AN: Hello there. This is technically the first story that I am writing, so please be patient with me. I will read all your comments and appreciate any constructive criticism or ideas. Also, English is not my first language, so don't roast me too badly, please. Also, I will try to write with translated suffixes instead of "-sama", but sometimes I will probably either forget or need to use them to show how certain characters address each other.
AN: My goal with this story is a possible continuation of Evileye's official side story, so I will try to keep true to most of the canon world built by Kugane Maruyama, so if I make any significant and unnecessary changes, please inform me, however I might add something new that could be explained either that it changed with new timeline or it was not yet mentioned in the novel. Also, I assume that everyone has already read the canon story up to the novel or seen the anime up to season 4. So I will skip any descriptions of known canon characters like Albedo.
"speech"
[spells, skills, martial arts]
{messages}
'thoughts'
Suzuki Satoru suddenly jolted awake in his sad excuse of a bed. Eyes wide and scanning his miniature room. 'Was that a dream?' He quickly thought before squashing the wrong notion out of his mind.
NO.
It was not a dream, no dream lasts for over 200 years. Not to mention the vivid detail in which he could recall all his memories. 'Wait, something is wrong,' Satoru thought as he realized that, in fact, he could only recall certain important parts of his adventure, like meeting Keno or killing that dragon; otherwise, he could barely recall details of other members of the New Ainz Ooal Gown. However, he knew perfectly again every nook and cranny of his own guildbase, and it was time to start planning how to deal with them.
'I will have highest chances of sucess in case I will be transported along with Nazarick... but then there is a risk that Keno will die again. Well, that shouldn't happen as he promised that he will make sure she survives. But I don't really trust him, maybe I will again go out and get transported into the era of-!' Pain, incredible pain shot through his fragile human body, so much that he would have collapsed if not for tha fact he was sitting in his bed. Looking in the nearby mirror shocked him. Under his ribcage, an ethereal image of his world item was shining, and with each small glitter, each pulse of light, pain wracked his body. 'So this is the assurance of Soul-contract huh ? I guess I will have to abide by its rules then.' He begrudgingly admitted and the pain stopped in time with the image to stop shining, slowly dimming until there was nothing left. 'Curious, does the wild magic has this image because it was infused into the orb ? It is the magic of the soul so it affects me in both bodies huh...' Suzuki shook his head, there was no time for idle thoughts, focus was needed if Nazarick was about to be contained. Sadly he couldn't just destroy it, as that would also be against the Soul-contract.
'Alright, in the worst-case scenario, Nazarick will turn against me once I forbid any unprovoked destruction; in that case, I will need my friends with me to fend them off. However, no one will come. At best, I could try to talk HeroHero into it, and... wait, last time I just mentioned it is supposed to be one last goodbye if I tell everyone that Nazarick will be transported to another world. No, wait, that won't do.' While it was unlikely, if he straight up wrote that he is from the future and Nazarick is going to be sent into another world at the time of the server shutdown, everyone would think he lost it at best, and at worst some megacorps would block him for 'mental health issues," essentialy making him unable to be sent into the New World.
'Interesting... I don't remember being so calculating. Wait, I can suddenly remember basically everything that I once thought I forgot. Perhaps it is because my brain is from this time and not from the future, but it still has memories of the future. I guess that is why they are so hazy now'. Satoru mused.
'Not to mention, I have to go to work," he groaned mentally and started preparing for work, but before that, he quickly put together the same email he did 200 years ago, but this time he added a paragraph about having an incredibly vivid dream about Nazarick becoming real at the hour of the shutdown and stating that even though it is understandable that everyone would doubt it, he firmly believes it will become so, with every player that is online at that time being transported too into a new, unpolluted world, where level 50 is considered legendary power.
'How many of them will think this is just a pathetic attempt from me to get them to one last get-together? Probably a lot. I should be prepared for some strongly worded letters to come from them.
That day in Yggdrasil
Momonga was browsing the marketplace and was quite satisfied with his findings. His first priority was to get a few inventory expanders. Both multipliers and items added a solid number of slots. At least he hoped his new friends would be able to use them. He also managed to get one more Wishing ring, which he was both satisfied with and frustrated by, considering how much money he spent on the first, while the second one was basically for free just because the servers were ending and nobody cared anymore.
The next item that he got was a wand that negated intrinsic immunity to the weakest crowd controls. This item was complete trash in many ways. While being able to bypass the inherent immunities that heteromorphic races were giving to players was good, it came with a limit. The most effective wands could even make skeletons vulnerable to critical hits or insanity; however, the more powerful they were, the easier it was to resist them, an unfortunate drawback that made those items nearly useless alone. Momnga bought the weakest one because it removed his immunity to sleep spells. Sleep spells were also trash, as enemies awoke after a certain (and usually minor) amount of damage. This time, however, perhaps he would be able to sleep.
He also got a ring that allowed the undead to recieve buffs from food. While it was not much, he hoped that he would be able to eat and taste food with it. He also bought lots of Bottle of Living Water, items, which were not veusefulull in the game, as they simply provided 5% of maximum health back should the player ;however,in the description,was said, that the user could only die by being killed by someone. And Momonga was really curious if in the New World, he could grant eternal youth with it.
