Of Lords and Warriors

by HarmonicWaves

Power; a constructed perception of abilities or skills that are located where people believe they are located. An illusion formed by the subconscious such as the assumptions of chaos and calamities. Placed into a new world, they will soon find out that even an unreal construct can make the difference between war and peace. Calamities for balance? Human fundamentals never changes.

Author: I'm back! It's been so long since I updated or posted anything. I stopped writing for a year because of some difficulties in university, but it calmed down a bit now. I should be working on Angels or Demons, or Technology of a Civilization, etc. However, this was in my head right at the moment so I will post this now and update my other stories as soon as possible. Hope you'll enjoy this.

Eastern Continent, Yamato, Akihabara

Sensations... Physical sensations from the environment.

Shiroe opened his eyes with shock as the too familiar sensations are occurring all around his body. He could feel, see, touch, smell, and taste to such extreme detail that he wonders if the game had an update.

Raising his left hand to in front of his face, the mage wearing a white cloak slowly flexed his hand to observe the sensation. He frowned to the realistic senses he was feeling . He could feel the pulling of multiple muscles inside his skin as he moved his hand, the pressure of the bones that restrict inhuman movement, the feeling of touch as his skin met each other's while forming a fist, and heat as his hand contacted to the palm that has the greater organic mass. He could even smell the moisture in the air.

Shocked with the discovery, the mage quickly looked around his surroundings to verify if he was indeed still inside the game. Or anything that could help him understand why he could feel like the way he could in the real world. However, he realized with panic that he could not recognize his surroundings at all.

It was not Elder Tale or the real world.

Small buildings that consists of renaissance architectures were around the mage in organized city town like formation. The heights were between 20 meters (65 feet) to 40 meters (131 feet) tall and were nearly entirely made out of concrete. What was peculiar though was that all the buildings looked ruined, as if it the city was abandoned for decades. They all looked green as plant life grew on all the buildings, some trees were even connected to the buildings sides.

"Where am I?" Shiroe asked himself with confusion. Scared and mesmerized by the vastness of his environment as well as all the realistic sensations throughout his body.

Anxiety began to build up the more fanatically he look around his surroundings, a strong cold imaginary pressure developing inside his lower chest the more uncertain he was of his environment.

The white robed mage ran, looking for anything or anyone that could help relieve the strong anxiety he was feeling. His fingers twitched more and more as he continued to unrecognized the streets he traveled.

After, minutes of continued running, he stopped to try to calm himself. Knowing that panicking would not solve anything. However, what surprised him was how quickly he calmed down. As if he had a great amount of control over his emotions and state of mind. "What the?" he questioned himself as he couldn't believe how easy it was to calm down.

He also realized that he's not tired as well, on the contrary, he felt a lot stronger. The mage looked behind him and could see that he traveled a long distance. Combining the fact that he ran at the top of his speed and in panic, he should have been at least breathless right now, but he does not feel breathless at all. Shiroe also realized that his body also felt a light lighter than he ever remembered it to be. It felt like he could just 20 meters (65 feet) up in the air, but decided not to test that as it must be his imagination. His body also didn't felt like a body anymore, where there are some heaviness, unevenness, and weakness in some areas, it felt... perfect. That was the only word he could describe his feelings in his body.

He raised his left hand in front of his face and looked at it with curious interest. He turned his left hand into a fist and approached the nearest wall. Still looking at his hand, he suddenly punched the wall as hard as he can. A large bang could be heard and to his amazement, the wall cracked from where he punched it. However...

"OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Shouted the mage while he wiggled his left hand, regretting his action. As quickly as the pain came though, it quickly disappeared as well.

Shiroe looked at his left hand again with confusion, but quickly turned his attention to a shout he could hear 200 meters (656 feet) away. "200 meters! How did I know that?!" thought Shiroe, thinking that his senses might have gotten sharper. Another shout was heard which made the mage to quickly dismiss his thought and ran to where the shout came from.

When Shiroe arrived to the source of the shouts, he could see thousands of people panicking and running all over the place.

"What's going on?!" exclaimed a large man.

"What is this place?!"

"This can't be happening."

"Why am I dressed like this?!"

"You there! Do you know what's going on here?!"

"Who are you?!"

Everyone was trying to figure out where they were and what was happening to them. A peculiar thing though was how they were dressed. Nearly everyone was dressed with clothing that resembled from the medieval period to the enlightenment period. They were wearing robes, plate armors, leather armors, suits, chainmail, etc.

