I don't own the Overlord(オーバーロードŌbārōdo?), Light novel, manga and anime series created by Kugane Maruyama.
I do not own the Rising of the shield hero (Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari), Light novel, manga, and anime series created by Aneko Yusagi
Arrival
It had started like any other day, he'd gotten out of bed, gotten dressed, and made his way outside to tend to his crops as he had done since he moved here. Nothing out of the norm so far, he moved on to feeding his stock of filolials, oxen, and swine.
A few hours later, with sweat dripping down his forehead he made his way back to the old stone tower that he had used as his home. The story behind it was a long one that he had never cared to fully listen to, but it had apparently been built by a powerful mage long ago, which is probably why he'd never ventured past the second floor.
Suddenly, the smell of cooked bacon and the sound of fizzling eggs flooded his senses as he approached the large wooden door, once more thankful for the woman who had become his wife. He opened the door, scraped his boots on the stairs, wiped his brow, and stepped inside.
By the time he reached the table a plate of food was already waiting for him, homemade sausages with a side of bacon and eggs, all greeted with a smile that - in his opinion - nations would fight over.
"How are they," she asked, sitting down on the other side of the table with a plate of her own.
"Well," he said, stacking a bit of sausage, egg, and bacon on his fork before shoving it into his mouth. "At this rate, they should be ready before harvest season."
"That's wonderful!" she exclaimed, her smile lighting up his day once again. Her face turned to one of shock as the crack of thunder struck the tower.
"What was that?" she exclaimed, her ears flattening against the top of her head.
"I don't kn-"
THUDD!
He pushed back on his chair, got up, and grabbed the shovel by the door. "Stay here, I'm going to go up and check," he said, making his way to the wooden stairs.
"But, what if…" she trailed off looking up at his back worried.
"I'll be back before you know it," he said with a reassuring smile. everything was normal until he reached the fourth floor, that was good but now he was officially in hostile territory, tanks of odd liquid and strange books filled one side of the room while on the other was a set of strange contraptions sitting beneath a set of stairs that led up.
He took a deep breath and slowly crept past the books and tanks he knew now were filled with an assortment of dead creatures until he reached the stairs, he could hear the tapping of feet on the floor, someone or something was pacing back and forth above him.
His nerves began to wind tighter and tighter until finally, he reached the top. Slowly and as quietly as he could he peeked through the old rotten door to look inside and suddenly became confused by the oddity that lay before him. A man? He was expecting a monster or something but a… he locked eyes with its face and felt an odd feeling that treads the ever so thin line between fear and curiosity.
"What are you?" He whispered. There was no warning for what happened next, it took place so quickly that he couldn't comprehend it. Its fingers were already around his neck with its mind bearing down on his, invading his thoughts, his body, and his soul.
New world(Nazaric's world)
Forgotten guild base, Minotaur country. 3 hours earlier
Shalltear grunted in exertion as she skidded along the ground, the heels of Bloody Valkyrie digging into the stone floor. Her blood-red eyes looked onto the being in front of her with hate. She held her hand and released her fury, shouting [Brilliant Radiance].
The spell lit up the entire throne room, drowning her target within. "Why won't you die!" she shouted.
The smoldering being raised to its full height, its wounds healing as they did. "I am the last of my master's creations, I will not fall as easily as the others did." the Overlord stated confidently.
"Yes, as you have stated repeatedly, but you can not win here, surely you know that?" Demiurge said.
"I do, Archfiend, and yet I must do so anyway, this is my home and I must defend it just as my masters have commanded, just as I assume yours have commanded you."
"Ours was taken from us, you big dummy, we are trying to get him back." Aura exclaimed, cracking her whip.
"Yeah!" Mare reaffirmed confidently.
"My condolences young ones." the nameless Overlord said, placing a hand to its chest. "If I may ask a favor of you all, please do not forget me after my death, My name is Antim Ostalos Posten, last remaining sentry of the Sol Blessed Bulls."
Shalltear looked around at the others as they nodded to the man, Pandora, Demiurge, Cocytus, Sebas, Aura and Mare, Pestonya, Lupus, Solution, and CZ. They all nodded in respect and with a moment's hesitation so did she.
After close to five months of searching, seven useless world items, six floors, and four days of constant fighting, they may have finally reached it, their goal was just on the other side of this being, this Overlord, the final obstacle between them, the Guardians of the Great Tomb of Nazaraic and their master the Supreme Being Ainz Ooal Gown.
"Use plan 3c, adapt as necessary," Demiurge said through [Message].
Sebas was the first to move, disappearing in a feat of speed that even Shalltear found hard to follow, his iron fist struck his adversary with enough force to crack an entire mountain range and sent the undead flying through the room with several loud cracks of air, dropping its quickly regenerating HP to half in an instant.
Antim pushed himself out of the wall and cast [Fly]. The small golden T hanging around his neck glowed a faint yellow and his half-destroyed head began to reform. "Unfortunate, my turn," he said and pointed his hand at Cocytus. [Maximise Magic: Vermilion Nova]
The Vermin Lord dodged right and jumped into the air just before the ground cracked and erupted in a column of superheated plasma, and came down on top of his foe with a barrage of hammers and maces.
