Author: MikeX713

Rating: R, you've been warned people!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Overlord or Sword Art Online.

In two homes on two sides of the world two boys are waiting for the start of the newest gaming experience to come out. A VR MMORPG, one has seen it during the private Bata Test while the other waits eagerly for the chance to see it for the first time. One uses it escape life while the other feels it is a world that is more home to him than the real one.


Cleveland Ohio

"Ready everyone, we are two hours away from the official release of Dark Domain Online, the full-dive MMORPG of the Overlord series." The announcer on the TV said. David watched the interview of the director of Triumph Studios while his NERV Gear charged. He lived in a small apartment but the building was owned by his uncle so he got a nice discount on rent and didn't have to pay for utilities. David was a diehard fan of Overlord even before the announcement of the MMORPG and it had killed him to have missed the closed beta. So after taking a big bit out of the two-day old pizza he had taken out of the fridge he went back to watching the interview.

"It was a long time coming but I think this will do the first two games justice." The director said while lounging back into the red and white chair he was provided. "The game is a completely open environment taking place in the world of Overlord. From Nordberg to Evernight and many new areas in between. This will take place fifteen years after Overlord 2. The Overlord has been missing for three years and new factions have formed in the power vacuum. I sure fans will…" David turned the TV off, he knew all about the game even before playing it. He looked at his new NERV Gear, he had just bought it two days ago and opened the box a few hours ago. He had never done a full dive before but had friends… not so much friends but fellow gamers who had done it and they all gave great reviews. As he finished his meal the small ping came from his NERV Gear indicating that it had fully charged. David moved from his chair to his bed with the NERV Gear on his head.


Kyoto Japan

Kazuto looks at the small bit of blood running down his thumb. It was just like him to nick himself before entering a world where it would be impossible to do so.

He had been looking forward to this day since the Bata had closed. He didn't particularly like the setting of the first ever VR MMO but it was the first and he was going to play it. He had spent all the free time he had in the world of Overlord and had gotten a good feel for the backstory but he mostly just figured out the mechanics and systems.

"I'm off to practice!" His sister yelled to him as she left the home. Kazuto barely registered it, he was too focused on what was about to happen. He looked over to his bed and smiled at the full charge his nerve gear had.


Cleveland Ohio

"Link Start." David activated the NERV Gear with this phrase and a rush of colors obstructed his view. After the system checked the connection David found himself being welcomed to Dark Domain Online. He was in a small computer chamber, where he could choose his look. He made his avatar look buff and packed with muscle, it had long blood red hair and burning red eyes. He would make a much more slender avatar later. He typed in his screen name Dyrath, once he pressed accept he stood on a dirt path that led to a fork in the road, the right path led to cute looking forest with bunnies and flowers and out to a roman like city. The left path led to a dark forest devoid of life and somehow it was night only there and led to a massive crack in the earth. On each of the paths above them was banner. The right read Good and the left read Evil. Dyrath's face was one that could be read as dah. The only other thing around was a smooth flouting stone with blue and red runes on it. Dyrath tapped on the stone and a small window appeared in front of him.

Welcome to DDO, you must now choose the path you wish to take Good or Evil. Good will always rise to oppose Evil but Evil will always find a way.

Dyrath already knew all about this. This was to divide the players and give a real story to the game without scripting one. There was no Overlord and it would be a player who would become that new Overlord and Dyrath knew there must be the same thing for the Good side. For Dyrath there was no problem here, Evil all the way. Dyrath walked down the Evil path with no regrets. Three new paths opened up, the middle one lead to the glowing crack with the bloodied banner with the words Netherghul. The right path led to a purple crystal spire with a clean elegant banner that read Elf. Dyrath knew that there were two kinds of elves in this game, the good and evil, the good ones were the same ones from the second game but the evil ones were the elves that followed Queen Fay when she was corrupted by the last Overlord. The left path lead to a small village but what was on the Banner confused Dyrath as it was tattered banner that read Alpha-Minion. Dyrath heard about the Alpha-Minion, it was a type of human Minion hybrid, a human would be exposed to the energies of the Netherworld to become Alpha-Minions. Dyrath shook his head at the side paths and moved to the middle path. The Netherghul player was the only one that could become the next Overlord and he was dead set on being that player. Dyrath walked up to the enormous crack and looked down, what he saw made him smile. He could see the entire Netherworld when he heard the small laughter. He was pushed down the crack and as he was falling he saw the faces of a few brown Minions. As he was falling he was sure that he would be caught by something but nothing happened and he crashed into a sharp rock ground.


