"For the Kingdom!"
"Long live the King!"
Gazef was in darkness. He felt nothing. He willed himself to open his eyes to look around, and only saw swirling darkness. Voices shouting in the distance as if he were in a dream. Somewhere in the darkness, there was a dim light. It grew bigger, as he started to have sensations starting from his neck. Then his shoulders, torso. His arms and legs. He felt warmth spreading from inside his body, and coolness on his skin. Then he started breathing, after realizing he was not breathing before. He tentatively opened his eyes for real this time and looked around without moving his head.
"Welcome back to the living, sir knight."
A girl about 5'6" stood next to him. She wore a dark green tunic reaching her upper thighs. A crimson belt with yellow patterns tied around her waist. Black pants, brown laced boots. A face with slightly tanned skin. Dark blue eyes. Medium length brown hair tied into a simple ponytail behind her neck. She is dressed too well for a simple village girl.
'A rich merchant's daughter?' Gazef thought. Then he realized he was not wearing any clothes.
He jolted up and bent his leg trying to cover his manhood. A small smile crept up the corners of the girl's mouth. "It seems you are quite limber for a former corpse. That's good. Can you understand me? What is your name, sir knight?"
"I am Gazef Strongoff, head warrior of the Re-Estize Kingdom. I was sent to track down the knights who were attacking villages. Also, I am not a knight. Where are my men?" Gazef looked around as he asked, then saw the pile of burnt corpses.
"So they all fought valiantly. It wasn't a dream."
Gazef lowered his gaze, then turned back to the small girl. "What is your name, my lady? Did you bring me back from the dead?"
"My name is Ariel. I ran into this village as it was attacked, then I found you. Yes, I did resurrect you. I also found a villager and her sister who were running away."
Gazef looked at Ariel more carefully this time. She doesn't seem to be lying. If what she said is true, then she must be an extremely talented magic caster to be able to resurrect people at such a young age. Only one other person he knows of can use resurrection magic, and it drained considerable amount of life force. Gazef felt quite good physically after the initial dizziness. He's still confused about the lack of clothing though.
'Do people's clothes disappear when they are resurrected?'
Another teenaged girl with blonde hair and dirty clothes approached from behind Ariel. She handed Ariel a cloak, and some men's clothes to Gazef.
"I found some laundry on a clothe drying line. They were all dirty from the smoke though. Thank you for lending me your cloak."
Gazef was going to thank the blonde girl, but she was trying hard to not look in his direction. He put the smoked clothes on and got up. "Thank you miss."
"You are welcome, head warrior. My name is Enri, and this is my sister Nemu"
A little red-haired girl approached and held Enri's hand. They all came closer to a small fire Ariel made and sat around it. Ariel sat on the ground like a boy would. Very un-lady like for someone with her appearance.
"So, sir Gazef, did you encounter the knights who attacked my village? Were you able to kill any of them? I'm sorry about your loss, but I must know. My parents sacrificed themselves so we could escape. It would bring me some closure to know that they paid for it."
Gazef lowered his gaze to break eye contact with Enri. "Yes, we did engage the knights who attacked this village. They were sent by the Slane Theocracy dressed up as Baharuth knights."
"And…What happened then?" Enri asked after Gazef stayed silent for a few seconds.
"It was a trap. I'm sorry. If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened."
"What do you mean?" Enri was confused.
Gazef remembered the last moments of his previous life, as he explained his findings to the others around the fire…
Just before the knights reached Gazef's striking range, they parted in the middle to make way for a bunch of angels flying low to the ground. Gazef and his men barely saw them coming in the low light. He swung his sword desperately to stop the first angel. His regular steel sword cannot parry the energy blades of the angels. As his sword was stuck trying to cut through the first angel, two more came from behind it and stabbed Gazef in the belly, bringing him to his knees. Gazef saw red at that moment. He could hear the screams of his men, as they were overwhelmed by the angels. Gazef used his last remaining stamina to push himself up and activated a martial art, spinning his blade in a circle destroying the nearby angels, but also ripping the energy blades through his guts, spilling a ring of blood on the ground. He collapsed onto the ground. More angels descended on him. He rolled onto his back and activated Six Slash of Light, before being shot by magic arrows. There were magic casters riding behind the knights, firing at him from either side. Gazef's body-strengthening martial arts wore out. He blacked out from all the strain his body had to endure. He didn't know if his life was ended by the angels or magic.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to avenge your parents. I fought with all that I had, dragging all my men to death with me, but I was not able to wound even one of the knights."