Antim teleported and was struck again by Shalltears pipet lance, it bubbled and began to sap his health. The Overlord grumbled and teleported again but met a similar fate at the end of Mare's shadow of Yggdrasil, the force of the blow creating an overlord-shaped crater in the floor.
"I'm casting it," Demiurge exclaimed and cast [Dimensional Lock]. Everyone shouted in confirmation, understanding that teleportation was now off the table for everyone, there would be no escaping from this place for them or him.
The Overlord stood and raised a glowing purple hand to Mare "[True d-]"
A massive pink metal hand consumed his entire form and sent him flying straight into the awaiting black scaled fist of Sebas who was in the last moments of lucid thought after transforming. The Dragonoid pushed all of his reserve KI into this [Cataclismic Strike]. The moment his fist collided with the skull of the Overlord the space between the two became infinitely dense for a fraction of a second, as Sebas pushed, space expanded and the Overlord known as Antim Ostalos Posten disappeared in a flash of light that made an indent into the opposite wall several meters deep, his items rolled down the slight slope, falling to the floor in a series of clangs and chimes.
A draconic roar sounded from behind them and Cocytus found a very angry black Dragonoid charging at him. They all knew this would happen to the stoic Butler, but they hoped it wouldn't.
Much like Shalltear when she became blood frenzied, Sebas would lose himself to his monstrous side when he transformed, but in exchange he would receive a dramatic boost to his physical abilities, speed, strength, weight, and power all of them increased by nearly fifty percent.
Cocytus dodged the first two strikes, deflected the next six, and was struck by the following two, cracking his shining blue carapace along the center. "Some. Assistance. Please!" He shouted, obviously trying to focus on defense instead of trying to fight.
Pandora, still in lady Yamico's form, sprung from the left and shot a colossal gauntlet at his fellow guardian… and was stopped, the dragon had stopped the gigantic fist mid-swing.
It was a good thing that he was only meant to be a distraction, as behind him Mare shimmered in a green glow and struck the floors with his staff. The ground beneath them groaned before it cracked open, hundreds of colossal brown-green vines sprung forth and began to wrap around Sebas, locking him in place.
Aura quickly unrolled the massive scroll on her waist, the world-item [Depiction of nature and Society], and locked Sebas away until he was able to calm down. "Was it really necessary to do that?" she asked, cocking her hip.
"If there was another way, I would have liked to hear it." Demiurge bit back.
"I agree that it was the correct course of action," Pandora said, morphing back into his base, yellow trenchcoated form. "Antim's regeneration was too fast to leave it to chance."
"What do you think was causing that, another world item?" Lupus chirped, appearing beside Shalltear.
"Mein fräulein, but of course, what else could it be but a Worrrld Item!" he continued. "If I am given but a moment I will appraise it! Ich frage mich, welcheses ist?"(I wonder which one it is?)
"How long do you think we should leave Sebas in there? I feel kinda bad for him, ya know?" Aura asked, looking to Demiurge.
"It was necessary…" he sighed. "Assuming you left him in the void preset with nothing to target, it shouldn't take more than half an hour. While I feel for his plight we have come here for a reason, shall we?"
…
As he approached what was left of the overlord's corpse, he was struck by it! The wealth, the might, the world item called to him, dragging him to it and with all his might he resisted! It wouldn't do to hurry, this sort of thing needed to be taken slowly and be enjoyed.
Tentatively he reached for it, ever so gently caressing its golden surface, the key next to it meant nothing at this moment. Not when it was so close! No! The feeling of its power would have to wait! He begrudgingly withdrew his hand and cast [All Appraisal Magic Item]!
Exhilaration flooded his being all the way down to the bottom of his very soul. The World-Class-Item [Staff of Hippocrates] would forever belong in the hallowed halls of his home, the Grand Treasury of Nazarick guarded by him and all other created! He examined every minute detail he could, every bit of nuance, oh thank the creator!
"Lord Pandora?" Shizu Delta queried from behind his kneeling form. "Lord Demiurge would like to know if you have found the last key?"
"I have my dear," he replied. "I simply found myself distracted, I will be along shortly."
Shizu gave him a flat nod, then turned and left to return to her sister's sides.
Pandora sighed, he would have to gush later. Despite all World items' indestructible nature he still felt the need to carefully pick this one up. Upon his hand encasing its shape the item began to glow a faint gold and grow until it reached three feet long, just as he had commanded. Though he didn't wish to, he placed it into the void that was his inventory and got up.
Key in hand he made his way over to Demiurge standing before a large vault door with a row of keys slots beneath it that had appeared the moment their quarry had died.
This key was supposedly - and hopefully - the last one, woe be to this place if it was not.
As they had traveled through it, it became clear that each floor of this place seemed to imitate Nazarick in some form or fashion - floors one through three were almost exact copies even to the point that the NPC's guarding them were all level 100 vampire lords with some very odd names Na Motteru Dralsya, Noi Yǒu Katta, Siempre Dolzhen Noi, each imitating Shalltear's forms and fighting styles, but they were no match for the real thing, Shalltear's ego had received quite a boost that day!
Floor four while not an exact copy of Gargantua's lake, was a cave type area that contained a white water river that aided the level 100 Shinobi golem in picking off its targets, thankfully Culca Hamaaree Kibō's hit and run tactics weren't much of an issue to deal with, Lady Ankoro Mochi Mochi's form was quite useful with its ability to mark and see its targets through even [perfect unknowable].
