Cover Art belongs too: Lutherniel at Deviantart.
If Luthernial complains about the cover art, I will remove it and do so willingly, so death threats and sue will be unnecessary.
Any and all references that hint towards a game, anime, manga, book, movie or tv series belongs to it's original owners.
Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord, or any other copyrighted content.
Good day and enjoy this story.
The trek to E-Rantel for Aratus was long and uneventful when he went through the bandit-taken village, Aratus, however, did enjoy the walk. After he had striped his armor off, the 'Durium's Knight' set[1], the journey was peaceful and quiet, as nobody, oddly enough, was on the road for the time he had been walking along the water soaked ground.
Aratus peered ahead of himself and through the treeline hoping to see some kind of sign that he was close to E-Rantel, only for a small prickling feeling to well up in him, Aratus's instincts shouted at him to move.
And he listened to them, forcing himself too roll forward and into the muddy road. His rolling action caused mud to stain his clothes, his hair and face, the dark, wet soil of the road looked out of place on his deathly pale skin and silverish, gray hair.
Fallowing his instincts and diving into the mud was a good decision, as a crossbow bolt firmly planted it's self in the mud where, from a higher angle, his head would have been, not wasting time as the ranged opponent was most likely reloading their crossbow. Aratus ripped his sword from it's black leather prison on his back while still being crouch low to the ground in a position where he could either; Roll again, or sprint.
As Aratus waited in bated breath for another crossbow bolt, or some kind of ambush. After being crouched down for a few minutes with nothing happening, Aratus stood up cautiously as his eyes scanned the brush around his surrounding area.
Aratus closed his eyes and focused his senses- he could just use magic, but where's the fun in that? Two of Aratus's six senses sharpened, everything was clearer- more focused, Aratus could smell the fresh grass scent, the fresh air was filled with the purifying sent of fresh rain. A pungent scent of a rotting corpse assaulted Aratus's nose, the foal stench of the rotting flesh, the burst guts and decaying skin almost made him herl, rapidly slapping his left hand over his mouth to resist the urge to vomit.
Aratus's gag reflex stopped as soon as his heighten hearing picked up the sound of rope being strained. Almost like a- Aratus's eyes snapped open at the sound, "Move!" Aratus shouted through his mind, the sudden command from his conscience made his muscle spur into action, launching himself from his position and, once again in the span of four minutes, into the muddy road, further splashing his already muddy and wet person with more mud.
Aratus heard the sound of a crossbow bolt hit the soaked soil once again, "I've had this. They will burn along with the forest." Aratus thought, standing up from his prone position in the mud, Aratus leered in the direction he heard the crossbow string being pulled, brow furrowed and eyes like that of a hungry wolf eyeing a lone hare in the snow.
Aratus was blinded for a moment possibly the crossbow bolts or their weapons reflecting the the clouded sun light shining through the three leaves, "I shouldn't need anything too powerful, but I don't want them to live." Aratus thought as he leered at his attacker through the tree line. Aratus focused his hearing and could her them, "Hey, I think he's spotted us." One of them spoke. A man from the sound of it, quite young too- but at any rate, Aratus was right, it's a pair of bandits looking to get lucky.
"No way man, that's fucking impossible from where he his and where we are!" The second voice was young, very young and feminine, Aratus was done playing games.
"Flamewing[2]." As Aratus spoke the name of the 6th tier spell, a massive, burning wing appeared behind him on the right side of his back, behind his right arm. Aratus swung his right arm back with his sword in hand, the wing fallowed his action, rearing it's self back. Aratus swung his right arm forward, swinging his sword to his left shoulder. The Flamewing did as he did and slowly swung it's self forward setting the fresh grass ablaze.
Soon enough Aratus could hear screaming, the two bandits were burning alive, "Good." Aratus thought, the 6th tier spell disappeared soon after Aratus had used it. Aratus watched the forest as it burned, all while listening to the agonizing screams of pain coming from the two bandits. Aratus almost felt bad... Almost.
Soon after, the screams from the two young bandits ceased and Aratus looked to his left as he sheathed his sword and continued walking down the road. Aratus rubbed the tear ducts of his eyes as the strain from using two powerful spells, in the span of seven to eight hours, was starting to way on him, don't get him wrong, he could cast about forty to, maybe, fifty 'Reality Slashes' and he'd still be able to walk afterwards.
Upon rubbing his tear ducts, Aratus noticed the mud on his face, after realizing there was mud on his face and in his hair, he starting getting very itchy, When he tried to wipe some of the mud off, dirt flakes laid on the back of his leather covered right hand, "The fire from the Flamewing dried the mud on me. How annoying." Aratus thought, as he stared at the dirt flakes he noticed the sun was just below the mountains surrounding his area.
