Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Dungeons & Dragons

The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown

Book : Realmfall

Chapter 1: The Bone Father Cometh

Beta:

Suzuki Satoru, player name Momonga in the DMMO-RPG (Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) YGGDRASIL, sat on the Throne of Kings in his guild base, the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and lamented the impending shutdown of the game.

In just a few minutes, YGGDRASIL will be coming to an end. Suzuki thought as he surveyed the opulent throne room.

To an outsider this would appear as if a pair of dark red glowing orbs that passed for his eyes moved from left to right of his empty eye sockets, for Momonga, his avatar, was an Overlord. A high level type of undead in YGGDRASIL that was an undead skeleton creature who was devoid of skin and flesh. It was dressed in an elaborate, jet-black academic gown adorned with golden and violet edges and had a dark red orb floating under his ribs that emanated a feeling of dread.

This dread figure sat on the Throne of Kings, a super rare World Item of YGGDRASIL. It was made from a single gigantic mass of obsidian whose back was high enough to touch the ceiling. The Throne was one of the most powerful and legendary items in the game which possessed massive power that could potentially threaten its balance. This was justified in the game lore of YGGDRASIL with the story that they were forged out of the leaves of the World Tree. Said tree was once covered with a countless number of leaves, but one day a gigantic monster appeared and devoured these leaves. The leaves were destroyed one by one, until only nine were left, making the Nine Worlds of YGGDRASIL. World Items like the Throne of Kings were said to be made from remnants of those other leaves, each equivalent to a world in power.

Next to him floated an ornate staff entwined by seven serpents and held in each of the squirming serpents' mouths was a jewel of a different color. Its grip had a transparent quality like crystal and emitted a bluish white light. This was the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, the Guild Weapon of the guild of which Momonga was the leader. As a symbol of their guild's might and power, it naturally was designed with supreme quality in mind.

Ahead of this scene and what Momonga surveyed was the Throne Room of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The room itself was an exquisite piece of work consisting of a wide room large enough for several hundred people, with a high ceiling and surrounding walls that were predominantly white, with golden decorations as highlights. Hanging from the ceiling were numerous chandeliers made of precious stones of all colors of the rainbow which emitted a fantastic, dreamlike radiance. Numerous flags emblazoned with different symbols, one for each of his guildmates, hung from flagpoles embedded into the walls.

It was to these flags that Momonga's attention shifted.

Naming them as his eyes passed over each of the unique symbols, his mind was filled with recollections of the good times he had with the friends they represented in the past. All forty of them. These were old memories however. Out of all the 41 members in the guild, 37 of them had already quit the game for good. Many of them long ago. In these, the final moments of the game that Momonga had poured the last few years of his life into, there was no one to provide him company.

And once the servers go down. I will once more be completely alone. Satoru thought to himself with a depressed little sigh.

Back in the real world, his life was an utter mess. He was nothing but a wage slave of a salaryman working in one of the megacorporations that dominated the world and lived in a world where the sky was always hidden behind black smog and the sun making only brief appearances. A wasteland where thick, toxic fog frequently covered the cities and no one went out without wearing a gas mask beforehand. It was a hellish existence and one which he had sought to escape by playing YGGDRASIL. But that unfortunately was coming to an end.

Not yet though. Satoru reminded himself as his eyes drifted away from the flags of his former comrades and to the NPCs kneeling before him: the Iron Butler Sebas Tian, the Pleiades battle maids and the Guardian Overseer and commander of the NPCs, Albedo.

Of these, his eyes zeroed in on Albedo in particular. She was an impeccable beauty with lustrous jet-black hair and the face of a goddess. She had golden irises and vertically split pupils; growing from her temples were two thick horns protruding crookedly, and on her waist were a pair of black angel wings. Dressed in a pure white dress with silky gloves covering her slender hands and a golden spiderweb necklace that covered her shoulders and chest, she was every man's dream woman. But her beauty was not what held his attention. No, that honor went to the black wand with a black sphere was floating in the air that she held in her hands. This was no less than the World Item, Ginnungagap. An item that she should not have.

As powerful and valuable as World Items were, they were stored exclusively in the Treasury. The only two exceptions were the Throne of Kings which was immovable from its position in the Throne Room and his own personal World Item.

Tabula Smaragdina must have secretly equipped her with it when no one noticed. Momonga mused, thinking back on his guildmate and Albedo's creator. I must have only noticed it now because it's been ages since I've actually visited the Throne Room.

Being the last active player in the guild for the last few years was not easy. In order to keep the Great Tomb, the Guild Base, functioning required a significant amount of in game currency and resources. To meet these needs and thus keep Nazarick in the shape that his beloved guildmates remembered it, Momonga had spent almost all of his time in game since the others began leaving simply farming gold and resources. Thus most of the time he spent in Nazarick was in the Treasury when he was dropping off the fruits of his labor.

If Tabula did something as mischievous as 'stealing' a World Item from the Treasury to equip his NPC… Hmm… Yes! I think this justifies me having some fun with her in recompense. He did love his carefully crafted backstories, so I suppose I shall start there.