Kirito looked around at the familiar Roman like city that was the Empire's capital.

"Hello world… I'm back." Kirito said as he tightened his fist before rushing off to explore. He had no idea just what might have changed from the Bata. The direction he paced himself towards was a small shop that he had found in the Bata that sold his favorite Dyes for clothing, Black with grey trim. Black was considered a Evil color and so finding it as a Good Player was tricky.

He passed by a mirror shop as stopped to look at his avatar, it was a bit older looking than he was and sharper to with just a little longer hair. After inspecting his face to make sure that he got everything right he continued his search for his favorite dyes.

"Hey bro! Wait up!" Kirito looked back to see another player chasing him, he had long pinkish hair and was a little taller than himself.

"What's up?" Kirito asked as the player caught his breath.

"You look like you know your way around here. You were in the Bata test weren't you?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Cool, today's my first day. So… could you give me some tips around the starting zones?"

"Yeah… I don't know if…"

"Aww… please, I'm beggin' ya. Look mine name's Klein. Nice to meet'ch." Kirito just sighed, it wasn't like the shop was going anywhere any time soon.

"Alright my name's Kirito."


The world turned black as he died. Dyrath was soon woken up by several blue Minions clawing at his body which had been stripped to a cloth to cover him.

"It's a wake yay!" one of the minions said in its grubled tongue.

"Move! Give its room!" another minion pushed the other away. Dyrath stood up, he noticed that his skin was a bit paler than normal and had many healed stitches. The minions pushed Dyrath across the rocky black plains that he awoke on. And he wasn't the only one, there were many other players being woken up by the blue minions. He was guided by minions to an entrance to a massive dome like structure directly under the Netherworld tower. The dome was perfectly in sync with the style of the Netherworld and was clearly going to be the main Hub for the Netherghul players. After the minions left Dyrath to himself he began walking around enjoying the sights.

"Hey!" Dyrath heard from behind him. Dyrath turned around to see another player running towards him. "I know that screenname anywhere." The man said as he caught his breath.

"Do I know you?" Dyrath said in his voice, he was expecting to hear something a bit deeper.

"It's me! Honic." That name rang a bell but not completely and this showed on Dyrath's face.

"I'm sorry but… who are you?" Honic's head hung in disappointment.

"I'm Honic from World of Warcraft." Dyrath remembered his friends on the WOW server.

"Oh… Honic. Now I remember, sorry man that was uncool of me to forget."

"No its fine, you've been off WOW for years now, I just remembered your screenname because you helped me get some epic gear that got me in to one of the top guilds."

"Well I'm sorry anyways, so what do you think of this so far?"

"It's pretty damn cool, this is my third full dive game and I'm still freaked out by all this… I mean come on man we're in a freaking game!"

"Yeah, this is my first full dive. I have to say that this pretty awesome."

"You have any friends here with you or are you alone? Because I got some friends that will be logging in later today and if you're alone you can work with us."

"How many friends?" Dyrath didn't like working with people, he wasn't at all a solo player but liked to work with a small tight group.

"Like seven or maybe nine if a certain two would get out of bed." Honic continued to talk but Dyrath was only half listening. Quite a few players were now gathered in the space in front of the gates to the dome but not as many as he thought there would be. He had thought the Netherghul class would be the favorite of the starting four hundred thousand people, but might look like it was the least favorite.

"Looks like they've set up a small welcome festival for us." Dyrath said as the two entered a massive partying carnival that sat at the foot of a massive gate that led to the rest of the Netherworld. "They really went all out on the opening of this thing huh."


Klein yelled as he got knocked back by the Ram. He grumbled as he moved around the ground holding on to the spot the Ram had hit him. It was a particularly damaging place that he had been hit.

"Oh come on seriously? You can't feel any pain." Kirito pointed out causing Klein to look up in realization.

"Oh yeah your right. Sorry habit." That made Kirito wonder just how often he got hit like that for it to be habit… but then again it was kinda instinctual for any guy to react that way.