Looking ahead, Aratus could see the moon coming up, Aratus raised an eyebrow at this, "You'd think the sun would have set hours ago." Aratus thought as he gazed at the slowly raising moon. Aratus soon shook his head and continued walking down the road.
Luna, in all her glory, was shining high in the night sky among the incandescent stars. The sunlight reflecting off Luna's surface was bright enough to cast light on the terrain, allowing Aratus sight in the night without magic or touch light, although he couldn't see the moon it's self, due to a thick amount of tree branches arcing over the road.
Aratus's midnight walk was relaxing, maybe a little too relaxing, if one were walking with Aratus right now, they would either; freakout and run, or stare at him in wonderment, or bewilderment. Now, the reason for this thought was Aratus's unique ability, rightfully dubbed 'Wraith', is getting a little... Out of control, so to speak. As Aratus walks down the road, he's leaving a smoke-like trail behind him which as quickly as the smoke-like effect leaves his body, it comes back, although it's unnoticeable.
Mixing the 'Wraith' ability with his pale, ghostly skin, sliverish gray hair and the moonlight, This gives him an angelic appearance in the cold air of night, However, if one were to shine more light on him, they would see dried mud and dried blood stains making him look like a fallen angel of some kind. Quite the sight indeed, beautiful, but dangerous.
Aratus trudged down the dirt road, all by his lonesome self, and he was enjoying the refreshing, cold night air.
As Aratus walked he broke out from under in the thick brush above his head, allowing him to see the beautiful night sky without lights obscuring his vision of the stars. Aratus looked ahead and saw small dots of lights in the distance, touch light to be specific, "E-Rantel, the walk has been long and quite nice, even with the few setbacks such as; the bandits, the child, and the two fools in the forest. I enjoyed this none the less." Aratus wistfully thought, Aratus stared at E-Rantel for a bit, before continuing his walk towards it.
Aratus was half way from his previous position to E-Rantel and as he got closer the night started it's change from night to day. As Aratus approached E-Rantel, he watched Sol rise behind the fortress, basking the black stone walls with it's incandescent shine. Even from where he his, Aratus could see the gate, which had some carriages leaving the city within the walls, most likely merchants of all kinds. Aratus watched as carriage after carriage started leaving while some entered.
Aratus was now a good ten-fourteen minutes away from the city, Aratus couldn't help but watched the carriage flood out of the city like cockroaches on a filthy kitchen bench, "Quite the busy fortress it seems, from what I remember, it doubles as a checkpoint to the main kingdom, at least that's what I recall. I could be wrong." Aratus thought, Aratus stared at the gates as he approached the fortress, Aratus wistfully reequipped his armor as he neared the fortress gates.
While approaching the gates, Aratus examined the gate to figure out how to get in, this was a strategic idea as he saw a small door with in the massive gates. Aratus approached the door within the larger door, as Aratus stood in front of it, he knocked his hand on the iron enforced door. A small hatch at Aratus chest opened up, Aratus crouched down slightly to become eye level with the city guard on the other side, "Who are you and what business do you have in E-Rantel?" The guard spoke sternly.
Aratus stared at him for a moment before speaking, "My name is Aratus, I'm a traveler and have come to E-Rantel to rest." That last bit was a lie, Aratus doesn't need food, rest or water. As Aratus looked the guard dead in the eye, Aratus could see he was making the guard uncomfortable, very uncomfortable.
The guard felt as though his armor wanted to boil him alive as this very tall man was hunched over and staring at him though the hatch with eyes the color of an inferno, yet they were colder then any ice magic he had ever seen. Bulking under the intense gaze of the traveler, "Alright, I'll let you in. Just a moment!" The guard said, the hatch of the door slammed shut as Aratus stood up from his hunched position at the door.
Soon after Aratus stood up the guard opened the door and stood back as Aratus crouched down and stepped though the door way, the guard started sweating once Aratus was on the other side of the door, the guard was head to head with the giant's chest. The guard returned to his seat at the door once Aratus had walked off, "Holy christ! That man was massive!" The guard shouted, while resting in the chair at the door.
After entering the bustling city/fortress Aratus' first objective was to find the local Inn and sit down for a minute, and quite possibly understand what it is that his going to do here. He was drawn here and he'd be damned, which he already is, if he didn't find out why.
Something Aratus hates, among other things he hates, is not having any understanding or knowledge of things, it irritates him slightly. Normally, he would continue with his objective, but it is best too rest and clear his mind. After all, even beings like him need too... 'Unwind' from time to time, "And the best way too 'unwind' is to find the local Inn and have a cold drink." While Aratus may not need sustenance, he can still enjoy it- it's just, it gets turned into energy as soon as he swallows.
As Aratus walked down the busy street he searched his surroundings for an Inn. However, there was one problem, the streets were beginning to become crowded, Aratus was busy and was not in the mood to commit mass genocide on the fortress like city, "It would be quite a waste of a good city anyway." Aratus thought as people began to get closer and closer too him.
