Disclaimer: I don't own Overlord or Dungeons & Dragons
The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown
Book : Dusk War
Chapter 2: First Battles
Beta:
"What the hell are these things?" Taana asked, as she shot a Twin, Maximize Magic: Dragon Lightning through Zwing and sent it flying at one of the leonine shaped abominations that was guarding the portal that she and the rest of her party had been hired by the Lords of Waterdeep to destroy.
"No idea," Drau shouted back as the monster Taana shot exploded into a pool of black sludge that churned with malformed animal and humanoid shapes for a moment before stilling, even as the Dragon took a shot with her sniper rifle and took out another one.
"Whatever they are don't let them touch you." Kuro, in his favored Brainstealer Dragon combat form, reminded everyone as he kept a half dozen of the sludge monsters at bay with his telekinesis. "They corrupt everything they touch."
Taana loosed a spell arrow imbued with a Call Lightning spell at one of the vaguely lion shaped things, splattering it, and chanced a glance at the testament to what Kuro meant. When they'd first started the fight, he had lashed out at them with pseudopods, confident in his corrosive power to melt them away like he did everything else. Only to find the strange ability of these monsters to distort everything they made contact with, even air itself, into strange mind melting things to look at extended to his biomass too. Fortunately, he'd quickly detached the affected bits before it could spread but the twisted and distorted remains of the infected biomass still writhed where he'd hastily cut them off, distorting the area around them.
"There is no end to them!" Neia shouted in frustration as she unleashed her Rain Arrow skill to take out a pack of the monsters that had just emerged from the portal. "Gaul! Hurry up and seal that portal!"
"I'm working as fast I can!" The armored Wizard shouted back as he cast various counterspells at the portal, steadily but slowly eating away at the magic that kept it open.
This naturally made him a target for the sludge monsters but thankfully he had Yorha and Grimfal to keep him safe. The swordswoman keeping the misshapen leonine beasts at bay with her exquisite swordsmanship and skills whilst her young son supported her by shooting globs of acid at the enemy from his perch on her shoulders.
"There!" Gaul declared at last as the portal finally closed and the tide of sludge monsters coming out of it came to an end.
Great! That still leaves a hundred of these damned things to take out!
"Gaul! Neia! Crowd clearers!" Taana shouted at her siblings even as she leapt away from a sludge monster with the body of a weasel and a scorpion's tail and lashed out with Stormslash that was charged with electricity thanks to her Lightning Strike spell.
Great, so they come in different shapes now. Taana thought with a groan even as her sword cut the stinger off the tail trying to kill her.
"Triplet, Maximize Magic: Chain Dragon Lightning!" Gaul incanted, clearly having heard her earlier and sending three powerful bolts of Lung Dragon shaped lightning through the horde of bestial looking sludge monsters, cooking dozens of them.
Not to be outdone, Taana added her own spell to the mix.
"Twin Magic: Call Lightning Storm!"
At her invocation, thirty bolts of lightning streaked down from the otherwise clear sky and slammed into the monsters, including the weasel shaped one that was still trying to press its attack despite the loss of its stinger. A lightning bolt fried it, causing it to collapse into the sludge that made it up, along with each of the other monsters she'd targeted.
Neia was last to add her firepower to the mix, but considering she'd had to wait for her skill's cooldown to run its course that was unavoidable.
"Rain Arrow!" The Paladin of Ainz Ooal Gown shouted as she sent hundreds of magically conjured arrows falling into the ranks of the remaining monsters.
Thanks to their combined efforts, only a dozen or so monsters remained and the party quickly descended upon them like the wrathful hand of an angry god, which Taana mused they were, and dealt with them in minutes.
"That was intense." Taana noted with a frown as they stood surveying the blighted field where they'd just fought the strange sludge monsters. Once it had been a verdant patch of grassland but now, all life seemed to have been drained from it. It looked like Gaul had cast his Cry of the Banshee there but yet somehow worse as there was a lingering sense of wrongness in the air here that even that powerful area of effect instant death spell could not create.
"And that's saying something coming from us." Kuro agreed from where he was cuddling with Grimfal on Yorha's shoulders. "I can't imagine many of the other adventurers the Lords hired being able to deal with something like this."
Drau nodded in agreement. "Which means we must pick up the slack."
"Agreed." Neia said with a nod of her own. "Whatever these things are, they're a threat we cannot ignore."
"I agree." Yorha added her own vote.
"I think we all agree with helping out." Taana said, receiving nods from everyone. "But what should we do?"
"First things first, we need to get in touch with the Lords, see if any of the other parties sent to close portals failed and follow up on their missions."
"And then?" Gaul asked.
