The Point of Divergence
I do not own Overlord
Gazef Stronoff and his warrior band has reached yet another destroyed village. This village, which name he didn't know was even in worse shape than the previous ones. The central square was completely ruined, buildings and what looked like human remains were turned to ash. Previous ones at least had some "survivors" who were spared by the Knights and most buildings were just torched. This village was a different story however. It is as if some firestorm started from the center and then spread over the rest of the buildings. Further out, at the fringes of the village he spotted a pile of half burned bodies. Maybe these people were killed later on and Knights didn't have enough oil to burn them properly. Probably because they wasted it all on the square.
Gazef and his subordinates have been sent from the capital as a response to rumors of Imperial activity on the border between two nations and ended up chasing the apparent Imperial Knights who were said to burn down the frontiers of Re-Estize Kingdom for a while now. But never before he saw them go all out in terms of wiping out the King's peasants. This could be some sort of a sign to King Rampossa from the Bloody Emperor. Or it could be meant for Gazef himself. You can't stop us - was the message.
"This is a trap isn't it, Stronoff-sama" Vice-Captain of the band asked the moment two of them were far enough from the rest of their men.
The attack happened precisely after he and his men have arrived at E-Rantel. Thinking about the brutality of the attack, it could be meant to trigger a reckless response from Gazef to lure him into the battle he couldn't win. If one were to also consider the fact that Noble faction's political maneuvering resulted in him being under equipped, the probability of this all being an elaborate trap was fairly high.
But as any good trap, this situation didn't have an exit where Gazef wouldn't be harmed. If King didn't send Gazef, nobles would have declared it as a sign of weakness from the Crown. The Royal faction's influence would have been reduced and they would be one step closer to collapse. And there was a good reason to send exactly Gazef instead of some other force. The Imperial Knights were professional soldiers who were trained and equipped by the Baharuth Empire. They outperformed Kingdom's peasant recruits in every battle scenario. The only analogue the Re-Estize Kingdom has were Gazef's warrior band and some of the Great Nobles' personal guards. Obviously, King Rampossa could not command any noble to send their personal guard to protect his own lands. So, if the Kingdom was to react, Gazef had to go.
"Yes, it probably is a trap" He decided to answer his subordinate's question.
"But even then, you want to continue?" Vice-Captain asked him with disapproval in his voice. "While I might sound cold hearted right now, but you also know this right Stronoff-sama. The lives of these peasants are not worth yours" It was true to a degree. Kingdom lost thousands of people to starvation, disease, monster attacks and annual clashes with the Empire. Few hundred more lost to the Knight raids would hardly change things in the big picture. The only important loss would have been the influence, but there are ways to regain it. Still...
"Do you remember how The Way of the Sword starts? It says: if the road is harsh, it is only natural to take your sword and help. How could I call myself a Warrior-Captain of Re-Estize Kingdom if I ignored the very teaching that allowed me to gain my strength? If I abandoned these people to their fate?" Gazef rebuked lightly.
The Way of the Sword was an ancient scripture that explained a journey a true warrior needed to complete in order to gain strength and to truly learn how this strength should be used. Multiple copies of that script could be found ever since the time of Evil Deities' rampage across the world. Before Gazef became the Warrior Captain of the Kingdom he was already close in terms of power to the "realm of Heroes". After he was granted access to the resources at the King's disposal, Gazef got his hands on the copy and thanks to its advice stepped outside of the boundaries of humanity.
"Let's move to the next village on the road. Hopefully, we would be on time to save it." Gazef declared, since Vice Captain has no way to answer his question.
Enri Emmot's days were generally the same ever since she was twelve. She would wake up with the rising sun with the rest of her family. Then she would go to the nearby well and bring water back to their home. By that time her mother would make breakfast for their family of four. After breakfast she and her parents would work the fields while her sister Nemu would collect firewood from the forest. That would continue until the bells in the middle of the square sounded the lunch break. After lunch they would resume their work until the sun comes down and it's time for dinner. After dinner her whole family would gather around the hearth fire to sew their clothes or other small tasks. They would go to sleep around 8. Next day would be the repeat of the previous one.