The best course of action he could think of was to project an intense aura of killing intent around him, the aura was powerful enough that people immediately started to give him a wide birth, no one walked or stood further then six feet near him, pets in the houses lining the street started going crazy, wild and stray cats scrambled to run from him, birds in trees and on houses started too sound off and fly away from the threat that suddenly appeared.
People that weren't close enough to feel the aura didn't understand how one man could cause such a reaction in, not only the animals, but the people as well. As the people of E-Rantel circled around him and continued on their ways -some of them looked in his direction as they walked by, Aratus spotted a local Inn and made a B-line for it, his sudden change of course made some of the people surrounding him panic and they all hurriedly split a path for him to walk through.
As Aratus walked though the pathway the people made for him, he looked around, some people were sweating bullets, some were looking at the ground and looked like they wanted to disappear, while some just stared at him.
The reaction to the aura was not what he expected it to be, what he did expect was: The way the animals reacted to him and the citizens to avoid him subconsciously, to give him at least two three feet of breathing space, but he was not expected them to actively avoid him and make a path for him to walk through.
Once Aratus was out of the street he dropped the aura and the people continued on with their days. Aratus pushed open the double doors of the Inn and walked to the first empty table he saw, which was the closest one to the entrance of the Inn.
As Aratus pulled a chair out and sat down, a waitress came over to him, donned in a white, button up and a long, black skirt "Hello and welcome to the 'Black Horse' Inn what can I... I..." She slowly stopped what she was saying, when she looked at Aratus's face and saw the pale, dirty skin and inferno like eyes.
When she came back too her senses she was blushing up a storm, a few people that walked in and out of the Inn looked concerned at how red her face was, "U-um, w-what can I get y-you...?" She spoke, whilst staring at Aratus's face, oddly enough the dried mud and dirt made him look even more handsome, too this one girl at least.
Aratus looked at his table, thinking of when he could get. As Aratus was thinking some spit had built up in his mouth, he swallowed it rather then spit it out and realized how dry his throat was, upon making a decision Aratus looked back at the waitress, "I'll have drink." He was blunt with his order, and the waitress immediately nodded at quickly walked away to get Aratus a drink.
While Aratus was sitting there waiting for his drink, the double door entrance of the 'Black Horse' was kicked open, forcing a gust of wind to mess up Aratus's already messy hair- who was sitting at the table closest to the entrance. When the gust of wind calmed down standing there is a woman with jet black, flowing wavy, shoulder length hair, with three large- not to long, bangs over her forehead with steel gray eyes, with a smooth and shaped face.
She's wearing tight, steel white armor with thin gold trim on the edges and gold accents, the armor hugged her body down to a T, but not tight enough to be considered skin-tight or show off her breasts and figure, around her neck was a long gold stole. Sticking out from under the stole was a copper plate, "Interesting, she's wearing the 'Knight of Redemption's Armor'[3]. A set of white and gold trimmed armor that can stop any blade- be it spear, dagger or sword, that armor will stop it, but it's weak to blunt and crushing blows, she most likely relies on dodging, which means she will have a lot of endurance," Aratus looked at her back and saw a two-handed longsword, "She also seems to be quite strong judging from the two-handed longsword on her back."
Aratus's quick analysis of this woman was from face value, but she has more tricks up her sleeves, holding the two-handed longsword to her back was a leather holster with a wider patch of leather, three small leather bands for small vials too grab and drink, there is currently two in the slots and one's missing, one vial's a dark crimson red, while the other one is a dark muddy brown. "Interesting, I wonder what the brown one does." Aratus thought as he gazed at the vial of brown liquid.
Near the buckle of the holster is a leather bound book, most likely journal or a bestiary, and judging from the pencil near it she has written everything in it, "Finally back! Now, lets get some grub in my gut and turn in the quest!" She shouted loudly, she soon made strides toward the Innkeeper, who has short black hair and brown eyes.
Upon hearing the armored foot falls of the copper rank adventurer, the Innkeeper looked up from wiping the lacquered, oak wood counter and smiled brightly. "Ah! Karluaina, how have you been, love!" Shouted the Innkeeper as it looked like the two knew each other very well.
The armored woman, now named Karluaina leaned on the counter with both arms and smiled brightly. "Oh, I've been doing great, how 'bout you Eric?" Karluaina asked the now named Eric, whilst he grabbed a glass that had slid over to him from the other side of the counter.
As Eric refilled the glass with some ale and slid it back to a man with long blond hair and crystal covered steel armor. "I've been doing fine, love, business been a little slow but that ain't a problem. So, Karla, what's been happening," Karluaina was about to respond but was cut off by Eric, "and nothing about quests, what I mean is; how have you been? Have you been sleeping well? have you been drinking plenty of water? have you made any friends?" Eric's voice rose slightly towards the end, Karluaina just looked at him.