Satisfied with his findings, he teleported back to his guild and started inspecting the enhancing chamber. Which was the place for leveling up custom-guild NPCs. Level 100 was, of course, a hard limit, but maybe he could use this so that Keno would be strong enough to never die.
Touch-me has logged in.
'WHAT?! This has not happened before.' Momonga thought, and he activated his ring to teleport to the conference room. There was already an insectoid standing there with only a loincloth and looking intensely at Momonga.
"Touch-me! Welcome back." Momonga said cheerfully, happy that at least one of his friends logged in, if just for a short while, because of his email.
"Hello, Momonga, thank you for the warm welcome," the insectoid said and displayed a happy emote. "I am impressed that Nazarick is still standing; thank you again for keeping it for us." He said he mimicked a slight bow as much as the game allowed him to.
A little bit of bitterness swelled up within Momonga; at first it was because he was left alone to manage Nazarick, but then it transformed into something else. A bitterness that he didn't let go of this guild and didn't let it fall. After all, this all is the fault of Nazarick and mostly its NPCs.
Composing a bit, Momonga answered. "It was no problem, Touch. I couldn't let our home fall into ruin after all. Anyway, I presume you are here because of the email I sent.
Touch-me stiffed a little, then nodded and sat down on one of the chairs, and Momonga didn't reprimand him for sitting on a different chair than his own. "Yes, I am. Momonga, I understand if you only want to motivate us to come here for the shutdown, but..." he stopped, unsure how to continue without sounding accusatory.
"But you want to know if I am still sane?" Momonga finished his question as he sat down in his own chair.
"No, nothing like that!" The insectoid quickly rebuked him, then added "Just... could I bother you with a longer explanation?" He asked, lifting his eyes to meet Momonga's eye sockets with flaming orbs.
"Sure," the skeleton answered, unsure what was going on.
"You see, my daughter has lung cancer." Touch-me started before being interrupted by a loud "WHAT?" from his friend.
"Oh, sorry for the outburst; please continue." The skeleton said sheepishly, and Touch-me continued.
"Treating symptoms is possible, but sadly, curing her completely is impossible; the cancer has progressed too far." Touch-me said. While most operations were extremely expensive, Touch-Me wouldn't mind spending a lot of money to ensure his family's safety and happiness; however, even with more advanced technology for treating and curing basically all diseases there are, if some illness gets too far, there is no stopping it. It was not researched how to cure the more advanced stages because the only people that had enough influence and money to order such research were getting checked regularly, so there was virtually no risk of them letting such an illness progress beyond medicine.
"I want to know... did you really have that dream? How sure are you that we will be transported and transformed into our avatars?"
Momonga was shocked to hear something like this. He realized that Touch-me was desperate, to say the least; he was grasping straws like a drowning man, all because he didn't want his child to die. However, as shocked as Momonga was, he realized that what Touch-Me was doing was not so different from what he is doing right now. Momonga stayed silent for a while, wondering what he should say.
"I cannot guarantee something like this will happen. I know it sounds crazy, but I truly do believe it will happen. I fully expected half of you to call me crazy when I wrote the email. If you want proof of how much I believe it will happen, I'll show you items that I got today in the main marketplace." With those words, he opened his inventory and poured all the items he got today onto the table.
"I am afraid that I don't understand; except for the inventory expander, there is nothing useful."
"Well, as a skeleton, I cannot eat, so I hope that with the ring that gives me buff from food, I will also be able to taste it, and the wand is also self-explanatory if you look at it from the same perspective." Momonga proudly explained without caring about the surprised and concerned look Touch-Me was giving him.
"Right..." Touch-me said, without even trying to hide his own doubts about Momonga's sanity. "Well, I guess that makes sense, so you really believe it, huh?"
"Yes. I understand if you think that I am crazy." Momonga sighed, looking down at the ground, feeling slightly embarrassed that his close friend believed in his insanity. However, there was no time to be shy now; to have a chance to survive if NPCs turned against him, he had to convince him, right here, right now. "Touch me, please listen to me. This may sound heartless, but it sounds like the only chance for your daughter to have a normal life. I personally don't see the harm in believing that a miracle can truly happen. Even if only this once. Because it is the only thing that can help in a situation where conventional methods are powerless." Silence settled in the room as Momonga finished his little speech. While he could theoretically tell Touch-Me what really happened, it would make him sound even more crazy.
"Please don't make me regret it." Said quietly, Touch-me.
Touch-me has logged off.
'Huh ? Not even goodbye? I guess he really must be feeling down.' Momonga mused as he exited the conference room and headed out of Nazarick to farm some equipment specialized for vampires.
Conference room, day of server shutdown, 21:30
Momonga was sitting in a conference room, but he was not alone. Together with him were Nubo, the Gazer anti-mage, and Ancient One, the True Nephilim Illusionist.