Today however was different. Her family's work was interrupted by the sound of hooves galloping closer and closer to their village. This was strange. Aside from random traveler or adventurer, Carne Village was only visited by herbalists or tax collectors from E-Rantel. Now, however their village was visited by a group of armed and mounted people.
Like moth drawn to the flame, villagers have approached the square were armored riders have stopped. Their equipment looked ragtag. Some were wearing plate armor and chain mail while some just wore hardened leather. Their weapons also varied from man to man. To most villagers it meant nothing as all they ever seen were random adventurers and travelers who were also armed with whatever they could get their hands on. A keener observer immediately would have identified the approaching riders as a group of battle hardened veterans. Or a band of ragtag sell-swords, depending on the level of cynicism such an observer possessed.
"My name is Gazef Stronoff, I am the Warrior Captain of Re-Estize Kingdom. By order of the King, I have been visiting each of the frontier villages to exterminate knights from enemy countries who have been making trouble here. May I speak with the village chief?" the lead warrior said.
Agu, the fourth son of Ah, the chieftain of the Gigu tribe of goblins and hobgoblins was running. Behind him, and army of darkness was advancing through the Tob Forest.
One minute his tribe was going over their usual daily activities and minute later their clearing was suddenly overrun with fleeing animals. Behind, dozens of the dead Trolls, Goblins and Ogres were marching. Everything that was on their path was being destroyed, everyone who challenged them died.
Acting as the army's vanguard was a champion of Death, who was cutting down his tribesmen left and right with its wicked looking jagged edge sword. Its massive body was sheathed in a suit of full plate armor made from some black metal and it was covered in red tracery that resembled blood vessels.
The armor was also covered in spikes as far as anyone could see, and it looked like a man-shaped incarnation of brutality. Demonic horns sprang from its head, and one could see its rotted face underneath them. Twin points of hateful, murderous light shone in the eye sockets of its ghastly visage. Behind the ranks of undead army was its obvious commander - An Elder Lich who had the visage of a skeleton and the bearing of someone who looked almost bored by the ongoing slaughter.
While Agu knew he should take arms like the rest of his tribe and fight, great terror overtook all his senses and he ran. Away from his tribe, away from his village. He knew deep in his heart that anyone who would stand and fight would meet their end.
That day, Gigu tribe became no more.
Momonga and his small entourage were slowly making way south through the forest, where city of E-Rantel was supposed to be located. While there was a way for Momonga to increase his travel speed with his summons, for example: by sending some of the scout type undead like Wraiths and then when they found the city, teleporting to their position, he decided to enjoy the view and experience of discovering the unknown. So far, everything he has encountered was far weaker than him, they couldn't even get through his damage and magic Immunities. In fact, most things they have encountered were far weaker than the Death Knight. At some point, Momonga simply let Belius to slaughter everything that somehow managed to resist the fear effects of his [Despair Aura I] and instead of running away, attacked.
Several times they have stopped for Momonga to test out this or that ability. The main issue Momonga was facing: why was Belius still here? It has been at least 12 hours after he has summoned the Death Knight and he is yet to dispel. At first, Momonga has assumed that in this world the summons had no time limit. He has created several more Undead to act as his perimeter guard. After a few hours of movement, all the other Undead has dispelled, while Belius remained. This fact prompted Momonga to attempt to summon different types of undead using corpses of those who were slain while on the way to the E-Rantel.
Now he was followed by a small army of walking dead. Death Knights had the ability to turn creatures they killed into Squire Zombies. While there was a limit of how many of Squire Zombies could be spawned by a single Death Knight, these Squire Zombies could freely create any number of Zombies out of those who were killed by them. While it was rarely an issue in the Yggdrasil since the Squire Zombies were fairly weak, in this low-level area, they were creating a sort of snowballing effect, with Belius attacking stronger enemies and wounding or simply killing them, while a horde of Squire Zombies and their vassals overrunning and turning the weak and wounded.
