Prologue: The End Before The Beginning

21:48:30

21:48:31

Momonga had long since given up that any of his friends would accept his invitation to witness the final day of Yggdrasil with him, with only a few hours left remaining before the inevitable shutdown and his return to the bleakness and cold reality of the 22nd Century. 'If anything, I'm happy that at least Herohero showed up, even if for a few minutes. It means that at the very least someone else other than me still remembers our friendship,' Momonga thought grimly, he doesn't fault them for choosing real life over a video game, but he at the very least thought that they would return for one last get-together to commemorate their friendship, no matter how brief the meeting would be. But looking back now, he realizes that it was all simply a delusion of his, the image of the empty throne room, sans the few NPCs present, cemented this in his mind.

Momonga sighed before he teleported to the outskirts outside the tomb, his original plan was to spend the final moments of Yggdrasil in the throne room and reminisce over all the memories that he made with his guildmates, but it proved to be far too much to bear for him as it would only constantly remind him that he's the only one remaining all these years. And so, what better way to take his mind off things than to spend those moments traveling throughout Yggdrasil's hubs and markets? And with most of the player base having already left, he could even go to the centers that used to be populated by the humanoid players!

'First stop, Midgard…' and so, Momonga went to all the worlds of Yggdrasil and all the other dimensions of the game. The scenery in all these realms and planes was as breathtaking as he first witnessed them, from Svartalheim's steampunk designs to Alfheim's lush forests to Niflheim's snow-covered landscapes. Even the Void, which was another location added to the game later on as the home dimension to one of the game's most difficult World Enemies, was beautiful with its skies(?) showing nothing more than the endless stars and other celestial bodies, there were even a few black holes of different magnitudes dotting the view in an ephemeral way.

And even then, Momonga believed that he benefited more from this little trip than if he just wallowed in misery in the throne room, with this being his only and final chance, he went to every market, black market, and auction house in all of Yggdrasil, and did the one thing a true hoarder would do in his situation, he purchased every item he could get his virtual bony hands on, from the silliest of joke items like the rubber chickens and old card games to the more important items like magic scrolls, tomes, weapons.

Yet, what made him even happier was when Lady Luck finally blessed him after spiting him for almost an entire decade. World Class Items, the most broken and the rarest of items in all of Yggdrasil, and he got two of them! Granted, they weren't one of the Twenty like the Ouroborus or the Ahura Mazda, but they were excellent in their own right, they're not called World Items for show after all.

The first of which was the "Gjallarhorn," a world item in the shape of a horn, infamous for allowing a player to summon a deity NPC that the user is allied with. Granted, this means that you would need to have, as Peroroncino has eloquently put it before, 'relationship points' with the NPC in question, and with the fact that all of the most powerful NPC deities are hidden behind the longest, most-headache inducing questlines that have to be completed perfectly to be looked on favorably by them, the number of players who could be said to have been completed any of the aforementioned perfectly are less than twenty percent of the global player base, hence the reason for its infamy. And the usual choices for the common player who would be lucky enough to get the WCI would be stuck between the choices of the most common deity NPCs, some of which can be one-shotted easily by a high-level player... But to Momonga? 'Man! I wish I had the opportunity to use it back in the prime days of our guild, life would've been so much easier if I could summon any one of those guys…'

The second WCI, "Loki's Visage", was one that Momonga could consider being the best for day-to-day use in Yggdrasil, if it weren't for the fact that the game was going to end either way. It was in the form of a shiny metal obsidian mask with a permanent lazy grin adorning it along with two shining diamonds in place of the eyes. It had two functions that allowed for great synergy between it and its user. The first of which was the ability to allow the user to change their own form or that of others, it wasn't in the same way that the WCI "Seed of the World Tree" changed the user's race completely, hence one could not gain any new racial abilities to speak of. Rather, it was a superior form of the super-tier illusion spell [Fool the World] as attacking the user would not dispel the effect, making it the best item for espionage in his inventory as of now.

