(IMPORTANT NOTE: This is part three of the total story, if you have not yet, please read my OVERLORD: Side Adventures Volumes 1 Jircniv and Volume 2 first before beginning this story, thank you!)
PROLOGUE: The End of the Dragon Lords War.
Brightness walked into his throne room triumphantly. But as soon as he sat on his throne his exhaustion took over.
"Over a fourth of my soul? How strong were those maids I just took if it took a fourth of my soul burning just to get them here, not even counting what I used to hold them, after that and my denial of [GATE] and [MESSAGE] I've exhausted nearly half of my inner power..." He thought to himself as he felt his power greatly reduced. But the cost had to be paid, he needed to bait out an attack by either The Sorcerer Kingdom or its vassal state. He'd be able to gain enough support from surrounding nations to form a pact with all the other Dragon Lords for a temporary alliance.
"Wonder which one of those women i will play with first?" He thought about them, the elf with the half black and white hair seemed especially willing to have sex with him for whatever reason. He was still drained so an easy conquest like her would probably be best, the others looked like they would struggle too much, not that he minded that, he was just not up for a struggle without some really good rest first.
"Maybe if I spent more time training than reading I'd be a better fighter." He laughed. Fighting did not suit him, he was definitely more of a lover than a fighter. There came a knock at his door, he scowled, he told his servants and guards he needed alone time to recover.
"Excuse me," One of his Dragonkin butlers said walking into the throne room and excusing himself with impeccable manners.
"I did not call for you I do not... wait who are you?" He did not recognize this butler, nor was he wearing clothes that fit the rest of his staff.
"I am sorry as I can tell you are trying to relax, but as you technically invited the women who I work with and myself her with that teleportation spell, I assumed it was okay to introduce myself." The butler with grey hair and a finely trimmed beard said.
"Invited you? I only brought the women here, how did you get in? [GATE] can't work here!" He said realizing he'd just been invaded. His eyes looked around, why was his personal guard not here? they should at least announced an unknown presence before getting slain.
"As I said, you brought me here, my name is Seba, and I was acting supervisor of this test the girls were assigned to undertake. But as the parameters of the test changed, I decided to get personally involved." He said raising from a polite bow.
"But..." he asked getting angry, he was not one for fighting, to begin with, and he was severely drained after that last performance.
"This is indeed a nice estate you have, we no doubt will have a fine use for it once it's current occupants are removed." The older man's attitude was that of complete confidence, Brightness could tell he was probably as strong as he was, but with his recently spent power, fighting was out of the question. He'd have to bluff.
"If you attack me I will kill those women I have." He said acting confident and snapping his fingers.
"I am very curious as to how you will do this as all other residents of this estate are neutralized." The butler informed him.
"What? There are..." Brightness began.
"...235 Dragonoid soldier guards, 200 elite Beastmen survivors, and 133 slaves." Sebas finished for Brightness. he was right, to the number, that accounted for every single person in this compound.
"As I said, they are all dead or at least decommissioned, so unless you have plans to locate and kill all the women who are under my supervision, you will have to pass me first I'm afraid," he said calmly tightening his white gloves that were not even magical, nothing he wore was enchanted, he looked like a normal butler, but spoke with the air of a seasoned fighter who did not know defeat. He could not accept what he heard, furthermore how was this man even here?
"How could you have killed everyone here? You've been here for all of half an hour tops!" But the butler shook his head.
"I made my way here to talk with you, the maids who you interrupted are the ones dealing with your men as we speak." He honestly informed The Dragon Lord.
"Y...you still haven't told just how you got here!" Brightness barked out, panic creeping up in his voice.
"I see you still have not figured it out. One of the women who works for me is a slime, as such she can carry large amounts of people in her body, or just a single well behaved Guardian, I was inside this slime watching and grading their performance during this test Our Lord had arranged for them, to see if they could grow in mental planning and preparation," he said smiling.
"And as you interrupted this test that they all passed flawlessly, I decided it was my time to get us home, as I have good results to report back." Brightness now knew conflict was unavoidable, he'd use this polite discussion to sneak attack this butler, he'd have to use most of his remaining should but he'd just go back into hiding again to regain it, the plans would fall behind only a decade or two.
"Is there any way we can resolve this peacefully?" Brightness asked, one final hope remained before he had to go all out. The butler gave it some thought but shook his head.
