Lord Momonga sat upon his throne. His loyal guardians and the entirety of the battle maids had assembled before him. The only movement he gave was in his eyes, slowly panning over his audience.

"I have reason to believe that, in every sense of the word, we are not alone in the new world." Declared Lord Momonga, giving pause for dramatic effect. A small stir began among the guardians, as they were unsure of the implications of this.

'Are we not the only isekai'd people?' Citrinitas asked herself. 'If there are others out there, would they have a way to know we're here already?' She grew worried, for only the faintest ideas of what lay beyond Nazarick's walls danced in her mind. 'In my past life, Luther was a fan of horror, especially cheesy horror. But if his experiences with high-fantasy are anything to go by, what kind of power munchkins are we up against?' The confines of Nazarick were already growing more comfortable to her, even if they had bitchy older sisters and horny vampires.

Shalltear grumbled at the news. 'Can't people just leave us alone?! I just want to enjoy my harem of two in peace.' She knew her job was to be the first line of defense, to fend off any who would harm Nazarick. While Peroroncino was a power gamer, and he certainly made her strong, he had help. The world would constantly rip Shalltear apart, and he would put her back together, hardier, faster, stronger, more optimized. She was Nazaricks first and most well tested line of defense.

Cocytus was excited by the idea of more in this new world. 'I know there were threats back in Yggdrasil. Could this world hold powerful foes too? My heart beats with the idea of crossing blades in Lord Momonga's name.' Fantasies ran through his head, warming his sub-zero heart. He longed to fight, it was what he was born for. While he held nothing but respect for Shalltear, he envied how she got to fight alongside the supreme ones, how she was blessed with battles.

'Hmm, of course Lord Momonga would be ahead of me on this.' Demiurge was filled with pride at the thought. 'Sasuga Momonga-sama. That must have been part of the reason he went to that human village, to gather information from the locals. Information is something that we dearly lack, to see him take such matters into his own hands shows how capable he is to rule us, to rule this world.'

"Hey sis," Mare whispered. "Do you think we're going to be alright?" In times like these, his sister was his world. He was scared, and he wasn't afraid to show it. Except for Lord Momonga of course, he was glad he was somewhat tucked away behind Cocytus.

"Of course." Lied Aura with a bright smile. In truth, she had no idea what lay in store for them. She had heard what happened to Albedo, and frankly, the tales of enemy players scared her. While she had never seen one, she knew the stories. They were toxic and vile creatures who served no purpose in life beyond terrorizing Yggdrasil. Long oily hair would frame starven husks. Basement dwellers, that's what the supreme ones had referred to them as. Their tactics were aggressive and clever, keeping all of Ainz Ooal Gown on their toes. To know they may be in the world, and only Lord Momonga remained, her world felt awfully small.

Mixed opinions were had amongst all. The murmuring died down as Lord Momonga stared from his throne.

Continuing his monolog, "As you may already know, this new world holds threats we didn't anticipate. If the local legends are anything to go by, then we aren't the first to arrive here, and we won't be the last. Their tales speak of mighty heroes, powerful sorcery, unimaginable technology, and untold riches. However, even with these wonders, the faults of men are inescapable. War, destruction, and corruption are as prevalent here as the home we supreme ones fled when we came to Yggdrasil. So it only seems fitting then." He rose from his gilded throne, arms stretched wide in a theatrical display of his authority.

"We shall save the new world from itself! We shall rule the world, for a better future!" He shouted, his emotional inhibitor flaring up. Applause erupted from the room.

Citrinitas found herself clapping alongside everyone else. 'Wait a minute, this is insane! We're not seriously taking over the world!?' Her bright yellow eyes betrayed nothing of what she felt within. She was… unsure. Hesitant to go forth with the idea, yet unwilling to turn away from it. 'If the supreme ones' real lives were anything to go by, then, maybe humanity isn't fit to govern itself.'

Cocytus was excited. His dream was going to come true, he would make Warrior Takemikazuchi proud. This world had heroes and conflict, and he wanted to be a part of it all. 'I can see it now! A hero in shining armor standing across from me. Our weapons are drawn and ready. As the first snow falls we declare our names. Our swords clash. Excitement would course through us both. Our honor. Our Lives. It's all on the line. My creator would smile down upon me. He would know that he made a proper warrior.'

