AN: This story was written for the R/Overlord contest for Fanfiction that a reader brought to my attention, I wanted to submit 'God Rising' but it doesn't accept ongoing works, which also excluded all other content that I've created thus far... so just for the hell of it I wrote this short humorous side story in about an hour just to have a little fun and throw my hat in the ring over there.
This story is set within the end of Chapter 55, where Vanysa is resurrected as a demoness and follows immediately after, preceding all later events. If you got a few laughs, well I'd love to hear your thoughts.
...Nazarick...
Ainz chose to answer through his actions, and he said... "True resurrection." Ainz's voice filled the hall as he began casting his ninth tier spell, and the light of his magic radiated over the body of the girl. "You may come back Vanysa, and serve me once again." Ainz said softly, and as if pulled more by his voice than by the magic itself, air filled her lungs and her eyes popped open.
She rose to all fours and touched her head. "Ahhh... what th'ell happened?" She looked down at the razor talons that were her hands and shot up to sit on the balls of her feet, she looked at her body, she touched her head again and felt the horns. "Ah gots horns... why do I gots horns?!" She shouted, and the tip of a wing touched her foot, she looked, and saw the wings springing from her back. "Why ah gots wings?!" Then she saw the Sorcerer King standing to one side.
"Master!" She said and prostrated herself, and her voice shifted to the clear intelligence he knew quite well, "Sire, what has happened to me?"
"Simply put, you died, I was hoping you could tell me how." He answered.
"I don't know... I was answering questions for the queen, I left, then something hit me and I got knocked out, I remember..." She closed her eyes tightly, "I remember pain... there was so much of it... so much I couldn't bear it... was I tortured to death?" She asked in horror.
"No." Demiurge said, "We believe you committed suicide to keep from betraying our master, you had carved the words 'faithful servant', onto your own breasts before you died. Not bad... for a human that is." He said, "Though I guess that compliment doesn't apply so much to you anymore."
"What... am I?" She asked touching the unfamiliar parts of her body in abject confusion.
"You are an Erinyes, otherwise known as a fury." Ainz answered.
She pouted a little... "Sire... I still don't know just what that means."
"Oh, yes... a 'fury' is a kind of demonic female being, sometimes worshiped on another world as a kind of goddess. Simply put, they punish the guilty, you it appears, have inherited the nature of Tisiphone, the avenger of murder, if your claws and wings are any clue." Ainz said. "I trust you are not unhappy with your new body, your human form had very little chance of surviving resurrection, so I transformed your corpse first to something more survivable. Combining two magical disciplines is impossible for most, but for me it is simply a matter of will, child's play."
She prostrated herself before him.
"My master saved my life, gave me a future, and has given me new form... new life, truly you are a god, a better god than this world deserves. I offered you my body in absolute sincerity, and if this was your will, then my body was yours to do as you saw fit... and you chose to give me a better one, and now I will use it in your service, until this one is more torn up than the last. Can I ever see my... old body... again though?" She asked curiously.
"Withdraw your wings, and you should resume your former appearance, to better allow you to move among humans." Ainz said, and she tried it out, realizing it had to have something to do with her back muscles or shoulder blades. She flexed and tried to draw them in, a few tries later, she was as she had been again.
"Amazing sire... I am truly thankful that you grant your servant a chance to follow you once more. But I have one question, master?" She asked while still looking at the floor.
"Ask it." He said.
She sprang her wings back out and her form shifted back to that of the fury, and she bounced up to her feet, put her hands behind her at the small of her back just below her wings, and she leaned forward in all her glorious beautiful nudity and with a cheeky smile asked, "Ahm ah still pretty an nice ta look at?" She giggled... and added a few flaps of her new wings for good measure. Though for all that, her eyes were filled with a sadistic wrath and a desire... to make music again.
Ainz emotional dampener went into overdrive as he shouted, "Uwaaag!" and Demiurge could not stop laughing for quite some time.
"You'll want to get some practice with those though." Demiurge cautioned as Vanysa lost control over her wings and fell back to the ground. "I was created knowing how to fly, you were not."
Ainz stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Demiurge, why don't you help her with that, this is not the First World with flight instructors to be had for the asking. The sooner she knows how to use her new body, the better." Ainz said patiently. "Oh and... ah, get her something to wear... now."
Vanysa giggled and winked at the Sorcerer King, shameless of her nudity upon being resurrected as she was on the day of her birth.
"Very well, My Lord. It will be done." Demiurge said with a bow.
"Vanysa, follow me, we're going to the sixth floor." He said casually, and the demoness, after bowing deeply to Ainz once again, popped up and skipped happily after the archdevil, her wings fairly trembling with excitement she couldn't quite conceal.
After a brief stopover at the maids quarters to acquire some traveling clothing suitable for outdoor practice, they went the rest of the way to the forest guarded by Aura and Mare, the dark elf guardian twins. "Mare! I need your help, are you busy?" Demiurge called out. Mare jumped down from a tree and scurried over.
