"Kgh...! Such power...!"
"/blip/ All possibilities gained by the mimicry of subject's parameter have been utilized to maximum potential. Critical error detected. Subject Cainhurst Noir is still able to display performance beyond its own parameter. /blip/ Rerouting all remaining energy. Preparing position for final assault. Objective is now changed to subject's total annihilation. Estimation of successful target's eradication: ...50%."
Alone in the vast dark space, shimmered only by the light of stars, a lone swirling galaxy and distant planetary objects, two entities clashed with each other. Air shouldn't even exist in the vacuum territory yet should one being present at the stage of carnage, they would feel unparalleled amount of pressure and force as if it was trying to tear their very own existence apart. One of the clashing forces was an individual widely recognized as a Warrior of Light, a beacon of hope and salvation amongst the people of a realm known as Hydaelyn.
The other forces was a single entity known as Omega. Born from a faraway star in a distant world, the relentless machine possessed strength and knowledge beyond any mortal's wildest imagination. Programmed to fulfill a certain objective at any cost, Omega performed countless battles, experiments and simulations on every single being it found worthy.
And at the moment never before it was forced to mimic its opponent. From what was a steel giant beetle, it now took the shape of a pair of man and woman.
"/blip/ Activating optical unit."
Behind them, a massive grey eyeball emerged from nothingness. Its iron eyelid revealed its content, a silver metallic pupil as it set its sight at the exhausted champion of Hydaelyn.
"/blip/ Omega-M: Guard mode engaged. Initiating defense protocols. /blip/ Omega-F: Assault mode engaged. Initiating energy conversion for Cosmo Memory maximization. Executing internal 60 seconds countdown."
The massive eyeball's pupil started to emit a silvery light as a massive amount of pure aether slowly gathered at its center point. The warrior could feel his vision getting hazy and blurred, taste of liquid steel brushed his lips. His magic power was fading rapidly and he could feel his mind almost disconnected with the power of Darkness he was relying to.
"Omega...! Listen here, you dumb brick... True strength... can't be acquired only by crunching calculations... and cold logic...! Gah...!" The warrior's abyss-colored armor faded out, and in its place a crimson robe emerged. On his right hand, a black greatsword was replaced by a sharp steel rapier along with a blood-colored gem hovering above his shoulder.
"/blip/ Subject performed soul crystal switch. /blip/ Omega-F: Disengaging all inhibitors to maximize Cosmo Memory's casting time efficiency."
"Hehe...thought so. Omega... the reason I've been able to defeat all my adversaries... even when the probability is nil to zero..."
The cold existence in front of him continued to charge its final assault. Several spell names chanted through the warrior's blood-stained lips. His left hand was holding a crimson gemstone with a rapier symbol on its surface.
The warrior's body brimmed with a light as blinding as a sun, seemingly in response to the cold machine's fervent aggression in front of him.
"...Is because..."
Seconds after, the blinding color of crimson and azure seeped throughout the cosmos, twisted the very fabric of reality itself.
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"Hey Evileye, you've heard the news of a new group of adamantite adventurers from E-Rantel?"
"Yeah I know. Darkness... isn't it? With a black armored warrior named Momon as the leader? What's up with them, Gagaran?"
A group beauties sat together in a restaurant, discussing their plan for the day. A set of light assortments could be seen from their table.
"I heard they just killed an emerald basilisk recently. You know, that green oversized lizard we fought months ago?" said Gagaran. She was a woman with a build you would find common with average male warriors. She was also the designated warrior of the group, boasting immense strength compared to average human soldiers of both genders.
"Ah, that lizard. Well it's not like a group of adamantites couldn't handle one of them." replied Evileye with a rather flat tone. No one had ever seen her without her pristine white full-face mask, which had became her most distinguished trait amongst top-ranked adventurers. She was regarded as Blue Rose's trump card.
"But I've heard he killed it by himself, and only in seconds nonetheless. At least from what Guild Master Ainzach said." Interjected Lakyus. She was the leader of their adventuring team, Blue Rose. Also widely known as the wielder of Killneiram the Demonic Sword, a legendary blade from one of Thirteen Heroes.
"Fending off an invasion of undead legions, taming the Wise King of the Forest, and now killing an emerald basilisk. They're absurdly strong to be honest, even for your average adamantite adventurers." Muttered Evileye. She was truly impressed, since not even she was certain Blue Rose would achieve such a big number of grand accomplishments within such a short time span.