"Then?" Drau said with a shrug. "We do whatever we can to fight these things."
Even as his Chosen fought the strange new aberrations that had invaded Realmspace, Ainz Ooal Gown found himself hosting a large number of Damons, Archomentals and Primordials inside the Nazarick Throne Room. They included such notables as the Obyriths Pazuzu and Pale Night, their fellow Demon Lords Graz'zt, Orcus and Yeenoghu, the Archomentals Ogrémoch, Imix, and Yan-C-Bin, as well as the Primordial Elemental Lords save Kossuth. Though admittedly the latter constituted their own separate group.
"Let me summarize what you all want," the Overlord said after hearing out their varied but similar stories. "You want my aid against Tharizdun and this corruption he's brought with him. What did you say he called it?"
"The Voidharrow," the demon lord Pazuzu, chosen spokesman for the group, supplied. He was a tall and well-proportioned humanoid with avian feet, four wings that both smoked and gleamed with oil, and most notably, a feral bird's beak on an otherwise handsome face. Though said handsome face was now marred by a deep scar that had refused all attempts at healing.
"Yes, the Voidharrow." Ainz said with a nod at the Obyrith in polite thanks. "I can see aiding my allies, the Elemental Lords, in their fight against this invasion."
At this the four present Elemental Lords bowed in gratitude.
"But I must wonder why you Demons expect me to help you. Little more than two years ago, you lot invaded my homeworld just to destroy me." Ainz reminded the Demon Lords, who while too proud to fidget all made clear signs of unease at the way his unhappy gaze settled on them. "Furthermore, is not Tharizdun your ally from the Dawn War? Why side against him now?"
"Tharizdun was our ally and if he was the same being that he was in the Dawn War, he would be still." Pazuzu admitted. "However, whatever happened to him during his imprisonment has changed him. Made him more powerful and more mad, if that was possible."
"We will not lie, Ainz," Akadi cut in, the clouds that made up her humanoid body churning in agitation. "We tried to ally with him once more when we realized he was free, but he brushed us aside and attacked us instead. He killed Kossuth. Used the power of the Voidharrow to smother and corrupt his flames until he ceased to exist."
Ainz frowned at the reminder that one of his greatest allies was already dead at the hands of this new enemy.
Surely this must be the new challenge that Nameless warned me about.
"It is not just Kossuth," Pazuzu said picking up the tale again. "Obox-ob and Dagon are also dead. Demogorgon and Baphomet are still fighting last we heard, but it is doubtful they will hold out long without assistance. Of the Archomentals-"
"Cryonax and Olhydra are dead." The vaguely humanoid shaped pillar of fire that was Imix said, cutting into Pazuzu's roll call of the dead. "The others, be they, demon, elemental, or primordial, are still fighting, having put their hopes in us to beg for your support in our war against the deceiver who claimed to be thr Elder Elemental Eye. Tharizdun has proven himself an enemy to us all."
"I would imagine so," Ainz said leaning back on the Throne of Kings with a frown. "This Voidharrow he commands is a terrible corrupting contagion unlike anything any of us have ever seen. It is indiscriminate in what it infects and warps anything it touches into more of itself. The Astral Sea, the Elemental Chaos, the Far Realms and everything between, as far as my agents can tell it makes no distinction."
"Exactly, Ainz." Pazuzu said with urgency. "That is why we must unite to face this threat. Especially as its contamination spreads every moment Tharizdun and his legions of abominable horrors is allowed to advance through the Abyss and the Elemental Chaos corrupting everything they touch."
"And why approach me first?"
"You know why." Pazuzu said, sounding frustrated. Considering his reputation for deceit it could be a ruse, but yet the circumstances made it just as likely to be genuine. Either way, Ainz noted that it was quite amusing to watch. "Your mere presence forces reality to conform to your will in defiance of the power of other divinities or preset rules. If anyone can challenge the corrupting influence of Tharizdun and his Voidharrow, it will be you."
"I was under the impression your reality warping powers can counteract his influence as well."
"Not passively like you can." Pazuzu countered with a glare. "It takes much from us to resist its corrupting power, leaving us less able to fight."
Ainz nodded. He was wondering why so many powerful beings had fallen so quickly. If their powers were hamstrung however, it made things more understandable.
"And what will you lot offer me in exchange for my assistance?"
"An oath of non-aggression." The Prince of the Lower Aerial Kingdoms said without hesitation. "It is no secret that you long for peace and quiet. If you help us in this war, we will grant it to you. We will swear to leave you and yours alone after we achieve victory."