Shiroe then looked at his clothing and found out that he was wearing a white long rob with a long staff on his back, green long pants, black long shirt, gray shoes, a large bag strapped to his belt, and a talisman at his neck. He looked exactly like his gaming character.

"Am I in the game?" he asked himself.

Testing his theory, Shiroe pointed his staff to a small plant beside him and casted the first spell that went on his mind. To his surprise, the small plant glowed green and kept growing. The moment Shiroe stopped his spell after four seconds later, the plant was now a three meters tree.

"What is going on here?" he questioned himself while looking at the tree that he created.

Confirming a small part of his theory, the mage thought of other functions of the Elder Tales game that he could perform. "Can I view my friend list?" He then instantly thought up of list of friends and to his surprise, he could visualize a list of friends in his head.

"Naotsugu!" he said with relief when he found a name that he recognized. "Does message still work here? If I can talk to him telepathically..." He concentrated on the person he was looking for and felt a subtle but strong link. It felt like someone opened up his mind and expanded it like a net, and a foreign object or mind was tangled to it.

"Shiroe?! Is that you, Shiroe?!" questioned a voice that was in Shiroe's head.

"Naotsugu!" exclaimed Shiroe. "Where are you?"

"I don't know. I am near a big tree though."

The moment he said that, the location to where Naotsugu was currently quickly went to his mind. It was as if he could sense the location of anyone he has is linked to or near him. "Never mind. I'll on my way to you."

"What?..." asked Naotsugu but was quickly disconnected by Shiroe as he ran towards where he sensed Naotsugu .

After running for 50 minutes nonstop, he found Naotsugu sitting under a tree near a large pond of water.

"SHIROE!" Shouted Naotsugu when he saw Shiroe. He waved his right hand to the air and ran towards his mage friend with a happy expression.

Shiroe gave a relieved expression knowing one of his friend is with him. He was not alone in this new world. "Naotsugu."

"What is going on here Shiroe?! Where is this place and why are we here?! Why am I wearing my avatar armor and why are you wearing your avatar clothing?!..." asked the gray guardian quickly but was stopped when Shiroe raised his open palm up with a tired look.

"Please stop. I don't know anything either." said as he stopped the knight from continuing.

"But. But..." he sighed. "I thought that much, but do you know anything at all? Even a tiny bit?"

"It's a hypothesis but I have an assumption that we are inside a game."

Naotsugu looked at Shiroe as if the mage said something unbelievable.

"I am not sure about this though. It's only a hypothesis from doing a spell earlier. It could be something else entirely. I don't know." he exclaimed while frowning. Shiroe really didn't like not knowing what is going on.

"You can use a spell?" asked the surprised guardian.

Shiroe looked at Naotsugu strangely. "Yeah, and I think that you could do your skills as well."

"Really?! I'll try it out now." Naotsugu stood up and took out his sword to perform a move.

"I don't think that's a good idea." said Shiroe before the armored guardain could do anything.

Naotsugu raised an eyebrow "Why?"

"You're still getting used to your new body so I think you need to get used to it first before doing any practices." informed the mage without even realizing it. He could think much faster than before as the recommendation he gave came from considering hundreds of variables in just a second. Thoughts also came very clear, without any interruptions.

The guardian went to a thinking pose by placing his hand under his chin. Not noticing the surprised expression on Shiroe's face. "That makes sense. Alright, I'll practice next time."

Shiroe could only nod in response.

"Wasn't today the day they planned to add the new expansion?" asked Naotsugu, changing the topic of conversation.

"Yeah, The Novasphere Pioneers." said Shiroe, he planned on thinking about his new mental abilities later.

"Up until the second they executed the update, I can remember everything. And the next thing I knew, I was here."

"Same with me."

"This doesn't look anything like the Elder's Tale setting though. I've played through every locations but none of them looked similar to where we are now. But..." The armored guardian looked up at the sky with amazement "The sky stretches so much further. It looks too real to be a game."

Shiroe knelt down near the pod to touch a rock that was surrounded by moss "And it feels like I'm really touching it. Which means this isn't a dream."

"Then are we in the game, huh? I thought that only happened in fantasy novels."

"We don't know yet. That is just my assumption." informed Shiroe as he stood back up.

Naotsugu brought his head down and sighed. "You think we can get home?"

"I don't know. How did we get here in the first place?"

"Yeah."

"I think we may not be able to return quickly." Shiroe looked towards Naotsugu with seriousness. "But we should be ready for any eventualities in this world until we can find a way to go home."

"What do we do?"

"Let's gather information. We have to know more about this world."

"I suppose that's true." Naotsugu stood up and walked towards Shiroe with a smile. "It good to see you as calm and analytical as ever."