Nubo looked like a completely black head floating in the air, with a giant eye just above his lowly-positioned nose, hands instead of ears, and a mass of tentacles that each ended with an orange eye. His build was specialized both in scrying and anti-magic, since mages had access to the most powerful anti-scrying abilities, it was necessary to have his own countermeasures.
Ancient one was a true Nephilim; it was an ultra-rare race class because it was only accessible if someone already had at least 25 levels in Illusionist-type job classes. And the only notable perk of this 5-level race class was the ability to switch at will between demon and angelic forms, where the demon one would look hideous and would have access to some damage spells and abilities, while the angelic form would have healing and support-based abilities and spells. While it sounded good on paper, the practical power of those forms was somehow lackluster, as even the combat-specialized demonic one only gave abilities comparable to level 70 destructive potential. Most players didn't consider this worth it, but Ancient One found a genius way to exploit it. The demonic form had complete resistance to dark elements, while the angelic form had complete resistance to holy damage. This, combined with his equipment that granted high resistance to all other elements and magic, meant that the only way to damage him was through physical attacks, dark or holy elements, depending on which form he chose. Combine that with illusions, which were obviously most effective against warriors, and you have a defensive build that could practically be killed only if players with both holy and dark elements ganged upon him. And to avoid the possibility of simply ignoring him, he had also chosen one illusionist-rogue hybrid class, which basically granted him the ability to wield daggers or maces, and if anyone would ignore him and his illusions, he would get bonus damage against them. This class also granted him high agility, which he exploited further by customizing his demonic form via cash-shop items to be an obese and immobile-looking demon with gray skin, tiny limbs, and a few short tentacles under his nose that obscured his mouth. His angelic form, on the other hand, was a stereotypical angel with white wings, blond hair, and blue eyes, and was very pleasing to look at.
With his demonic form active, Ancient One spoke, "Momonga, I am not saying that you are crazy, only that after midnight feel free to call me to schedule a therapy session. I will even give you a discount." Ancient one was a therapist in real life, which made him one of the better-paid citizens, enough that he could afford to start a family.
"I assure you I am fine, Ancient One, thanks for the offer anyway," responded Momonga, feeling quite annoyed that this discussion has been dragging on for a while already.
"I guess we could save our jabs at him for after we get ejected from the game," said Nubo, meaning both a jab at Momonga and a little reprimand for Ancient One.
'Thanks for the trust...' Momonga wanted to say, but held himself steady and instead replied, "That would be appreciated, by the way, how is that initiative Blue Planet is a part of doing?" The initiative in question was an attempt to restore Earth to a better state. Nubo, as an expert in measuring and mapping the layouts of various toxins and gases in the air, would know a lot about such things.
"Honestly, I don't think they have a chance, while restoration is theoretically possible, it would need a lot of money, and those greedy bastards don't want to part with it." Nubo said with bitterness in his voice, while suddenly;
Tabula Smaragdina has logged in.
Ulbert Alain Odle has logged in.
"Interesting, I expected Ulbert to show up, but you too, Tabula? How are you doing anyway?" asked Ancient One with a hint of curiosity in his voice as an almost naked brain eater and demon appeared in the conference room.
"Come on, Ancient One, you know how much I enjoy mysteries and the occult; how could I pass up this opportunity?" Asked Tabula a rhetorical question. Ulbert, just next to him, just rolled his eyes.
"The question is, who would expect me not to latch onto the only opportunity that I have to survive for more than a few months, huh?" Ulbert answered with a bitter undertone in his voice.
"I apologize. It was not my intention to make you angry; after all, I am here for quite the same reason." Stated Ancient one, earning shocked stares from Ulbert and Tabula.
"Ancient-one is already 58 years old; it is a small miracle he has managed to live this long, and he doesn't want to die just yet, just like you, Ulbert." Explained Nubo with all the finesse of a sledgehammer. All his guildmates just silently rolled their eyes at his bluntness. They have all already come to terms with the fact that Nubo simply said whatever he had in mind. Sometimes it was annoying, but at least you were sure he was not trying to sugarcoat anything, not to mention that sometimes it was very useful as a situation was quickly resolved thanks to the fact that he simply said what was going on without any wordplay whatsoever, like now, for example.
"Ehm..." Tabula faked a cough and looked intensely at Momonga while sitting down. "So, why exactly do you believe that Nazarick will be transported to a different world? What exactly in that dream was so different that it felt like a vision of the future instead of just a product of your imagination?" He asked, looking eagerly at the overlord.
While this question would normally seem a little condescending, The sheer enthusiasm that was radiating from Tabula made everyone more than aware that Tabula was more interested in the hours before midnight than the prophesied event, just the anticipation and theorizing would make those hours more fun to the brain eater than whatever other entertainment he could imagine.
Momonga was quite aware of it and answered completely calmly. "When I woke up, I simply had a really intense feeling that it would happen, and my head started to hurt a little when I was trying to deny it to myself." He said this, trying to make the second part of his sentence sound just as natural as the first one.
"Fascinating, so what did you exactly see in that dream of yours?" Tabula asked, completely oblivious to the fact that he was the only one in the room who didn't catch Momonga's unnatural tone in the second part of his sentence.