The second function, and one that Momonga would confidently say is the more favorable to himself compared to the former, was the ability to alter the user's Karma Value. It may seem underwhelming to say it out loud, especially when there are already Super-tier spells such as [Judgment of Osiris] which could increase positive values and decrease negative ones. But "Loki's Visage" was superior to it as the wielder could manually manipulate the value immediately and allow for specific alterations that the aforementioned spell wouldn't be able to accomplish.

And the reason that Momonga likes this WCI even more is the fact that it could help him be able to cast spells that would usually be inaccessible to him or unusable, such as Holy Magic or the spell [Uriel] which would do damage less than even a tier one spell because of his Karma Value. After all, he owns many a holy spell among his arsenal, but most would have no effect and can even harm him if he attempts to use them with his karma value being a staggering -500, a lesson he learned the harsh way when he obtained an AOE healing spell from a seraphim player and foolishly attempted to use it, and though he did, in fact, heal the others ever so slightly, Momonga injured himself in the process as he was within the area of effect.

'I really lucked out today, but it's a shame that I wouldn't get to use them…' Momonga thought forlornly as he gazed at the clock.

23:50:55

23:50:56

'Nine minutes left…' Momonga can only shake his head in a melancholic manner as he realized that he didn't feel the time passing by. 'I might as well go back now', he thought as he extended his arm out and cast [Gate], he went through the portal and ended up at the entrance of the Nazarick, he then used [Fly] to move towards the skies above the Great Tomb.

'As gloomy and terrifying as Helheim is, there's a certain beauty to it…' Momonga thought fondly as he looked at the evernight sky of the world of the dead and the lands filled to the brim with wildlife consisting of hostile monsters and ferocious flesh-eating plants.

He opened his {Inventory} as he brought forth his custom-made fireworks, they were quite difficult to craft but were worth it in the end. He set them up in the sky using magic and arranged for the timer to strike at the most opportune time.

23:54:58

23:54:59

23:55:00

As soon as the clock reached five before twelve, tens of fireworks were fired high up in the sky in a wondrous arrangement, all the flags of the forty-one members of Ainz Ooal Gown appeared one after the other in appropriate colors, Touch Me's in a silver color, Ulbert's in a mix of crimson and gold, Bukubukuchagama's in pink, and so forth. And in the end, the largest firework was fired, as the symbol of Ainz Ooal Gown lit up the night sky in a dazzling array of colors.

'Beautiful…' Momonga thought as he saw the fruits of his labor on display, as he firmly believed the cost of making these fireworks to be worth the trouble as he observed in childlike wonder the ephemeral sight of the fireworks.

'This is truly the best way to celebrate the end of an era…' Momonga thought in satisfaction as his previous melancholy slowly began to cease and wither as he looked towards his virtual timer.

23:59:30

23:59:31

'It's a shame that I wouldn't be able to enjoy these final moments with my friends, but this is better than nothing', Momonga thought forlornly as he opened his {Inventory} and brought forth the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. 'Nothing good lasts forever, huh…' Momonga clutched the Staff tightly as he saw how a few seconds were left before the final shutdown.

23:59:57

'And I still have to wake up early for work tomorrow, I hope I won't look like my avatar in the morning.'

23:59:58

'Goodbye, my home…'

23:59:59

00:00:00

00:00:01

00:00:02

"Huh…?" Momonga expected to see his apartment once he opened his eyes, not to be under a large oak tree with the sounds of birds tweeting and a soft gentle breeze flowing through.

"...HUUUUUUH?!"

Chapter 1: New World, New Acquaintances

'...This…How in the world am I supposed to react to this?!', Momonga was rightfully shocked and confused, here he was, in what seemed to be a land similar to that of Midgard with a large cobblestone road extending nearby connecting to what he can see in the distance, is a town.

