Why Protect, when You can Prevent?

Overlord does not belong to me.


Momonga couldn't believe it. Yggdrasil UI was completely gone, menus didn't open, clock, mini-map and character screen were gone. Even debug console wouldn't open. He tried to [Message] GMs, but when he found out he could not do that without the game interface, he suddenly remembered how to use magic. Still when that did not yield results, he attempted to somehow disconnect from the server or just to quit the game altogether, but it all failed. Yggdrasil has frozen.

Momonga looked around him. He was still in the forest, but this forest looked far different from the swampy forests that covered the surface of Helheim. Trees looked green and healthy while the ones on Helheim were all sickly, corrupted by the poisonous swamps, especially the ones close to Nazarick. Suddenly he noticed that the corpse of the Warrior he killed by using [Fallen Down] was gone. In fact, even the land where Momonga stood looked different. It was green with grass and somewhat solid soil, looked perfectly realistic as if someone took a high-res photo of the place, not procedurally generated swamps and dirt that he saw just a few seconds ago.

"No matter, this isn't the time Satoru" He muttered to himself.

"Ulbert, Touch Me, can you hear me?" even if Yggdrasil itself was stuck, his voice chat app should be running on the background.

"Guys? Can you hear me, I think my game glitched? I can't log out!" Momonga desperately asked.

He was met with only silence. There was no-one he could ask for help. Was this and unintentional glitch that happened to the whole server, or just to him? Or was it something completely different, like a secret demo of Yggdrasil 2? Momonga didn't know. He was confused by this whole situation. On one hand he desperately didn't want the game to end. On the other hand, he didn't want to be stuck in some dive-gamers' purgatory without he ability to quit or contact his friends.

Still, there was only one way to find out what was happening. He used a [Fly] spell to soar into the sky. What he saw surprised him greatly. It seemed it was night wherever he was, probably midnight like Yggdrasil standard time. Despite the lack of light sources except stars and the moon, he could see well even within the confines of the forest, probably his [Dark Vision] kicking in.

In every direction the Overlord looked, he saw only forest. There were no huge skyscrapers or mega factories like IRL. Sky was also clear and the beautiful arrangement of stars made him stare for a few minutes. But then, he snapped out of it. First, he would find some clue to where he was. If it was still Yggdrasil, he should try to return to Nazarick, it could be easier if he took his ring of Ainz Ooal Gown with him, but well. If not, Momonga would have to find out why he was here. And so, his flight over this mysterious new forest begun.

It took him several hours and a lot of [Fly] spell renewals to spot some sign of civilization. It looked like a small village. There was almost no illumination, but he could spot some bonfires in the middle of what he assumed was village's central square. For that he managed o figure out that some of the shadows had form of houses, though most of the houses looked really disheveled, if not abandoned. Still, buildings around the square were still intact and bonfires seemed to show that someone lived there.

Momonga slowly glided down to land near the edge of the village. He wasn't sure if this village was inhabited with Mobs, NPCs or maybe even Players. It was a dangerous thing in itself, as most positive karma NPCs and Mobs would just attack negative karma Players like him straight away and higher-level Players would see him as a potential source of great loot. Even if he did repel them, enemies could call in reinforcements to slowly surround him while he had no idea where he was. From what he saw of he architecture, the village was styled like medieval European ones he saw in some history books, so probability of it being human or humanoid species was fairly high. Still, there was nothing else aside from trees for miles around here and Momonga had no intention of just mindlessly wandering in the woods again. He cast [Perfect Unknowable] on himself and proceeded into the village.

As the Overlord was slowly making his way through the "streets", which were just same patches of land and dirt as the rest of the village proper, but with all the grass stomped out, he could not avoid noticing that there was a lot of stuff just laying around on the ground abandoned. Pieces of glass here, a shoe there, something that looked like a broken crate some meters away. Coupled with the abandoned look of the outer buildings, he wondered if this place was meant to look like it was hit with some natural disaster not too long ago.

He wondered how the wood structures reacted to tornadoes and earthquakes, all the buildings Suzuki Satoru ever seen were made out of concrete, steel and glass. He approached one of the houses and touched the wooden wall. Momonga already knew that his senses of touch and smell have dulled, when he barely felt the wind against his "face" while he was flying at high speeds.

Then he noticed something. These were not merely abandoned buildings. What he assumed was dirt, moss and fungi was actually charred wood. The houses were burned down. He hurried his progress through the village. There were no one in sight still but he was approaching the square. Then, he saw something to his left. It was a pile of bodies.

They were piled on top of each other and ten burned. Most looked like skeletons but several still had charred flesh attached to the bones. This was no natural disaster that ruined the village. What the hell did he get himself into?


Redon Village, ten hours earlier.

Around the fortress city of E-Rantel, on the edges of Re-Estize Kingdom's territory multiple small villages have been located. These villages, while often poor due to them being on the outer frontier of the Kingdom, had one small advantage – they belonged directly to the Crown. As such, their taxes were generally stable, they were rarely directly abused by their landlords and even conscription demands for the Royal Army were somewhat reasonable here, unlike many places where nobles could do whatever they wanted to their peasants.