"I am sorry but there is a man I work with, while I find his interests and methods disgusting and not at all appealing, he has found a way to make his hobbies benefit Nazaick in way of providing low-grade scroll material. Yet I wonder what level of the scroll we could get from a Dragon Lord? As I suspect it will be very high quality, I will be capturing you and turning you over to this farm of his for harvesting." As the elderly man was calmly explaining his fate brightness took the initiative and transformed to full dragon form and blasted the polite man with his dragon's breath within a single second.
The blindly bright beam of energy cut the estate in half as his breath obliterated anything that it hit. Rooms and all, a huge blast cut its way through the house. He stopped the torrent of power as it was already taxing his depleted reserves. As expected the polite butler was gone. Brightness chuckled to himself, this man showing up could be considered a failed assassination, he could use this very act as his reason to attack the source King in earnest if any evidence of him had survived, he clicked his tongue, he had overestimated the butler's strength.
"So I will not be taking up more of your time." The voice continued as if nothing had happened, but it came from his blind spot, and as such Brightness did not see the attack that sent his massive dragon body flying through the air and crashing through a wall, he landed outside in his wonderful garden. He tried to spin his head to see where his attacker was but he could already feel another strike hitting him in yet another blind spot, the fighting technique he employed was flawless as he could not even track him.
Brightness's massive form was sent hurdling through the air and crashed into the other side of his mansion, the room he landed in was crushed beneath his massive body, the strike had shattered several bones, brightness had never felt pain like this and tried to cry out in anger as she thrashed wildly hoping to get lucky and hit this butler who would attack with such precision he could not hope to match it. Yet a large boulder of broken rock met his massive dragon face, Seba had picked it up and thrown it to stop the hazardous thrashing about, as it worked, he was already delivering a follow-up uppercut from beneath Brightness. The sound of his Dragon Teeth shattering in his own skull sounded like thunder striking his head as his head was flung back and collided top down against the ground.
"You..." Brightness tried to cry out once more but Sebas was already standing on top of his chest, his hand was open and it glowed with a strange power.
"[PARALYZING PALM]" Sebas said as he delivered a powerful open palm strike to the exposed chest of Brightness. A current of energy ran through brightness body and then he went limp, he could not move a single muscle, even his long serpent-like tongue layout of his mouth like a mounted beast of sport.
The maids appeared around Sebas and helped him bind and subdue the massive Dragon Lord after not too long. Solution used her body to make ropes as Yuri and Lupusregina hoisted him above their heads with a "HUP!".
"So Shizu is okay then?" Narberal asked Sebas as she stood on top of the dragon keeping a look out for any other surprises. Sebas nodded.
"He triggered her break apart passive that saved her from a lethal strike, her auto repair will have worked by now, I'm sure she's waiting for us to pick her up and get her home." He explained with a knowing smile.
"I heard Dragons are supposed to be smart, but this one picked a fight with Lord Ainz, pretty stupid if you ask me~su!" Lupusregina said smiling, she kinda missed having her fanboy Beastman squad around her...
"I am sure Demiurge will be excited to begin harvesting dragon skin," Yuri said as she and her sister dragged the massive unmoving Dragon Lord out of his estate. Sebas walked ahead of them dusting off his jacket and taking out a scroll to cast [MESSAGE].
"My Lord Ainz, I have succeeded in capturing the dragon that wounded Shizu, I assume you will have a place set up for him in Demiurges farm?" Sebas said to his Lord who sounded a bit surprised for some reason.
"Oh! Sebas, then my uh, plan worked and all the maids are safe?" Ainz asked Sebas smiled like there was a chance any plan His majesty thought up could ever fail.
"Indeed, somehow it would seem you suspected a puppetmaster and used us to make him reveal himself, I am honored to be included in such flawless plans, I humbly thank you Lord Ainz for this honor." He went to bow but realized he would just be bowing to thin air, or rather to Zesshi who was getting the [GATE] spell ready and was in front of him.
"What are my orders?" Zesshi asked. Sebas smiled at the girl, Entoma really did enjoy her new subordinate.
"You will follow us to Nazarick after we go pick up Shizu. I suspect our Lord will be happy to meet you and have many questions for you," Sebas answered her. She began to straighten out her hair and fix herself.
"Say um, Master Sebas?" She seemed nervous. He looked at her with a "Hmm?"
"Would you like to have a child with me?" The shocked cried of the maids who heard this request sounded almost staged, but Sebas just smiled and patter her once on the head.
"I am a sorry little one, but I am currently with another, and I can't imagine she'd approve." He said with a smile. Zesshi nodded looking disappointed.
"Okay! here he comes!" Lupusregina yelled out as a [GATE] portal opened and they chucked Brightnesses massive body into the black hole.