'Is this Yggdrasil 2? But there was no news of it ever being even in the works! The devs couldn't have possibly hidden it for this long, could they? …No, those shitty devs would most definitely do that, no doubt about it…' Momonga nodded to himself before beginning to panic once more, 'But that doesn't explain why I can't log out! Isn't this virtual kidnapping?! This was banned decades ago! Why would the devs kidnap me? They're assholes but they aren't stupid, they wouldn't do this in fear of losing money.'

As Momonga began to stress and began to panic even more, he suddenly felt himself being forcefully calmed once again, he blinked (metaphorically) before looking towards his bony hands. 'This…Wasn't it part of the lore of Overlords that they have a form of emotional suppression to keep them in check? How did they implement this? And how the breeze feels on my body…This level of immersion was banned a long time ago to prevent people from being unable to differentiate between virtual reality and real-life…'

Momonga patted himself once again as he began to feel the silky smoothness of his robes and the metal hardness of his pauldrons and equipment, 'This feels real…too real…is this one of those isekai scenarios that Peroroncino told me about before? I know I should be panicking, even though I physically can't, but this feels…rejuvenating, perhaps? I feel way better than ever before, I don't have any back pain, no headaches, and my vision is extremely clear for the first time in my life. I should be scared, terrified even, but this feels far too good and freeing for me to nitpick anything about it, and if it really is another world…Then shouldn't I enjoy my life right now? I'm surrounded by beautiful sights the likes of which I would've never ever seen at all on Earth, the sky is clear, animals are frolicking all over, hell, there are even trees and fruits around for goodness sake!'

Momonga only gave a bellowing joyful laugh as he began to come to terms with his newest circumstances as the nearby critters began to scramble away from the towering seven-foot-tall skeleton. Unfortunately for him, his 'emotional suppressor' doused the fires of joy with the cold icy water of rationality. 'Tsk…guess I have to get used to this, but now then… If this is anything like one of those light novels Pero recommended to me before, heteromorphs like me would be hunted by any one of those adventurers if they exist here. I should disguise myself before doing anything right now, best to err on the side of caution.'

He then pulled out the pair of metal gloves "Járngreipr" and the newest world item in his collection "Loki's Visage" as he adorned them and closed his robes, covering his rib cage and the world item "Momonga's Orb" that sits below his massive ribs. Feeling satisfied with his current appearance, Momonga stepped out of the large oak tree's shadow as he began to walk on the cobblestone road leading towards the nearby town, contemplating his current circumstances.

'I thought at first that the town was nearby since I saw it clearly at first, but it seems rather that my vision is far stronger to be able to see it from so far away, does this mean that all my senses are stronger now as well? What about my physical attributes? I'm clearly a walking talking skeleton and I'm pretty sure that if I had the strength my looks give off, I would've been crushed by the weight of my pauldrons, let alone all my other equipment. I can instinctively feel my MP and HP bars and all the spells I know. Hopefully, I will be able to experiment with them soon. I at least know that my {Inventory} works, so I can use any of my items in case of emergencies.'

As Momonga strolled through the countryside road, contemplating his future plans while enjoying the scenery, a one-horse carriage rode by, before suddenly stopping in its tracks and the door immediately opened. A short blond-haired black-eyed man hopped out of the carriage before immediately rushing toward Momonga.

'I know I was wondering when I could try and test using my spells but I didn't mean right now!' Momonga panicked as he silently and discreetly began casting all sorts of defensive spells at breakneck speed while gazing cautiously toward the short man running towards him, mentally preparing all sorts of plans for the inevitable conflict that would ensue. However, what happened next, confounded him instead.

The man stopped at a distance too close for comfort to Momonga before he began exclaiming to the undead mage in disguise, "Good Sir! Where in the world did you get such unusual and fascinating clothes!?" The man had a crazed look in his eyes, it reminded Suzuki of some of the more 'deranged' clients he had to deal with at work who never took no for an answer. Thankfully, however, he was already used to such people, courtesy of his experience as a salaryman, and began to attempt to defuse this situation.