After the fourth-floor boss was defeated they had moved on to the fifth, following the winding river until they came to a large waterfall that fed into a positively massive lake below, they had waited until everyone was ready before they all made the jump. Even before the first of them made it out of the water they were ambushed, hundreds of pop monsters and summons rushing them from the lush greenery of the floors jungle.
Mare and Aura had quickly gone into action, they were in their element, this jungle was theirs and not even the sentry of this place could deny it. While Mare trapped their enemies in vines or rock Aura would annihilate them with her pets, with Demiurge's command, the tide of enemies were quickly stemmed, they simply couldn't stand up to the combined forces of the Guardians of Nazarick and their support! While the hordes of enemies may have been taken care of, the sentry had not!
Par cel, the hulking monstrosity of muscle, stone, and black vines was unlike anything they had faced thus far and was undoubtedly the strongest. The horror of the Black Forest's abilities as a druid were strong enough that Mare was essentially put on guard duty for Pestonya and the Pleiades, countering the effects of the AOE spells thrown at them while the others dealt as much damage as possible.
What mana it had, quickly ran out, at which point it fell back onto its colossal health pool, agility, and offensive melee - when paired with its immunity to movement impairment, well it made for a very hard target to kill.
Unfortunately for the monstrosity, lord Nishikenri's form was specialized for adversaries such as it, his ability to teleport behind the target and land a deviating blow had quickly shredded its heath pool, after several [Teleport Strikes] he had run out of uses for that particular attack for the day. The final blow was landed by Mare in the form of [Ground Gladiolus] a colossal piece of knife-shaped rock that impaled and killed the horror.
Their brief respite lasted all but a single second as the floor beneath them collapsed and dragged them in, forcing them into a zone that restricted any use of flight and teleportation.
They'd fallen for what felt like several minutes in pure darkness until finally, magma began to trickle from the sides, lower down still it became a large flow that began to enclose on them from all sides. He felt relief that it began to taper out and separate into two separate flows that fed into the two lakes on either side of a massive canyon. The landing was… rough, none of them had suffered any damage so to speak, but they all became separated after bouncing off a jagged slope, shotgunning them along both sides of the magma falls.
He'd been lucky enough to land on the raised stone part that spanned the length of the canyon's floor.
After everyone finally managed to get back to the path, they had set off along it, fighting through waves of low-level demons and undead, mostly a mix of Overeating, Hellhounds, and Death Knights.
They were likely meant to slow intruders down and allow for the owners of this place to bombard them from both sides - if the little rock overhangs were any indication. In any case, they were long gone, and their objective was just ahead.
A half desolated mockery of the entrance of the great tomb, scared and crumbling in this hell-cum-seventh floor. He should have felt insulted but instead, he felt amused, even these lesser beings could see the glory of the supreme beings and chose to imitate them, perhaps it was why his master had chosen to leave this place be…
When they arrived they were met with what could have been another insult but only seemed to stun everyone into silence, an Overlord that looked almost exactly like their master right down to the Academic gown it wore stood atop the 41 steps, staring down at them, its red points of light looking, scanning each of them.
His sense for magic items had led him to believe that everything the Overlord wore was an imitation, all of them legendary class items, even the red orb inside its chest!
It was at this point that Demiurge began to laugh maniacally, he remembers the demon saying at the time- "Who would have thought that to save our master we would have to kill his doppelganger!"
The statement seemed to confuse everyone, but he, like Demiurge, found the ironic nature of the situation amusing.
The frustration on Shalltear's face had grown to a crescendo and without saying any words to the Overlord Wiseman, she lept from her spot and tackled it into the obsidian doors, smashing through them with a bang and disappearing inside.
They all released a collective sigh and followed after her. From there a battle took place, that all of them were forced into and what a battle it was!
"Pandora, do you have the last key?" Demiurge asked as he approached, clearly not interested in the world-class item he found.
"I do!" He exclaimed, flourished his Cape, and extended his hand with a slight bow.
"My thanks," Demiurge said, nodding his head towards him and taking the key then, with his other arm extended, [Summons 10th: Lord of Wrath]
Out of the large magic circle that appeared on the white-grey floor crawled a towering figure of three and a half meters tall, its large bat-like wings spread out before they and its entire body were consumed by flame heating the room to the point that Solution and Shizu took a step back. The hulking demon turned to regard Demiurge, its face fixed into one of rage with a promise of certain death.
"What will you have of me, my Lord?" It said in a deep reverberating voice that shook the air.
Demiurge smirked, and dipped his hand into the darkness of his void storage before retracting a set of six multi-colored keys, each of them - as they had discovered earlier - a different type of prismatic metal. He turned his wrist and held them out. "Take these and insert them into the slots beneath the door, if you survive, turn each of them and open the door."
The demon released a gruff "humph" to note his disdain before it accepted the items. It pondered over to the middle of the large silver door wrapped in large latch locks and picked up the first of the - in its hands - amusingly small keys with its claws, slowly it lined the first key up with the slot that matched its type and thrust it in, turning it.
The large vault door rumbled as the gears inside began to turn, then with a clunk, the first latch holding the door slid off and fell to the ground, as this happened a large blue magic circle appeared beneath the demon and shattered. The Lord of Wrath grunted in pain as the seventh-tier spell [Glacial Beem] struck his body, chilling the entire room.