After a few seconds of staring at each other Karluaina spoke. "Well, I've been drinking plenty of water, I have been sleeping well, but I haven't made any friends." Karluaina spoke, while she was speaking she was listing off the things Eric asked her by counting her armored fingers.
Eric shook his head at the last part. "Come on Karla, you need too make friends and get a party to together for the bigger and badder quests that I know your going too start taking once you get higher from copper." Eric looked at Karla with a fatherly look, this interaction made Aratus raise a eyebrow.
As Aratus was watching, he finally noticed something. "Where's my damn water." Aratus thought as he looked around for his waitress, but couldn't find her, Aratus shook his head and got up from the chair, the chair squeaked in protest from the sudden movement.
Aratus heavy steel boots thudded against the wood floor as he approached the counter, when a man in heavy azure plate armor bashed shoulders with Aratus as they walked past each other, Aratus did his best not cause a scene, but the Azure Knight had other ideas, "Hey, jackass!" The Azure Knight shouted at Aratus, but he kept walking ignoring the Azure Knight, the Azure Knight walked towards Aratus and grabbed his left shoulder, "I'm talking too you, you piece of shi-" It happened so fast.
Karluaina was watching the all thing from the counter, as soon as the azure knight yell. "Hey, jackass!" She started immediately watching and thought she might have to step in, as the Azure Knight is a gold rank adventurer and the Gray haired man, well, she can't see a rank plate on him. But even though she was watching the whole thing she just couldn't wrap her head around it.
Here's a quick recap: As soon as the Azure Knight grabbed the Gray haired man's shoulder, the Gray haired man grabbed the Azure Knight's arm with his right hand, spun around so he was face to face with the Azure Knight, and swung the Azure Knight's arm down in a circle and lifted him off the ground and spun him mid-air, then preformed a reverse round house kick, throwing the Azure Knight into a table. Leaving the Azure Knight in a groaning, woody mess.
The Gray haired man leered at the Azure Knight for a moment, before turning back to Karluaina and Eric's direction and started walking towards them, Karluaina stepped too the side so he could talk to Eric, but Karluaina and everyone else there were waiting in anticipation on what he was going too ask.
And what he asked for was so simple. "Can I get a drink of water." His request pretty much killed everyone there, the bluntness of it hurt Karluaina, metaphorically speaking of course.
Eric got him his glass of water and the Gray haired man sat on a bar stool to have his glass of water. Karluaina stood there for a moment. "Well! that was a thing." She said, Karluaina looked at Eric. "Well, now that that's over, can you whip up some grub for me Eric?" Karluaina asked, as Eric filled another glass and slid it off to a man with long milk-white hair and amber eyes.
Eric turned back to Karluaina with a smile. "Sure thing, love, but it ain't gonna be free this time." Eric said, as he crossed his arms and gave Karluaina a look that said "Cough up", Karluaina just groaned at the Innkeeper, Karluaina looked down at some leather pouches on her waist and reached for one over her left hip, unbuttoning it she pulled out a coin purse that looked quite empty and proceeded to dig around in it, the sounds of coins hitting eachother and shuffling around could be heard coming from her bag.
After a little bit of digging, Karluaina was able too find a silver coin among the ten copper coins she had, she pulled the silver dime out and place it on the counter for Eric too look at. "Alright, you want the usual?" Eric asked as he placed the silver coin Karluaina gave him into a strong box with a big fat bag of coins.
Karluaina smiled brightly at the Innkeeper. "Yep!" Eric nodded at her high spirits, as Eric stepped into the back the cook her usual, another man stepped up behind the counter to take Eric place. "Ah! Felix, how ya doing?" Felix, who was quickly introduced, looked at Karluaina with blue eyes and short side flipped blonde hair.
Felix, the new barkeep at the moment, looked down right depressed before Karluaina spoke up, "I'm doing just fine Karla, how'd your quest go?" He asked with a slight accent, very unnoticeable if you didn't know him, a empty mug slid over to him and he proceeded too fill it.
Karluaina perked up at him asking about her quest, she waited for him too serve whoever sent the drink his way, the individual was a woman dressed in full black with white hair and pale skin, Felix turned back too Karluaina and listen to her, "Well, I was able to get my hands on a E class quest!" Karluaina said, but Felix didn't look surprised at this.
Felix just shook his head as he just listen to what Karluaina said, "You know Karla, with how powerful you are, you could easily skip right to Mythril rank in the Adventurer's Guild." Felix stated, Karluaina just looked at him like he had just grown a second head.
