In a new, unidentified church, three individuals had been transported in and were suddenly coming too.
"Nnngh… my head. Vashyron, where the heck are we?" asked a blonde haired young man in a red vest.
"Hmm? Don't look at me. But judging from the decor, it's a church of some kind." said a man with a strange arm.
"But I thought we were heading for the Seminary. Huh? Zephyr, that isn't Vashyron!" the girl said.
"Whoa. Leanne, get away from him." Zephyr said.
"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. My name's Lindow. Lindow Amamiya. I'm an ensign from the Fenrir Far East Branch." he said.
"Military huh? Never heard of Fenrir before." Zephyr said.
"And… what happened to your arm?" Leanne asked.
"It's a long story." Lindow said.
"Hmm...how strange." a voice said.
"Yes. I find this to be quite curious." another voice said.
The three of them looked to the other side and saw two people. One was a young woman dressed in white and with blond hair. The other was a large skeleton in cloaks.
"This is another world." they said before noticing each other.
"What the? Who are those guys?" Zephyr asked.
"Never seen anything like 'em before." Lindow said.
"One looks like a cleric...the other looks like something from the pits of hell. Did we actually…" Leanne said.
"Rest assured, you are not dead, if that's what you're thinking." the skeleton said. "And for the record, I am undead. There is a major difference."
"Okay. And you are who exactly?" Lindow asked.
"My name is Ophilia...I'm from a small church in the Frostlands." the girl said.
"(My first chance to meet other worlders like me. Gotta make it memorable.)" he thought. "I am the ruler of death as well as the Great Tomb of Nazarick. I am Ainz Ooal Gown." he said.
"It's nice to meet you all." Ophilia said.
"So, we're all from different worlds, eh?" Lindow asked. "Guess things are a little weird at the moment."
"Well, this isn't the first time I've experienced something like this, meeting people from other worlds I mean." Ophilia said.
"Really? Was yours of a young boy wielding a strange blade as well?" Ainz asked.
"Well his name was Ace actually. He and his friends were my guardians on a pilgrimage to restore the sacred flame." Ophilia said.
"I see. Then it's obvious the people we refer to are entirely different individuals." Ainz said.
"It seems so-ah!" Ophilia said as everyone looked to see a group of Basel monsters inside with them.
"Whoa! Party crashers." Lindow said.
"Ones I'm all too familiar with." Zephyr said. "They're monsters we fight all the time in Basel."
"How curious. And to attack in a church of all places." Ainz said. "(These designs...I feel as though I've seen them before. Was it from a game?)" he thought.
As they prepared to fight against the incoming monsters, coming from behind appeared the group from the stained glass window.
"Ugh… That was a pretty nasty transport." Anastasia said.
"Nasty? It was pretty painless, actually." Elena said.
"Wait...are those? Hey! Saki! Aya!" Ophilia called out.
"Ophelia? What are you doing here?" Aya asked.
"Hey, isn't that..?" Theo asked. "Yo! Ainzy!"
"Gah….it's Ainz to you, boy." Ainz said.
"Wait, you know that creepy skeleton guy?" Ty asked Theo.
"Yeah. We actually were comrades not too long ago before he joined with my guild. He's a pretty amazing guy." Theo said. "Don't worry. He won't kill us...least I think he won't."
"That doesn't sound very reassuring…" Carrot said.
"It is very good to see you all, though I wish it were under better circumstances." Ophilia said.
"Vashyron!" Zephyr said.
"Hey, glad to see you kids still in one piece." Vashyron said.
"Wow, that's a pretty big group you assembled just to rescue me." Lindow said.
"That's not the reason, you dolt. But glad you're still alive." Soma said.
"Least we've grouped up somewhat." Jexi said. "Let's focus on taking out these enemies."
"Okay, I'll do my best to help." Ophilia said, readying her staff. "May the Sacred Flame light our path!"
"Very well. I may as well try to capture some of these creatures while I'm at it. Could make good subjects for experimentation later." Ainz said.
As they battled against the monsters, new ones suddenly appeared behind them.
"More of these freaks?" Saki said.
"(Goblins...and headless knights. Now it makes sense.)" Ainz thought. "I see...so that's our situation. We are no longer on our own worlds. We're not even in the real world anymore. This is...The World."
"The World? As in that MMO that was popular a few years back?" Cheetah asked.
"The very same. I've seen a few images from the game myself so I thought this scene looked familiar." Ainz said. "We're in a virtual world. A game world if you will."
"You've seen this before…? Hey, you couldn't possibly-" Ty started to say.
Before Ty could finish, two new faces rushed in from the entrance. One was a boy in orange wielding two blades, the other was a girl in purple armor carrying with her a sword larger than her body.
"Whew! It's about time we found some more friendly PCs around here." the girl said.
"Hold it. Their art design is totally off." the boy said.
"They must be illegal PCs. They may be the reason we can't log out." the girl said.
"You might be right. Look at that one." the boy said, looking to Ainz. "I've never seen that design before. He may be an enemy."
"Hold it...before you judge us as enemies...let me show you something." Ainz said, showing a red potion.
"That potion...so...are you…" the boy said.
"Yes. I'm a player as well. Or at least I was. I'm a player from YGGDRASIL." Ainz said.
"Sis… he's an Isekai Hero!" Saki said.
"So that makes him the 3rd one." Aya said.
"But trust us...we are not your enemies. In fact, we may be able to help one another." Ainz said. "I know you two well from records of the game. Kite and BlackRose...the notorious .Hackers."
"So you know us, but we don't know you." Kite said. "I've never even heard of a MMORPG called YGGDRASIL."