That Pazuzu spoke without even needing to consult the others told Ainz they'd already discussed this beforehand. Though the unhappiness that radiated off Orcus as the Dark Angel of the Four Winds spoke, hinted at some dissent. Not that the Overlord cared. Pazuzu was offering him exactly what he wanted and even if they backed out of the deal in time, he would appreciate the breather from their open hostility towards him.
"Very well," Ainz said at last before turning to Albedo who had been standing patiently to his right. "Albedo, contact Cocytus and Demiurge, to prepare-"
He was interrupted when the massive doors to the Throne Room opened slightly as Sebas slipped inside.
"My Lord," the Iron Butler said with a bow. "I apologize for the interruption but the gods the Great Mother and Vergadain have just arrived and seek an audience with you."
When it rains, it pours. Ainz thought with a mental sigh.
"I have an idea as to what they want," Ainz declared. "Let them in."
Sebas nodded and opened the doors wider to allow a massive Beholder and a particularly ugly and short but well dressed Dwarf to enter the Throne Room.
"I take it that you two wish to ask for my assistance against Tharizdun and his Voidharrow as well?" Ainz asked, with a pretense of boredom even as the two newly arrived gods looked startled at the presence of so many other divinities already there before them.
"You presume correctly," Vergadain, the Laughing Dwarf, said with a nod.
"And by your presence and that of the Great Mother, then Root Hold must have fallen allowing for the enemy to use its connections to both Dwarfhome and Dismal Caverns."
The Great Mother's many eyes either narrowed in suspicion or shot open in surprise, Vergadain for his part just chuckled. The other divinites for their part falling somewhere in the spectrum in between.
"You lot are lucky then," Ainz said with a grin that did not translate onto his skeletal face. "I was just about to mobilize to combat this threat and would be happy to help you. All I ask is an oath of non-aggression for me and mine in the aftermath of this war. Is that acceptable?"
"You shall have it." The Beholder goddess agreed readily.
"Same." Vergadain nodded. "Save Dwarfhome and I'll do my best to convince the Dwarffather to give you any fair deal you want."
"It is a pleasure doing business with you Merchant King." Ainz said with a pleased chuckle. "Albedo!"
"Yes, Husband?"
"Mobilize our forces. All of them."
"At once, my Lord." His Consort nodded, before she began using Message to relay his command.
Leaving her to it, he turned to the still present divinities.
"Now then, I believe we have a war to plan."
As his Master commanded, Demiurge led an allied army of Demons, Elementals and other servants of the Primordials into battle against the Voidharrow in the corrupted remains of Root Hold.
What a disgusting place it has become. The Devil thought as he beheld the plane from a series of conjured images inside the safety of their command center far to the rear of the frontlines.
The place had become completely twisted. Its endless underground tunnels and halls were still there but were so changed that they were unrecognizable. They were now dominated by bizarre non-Euclidean geometry and everything was covered in a thick black sludge that constantly churned, taking strange shapes that sometimes resembled recognizable life forms but more often than not were some indescribable horror. Sometimes these shapes even managed to tear themselves free from the rest of the sludge and become monsters that promptly joined the ranks of its fellows in fighting the allies.
Of all the many battlefields, Demiurge had chosen this one because of its strategic importance. Root Hold was the path by which the enemy was attacking the Astral Sea. Thus if they could retake it then they would cut off the Voidharrow's advance into it entirely and secure it as a safe haven from which to fight from. Even if it found some other route into the Sea then retaking the plane would at least cut off the Voidharrow forces besieging the Dismal Caverns and Dwarfhome. And that was a victory in itself.
"Things are not going well," Vergadain noted, his usually jovial expression twisted into a frown as he, the Great Mother and Demiurge watched the battle.
"We are hard pressed." Demiurge admitted even as an entire army of Demons broke before the advance of a swarm of insectoid looking Voidharrow abominations. "The enemy's ability to weaken our troops' abilities by their mere distorted, corrupting presence is making things difficult."
"You do not sound alarmed." The Beholder goddess said, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What do you have planned?"
Demiurge smirked and pointed to some rather prominent looking Voidharrow beasts.
"I'm sure you noticed this already." The Devil said with a self-deprecating smirk. "But I've just realized that with the destruction of these enemy leaders causes many of the Voidharrow beasts and even the ambient corruption in their area to simply fade from existence. Only the strongest Voidharrow creatures and the densest masses of corruption seem capable of maintaining their presence in Realmspace of their own accord without them but even they do so only in a weakened capacity."
The Great Mother blinked in confusion. Apparently she hadn't noticed. Vergadain had if the frown and shake of his head was any indication.
"Not sure how it'll help us." The Laughing Dwarf said with a shrug. "Those 'leader' types are very difficult to take down. Plus the enemy is keeping them well protected."