Karluaina was about too retort, but was interrupted by the Gray haired man that had been sitting there for the past eight minutes, "Refill." He spoke, Felix just looked at the the man's glass for a moment before grabbing it and filling it with some more water, Karluaina looked at the Gray haired man.
And almost as if he could feel her staring at him, he stared right back at her. His amber red eyes burned into her steel gray, as Karluaina stared more and more at his face, she couldn't help but feel like she had seen him before and that she should know who this man is. Felix stood off to the side watching them, filling and refilling and mugs that slid his way.
Karluaina herself couldn't take it anymore and had to ask him something anything! "So, what's your name." Gods! Was there anything else she could have asked him.
The Gray haired man took a sip of his water before answering her, "Aratus." Karluaina nodded her head, and looked toward the Azure Knight that, had recovered sometime ago, was nursing his back as the back of his armor was missing a giant chunk of it's self.
Karluaina turned back to Aratus. "Well, as you've heard multiple times by now, my names Karluaina, or Karla- whichever ones easier." Karluaina, pointlessly, introduced herself too Aratus, she raised her right hand for him to shake, Aratus looked her hand for a moment before shaking it, "So, Aratus, are you an adventurer?" Karluaina asked him, before answering her question, Aratus had another drink of his glass of water.
Aratus placed his glass back on the counter and turned back to look at Karluaina. "No." Was his short and gravely reply, Karluaina looked at him in surprise, Felix almost missed a mug that slid by and on to the floor.
Just as Karluaina was about too ask Aratus something, Eric stepped out of the kitchen with a plate of what looked like large, beef steak and veggies. "Alrighty! Karla, your foods ready, fresh from the kitchen!" Eric spoke, making his way over to the three of them, he set the plate down in front of Karluaina, who was salivating at the smell and look of the big, juicy, beef steak.
Sitting down Karluaina grabbed a knife and fork and proceeded to eat the veggies first, then moved on to the best part, the steak. Karluaina stabbed the steak at the edge and cut a small portion of the steak off, raising it to her mouth, she dragged the piece of steak off of the fork and as she chewed the finely cooked meat, she practically melted in her seat. "Oh~ It's so good Eric, you've really out done yourself this time~" Karluaina moaned out, while she was chewing, Eric smiled brightly at this response as some people complained about his steak being either: To cooked, to under-cooked, to seasoned, or juicy. Karluaina's response to his steak always lifted his spirits.
Eric looked away from Karluaina and at Felix, "Alright lad, I'll take over the bar again, you can go in back into the kitchen if you want." Eric spoke, Felix nodded his head and calmly walked back into the kitchen, where he was most comfortable, mostly because he grew up helping his mother in the kitchen, but he also just loved being in the kitchen.
Karluaina noticed Aratus was still sitting there, and it looked like the water in his glass hadn't even moved, "So, Aratus, I know this is out of the blue, but do you want to sign up to become an Adventurer? And if you do, want to party up?" Karluaina asked, Aratus looked away from the counter and at her with those blood red, amber eyes, while Karluaina was expecting him too say something, before he looked back at his glass; thinking.
While Karluaina, still waiting for his answer, went back to her steak.
"Should I, or should I not. I know for a fact that we'll get paid, but creating a party means that I'll be slowed down, but I'll have a comrade that looks reliable enough." Aratus looked up from his glass and at Karluaina, who had resumed eating her steak, Karluaina glanced at him and noticed he was looking at her.
Swallowing the bit of meat in her mouth, Karluaina waited patiently for his reply too her offer. "Alright, I'll become an adventurer and... 'Party up' with you." Was his flat, yet strong, gravely answer, Karluaina smiled at this news.
"Alright, we'll get you signed up, after I finish my steak of course and you finish your water," Karluaina spoke, before looking at his glass of water, "by the way, have you even been drinking it?" Karluaina questioned, Aratus looked at it and picked it up before taking the smallest of sips ever, Karluaina just looked at him, "Okay..." Karulaina turned back too her steak and slowly finished it, savoring every bite of it.
While Aratus savored his glass of water, enjoying the sensation of the cold, refreshing liquid running down his throat.
As Aratus drank his water, he noticed that it was getting warm. "Better drink quicker, I don't want to drink a warm glass of water. Warm water tastes awful." Aratus mused, he started taking larger sips, out of the corner of his eye he saw Karluaina look at him and she noticed he was drink more then before, making cut larger slices of her steak.
They were both still in enjoying it as much as possible.
hastening their actions, but still, just slow enough not to go though their supplements to quickly.
With a full belly and empty plate, Karluaina pushed her plate and utensils away from her, showing that she was done, Aratus slid his empty glass forward, showing that he, as well, was finished. Karluaina watched as Aratus stood up from the bar stool and just realized how tall he was, "Whoa..." Karluaina gazed on in amazement.