"Remember what I said, you can't go in without keeping calm. The lower your heart rate is the more the system will help. That's the base line system assist but once you get a weapon skill you'll have an even easier time using these weapons." Kirito explained as he tossed his short sword back and forth between his hands. He then focused on the Ram and took a deep breath, calming himself as prepared his attack. He took a small rock from the ground and chucked it at the Ram's head, it hit right between the eyes and damaged it down a third of its health. The Ram focused on Kirito and charged. He ducked around the first charged and brought his sword down to the Ram's back, finishing off its health bar and causing it to fall to the ground dead. Dead Mobs and NPCs didn't disappear until either the loot as been collected or the killer leaves a certain area. "Easy, you just need to learn how to let the system move your body along the lines you want it to. The idea is that everyone thinks of the cool moves we want to do and the system just makes it happen one way or another." Kirito pointed to one of the other Rams in the pasture they were in.

"So the key is to stay calm and think about the move you want to do." Klein mumbled as he mimicked Kirito's rock throwing move. He surprised himself hen the rock actually hit the Ramn in the head, not between the eyes like Kirito but in the head at least. The Ram turned toward Klein and charged. Klein dodged the initial charge and got behind the Ram, running the animal through with his sword from the back to its gut. The Ram also fell over dead with the sound of Klein celebrating.

"Good job but those Rams are as weak as they come in this game. The only thing weak might be the sheep."

"Yeah… I expected that…' Klein said before practicing a few moves. "… so, weapon Skills make fighting easier, and there's a bunch of other ones too like blacksmithing and stuff."

"Uh huh, I hear the game generates them constantly so there won't be any running out any time soon. Except for magic, you need Spell Stones for that. Some you can wear but the better and more powerful ones you need a personal conduit for because of how big they can get."

"Never been one for magic anyways!" Klein yelled out as he made one last big move.

"So what'd you think, it's kinda fun to move your body as you fight right?"

"Aw hells yeah!" Kirito nodded before speaking.

"You ready to move on?"

"Yeah man lets get going!"


Dyrath took the fried Seal on a stick form the Minion vender. He stared at it for a little bit, not too long ago it was probably still fluffy and cute… or a bunch of ones and zeros. That knowledge made it easier to take a big bite out of the creature

"You actually are eating that?" Honic asked as he watched Dyrath devour the fired animal.

"It's really good." It really was, like really fatty pork but not like bacon… more like pork chops.

"I think I'll skip eating until my next dive." Honic said trying not to stare back at the many fair foods being sold.

"Something wrong?"

"No… its nothing." Honic quickly dismissed before the two began wandering around again ending up at a small play being put on by the Minions to help explain to those new to Overlord some of the history. But it wasn't that good because…

"And den da master bashed the trees elfy on da head and da tree elfy was ohhhhhh da's hurts…" It was being put on by Minions.

"So what are they talking about?" Honic slightly chuckled as he watched the Minions try their best to act out the scene.

"They're showing the Oberon boss fight from the first game. Not the most difficult of them too but a little tricky."

"I didn't play the Overlord game, the only reason why I'm here is because this is the first multiplayer Full-Dive game. I mean I looked up the Wiki pages on the games but anything beyond that it's all new. I have to say that for fantasy settings I'm actually glad that they just didn't go with WoW or Lord of the Rings, it's nice to see some lesser IPs get some love."

"Yeah, I heard that they were in talks to use the Warhammer fantasy world but GamesWorkshop wanted them to use their newest expansion instead of the old one and… well we're not playing Age of Sigmar Online are we."

"That would have been awful, so far this looking good so all ends well ii guess." At that moment a deep bell rang out and one of the flying stone platforms came down from the Tower. The players were getting excited at the sight of Gnarl on the platform. "I think they're starting the opening ceremony." Honic pointed out and the two began following the crowd of players to the large gate that led to the rest of the Netherworld.

"Be quiet you sniveling deadyes!" Gnarl yelled out to the mass of players who stopped cheering and waited for the aged minion to speak. "About time, you all have been brought back to… um… life to bring back Evil in to the world. The Reborn Empire has spared across the land and I've grown tired of waiting for our Overlord to return. So one of you will be the new Overlord! The rest will die, be lost forever, or have other nasty things done to them. But! Those that survive until the next Overlord is named will become his Netherghul Generals to command armies of minions to crash the Reborn Empire and conquer or destroy the world above!" At that the sky above began to fill with red warning signs. Red ooze flowed out of the cracks of the signs and formed the shape of the Game Master. "Eay! Just who are you?!" Gnarl lashed out at the Game Master, this worried Dyrath. If this was part of the opening show than why wasn't Gnarl acting like this was supposed to happen.


