Hello,

So, I had a busy past few months. For some reason I've had another idea pop into my head and I've decided to try write it.

I've been reading a few empire/kingdom building stories on this site, so I decided to try my hand at it. I can't guarantee that this story will be good, but I'd like to try it.

For reference, this will be set in the same world as Overlord, but I've decided to start 100 years before canon to avoid being constrained to events in the novel. That being said, I have a bit of setup to do, so you won't see outside of the guild until about chapter 4 or so. Also, the first few chapters will have to be a little generic for setup.

In case anyone is wondering, this follows mentioned canon up to this point, but will deviate from there. Since not much is mentioned, I can make a lot of stuff up. Also, since Ainz arrives 100 years in the future from this point they will not be involved in this story. If I ever do get to that point, I'll decide what to do then.

Just to let you know, this probably will not be for everyone. As always, I do not own Overlord and anything mentioned in standard disclaimers.

XXX

Tonight, at midnight, the servers of YDDGRASIL will shut down forever.

Many players would visit the game on the last day, but only a few would stay until the end.

A great adventure awaits those who do not leave. Not all wish to go on this adventure, or even wish to do so.

This time, however, a small group would enter a new world and make their mark on it.

XXX

Deep in the world of Alfheim, a group of five players sat in a room shaped like an auditorium. These were the only five players in the guild 'Celestial Wardens' who were still online. It was less than an hour until the servers shut down and the guild had decided to have everyone gather one last time in this world. Their end of YDDGRASIL party had just ended a short time ago, and all of the other members had logged off for various reasons. This left just the five of them.

The first player was Kazeba, an undead overlord specializing in water/ice and lightning type damage based magic.

The second player was Saito, a male human guardian with a defensive build who had obtained the 'World Guardian' class, effectively making him a stone wall type character.

The third player was Reiko111, a female human priestess with a support build and alchemist classes.

The fourth player was PrometheusStar, a male elf with a surprisingly versatile mage build.

The last player was (A/N the name is actually 7 at symbols, the kind used in email addresses, but FF doesn't take them), a lizardman with a knight build, with almost no non-battle abilities. Most people just called him A to make things simple.

These five players were in the guildhall of the Celestial Wardens, talking about their past adventures.

XXX

Celestial Wardens was a guild that was always ranked in the top 100 guilds after obtaining their guild base, but never in the top 50. Many theories were developed among the members on why that was so, even when they were obviously stronger than some of the higher ranked guilds, but no one could come up with a convincing answer. Eventually, they just considered it a whim of the 'shitty devs' that the ranking system was never explained. Despite this, the Celestial Wardens were powerful. They possessed three World Class items, the Cauldron of Abundance, the Mythic Gem, and the Yata Mirror. The Cauldron of Abundance allowed its owner to generate any primary crafting material regardless of rarity up to a certain amount, the Mythic Gem amplified the abilities of certain items, and the Yata Mirror was an unbreakable shield shaped mirror that can reflect anything, even the ultimate attack of a world boss.

The Celestial Wardens had been formed during the peak of YDDGRASIL's popularity. They had obtained the Cauldron of Abundance and the Mythic Gem fairly quickly, but had only obtained the Yata Mirror in the past year. There were 54 total members in the Celestial Wardens, all of whom had extremely powerful equipment, built from materials obtained with the Cauldron of Abundance and crafted by members with rare and powerful crafting classes.

The guildbase of the Celestial Wardens was called the Starcloak Cape. It was a powerful and large base with 2800 NPC levels to use. What made it desirable to the Celestial Wardens was the fact that the entrance to the base was only accessible 25 percent of the time on average. The exact time the entrance was accessible was seemingly random. Some players thought it was based upon the day of the month, the phases of the moon, or some other pattern, but once again no one could figure it out. Without using the entrance, the only way into Starcloak Cape was a guild ring. To counter this advantage, Starcloak Cape had a high base upkeep cost. Fortunately, with the Cauldron of Abundance, this was not a problem for the Celestial Wardens. They even had enough materials to build optional facilities in Starcloak Cape that allowed it to counter the upkeep cost and be self sufficient and even generate a small surplus of resources. With all of the improvements in Starcloak Cape, it was even more desirable than some of the level 3000 guildbases.