"These are my own creations, I have made them myself and borrowed some assistance from some of my friends on occasion. But I do not presume we have met before, sir…?" Seeing Momonga's confusion, the man coughed slightly in embarrassment before regaining a calm look on his mustached face.

"Ah, my apologies, my name is Zanac, Zanac Zenfield. I own a clothing store in the nearby town called 'Fashion King Zanac', it's a pleasure to meet you, sir…"

Momonga began to wonder, what name should he give to Zanac, 'I could use "Momonga", but there is a chance I would get humiliated if anyone knows the origins of my name since it literally means "flying squirrel." I could use my actual name, but…In this new life? No, a new life needs a new name. And I know the perfect one, a name I'm more fond of than anyone else'.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, sir Zanac, I am Ainz Ooal Gown, but you can call me Ainz." the now-named Ainz extended his gauntleted hand towards Zanac, which the man shook joyfully.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well sir Ainz! I was intending to ask, but do you mind parting with your clothes? I assure you that I will pay an appropriate sum in exchange and even offer you new clothing to boot!"

Ainz without hesitation refused the man, dousing the flames before they could spread. "My apologies, my answer is a resounding no. However, I am willing to offer you other types of clothing I have in exchange for money and information, if that is alright with you."

Zanac gleefully nodded, "But of course! I'm more than willing to agree!" Suddenly, he froze in thought as he looked perplexed and confused towards Ainz, "Ah…forgive me sir Ainz, but I cannot see a bag on you anywhere or carts nearby."

Seeing the man's confusion, Ainz chuckled slightly before assuring the merchant, "No need to fret, I have them right here" Ainz then silently cast [Create Item] to create a formal black suit familiar to his world that appeared in his hands as he presented the attire to Zanac.

The blond merchant could only shakily touch the clothes and feel the seamless suit, it was impossible to do it justice, the silky fabric of the apparel was unlike anything he has ever seen and there were no signs whatsoever of any needlework at all. It felt more like a relic to be admired than an attire to be worn. "This smooth fabric, I've never seen anything like it! I could offer you 50 gold coins for it and any information you seek, sir Ainz!" Zanac was practically salivating at the opportunity to acquire the suit in Ainz's hands, akin to a fish getting caught by the bait, and the fisherman is more than willing to catch this prey.

"Excellent. Do you have the coins on you right now, sir Zanac, or shall we go to your store?"

"We will have to go to my store for the money since I don't have much with me currently. And if the information is with me right now, I could offer it to you immediately." As Zanac said this, he motioned for Ainz to follow him to his carriage as he hopped back in and moved to give the sorcerer the space to enter as well, who gave the merchant a small nod of gratitude before sitting down facing him.

"Then let me begin. I'm not sure if it's obvious or not, but I'm not from this nation and have been walking on foot for the last couple of days. I was hoping that you may provide information on this nation so that I may maneuver easily."

"Ah, I understand, sir Ainz, is there any information in particular you are looking for?"

"Nothing specific, but I hope for any information on the current ongoings of the country along with any notable places and landmarks for me to travel to, suffice to say, I lack in the most public of information about this nation."

Zanac nodded to Ainz's words as he began to speak, "Alright then. To begin with, our nation is the Kingdom of Belfast, with its capital being the City of Alephis where the Royal Family resides. The nation's economy is primarily supported by its large sewing industry due to our most famous commodity, silk fabrics, with the Killua Province being the main location of the largest silk farms in the entire kingdom. There are multiple towns dotting the country, with the one closest to us currently being the Town of Reflet, where we are currently heading. The nation is currently undergoing quite a lot of changes due to our potential alliance with the newly founded demi-human kingdom of Mismede. And as far as I'm aware, there are no wars or conflicts within the nation or in its surroundings, sans the old enmity with one of our neighbors, so I can say that we are at a time of peace which would hopefully extend into the far future should our alliance with Mismede comes to fruition."