"That is if you fight them fairly." Demiurge said with a smirk and snapped his fingers. "Instead, we should simply fight-"
Suddenly the images the gods were watching displayed hundreds of the enemy leaders die from sniper fire.
"Like this," the devil said with a smug grin. "It seems the enemy did not take sufficient precautions against snipers."
"God of cunning and strategy indeed." The Great Mother praised.
With the enemy lines collapsing with the loss of so many of their leaders and their associated forces with them, the allied armies suddenly began surging ahead.
At this rate the remainder of the campaign in Root Hold will be a breeze. Demiurge thought, especially since the Voidharrow never seemed to learn and continued to leave their leaders open to their snipers. Nevertheless clearing a whole plane of their corruption will take time.
"I wonder how the other fronts are doing?" Demiurge wondered idly as he saw yet another Voidharrow leader, this time a massive chimeric behemoth that seemed to meld the best features of a Dragon, Giant and Mammoth into one abominable creature died and took its horde of similarly monstrous creatures with it.
"Hopefully they're doing as well as us." Vergadain said with a hopeful chuckle.
The Great Mother just nodded her huge head.
Speaking of other fronts, whilst Demiurge continued his cleansing of Root Hold Cocytus stepped onto the charred wasteland of vast ashen plains covered in rubble and the occasional line of foothills and basalt mountains heaped with broken rocks of obsidian and quartz that was Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator. Behind him marched a vast host of the armies of Felmid including legions of Twisted Warforged that were their newest additions.
"Welcome Cocytus," Asmodeus himself greeted him as he stepped out of the Gate that had transported him from Felmid.
"Greetings. Lord. Asmodeus." Cocytus returned politely. "How. Goes. The battle?"
"All business I see," the Supreme Master of the Nine Hells said with a playful smile. "I can appreciate that. Especially considering the circumstances."
"The battle. Goes. Poorly?"
"Not quite." Asmodeus said waving his Ruby Rod and conjuring a tactical display that looked suspiciously similar to those employed by their own forces.
"We have these Voidharrow aberrations contained." The Archfiend said pointing to a large cluster of red markers surrounded by a ring of green ones. "But despite our best efforts we have been unable to root them out of their little foothold."
"Have. You. Identified. Their leaders?" Cocytus asked. "According. To. Information obtained. From. The. Battle of Root Hold. If. We. Kill those. The rest. Will. Be. Easily. Dealt with."
"Is that so?" Asmodeus said as he rubbed a hand against his chin as if in thought. "That sounds convenient."
"Lord Ainz. Thinks. The world. Itself. Rejects. Their unnaturalness." Cocytus relayed his Master's explanation. "They. Thus. Need. Their leaders. To. Act. As anchors. Without. Them-"
"They cannot maintain their presence in our world." The Lord of Nessus said with a nod. "That makes sense."
"Their leaders?" Cocytus pressed.
"Ah, yes." Asmodeus said as he waved his Ruby Rod once more and caused the image to change. "Here they are. The two greatest of them at least."
One of them was a grotesque creature with seven legs that ended with massive taloned feet, each with an eye beneath it and a sword pierced through the knee. It had a large red orb that passed for its body on top of which was perched a triangular shaped head that was dominated by a massive eighth eye.
"We're calling that one Ogdoad."
Cocytus nodded and looked to the other image. This beast was a massive purple scaled Dragon with a golden mask that covered its upper snout, gold tipped claws on its hands and feet, seven pairs of wings and a tail that ended in a fifth three taloned claw. Most striking however was that in its arms, it carried an orb of roiling darkness.
"My people are calling that the Sin Dragon."
"How powerful?"
"Powerful enough that I wouldn't wish to face both of them alone. Especially since just counteracting their ability to distort reality with their sheer presence will take all of our metaphysical power, leaving us limited to only our more mundane abilities."
"They. Will. Be Enough." Cocytus assured. "But. Your Archdevils? They are. Unavailable?"
"Too busy fighting off lesser incursions on their own layers to assist." Asmodeus explained with a shake of his head. "As it stands Zariel was badly wounded taking down one of these aberrations and Tiamat has fled. Only the two of us are available."
"We will. Be. Enough." Cocytus assured the Archfiend.
Cocytus and Asomedus stood waiting on top of a plateau overlooking the main battlefield down on Avernus' blasted plains and watched as the combined efforts of thousands of magic users managed to capture Ogdoad and the Sin Dragon in a forced teleportation and transport the leaders of the Voidharrow swarm invading the Nine Hells.
"Here they come," Asmodeus warned as both beasts vanished in pillars of light, only to reappear a short distance away from where the two gods stood.