Conference room, 22:30
Momonga was thanking god for his foresight in preparing a believable story about his 'dream' that he could explain. Otherwise, he would surely slip up in Tabula's enthusiastic and merciless bombardment with questions. The others were either listening to them or catching up, as it had been a few years since they had last seen each other. This relaxed atmosphere was suddenly interrupted.
Herohero has logged in.
"Hey, how are you all doing?" Hero said with a tired voice that others immediately noticed.
"Tabula is interrogating Momonga, and we are catching up on good old times." Said Nubo, earning a chuckle from the Elder Black Ooze.
"Ahh, yes, so you all believe in that, huh? Honestly, I want to believe in that too, and I intended to stay here up till midnight, but I am way too tired for that," complained Herohero.
"Huh ? Is it that bad, Hero? Has it gotten that bad in the two years we haven't seen each other?" Asked Momonga, with others listening.
"Two years? It has been that long. This sucks, my time perception is messed up."
"In that case, you should try to get a holiday or call in sick; you cannot continue in your current state for long," said Ancient one, while looking concerned at his overworked guildmate.
"Yeah, but what can I do? If I don't go to work, I won't get any money and will starve to death." Hero said, despair creeping into his voice.
"You know, Hero, I have it similar to you, with the only difference being that I will starve to death in a few months even if I go to work." Said Ulbert, getting a few irritated looks in his direction.
"What?" said the demon, oblivious to the reason others were a little irritated with him.
"And that is why you should stay here till the end; it is quite possibly your only chance of breaking free from that shitty life." Said Momonga, both to motivate his friend to stay and to steer the conversation away from potential conflict. However, in his heart, he was feeling a little more anxious than he was letting on. After all, what if it fails? What if they wouldn't be transported because there were too many people? Or, in the possibly worst-case scenario, what if- No, it wouldn't do any good to think about this. He had long since resolved to try this; there would be no chickening out in the last hour.
"I know, you are right, Momonga, but I am not sure that I can stay awake even for another 10 minutes, not to mention almost an hour and a half." Said Herohero.
"Herohero, your company is quite notorious for being one of the worst ones out there; even if you catch one more hour of sleep, it is not going to help you in the long run. I know it feels bad to give up on sleep or other plans you might have had for the night, but there will be no other opportunity, and even if the dream Momonga had is just that, a dream, at least you would know that you have done all that you could and didn't give up for some fleeting rest." Tabula commented, surprising everyone that he spoke quite normally and hadn't started rambling about cosmic fate, dream clairvoyance, and whatnot.
"Wow, I hadn't expected being berated would motivate me, but thank you, Tabula," the slime said, sounding a little less fatigued.
Peroroncino has logged in.
Bukubukuchagama has logged in.
"Pero, you are here too." Ulbert asked, sounding genuinely surprised. Peroroncino was extremely easy-going and friendly to everyone and was known for shortening the names of others, so everyone was calling him Pero. In this regard, he was quite similar to his sister, which both of them vehemently denied every time someone brought it up.
"Sure thing, man, even if there is only 1% chance that my Shalltear can become a real waifu, I would take it! Of course, I would have to remove some fetishes I gave her as a joke, but after it is done, she will be absolutely perfect." said Peroroncino enthusiastically, before being smacked on the head by the tendril of her sister, which of course did no damage as they were classified as allies.
"And of course I had to go too to keep watch over this birdbrain so that he would not embarrass himself here too much." She said it in her cheerful voice.
"Oh, so you decided to come here together? I didn't know you two were so much in contact; I must say it truly warms my heart to hear it." Said Ancient one and stroked his face tentacles, which was supposed to make him look like a wizened sage, but instead he looked like a plotting demon lord to most uninformed people who hadn't yet realized his smooth personality.
"Well..." Buku started, before Pero decided to interrupt her, "you know, sis is currently living at my place because there is some stalker that has managed to track her down and is constantly hanging around her house."
"They didn't need to know that, birdbrain!" hissed Buku in a loud voice.
"What's up, pink penis? Are you embarrassed that you are living in your little brother's house like some NEET?" Teased her Peroroncino mercilessly.
"OK, that's it! I am kicking your ass back to level 1!" Said buku and tried to reach for a weapon before realizing she, like her brother, had no equipment.
She immediately looked at the almost-naked Avian and then noticed that Tabula and Ulbert also don't have clothes. "Excuse me, but can you put anything on yourselves so it doesn't look like a nudist club in here?" She asked in her natural, low voice.
"I was wondering who would notice it first, and it seems Tabula and Ulbert were far too engrossed in their conversation to care for anything." The ancient one dryly remarked, earning excuses from both of them.
"Anyway, Momonga-oniichan, do you have any clothes for Buku?" Bukubukuchagame asked in her best acting voice, earning groans and chuckles from the table.
"I actually have your original gear that you left me." Momonga remarked, as if he had not just dropped a bombshell on them.
"WHAT ?!" The table exclaimed almost as one.