However, today this status as the property of the Crown became the downfall this poor small village. If one could somehow gaze at the Redon from above, the picture they would see could only be described as nightmarish:

Fully armoured knights were swinging their longswords at the villagers, who were dressed in rough clothes. Houses were set on fire left and right. Young women were dragged into the untouched buildings houses for some of the more perverted knight's entertainment, while their parents could only struggle in horror and desperation before being killed off.

It was a massacre. A random peasant fell with every swing of a knight's sword. The villagers could not resist them, and could only attempt to run away. However, this only allowed some of the mounted knight to use them as training for cavalry charge or horseback archery. Few of the "spared" villagers were tied on the square where they could only watch how their friends, property and ever relatives were being taken away from them all around.

In the middle of the village square stood a knight with even better-looking armor, who carried himself as if he was superior to everyone else in that place.

"Hmmm… even a few silver coins, not bad for a shit hole like this. Still quite pathetic if you look at the prices in the Capital" the Knight muttered. That was Captain Belius. He was busy evaluating the loot he and his knights have amassed all around from the village before putting most houses to the flame. While the place was poor, the population still had some money, wine and food that the knights could enjoy before setting off to destroy next village on the road.

"It is already late afternoon; this place sure did take quite a bit of time to manage. We will camp here and move out at the morning, let's enjoy our stay here in the meantime."

Combining pleasure and work was one of the few skills Belius possessed. He was in service for the perks their nation provided to the retired soldiers and his family wealth allowed him to land an officer position without too much trouble. If it meant a solid part of the loot and first choice of an entertainment girl, all the better.


Momonga slowly approached the square. Honestly, now he wished he never saw this village when flying around. In the middle of the square were multiple armoured warriors. Some assembled around the bonfires, some slept on their sleeping packs on the ground while some were waiting in line to get into one of the few standing buildings.

There were several peasant looking people tied to the poles near the edge of the square. They were guarded by a half a dozen of soldiers. Some meters off, Momonga could see horses tied to smaller wooded poles. It seems that most soldiers were mounted and with their armour, they could easily be called knights.

It seems these knights have raided the village and slaughtered most of the inhabitants. This was one hell of a way to introduce a player into the instance or a quest line, thought Momonga. Now he was only interested why did these knights were all queuing up around the still intact buildings.

Then, he got his answer. Two knights emerged from the building carrying a figure. It was a woman, probably middle aged, but she had quite a good figure. He could tell that because she was naked. Her condition told him that she was abused in the most horrible way.

"Sorry folks, this one passed away. Try your luck with the others" one of the knights who carried the woman said with a nonchalant tone.

What Satoru felt at that moment was hard to describe. It was like burning anger, but not for the destruction of so many lives. It was like more general anger at the way how easily this knight and his fellows disregarded life. It reminded how Humanoid Players disregarded heteromorphs in Yggdrasil, how many politicians and mega corporations IRL disregarded the lives of their people.

He aimed a hand at the square and initiated a spell. [Maximize Magic: Napalm]


Londes Di Gelanpo had probably cursed his gods more times in the past two hours than he had in the rest of his life. If the gods really did exist, then they should let him leave the post he was assigned to right now. Londes was a faithful man — why had the gods forced him to end up on the guard duty while the rest of the unit were having fun in the village? All previous raids they carried out without lingering too much, so he only had a small share of the spoils. Now he had to look over a bunch of tied up, terrified villagers. Even if they could escape what could they do? They would only make a few steps before the rest of his comrades noticed and killed the bastards. His luck sure sucked today. And then, there was a flash of light. Londes saw all the remaining buildings and most of the unit nearly instantly catch on fire. Then he was hit with the shock wave such as sudden change in temperature would cause and fell on his back. He was furthest from the square so he only felt the heat from the displaced air. Huh, maybe his luck didn't suck too much.

Still, no need to rest on his laurels, now that his life was still in danger. He slightly perked up and looked around. The square was pretty much ash at this point, so were the most of his comrades.

In fact, the prisoners too, now that he looked at them, his armour had slight enchantments, combined with the distance and presence of few other guys who got the guard duty absorbed most of the heat heading his way. The horses were running away from this place, the explosion and fear allowed them to break their ropes. He saw several other survivors who were out of the square taking a piss, or just milling around in less occupied parts of the village.

Then, he saw a dark figure, it wore an intricately created black robe, and it resembled an incarnation of death, born from the darkness of another world. And Elder Lich. Its skull turned in his direction and Londes felt all the courage drain away from him. Suddenly there was a shout.

"What are you doing you fools? Close in! Prevent it from casting any spells! Attack you bastards!" it was Captain Belius. Londes was honestly surprised that the man survived the firestorm. He was probably away from the square when they were hit. Still, that combined with his words from before almost made him look like a decent officer. Almost, if not for the hysteria that was heard in his voice and the fact that he was trying to crawl away while giving out the commands.