"N-No of course, if I can help, y-you know I will." He said in his usual nervous, anxious voice.
"You remember Vanysa, don't you?" Demiurge asked.
"F-Funny voice lady." Mare answered in a succinct description, "S-Sister told me about her."
"She's a little different now." Demiurge said, gesturing to the demoness a step to his left behind him.
"Ain't never been 'ferred to as 'funny voice lady' but ah gots ta say ah lahk it." She gave Mare a toothy, fang filled grin.
"She's lost her humanity, as a reward from Lord Ainz for dying under torture in his service, she was revived and changed into the much improved form you see here, however she needs to get used to her new form, wings after all, are a little different than arms and legs." Demiurge explained.
"S-So how can I help?" Mare asked, fidgeting.
"Create some structures of varying heights out of earth and rock, maybe something shaped like a building or a tower, something she can practice with." He explained.
"Oh-Okay." Mare said and went about thirty paces away.
He was a quick worker and had in no time, created some crude structures of varying heights from two meters to twenty-five.
"Wow, yer quick." Vanysa commented numbly when Mare came scurrying back. "An ah don't mean tah complain, but ow'm I s'posed ta get up them thangs, damn point is ah don't be knowin how ta fly yet." She asked the question quizzically.
"I can help with that." A voice behind them said, and turning around, Vanysa found herself looking at Entoma, one of the Sorcerer King's maids.
Without waiting for the answer, Entoma approached the sides of one building after another, opened her mouth, and long thick white ropes came spewing out, creating a criss cross pattern from roof to ground level, forming white rope ladders.
For a moment, Vanysa looked absolutely horrified. "Ah'm s'posed ta climb up that?"
"You don't favor spiders?" Demiurge asked.
Vanysa looked overwhelmingly relieved, her shoulders drooped as she sighed heavily and wiped her gold skinned brow just below the horns.
"Oh, that be spider webbin, gotcha, fer a moment ah done thought it was, ah... never mind wha ah thought, ah jus thought it was somethin else entirely." She giggled nonstop for a solid minute until Demiurge realized what she'd first thought and started to laugh.
"What?" Mare asked with his head cocked to one side and his voice full of confusion as Entoma finished her work.
"I'll tell you when you're older." Demiurge replied nonchalantly.
"M'Kay, Lord Demiurge sir, tells me whats ah gots ta do!" She said enthusiastically.
"Turn your back to me." He said, suddenly all business, and the new demoness turned around.
He reached up and grabbed the place where her wings connected to her shoulder blades and back muscles. He tugged lightly but firmly. "Do you feel that?" He asked.
She had winced, so he knew she did. "Ah did, hurt a mite bit, course if'n yah wanna hurt it s'more, s'fine but maybe wait till the wee one done gone off." She giggled again and looked over her shoulder to wink at him.
Demiurge rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh. "That place where you felt that little pain, that is the area you must gain control over, the only way to do that is by practice." He said clinically, "So go climb up that low building there, then try to flex that muscle to control your wings, you did it the first time you awakened, purely by instinct, thinking about it, becoming conscious of what you were doing, that is what threw you off. You must be as unconscious about every beat of your wings as you are about swinging your arms, walking, or breathing."
"You gots it!" Vanysa said, and jogged over to the spider web ladder and climbed her way patiently up to the lowest building. Hand over hand she made her way to the roof, and in no time at all she was standing on the edge.
"Don't think, just do." Demiurge said firmly.
Vanysa closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and jumped, she soared with the ease of eagles, occasionally beating her wings to remain aloft, but never did she think she would touch the ground.
Well... that had been the plan. In reality, she took that leap into the air and all she ended up doing was flailing her arms and legs before she face planted into the grass and came up spitting dirt.
"Dirt don't taste good." She said dryly and started wiping it off her golden face.
Demiurge snickered and took out a notepad and began to write. "First flight discovers that dirt tastes bad. No other result. OK, try again." He said.
Again she climbed up the web ladder, this time she started beating her wings in advance, giving her some small lift, then she gently pushed herself away from the roof, and for a brief moment, she hovered in the air, smiled down at them, and then lost concentration and came plummeting towards the arms and legs flailed wildly for a few precious seconds, and then she made an impression of her ass in the grass.
She got up slowly and rubbed the injured bottom. "Tha hurts." She groused.
"Second attempt, reveals that demoness butts can indeed bruise." He said aloud as he wrote it down. "Again." He said to her.
She jogged around the corner and climbed up again while Demiurge paced down below.
"Remember, don't think about it! Just treat it like any other limb!" He said, his tail lashing behind him at the next laugh this inexperienced demoness was sure to provide him.