"Well, that's great news; at least I don't have to worry about picking up new gear of lower quality." Ulbert happily said
Momonga passed them all rings of Ainz Ooal Gown, and they all teleported to the Treasury, safely ignoring the toxic gases as they were classified as members of the guild.
"Um... Momo? Did you invite some hardcore dragon roleplayer who wanted to pretend to be a greedy dragon sleeping on gold?" asked Peroroncino while staring at the ginormous pile of treasury, oblivious to the discomfort he was causing the guildmaster.
Then, as if to save the overlord from embarrassment,
Touch-me has logged in.
"Excuse me, I'll go and greet Touch," Momonga said and quickly teleported out.
Just a short while later, they both teleported to the Treasury.
"Hey Touch, how have you been doing?" Herohero asked the paladin.
"Sorry, but I have an emergency on my hands that needs to be resolved post haste. Catch up with you later." The paladin quickly said this and started walking deeper into the Treasury.
"Looks like you are acting just as self-important as ever, Touch-me." Said Ulbert, who was promptly ignored by everyone.
"What is going on, Touch? Can we somehow help you?" The corrosive slime didn't give up and tried to talk to the insectoid once more.
"Some assholes who think they are hot shit are spawncamping my daughter between Tutorial Zone and Bifrost of Midgard; I need to teach them a lesson." Touch me said without looking back. "Oh, and I'll borrow the upgraded power suit for a while."
"Sure, just don't forget to take off your ring before entering the Mausoleum, or the golems will attack you." Warned Momonga. "You all should probably also get your gear." He joined the remaining players.
"Hold up... 'daughter' ?! He really believes you, Momonga, doesn't he?" remarked Ulbert, half surprised, half snarky.
"So ? I have been telling you only what I believe is the truth; what is wrong with believing me?" Momonga said, a little annoyance shining through his tone. Ulbert quickly mumbled that it was nothing and went with the others to the mausoleum.
While everyone was gathering their gear, Momonga quickly opened the description of his NPC and wrote that he is absolutely loyal to Momonga above anything and anyone else, and manipulations like "It is for Momonga's good" don't work on him. While he was making sure there was at least one absolutely trustworthy NPC, something caught his eye. - loves to speak German, especially formalities of conversations, like greetings, goodbyes or simply acknowledging someone's order.- Momonga immediately erased that line, but before he had time to look into his own black box of chuuni further, his friends were already equipped, and he quickly closed the description so that they wouldn't see it.
"By the way, does anyone know what is wrong with his daughter that he is trying this transport thing?" asked Bukubukuchagama, a little unsure if she was not being too impolite.
"He told me a few days ago that his daughter has lung cancer, but please try to be tactful about it." said Momonga, especially staring at Ulbert. Everyone gulped, realizing that the paladin was really desperate, and agreed to be supportive till midnight.
"I wouldn't dare to think about making fun of him or his actions." The Ancient One said, "However, I believe there is one thing that should be concerning to us." With this, the attention of players was upon him, and so he continued, "Peroroncino, you said that you intend to change Shalltear's description to remove some of her more extreme fetishes and so on to make her your 'perfect waifu', and I wanted to ask you, why do you think that the text written in the description even matters?"
That briefly stunned everyone in the room, including Momonga. 'Does it even matter? I remember being more cruel, but that may have been because I was simply undead, or perhaps...' Momonga quickly opened his settings and backstory, clearly seeing the flavor text that stated he was 'cold and calculated, caring only about a handful of his closest friends; while he generally does not enjoy violence, if it benefits him or those he cares about, there is no cruelty he wouldn't do'. Just like he was before being sent back. Momonga then looked around, with everyone looking at him, hoping that he would know the answer or at least have a clue.
Supressing a panic attack from being put on the spot, he calmly inhaled and spoke, "I do believe that they hold some influence over the little things like personality, description, karma value, and also race classes."
Silence descended as everyone was in thought, before Nubo simply stated, "I can't speak for everyone, but since we decided we would believe in the transport, why not go all the way?"
"Then we should probably figure out how not to lose ourselves and our humanity to the personalities of our characters and races." Said Ancient one, sounding more urgent than anyone remembered him having ever been.
"Why ?" A confused and a little condescending shout sounded behind the illusionist, and to no one's surprise, their resident demon was about to have a speech. "Why are you saying it like it is a bad thing? After all, our characters and races reflect how we roleplayed here for almost a decade, and we had a good time. Together, we tasted the sweetest victories and weathered the worst losses, even when acting 'in character', a.k.a., as if we WERE our characters. And that is not even the thing I would like to ask you the most. After all, what good is even our humanity to begin with? Why are you talking like it is some sort of virtue to have one? Do I need to remind you of our 'humane' world, destroyed by our 'humane' efforts to prosper, or our 'humane' bosses and megacorp CEO's, with their 'humane' policies about treating ordinary workers?" Ulbert finished his rant, almost shouting at the Ancient One.
Ancient one deeply inhaled and, without flinching, looked into the world disaster's eye and answered. "So the reason you wish to get rid of your humanity is because you want to slaughter the oppressors together with the oppressed without any guilt?"