A moment later the chilling beam faded and Wrath's scaly body reappeared, the veins of lava that wrapped around its body weaving between its natural armor bloomed back into life.
With a grunt, the hulking demon took the next key, pushed it into its respective slot, and turned, again a magic circle appeared before it launched a torrent of holy light. This process continued each time a new key was inserted and turned, each time a spell would trigger, each time they would become progressively more deadly until the last.
The tenth tier spell [Seraphims Judgment] collided with the demon - who was already on death's door - bathing the whole of the colossal room in light, by this point anyone who was negatively aligned, which was most of them, had already moved to the back of the room, but even they were caught in its effects.
After ten seconds of continuous light fall, the room finally became clear, at its end, all of the gigantic metal latches lay on the ground in random states of stillness, all of them in various different states of superheated slag.
On the raised dais, just under the perfectly intact door sat something new, a spirit or a wraith, even with all their senses so keen, they sensed nothing from it but it was there all the same. Cautiously they approached then just as they passed the third row of pillars it got up out of its sitting position.
Its cloaked head raised and stared directly at the center of their formation, causing demiurge to smirk at it, adjusting his glasses slightly. "Minotaur sage." the Archfiend said with finality.
"So, someone finally made it all the way down here. Grats!" The "spirit" exclaimed as it approached them, his voice light and young. "I hope you liked the little homage we made to Ainz Ooal Gown, we all decided to make it after we entered into that big raid on their guild base as mercs. Of course, most of us died on the first four floors and I died on the seventh, but who would have even guessed that they had a siege golem and a permanent one! Where the hell did they even get one of those!" the sprite sighed and continued. "My guess is that the shitty devs gave it to them. Anyway, now that you made it to this point I've got another test for you before the door opens and you get all our stuff. No NPC's, no traps, no riddles, well maybe little ones kinda… anyway here we go, what are the names of all the NPC you fought to get here?"
With a little pride and no hesitation, Demiurge stepped forward, adjusting his glasses before he stated confidently "Na Motteru dralsya, Noi Yǒu Katta, Siempre dolzhen Noi, Culca Hamaaree Kibō, Par Cel, Antim Ostalos Posten."
Instantly his entire body was consumed in light and he moaned in pain, the spirit chuckling lightly. "LoL! Close but no dice, I'll give you two more chances." The spirit said.
The light cleared a moment later and the demiurge cupped his chin in thought. "I was certain that those were their names," He said more to himself than those behind him. The devil looked up to the spirit and again began to speak. "Posten Ostalos Antim, Cel Par, Culca Hamaaree Kibō, Noi Dolzhen Siempre, Katta Yǒu Noi, Dralsya Motteru Na."
Again Demiurge was consumed in light and again the spirit spoke "Wow, you actually listed them backward, well done, but still wrong, one more try."
Demiurge suddenly jolted and turned back to the small gathering of Nazarick Npc's locking sight with Pandora. "Have you figured out what they mean yet?" he asked in a voice of slight if not deserved frustration.
"I may have, but I can not be certain for sure, they are off… slightly as if they had been translated by a fool or a child, from the sounds of it possibly both, it simply makes no sense," Pandora replied. Demiurge nodded, walked back three steps, and waved him forward.
Pandora stepped forward with all the conviction he could muster, he was confident in his translation, why shouldn't he have been? His master and creator, the Supreme being Ainz Ooal Gown had blessed him with the knowledge of all known languages, for that gift he would forever thank him as this wondrous gift would lead to their reunion.
The spirit disengaged its lock on the devil and looked at him. "A new challenger, what couldn't figure it out yourself other guy? Haha," it said teasingly, causing Demiurge to grumble in annoyance.
"No pressure new guy, only one chance left." the spirit said, a small smiling icon above its hood.
There was no hesitation when he stepped forward one more step than was necessary. Flourishing his trenchcoat he exclaimed with overflowing confidence! "I have fought, we have won, forever shall we, lay our hopes, on the, last remaining sentry!"
"Well done!" The spirit exclaimed, turned, and threw up its hands, "Praise the Sun!" with another clunk the massive door popped forward, and swung open where it collided with the pillar closest to it, shaking the room.
Through the opening, just beyond the edge of the door, was a large, circular empty room that looked like it once contained mountains of gold. Around its outer edge just where a large black plate met paved marble, were shelves stacked with tools of war, undisturbed for likely two hundred and fifty years, yet each and every piece they saw was peerless in its beauty - at least in his opinion.
"Before you enter I have something for you, I'm not really sure how much effort you put into translating their names, I just used some old software I found from before the Corpo war's, anyway this guild is dead no ignoring that if this message is playing, interactive recording and all that, so I wanna give you something, this-" the spirit held his arm out to the left where a wide blue jagged tower shield formed and floated. "- is our guild weapon [Sol Breaker], its main ability is that it is able to absorb any single target spells aimed at the user and redirect it back to the caster - even Super Tier Magic, we had to kick one of our magic casters to test that one so we know it works, just saying - I'll let you figure out what else it can do."
With that, a smiling icon appeared and the spirit disappeared a split second later. Pandora was thankful for the reward of a guild but he was unwilling to touch the weapon for the moment so he stepped to the side and pulled his inventory over it, forcing it in.