'There's no way.' Demiurge was awestruck, stunned by what he was hearing. 'It'd hadn't even been a day since he mentioned world domination and he's already setting such a fast pace. Was his venture to the human town really just a small stepping stone on his path to world domination! How deep do his plans go?'

Lord Momonga lowered his arms, the applause dying into silence. "First order of business, seeing as we have opposition in the new world." He reached up a long bone finger, pointing at the tapestries. Each one burst into blue flame, all leaving behind a new insignia, the guild insignia. "I'm taking on a new identity, to throw off those who would know our weaknesses. I wish to be addressed as Ainz Ooal Gown. Ainz will do for short. Secondly, we must know the world we wish to win over. Sebas."

"Yes my lord." He saluted over his chest, ready for his first real orders.

"I want you to infiltrate the high society. We must know how this world functions, and what makes it tick. Take anything you deem necessary to pass off as nobility."

"It shall be done."

"Next, Pleiades step forth."

The 6 battle maids of Nazarick came to the forefront. Their heads were bowed as they awaited their Lord's commands.

"What shall you have us do?" Yuri Alpha spoke.

"Amongst you, who can pass off as human in long term exposure? Those who can't, step back."

Yuri and Entoma stepped back, leaving CZ, Solution, Lupusregina, and Nabe. Yuri had a detached head that only balanced inside a necklace and Entoma was an insect so that disqualified both of them.

"Now, any of you who can tolerate humans?"

This left Lupusregina and CZ. Nabe hated humans, seeing them as inferior creatures meant only to serve if they were lucky. On the other hand, it could be said that Solution loves humans, they tasted delicious and screamed a lot as they died.

CZ and Lupusregina were the only two candidates for the mission in question. CZ held no hatred for humans, and if she did, she could contain it and carry out the mission. While she was a machine, her skin felt relatively normal and she did give off body heat, so she could pass off as long as no one inspected her too closely, but the same could be said for Lupusregina, who had certain wolf qualities. Lupusregina liked humans, while she had a sadistic side she could at least pass off as a human.

"Cz Delta and Lupusregina Beta, I want you both to infiltrate the lower ranks of society. Become adventurers, or anything of the sort. While Sebas learns the world from the top down, I want you two going from the bottom up."

Lupusregina almost jumped in joy. "We'll make you proud. Come on CZ, we're going on an adventure!" She grabbed the android's hand, dashing out of the throne room. The other pleiades weren't happy about this. It wasn't fair that Lupusregina is going to spend all that time with CZ.

"Albedo, make sure CZ contacts you with updates and emergencies, alright." He was a bit caught off guard by Lupusregina's easily excited behavior.

"I'll see to it."

"As for all of you. I hope you all will remain loyal, and carry out your duties to the best of your abilities."

Albedo took to the front of the group as everyone kneeled. "We hear your desires, and promise to you our undying loyalty, Lord Ainz."

Silence ticked on in the throne room. Lord Ainz stood up, grabbed his staff, and said, "If any of you need me, I'll be in my sanctum." Before teleporting away. Everyone stood up and conversations broke out.

"Demiurge! Can you believe that I may get to fight!"

"Wow sis, Lord Ainz seems so determined."

Citrinitas stood silent, watching Shalltear quietly slip away from the crowd. Even with the nonsense of Nazarick, and the harem race, and Schrodinger's marriage, Shalltear was still the closest friend she had made here, and seeing her distressed, well it was only natural for a friend to help out.

Before she could go after her, Sebas stepped in the way. "Pardon me, Lady Citrinitas." As she was about to step around him, he continued talking, socially cutting off her escape "I wanted to ask if I could take two of your assistants with me. While you may be the head alchemist, I doubt I could take you from your work."

She stuttered as she watched Shalltear disappear into the hall and out of sight. "Ah-absolutely. Lord Ainz, had authorized you to take anything you deem necessary. I'm sure they'll be a big help, now if you excuse me."

Citrinitas took off out of the throne room, not jogging so much as walking as fast as she could go. She was determined to find Shalltear, seeing the normally confident and vibrant Shalltear nervous enough to leave a room, something was up.

In his sanctum, Lord Ainz rested back in his chair, his eyes glazing over as he stared at the ceiling. 'What am I thinking? I'm an office drone from Japan trying to rule a world I don't even know. I don't even know how to rule Nazarick, let alone a planet. I can learn though, I've got plenty of time. World's aren't conquered in a day. Did I come across as confident to them? I felt I talked too fast, maybe next time I will force myself to speak slower.