As far as Momonga was concerned, he attempted to lower the casualties as much as possible. His [Despair Aura I] has scattered the females, children and the old as well as most animals. He also did not seek fight with anyone, avoiding larger concentrations of living through his use of [Detect Life]. Only those who were willing to fight him were killed. They also weren't just left in the dust after their deaths, they were utilized in his quest for knowledge or raised as a part if his small army.
So far however, he was only getting more questions than answers. The beings he has encountered were consistent with those he fought in Yggdrasil, but some of them seem to use abilities outside of their in-game templates. These abilities did not make them too powerful, but their existence already made him suspicious of the situation:
On one hand, these abilities could point to him being in the world far different from Yggdrasil. But if that's true, why could he use his magic and abilities? If he had to level up here from the scratch, could he still access his current arsenal?
On the other hand, if this strange world was indeed based on Yggdrasil, where did these abilities come from? Were there other ability trees he had no idea about?
He needed some source of knowledge. Yggdrasil was a game about discovering the unknown and the only way of getting the data was through communication, experimentation on the game mechanics and research of the in-game lore. He had no one to ask so far, his friends did not seem to receive his [Messages]. His experiments were going on, but they needed to be systematized to bring him some benefit. Maybe if he had access to a library or an archive of sorts, he could find out what was going on from the background lore and history. He needed to check out what the average mage of this place knew about magic and its branches, unlikely that they would practice Necromancy, but the overall outlook and briefing on the way of things here could help him too. Maybe he should also look into what magical items people of this world possessed, what gods they worshiped, what level of comfort they sustained..
"So, the Knights did not show up here…" Vice-Captain of Gazef's warrior troop was thinking out loud.
"This only makes the whole situation even more suspicious…" Gazef answered.
Their original suspicion was that the village raids were meant to lure him and his Warrior-Troop into an ambush while outnumbered and under-equipped. While in terms of pure skill and talent Gazef was considered to be more powerful than any individual warrior of the Empire, he could lose to the Four Knights if they attacked together, supported by a group of Imperial Earth Guard, or even Royal Guard. And that excludes the possibility of encountering Emperor's Court Wizard who could fight an entire army by himself. But after brutally destroying Redon Village, the knights simply disappeared. No other village was attacked and no one spotted any sort of suspicious activity.
Were they aiming to deal as much damage as possible and retreat? Or were they planning to wait till Warrior Troop left back to the capital and start raids anew? Or even worse, they calculated the strength of his Warriors and now were waiting for reinforcements to get rid of him once and for all?
Gazef didn't know which scenario was the true one, but he knew one thing: his orders were to find out who was attacking the Villages and wipe them out. He couldn't just go back to Re-Estize if the enemy merely decided to lay low for a while.
"Let's go back to E-Rantel, we must restock and I need to talk with the mayor about deploying scouts and patrols. We will root out these Knights" Gazef declared.
Enri Emmot couldn't help but feel both relieved and horrified at what Village Chief told them when Warrior-Captain and his men departed.
Relieved that Carne Village was not raided, she and her family were unharmed and that presence of Stronoff-sama has scared the knights off.
Horrified at the fate of several neighboring Villages, which were simply wiped out at the whim of the enemy Emperor, as well as the fact her home might yet suffer the same.
She thought what would have happened if they were attacked. Her parents would most likely protect Nemu and then flee. She hoped she could flee too. Maybe the Knights could decide to spare her as she was just a village girl. She also wondered what her good friend Nfirea Bareare would have done in that situation. If he was in danger, he could most likely protect himself with his magic.
But most importantly, she felt that something was very wrong when she looked at her parents and Nemu sitting in the main room of their house. It was a weird feeling that she could not shake off, as if something very important happened right now, not just for her but for the whole world.
A/N:
Yes, Enri kept her parents, but she lost something too