"Lord Demiurge, do you think that was one of the lesser beings who made this place?" Solution asked as they all began to make their way towards the door.
"Wasn't that obvious," he replied, "I was surprised to find out that these scum had fought in the invasion, as it mostly consisted of human and elven guilds, but in the end, I am happy that even in their mistakes they saw the light of the supreme ones and tried to imitate their glory - insulting as it may have been."
A chorus of agreement flowed as they stepped through and made their way further in, heading for the deepest part of the vault where they had assumed the world items would be stored. Pandora lingered behind to gather as much of the items as he could but the others were not as patient as himself.
…
After close to ten minutes of walking past several halls filled with items ranging from spears, daggers, swords, katanas, shields, bows, and axes to staffs, gauntlets, hammers, whips, claws, and full sets of armors all relic and legendary class - nothing above or below all still having enough power to boggle the minds of any resident of this new world - they came to another door.
It was beautiful even to them who had seen the wonders of the supreme ones, it glowed goldenly in a divine light that emphasized the inlaid gold in the seven trapezoidal plates of prismatic star silver that made up the circular door, at its center within the circular center plate was a shape that Pandora recognized.
Reality burst open into darkness and his hand clutched the shimmering blue form of a massive tower shield. The others looked at him in befuddlement as he approached the door, raising the shield to it. With a push, he slotted the shield into the slot, the orbs, spikes, and outer edge, all fitting perfectly with not so much as a millimeter to spare.
With a grunt of exertion, he turned to the shield to the right, and like the door, they had walked through not too long ago, it made a distinct thunderous clunk and it began to move, light erupted from the small seams between plates and blinded those who were not immune to its effects.
The door shifted and raised before it suddenly broke apart, each trapezoid floated out and to the side, locking into place on one of the many indents along the outer edge of the door. The centerpiece pushed Pandora back, raised at an angle, and disconnected from the shield before it to locked into its slot above the door.
"Kind of dramatic isn't it," Lupusregina said, stating what everyone was thinking.
"It may be that in their endeavor to imitate the Supreme Beings, they sought more inspiration from a specific Supreme Being, possibly Lord Ulbert or Lord Luci×fer," Demiurge said, walking forward through the door.
They all nodded silently in agreement and followed him through, while Pandora at the back stood stock still, locked in place.
This room was filled with divinity, he took a deep breath and was once again filled with excitement and wonder!
He pushed on, widened the entrance to his inventory, before he dragged it along the walls stacked with these most precious of items, allowing their entrance as he moved in step.
So distracted by the items moving into his inventory that he barely caught himself from crashing into the back of CZ Delta.
Wondering just what had caused this stoppage of motion he placed his hand on her shoulder and she stood aside allowing him forward, the others parted before him.
"This is it right?!" Shalltear exclaimed, holding in her red gauntlets a simple statute of a rather oddly dressed man looking thoughtfully at the empty space above him. "It has to be, right? One of the three we were looking for?!"
Everyone remained silent as he approached, whether it was from awe or hope beyond measure he couldn't truly know. So it was with his own hope that he reached out and gently grasped the item, clasping his hands underneath hers.
She recoiled slightly at his touch, but his strength was enough to hold firm and she relaxed a moment later looking up at him as a trail of blood ran from her eyes down across her cheeks. "Shall we find out together, dear fräulein?" Pandora said.
With a nod she slowly retracted her hand and held it just above the item, he did the same retracting the opposite to hers. [All Appraisal Magic Item] they cast in tandem and all at once information flowed into their minds.
Shalltear knees collapsed beneath her and she began to weep in relief. Pandora took a step back still clutching the item, tentatively he turned to Demiurge and slowly shook his head.
"This is the item we need," he announced.
"So why did you shake your head then, what's wrong?" Aura asked, her expression one of worried determination.
"This world-class item [Ptolemy's Star Atlas] has the ability to transport a party to any location already known to them," Pandora explained solemnly.
"And we, are not a party…" Demiurge concluded. The instant after his statement the room erupted into a full-blown argument as to who should go, Cocytus and Shalltear being the most vocal of them.
While most of them had good points, who would go had already been decided… Pandora's form shifted and morphed into a shape that most of them hadn't seen in months grabbing their attention and silencing them instantly.
Before they could start yelling at him for taking such a sacred form he morphed back into his original. "I will be going," he said firmly and without any room for argument. "I am his personal creation and my abilities allow me to adapt to any situation that may arise in a foreign world."
"But… but, who's going to take care of the treasury and who's going to take Lord Ainz' form when he needs to appear in public? You're needed here much more than I am," Shalltear stammered.
"I agree," Demiurge said. The vampiress's head turned into a flash as she locked eyes with him, her face one of shock and hope. "With Pandora, I mean." He clarified.
"But!" Shalltear exclaimed.
"Shalltear, your inclination to emotional outbursts makes you unpredictable, when paired with your blood frenzy it is even possible you become a liability." He continued, turning to Cocytus. "The world lord Ainz was taken to is mostly unknown, what we do know is that its races are mostly humanoid, Cocytus you will simply not fit in."
"You. Insult. My. Appearance?"