At this statement, Ulbert flinched in shock, which was noticeable even in his avatar. Ancient one, seeing his chance, tried to continue.
"Ancient One, I think this is eno-"
"No, this needs to be said, and it needs to be said now!" The illusionist interrupted Momonga and took another breath.
"Ulbert, I never said you should go easy on villains. What you misinterpreted was simply the fact that, currently, our humanity is the only moral compas that we know. If we get rid of it, who knows what we will start to think, feel, and become? We might remember it, but our new bodies might constantly push us in a new direction that our current selves would not want. And I am not even getting to the main problem. After all, my old friend, you forgot one crucial detail. Our characters were not friends; they never interacted in the first place. Our friendship, the bond that holds our guild together, is not between game avatars but between the humans who are piloting those avatars, we all knew that our whole time together, even during the hardest roleplay sessions. If this becomes real, the stakes will rise exponentially as our very lives will be on the line. In this unknown situation, if we start any infighting, it might lead to our doom. But right now, we all have a mostly united vision and set of moral values. That is why I am asking you and everyone present here to try to do everything you can to retain as much of yourselves as possible when transferring to the new world."
Silence. Absolute silence stretched across the whole treasury. Everyone was stunned into silence, except Momonga, who simply started to retype some things in his character description. 'I remember Keno also saying that I am too cruel. So maybe toning it down a little...' were his thoughts. As he briefly edited his description. He altered it so that he would try to find a way where most innocents would survive. If he found no such route, he would massacre as many civilians and bystanders as it took to fulfill his goals. Also, when he was altering it, he added a sentence at the end saying that while normally undead are emotionless, he is able to feel happiness. This was purely due to the fact that it was annoying to have the pleasant feelings toned down. He didn't know if it would work, but he would lose nothing if it didn't.
"Well, then I guess I will bring some books from the library to the conference room so that we can study any undesirable quirks our races may give us." Tabula said so, mostly because he couldn't bear the heavy atmosphere anymore and teleported out.
"One more reason to go and tweak my Shalltear a bit... more than a bit, actually," casually said Peron, who also used the guild ring to teleport.
"We should probably head to the conference room and tweak both our characters and our creations, if we have any." Momonga also left.
Conference room: 23:45
After lots of reading, writing, and bashing heads against the table for having terrible tastes in retrospect (aka Peroroncino and Herohero a little), they were finally somewhat satisfied with their own description, confident that if they were transported, they would retain at least some aspects of themselves. It could be considered quite hypocritical that no one wanted to change their own personality yet insisted that it would benefit everyone if they themselves wrote some less-than-ideal character traits out of existence. So except for the NPCs, the only change was that everyone would remember what it was like to suffer under the CEOs of their own world and act with at least some empathy for anyone they deemed oppressed in this new world they would find.
"Are you seriously telling me that you really want the twins to crossdress? Are you insane? What will happen with them when they mature?" Almost shouted Peroroncino at none other than his sister.
"Of course, that's how I originally created them, and unlike certain perverts, I am not ashamed of them." Chagama practically singed in her childlike voice, to the irritation of her brother.
This quarrel has been going on for quite a while already. It was obvious to everyone involved that Buku believed nothing would happen, so she just used the opportunity to tease Peroroncino, who actually wanted her to change them since he felt bad about having their sibling bond parodied as it should have been in Buku's own imagination.
"They need to stay like that to remind you how you should be acting toward your big and wise sister." She continued, earning groans from her brother.
"Ehm..." Momonga faked a cough, "if you have finished with your squabbling, I propose going to the throne room to signify our new start that is about to come." He said. 'Not to mention, the throne room is where all the most important interfaces are, and if I sit on the throne of kings, it could be more likely that NPCs would be more loyal." Were his real reasons for wanting to be in the throne room. Anyway, he waited to see if anyone would protest.
When there were none, he quickly took the guild weapon and started to lead others out of the throne room.
"Wow, you finally look like a real leader, Momo." Peroroncino laughed kindheartedly.
Momonga knew this was simply how Peros always was and ignored his outburst.
While walking towards the throne room, the overlord was planning a strategy for how to deal with Albedo the quickest without raising any alarm. It would be quite easy considering Ulbert and Touch-me would (probably) be there, but there was the danger that Touch-me's daughter would be caught in the crossfire and killed. He was thinking of a solution when he saw Sebas and the Pleiades. 'Sebas... now that I think about it, isn't his second form that black dragonoid that I found crucified just...?" banishing unnecessary thoughts out of his head, he simply ordered -"Follow"- and the NPCs, according to their programming, followed after the group of players.
'Sebas is strong enough to shield Touch-me's daughter, he and Yuri have positive karma, and so they would probably defend us, Naberal and Epsilon have negative karma, but Epsilon's creator is here, so she should theoretically side with us. Lupusregina, Entoma, and Shizu remain. While Entoma would probably attack Touch-Me's daughter if she was hungry, Yuri should be able to protect her if she combined her power with Epsilon. And if we order Shizu and Lupusregina to make sure that Naberal doesn't attack, then she should be taken care of as well. I am not so sure about ordering them to kill her, as that may very well bring them against us. Maybe.