"M'kay!" She replied, and stepped back from the ledge, she gave herself room to run, then sprinted forward and took a flying leap, pushing off with one foot, and rapidly moving the muscles at her back as best she could, they beat, but out of sync, and she found herself tumbling over. She landed spreadeagle on her back, glad of the grass underneath her, but much preferring to not feel that impact nonetheless.
"Hmm, third attempt, apparently grass is very comfortable." Demiurge wrote it down, and she rolled her eyes and rolled over to get up.
She stood up and looked at the impression she'd made on the ground. She laughed. "Something funny?" Demiurge asked. "Other than the obvious I mean." He gave her a cocky smirk and let his own wings come out, and gently beat them, carrying him several feet into the air.
"Jus thinkin, when ah was a girl, an it'd snow, back when ah still had friends an all that, ah liked ta lay in the snow with em, we'd make snow angels an stuff, an we had a game we'd play. We'd each make ahn angel with one hand touchin the other, like a chain. Then we'd all get snow balls an toss em up in the air while still layin' on our backs, ain't nobody allowed ta moved, so if'n yah did it wrong, yah'd bean yerself in the face." She giggled, "Course ah was pretty good, so ah could usually toss it high up and over just a little, an get some'n else." She stepped out of the impression she'd made in the grass beneath her.
"Ah look down at that, an mah first thought was, 'Ah made a grass demon, stead of a snow angel." She giggled, "Ah know, its kinda dumb, yah can laugh at me. Now scuse me, ah gots ta try again." She said and went back over to climb up the webbing.
Demiurge flapped his way over and up, so that he was hovering where she would leap, she took a deep breath. "Don't think, just fly." He said patiently.
She nodded quietly and let her wings start to beat, they did, in perfect rhythm, she felt herself start to rise, then let herself come gently down, only to start over again, she repeated that process several times right at the edge, preparing herself to go over.
Finally she jumped, then started to beat her wings again as hard as she could, "Ha! I did it!" She said as she started to hover in front of Demiurge, she smiled smugly.
"What is that over there?" Demiurge asked, and pointed behind her.
"Where?" She asked, and then the beating of her wings stopped as she lost her rhythm, and she plummeted straight down again. "Damn it!" She managed to curse, before face planting into the dirt again.
As she got up sputtering and spitting out grass and dirt, Demiurge took out his notepad. "How is it this time?" He asked with casual innocence.
"Still tastes like grass and gravity and I think I swallowed a worm just now." Vanysa said as she spat the ground out of her mouth.
"Noted, dirt and grass do not taste better after repeated ingestion." He wrote, and recited the sentence out loud for 'her' benefit.
"Ugh." She intonated frustratedly.
She climbed back up, and did it again, again she remained aloft in front of the archdevil. She had a wicked grin on her face, "Pardon me, Lord Demiurge, but what is that over there?" She asked and she pointed behind him.
Demiurge looked over his shoulder, "Oh, that is Lord Ainz coming to see your progress." He replied casually.
"He is!" She shrieked, and again lost the beat, she had but only a moment to look at him as she realized he had tricked her. "Damn it!" She cursed once more as she encountered her mortal enemy, gravity, once again and deepened the imprint of her ass on the grass once again.
"Yah cheated yah know." She said in a voice that sounded more amused than anything else.
He shrugged. "I'm a demon, you're a demoness, I didn't just cheat, I cheated 'better' than you did, try harder next time little erinyes." He said smugly as he wrote in his notebook, "Flying does not evidently increase cleverness in demonesses."
"Challenge accepted." She half laughed, half grumbled, and went back to the webbing to climb up again.
Again she jumped off the roof flapping her wings for all she was worth, she lasted for several minutes before Demiurge casually said, "Those wings look very nice on you."
She blushed, and in that moment of distraction, down she went once more. "You did that on purpose!" She managed to shout before she landed on her back and found herself looking up at him.
He casually wrote in his notebook, "Demonesses can be made to crash by compliments, it is much easier than arrows." He smirked down at her. "Correct, I did." He laughed, and she groaned.
As he hovered over her while she sat up, he said, "You know, birds manage to do this just fine, surely you're more competent than a bird, yes?"
She rolled her eyes, "They grows up doin' this, ah jus got these things, gimme some time."
...Seven Hours Later...
Mare approached timidly and asked, "Wh-Why are you mad at the ground?"
"Ah, ah ain't mad at the ground." Vanysa replied in confusion, "Why yah say that?" She asked.
"B-Because you keep hitting it." He replied simply.
Demiurge laughed at her again.
"I-If you n-need something else built... I-I can do it faster." Mare added helpfully.
Vanysa sighed, "No, I will manage this." She said, her voice suddenly full of determination, the peasant accent was gone from her voice and her eyes grew keen and sharp. "I will master the air even if it kills me."
She climbed up again, and Entoma casually asked, "Would you like me to build you a net to catch you when you fall?"