"No, never. I am trying to point out that as a Vermin lord you are more than likely to be seen by these people as an unthinking monster and not a warrior searching for his Lord and Master, regardless of any noble intentions you may convey."
It took a moment but Cocytus nodded slightly and replied "I. Understand." he said, releasing a huff of cold mist. One of his chitinous arms moved from his side and seemingly fazed through a black hole in reality. As he pulled back, clutched within his clawed hands was a katana of simple impeccable design, three and a half meters long. "If. I. Am. Unable. To. Serve. Lord. Ainz. Personally. I. Must. Serve. In. Other. Ways. Take. [God Slaying Emperor Blade]. And. Be. His. Warrior. In. My. Stead." He said, offering the blade laid in the flat of his four palms.
Pandora stared at Cocytus for several seconds, knelt down, placed the world item on the ground, and accepted the blade with all the reverence he could muster for such a weapon and the act that it had come with. "I humbly accept." He said taking the weapon that once belonged to Lord Takemikazuchi - now his greatest creation - and placing it into his dimensional storage. With that, he stood up and respectfully bowed to the warrior before him, who bowed back.
"We've got something too!" Mare exclaimed, holding out a framed photo.
"I know it isn't much, but we don't want him to forget about us." Aura said. "It's the picture he took with us - all of us - on our one-hundredth birthday." She explained.
Pandora accepted the photo with as much reverence as he did Cocytus' blade. "I'm sure it will mean more to him than you can ever imagine." He said solemnly, placing the item into the void.
"Hrmmrah rmmhrah…" shalltear grumbled.
"What was that?"
"I said I've got something too." She loudly exclaimed, hurriedly raising a golden chain around her neck and handing it definitely to him.
Pandora scrutinized the gift for several long seconds. "Are you sure about this my dear…?" He asked. "This could be the difference between life and-"
"Death… yes I know which is why I'm giving it to you, dummy." She continued "You're weaker than me and that means you're more likely to die and with lord Ainz away, no one can resurrect you."
"That goes the same for us dumb ass!" Aura exclaimed, punishing the vampire with a hard chop to the head.
"I've got nothing else to give, you stupid chibi!" Shalltear retorted, shoving the elf girl back a step.
"Shalltear," Pandora said, dragging the conversation back to himself. "While I wish I could accept, I simply can not. It would place our glorious home in far more danger than it already is,"
"But!"
"-you are its first line of defense. If I accept this it would hamper your ability to defend your three floors and would be an insult to the supreme one's design, that is something I simply refuse to do as I would hope you would."
Shalltear paused, her face shifting through several expressions, doubt, betrayal, anger, worry and finally contemplation. "What about you!?" she suddenly shouted, jabbing a finger into Pandora's chest "You're the Guardian of the treasury and Lord Ainz' double, you're arguably more important than me!"
"If an invader makes it to the treasury, it will be because you, as would we, have failed to do our duty!" Demiurge retorted, visibly angry at the mere insinuation. "Think before you speak."
"Yes," Pandora said, and warmly placed his hand on the petite vampire's shoulder. She looked up at his face, faux tears of violent red sitting at the corners of her eyes. "My dear, I am sorry that I can not accept your gift… perhaps something else will do?"
"I just said that I had nothing else to give!" She yelled, her face curling into one of inhuman rage and yet Pandora held firm to her, his black featureless eyes knowing and full of understanding.
Suddenly a memory rose up to the surface of her mind, a reward of diligence and good work once given. She reached into the depths of her inventory, shifting the assortment of items, weapons, and unmentionables to the very back where she grabbed hold of something she had forgotten she had, a thick book covered in strips of fine leather from several different creatures all encased in branching gold filigree.
[The book of game encyclopedia] contained the knowledge of everything a player has ever interacted with, which was to say that Shalltear was holding her Lord's entire Yggdrasil experience in her hands, to her it was Peroroncinos life and her creation. So it was with heavy hands that she handed it to Pandora who received it with care and adoration.
With that he turned to the row of maids patiently waiting for him, each of them holding various simple items. Bags or holding filled with an assortment of healing items, a pouch of throwing knives, and a [Type AMR.808 Heavy Magic system] - he accepted them and moved on to Demiurge who handed a large magic scroll.
(A/N. I hated about half of this last section but I couldn't think of any way to transition or do it better so I left it and decided to move on, I rewrote it five times and hated each one more and more. I'll probably come back to it later. Call it lazy writing if you will.)
…
With gifts received and goodbyes said Pandora made his way back to [Ptolemy Star Atlas] still sitting unceremoniously on the floor and picked it up with all the grace he could muster for such an item.
Cupped within his left he used his right to wave over the small statued man and almost an instant later a small image appeared before the telescope, depicting an unfamiliar world with a singular large landmass that began on one side of the planet and stretched to the other. Beginning like that of a pointed spear in the northeastern hemisphere it widened and stretched down towards the southwest until it came to a colossal crescent moon that created a bay hundreds or perhaps thousands of kilometers across.
Almost at the very center of this supercontinent, nestled within a mountainous region floated a bright blue light.
Pandora gave a quick glance to the others before the statued man paced over to the telescope and looked down into its lens. With excitement, the man looked up and pointed.
"Hier komme ich! Mein Schöpfer!" (Here I come! My creator!)