"Calm isn't the world I'd choose. Wait, are your senses sharper than when we were back home?"

The guardian's eye widen as he remembered something. "Oh, yeah! That was a shocker! I came here because I smelled water, but when I came here it was over 100 meters (328 feet) from where I first started smelling it!"

"Same as well, but I was able to hear someone a kilometer away."

"Talk about strange." said the grey guardian as he placed a hand on the side of his head

"It appears that our senses are really a lot sharper than normal." Shiroe sighed with fake exhaustion "We really have a lot to learn about this world."

"I'm counting on you, strategist." informed Naotsugu with a small smile.

"Let's head to the center of this city. Maybe we could find something."

"I'm right ahead of you." informed the guardian as he walked ahead of Shiroe to the direction of where the center of the city might be.

Shiroe smiled at himself and followed behind Naotsugu. "Hello new world."

Midgard (Center Continent), Aincrad, First Floor, Town of Beginnings

Kirito was sitting on a wooden box in a dark empty narrow alleyway. A shocked and depressed expression could be seen on his face as his head was facing down. He was holding a short sword, but what was out of place on that sword was that there was a small trail of red blood that was running from the blade's heel to its tip.

Blood was running down from his fingers to the floor. Each drop reminding him of the reality that he is currently at. He cut his fingers deeply to the point it nearly reached his bone. The good part was that the wound was healing rapidly as the muscles and skin are concealing themselves, but that was not the problem.

He could feel pain as if it was the real world. When he cut himself, he felt everything, even the muscles that was cut opened. It was too real... No.. It was real. He could die in this new world.

Keeping his head down with an expression of both confusion and despair. "This is real..." Squeezing his hand as more blood began to flow out of his fingers, but not as much as before because the wound nearly completely healed. "If I'll die in the game, I will die in real life." he said to himself. To inform himself because part of him still couldn't believe it.

As he sat there, he could hear the panic shouts of thousands of players near him. All confused and in despair as they are now in a situation they do not understand. He could hear running of large mobs, the cries of despair, and the violence performed by their anger.

"NO!" screamed a twin tailed girl with light brown hair.

"Where the hell am I!"

"Get me out! Get me out of here!"

"I can't stay here! I can't! I can't!"

A dark brown haired girl was kneeling with a shocked empty expression as everyone began to fighting each others.

"I want to go home!"

"What's happening?!"

"Someone! Can't anyone do something?!"

Kirito hearing all the despair and angry voices around him. He looked to the street to his left and could see people running chaotically in every directions. All afraid of the uncertainty in this new world and the possibility of death. Kirito was scared as well, he could die in this new world. A world filled with danger from unknown armies to unimaginable monsters.

This was not a game.

The boy tightened his fist and gripped his short sword tighter. He couldn't let his fear overcome him. He must survive at all cost and find a way back. Determination began to build up inside him as he now had a goal in mind.

To become as strong as possible.

If the new world functions a bit like the game world, then the only way to survive would be by making himself as strong as possible. Gathering as much resources as possible because the money and experience that could be earned are all limited. He must get as much as he can so he could protect himself and anyone else he wanted to protect. He has to stay strong.

With newfound strength, Kirito stood up and looked to his right where it would go to another street that would lead him to the exit of the city. He knew he could not stay in the Town of Beginnings, even though it was safe. The fields surrounding the town will soon be hunted clean. He must quickly head to the next town or city to get as much experience as possible.

He was about to run but the feeling of guilt build up inside of him. Remembering that he left Klein to himself so that he could join his friends. He could have forced him to join him but Kleim politely refused. He would be leaving everyone in the city, those who were scared and those who don't know what to do.

He was abandoning them. However, deep inside he knew that he can't bring them with him. He would not be able to protect them or watch over a large amount of people. Experience would also be much harder to get. He promised himself that he will come back strong enough to protect them and help them in their situation.

With a strong resolution, he ran.

Kirito kept running until he was just outside the entrance of Town of Beginnings. He stopped and looked back at the entrance where he could still hear the fights and cries of players inside. Looking back with second thoughts as a sad expression came to his face due to being alone and wanting to stay with the others.

Tears began to flow from his eyes, but with sheer will, he pushed himself to look away and ran as fast as he can. Trying to cancel the noise as well as forcing himself to keep going, reminding himself that he needs to get stronger.

He kept running, and running, and running, as tears kept flowing out his closed eyes. Focusing all his will to his legs.

Even after hours of running, as his legs began to give in and lungs about to explode, he still kept running. With determination and will be become stronger to survive and help those who needed it, he kept running. With the will to escape from this world, he kept running.