Taking over this world would be a favor. I remember what humanity did to my home world, I'm not going to let that happen here too. No one shall grow up unable to know the sky, I don't care about the cost. This world is too beautiful to pass up.

Lupusregina and CZ should do fine amongst the humans. They'll keep each other in check… hopefully. I know CZ can report to Albedo, which should handle whatever trouble they get into.

As for Sebas. I have full confidence that he can navigate nobility. I need to know, how badly does this world need me? Are the humans here capable of showing restraint? Sebas, I wish you luck.

Albedo, to have seen her so hurt, so vulnerable, this world frightens me. To summon a raid boss from a consumable item, I know of only a few players who were capable of that and all of them scare me. Overscore and Delfstan. They were exploiters who pushed the games engine to its limit, the only reason they weren't banned was because Overscore could pay up and Delfstan always posted his exploits for the devs to see, so he was deemed too important to ban. They never really met, which was beneficial for the server, however here in the new world, things may be different. Without a game engine to break, I doubt they'd have much power beyond what they've amassed over the years, although I could be horribly wrong.

On a related note, the Holy Chariot summon was treated as a big deal, suggesting that these items have been around long enough to gain a reputation. Could our isekai jump also be non-linear through time? If it is true, then Sebas will find it in time. Such things tend to be in history books after all. As for if we could detect world jumps, I'm going to have to ask Citrinitas, see if she can figure out more on that.

Disregarding Nazarick being a dungeon, could dungeons exist in the new world? We need more loot and seeing as this world has new content, there should be good stuff we don't have, right? Even with everything we have, I still feel vulnerable. Considering some of our gear doesn't work, we could be in trouble. Tier defenses were added to Yggdrasil 3 years ago to counter the spam meta, where players would [gate] in huge armies of low level creatures. There wasn't really any way to stop them unless you had insane AOE effects or could replenish your resources through fighting, even then, many players would just submit to the swarm. For the pay off of beating a swarmlord, it was never worth the time.' Ainz slipped off into reminiscing over time spent with his colleagues. Daydreaming about the pseudo family he grew to love, and came to lose.

Shalltear had wandered off, she had to blow off steam. The stress was killing her. She had stomped her way to a quiet passage, the maids wouldn't be coming around to clean it for another cycle, and the wandering monsters would never be this close to the throne room. Not with the security level so low.

Citrinitas found her there, sitting on a mini bench in the hallway, across from a painting of a coin moon. She sat there, arms crossed, glaring down at her skirt. Even if Citrinitas couldn't see it, she could hear the rapid tapping of a shoe. Moving in quietly, she sat down next to Shalltear, trying to be casual by leaning back against the wall and inspecting the painting.

'She'll speak first when she's ready.' Citrinitas sat, staring at the odd painting. It depicted the moon on a game token. The classic goldish color and massive rims, a nostalgic sight. The coin rested on an arcade counter, the glass blurring the cheap sweets underneath and the camera focus obscuring the toy shelves behind the counter. The lighting was very red, with shades of neon blue being reflected on the glass and coin.

"I-I'm nervous. THERE I said it!" Shalltear blurted out, her tapping stopped. Silence hung between them. Citrinitas wanted Shalltear to keep going, and Shalltear wanted Citrinitas to pick up the conversation. Only one of them was experienced in this regard, and Shalltear broke first. "He was always there for me. Lord Peroroncino made me who I am… Well, we were all hand crafted of course, but Lord Peroroncino, he made me strong. He was what the other supreme ones would call a power gamer, which must have been some kind of genius because he had a tough task making me. It was my job to defend the front gates, and I always failed eventually."

"We're all still here, yes? I don't think you failed." Citrintas replied calmly. She could see Shalltear was in distress. Lord Ainz had just put a lot of pressure on everyone, it was only natural that any faults would begin to show. Citrinitas herself knew some of what Shalltear was going through, she had a lifetime under her belt after all.

"We're still here because the supreme ones would always save the day. Every time I failed, Lord Peroroncino would go back to the drawing board. Improve on where I went wrong. Next time I would do better, but one slip up, and it'd be over and it would be back to the drawing board… There's a reason why I'm the strongest guardian, Citrintas, it's because he never stopped tinkering. Every time the Shi-Tee Devs did something, he would work on me. Every time the basement dwellers beat me, he would work on me. I began to excel at my purpose, soon no one was a threat, I had beaten so many of them that they deemed me 'OP'. After that, he… he never came back." Shalltear's mood had switched from self blaming to longing.