Still, the orders made several knights shake off their dread and charge the Lich. They might not have been the most elite unit, but they were trained in how to counter the undead and magic casters. So, they just needed to apply both to Lich.

At least that was the hope until they were suddenly hit with horrible feeling of Despair. Londes saw several knights collapse outright, their faces blue as if they chocked to death.

Even Belius shut up finally. That actually distracted Londes and he glanced at their "Captain", he looked dead. Then undead raised its hand towards the corpse of poor bastard.

"[Create Middle Tier Undead, Death Knight]"

A cloud of black fog appeared. The cloud headed straight for the body of the fallen Captain. Fog engulfed the body and then it rose, slowly dripping with some black ooze. When ooze cleared, instead of the hardly imposing Captain stood an undead that looked like an avatar of pure brutality.

"What did he do to poor Belius?!" someone asked.

"Belius huh?" The Lich answered. "Well then, Belius, cripple one of these knights and kill the rest. Hearing that sentence, Londes simply collapsed from terror.


Momonga honestly did not intend to do things the way they happened. He assumed these fools similar to the Warrior he fought earlier, based on how their armour looked similar. So, his outburst was merely meant to punish the nonchalant knight and when realised what he has done, quite abruptly actually, almost as if someone just turned off his anger, he already launched the spell.

Still, it did kill of most of the knights, which means they were all really low-level trash. He even used [Despair Aura V] in his attempt to ward of melee attack these knights could have attempted. He was greatly surprised when the Instant Death effect from [Despair Aura V] triggered several times in a row, killing a bunch of people. Only more evidence to shitty build and gear.

Then when he saw that Aura was working and gave him some time, he instantly used his last charge of the [Create Middle Tier Undead] skill for today to make himself a meat shield. He should have not bothered, Death Knight or how his friends called him, Belius, easily slaughtered the rest of these fools. He tried to interrogate the last one, but the knight, Londes, barely could say much before dying form heart attack.

Well, at least he managed to get general idea of where he was. First of all, it was not Yggdrasil 1 or 2, as the things he saw in that village: gore, blood, nakedness, references to sexual abuse, was far beyond even what shitty devs could pull for their sequel. Two, his skills worked differently as his Create Undead skill actually used a corpse to summon Belius. And last, now he knew where he geographically was. Now he knew where to go to look for answers - Closest city of the Re-Estize Kingdom, E-Rantel.


Nigun Grid Luin, the captain of Slane Theocracy's Sunlight Scripture was not a happy man. Today his trap for Gazef Stronoff, the strongest mortal warrior within the Kingdom was supposed to be sprung and this tiring mission would finally be over. Or so he thought when his agents told how Gazef was gaining on the knights he sent to raid villages of the frontier. Today, the knights were meant to ride out from the ruined Redon Village and reach Carne Village by the early afternoon, where they would be caught by the Warrior-Captain and his comrades in the middle of the massacre. Then Sunlight Scripture would have trapped Gazef in the village and killed him with the rest of these peasants. However, the knights never left Redon Village. It was torched, as usual and all the villagers were dead, as expected. What was not expected is for the knights to end up the same way.

"Sir these corpses have no sign of external trauma, it is as if they just stopped breathing, the rest at least were burned or cut, but these are completely weird" one of his subordinates said. There were however ways to kill a person without dealing any traumas, many assassins knew that.

"Wait a minute…" Nigun suddenly said, he looked at the corpses once again with squinted eyes. Then he suddenly looked up "Prepare to withdraw".

"Excuse me, sir?" Some other agent asked.

"Don't you see it? The untouched corpses are most likely a work of some trained assassins, the burned knights were obviously hit with powerful magic, the mangled bodies were hit with huge physical force and these cuts were made with an unholy sword. Who could suddenly attack a group of knights with these characteristics, just when the King got involved?" Nigun asked his subordinates.

"Blue Rose!" on of the men responded.

"Yes, and we heard they have ties to the Golden Princess, she could have hired them to help the underequipped Gazef!" Nigun was fuming already "We have to pull out".

"But the orders, this is our best chance!" some of the more stalwart subordinates said.

"We don't have a bait anymore, if we attacked Carne by ourselves, we could tip off Gazef before he committed to stopping us. If Blue Rose and that damn woman are indeed here, together they could wipe us out!" He repeated himself the last time "Prepare to withdraw."

It seemed that the small village would be spared, for now.


A/N:

So Yeah, my story would go off the rails win some ways, but stay within the similar course of Ainz' (Or here, Momonga's) scope of activities. For now at least.

Also, why Redon? What happed to the Battle of Carne. Well, you see, in canon Momonga spends some time talking with Guradians, freaking out and trying to use the Mirror of Remote Viewing. That's gotta be at least few hours of activity, maybe even a day. Only then he left the Tomb. In this fic I put him on the surface alone straight away, He would have to look at the New World with his own eyes outright from first minutes. The canon says that Gazef visited burned villages when chasing he knights. So if they were interrupted, the whole battle would have been averted, thus : Why Protect, when you can Prevent?