As he continued to ran through a road surrounded by grassy plains. A black boar about 90 centimeters (3 feet) tall was in front of him and was running towards him. It looked like it was going to attack him.

Kirito didn't stopped his running, instead continued to run faster while taking out a short sword from his waist. The moment they were only a meter away, the boar jumped to him, but Kirito screamed and stabbed the boar in the chest while the boar was still in the air. To his surprise, the boar felt lighter than a single piece of feather.

The boar squealed loudly as the sword impaled its chest. Large amount of blood flowed out of its chest to Kirito's hands as they trailed down to his elbow then to the floor. It kept moving so Kirito forcefully twisted his blade with his left hand to stop it.

It squealed even louder as blood began to splatter all around Kirito's face and clothes. He then slammed the boar down to the floor and stabbed it again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Until it stopped squealing and moving.

The swords man quickly stood up and continued to run as fast as he could again. Blood was everywhere around him as they continued to trail down lower. He screamed with the top of his lungs as he continued to run as fast as he could

"I'm!. I'm!. I'm going to survive!... In this world!" Kirito screamed again.

Ginnungagap (South Continent/South Pole), Nazarik, Tomb of Nazarik, 10th Floor

"What's going on here?" whispered Momonga to himself as he sat behind a large metal table in his office room. He mentally sighed because no air comes out from his mouth.

It has been three days since he came to this new world. Since then, he realized many things was different within him. He no longer felt human. He still had memories of when he was Satoru Suzuki, but it now felt like it was decades ago as thousands of new information kept coming to his head.

He looked at his skeletal hands. "What's happening to me?"

Momonga could now feel the space around him, the slight fluctuation of gravity due to the plant's elliptic rotation, the heat 10 kilometer (6 miles) below him, the rotation of the planet, every life forms in a 10 kilometer (6 miles) around him, and every single magic in a 20 kilometer (12 miles) radius.

His senses were sharper and more controlled as well. As he could hear the noises of his servants working on the surface even though it was more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) above him, surrounded by thick walls. The fortunate part was that he could control it and its range, or else it would have maddened him greatly. He could even see colors that he have never seen before, as if he could now see more than just within the spectrum of visible light.

There were also things that he couldn't fully get used to such as having more than the usual 5 senses. When he counted he now had over 10 different senses with extreme sharpness and control. Till now he's still trying to study each one of them in order for him to utilize them properly.

However, his senses and body was not the only change. His mind changed significantly as well. Thinking was now both easier and faster. Information just comes up to him when he needs them without even recalling them mentally. Answers came up without even thinking, as if he already knew what to do based on the information he currently has.

Thousands of detailed information just kept coming to his head every hour without his control, information that he didn't even knew or learnt, and his mind is able to organize them efficiently. Like, he didn't knew anything about ancient architecture before, but now, he knew everything there is to know about it without even studying it. It was as if he was a black hole pulling knowledge itself to him.

"Have I turned more intelligent too? " He could now calculate massive amount of data, numbers, and information with inhumane speed.

There were even times when he thought that he might have seen a glimpse of the future. He thought it was just a déjà vu when it actually occurred, but the three days he stayed, there were 36 predictions that went exactly as he foreseen it. Logical and rational thinking could now be performed to inhumane lengths and he was surprised of how far he could think. He could even predict events through the use of sheer brute force calculations. He even has clairvoyance as he could now sense where things are even without knowing where they are.

As Momonga looked at his hands, he then focused on the two rings he placed on his left middle finger that he started to wore two days ago.

Since his arrival to the new world, Momonga could feel his overwhelming infinite power keep swelling and radiating excessively from within him. His energies kept flowing out of his body as they are unable to be contained without a Divine class item. Heck, his mere presence caused every magical equipments in a 30 kilometer (19 miles) radius to nearly overload from the energy buildup of an entire day before he wore two Divine class rings; one to conceal it and the other to contain it within a two meter (6 feet) radius.

He placed a hand on his skeletal face and shook his head slowly to express his embarrassment. How could he have been so careless. No wonder everyone moved like they were carrying a heavy load on their back when he passed by. They were uncomfortable with the pressure that came from his magical energy, but didn't told him anything about it. When he asked them, they said that it was no problem and that they were actually grateful for their master to show them a taste of his power, even when it hurt.

Momonga made a mental sigh from the memory and quickly looked at the report that he just received few minutes ago from Sebas.