"So then we all passed?" Lupusregina asked running over to Sebas, he nodded with a smile.
"Indeed, Lupusregina you manipulated the enemy into revealing their base, the store, and their leader, instead of simply punching your way in, you got an invitation. i will be informing Lord Ainz of your exemplary actions. Lupusregina threw her arm up in a victorious pose. She suspected she would receive a reward for this.
"Yuri, you demonstrated trust in letting Lupusregina run things, I know that must have been hard form your leadership position." Yuro just nodded and was glad her sister had done so well.
"Narberal, your attacks agaisnt the Beastmen were flawless and without you, there would be a bigger Beastman threat than there currently is, Solution, same goes for you, and a special thank you for providing such comfortable environment to grade you ladies from." He said giving her a deep bow, which she smiled and returned in kind.
"Even you Zesshi, your fight with Yelkis was a joy to watch, I will tell Entoma you fulfilled her orders perfectly on her behalf on this test." She said to the blushing half-elf girl. The women all walked through the portal together and met up in the gallery room to tell Ainz of how "his plan" had worked, however, Sebas turned and looked up into the sky, perched high above them on a rock cliff that overlooked the entire valley that the Draconic Kingdoms call there sat a darker dragon. Sebas had noticed him as soon as their fight had taken them outside. But as the dragon only sat and watched Sebas made no move to contact it. He only stood there looking at it, then after awhile gave a polite bow then walked through the [GATE] to join his team.
"And you were supposed to be the smartest of us?" Elder Coffin laughed, it seemed he had returned for no real reason at all. Brightness was down before he got off running. The giant undead Dragon Lord rolled his eyes before stretching out his massive wings, pushing off and taking to the air.
"Well I'm here now... let's see why this "Sorcerer King" has everybody up in a fit," He thought to himself as he made his way to The Baharuth Empire.
CHAPTER ONE: Ainz Ooal Gown, Destroyer of YGGDRASIL?
Ridda stood back and looked at her thin wall of adamantite she'd created to block the entrance to the guild store.
"Please refrain from using any more magic within the store!" The man in a black and white suit who sold her all sorts of things pleaded when she had created it.
"Sorry, but the people out there want to kill me..." The man frowned.
"Griefers? The scum! If I could little lady I'd go out there and show them what for, but sadly I am unable to leave the premises of this store.
"So... if they were to come in here, and try and do me harm..." He shook his head.
"That would be a mistake on their part, while I may not be made for battle, we have many other shopkeepers here who would stop griefers from trolling a low-level player like yourself. There, he would use that "level" word...
"Can you explain what a level is?" She asked he nodded and smiled.
"You must be very new to the game! Level's are how we determine how strong someone is, the higher the level, the stronger one typically is." He explained with a smile, that made sense to her, it was like the ranks adventures used, but with numbers.
"So what's the highest level someone can be?" She asked suspecting this man was not from this land at all.
"Well level 100 would be the cap as of the last expansion, but I have heard of no plans of further expansions so 100 will probably be the cap." She pondered what he said, weird phrases...
"Hey, where are you from? Like what is the name of your homeland?" He pointed to a map on the wall, it looked like a tree with nine leaves and there were cities on the leaves.
"We can move from any of the beginner worlds, but our home will always be YGGDRASIL, even if this place is strange to us." She was right! This man was from a far off land, one she'd never heard of even. Suddenly a thought crossed her head.
"Do you know of someone named Ainz Ooal Gown?" She asked, and he nodded.
"That is the name of a guild my little shopper, not a person, but yes I have heard of them, in fact, one of their founders once shopped here when he was new to the game! As he was kind enough to fill out a questionnaire, we recorded his purchases and name." She was certain of it now, the ruler of The Sorcerer Kingdom must be from this same far off land YGGDRASIL as well, he must have used the name of this old guild as a fake name maybe?
"What was Ainz Ooal Gown like?" She asked putting some more golden blades on the counter to sell, now that her mana had refilled a bit, she pointed at a black cloak that reminded her of the red one she wore when pretending to be Evileye. She wrapped it around her body. Between the new ring, earrings, gloves and this powerful cloak, she decided she was at her limit of magical gear.
"Again, this Ainz Ooal Gown was a group of players, but I heard they were quite skilled at killing humans, in fact, I heard they would not allow humans into their guild, they were said to be very evil and terrifying." Her eyes sprang open.
"Wait, they were evil people?" He shrugged. She figured the word "players" just meant people in this far off land.
