Hey there! First, thanks for giving this fic a try, hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining. I recently got into Overlord series, and liked it more than I though I would. A LOT more. I've been going through a number of fanfictions based on it, and decided to try and write one of my own. Most of this story's events, locations and characters will be my own creations. This will be mainly a war and nation building story.
This story's MC and companions were "picked up" from YGGDRASIL like Momonga and company were. However, there are many changes in this story. Here's a list of the major ones.
-No Nazarick and Momonga.
-The New World is enlarged and reshapped. Most of the nations and factions from the original will be there, but their placement relative to each other will be different. The layout of the world will be explained further down the road when relevant (future big geographical info dump ahoy!)
-At the start of this story, the nations from Maruyama's own New World are set back 16 years from how they were in Overlord, meaning Renner has just been born, and Jircniv is only 6, for example.
-Most of the first part of the story will be taking place within original states and nations.
-The world the Players comes from isn't quite as crap-sack as in the original. It's bad and dystopian, but not post-appocalyptic bad.
-This MC and his guild mates moslty came from the english speaking world, meaning the game wasn't Japanese exclusive in this story (It is sorta implied it is to me in Maruyama's work, if it isn't stated outright as Japanese exclusive as far as I know.)
Here are some things you can expect to stay the same:
-Slane Theocracy are up to no good.
-The power levels of the world are low compared to the Players.
-Non-Humans tend to be treated like garbage by humans.
Now, with that out of the way, please enjoy:
Overlord: Records of the Black King's Wars
Chapter 1 : An end...
"So, YGGDRASIL is finally coming to an end..." Ahriman Anastasias, real world name Charles MacDonald, said, to no one in particular, as he looked at the stary night sky.
His character model was human looking. He was very tall, with broad shoulders. He had vivid red eyes, a short trimmed full beard, and long jet black hair tied into a tight ponytail behind his head. Over this, he wore a burgundy-colored bandanna with gold trims and designs, with the end ties hanging to the middle of his back and trailing behind him. He wore a black knee lenght double breastcoat, a wide, plain burgundy sash tied around his waist, dark grey loose pants and black leather boots. His outfit was completed with a black military style greatcoat that hung from his shoulders like a cape.
"Sadly it is." Someone said behind him.
He turned around and looked at the speaker. It was his long time "partner in crime" in runing their guild, Simeon "sign-me-on" Iskandar, walking towards him to stand next to him on the great balcony of their Guild's Stronghold. While Ahriman was an Ancient Arcane Blademaster, Simeon was a Shadow Arch Sorcerer. He looked like a human in his mid twenties, he was tall, but a good bit shorter than Charles' character, with a slim build. He had a mess of dark brown hair, and sleepy, shifty eyes with purple irises. People often comented his character looked more fiting for a rogue class than a spellcaster. He wore beige pants, brown leather boots, while shirt, a brown vest and over all this a hooded purple wizard's cape with gold trim that gave him just a hint of a regal air.
"Sadly indeed." Charles said with a small chuckle, "I still can't believe you managed to get the whole gang back like you promissed."
Charles looked back into the hall, where their 143 guild members where gathered and spread across the large room here and there.
Simeon sent a shrugging e-mote, "Heh, I had help of course. Some of the others had mentioned it when the rumors of the servers shutting down started circulating on the net. In the end, everyone logged in of their own free will."
"That they did." Charles said.
He turned around, and once more looked at the stary sky, and started reminiscing.
In it's heyday, Arkaydia had been one of YGGDRASIL's most infamous guild. They where well known as a bunch of devil-may-care madlads-and-lasses that wanted mainly to have fun, often at the expense of other players. Like the one time their rogues got together and decided to steal another guild's prized World Item on a whim, just to see it they could. They actually pulled it off, leaving a nicely written note about the many benefits of enhanced base security in the item's place. They went on to hand the item off to a newbie player with a smile and pat on the back.
When they where not doing rage-quit inducing shennanigans, they did the stuff the dev intended for them to do when making the game: Fighting monsters, collecting ressources, crafting items, etc... Overall, they were pretty good at that too.
The tendency of many of their members to try a lot of weird stuff also led them to be the first to dicover many hidden items, rare monsters and secret bosses first. With the last two, it was usually up to Ahriman and Simeon to come in like big damn heroes, flying by the seat of their pants, and try to save their friends from whatever eldrich abomination they had woken up this week! Somehow they had managed to be mostly successfull in that reguard.
And so, Guild Arkaydia was infamous for a long time, and had become so without really wanting to or caring to be. There even were rumors that the guys of Ainz Ooal Gown had built Nazarick with them in mind. However, if they had purpose built their big-ass tomb as a challenge to Arkaydia, that showdown was never to happen, as by the time Nazarick was completed, the game was already starting to lose steam and it's playerbase was dwindling. Arkaydia was no different, its member losing interest and loging-in less often and for less time as the years went by. In the last couple years, the fort was mainly held by Ahriman, with Simeon in close second, and a few of their dedicated core members.
"All things come to a end." Charles thought. "Even really good ones." He had actually been kind of depressed for the last few weeks following the shut down announcement.
Then, in came Simeon a couple of days ago, asking if he felt like having a reunion. Charles had been skeptical when he said he could get everyone back, but apparently, he had been working on it for a while. So this morning, long inactive members started loging-in, a few at first, but as the day went by, more and more came in, so that by evening, they where all there!
