Here's my latest story.
It is a crossover between Fate (specifically Fate Prototype) and Overlord.
These two licenses are of course the property of their respective owners, this story is only a FanFiction written by a fan for fans. It's not-for-profit volunteer work.
In a Medieval Fantasy world, what is the classic response for a Theocracy when threatened by a Demon King? Ask the gods to send them a Hero? This is what happens to Watanabe Haruko, 16-year-old Japanese reincarnated as her MMORPG character, the half-elf Miriel. Except she has to fight Ainz Ooal Gown... for the sake of the xenophobe's Slane Theocracy. Miriel's only asset? Her encyclopedic knowledge of Fantasy works.
Miriel
Watanabe Haruko was a very ordinary Japanese teenage girl.
Her family name was common. Her first name (meaning "Child of Spring") was due on her date of birth (March 1). One could say that her parents had shown no imagination in choosing it. In fact, they never show imagination...
Since we mentioned her parents, they were two regular office workers working in the same company. They were married at 25 because... they had to get married. They were Japanese like there were millions of others, hardworking, polite... dull, and without fuss. Their only ambition was to repay the loans to the bank for the car and the house.
Haruko was sixteen years old. She was in second grade in high school, class 2-C. Her grades were average. Every summer, she barely escaped the scram school, having just enough points not to have to retake the exams. In fact, only in literature and foreign language (English) did she have good grades.
Her appearance was as common as her name.
Frail and thin, Haruko was a typical Japanese teenager. She had no chest and very stiff hair. She wore her hair in two braids that fell on either side of her face. Myopic, she had to wear glasses.
It wasn't ugly. Just... ordinary, mundane... Maybe it was worse.
At the age of twelve, the Japanese woman understood that she would never be an Otome game heroine, the object of the adoration of all beautiful boys. It was quite ludicrous when you think about it... but like all little girls, Haruko had dreamed of being a princess. Understanding that she would never be looked upon with admiration, something had broken in her heart.
The exuberant little girl had grown up to be a shy, introverted, little talkative teenager. That didn't worry her parents. In fact, they were relieved. They were annoyed by the laughter, games, and songs of little Haruko. Evening, after stressful work in the office, Mr. and Mrs. Watanabe only wanted her to be a 'good kid'.
Oh, don't think Haruko's parents didn't care about her future. After classes, after the literature club (it was mandatory to participate in a club in her high school) when she came back around 8 pm, her parents would always call her before she reached her room: had she worked well, had she had good grades?
Note that they never asked if Haruko had had a good day.
Watanabe had a child because that was what was expected of them. They dressed her, fed her, and sent her to school... because that was what society expected of them. They always did what society expected of them.
They had already prepared her for the future. She would join a large company. Work diligently in an office. Marry at 25. She would have one or two children.
A colorless future.
A stifling life.
Wearing the Sailor Fuku uniform of her high school, her schoolbag in hand, Watanabe Haruko nervously hurried towards her class.
Like every morning, she had delayed as much as possible her arrival at the high school, entering just before the doors closed.
Her throat was dry and tight with anxiety, she stopped and her fingers began to tremble.
If only... if only she didn't have to go to school!
But Haruko couldn't even afford to enter class after the start of classes. This had happened to her twice this month and the teacher had warned her that she would have a note to have her parents sign if she arrived late a third time. The girl knew that her parents would just get angry, without trying to understand. She could not ask them for help. Nor could she ask teachers for help.
When Haruko pushed the door slightly open something fell on her head. She shouted more because of surprise than pain... the object was not very heavy... but immediately began to cough swallowing the white dust surrounding her and dirtying her school uniform.
Amidst the mocking laughter, Haruko understood that a 'joker' had put the bin filled with the chalk collected by erasing the blackboard in balance on the door... and that everything had fallen on her when she entered.
Most of the students just looked at her for a brief moment. Some turned away, embarrassed... most acted as if nothing had happened. The worst ones were three girls with blond hair, makeup, and many fashionable jewels - some Gyaru- and two boys in scruffy uniforms. They laughed at full lungs amused by the 'joke'.
It was the daily life of Haruko.
She was bullied.
Yamada Asako blocked Haruko's path stretching a long tan leg through the alley between the school desks.
"Hello, cockroach. Have a good day, cockroach. I very much loved your new makeup: chalk! It suits you very well. I always found you a little pale. Where are you going?"
Haruko would not have answered, but Asako was the worst of all his tormentors. And her lap dogs, Yuriko and Rin were there, smiling... waiting.
"The commissary."
"Oh, well, you'll save us a useless trip. I want melon bread."
"Me too," said Yuriko.
Rin merely acquiesced.
"So three melon bread. Hurry up, we're hungry!"
Haruko's face became tense with anger as her belly convulsed in a mixture of terror and repulsion.