He recently ordered Sebas to exit Nazarik to investigate the surroundings and the report said that they were now located on an harsh polar desert with massive amounts of volcanic activity. The polar desert had thousands of large rock and ice mountains completely filled with snow and glaciers. Rivers of lava flowed everywhere as well, making the ground very hot but the air very cold.

Sebas also reported that it was snowing heavily, with strong winds capable of pushing off any light weighted creatures. It also made it difficult to see for any humans or demi-humans as they would have a hard time identifying what was even 10 meters away from them. He also mentioned that the sun could not be seen as thick dark gray clouds covered the entire sky for thousands of kilometers. Suggesting that it was dark outside of Nazarik.

This made Momonga curious, due to the fact that Nazarik should have been in a swamp like area. He haven't visited outside yet, but he was very curious as to where exactly they are currently located.

The elder lich looked around his beautifully decorated room and spotted some weapons on a table near the main door. Maybe he could test the theory if he could wield weapons that are not used from his class.

Momonga stood up from his chair and quickly felt uncomfortably comfortable again. His entire body felt so light, as if he was just a part of the air. It also felt strange not needing to breath or blink, and not feeling any of his physical flesh in or around his body. Not even the movement of his eyes or the tightness within his chest due to the compact structures of skin, muscles, organs, and bones. It felt too strange. Too alien.

Quickly getting his mind off it, he walked towards where the weapons were and picked out a great sword. It felt like it had no weight, but that was because he was very strong. The sword was marvelously crafted as there was not a single imperfection in its form. It didn't have any enchants or magical properties, and was considered as a low class item, but it was still a sight to be praised.

Momonga took a battle stance and performed a few sword maneuvers that he could remember when he took Kendo lessons many years back, and was surprised that he could perform actions that his class wouldn't be able to do.

He was able to attack using a sword which was restricted to only warrior class even though he has no warrior classes. This suggested that the rules of the new world is very different from the rules in YGGDRASIL.

"A magnificent display of skills Lord Momonga." said Naberal Gamma beside the door while bowing deeply.

Not knowing what to say for a praise that he didn't think he deserved. Especially because the attacks he performed were just basic sword strikes. All the overlord could do was nod to his maid "Thank you." he said hesitantly.

Naberal bowed again with a happy expression.

He looked at the sword with curiosity by tilting his head. He may be able to perform attacks but he didn't have any of the warrior classes special abilities and skills. He can only rely on techniques and combat knowledge when combating his opponents.

The elder lich placed the sword back where he got it and approached a mirror to look at himself.

Seeing his skeletal form, it was strange for him that he didn't feel shocked or fear at all when viewing himself. He didn't felt any fear or unease with his new form at all. It actually felt natural in a way.

He also realized from the three days that he now has a limit to the level of the emotions that he could feel. Like there was a limit to how far his emotions could reach. He could no longer have any unstable amounts of emotions. Whenever his emotions goes to an intense surge, it immediately stops. As if there was a wall that stopped it from going further. What scares him was the possibility that he would lose all his human emotions.

Another thing was that he could no longer feel thirst, hunger, and fatigue. He could also no longer feel lust nor excitement when he was caressing Albedo's breast three days ago, which disappointed him in more ways than one.

He began to think more about it, but decided that he should stop for now. He had been thinking nonstop since the incident. Even though he could no longer feel fatigue, he knew that he would not be able to find the answer no matter how much he pondered until he finds new information.

He decided to go outside.

"Narberal, I'm going to go out for a bit." informed the elder lich.

"The guards are ready for you." replied the maid reflexively.

No matter how much he changed in a short span, Satoru Suzuki's habits and personality are still within him. He was still Satoru. Which was why in truth, he disliked having the guards following him.

On the first day, when the guards followed him everywhere, he felt pressurized. On the second day, he got used to it at first, but then felt like showing them off. Then the third day...

Momonga made a mental sigh.

It was all too stiff and serious for him. The guards followed him everywhere he went, and whenever he met someone, they would bow to him.

Maybe he could walk around nonchalantly with his guards, it would ease him. However, he could not do that, because he had to maintain the gravitas of the ruler of Nazarik at all times. He could not allow a moment of laxity to ruin his image, even though it made him constantly anxious. This was causing a lot of stress to Momonga.

Even though his emotions are suppressed, he still felt the constant pressure of paranoia, stress and anxiety all the time.

And then there was the unbelievably beautiful woman who plastered herself to his side at all times, taking care of him in any way possible. If he was human, we would have been delighted by the attention, but now, he felt nothing.

Another part of his humanity gone.

He now considered it fortunate that he has control over his emotions and that it would be suppressed if it reached a limit. If he still had them, he might-no-will have made many poor decisions in times of emergency.