XXX

The five players continued taking for a few more minutes before a announced he had to leave and logged off after saying his farewells. The four that were left continued reminiscing for a while until Kazeba suggested that they go to the throne room for the final countdown until the servers shut down.

"Ehhh, why should we?" Reiko111 complained.

"Oh, come on, don't you want to go out in style" retorted Kazeba.

"Whatever you say, Mr. Bones. Although, if we're going out in style, should we get the guild weapon? We might as well use it." Saito commented.

"Eh, there's no point. You're the only one of us who can wield it, Saito-san, and even you can't use it well. Besides, we're almost out of time." replied Kazeba.

The guild weapon, the Celestial Sword, like almost all guild weapons, was extremely powerful, but it was created for the guildmaster of the Celestial Wardens. Despite some other members being able to use it, they would be unable to bring out its full power.

After a bit of talking, the four players went to the throne room. Entering the gigantic room through the large main doors, the group gathered by the fancy chair at the end, with one of their NPCs, a beautiful woman named Sara, standing nest to the throne. After a moment, Reiko111 spoke.

"Hey, why are we here again?"

"Because we want to go out in style, and what better way than in a throne room?" replied Kazeba.

"But there isn't anything in here. It's just a room with a chair!. I don't even know why we made this room in the first place!"

Reiko111 was right. The entire 'throne room' was a decoy. It was originally built for any attacker that penetrated this far. They would see a fancy throne, destroy it and everything in the room, and think they had conquered the base. Even the sword that hung over the throne was a replica. The real guild weapon was further in the base.

"Well, you did agree to come along." noted PrometheusStar.

"It's not like I had anything better to do" replied Reiko111.

"Oh, come on, guys, we've got less than a minute left, lets make the most of it. I don't know if I'm going to be seeing you guys in any other"

Abruptly, Kazeba disappeared in the middle of speaking. The three remaining players stared at the spot the skeleton was a moment ago for a second before Saito spoke.

"Did he just DC again?"

"Looks like it." replied PrometheusStar.

That was the fifth time Kazeba had disconnected that night. For some reason, his internet connection was poor, despite it rarely happening in this day and age. Every time prior to this, he had reconnected within 5 minutes complaining about his recent update.

"Well, looks like he isn't coming back in time. Like he said, we only have about 30 seconds left." Saito replied as he looked toward his system clock.

"Sucks to be him then, he really wanted to stay to the end." said PrometheusStar.

"Eh, he'll get over it, it's not that big a deal, and he did stay as long as he could" stated Reiko111.

The three stared at each other for several seconds. Eventually, Saito broke the silence.

"Well, it's been fun, guys, I'm glad to have met everyone here. Hopefully, we'll see each other again somewhere."

"Yeah, that'd be good." said Prometheusstar.

"Yeah, but how will we know that is us?" Asked Reiko111.

"It doesn't matter. We don't need to know that, Just meeting again is enough." Replied PromethusStar.

"Yeah, but"

"Oh, hush, you, just go with it." PrometheusStar cut off Reiko111.

"AH-CHOO!"

Suddenly, Saito sneezed. The other two looked at him.

"What?" deadpanned PrometheusStar.

"Ah, sorry, someone must be taking about me." replied Saito

"Huh?" asked Reiko111

"Dude, that's just a myth. You've been watching too many shows. Besides, I didn't know you could sneeze here."

"Uh, guys, don't panic" Reiko111 said suddenly.

"Why, what's wrong?" asked PrometheusStar.

"I can't see my HUD." replied Reiko111.

"What!" said PrometheusStar

"What!" added Saito.

"This is why I said not to panic" said Reiko111.

"Masters, is everything alright?" A vice said to the three players.

All three of them turned to the source of the voice.

"Can I do anything for you, my masters?" Said Sara.

The three players slowly looked back at each other, all three of them sensing that something major had happened.

XXX

Please give constructive criticism, but remember so far this is just a setup.