"What? You got something to say, cockroach? You want us to explain to you how it works here... the four of us... behind the gym?"
An icy chill descended on Haruko's back, the four-eyed teenager remembered too well how their last 'discussion' ended.
On this occasion, the girl had discovered that even covered with blue and bruises, she had nothing to expect from others. The nurse had bandaged her wounds, let her cry in an infirmary bed for some time, and sent her back to her class.
The teachers, the nurse, the principal, even her parents... all acted as if nothing had happened.
Officially, she fell down the stairs.
This explanation worked fine for everyone, why change it?
And so Haruko was once again going to use her food money... to feed her tormentors. No wonder Haruko was so skinny.
There's an experiment in behavioral biology.
You put rats in a transparent glass cage. In another compartment, you put a food dispenser. The cage and the dispenser are separated by a siphon filled with icy water.
Then, one can observe the formation of three groups among the rats: the kingpins who steal food from the weak and never leave the cage; the strong who resist the bosses and keep the food they get from the distributor; the weak that swim through the siphon and get robbed by the bosses.
Humans behave like rats.
No, what I just said is insulting... to rats.
Rats at least have the excuse to try to survive in an environment where food is scarce and getting it is dangerous.
Bullies are not in mortal danger. They won't starve. Their only motivation is to gather against the weakest individual they can find and turn his life into hell... Bullies are inherently bad.
It was dark when Haruko left school.
The other members of the literature club let her do all the administrative work, which made her always one of the last to go home.
In fact, Haruko did not complain about it. Being alone for an hour a day was relaxing. She had no friends, hardly spoke to anyone, and her relationships with others were strained at least... How can I put it? Haruko did not hold a very high opinion of herself. The teenager knew she had to be a coward because she had accepted her situation without revolting anymore. But she thought she was a tiny bit better than the others.
They were all accomplices. In fact, Haruko had come to hate her ordinary classmates more than the bullies. At least for Asako and her lapdogs, Haruko existed. They despised her. They beat her to a pulp and tormented her... but at least considered her as a toy. The other students in her class had completely deleted Haruko from their lives, refusing to look at her because she was a living reminder of their cowardice.
In her high school, students and teachers easily split into two groups.
On one side were the bullies who took everything.
And on the other, there were the cowards who were too afraid to revolt.
Listening to her parents' discussions, Haruko realized that it was not very different in the adult world. The Bucho (department director) gave his orders to the Kacho (sub-department head) and woe to those who were not productive enough, holy capitalism did not tolerate any failure. The streets are filled with beggars who once were salarymen, which should be enough to remind the harshness of capitalism to everyone.
At the age of sixteen, her opinion of humanity was settled.
The world was ruled by dangerous sociopaths and kleptocrats, rapacious being obsessed with immediate earnings.
The only question was what would collapse first: ecology or economy?
After running home in the rain - her umbrella was stolen again- Haruko showered and sat down at the dining room table. Her parents had not said three words to the teenager. They were talking about their work, about a contract they hoped would be signed. For the young woman, their conversation was a meaningless hubbub.
She ate without tasting what was in her bowl. Her mother's cooking was like her personality: tasteless, unsurprisingly monotonous.
As soon as the meal was over, she wished her parents good night and retired to her room.
Haruko's bedroom was a bright little room. There was a Western bed, (like many modern Japanese she had never slept in a futon). The rest of the furniture consisted of a desk and a small table, there was also a closet for the clothes closed by a furisode (a door of lacquered paper... in fact PVC in modern Japanese houses).
The only things Haruko still cared about were in this room. At first the computer, of course, she used it to do her homework. But more importantly, she had been playing for four years at an MMORPG called "Obscura Onihime Online" or "OOO".
Above her bed was a small library... with two rows of fantasy books.
Her passion began when her parents took her to see the movie "The Hobbit: an unexpected journey". She then saw all the other films about the Lord of the Ring, bought the books, then the other books by Tolkien: Tom Bombadil, the Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, then even rarer books like the fourth volume of the Lord of the Ring (1), or the Complete Guide of Middle-Earth by Robert Foster. Since most of these books were in English (brought on the net) she had been forced to work more that language in school... which at least had a tangible educational result. That was probably why her parents tolerated her 'eccentricity'... tolerated, they obviously didn't approve of her spending money on 'useless' things.
She then bought other fantasy books. First, the saga "Elric of Menilboné" by Michael Moorcock that another OOO player had recommended to her. It was a Dark Fantasy series where the author never spoke of Good or Evil but of Order and Chaos... Elric is a cynical, disillusioned anti-hero linked to an evil runic sword called Stormbringer. It was dark and sad and it ended very badly... It was to read while listening to Hardrock music, preferably Blue Oyster Cult (2).