He calmed himself down.

"No. There is no need for the guards to accompany me. I simply wish to walk by myself." said Momonga

"Pl-please wait and reconsider. If something happens to Lord Momonga alone, we cannot perish as your shields. We cannot allow anything to happen to you my lord." pleaded Naberal

"There is something I wish to do discreetly, I won't allow anyone to accompany me."

Naberal hesitated few seconds with a worried expression, but bowed in the end. "Understood. Then, please be safe, Lord Momonga."

Momonga nodded and instantly disappeared by teleportation.

Ginnungagap (South Continent/South Pole), Nazarik, Ground Castle of Nazarik, Main Gate

Momonga teleported behind the main gate of Nazarik.

It was huge! The elder lich's eye sockets glowed red for a second. The gate was 50 meters (162 feet) tall and 30 meters (98 feet) wide. It was open but one could still see the heavenly decorations on the metal surface, even when it was completely concealed in ice.

He then looked behind him and saw a single large square tunnel going upwards like an inclined plane. The square tunnel was 30 meters (98 feet) in both height and width, and a length of 1 kilometers (0.6 miles). It sounds simple, but the walls were all beautifully decorated as well, in all four sides. Even as they were all covered by blue ice, it actually made them more extravagant as it gave a bluish glow. It was not even dark at all as magic lights were placed at all sides. There were even both physical and magical traps and defenses everywhere.

However, it didn't activate with him as his presence deactivates those traps.

The elder lich walked towards the gate and once he was out, he could see that the walls of Nazarik did indeed looked dark gray due to the limited exposure of the sun. He looked up and couldn't see the sun at all as dark clouds covered it completely.

When he looked, he saw a thousand of undead, heteromorphic races, and dark creatures, all working in creating new defenses outside the wall of Nazarik. However, they all stopped and looked at Momonga.

He quickly perked up due to the sudden change of atmosphere and having thousands of eyes looking at him.

As quickly as they looked at him, all of them knelt down and bowed to him at the same time in complete union. All of them then said words such as supreme one, God, almighty one, master, my lord, etc.

Unable to take this much attention, Momonga raised his hand for everyone to stop.

They all stopped the moment they saw his hand, but kept their head, heads, or lack of head as low as possible.

"I am performing a discreet observation of surroundings of Nazarik. Continue with your work, and don't mind me. I also simply want to observe my citizens." he said out loud. He mentally wanted to hit his head somewhere for saying something so cheesy.

Everyone quickly worked back to what they were doing. However, this time it was with more carefully, rigorously, and quickly. Their master coming up to see them was the greatest joy they ever had in their lives. This was also their chance to impress their lord, and they would be happy to die by pushing themselves to their limit when working if it could at least impress their master a tiny bit.

Momonga looked at them with pity. In the outside they looked happy at what they are doing, but he could sense their desperation to please him. They were all so happy, but at the same time, very afraid. They were afraid that they would disappoint him even a tiny bit. To them, that was worse than dying a million painful deaths.

He will have to deal with this situation later.

Momonga teleported himself 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from Nazarik, and he was shocked to his very core.

About over a year ago, Nazarik would have only been a massive tomb underground, but a lot has changed since then. The new Nazarik was now separated to three sections; The Tomb of Nazarik, The Ground Castle of Nazarik, and The Flying Castle of Nazarik.

Even at his distance from Nazarik, all he could think of is how massive Nazarik was. No, not just massive. Impossibly monstrous. It was a lot bigger than he ever imagined it to be.

The ground castle was circular with a radius of 9 kilometers (6 miles), giving the entire ground castle a base area of 254 kilometers (158 miles) square. From afar, the ground castle looked like a giant cone where layers are built up towards the center of the castle that had the height of 9.08 kilometers (6 miles). A total of 10 layers, not including ground layer, could be observed from the circumference of the castle to the center. From the ground, one would not be able to see the castle above the 8th layer because of the clouds. There were thousands of fortress, towers, and building like structures within the walls.

The ground layer consist of a circular wall that encircled the entire ground castle. It was 80 meters (262 feet) tall with a thickness area of the entire base area of the ground castle. Which meant that the ground castle was not behind the wall but on top of it. Attacking the wall would be both pointless and inefficient when trying to breach to the castle, and the only way to access the castle would be to fly over or climb the 80 meter (262 feet) wall, or breach the gates.

