately open it.
To: You and 39 others
From: Momonga
My friends of Ainz Ooal Gown,
It has been a long time hasn't it? I haven't seen many of you lately; I know you've all been busy with real life and chose to leave Yggdrasil to pursue more important things. I thought that I'd let you all know that tomorrow at midnight Yggdrasil's servers will forever be going offline. I wanted to ask if you would all come join me for the last days of Yggdrasil's service and reminisce about all the good times we've had together. If you can't make it I understand this is very short notice but maybe you can make it even if it's to say goodbye one last time.
Suzuki Satoru, AKA Momonga
"WHAT!? Yggdrasil is shutting down? But I was looking forward to playing it this weekend." I whine. "Well I suppose should get on tonight spend time with Momonga before it all ends."
I walk over to my Neural Nano-Interface, or NNI for short, and begin the boot up sequence. After selecting Yggdrasil from the menu the machine takes over. No longer am I sitting in my apartment living room instead I am now in Yggdrasil inside the great tomb of Nazarick in my personal room. A notification pops up with a message from Momonga himself "Éire! I'm in the meeting room waiting for anyone else care to join me?" Smiling I reply "Yeah be right there." Turning to leave I catch a glimpse of my avatar in the mirror. I look her over remembering asking my brother, a famous artist, to help design her appearance using creator's tools. As an enthusiast for mythologies I adored the fact that Yggdrasil let you play as many different races besides the usual human, elf, and dwarf; case in point my character is a heteromorph known as a Leanan Sídhe, a form of fae creature but closer to a succubus or vampire than an elf. She has long dark red hair with vibrant green eyes and the face of an angel and like all fae her ears are extremely long. Leanan Sídhe are one of the few heteromorphic races that don't look grotesque or malformed unless they use certain racial abilities, which cause them to look like zombified banshees. She wears her divine class gear of light studded dragon hide which is tinted to a light green color, dragon hide trousers dyed black, boots and gloves of the same material in a rich shade of dark brown, a cloak made of forest green fabric, a silver necklace with a purple gem embedded in the pendant rests in the hollow of her throat, and around her head lay an intricate platinum circlet. Remembering all the quests and dungeons and adventures I went on with my friends to obtain all of these items brings an even bigger smile to my face. Rushing out the door of my private room I double check the map not trusting my memory to guide me to the meeting room.
Flying down the halls of the Great Tomb I pass multiple homunculi maids, with their intricate outfits and faces like porcelain dolls; past a little penguin butler and door after door after door. I come to a stop just outside the door to the meeting room just as a notification pops up in the corner of my vision. HeroHero is online. I fling the doors open to Momonga sitting there in all his skeletal undead glory, his divine class robes giving him an intimidating look. "Éire hey it's good to see you again." He says standing up. Like the little girl I am at heart I squeal and rush to give him a big hug. As we embrace he continues "I just finished messaging HeroHero he should be here shortly." We separate and I look him up and down "Have you lost weight?" I ask. He chuckles and shakes his head "That was a really bad joke."
"I know. I'm kind of ashamed I even made it." I say while looking at the floor, glad that my avatar can't show the look on my face no doubt flushed with embarrassment. At that moment a slippery, slimy sound could be heard entering the room. Turning Momonga and I look to see a mass of gelatinous goop sliding into the room and almost in unison say "HeroHero!"
The goop raises a pseudopod and waves "Momonga, Éire hey how have you two been?" he asks tiredly. "You sound exhausted HeroHero," Momonga says, "but I've been doing well." I nod "I've been well myself I just got home from a two year onsite dig. How've you been Hero?" I ask. "Well but my boss has been running me ragged. Not that I'm complaining but we've been short on people for a month or so now so most of us have to work overtime just to meet weekly quotas." HeroHero replies. "That sounds awful, and it probably isn't good for you." Momonga states genuine worry in his voice. "Tell me about it my avatar and mental state probably look the same right about now and lets not even get into my physical state." HeroHero says with a weak laugh then turns to me and asks "You said that you just got home from a two year onsite dig what's that about?"