"I don't know for sure as we never had personal dealings with them, other than the occasional new shopper that would go on to join or create it later, but I heard that over 1,500 of the strongest human and living races formed an alliance to try and take down the guild of Ainz Ooal Gown, and they were all defeated, every last one. Does this sound like something evil people would do to try and defeat a good nation?" He was right, it sounded like the old story of the 13 heroes who teamed up to fight the last surviving King of Greed, only this time the evil nation beat the brave heroes!
"So this Ainz Ooal Gown took over the world of YGGDRASIL after they killed the 1,500 heroes?" She asked growing worried. but he frowned.
"I'm afraid YGGDRASIL is no longer little one, the day our store was teleported to this land was when the servers were shut down forever," He looked kind of sad.
"It's no longer? As in it was destroyed?" She asked shocked, if this YGGDRASIL had been destroyed, that would explain why she'd never heard of it till this store. He thought for a second then nodded.
"I suppose that's an "RP" way to put it." More weird phrases, but she was putting this puzzle together, Ainz Ooal Gown was an evil "guild", and destroyed the land of YGGDRASIL after it defeated the great 1,500 heroes... and now someone from this guild might be here to destroy this land... The Sorcerer Kingdom was evil after all! It was then that the ruckus outside stopped. At that point, the shop keepers eyes looked to the [GATE] devise they used.
"What about "world Items?" like the one I have here, what exactly are they, what does this one do?" She held up a skull that was half black and half white, but the eye sockets were the opposite hue of the dominant color it was one (like a yin-yang sign)
"The story of how the guild LOLGITGUDSCRUBS obtained that is quite the tale," he began to tell her but she cut him off.
"What does it do?" He seemed slightly disappointed but answered.
"That is called Ahura Mazda, it has the ability to dramatically reduce the power of anything with a negative karma value. That is to say, anyone and anything that is evil will lose half its levels, so all evil level 100 players that do not also have a world item will find themselves at level 50 on the particular world you use it one, it will only affect one of the nine, not all of the worlds. Oh, what a surprise that will be!" He clapped his hands. Her arms trembled, with this, she could make every member of The Sorcerer Kingdom half as powerful? Then Sir Momon could easily defeat him! This land would not be destroyed like the land of YGGDRASIL had been by the evil Ainz Ooal Gown! She then thought of a question.
"What level am I?" She asked. he laughed.
"You should be able to see that in your status screen, but I can see you are level a level 7 mineral caster."
"Level 7? And The Sorcerer King is level 100? That was a huge power gap, even if she used the item she had, he'd be 50? But that was why she had to turn this over to Sir Momon if he intended to save humanity, this was the key!
"OH! The [GATE] service is once again available!" Ridda realized what that meant, the maids she'd been with must have defeated the Beastmen and that man who was talking to her earlier. She was saved! But she had to talk to Sir Momon as soon as possible! She used a [MESSAGE] Scroll.
"Sir Momon? This is Ridda I'm in the store you sent me to..." She tried to explain the situation but he cut her off.
"Yes I am aware, the members of The Sorcerer Kingdom you met have defeated the enemy leader, you are safe to come back to E-Rantel if you can use that [GATE] you said the store had."
"Yes I can, but Sir Momon! Do you plan to turn all this bounty over to the Sorcerer King?" She asked worriedly, she knew he begrudgingly worked for the Litch called Ainz Ooal Gown, maybe he does not know the true plans of that monster! There was a slight pause but then an answer.
"Indeed, he wishes this power be kept safe from people who would abuse it." the voice in her head answered.
"But what if he plans to use it to kill the living?" Momon sounded confused.
"Why do you say this?"
"I know people say that The Sorcerer King is not evil after all and does not hate the living, but I have found proof that he destroyed a land called YGGDRASIL! He probably will do it to our land as well!" There was a longer pause.
"I see, we need to meet up then so you can tell me his uh, plan of his, in person," She wanted to believe Sir Momon but she had to be sure he was not working with The Sorcerer King in some grand scheme. With her cloak, she just bought she was sure she could protect herself, or at least escape. She turned and asked to go to E-Rantel. The [Gate] opened. She stepped through hoping she was not making a mistake, she stepped out into her room in E-Rantel, Momon and Nabe were waiting for her.
"Okay so let's get to it, what have you found exactly?" Momon asked in a serious tone.
"The store owner told me about the destroyed land of YGGDRASIL, and how an evil guild called Ainz Ooal Gown killed 1,500 of it's greatest heroes, I am sure this is the same person who calls himself The Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown!" Nabe took a step at Ridda with an angry expression which made Ridda back up and put her guard up, Momon grabbed Nabe and held her back. Ridda recognized this was not a normal reaction.