"Wow, you really are going for this 'Lord of the Tomb' vibe, aren't you, Momonga? I think it fits you nicely. Probably more than the nice guy act you were putting up when we were actively playing." Ulbert remarked, earning a glare from the overlord. The act Ulbert was referring to was simply that Momonga always acted only as a mediator and never tried to even roleplay as their leader, not even during their roleplay sessions. Getting into his evil skeleton character was not an uncommon occurrence, but you would never see him roleplaying as their leader, others always had to push him in that direction.
{Momonga, could you please add my daughter to Nazarick's guest list? Her character name is Yui.} Touch me send a message to the overlord.
'Yui ? Is that also her IRL name? Or does she have little imagination?' Thought the overlord as he added Yui Tu to the list.
{All done Touch.} He then sent it back.
As soon as she was added, two people teleported in front of them. One was the familiar world champion, while the other was a human girl looking about 18 years old with shoulder-long brownish hair and bright blue eyes. When Momonga saw this, he almost used the 'facepalm' emote out of habit at someone having selected the 'Defeault young adult, Number 1' look.
"Everyone, let me introduce you to my daughter, Yui. Yui, this is Momonga, Peroroncino, his sister Bukubukuchagama, Ulbert,..." and the paladin named all of the guild members.
"Hello everyone, I am Yui. Nice to meet you," said his daughter, slightly inclining her head. "Sorry if this is rude, but how old are you to believe that some bizarre isekai will happen?"
This took everyone off guard, and while most of them believed, or at least hoped, it would happen, some were here just for the fun of theorizing about it.
"I think we are all above 30 at least." Truthfully said Nubo, again not thinking about the reaction the other party will have.
"What the fuck? What is wrong with you, people? Shouldn't you be old enough to not believe this bullsh-?"
"Young lady!" thundered Ancient One in a very annoyed tone, untypical for him. "How about you at least try to understand the circumstances before judging others? For example, some are here because without this 'absurd isekai," they will die in about a month, some are here just because they are having fun theorizing about it happening. I would advise you to think carefully next time before saying something you might regret." He finished his scolding in a much calmer tone.
"Fine, I'll apologize to you all if we really get isekaid." she said, not wanting to admit she was wrong in her mannerisms.
"Oh yeah, definitely the spitting image of her father, hotheaded, impulsive, and self-righteous," remarked Ulbert, displaying the 'smug smirk' emote.
Touch-me wanted to retort, but before that could happen, "Well, I guess it is fair enough," said Momonga. "Just make sure you deliver and mean your apology, young lady."
"While I would like to point out she won't get the chance, we should go to the Throne Room to spend our last moments there in style," commented Tabula, before adding. "By the way, how is it possible that you are already level 5, Yui?"
"Because dad held back enough against those jerks that I finished off one of them when he was left with 1 HP and with all protections down." The human proudly proclaimed, all the players sensing how proud she is that her father is such a badass.
"Great, now let's stop standing around and go." mumbled Nubo and went ahead of the other players.
In the throne room, the players ascended the stairs, and Momonga sat on the Throne of kings. With about 10 minutes left, some started reminiscing about old days and the past, while others...
"Tabula, that succubus is really stunning; would you mind if I look at her settings?" asked Pero, unashamedly, while his sister was discussing something with Touch-me about security and stalker-related laws.
"Sure, but you are not allowed to edit anything." Said the Brain Eater and opened Albedo's settings while positioning himself next to the Divine Thunderbird so that no one else could see the NPC's settings.
"What the fuck is that last line?! You do realize he can't..."
"Shhh, it is meant to be a little surprise and a gift for our great leader, if this really becomes real." said Tabula with a plotting tone, which was quite infectious as Peroroncino realized that this would be a great prank on the guild master.
Just as they were about to join the others...
Yamaiko has logged in.
Everyone suddenly jumped at the pup-up icon, including Yui, who had been sent this notification as a guest and was not used to it.
Checking the timer, Momonga realized that it was barely 5 minutes till midnight. Just as he wanted to ask if anyone knew why Yamaiko was suddenly here, the throne room opened, and a nephilim giantess with a basic outfit and a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown entered the room.
"Hey, it's nice to see you all!"
She yelled across the entire room and went to the throne.
"Yamaiko, it's good to see you too. I honestly thought you wouldn't want to come and try this considering you already have a decent life." Tabula stated, stroking his facial tentacles out of habit.
"It's not like I wouldn't want it, more like I don't believe it. It's just..." At this point, the nephilim stopped briefly talking before sighing, "I guess I am acting stupid at this point. Akemi is also online for the shutdown, so just in case Momonga's dream comes true, I don't want her to be alone."
"It's not like you have to explain your reasons to us, just relax, will you?" Stated Peroroncino, trying to dispel the worrying atmosphere that settled in the throne room.