Karluaina lost her focus on his height when he reach down to a hard leather bag on his lower back, reaching in he pulled out- "That's a YGGDRASIL coin! Is he player!?" Karluaina eyes widened when she saw the coin, Eric looked at the coin in surprise and curiosity. "Whoa! I've never seen such a fine coin before! Where did you find it?" Eric spoke as he stared at the coin.
"I don't know where I got them. I just have them, but I know that their made of gold." Aratus stated as he placed the coin on the table, Karluaina stared in confusion when Aratus said that he didn't know where he got them and that he just had them.
Eric watched as Aratus pushed the large, intricate gold coin towards the Innkeeper, Eric reached under the counter and pulled a scale out from under it, he took out a gold coin of his own and placed it on one end and watched the scale tip in coin's favor, Eric grabbed the YGGDRASIL coin and looked at it for a second before placing on the opposite scale of the New World gold coin.
Eric watched in amazement as the scale balanced out between the two coins, Eric opened his mouth too speak, only to start gaping like a fish out of water as the scale started tipping into the larger coin's favor, before stopping making the larger coin dip lower then the smaller one, proving it's value to be greater.
As Eric stared at the coin harder then before, he just noticed the intricacy of the coin, further doubling it's value from being at least worth four gold coins, to be worth one platinum and five gold coins.
Eric looked like his eyes were going to pop from his skull, after staring at the highly valuable coin for a few more seconds, his head snapped toward Aratus. "And you want to use this coin to pay for some water!?" Eric shouted, catching the attention of some of the adventurers and scum.
Eric stared at Aratus as though he had grown a second head, Aratus's left eyebrow jerked up. "Yes, or would you rather me place the water on a tab until I acquire the proper amount of coin?" Eric just sweat dropped at him, quickly thinking, Eric decided he need to calm down first and did just that. "No, not that... It's just, are you sure that you want to use such a rare coin for water. And judging from how flawlessly crafted this coin is, it had to have been very hard to fi-" Eric was cut short by giant man.
"I have more." Eric started sweating bullets upon hearing this and made one conclusion and his face said everything to Karluaina. "This guys fucking rich!"
Soon after the three-word sentence left Aratus mouth, the three people heard chairs scrapping against the wood floor, Eric and Karluaina looked over and past Aratus and saw more then half the Inn had stood up: Bounty hunters, outlaws and a few corrupt adventurers were glaring daggers at Aratus.
The sound of weapons readying and armor shifting filled all three of their ears, Karluaina reached for her steel longsword and grasped the hilt, only to release her grip upon Aratus speaking up. "Eric," Eric looked at Aratus, who had just spoken, "I'll defend you and your Inn from further threats..." Eric knew there was more, "In exchange, you collect information for me on anything interesting. Do we have a Deal?" Aratus offered as all the scum stalked ever closer to the three, Eric had stopped sweating, from what Karluaina could see out of the corner of her eye as she kept an eye on the scum.
And from what she could feel, aside from malice and glee coming from the scum in front of her, Eric was... Relaxed? What?
"You have a deal, Aratus." Eric spoke calmly, in one quick motion Aratus grabbed his demonic, silver long sword's hilt on his back, ripped it from it's black sheathe, spun around and decapitated a woman holding a halberd and kite shield that had gotten a little to close, her head rode on his sword a moment before being thrown off by the force and momentum. The swing was quick, sharp and very strong.
Karluaina, along with a few others- except Eric, watched in shock as the head hit the wall. "Do not interfere," Aratus looked at Karluaina from the corner of his raging inferno, "or you're next." Karluaina stared at Aratus for the bland, yet, threatening tone of Aratus's gravel like voice.
Little blood was on the blade of Aratus's demonic, silver colored sword. This display of skill scared most of the low-lives in front of them, "Holy shit!" One of them shouted, a corrupt, silver ranked adventurer holding a basic long sword and a great shield shortly charged at Aratus. He was only met with a painful death.
Aratus dashed forward and cut clean through the great shield and split the adventurer's arm in two down the middle, but not all the way though, leaving the adventurer screaming in agony and pain as he watched his left forearm split in two right before his eyes. His screams of terror were cut short as Aratus split him into two halves have a whole idiot.
Karluaina, Felix and any other staff that stepped out and into the main room watched in horror as one man cleaved through foe after foe.
Aratus didn't show mercy, even when they begged for their lives. Literality, down on their knees, saying stuff along the lines of; "I'm sorry! Don't kill me! I have a family!", to "I won't ever do it again! I swear!" and even "Please! Spare me!" all while crying their eyes out or pissing themselves.
He didn't spare any man or woman, they were all the same.
Karluaina wanted to think this was just a nightmare, but it wasn't. She wasn't going too baby herself and tell herself that this was a just a really, really, bad dream, she knew that this was real, this was happening before her eyes. And she knew couldn't do a thing, if she so much as tried to stop him, she would be in the same condition as his enemy.