Opening Albedo's biodata, he was surprised by the length of her backstory. Just a glance at the scroll bar alone told him that it had to be many, many pages long.

Knowing Tabula I bet it's full of references to gap moe and the occult. Satoru chuckled. This is too long to finish reading in time before the shutdown though, so let's just skip to the end.

Doing just that with an impish air, Momonga found it ended with a single line that almost seemed tacked on.

'She is also a nymphomaniac'? How fitting for the gap moe logic to have a poised supremely powerful demon be plagued by such a temperament. How Tabula. Suzuki chuckled to himself even harder even as he deleted the line and replaced it with one of his own.

'And is deeply in love with Momonga.' There much better. I do hope Tabula will not fault me for making this change should he ever find out.

With his last minute change done, Suzuki glanced at his in game clock.

23: 59: 56

"All Hail Ainz Ooal Gown!" Momonga shouted as one last farewell to the happiest years of his life. A time where he'd managed to enjoy true friendship.

23: 59: 57

23: 59: 58

23: 59: 59

Closing his eyes, he awaited the inevitable.

00: 00: 00

Only the end never came.

00: 00: 01

Satoru had expected that at the stroke of midnight that there would be some kind of parting message to pop up on his UI or just a simple server disconnect notification, but none of that happened. In fact, all that happened as the clock past ran midnight and he opened his eyes was that his UI had entirely disappeared.

"What? A glitch? Or did they push the shutdown- " Momonga shouted, all but leaping from the Throne of Kings in agitation even as something else caught his attention. "My voice?"

Adding to his growing shock, his voice had suddenly become much deeper than he recalled.

"My Lord, is something the matter?" Albedo asked in concern, causing Satoru to spin towards her in shock.

YGGDRASIL NPCs didn't talk. At least not so freely. You could script them with certain lines of dialogues, even upload audio files if you so desired. But these were always limited things and he was sure that Tabula had not added anything close to what Albedo said. At least not in tone. Even more unbelievable was the facial expressions, the genuine look of concern on her face and those of Sebas Tian and the Pleiades Maids. Such realistic detail was simply impossible for YGGDRASIL's engine. It was why Players used emoticons to emote!

Impossible! What is going on here? Suzuki cried out in alarm, stumbling back and falling back onto the Throne of Kings.

He didn't feel pain but he did feel the texture of the World Item's surface, of the way the fabric of his robes moved against his body. Things that again should have been impossible for the YGGDRASIL engine.

The GMs. The GMs must know what's going on!

"GM Call!" Momonga cast with the full might of his power.

At his invocation an aura of light surrounded him, before suddenly the world froze and began fading to white.

This isn't how GM Call works!

Usually, all it did was open a chat window to one of YGGDRASIL's GMs. That's all.

"That might be how it worked in the game, but this isn't a game anymore Momonga." A white, featureless man said as he appeared out of nowhere to stand just ahead of Satoru's avatar.

"Oh, and it isn't your avatar anymore, Satoru-san. It's your body now."

"Who are you and what are you talking about!?"

"The name's Nameless," the strange man said with a grin that revealed gleaming white teeth. "And I'm currently taking on the role of a Random Omnipotent Being."

"Is this a joke!?" Satoru demanded.

"Oh, it's very real I assure you, Momonga." Nameless said with a chuckle. "You see I've selected you out of the infinite possible individuals throughout the many multiverses of Creation to be my test subject for a little isekai experiment I want to carry out."

"I don't want that! I don't want to be transported to another world!" Suzuki all but screamed in anger that seemed to magically seep out of him almost as soon as it entered his system.

"That's your new undead emotional suppressor at work," Nameless told him. "It'll suppress any strong emotions that you might have. As for not wanting to be transported to another world, it's too late for that. It's done. Besides, would you really prefer to remain on your Earth where the world is polluted beyond repair, where you are living an empty life while working a dead end job and where even your last escape has disappeared?"

Momonga had no reply. He's right. Is it really worth it to stay on Earth?

"Not that you have a choice in this mind you," Nameless said, cutting into Momonga's thoughts. "Your body on Earth has already died by this point, I made sure of that. And even if it was still alive or I resurrected it, I still wouldn't send you back. Your choice simply doesn't matter here."

"T-that's not fair," Momonga said, only able to reply thanks to his emotional suppressor so shaken was he by the news of his death on Earth.

"Life is rarely fair, Momonga. Shouldn't you have realized that by now after the kind of life you've led?"

Momonga said nothing. He was unwilling to voice his agreement to the tyrant playing with his life for his own entertainment. Not that it stopped the asshole from plucking the thought from out of his mind anyway.

"Oh, yes. I am using you for my entertainment. Among other things. That said, I'm not totally heartless about it. Unlike some of my colleagues I will not be dropping you into the deep end and force you to fight or die. No, I'm going to give you a helluva a starting bonus in his new world."

"Nazarick," Momonga reasoned.

"That and more," Nameless said with a grin as he plucked something from out of thin air and Momonga somehow felt himself be diminished. "But I'll handle the 'more' part. A little time travel, a little poaching from other Realms, a dash of binding things to this pearl of your essence and you'll have all the resources you'll ever need!"

"What do you mean?"