"That's because it was made in the year 2138. Way before your time." Ainz said.
"Well, if this guy knows us, and he is… or was, a player, then we can trust him. Right Kite?" Blackrose asked.
"Yeah, let's give 'em a hand. Then we can ask them what's up." Kite said. "(Aura...is something happening to the World again?)" he thought.
Chapter 7
The .Hackers
"I think we better give them our support." Kite said as he and BlackRose rushed at a goblin with Ophelia as support.
Battle Start:
"I hope I'll be able to support you both." Ophilia said.
"Don't worry. You aren't worthless." BlackRose said.
"Clerics are important in any party." Kite said.
Ready….FIGHT!
Both Kite and BlackRose rushed at the enemy goblin and went at it with their blades before Ophilia stepped in.
"I'll do my best." she said before raising her staff. "Holy Light!" she said as a pillar of light shined down on the goblin and eradicated it.
KO!
End Battle:
"Wow, that was amazing. Well done, Phili." BlackRose said.
"You sure she wants to be called that?" Kite asked.
"It's fine. My sister calls me that too." Ophelia said.
"Hmm...they have some good chemistry there." Lindow said.
It wasn't soon after that a figure appeared on the upper part of the church. A strange being wielding a red sword like weapon.
"Another monster..so is it the boss?" Theo pondered.
"Skeith? But this can't be. We defeated the eight phases." Kite said.
"Well, seems I'm not the only one who came back from the dead." a voice said as standing with Skeith was a man wielding a candelabra trident of sorts.
"Mattias?" Ophilia said.
"But… How? Ace sent you to an endless hell! No one could survive what he did to you!" Saki said.
"I guess he was just subpar. For here I am. Now...the chance has come once more...for the release of Galdera!" Mattias laughed.
"After what Ishihara did to him? Sorry to say, but you might be out of luck there." Cheetah said.
"How can you be so sure during this strange phenomenon? Galdera could have been brought back or could not. You can't be sure of anything here." Mattias said.
"As much as I hate to admit it, you might have a point there." Cheetah said.
"Well, we'll just crush him again." Rutee said.
"And this time you're staying dead." Aya said.
"Aw...cute. You cannot hope to…" Mattias said.
"Avoid death? What nonsense. No one in this world can avoid death. It comes for everything eventually." Ainz said.
"I will not allow you to resurrect Galdera, after everything we all did to stop him. I won't let our efforts be in vain!" Ophilia said, holding her pendant.
"You may have succeeded once but I don't intend to let you try again." Mattias said.
"Very well." Leon said.
"Did they forget there's also the weird monster guy next to him?" Ty said.
"They don't need to focus on it. We'll just eliminate it ourselves." Jexi said.
"Be careful. Skeith is more powerful than he looks." Kite said.
"Well...no problem. Now it's our turn." Zephyr said as he and Leanne jumped at Skeith with Lindow.
Battle Start:
"Well, I suppose this beats sitting around in my room." Zephyr said.
"Really? I'd be chilling with a beer." Lindow said.
"You should try to be more respectable, Lindow." Leanne said.
Ready...Fight!
Both Zephyr and Leanne jumped around the enemy and fired at Skeith with their guns before Lindow came running in.
"I'll pop in and kill them all." Lindow said as he started slashing and eating at it with his Aragami arm. "Sorry, don't hold it against me." he said, slashing through it.
Special: Midnight Bell
After Lindow's attack, Zephyr and Leanne commenced an all out attack, starting with Leanne tossing a Moltov cocktail to bathe Skeith in flames before she leaped into the air.
"I may not be the best, but I've made it this far." Leanne said.
The two of them then executed a high-low rapid fire barrage as gold coins spilled out of Skeith before the two looked as though they were falling from a clock tower.
"Zephyr, it's the same as that one time."
"You're right about that, Leanne."
The two joined hands and finished things off by tossing bombs right at Skeith, finishing it as the bell rang.
KO!
End Battle:
"It frightens me that even that didn't feel like it was enough." Leanne said.
"You kids are full of energy, wish I was young again." Lindow said.
"You're not that old…" Zephyr said.
Skeith floated there for a moment before it warped out of the church.
"Skeith!" Kite called out.
"What the heck?" BlackRose said.
"Did you notice? Aura's statue has chains on it. That means something must be threatening her." Kite said. "This is just like before…"
"All that's left is Mattias." Aya said, pointing her sword at him.
"Hmm...that so? Well...then I'll just leave you pissed." Mattias said as he vanished in a pillar of blue fire.
"Urgh… I always hated it when people did that." Rutee said.
"Damn, he got away. But I'm sure we'll run into him again." Stahn said.
"Either way, that looks to be it for all the enemies." Ainz said. "Now back to our current situation. We're stuck in the middle of a game world."
"Question is, how do we get out?" Saki asked.
"We might be able to get out from Mac Anu." Kite said. "Aura might be able to know what's happening."
"Then that's where we're going." Ty said.
"I would like to request something from all of you before we go." Ainz said. "As I am no longer human, I would like to maintain the reputation I have built in my own world. So the fact that inside this body is the mind of a former human, well... That should be kept a secret."
"Don't worry about a thing. Heck, Barbara here was once human too. Your secret is safe with us." Belladonna said.
Inside his mind, Ainz breathed a sigh of relief. "(I'm glad they're gonna keep my secret. But how much I can actually trust these guys...well, guess I'll have to see how far it'll go from here.)" he thought. "Be aware. I may have a mutual alliance with this boy, but I will see for myself whether or not you meet my expectations."
"Understood." Elena said with a salute.
"Good. Now then… let us be on our way." Ainz said.