Nothing but a bloody mess on the floor.
She may have been playing YGGDRASIL for fourteen years, right up to the server shut down. When the server shut down was announced, she had hard time believing it, asking every other player if they got the same message, and the answer was always the same. Yes, they did get the same message, it saddened Karluaina a great deal, as she loved the game with a passion that some didn't have.
And when the server shut down, she knew what happened- well sort of, she knew she was teleported and that she was her character, she was overjoyed. Karluaina had always enjoyed the idea of going and slaying a dragon, traveling and seeing unbelievable things, and embarking on epic quests with her friends.
Although, despite how naive that sounds, Karluaina was down to earth and knew that this New World wouldn't be all sunshine and lollipops- but, she wasn't expecting to run into a giant man and watch him commit a massacre in front of-
Karluaina was ripped from her thoughts when a spray of blood struck her across her face, Karluaina stood there for a moment before she reached into her leather bag and pulled out a red handkerchief and wiped the blood from her face and obscuring her vision as well, after wiping the blood from her face she noticed how quiet it was. Pulling the red cloth from her eyes Karluaina gazed upon a horrific scene.
Warm, fresh blood littered the main area of the Inn. Bodies were scattered about and mangled in a multitude of ways, one body was cleaved into four pieces, one was pinned to the wall by it's own spear, another was impaled on a great sword, the tip of the great sword was visible as it poked out of the very dead person's mouth, and Karluaina saw what looked like little red cubes littering the- Oh god. "He diced one of them into little cubes! How?!" Karluaina gazed on in shock.
Behind her, she could hear someone vomit from the pungent stench of death that filled the Inn.
Karluaina had one thought. "What the fuck are we going to do about this mess!?" Karlaina turned to look at a few others, Felix was sweating and hyperventilating, but not hard enough to make him pass out, Eric was staring at the mess with a puzzled look; thinking of how to clean this up.
Aratus stared at the calamity he had brought to these fools that had tried to group up on him and kill him for the fine coins. Shaking his head, Aratus started thinking of a way to remove the evidence of this slaughter. Aratus was thinking of what to do when answers suddenly flooded his head.
He knew what to do.
Aratus turned to Karluaina, Eric and Felix, although he did focus on Eric more then the others. "Is there a large furnace in this Inn?" Aratus asked, which Eric responded to by nodded, Aratus turned back to the few bodies he hadn't mangled. With a flick of his wrist he threw most of the blood on his sword off, but would still need to go over it with a damp rag to get the remaining stains off. Aratus swung his arm up and slipped the slightly stained sword into it's sheathe. A satisfying click told Aratus his sword was firmly placed in it home.
Aratus walked over to the bodies and proceeded to strip them of everything. Once done with striping the bodies of all the metals that would have a hard time burning in the furnace, Aratus lifted up the corpse of a dead, fat man with ease and through him over his should like a sack of potatoes. "Karluaina," Karluaina's eyes snapped in his direction, "Grab a body and help, before someone else walks through that door." Aratus turned away from Karluaina as she walked over to a corpse and heaved it into a bride hold, all while grumbling about how disgusting corpses feel, even through leather gloves.
Aratus turned to the man with long, blond hair and crystal armor. "Give us a hand." The man, who we will identify as Crystal just to make identifying him easier, nodded and stood up from his stool and went to collect a carcass, Aratus looked to Eric. "Where's the furnace." Eric looked around Aratus to see if Karluaina and Crystal had their corpses.
Eric looked back at Aratus and turned around. "Follow me." Eric said as he walked into the kitchen. Aratus, Karluaina and Crystal follow Eric when they entered the Kitchen one by one, Eric pulled a trapdoor open and walked down the stairs into a large, brick cellar. Karluaina followed Eric down the cellar stairs first, because she's the shortest one of three.
Crystal was next. Aratus soon follow behind them, but he had a little trouble getting down the stairs because of his height being seven foot and eleven inches, or 243 centimeters, he was able to get down the stairs and follow the others, but with great pain as the small space between the cellar roof and floor was to small, causing Aratus to crouch down painfully for his abnormal height.
Up ahead he saw Eric open a large underground furnace, but by the looks of it's condition, he didn't use it much. The outside of the furnace was brick and black iron, the brick interior was barely blackened from fire. Karluaina had just thrown her bloody luggage in the furnace, Crystal did the same.
Turning around Crystal saw the trouble Aratus was having moving in the small space and walked over to grab the corpse from the giant. "I'll take the body, go get the others and drop them down here, Karluaina and I will handle the rest." Crystal spoke with a strong voice that sounded like it carried the world on it. Aratus nodded at him and turned around to leave the cellar, after giving Crystal the fat ass of coarse.