"But let's put the matter of darkness aside for now. Tia, Tina, have you two procured our infiltration route for our raid tomorrow night?" Lakyus asked the remaining two members of Blue Rose. Tia and Tina were twin sisters, specialized in most activities that required subterfuge and secrecy.
"Sure, here take a look." Tia spread a large parchment, revealing a map with circled spots and arrows. "Us two and boss would have these warehouses, they stored some of black market's most sought exotics. And some stuff smuggled from Baharuth as well." explained The other twin, Tina.
"So that leaves Evileye and me to deal with the farm. Sounds easy enough." replied Gagaran.
"It should be. Security in the farm area should be lax enough since they've sent quite a number to retrieve their smuggled goods hidden at E-Rantel. Never expected an undead invasion to ease our job." Tina smirked in amusement.
"*sigh* I guess we're going with our initial plan afterall." concluded Lakyus. "But remember, always expect the unexpected since we're still dealing with Eight Fingers afterall. So is there anything else we should talk about now? If not, me and Evileye are going to visit a temp-"
"Hey, old man have you heard? Apparently there's a meteor crash near the southern part of Dragon Kingdom."
"Really? I pity the poor villages around there."
A random talk of two men near the girls's table piqued Evileye's interest. A meteor crash? Definitely not something you would hear everyday.
"There's only one around that area, Porun if I'm not wrong. There's even a confirmed survivor from there to."
"Woah, must be one hell of tough crackers that guy."
"Hahaha no shit. Also there's a strange rumor been spreading around."
Rumor?
"There's a large gooey puddle formed in the crater, a disgusting pool of pink liquid."
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A week later
"Ainz-sama, welcome back!" Albedo greeted the return of her Lord with apt enthusiasm, at times much to Ainz's dismay.
"Y-yeah Albedo. It's good to see you have been well. I trust you that nothing serious needs my attention?"
"Yes, my lord. Cocytus already starts his assignment as Lizardmen's governor, or taskmaster like what some Lizardmen have said. Scrolls production from Demiurge's farm have been stable and consistent, and Aura reported nothing of significance from the Forest of Tob."
"What about Carne?" asked Ainz.
"As you have ordered my lord, Lupusregina has been tasked with the role of being the village's watcher. So far there's nothing significant happened as well." explained the winged succubus.
"And Shalltear?"
"...She's patrolling around the perimeter, and she also obeyed her command not to wander beyond Nazarick's outer border."
"I see. Then good work Al-"
"Forgive me lord Ainz, but there's also one more thing I have to relay on you."
"Oh? What is it?"
"Few days ago, some of our undead scouts reported a meteor impact at the southern region of Dragon Kingdom." explained Albedo calmly.
"Meteor, you say? So what's the crater's size?"
"It's quite enormous, but there's a strange thing about it my lord?"
"Strange?"
"...Yes, according to the report I received, there's almost no destruction aside from the crater's formation."
"...What? That's impossible Albedo. Are you sure you read your report correctly?" asked Ainz in a rather stern tone. Albedo flinched a bit but she tried to keep her composure.
"Yes my lord. I tripled check the report along with interrogating the scouts involved. There's no mistaking it my lord. They said that the lands around the crater were almost untouched by the impact."
"...I see." A meteor crash that didn't destroy a good portion of a land's region? Even my status as a former human turned skeleton is more believable than that. Also, if the meteor is caused by a spell then it's possible there's another player that joins the board. The skeleton pondered over the last report, seemingly concerned about the possibility of a newly arrived player from YGGDRASIL being the one responsible for the meteor since there also had been several high-tier meteor spells from the game.
"Our scouts also reported a foreign substance formed in the crater, seemingly to be a large puddle of pink liquid. While nothing happened when they touched the liquid, some of them tried to plunge into the puddle and none of them resurfaced."
Pink liquid? "Hmm... a predatory huge slime? No, the report said that the liquid did nothing when it was touched. A pond of potent acid? Possibly, but then again we still don't know much about it. Also Albedo, you say that it falls near the Dragon Kingdom, right? What's their reaction?" interrogated Ainz.
"Yes my lord, while they are highly alerted that an unknown event just happened near their kingdom, they haven't taken any notable effort to check on it. They have been under constant heavy siege from beastmen savages for the past few weeks so I assume they couldn't spare more resource to conduct a more through exploration attempt."