Vanysa shook her head, "Pain has taught me much, pain led me to be what I am now, this is just another painful lesson in a long, long line of them. I will fly, or I will die." She said, determination filling her voice.
She jumped again as Demiurge casually passed back and forth in front of where she was going to jump, she was quite sure he was not there to catch her if she fell, if anything he was going to distract her and make her fall again. She gritted her fangs and ran for the ledge, beating her wings as she ran. "Beat! Beat! Beat damn you! Do what I say!" She snarled at the muscles in her back and she jumped, for a moment she thought she was going to fall again, but then she saw him, she only saw him for a moment, that was how fast he moved, but he went from where he was, to down below her and then soared up. He placed his hand under her foot just before she could come down and she instinctively tensed her leg.
"Try it from higher!" He snapped out, and raised his arm, hard, launching her high up into the air, she could see what felt like miles in every direction, frantically she pounded her wings, and high above the trees, as she started to come down, she thought to aim herself for the lake so that when she fell, she would splash instead of crash.
She began to lose altitude rapidly, she could see him hovering not far away with his arms folded indifferently in front of him. 'OK so he took that fly or die to be very literal, well damn, fuck me for determination.' She thought as she started to tumble down towards the ground. "Damnit!" She shouted, "Beat! Flap! Damnit you stupid wings do what the hell I say!" She shouted at her self and frantically focused on the beating muscles in her back. Then... an updraft, she caught it, held it firm beneath her wings and curved herself up. "Wheeee!" She shouted, laughing as the air carried her high again, she started to flap more easily.
She started to laugh as she moved around the pseudo-sky of the sixth floor, it was beautiful, she thought back to her childhood, the way she'd watch the birds and flap her arms trying to fly as they did. She'd run home crying and asked her mother why she wasn't able to do what they could do. "Oh honey, people can't fly, we don't have wings." Her mother had laughed, but that had only made Vanysa cry harder, she got over it of course, as all children who long for the sky do.
When the beastmen had come killing and consuming, she had nearly taken flight from the walls of the city knowing it would kill her, just so she would not endure what torments they would inflict on her, instead she'd hidden with her fiance, seen him die, and suffered, and still she longed for the sky where she might be safe and beyond the reach of those monsters.
Now...? Now she was beating wings and soaring, the air carried her easily, she gave a flap every now and then, and tears ran down her cheeks, she began to grow more confident, she began to bank left, then right, she began to twist and turn as she gradually started to find her rhythm.
"Up, down, up, down, up, down." She repeated until she forgot to speak the words and was only doing as she'd been told, letting her instinct carry the motion so that she did not have to think. A few minutes later, she saw a rapidly approaching dot, there could only be one who fit that.
"You seem to be getting the hang of it." Demiurge said casually.
"Yes, I am." She said with cool confidence.
He took out his notepad in midflight and casually wrote, "The best way to teach a demoness to fly is to almost kill her." He smirked and put the notepad away. "Just like an eagle pushing the eaglets out of their nest."
She couldn't bring herself to even be annoyed, after all, he seemed to be correct. "I guess I can't argue with the results, when you're right, Lord Demiurge." Vanysa said with a joyful smile on her demonic features.
"I tend to be." He remarked arrogantly.
"But ah, I couldn't help but notice that lake over there, is there some reason I couldn't have been practicing over that way, so I'd land in the water instead of planting my face and my ass into the dirt over and over again?" She asked.
"Oh yes, a vital reason." He answered emphatically as they soared over the trees.
"Can I ask what that might be?" She asked curiously.
"Seeing you land in the dirt was much, much more amusing. And if I was going to be here anyway, I might as well be entertained." He laughed and winked at her.
Vanysa turned beet red with embarrassment. "I should have figured that it was something like that." She said with a roll of her eyes.
"Yes, yes you should have." He responded with casual amusement in his voice and a laugh he didn't quite bother suppressing.
"Well after I've tried the other heights to be sure I can do this, how about we go to Neuronist's music room, surely you've got people who I can make sing for us again, I don't know how long I was dead for, but I have a hankering for some entertainment and I'd like to know what 'these' can do to flesh." Vanysa said and flashed her fangs in a wicked demonic smile, and a hand out to one side with talons up.
"That would be even more entertaining than watching you sample the sixth floor worm population with your face planting." He said with a satisfied chuckle.
She had the good grace to laugh at the hours of faux pas she had endured, "You're insufferable, Lord Demiurge."
"And I'll never change." He said with a demonic smile.
"Good. Shall we go back then, I should probably learn how to land too." She said, and when he started to laugh, she groaned, "Oh no, this again?"
"I expect so." He said as he started to laugh more.
"Just don't steer me into any trees, OK?" She asked with a smirk.
"No promises." He said, straight faced.
"Damn it." She quietly cursed as she started to descend.