"I'll take the Dragon." The Archfiend declared before he leapt up into the air and began unleashing a storm of magic upon the aberrant Dragon and luring it away from the ground. Soon the two descended into a ranged duel, trading magical attacks on a scale that mortals could only dream of.
Meanwhile, Cocytus rushed forward to engage Ogdoad in melee combat. Something the eight eyed behemoth tried to prevent by revealing that it could shoot deadly beams of corruption or disintegration from its eyes that it tried to use to keep the Vermin Lord back. Cocytus easily evaded the attacks however and was soon under the monster and cutting at its legs.
Unfortunately even God Slaying Emperor Blade, the sharpest of his weapons failed to do more than cut shallow wounds on the massive limbs. Wounds that healed almost as quickly as they were opened.
Should I draw something else? Something more powerful? Cocytus thought as he evaded Ogdoad's attempts to crush him with its feet or blast him with his eye beams. No. If even God Slaying Emperor Blade cannot cut this beast, then nothing in my arsenal can do it either. I will have to use my skills, not my weapons to best this monster. That and a change of tactics.
"Acala's Sword." Cocytus said as he swung his blade, unleashing a burst of golden light that dealt massive damage all over the monster, its huge size allowing the area of effect skill to unload its full firepower onto it despite originally being designed for use against multiple targets.
While it was reeling from the wounds, Cocytus leapt into the air and used Sword Blitz to close with the seven eyes on its legs in a blur that resembled a bolt of lightning and cuts them open one by one with God Slaying Emperor Blade. Each cut causing the monster great pain and it to stamp around in furious but futile attempts to crush him with its feet.
Despite this when Cocytus reached the eighth eye, he found that Ogdoad was waiting for him and the moment he went in for the swing he was hit by a powerful energy beam. Thankfully, Asmodeus reacted fast and threw up a complex series of magical barriers that kept him safe and thus Cocytus swung his blade even as the Voidharrow monster's destructive beam tried to wash over him.
The loss of its last eye cut off the beam but Cocytus was taking no chances and leapt off the blinded monster as it stumbled about.
Still not dead? The Vermin Lord thought to himself with a hint of irritation. I'll have to correct that.
Sprinting forward and avoiding the mad flailing of Ogdoad's feet, Cocytus made his way underneath the monster red orb of a central body before leaping up at it and activating his Vajrayakṣa Strike skill. The skill caused God Slaying Emperor Blade to glow a brilliant gold and grant it anti-monster bonuses to its attack power. With these bonuses, Cocytus' formidable skills and power, the odachi easily just pierced through the orb and cut it in two entirely.
Bisected, Ogdoad's body began breaking down into sludge even as it fell to the ground and a quick glance back towards the main battle showed that its death had taken a sizable chunk of the enemy with it.
"Nice timing." Asmodeus shouted suddenly as he slammed the Sin Dragon into the ground just ahead of Cocytus with a pillar of crimson energy straight to the monster's chest, literally shooting through and dispersing the orb of darkness it carried.
"Finish if off for me would you?" the Archfiend asked and Cocytus was only too happy to oblige.
"Vajrayakṣa Strike!" The god of warriors and honor said as he activated the monster slaying skill once more and swung God Slaying Emperor Blade, sending a golden wave right through the Sin Dragon that bisected it from head to the tip of its tail.
"Well that's that." Asmodeus declared as he teleported to stand next to Cocytus and they both watched the Sin Dragon's corpse disintegrate. "With their leaders gone, our forces will handily deal with the remnants of the invaders I think."
Cocytus looked to the main battle once more and saw that the Voidharrow's numbers had shrunk tremendously and the combined armies of Baator and Felmid were using that to their advantage to advance. It seemed the Archfiend was correct.
"For. This battle." Cocytus told him with a click of his mandibles. "There. Are, More. To fight. In. This. War."
"Yes, yes, of course." Asmodeus said in a slimy imitation of an apologetic tone. "You'll have the full support of the Nine Hells in this war. We are allies after all."
"On. Behalf of. Lord Ainz. I. Offer. You. His thanks." Cocytus informed the Prince of Evil with a bow.
Much to the annoyance of the Ruler of the Frozen Glacier all this engendered from the Devil was a self-satisfied grin.
Done!
Argh! I was imagining this chapter would be being longer than it ended up being. Oh well! I'm satisfied with it, so I'm leaving it as is.
Before I go though, here's a visual guide for some of the Voidharrow aberrations:
Ogdoad = Ogudomon from the Digimon franchise
Sin Dragon = Lucemon Shadowlord Mode from the Digimon franchise
Well that's all for now folks. Till next time lamtumirë!