"Is she... do you both work for Ainz Ooal Gown?" She said backing up, even more, she had trusted him too easily, Nabe's reaction betrayed the act, she at least was putting on.
"No, I am working with him in order to protect the peace in E-Rantel, we do not owe alliance to him." He said but she looked at Nabe who was trying to hide the fact that she just messed up, she was smiling, and that was the biggest lie of all, Nabe had never once smiled with a smile that looked so "sweet". But he saw that Ridda did not believe him and was thinking about how to escape. Momon sighed.
"I assume you have the world item I asked for?" Momon asked, Ridda did not answer him. She looked back and forth at Nabe and Momon.
"I do..." With this, she was expecting them both to attack her but nothing like that happened.
"Do you know what a world item is, or what it can do?" He asked, again she nodded keeping a weary look on them.
"And can it help destroy Ainz Ooal Gown, or at least cause his Kingdom great harm?" Again she nodded now expecting Nabe to move on her.
"Then hold onto it for me." He said. Her eyes went wide, this was not what she expected.
"If you do not trust me, then I will ask you to keep it until you believe I only work for the people of this land." Ridda looked at Nabe, while she believed Momon, Nabe was another question entirely.
"Is she working directly under that Ainz monster?" Ridda pointed a finger, at the mention of the word "Ainz monster" Nabes eyes flared up with anger for only a moment before the fake smile returned, Momon, sighed and shook his head.
"She is... a loyal team member, her actions are that of someone who does not like the peace we've worked so hard to make shaken by misunderstandings."
"Misunderstandings?" Ridda blinked. He looked at Nabe then removed his helmet showing a plain looking man with black hair, she had expected him to look more... dashing.
"I too am from YGGDRASIL, and it is true, that the land of YGGDRASIL no longer exists... but the guild "Ainz Ooal Gown" did not have anything to do with its end, in fact... they desperately wanted that world to last forever, I hear... in truth, The Sorcerer King, Nabe here, and myself are what you could call, refugees, we were all sent here when the land vanished, against our wills... and that is the truth, I barely knew of him back then you could say, but as we were from the same land..."
"...Is why you trusted him enough to become the protector of this town?" Momon looked pleased she understood.
"Well I see why nobody would openly talk about this, foreigners are not trusted, especially scary ones like The Sorcerer King..." Ridda said now putting her arm into another space much like Ainz would do when retrieving an item from his personal inventory space, this was an item she bought that let her keep things but not have to carry them. And produced the black and white skull, she handed it over to him. Nabe's eyes went wide, she knew immediately what this was, all people with negative karma have had heard of this particular world item.
"I see, then you must believe me to hand this over," Momon said thanking her. Ridda shrugged.
"It was our deal, after all, so my end is fulfilled," Ridda remembered that she really did not care if this world was destroyed, so long as she killed that woman first. Momon stood up and bowed respectfully, Nabe seemed surprised but said nothing.
"Thank you Ridda, you do our team honor in your actions and trust in me." Ridda blushed a bit and turned to hide it.
"Just... just help me kill that woman..." She said turning sounding angry again. Momon nodded.
"On my word, I shall do this," He said sitting back down. Ridda joined him at the table to discuss the raiding of the inventory of the store. She explained how her power was more reliable now.
"I see, so with those gloves and earrings, I won't even need to use any gold?" he asked as she explained how she was able to buy so much in such a small time. Most of which she still held in her "personal equipment dimension".
"That's right, so long as you give me an hour to rest when I need it, I can produce enough gold chunks to buy out that store in under a week I'd say, and not a single coin of your gold will be spent." She said with a bit of pride in her voice.
"That's very generous of you, this was not part of our deal, I wish I could pay you back."
"Maybe you can..." She said, he leaned in looking interested.
"Okay, what else would you like?" But she seemed doubtful.
"I doubt you can do this... but I'd like my mom, uh, Alis, and her brother Nero, I'd like them to know we are okay..." She said thinking of the regret-filled face of Alis as she died. She tried to fight back the tears but they came, she pulled her black robe over her face to hide her tears of loss. Momon looked at Nabe and looked back to her.
"I'll see what can be done about that," he said, she looked up rubbing her eye, they were red. She just nodded, still not expecting much.
"Anyway I'll have Nabe here stand guard outside the shop while you work, will that be fine?" She nodded and sniffed a bit.
"Do you need rest?" She shook her head, she wanted this week done with as fast as possible. Not long after he arranged for her to be sent back so their shopping plan could begin.