Kirito just watched with skepticism as the Game Master formed above the Empire's colosseum. Every Empire player had been teleported back to the Capital and herded into the colosseum for what he assumed was the opening ceremony but… the Game Master was interrupting it. The Emperor of the Reborn Empire had already been giving his speech when the Game Master appeared. "Welcome players, to my world." The Game Master said. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of NERV Gear and designer of Dark Domain Online. I'm sure many of you noticed that that the logout button is missing from your menu…" Kirito and Klein quickly opened their menus to see if this was true and to their terror it was. "… this is not a flaw or bug it was how DDO was designed. There is no way to exit DDO, the only way now to leave this world is to conquer the world and defeat the Abyss Lord…" Kirito was taken back by this, there was no mention of an Abyss Lord in any articles or leaked sites on the game and it sure as hell wasn't mentioned in the Bata. "… there is one other thing you need to know. Should a player's HP bar reach zero or if the NERV Gear is removed by someone on the outside, then an electromagnetic pulse will destroy the player's brain." Several people dropped to the floor at this news. "The information has been given out to governments and news agency so the event that happening is unlikely. But despite my warning, over thirty thousand players have been deleted from both Dark Domain Online and the real world. There is one last thing, I have given an item in the inventory of every single player. Please look at it now."


Dyrath and the rest of the players pulled out a small mirror. Dyrath was encased with light. When the light was gone he looked in the mirror to see his true face. He had a sharp jaw, slim face, and blank grey eyes in contrast to the harder and more rugged face he had. His body also turned from the buff body he had chosen to his normal average body. and his long red hair turn to his jet black short hair. Honic's avatar change too, what was a tall lean man was now stocky and only a little shorter than Dyrath. Everyone around them also change, some quite drastically, Dyrath never understood the appeal of reverse gender playing. "This is the official lunch of Dark Domain Online; I wish all of you luck in completing the game." Kayaba said his form began to dissipate. Everyone simply looked up at the sky where their imprisoner was. It was Gnarl that broke the silence with his outburst of laughter. The mass of players shifted focus to the minion.

"What the fuck is so funny?!" one of the players yelled out. The minion didn't answer back but walked out of view though the platform didn't leave.

"What just happened?" Honic asked though he didn't really want an answer.

"This all just became real." Dyrath mumbled, he looked to Honic. He saw the look in the man's eyes and it brought back memories of his brother. He knew that others had this same look, this was something that needed to be fixed or people would start throwing themselves off the cliff. He never wanted to see that again, he couldn't, he began to take a step to run to the front of the players to give a speech that he hadn't thought of yet. But he didn't because he heard something else come from the platform.

"True evil!" Gnarl yelled, it was more like spoke through a magic amplifier. "True evil always finds a way! This Kayaba…" Gnarl had butchered the name but this was done clearly on purpose. "… thinks he's won. But I say no! he's just made it all real for you lot!" Dyrath knew that this was just simply the system the game ran on keeping people's sprits up. To keep them from doing what he was going to try to keep them from doing. Because if everyone killed themselves then what would be the point in putting them there. "Nothing has changed! You lot still will fight for yourselves! So… Fight!" The players cheered at this. There were still some people who looked bad but now not that bad. Honic also looked better.

"So I don't those friends will be coming." Dyrath said as he held out a head to lift him up.

"No, I hope not." Honic said as he took Dyrath's arm and stood up.


"What garbage…" The Emperor said, his voice amplified to be heard across the Colosseum. The Players quickly turn their attention to him. "What that man speak about is nothing less than utter trash. It does not matter, you are men and women of the empire now more than ever. You will fight and you will die but you will die knowing that you fight against him. You fight his will for to fall in line and let his evil infect you! You shall instead be Reborn as the Empire has and Fight to Live!" For a moment the Players forgot that the man speaking was nothing more than a program and cheered at the speech. Kirito just watched. While what the program said was true to him, it wasn't the same to Kirito as it was for many others. This wasn't a game anymore, this was real life.


The gates opened up and the horde of players moved in to find three new paths the side paths led to the lower half of the dome while the middle led to the top. The platform carrying Gnarl moved above the middle path.