"Oh nothing really, not like clocking overtime for a month, but I got my first job as project head on an archeological dig in Scandinavia I was there with my team trying to uncover an old ring fort. In the process one of the interns was digging and found a stone wall. Well we broke through it and found an ancient burial chamber…" I continue to ramble for a few minutes before I realize I'm boring both of them to tears. "Sorry I get like that when I talk about my work." I say sheepishly. "No. No. It's fine at least you enjoy what you do right?" HeroHero says suppressing a large yawn. "I really wanted to stay until the end but I'm fighting just to stay awake. I think I'm going to turn in goodnight guys. Hopefully I'll see you again in the future, Yggdrasil II maybe?" As HeroHero raises his pseudopod and brings up a menu Momonga says "Yeah get some rest HeroHero, good luck with work, I hope you feel better." The Elder Black Ooze nods before hitting a button on the holographic menu. HeroHero is offline. The system notifies me. "Wait, what did he mean by 'staying until the end'?" I ask. "Today's the last day of Yggdrasil's service in less than thirty minutes it will cease to exist." Momonga sadly replies. "I got your email just before logging on it said tomorrow." I say. Shaking his head Momonga says "I sent it yesterday you probably just got it because you weren't near any kind of signal."
"Ok fair point. But now I'm really, really sad. I wanted just one more day to play." I pout. He chuckles "That doesn't mean we can't still have fun in these last few moments." As he walks towards the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown and reaches his hand towards it before stopping himself and turning to look at me. "Wait don't tell me you haven't even toyed around with it? We made it for you to use. If you're looking for a vote you have mine." I say to him. A small emoji appears by his head with a smiling face. "Thanks. We all made it together it feels wrong just to leave it unused on the last day. You know?" he says trying to conceal his own sadness. "Yeah I know. C'mon what do you want to do with these last few moments?" I ask him. "Follow me?" "Sure."
He leads me out into the halls of Nazarick once more; heading toward the throne room. We come to the doors of Lemegeton outside stand seven NPCs an older gentleman and six maids, each one beautiful in their own unique way. Momonga pulls up a screen and mutters "Right, Sebas… Touch Me's NPC. What was it? Right; Follow." The NPCs of the Pleiades begin to follow him into the throne room. As we're about to pass through the doors of Lemegeton he hesitates saying "Luci*Fur made this. Is it safe?" he looks towards me and shoots up a worried emoji. "Should be right? If not we just track him down IRL and punish him for ruining the last day." I say with a slight giggle. "Hmm… Right." he nods. As he pushes the doors open I give a little gasp at the sight of the throne room like I do every time, no exceptions. The crystal throne the marble floors the gold accents and each member's personal crest hanging from individual banners the throne room is gorgeous. Standing next to the throne is of course Albedo Guardian Overseer for the Great Tomb of Nazarick. We climb the dais and Momonga takes his rightful place on the throne, I stand next to him opposite to Albedo. "Stand By!" Momonga commands and the Pleiades bow and move off to our right. He opens up a screen near Albedo and makes a swiping motion, his body jerking with suprise. "What is it?" I ask. "Oh, nothing. Tabula really liked making contradicting characters is all." he says while opening another screen then giggles like a small child. "What did you do?" He turns toward me after closing the screens and even though his avatar can't show emotion I can swear he's blushing. "Nothing." He says a little to sharply. "Uh huh. Well I guess it doesn't matter anyway." I say my voice thick with skepticism. "Hmm. There's just one thing missing from this last moment." he mumbles. "Kneel!" he commands and all the NPCs facing the two of us kneel.
10 seconds
"It was fun right Éire?" He asks.
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"Great fun my friend, great fun." I reply.
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AN: Hello this is my first fanfic and really my first time trying not to write in a vacuum consisting of just me myself and I. I appreciate reviews, suggestions, and constructive criticism. This really is just me putting the start of my idea onto paper I plan to get to at least Carne before I choose whether or not to continue the story depending on the reception.