In that moment Pandora's actor, Guardian of the Treasury, and the first and only creation of Ainz Ooal Gown disappeared.
Unknow location, Unknown continent
Early morning sometime, probably.
His ears rang as he rematerialized, eyes widening as he collapsed to his knees, pain shot through his body as the weight of the world bore down on top of him forcing him to change and conform to its rules. With what strength he had left he denied it and reached forward with a herculean effort to clutch the world item before him, the pain vanishing as soon the tip of his fingers made contact.
"Ich habe es endlich geschafft!" (Ich habe es endlich geschafft he exclaimed, getting to his feet and finally looking around.
Dusty sheet-covered boxes, tubes, and bookshelves made up a majority of the items he found himself surrounded by, on his right sat a small wooden desk covered in dust, paper, quills, and pots of ink. Below him was a drawn magic circle he didn't recognize nor notice until now.
He quickly moved off the circle for fear of accidentally activating some teleportation trap and began to pace, he'd spent so long thinking about this moment, this point in time that he'd never actually thought about what he would do next…
His meager beginnings of a plan were interrupted suddenly as a quiet almost silent whisper echoed from his side.
"Qu'es-tô?"
With speed that would boggle lesser minds, he shot forwards with an open outstretched hand and grabbed the man by the lapels of his gruff-looking white shirt, smashing through the door as he did so.
The being he'd "grabbed" was a demi-human of some form but not one that he strictly recognized, an amalgamation of different subspecies. The ears atop his head were that of a dog pointed and straight while the tail that sat shaking between his legs was that of a raccoon or a tanuki.
The demi-human male struggled in his vice-like grip, screaming in futility as a moment later Pandora had cupped the man's head with his free arm, resting his thumb against his temple. With another thought, the confines of the man's mind were his to explore. Knowledge, language, maps, his life up to this point, and even his very body became his to use.
It took all but a few seconds but it was enough for him to learn of an event that had not long taken place. A foreign Queen had recently arrived in this man's country and though the news was close to several days old it was still of urgent use.
Something hit him from behind, breaking his hold on the man's mind. Pandora turned his ovoid head and found a purple-haired demihuman woman standing there shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm, tears threatening the corners of her eyes, ears down, a splintered broom in her hands.
"Let… let go of him!" She exclaimed, raising the broken broomstick threateningly.
He nodded slowly and gently placed the man against the solid brick wall of the tower, then turned to her fully.
"He will wake up in an hour," Pandora said, speaking perfect Shieldan.
"What did you do to him, monster, is he…?" She asked, broomstick still raised and ready.
Despite the insult, he answered her concern. "No, as I said he will wake up in an hour, as for what I did, I needed to scan his mind for information regarding this world," he released a light chuckle. "I guess you could say I'm new to it."
Her face became still at his last statement, lowered the broom, then went through a series of emotions. Confusion, anger then back to confusion, her surface thoughts were a mess of worry and doubt. For some odd reason, she believed him to be a cardinal hero…
"I am not what you think I am, Gute Frau Olivier."(Good Wife Olivier) He said, though clearly to his detriment as she raised the broom once more and hardened her expression.
"Then what are you?"
"A simple traveler." He replied curtly then looked towards the man snoring on the floor. "Would you like me to move him to a more comfortable place before I leave?"
"No! Ah, just leave… please." She said and pointed to a set of covered wooden doors on the opposite side of the room.
Was she implying that he should jump? Normally that wouldn't be a problem but apparently, one could be injured if one fell from a high place in this world. He wouldn't take any damage all the same but the implication that he should kill himself - as he understood it - was still there.
He simply bowed to her, turned, walked through the arched doorway across the room, retched the locked doors open, and… jumped. He fell a full thirty meters quickly passing brick and stone before he landed, creating a small crater in a field of partially grown potato-like vegetables.
Beyond the northern horizon that was defined by hills, mountains, and stone pillars - was his first destination, the Imperial Capital of Siltvelt. Every plan he could come up with revolved around that city. If he really wanted to find his creator, there would be the best place to start.
Baudouin Olivier - the man he first encountered - knowledge only extended to the edge of this valley which was to say that he held no knowledge of which direction the country of Melromarc lay.
Wasting time pointlessly capturing peasants hoping to find the right one that actually knew where to head was well… pointless when he could make directly for its leader.
His whole form shifted into a white boiling mass before it quickly reformed back into one of grey stone and dark cloth covered in white plate mail and gold embroidered dragon leather. Stealth and speed were needed here, fortunately, Lord Nishikenri was adept at both.
He made the hand sign required for teleportation and appeared on the edge of the valley, on a well-worn dirt road sat between a set of sheer step-stone cliffs. He looked around briefly before he effortlessly jumped a full forty meters to the ledge above him and began casting numerous agility and speed-boosting buffs.
If all went well he would reach his destination by dusk.
Siltvelt, Imperial capital,
12 hours after the Melromarc wave.
Intentions, no matter how lofty, damn us just as thoroughly as our sins.
Mirellia Q. Melromarc the Queen of the country Melromarc had a headache, a migraine, and the machinations of an aneurysm all at once, to say she was having a bad day was an understatement, the discussions between herself and the Parliament of Siltvelt had all but broken down, teetering on a knife's edge between war and a peaceful trade agreement, it could really go either way.