The merchant shook his head seemingly to himself before continuing, "Of course, generations of prejudice will make this extremely difficult as it is a common view among some of the common populace and even some of the nobles that demi-humans are inferior or even a threat to humans. So the fate of this alliance is quite murky as of now."

"In any case, the town we are entering, Reflet, is relatively peaceful, with its points of interests being my shop, Aer's Parent Coffee Shop, the Silver Moon Inn, the Eight Bears Weapon Shop, and the Adventurer's Guild sub-branch located near the center of the town. With the Headquarters of the Guild located in the Capital City."

As Zanac began to catch his breath after recounting all the information he had on him, Ainz began mentally taking notes of this information as he nodded to Zanac to show that he's been listening. "Thank you, sir Zanac, but may I ask a favour from you? Could I perhaps purchase a map from you? Or is there a cartographer in the city I could visit?"

"No need, good sir! I will give you one along with your monetary compensation in the shop, it doesn't cost much in comparison to the clothes you have given me after all!"

Ainz only gave a nod of gratitude towards the merchant as the two began conversing once more till they reached the store.

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐕ )ᕗ

Ainz was walking down the street after leaving Zanac's store with a pouch full of gold coins and a map of the kingdom and the surrounding nations that he kept inside his {Inventory}. Though he did feel it a bit unfair when he felt that the clothes weren't worth that much in comparison, in the end he didn't say anything as he believed that the clothing store's owner would find more worth in them than him. '"One man's trash is another man's treasure" as they say, in any case. I should go find that Silver Moon Inn right now to set up a temporary base. I don't want to stay on the streets, even if I don't need sleep, or food, to begin with."

As he continued strolling by trying to see where he could find an inn, he suddenly heard a quarrel in a nearby alleyway. And with curiosity filling him inside, the undead sorcerer went to the alley in question as he began to observe what is occurring.

"You said one gold coin! Not a silver coin!" one of the four present in the alleyway, a woman with long silver hair and green eyes, exclaimed with anger towards the two men in front of her with the other woman—her twin sister perhaps, if the similar hair and eye colour is any indication—was right beside her.

"Nuh-uh, lady. See this scratch? You're lucky to get one silver coin girly," the man, who in Ainz's opinion looked completely like the perfect mob thug, snickered at the girl while pointing at a nick on what seemed to be an antler made from clear glass.

The man's companion laughed at the two girls as he threw a silver coin to the ground, enjoying the angry expressions of the sisters.

The girl who first spoke sighed in exasperation before holding out her gloved hand, "Forget it. I don't need your money. Just give us back the antler and we'll be on our way."

"This is ours now, seeing as how you gave it to us. We ain't giving it back, lady, a deal's a deal," the man wearing a green shirt argued.

Seeing the situation happening, the supreme being began thinking, 'Should I help those two? From what it seems, the antler seems to be a monster drop rather than a craftsman's work, so the two of them are most definitely one of those adventurers Zanac was talking about. Perhaps helping them out would prove beneficial to me in the future. Besides, I'm quite curious about this antler, perhaps I could acquire it for myself.' Reaching this conclusion, Ainz began walking towards the quartet while coughing slightly, drawing their attention.

"Excuse me ladies, but I happen to overhear this little argument between you and these two gentlemen, and I would like to offer a gold coin in exchange to take this glass antler for myself, if that is alright with you." Ainz's nonchalance at the situation confounded the two thugs while the girls looked surprised at his offer, before the two began to smile and the same girl that was arguing with the men gave a thumbs up while smiling, "You've got yourself a deal!"

"Now hold on, just who do you think you are waltzing in and demanding what's ours?!" The thug holding the antler shouted in anger while unsheathing his dagger and pointing it at the mage, his friend mirroring his actions.

Ainz only looked in disinterest at the two before casting a silent [Twin Hold Species], the two men only widened their eyes as their bodies refused to move, stuck in place as if they were petrified. Ainz however only came closer and took the antler from the man's hand before going to the girls and holding out the offered gold coin. "Here you go, a deal's a deal."