She then discovered "Nine Princes in Amber" by Roger Zelazny. The first cycle (Corwin) was awesome. The sequel (Merlin) was pleasant to read but no more. Unfortunately, the series remained unfinished at the death of Zelazny.
This literature (Tolkien, Moorcock, Zelazny) inspired her to create her most recent character at OOO, the half-elf Miriel (3).
Lying on her bed, Haruko smiled.
Tomorrow there was no school. She could play while her parents were at work.
OOO and the books in her library were the only parts of her life that still interested the teenager. Haruko had understood that - since birth- she was programmed to be weak, a coward, a loser. Also, for her, everything that was happening outside her bedroom was just a kind of unpleasant dream.
The young woman would have given anything to wake up.
In the novels that the teenager read and reread, the heroes may have had a terrifying life, but it deserved to be lived. Frodo was to throw the One Ring into the Amon Amarth, Oberon (Corwin's father, in the "Nine Princes in Amber") sacrificed his life to restore balance in the Universes-Shadows... a death strangely similar to Elric's that blew into the Horn at the End of Time to allow the birth of a new world.
But even their deaths were better than her life.
With her face hidden by the VR headset, Haruko pressed a button. The previously dark VR screen gets a spooky hash before displaying the OOO loading screen.
It was a calm landscape of Rolling Meadows in the wind. A cherry tree in bloom rained pink petals that the wind scattered.
Soft music echoed as the logo of "Obscura Onihime Online" appeared. Haruko waited for the menu and then clicked on 'Continue the Game'.
Again, the screen became blurred and suddenly she found herself at the point of backup most used by her guild, their home in Menui.
The small town of Menui was halfway from the port of Okla (the city where all players started with the introductory solo game as a tutorial) and the Iron Mountains (the first area of High-Level Dungeons in the game).
The other five guild members were already there. It was a classic group of players, the leader was a tank (a knight) who was also a half-elf like Miriel, there was a barbarian half-orc with a two-handed sword, a human archer, a gnome illusionist, a dwarf priestess of an evil god.
For three years, Haruko played a knighted woman inspired by Artoria Pendragon from the anime Fate Stay Night. But, three years spent rushing to the attack with great strokes of the sword had ended up tiring the young woman. She had only adopted this violent style of play to relieve some of her relentless anger over poor NPCs, in the first place.
Haruko had created her new character a year earlier. This time, the young Japanese girl was not content to imitate a character from an anime she loved. Haruko had created the person she wanted to be. Her inspirations? For appearance: Arwen from LOTR, Aragorn's elf fiancée. For personality: the magician Jasra. She was one of Merlin's recurring opponents in "Nine Princes in Amber". And she focused her skill on Invocation Magic, imitating Elric of Menilboné. Haruko would have absolutely loved to be able to summon armies of creatures like him but OOO gameplay was much more... balanced.
OOO's character creator was incredibly detailed. Once the gender and race were determined, appeared a representation by default of the character (in underwear). The Player could then sculpt the body and face. There were also hundreds of hairstyles, tabs to change hair color, eye shape, and a thousand other things. There were even tattoos, war paintings, scars... In short, everything that was necessary to personalize one character.
Haruko had chosen long black hair with part of the hair braided to form a crown. The long hair almost completely hid the pointed ears of the half-elf. The eyes were green like spring leaves, a very white skin, with a teen's physique (only male players inflated to the maximum the breasts of their female characters). The result was beautiful but too 'perfect'... the character did not seem alive, it was a statue. After having scrolled the scars, and the tattoos in the personalization's menu without satisfactory results, Haruko had finally added freckles to her character. It must be said that she loved the appearance of Jasra, Merlin's recurring enemy in "Nine Princes in Amber". With her long red hair and cheekbones dotted with freckles, she was a sexy villainess.
By adding these freckles to the character she had just created, Haruko had given her a somewhat mischievous look... the half-elf finally seemed real.
Finally, Haruko named her character Miriel (which means 'garlanded jewel-maiden' in Qwenya).
Miriel was a half-elf Wizard. It was a common choice at OOO. Elves (and half-elves) were better magicians than humans, but at a low level, their spells were of little use. This made the spellcasters (whatever the race) a dead weight in a level 1 to 4's team. But the elves (and half-elves) automatically received the 'bowman' talent that allowed them to use the longbows (normally reserved for warriors with specialization). And against low-level opponents (such as kobolds or goblins) a longbow was a very effective weapon.
OOO was a game that left a wide choice for players to develop a unique character. The starting class just determined the initial build.
Each class had a specialization, Wizards specialized in profane magic, priests in clerical magic, warriors specialized in combat, and thieves were discreet and disarmed traps.
There were sub-classes. For example, the Paladin was a subclass of the priest who lost most of the spells in favor of heavy armor and the handling of the sword and shield. The Illusionist was a subclass of the Wizard that had a bonus for illusion magic but could not use certain spells.