However, the massive structure did not end there. The tenth layer of the ground castle was connected to the flying castle. Circular and shaped like a cone as well, but it has a smaller radius of 7 kilometers (4 miles), making the base area of the flying castle of 154 kilometers (96 miles)square, and a height of 7 kilometers (4 miles). It looked like a smaller cone was on top of a bigger cone when viewed from a distance. It may look like the tip of the ground castle was supporting the entire mass of the flying castle but in actuality, the flying castle was literally flying through the use of a highly complex levitation magic. The tip of the ground castle was only connected to the center bottom of the flying castle in order to travel between them by foot.

It may look fragile but the flying castle would never fall if anything attacked it. The debris that might form from the attack would levitate as well and would not fall to the ground. The only way for the castle to fall would be to destroy its source of magic which was hidden deep inside the Tomb of Nazarik.

The flying castle also consisted of 10 layers as well as a ground layer, similar to that of the ground castle. However, the difference was that on the top of the 10th floor of the flying castle, rivers of lava was flowing to 36 different directions from the center to towards the cliff through the use of aqueducts. The aqueducts were also covered in ice but were not affected lava due the ice's magical properties.

In the cliff, the lava began to fall like a waterfall and gather at 36 different storages on the ground castle, the storages were all connected to each other's by a aqueducts, creating a giant ring of lava around the fourth layer of the ground castle. Each storages were then split to two and continued to flow to different directions as well using aqueducts towards the outer wall, where they fall like waterfall as well. This created 72 lava rivers and waterfalls on the outer wall all around the castle.

The entrance of the ground castle had two lava waterfalls falling from its side. Contrasting to the ice that covered everything, giving a mixture of both extreme cold and heat. Castles that no human or demi-humans could survive.

It was... magnificent.

All of Momonga's hard work resulted to what he was seeing right now. A great monument for all his friends.

He felt a strong sense of pride for his accomplishment, but it quickly stopped when the emotion went to its limit.

Feeling disappointed with the emotional suppression, he mentally sighed his disappointment.

All the structures of Nazarik were made of extremely strong and dense stones and were all covered with very dense magical ice. Resulting in the castles to give off a blue radiance if sunlight ever shined to them. It also made the castles look like they were completely made out of ice even though the ice was only a few centimeters thick.

Nazarik looked Dark Grayish from where he stood due to the lack of sunlight and dark clouds. Snow was everywhere and it was a good thing that mountains were everywhere around the castle. However, he knew that something that tall could be spotted from a far distance, especially because Nazarik more than six times taller than any of the mountains. He needed to conceal it completely.

With that, Momonga flew up till he could see quarter of the planet clearly. If he had lips, it would be smiling right now. The world he saw was beautiful as light shined on the planet from the sun. He could currently see three continents, including the one Nazarik was on.

The continent Nazarik was one was completely white. Suggesting that it was like Antarctica from his world, a completely frozen dessert. Just with a lot of volcanic activity. Kind of like Greenland.

The south continent was an completely surrounded by water and the nearest continent was about 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) away. From a visual perspective, it appears that the continent that Nazarik was on was the smallest of the two other continents he could see. It was three times as small, but from the looks of his continent, it appeared that no one lives there considering its harsh conditions.

Momonga was happy that he got an entire continent of his own. However, if he was stuck in this world for the time being, he must find a way to secure himself here in order to survive. That meant he must develop his nation and improve its defenses.

Using magic, he telepathically contacted the guardian in charge of defenses.

"Demiurge."

"Yes, Lord Momonga." acknowledged the arc-devil

"I want you to create multiple docks around the continent we are in. Construct also ships and a navy for any possible events that might come in the future.

"Understood, but my Lord Momoga, how did you know that we were in water stranded continent.

"I went out to look at it myself." he said without thinking.

"I see... So that's how it is." Demiurge said with admiration.

Momonga tilted his with confusion. "Huh?" he said to himself.

"As expected of a ruler, your attention to detail is impeccable."

"Huh? What? I just wanted to go outside!" thought Momonga.

"However, I cannot allow you to go out anymore without anyone accompanying you"

"They are just too overprotective of me" Momonga thought with a mental sigh and fake exhaustion. "Very well, I will allow just one to accompany me if I go out again."

"Thank you very much for accepting my selfishness, my lord.

"I will now go back to Nazarik" with that Momonga disconnected the telepathic link.

He looked at Nazarik behind him and an idea came to him. He could maybe test his powers by concealing the entire of Nazarik. This would be a good way to see how much power he has by using a simple invisibility spell turned large scale.

With that, he faced his open palm in front of Nazarik and channeled the spell and energy for it to commence. A powerful ray of light engulfed Nazarik and as quickly as it came, the light and Nazarik disappeared from site.