Gazef bowed his head low. Ariel could sense him crying on the inside, but there were no tears. She felt no emotion coming from Enri.
"I…see…" Enri replied with a blank expression.
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With the Emmot sisters finally asleep next to the fire, and Gazef sitting nearby on guard duty, Ariel went behind some buildings "for some female business", whatever that means. She didn't even know if that would be a thing, being inside a girl's body for less than a day. She knows being a heteromorph means she doesn't have to deal with that messy business every month, being immortal and all. She looked around, sensing no sentient life nearby, and cast some anti-detection spells. She summoned a man-sized floating mirror. It was a standard character-creation tool every Player had, so they can look at themselves. She unequipped all her gear and looked at herself in the mirror. This would be the first time she looked at a naked girl in real life. She created this appearance not to be a great beauty lusted after by powerful men, but someone approachable by the common person. It's a good body, she mused. With lean muscles in all the right places, and just enough body fat to round off the edges. This appearance is that of a human girl barely into the ripe age of womanhood. It had toned legs, straight shoulders, a slender neck, and slim waist. Small perky breasts that defied gravity. She turned around. Even her back had lean muscles. Not just skin and bones. She agreed that she looked like a teenage boy's or a pervert's wet dream in the old world.
The old world...
It was the place where she learned about the universe of Overlord. She died there on a hospital bed as a man. He had trouble breathing the entire time, assisted by a machine connected to his windpipe.
'Dammit, why did I have to get Covid now? It was almost my turn to get the vaccine. Doesn't the government care about young people? They are the pillars of society!'
As his lungs filled with fluid after days of agony, he wished he lived a different life. A life that is worth living, without poverty, or shitty luck. He is not religious, but if there is a higher being, then he would pray with all his might. That night he had a dream. Someone asked if he would like to live a life exactly the way he wanted. With no restrictions of reality or logic.
"Yes, I would like to live that life. You know what I'm talking about, if you can really grant me that wish, don't you?"
"YES, I DO. BUT FIRST, YOU NEED TO DECIDE ON THE MINUTE DETAILS. I CANNOT BE BOTHERED TO READ ALL OF YOUR THOUGHTS OR PREDICT WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU HAPPY. YOU NEED TO FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF."
The fortunate man's conscience was whisked away into the digital world of Yggdrasil. There, he was given a crash course on what it means to be a Player. He could only feel what the game would allow one to feel. He had no flesh body or needed one.
"WHY DO YOU CHOOSE YOUR AVATAR TO BE A FEMALE? YOU KNOW YOU COULD HAVE THE PERFECT MALE BODY AFTER YOUR TRANSFER, AND HAVE A HAREM EVERY STRAIGHT MAN DREAMS OF?"
"I'm done with that life. Being a man sucks. I'm tired of being expected to act a certain way because of my gender. I want to experience the joys and positive affections the girls in my world receive but don't deserve. Yes, I realize it could be a 'grass being greener on the other side' thing. But I can transform my appearance if things get too bad."
"YOU DO KNOW THAT THE WORLD YOU ARE GOING TO DOES NOT VIEW WOMEN HIGHLY, DON'T YOU?"
"Not if I'm powerful."
It did not take long to finalize the character build. She didn't want to waste time in a virtual world. She was not a hardcore gamer anyway. The Being agreed that there would be no other Players in the New World, and no nasty surprises like some eldritch god popping into that reality.
"SO THAT'S IT THEN? YOU WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE FOR A DO-OVER. IF YOU DIE AGAIN, REINCARNATION IS NOT GUARENTEED. I'M ONLY DOING THIS FOR MY OWN AMUSEMENT."
"Yes, I am sure. Thank you, whoever you are. And thanks for the World Items."
AN:
Some people didn't get the hint in the beginning that the main character is not from the world of Yggdrasil but from the "real" world. I thought it was pretty clear when the protagonist was not all like "OMG I can feel everything! Is this a new game update?" Well here it is, the full explanation. Call it self-insert if you want. I'm only using this site to document my day dreams.
There seem to be a lack of new fanfics with innovative plots that are enjoyable for me in a while. I don't want to read another background story of a Player because I already know how bad the fictional future is. Nor another battle with the Sunlight Scripture to show how powerful you are, even using the same spells, or any re-telling of the canon with a different character. There is so much depth a fantasy medieval society one can explore. I don't claim to be a history buff but a lot of the side characters in Overlord are wasted opportunities and used like tokens.