The twins could only look surprised as this stranger in front of them seemingly immobilized the two men before taking the glass antler and offered them the gold coin in the palm of his gloved hand, a part of them felt a twinge of fear and shock at what they believe to be a form of either Dark Magic or a Null spell belonging to the towering mage in front of them. The long-haired girl shook her head before smiling at the mage and taking the gold coin, "Thank you, sir!"

Ainz gave a slight laugh before putting the antler in his sleeve to silently cast a quick [Repair] on the antler and putting it in his {Inventory}. "My pleasure, now then…"

The atmosphere suddenly seemed to drop a few degrees as Ainz turned around and looked at the two immobilized thugs, "Listen here you two, if I were to hear wind of you attempting to swindle or threaten others again... it won't end with you simply frozen in place next time. Do I make myself clear?" The icy tone Ainz used coupled with his natural baritone voice only seemed to frighten the two even more as they began blinking rapidly and sweating heavily in utter fear.

Seeing that his threat was engraved in the psyche of the two men, Ainz cancelled the spell as the two dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, before immediately getting up and running away, screaming all the while, with the smell of ammonia wafting through the air, accompanying the screaming pair.

The twins in the meanwhile seem to be both scared and mighty impressed by the man's attitude towards their former 'business partners' and how he frightened them so. It seemed that their surprise held for so long that they were heavily startled when Ainz coughed slightly while looking back at them.

"I apologize for the unseemly behaviour. I am Ainz Ooal Gown, may I inquire about your names?"

"Um…yeah," the long-haired girl coughed slightly before introducing herself with a small smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir Gown, the name's Elze Silhoueska, and this is my twin sister, Linze Silhoueska."

The now-named Linze shook her head to collect herself before bowing slightly towards the masked mage while uttering shyly. "A-a pleasure to meet you as well, sir Gown."

'So Miss Elze is the outgoing one while Miss Linze is the meek one.' Ainz noted to himself before giving a slight bow replying, "It's a pleasure to meet you as well Miss Elze, Miss Linze. And please, you can simply call me Ainz, no honorifics needed."

"Then you can simply call us by our names too, no honorifics needed as well. And I must say, your timing is impeccable, though we could definitely fight off those two easily, we could have been held responsible by the guards if they are the only ones injured, even if they tried to swindle us out of our money," Elze said as she shook her head with an exasperated smile.

"I-I told you not to accept that quest, sis. If you just listened to me, none of this would've happened…" Linze added in her two cents as she looked at her older twin with disapproval, the girl in question drooped her head in response.

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry, Linze, guess that's the end of our days doing quests not belonging to the Adventurer's Guild."

'So I was correct, they are adventurers.' Ainz mentally remarked at his correct hypothesis before asking. "If I may ask, before coming here, I was looking for the Silver Moon Inn, could the two of you perchance guide me to its location?"

The two suddenly perked up and looked up in surprise at Ainz, the mage in question feared that something was wrong from their reactions. But before he could speak, Elze replied quickly while giving a small grin, "What are the odds? Me and Linze are actually staying there. We were going to head back to our room once we dealt with the whole debacle with those two goons. If you want, you can come with us, it's no skin off our backs," at her sister's offer, Linze nods as if to give affirmation.

Ainz mentally sighed before bowing slightly and responding, "Then please, allow me to do so, it would save me the trouble of running haggard all night searching for it."

"Great, now let's go!" As she finished speaking, Elze immediately started walking out of the alley towards the inn with her sister and their new acquaintance following behind her.

A.N: Hello everyone,

I'll keep it short and simple. I'm a new writer joining the ranks with this being my first ever fic, I got the idea for this fic after talking with NitroThunder224, the writer of the other Overlord and IAWWMS crossover, and after getting his blessing, made this first chap. Thanks for everything bro.

Beta-read by: NitroThunder224