"Uh huh, no fishing Momonga." Nameless said chidingly. "Though I suppose I can give you a bone. Here's a very obvious hint to your first challenge: Atropus is coming."

The name stirred some distant recollection but Momonga couldn't place it and Nameless seemed disappointed by that fact.

"Check that library of yours," the ROB said with a sigh. "I'm sure your Guildmates uploaded all the relevant resources you'll need. They certainly used plenty of it for their various projects. But that's the last of my hints to you, Momonga."

"Wait-"

Momonga's desperate plea for more clarification was cut off, when with a lazy wave of his hand the ROB dismissed him.

"Entertain me, Momonga. Or else!" The now monstrously inhuman voice of Nameless screamed into Momonga's mind as his perception returned to the Throne Room.

"Lord Momonga?" Albedo said, inching hesitantly closer to him.

Momonga closed his eyes for a second, processing all he'd learned and lamented the situation he was stuck in. When he opened them however all his unease was buried. He had work to do if he wanted to survive, and undead monster now or not, he wanted to live!

"Albedo!" He barked with a voice full of all the authority he could put into it. "I have orders-"

Moments before Momonga and the Great Tomb of Nazarick was pulled into their new world, in the blasted ruins of what ages untold ago had been the Tokyo arcology a beautiful young girl with blonde hair and brown eyes, dressed in a gray buttoned, cold shoulder midi dress with a shirt collar stood amidst the ruins and commanded her legion of undead in a skirmish with a Sliver swarm.

This girl was Enri Emmott, a Momon. A child of the Bone Father.

"The Slivers are aggressive today," Enri noted with a grin as the arrow headed creatures fought with uncommon ferocity. "Did they develop a new breed that heightens it?"

"We have not observed any new breeds, Lady Momon." The elder lich that served as her adjutant informed her. "Perhaps they are simply trying new tactics?"

Enri nodded, that was plausible. All the creatures of their world, of Felmid, knew instinctively that they needed to constantly improve themselves in all ways so that they could best serve the Bone Father when he descended. It was the entire reason behind their constant skirmishing, they were training exercises to prepare for the day their god would send them out to war in his name.

"That the Slivers are experimenting with tactics rather than just spawning new breeds to enhance their capabilities is a good sign." Enri concluded as she saw a massively over muscled brute of a creature that she knew as a Muscle Sliver slam its twin gorilla like arms into the ranks of a cohort of her skeleton warriors and smashed them into pieces. "If we are to properly serve the Bone Father, we cannot afford to rely only on one strate-"

She cut herself short as a feeling of power. Of familiarity spread across their world. Immediately, she knew what was happening.

The Bone Father had arrived!

"Halt!" Enri ordered rather unnecessarily.

Everyone on the battlefield was already frozen. They had all felt the Bone Father's arrival. Everyone on Felmid had. Like her they had felt the pull to their god in their very soul

"Form up your ranks!" Enri ordered, as she quickly summoned the skeletal horse that served as her mount. "We must march to the Holy Land immediately!"

I must be the first there! The Momon thought as she swung up onto her steed with practiced ease. If I am I'll be able to represent us Momons before the Bone Father!

And what higher honor could there be?

Done!

Welcome to my new project everyone!

Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter.

Some of you might notice some subtle differences from Overlord canon in the events preceding the ISOT and there's two reasons for that. One, it's to prevent plagiarism calls so I redid things my own way. This also means that when/if I do canon events that don't change I'll either skim or timeskip them unless what happens in them are relevant to the story's plot. What kind I mean should be obvious by the next chapter. Two, it's to show that this Suzuki Satoru is not the canon Suzuki Satoru, just one from a very close alternate dimension.

The constantly changing use of Satoru/Momonga's two names might be a bit confusing, so let me explain my logic here. Whenever I used Satoru it was when the character was thinking of himself as a human. Whenever I used Momonga he was either role-playing his YGGDRASIL character or later in the chapter is seeing things from his new inhuman POV. Hopefully, this explains things for anyone that might have been confused.

As for Felmid... More will be explained in the next chapter and as the story progresses, but here's a short version that expands on Nameless' explanation in the chapter. Basically, the ROB thought Momonga needed some more help than just Nazarick so he decided to use that bit of essence he took from the poor guy and used it as a basis to create a world of creatures to serve him. Some forged from the essence itself like the Momons but mostly poached from other universes. Why give him such a massive starting bonus? Well, it's all about the role the ROB wants him to play. The series title is a big clue but if you haven't guessed then I'm not dropping anymore hints.

Edit: I've been getting reviews about the lack of a need for the ROB/Nameless. So I think I should explain a few things here. This story is not primarily about Ainz exploring the Forgotten Realms. This is at best a secondary theme. It is primarily about Ainz becoming a god of gods within a broader cosmology of a set of related stories. To that end the role of the ROB is vital as it provides the link to the broader cosmology and its intervention is designed to set in motion the events to set the story in the direction its needed i.e. Ainz's greater apotheosis hence the title. This might not be the story you thought you might find in this fic, that's fine. It is the story I want to tell though and that's honestly more important to the story.

Well that's it for me this chapter. Till next time, namárië!