"I had very much the opposite experience with Lord Tabula." Citrinitas wrung her hands. She was risking a lot, and she knew it. 'One slip up, that's all it would take for them to know I'm human. Why am I taking this risk!?'

"How so? You were always favored by them, you were their vending machine?" Shalltear said, perking up. 'I never knew. Of course the guardian they held in highest esteem would fall the furthest without them.'

Citrnitas's eye twitched at the nickname, but she held her tongue and carried on. "Once he finished me, I was shown off to the supreme ones, then I was ordered to stay in my workshop, constantly busy, or waiting for something to happen. They never paid me any mind. The only time I would leave that shop was when events rolled around, when they would break out the fancy clothes and decorations."

"I still remember the last Christmas everyone was there. 2 years ago, was it? I was in a big white dress with a fluffy red cape."

"And I was in an elf costume. God those bells were loud. Anyways, once I was finished, I was left in that shop. I counted the hours they were away, how long it was since I last heard their voices. It was almost a year since I last heard them, at least, last heard them happy." The normally happy tones of the guild had given away in those waning years. They knew the game was dying and for many of them, the real world came crashing in.

"Sometimes, I'm left to wonder, did Lord Peroroncino give up on me?"

Citrinitas didn't know how to respond to that. 'How do I tell her that Lord Peroroncino moved on to other games? He dropped Yggdrasil in favor of something new.' She took a deep breath, before telling the truth. "Lord Peroroncino moved on from Yggdrasil. I doubt he ever gave up on you, he just had a lot to do. He isn't the kind of guy to drop something and bail after all."

Shalltear plopped her head on Citrinitas's shoulder, a slight smile creeping onto her face. "Heh, yeah. I don't think Lord Peroroncino would drop anything. He sunk too much time into me, I doubt he'd give up optimizing me so easily. Thanks Citrus."

Citrinitas didn't dare remove the vampire from her arm. Shalltear needed the comfort. She looked down at the vampire, letting her weight rest on her arm. 'I don't even know if we're married but yet, I guess I could get used to this.'

AN: Let's go! Lord Ainz is fully on board with world domination. Citrinitas is getting dragged along for the ride. Sorry this chapter was short, it was dedicated to a specific purpose; setting the course of the story. Things are going to get wild going from here, and I wanted this chapter to serve as a gate.

After a long thoughtful sit, I've decided; I'm going to chart my own path, make my own new world. All for the purpose of setting up obstacles to be knocked down in true Overlord fashion.

With the Shalltear scene, I'm not a fan of melancholy moods. I find them often overused and misused, however I saw the chance to employ one here. Last chapter we got to see Shalltear's more playful side, and I saw it fitting to show her weaker side. I promise, melancholy will not dominate this story.

Review replies. (Should I keep doing these? They're pretty bulky. There's starting to be a lot of you. Maybe I'll compress them down to common themes?)

BlueCore & yann0406 & The Searing Simp (wow, what a name); Thanks for the support! Even the little comments about liking my story keep me going.

Mrknights; His name indeed was Nigun. I couldn't find that dude's name anywhere. As for whether Citrinitas will go outside of Nazarick, I cannot answer as that would be spoilers.

Agonizing Turtle; I hope this chapter answers your question.

Anapgod1; I like the role that Citrinitas fills. She's part hospital, part RnD, she's a support through and through.

Xavex; Oh yeah, Shalltear is still horny (toned down the disturbed fetishes a bit though). Also what are you, Some kind of fortune teller?

CritKhagan; I had to reply to you in a PM because man was that a mouthful. I tip my hat, one author to another.

Ninez Own Goal; Nigun Grid Luin, thanks for the full name. Also, I'm collecting supreme one replies like autographs, let's go!

Andoro X4; You've replied to previous chapters, fairly consistently I may add. Your waiting is over, Friday has come. I put a lot of effort into the story, the wiki is deep and convoluted. At some point I tossed aside the wiki and flexed my might as an improv writer, always in the aim to serve up chapters hot and fresh.

Yonyon586; Wow, what a wall of replies. Thanks man. I'm glad I caught you off guard with my story, I seek to satisfy. I love how your string of replies shows your thought process throughout, which was pretty much what I was aiming for with each chapter. Neat.