First Simeon had them line up from a group picture which he sent a copy of to everyone. Then they pooled their gatcha tokens and pulled until they ran out. They mostly got trash items and varying amounts of game currency, with a couple of decent ones, with some weird ones like a Cursed Back Scratcher and some Kraken Special Sushi. The one good thing they got was a World Tree Fruit. Charles just put the lot of it in Gary, his walking Crate Of Holding.
Then they had a dress up contest, with people trading equipment, making new stuff on the go or pulling it from the guild stash. Charles ended up with a Guy Fawkes mask, a smoking jacket and a bubling pipe, and Simeon got himself a mariachi outfit, complete with giant black moustache, castagnet earings that clacked non-stop and bright pink 40 inch sombrero. There wasn't really any winner, as most people were too busy laughing and/or screen-shoting to bother voting.
They had just finished watching a one hour vidoe compilation of their "greatest hits", put up on the back wall with the help of definitely non-fantasy looking projector you could buy as a vanity item in the cash shop.
He checked his time at the corner of his vision. It showed 23:45. It was almost time for the grand finale.
As if on cue, Simeon clapped is hands as he walked back into the hall, "Alright everyone, time for the fire works!" He announced.
Charles turned towards Celestiana.
She was the Guild's chief assistant NPC, tasked mainly with healing, teleportation and resurection. Her job title was Maiden of Divine Twilight. She looked like a young woman with alabaster skin and silky, jet black hair. It reached down to her calves in the back, and was cut into a sort of "hime" hairstyle in the front, with the fringe cut just above her nose, leaving her eyes hidden. She wore a full body black robe with a high collar. She didn't look like much despite being the in-game equivalent of a walking WMD, which had been intentional. She had been created from the core of an utra rare, utra dangerous side boss, a Primordial Dark Phoenix Queen, which Charles had his character form a binding contract with after they'd defeated her.
They'd also made a dozen other, smaller (but not all that weaker) NPCs from both their combined "blood". They where essentially mini-mes to Celestiana, with the main difference being their hair and skin collor. If Celestiana was bound to Charles character, the "Little Sisters" were bound to the other core members of the guild, like Simeon.
Celestiana was curently standing close to the Guild Master's Big and Important looking chair. It matched the one that sat behind his Big and Important looking desk in his office upstairs.
"Please teleport all guild members and NPCs in front of the fort, Celestiana." Charles asked Celestiana.
"It will be done, Lord Ahriman." she responded in her quiet voice. A golden staf crowned with a jeweled bird's head materialised in her raised it over her head with one arm.
"Greater Teleport." She said.
Magic Circles appeared under the feet of all the guild member, and they were soon engulfed by blue light. They all found themselves outside the main gate. Simeon had already set up the fireworks while people had been trickling in.
As he was scripted to do outside the Guild's Stronghold, Gary moved to be close to Charles, who ended up in the back of the pack. The guild master looked at his walking, lion shapped Crate of Holding, then smiled. He had him take out his spare Big and Important Chair, and had it spawn on top of its lid, then he jumped into it.
"How come he's the only one who gets a raised seat?" someone asked.
"Guild Master, that's why." Charles said as he had his character take out his pipe and light it. "Everyone in place?" he asked. He got no negative response.
23:55:02
"Fire it up, Simeon!"
Simeon activated the fireworks. It started with a few small ones, but it slowly progressed to larger one in greater numbers. As they watched the display, people started humming, and of course, this morphed into outright signing. Specifically of the refrain of "Nananana, Hey hey hey, goodbye!"
As the fireworks died out, and the clock got closer to midnight, the others started to turn towards Charles.
"Might as well say something." He thought.
"Well, it's been fun folks!" He said, "Best luck to all of us, and see you around!"
23:59:55 – 56 – 57 – 58 – 59...
The VR screen went black. Charles moved to shut down his gaming rig, but then...
00:00:00 – 01 – 02 – 03...
Charles blacked out...
Soon after, across the wide gulfs of time and space...
An middle aged nun in a grey robe entered a large, well furnished and decorated bedroom. Standing before one of the large windows, opposite from the doors, was a young woman with her back turned towars the nun, with long, thick straight silver hair that reached bellow her knees. She was wearing a long, frilly white nightgown.
"Your Holyness, your breakfast is ready." The nun said in a quiet, respectful tone.
The young woman noded, but didn't speak or turn towards the older woman. She instead reached towards the window's handles, and opened the glassed panes, letting in a gust of wind. The girl seemed to be looking at a point on the distant horizon.
Suddenly, far away in the still dark pre-dawn sky, something like a bright red shooting star with a long tail raced down from the heaven. It soon disappeared bellow the distant horizon.
"Towards Escadia, maybe?" The nun wondered silently.
"Finally," The girl spoke in her own quiet voice, "After so long, he's finally here!"
The nun was surprised by what, for the girl she served, was a rare outburst of emotions, tame as it was.
"Your Holyness, did something good happen?"
"Yes, something very good!" The girl said, still without turning around.
The nun did not know it, but she had witnesses the arival of the one who would, in time, change her and hundred of millions of other's world.
For now, that arrival set a few small gears in motion...
There it is readers! Feel free to let me know what you think so far, and if you have questions and/or suggestions, don't hesitate to send them my way!
See you next chapter!