"While you are all Netherghuls only one of you can be the Overlord. And to do that you must prove yourself to the Netherworld but that means you will be competing against each other." Everyone looked at each other quite carefully at each other. "But! If some of you wish to chicken out, then take one of the two paths next to this one." The left path lit up with red stone lighting the way to the very bottom of the dome. "To the left is the path of the Forge Fiend, you will create the weapons and armor for the Overlord and Netherghuls as well as machines of war." The right path sparked with blue energy and led to the middle of the dome that held several spires. "The right is the path of the Warlock, you will work with magic and find new ways to kill, maim, and other things of painful nature. But for those who aspire to become the Overlord, there is only one path for you to take." The middle path was filled with minions all cheering and going crazy. "Now choose!" The platform now floated back up to the Tower. The horde of players was a hotbed of discussion and talk. By ten minutes however much of the players had chosen to go to the side paths and very few had taken the middle path.


About ten minutes after the Emperor had given his speech the gates to the Four Empire Classes opened up. The first Gate led down to the Army barracks, people that followed down that path would become part of the Empire Legion, they would mostly be combat users with a focus of sword and shield as tanks or two handed halberds for the damage dealers, they could also at some point be able to command NPC troops.

The next was to the Gladiator dungeons, while the Class was the most dangerous of them all and maybe the entire game, if you were favored by the crowds you got paid really well and could eventually command your own band of fighters. It also had the highest starting stats of any of the Classes.

The third was to the Sentinel's towers. These were the mages and magic uses, they would be given Spell Stones once they finished their basic training. At first it would appear to be the safest, but the robed men at the Gate were correctly warning people away with the knowledge that the Sentinels were likely to be the first targets of any Evil assassin this quickly made people rethink joining.

The next was gate was to taverns and bars, to become a Ranger of the Empire. They were the stealth and ranged units, but… Kirito knew from his time in the Bata that wasn't all they could do. If you put enough hard training you could hybridize the Ranger and Legionary class, the Battle Healing Skill was needed but once you got it you would become an instant power house.

The final gate led back into the city, Players that didn't want to join a class could go there and many in fact did. Kirito knew that many people simply didn't have it in them to be heroes.


Only about a third of the players remained standing outside the Netherghul paths when Honic started to talk.

"I think I'm going with the Forge Fiend path."

"Are you sure?"

"You're not going too? If you take the middle path, then you'll be facing not just the Good Players but the Evil players that side with someone else."

"I knew that, I knew that coming into this game. But the rules of DDO state that no Netherghul can directly kill each other. But that doesn't mean they can't kill each other at all. But I set out to become the next Overlord, and I won't let any of this stop me in that."

"I see… well you have my support." The two shook hands and Honic walked off to the Forge Fiend path. Dyrath looked to the Warlock path, he would like that role, to research and delve into the magical. It would be easy to just take that path and work for some Netherghul and make him or her Overlord. But nothing Evil was ever easy.


Kirito looked back at the tap on his shoulder.

"Hey… I think I'm going to with the army." Klein said, Kirito was still getting used to the scruffy new look Klein had but he wasn't one to talk now that he looked like the kid he really was.

"You sure you don't want to sit everything out and head back to the city?"

"Nah… I think what the head guy said got to people. We all know that this game needs beating and if we all turn tail and run and hide it won't ever get done. Or it might, the Evil players might come in and burning the place down and I don't think anyone wants that to happen." At the mention of the Evil Players it had reminded Kirito of the fact that Players would be no doubt forced to kill each other at some point. And he hated think about it but the Good Players might end up doing their more than fair share of it. It's a lot easier for someone to kill another if they just look like they might be evil, everyone here might know that they aren't in the back of their minds but in the heat of battle? Kirito pushed those thoughts away for the moment.

"Yeah… well i was planning on become a Ranger form the start so." Kirito just looked back at the smiling face of his new friend.

"That's cool man, I'll be on the front lines and you'll be behind them… now tell me who sounds more likely to get more glory?" Klein laughed and Kirito just smiled before walking towards the Ranger gate. "Het Kirito…" Kirito looked back for a moment. "You look better this way… way cooler than your avatar." Klein said jokingly.

"Yeah and I think that scruffy face fit you ten time better too." Kirito said before waving back to his friend and then walking toward the Ranger gate. "I got this… can do this… I'm not going to let this world beat me."


Author's notes

Okay, I'm revising this story to add Kirito and the rest of the SAO cast, the only chapter that is updated so far is this one and two, I'll post on this chapter which ones have been updated. And to make sure you know, I'm only adding stuff on, not changing or removing. So you can still read through the story but it will just lack Kirito in it. It will basically be the same story once I'm done.

Also I'm not sure where Kirito live IRL so I just said Kyoto because random japan cities that tend to be used as settings.