Everyone knew that Yamaiko was overprotective of her younger sister, to the point that she was a frequent guest in the guild despite playing as an elf. Not everyone knew that her sister was extremely well-studied, was regarded as a genius by their parents and peers, and was often compared to Yamaiko. Normally, this would have rubbed most people the wrong way and caused them to feel any animosity towards their 'better' sibling, but Yamaiko's caring nature squashed any such ill feelings.
"I am glad to have you here, Yamaiko."
Was all that Momonga managed to get out of himself. He wanted to tell them that it would surely happen, but there was a problem. His emotions. The anxiety was crushing. He couldn't guarantee that they would be transported again, there was no way for him to do so, only to hope that the wild magic on him would make sure it would happen as it should.
"By the way, are you still playing somehow actively? It just feels that way considering that you have both a ring and some clothes equipped." Asked Buku curiously.
"Ah yes, I used to log in about once a week and talk a little to Momonga, but sadly, the last few months my school has been under huge reconstruction, so I was too busy to even consider it."
Admitted the nephilim while slightly rubbing her cheek with an enormous finger.
"Cool, just don't forget to get your battlegear if our resident undead's prophecy comes true." Stated Peroroncino, trying to prevent the topic from being about IRL even in the last moments of the game.
"Why would I need battle gear in that case? Will Nazarick's residents turn hostile on us?" Yamaiko panicked a little before Ancient One intervened.
"No, while it could happen, we don't think that would be the case. The reason is that the tomb might be immediately under invasion for all we know." - and you are about level 40 attack-wise without your gear on - was the unsaid implication.
It was true that Yamaiko's combat power was luckluster to say the least. She was specialized in tanking and healing, and her attack was quite low. Combine that with the fact that it was her gear that had increased her attack power, especially her 'Female Sensei's Iron Fist of Wrath.' This weapon, looking like a huge spiked gauntlet, was specialized in making shockwaves when the wielder punched the air. This gave Yamaiko both a ranged attack without wasting any mana when she couldn't tank anymore and a weapon that was quite good at dealing damage even through armor. Yamaiko was of course extremely tanky even without her gear on, after all, her gear was mostly focused on both mana and HP regeneration, so that in prolonged fights or raids, she could serve as a backup to other casters like Ulbert when they burned through their huge mana pools, as she also had the ability to transfer MP to top off all her other top-notch support abilities.
23:59:00 rolled on the clock.
Everyone took a somehow dignified position near the throne as they all quietly enjoyed the silent atmosphere of their accomplishments.
Momonga was sitting in the throne room, stiff and nervous. He knew he wouldn't be able to look into their eyes again if this failed, especially Touch-me, who would be hurt the most by that. He knew in his heart that they all would forgive him and said that it was only a dream after all, but perhaps their forgiveness would hurt the most, after all, it was not a dream, he would fail, again. It didn't really matter to him if the wild magic would activate in that case, but he hated the thought of failing both his friends and Keno.
"Here it comes!" almost shouted Tabula, full of childish giddiness. "If anyone wants to back down, let it be now or never!" While silently glancing at Yamaiko, who was checking her friends list to see the status of her sister.
Predictably, no one logged off because they either hoped they would be transported, believed nothing would happen, or wanted to be transported if the transport really worked for everyone who was online, as the guild master implied.
'Please... let it work again. And let me find all the new members of Ainz Ooal Gown in good health.' Momonga knew his wish would not be fulfilled. After all, some members of the new Ainz Ooal Gown he himself rescued, but he prayed that at least some of them would survive and that they would not be massacred like last time, even though in retrospect, no fate could be worse than the one they suffered last time, if that self-righteous dragon is to be believed.
23:56
23:57
23:58
23:59
00:00
The vision of all players went black, as the display announcing midnight was the only thing they saw.
Momonga felt energy pouring into his stomach, he knew this meant that the wild magic inside of him was fusing with the orb. In other words, they were just transported.
As soon as he finished this thought, the throne room lit up again and stayed the same, only now with the display gone.
Momonga felt true happiness that it worked. He stood up from the throne room, turned around grandly to his friends, raised both his free hand and the one that held the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown into the air, and shouted.
"MY FRIENDS! WELCOME TO A NEW WORLD!"
AN:Thank you for reading. Do not expect a set release schedule, as I probably won't keep it anyway and I don't want to rush the story.
Also, a disclaimer: As you might have guessed, Yui is in this story just so that I would have a reason to bring Touch-me to the roster of guild members. While I have some events and plotpoints that will involve her, I could also easily sideline her if you want me to focus more on our standard guild members. Please let me know that quickly so that I can establish the mechanics needed.
P.S. If you didn't know, Yamaiko's sister Akemi is a canon character; she is mentioned in LN a few times and played as an elf. There are some interesting plot points that could be developed here.
EDIT: HOLY FUCKING SHIT, no more spellcheckers. EVER. AGAIN. Even if it erased some of my mistakes, it destroyed my whole system with distuingishing speech and messages, instead of Ancient one was the ancient one everywhere... I had to re-read and re-edit this whole chapter because of it... I hope that you will find your reading experience much smoother from now on. Also, to those who managed to read that mess and even left a positive review: Thank you, you are saints, I would not have the patience to read something so riddled with errors.