Momonga panicked for second in thinking that he might have accidentally destroyed Nazarik but soon found out that he could see Nazarik. As a elder lich, he could see invisible objects or people. He mentally exhaled, knowing that the castle that he worked so hard to build was fine.

The barrier that Momonga casted was shaped like a giant cone that perfectly engulfed the entire of Nazarik. Structures inside the cone would be invisible for those outside it. If they do not have a class or skill that allowed them to see hidden invisible objects. From the distance Momonga was on, if he could not see invisibility, then he would only see a barren polar desert with mountains all around it. It was also fortunate that the snow was always heavy here that they would not be able to tell why the snow instantly turn invisible when they approached the barren field, unless they were a few meters away from the cone.

With that, Momonga slowly flew his way down to the main entrance of Nazarik.

When Momonga came down in front of the main entrance of Nazarik. A strait path towards the entrance with a width of 10 meters (32 feet) was made for him by hundreds of undead, dark creatures, and heteromorphic race by creating a two line formation. There was not even a millimeter dent in the formation. All of them were kneeling with one knee and bowing while putting their right hand to their chest in perfect position. The formation had nine rows where they organized themselves from smallest to biggest with the smallest on the first row.

The elder lich felt uncomfortable with this treatment as he never even imagined himself to be respected like this by a large number of people... creatures.

He wanted them to relax a bit. "At ease." he said, hopping that they could relax so that he can.

However, everyone of them instantly stood up in perfect synchronization as if they all had their minds were linked, and stood up strait with their arms to their sides, but still kept the perfect formation.

Giving up his attempt to ease them and himself, he walked towards the main gate of Nazarik with the hopes of finding more about the new world he is in.

Author: After some thought, I decided to change the population of players to 22 million total; 12 million from SAO and 10 million from Log Horizon (This is world wide, not just Japan. The population is based on the number of players for World of WarCraft during 2010). The original idea was to have a nation formed in their respective locations with conflicts against the other nations. The characters of the new world are very powerful as well and could kill the players, not to mention their nation size is huge with populations of hundreds of millions, and there are a lot more than one nation in the new world. However, I realized that a smaller population of players could work as well, I just need to change a few key information and future events. Actually, this change in direction could be more interesting.

Due to this, the size of Nazarik's castles have been decreased down by a magnitude. It was originally large due to the number of inhabitants, but because I decreased the population, the size of Nazarik is now 9 kilometer in radius. Thank you reviewers for the advice.

Every player in the new world have been enhanced and strengthen. Kirito, Shiroe, and Ainz are now a lot more powerful and stronger than they were in both the anime and light novels. The power level of each characters have been put to consideration. Even with all of Momonga's power and subordinates, it would still be extremely difficult to conquer all the other nations. As there are players who could hold their ground against Momonga. Also, having a lot of information is both a blessing and a curse for Momonga as you will see in future chapters that his vast knowledge is one of his greatest weakness.

Also I am not a big fan of stories where the main character just obliterate his enemies with ease or everything seems to work perfectly for them. In actuality, I despise those stories. That was why I didn't really liked Log Horizon and Sword Art Online too much when I watched them. Overlord is a funny exemption I think because it kind of satisfied the cynic in me. I also find it more enjoyable because Ainz as a character is more interesting. However, you need not to worry. The story will not be one sided as Kirto, Shiroe, and Ainz will all have equal amount of time in my fanfic. Let's see how that goes.

Momonga's background has also been greatly altered in this fic. This is so that I could make him more intelligent, dangerous, and desperate. Something happend to him as he was Satoru Suzuki, and it traumatized him. You'll see in time.

Nazarik is a lot larger now because I needed a single castle to be on par with multiple large nations and continents. It must also be able to go against the entire Aincrad (the entire flying building will be a base for players from SAO as there is no conquer the 100 floors problem)on top of the world tree, and other enormous structures. Not to mention, be able to house millions of citizens. There is also a reason to how he acquired the two new castles and millions of more servants, but that will be told in another time. I will just tell you that it was not easy for him and it's filled with suffering. The castles of Nazarik was inspired by Divinit's Reach from GW2 and Anor Londo from Dark Souls, just larger and more structured because I wanted a single city that could fit multiple entire races and a population of a modern large city. The appearance was influenced by Icecrown Citadel from WarCraft III, and Dracula's Castle from Castlevania: Lord of Shadows. The flying castle was influenced by Flying Fortress from Final Fantasy.

Good luck with that. If you could guess his trauma and pm me, I will tell you the general direction of the story.