"Possibly. Alright, Albedo I want you to organize an expedition team. Coordinate with Demiurge and sent the team to investigate the crash site. Do not forget to issue an order not to dive into this strange puddle unless they have a surefire method to let themselves out from it. I don't want any reckless experiment that will serve nothing to Nazarick. I believe I have made myself clear, right Albedo?" The skeleton's eye socket glowed in crimson radiance.
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Evileye and Lakyus walked inside the Adventurer's Guild to get a look of potential job quests. For the past whole week, they had been dealing with Eight Fingers's power bases and cutting off their logistic routes. A regular adventuring job would be a nice break for the esteemed adamantite team, at least that's what they had been thinking.
"Well hunting jobs should do for now. Gagaran has been annoyingly loud about wanting to compete with Darkness for some reason." grumbled the masked woman. She loved her teammates but sometimes even they, particularly Gagaran could be unnecessarily handful at times.
"Ahaha there there, it's nothing to be upset about. This time I agree with Gagaran though, a challenging hunt quest is what we really need at the moment." Lakyus playfully pat her teammate's head, only to made her grumbling noise even louder.
As they keep checking the posted quest papers at the board, a particular one piqued Evileye's interest.
"Hey Lakyus, look at this."
"Hmm?"
They read the paper carefully.
"Investigation quest, huh... and what's this about meteor crash?"
"I've heard some talks about it last week. Apparently there's a meteor hitting part of Dragon's Kingdom southern territory. They also speak about some strange pink water from it."
"...Well, that's interesting to say the least. Do you want to take it, Evileye?" Lakyus looked back at her friend.
"Huh? I thought we're gonna have a hunting quest?" Evileye tilted her head.
"I don't know why but..." Lakyus looked back at the paper in her hand. "I get a strange feeling about...this. I feel like we have to deal with this one before something could spiral beyond anything we've ever seen before." Lakyus frowned a little.
Evileye wasn't sure what she should say. True, occasionally Lakyus's gut feeling worked in their favor. Even though she's not fond of things that solely based on luck or misfortune, that doesn't mean she wouldn't acknowledge them.
But just like her leader, something about the meteor crash bothered her mind. "Well whatever, let's just take this one." The two of them walked toward the guild hall's reception table. A short-haired female receptionist greeted them and examined their quest paper.
"Ah, as expected of Blue Rose. That quest was only posted just around ten minutes ago."
"Is that so? Well no matter. We're taking this one." replied Lakyus.
"In a moment. In addition, may I suggest you to contact our client immediately? Afterall your team need to work together with another one from Dragon Kingdom." explained the receptionist.
"Wait, another team? Then why do they even bother to post a taken quest here?" Lakyus was confused. Normally a regular investigation quest like this wouldn't need more than a single team. Sending a single adamantite group would be considered overkill. Unless...
The receptionist tilted her head and checked back the quest paper again.
"Ah! Forgive me Lakyus-san, but it looks like I forgot to add another stamp in this one." The receptionist let out a small yelp and bowed her head frantically. She hurriedly put another stamp on the paper. "Normally you're right if it's an ordinary one."
Lakyus and Evileye looked at the newly added stamp.
It's a sign of reinforcement request.
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It's a nice feeling being able to write something that isn't related to my thesis lol.
First of all, I apologized deeply for my Toaru/DxD fic readers, because quite a lot of... things happened. I do admit I lost some writing steam along the way but I can assure you all that at the very least, I'll finish the story.
Back to this story, right now I also feel like trying my hand for an Overlord story even though I'm an anime-only fan (Though I do have a plan to binge read the books sometime in the future so feel free to point out any inaccuracies with the overlord characters I've written in).
Be wary though, I would consider this a semi SI fic since the MC for FFXIV is a custom Warrior of Light. But I do try to incorporate several job stories to his backstory so perhaps anyone from FFXIV side could see some familiarity.
Also note that this will also be an overlord-centric fic, with Omega and one other character(not the WoL) being the only figures from FFXIV world.
And please pardon my bad grammar/sentence structures.
Ah yes, I have no intention to add any form of stomping for any side. I know Overlord revels in its unstoppable protagonists, but I think it would be interesting for Ainz to meet its match(?), and for Warrior of Light to meet a skeleton lord that doesn't match its popular archetype.