In her responsibility as queen of Melromarc, she had spent the last month attempting to fix relations with the surrounding counties after her husband had summoned the four cardinal heroes prematurely.
To her own dismay, things had - to put it mildly - quickly gone to shit from there and she was the one who personally had to clean it all up. Traveling to each of the affronted countries in an attempt to repair relations.
Thus far she had personally sacrificed things she should have never had to, done things she should never have had to. If only she could go home and manage this from there - god willing her eldest daughter didn't screw things up more than she already had.
Out of frustration, she picked up one of the many knives in her room and threw it at the portrait hanging on the wall adding yet another slash to the already ruined picture of her fool of a husband.
He was wonderful once, a sight to behold on the battlefield that was drawn between her nation and Siltvelt. A master of strategy and war, but with time - and children - all things fade. He became delusional, his mind blunted, his vision blind.
She let out an exhausted sigh and walked over to the warm pot of tea in the corner, gently pouring a cup for herself. She sipped quietly and glanced at the shadow of her lounge. They had arrived two weeks ago with one of her shadows and had followed her since, keeping close but never moving to harm or aggrieve her, and given the coincidental timing, she had suspicions as to who they belonged to, so she had let them be.
The stress on her mind faded ever so slightly as the sound of a tapped window echoed within her room. She placed her cup down on the small plate and made her way closer, listening for the correct taps and pauses. Once she was satisfied she flipped the latch and let one of her shadows in.
"How did it go? Did he meet our expectations?" she asked, excitement and anticipation flooding her being.
"He exceeded them, My Queen!" the shadow kneeled and exclaimed with just as much excitement. "The power he displayed was phenomenal, so much so that wave may as well have been a joke." she continued. "The spy was unable to catch the name of the spell, but its effects were obvious, it consumed the wave!"
"It… consumed it?" she asked with uncertainty.
"Absolutely, My Queen, down to the last bone of the last skeleton. I have the physical report if you wish to read it yourself." the shadow said, pulling a roll of parchment from behind her cloak and holding it up in front of her.
Mirellia quickly grabbed and unfurled the document then began examining it, each line she read she became relieved equally as much as she became horrified, the being he summoned was possibly worse than the wave itself.
"Why would he reveal his power so early and with this spell? I'm missing something… these events are guaranteed to draw the eyes of the surrounding countries. The political pressure is going to be immense - Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden especially. I can't be certain, but i don't believe that's what he's after, humiliating Aultrcray perhaps? No that's likely a secondary objective, that leaves only…"
"My queen?"
"The church, he's trying to dra-" she was cut off as a scream sounded from the hallway outside, then shouting, the clink of rattling armor, and more screaming. The shadow quickly got up, locked the door, and pulled a knife from their belt.
Mirellia formed a powerful mote of ice in her delicate hand as she moved to the back wall to guard the door to Melty's room.
Two more screams echoed outside her room and the double doors burst open with a shower of blood and entrails, the torsos of her two guards flying through the room until they smashed through the windows on the opposite side.
Her shadow lunged from their spot and was partially vaporized the moment they made it to the door, coating that entire side of the room in a viscous layer of red, their legs falling off and to the side.
Mirellia would have screamed in horror if not for the thing that walked in next stunning her into silence. Its face was flat, with no nose or facial features. Its mouth and eyes were replaced by three empty holes as if they were drawn on by a child with a piece of charcoal. There was no body to speak of, it was simply a boiling mass of oily white liquid.
As it slowly walked towards her, she found the courage to throw the spell she'd been holding. The room exploded into a mist of icy white, her breath hitched in her throat as the thing continued on its way to her like the Drifa-class spell was a cold breeze in winter, the only thing she'd managed to kill were the creatures hiding in the shadows.
She held her ground in front of Melty's door, her instincts as a mother locking her into place, feet firm and legs unyielding. It ignored her expression of hostility and raised two grey appendages out of its formless mass and latched on to her head forcing her to look into its now-dead white eyes.
She screamed as it rummaged through her mind wantonly looking for information she didn't wish to yield, then it stopped just as quickly as it began.
The appendages left her temples and she suddenly found that her knees were not as strong as they once were. She collapsed to the ground entirely, her body was numb and covered in a thick layer of sweat, insanity, and madness seeping in. Weakly she looked up and found the grey squid-like creature became no more as it deformed into that formless white mass then took on an entirely new shape.
"It seems I've let my temper get the better of me, my apologies." Was the last thing she heard before she fell into the depths of unconsciousness.
Well, I hope you guys liked that cliff I left you on, you may be standing there for a bit if my track record holds up. Hopefully not!
I'm not really sure how well I did on Mirellia's personality so some feedback is VERY welcome. Anyway, this chapter marks the start of the equivalent of volume 2 and will start to diverge from canon events (like it hadn't already lol). Next chapter I'm going to be trying to cover the aftermath of the wave in Melromarc, possibly a confrontation with the other heroes and another surprise.
While you wait for that, if you haven't already read it, I'm going to suggest you guys go check out "Re: He who is beyond Sin" written by Edgy and Atero, an Overlord X Re: Zero story. As well as it being well written, it's updated often (much quicker than I do) so go give it a read tell'em I sent you!
That's all for now though, tell me what you thought of this chapter in a review, they feed me and other writers.
C'ya next time