Aratus climbed up the ladder and stretched his back to levitate the pain from bending over at a painful. Aratus walked out of the kitchen and almost bumped into Felix, who let out a quick sorry. As Aratus stepped by he saw that the milk-white haired man with amber eyes and the woman with white hair and black clothes were still there as well as a few others, just enjoying their drinks. "It seems like this happens often. Good, the guards will be less suspicious of what happened here." Aratus thought as he surveyed the Inn's interior.
As Aratus examined the Inn he noticed how quickly it had been cleaned, with the remaining few bodies under red-stained white sheets. Aratus moved to collect the bodies.
Roughly forty minutes or so later, the bodies of the scum, as Aratus kept putting them. Now you might be thinking that none of this is making any sense, well this isn't the first time this has happened in the 'Black Horse' Inn, it's happened a lot actually, hence why Eric has the furnace, and it's only used for burning bodies.
Karluaina was used to this as she actually killed a few people, but she never enjoyed it and only killed other people if necessary. This was defiantly not her first rodeo, this was just the ugliest one she's been though. "I mean, who take's the time to dice someone into little cubes?" Karluaina thought blandly as she sat at the bar swirling her mug of ale, it was't the heavy stuff, she drank it solely for the taste of it.
Karluaina heard some heavy, somehow quiet, footsteps to her left, turning her head towards the sound, she saw that it was Aratus. Steel met Fire, and Fire met Steel. "Some first introductions, huh?" Karluaina said to Aratus in a tired tone, Aratus took the seat next to her on her left.
"Yes, quite some introductions." Was his flat, strong, gravely response, his tone made Karluaina's brow furrow, instead of pushing for anything out of him for the moment, Karluaina shifted her attention to her ale and took a hefty swig of the tasty, lightweight beer. Karluaina brought the mug back to the bar counter.
Karluaina took another moment to look around the 'Black Horse' Inn. Eric was talking with his staff, most likely setting up a plan for when the guards come and ask questions. Felix was tending the bar with an exhausted expression, the other people that were here when the fight- no, a better word. When the massacre started, had dwindled down to just the woman with white hair and black clothes, along with Crystal, who was now sitting in his original seat when everything started.
"Now," Karluaina turned to Aratus, who had just spoken, "about that whole 'Partying up' thing, are we still going to do this?" Karluaina just gave him a blank look that said, 'Really mate, Really'. However, Aratus' calculating gaze never wavered as they stared at each other.
Shaking her head, Karluaina looked away from the dirt covered giant and raised her mug to take another hearty drink of it. Only for no ale to meet her lips, except for a single drop, she took the mug away from her lips and placed it back on the counter, with a sigh, Karluaina leaned back into the stool before looking at Aratus with an irritated look. "You're a dick." She said with a hefty huff fallowing soon after.
Aratus just stared at her with a bland look. "Are we partying up or not." Aratus stated more than questioned, Karluaina just threw her head back and let out a frustrated sigh mixed with an irritated groan.
Turning her head back to him with a slightly less irritated look, letting out a quick huff, she responded. "Yeah, we still are." Karluaina said while looking at him. Now your thinking "She does knows his another player, right?" Yes she did know if the YGGDRASIL coins were any indication, as well as his power, which felt like it was in literal pieces.
Still looking at Aratus, Karluaina asked a question that confused Aratus quite some. "Ya got a helmet?"
To Be Continued.
Next Chapter: Aratus was constantly shifting his helmet, trying, and failing, to get comfortable with it on. "I hate this helmet."
[1] 'Durium's Knight', is the Durium Smelter armor from the third-person hack and slash game, Overlord, or Overlord: Rising Hell. The only diffrence is: The left gauntlet for Aratus is solid and not on fire. The Minion embossed plate at the pelvis in the game is changed to a Sword embossed plate.
[2] 'Flamewing', is a 6th Tier spell. You don't see it be cast in the Manga or the Anime, and I haven't read the book, so if it is used and my interpretation of it is wrong... Woof.
[3] 'Knight Redemption's Armor', is Siegfried's armor from Soulcalibur VI, except Karluaina's version of it is smaller and more fit for a woman's body, underneath is Nightmare's 'Cataclysm Corrosion', only without the actual corrosion and not ripped to pieces.
Fun facts; Aratus looks similar to David Bowie, rest in piece Mr. Bowie.
Karluaina's hair is similar to female Corrin's hair style (the first one you see) in Fire Emblem: Fates or Super Smash Bros. 4/Ultimate.
Crystal was Siegfried, from Soulcalibur IV.
The woman with white hair and black clothes was 2B, from NieR: Automata.
The man with milky-white hair and amber eyes was Geralt of Riva, from the Witcher series.
The Azure knight, the one Aratus floored, was Nightmare, from Soulcalibur VI.