But there was nothing to prevent a Wizard from learning to use heavy armor. Of course, the character must have good Strength and Endurance, needed to wear this type of armor (two characteristics that were not a priority for Wizards). He would have also started with an initial -2 penalty (which applied among other things to cast spells), while the Knights (specialized in heavy armor) started with a +2 bonus.
Miriel's build was more balanced. Haruko had first developed profane magic skills (Miriel was a non-specialist Wizard, but she mostly learned spells from the School of Invocation). Then, light armor... because the elves and half-elves could wear the elves' armor (like the Elven Chainmail) without debuff (initial skill 0). With each change of level, when she had points left, Haruko placed them in 'Discretion'.
Her idea was simple. A discreet player is not the priority target of the NPC. A player in light armor is not one-hited by an orc as dumb as his feet. A Wizard who continually invoked creatures was an army of his own.
And her build was very effective.
The Dungeon they were going to explore was one of the most exciting in the game: the ruins of the Omalhu fortress. So far, no team has managed to conquer it.
In the Lore of OOO, Omalhu had been the main Commandery of the Paladins of Astuna. Their task was to protect an Artifact (a unique and powerful magical object... something like Sauron's One Ring).
This artifact, the Usha Orb, was able to open portals to other worlds and thus to travel in parallel universes. The red dragon Elvil, originally from another dimension, had sought to seize the Orb two hundred years earlier thinking of using it to return home. But although he had razed the fortress and massacred the Atsuna Paladins' Order, the Orb had never been found.
Unlike other quests that asked to kill the Dungeon Boss to be successful, the ruins of Omalhu could only be conquered by finding the Usha Orb.
The first five levels were easily conquered.
With three Warriors, two Wizards, and a Priest, the "Stormhawk" guild was clearly a 'fighting' one. They lacked a thief to detect and neutralize the traps, but Miriel had an Intelligence of 18 and a dexterity of 16, which allowed her to easily spot and avoid pitfalls.
The first opponents were the usual humanoids: hobgoblins, wolf-men, skeletons (which the priest of "Stormhawk" could control), and also two teams of players who came to plunder the Dungeon.
But whether against NPC or PVP, "Stormhawk" easily won every battle.
The next three levels were a nightmare, with hordes of spiders, trapped corridors, and Mini-boss as powerful as the Bosses of some of the toughest Dungeons in the game.
At the ninth level (out of 11), they had a very bad surprise. The Mini-Boss was an Oni (an ogre of Japanese legends), one of Obscura's own lieutenants, the 'Onihime' (princess Oni) who gave her name to the game, the OOO Ultimate Boss!
This Oni constantly opened portals communicating with the world of the dead. From these portals came Shadows, spectral undead capable of absorbing vital energy.
The fight had been horribly long because the Shadows were regenerating by absorbing players' HP. The members of "Stormhawk" had to kill the Oni and then neutralize the portals... obviously protected from magic and only vulnerable to magic weapons!
They came out exhausted.
The next level was even worse. There were two Mini-boss, these Wizards were more powerful than Miriel. They each stood at the top of a column. The Mini-boss could therefore not be attacked by the barbarian or the knight, not without a potion or a levitation spell - in any case-. Surrounded by magical shields, they were also well-protected against spells and projectiles. Around them was a small army of golems.
In fact, as the NPC Wizards had used paralysis and sleep spells to neutralize the warriors and then send their golems against "Stormhawk", the situation was soon desperate.
To buy time, Miriel used the spell "Spiderweb" creating an inextricable interlacing of sticky web between the two columns and immobilizing the golems.
The fight was unfortunately impossible to win. Both NPC Wizards continued to cast spells. Explosions and lightning alternated with spells immobilizing or stunning their victims.
Miriel used her defensive spells, retaliated with fire and lightning, and summoned creatures. But around her, the other members of her guild arrived at 0 hp, one after the other.
The last survivor of the group... Miriel ran to the exit.
The golems were immobilized in her "Spiderweb" spell, while the WIzards NPC were at the top of the columns with many defensive spells that they should first dispel before pursuing her.
The defect of an impregnable fortress is that its garrison was not necessarily prepared for Mobile Warfare.
And beating every enemy on a level wasn't necessarily to go to the next.
The last level of the Dungeon was evidence of the sadism of OOO's level designers. After several stages based on brute force, it was entirely aquatic and based on defusing traps!
First, the thieves were not the characters who were most likely to survive a fight against golems, mages, Onis, and Shadows. But, also, disarming the traps underwater would quickly deplete the provision of "Water Breathing Potions" for any ordinary group of players.
Except that Miriel had the "Aquatic Breathing Crown" in her Inventory, it was a rare magical object allowing her to breathe underwater for an unlimited time period. And since Miriel was almost as good at disarming traps as a thief, about ten minutes later she turned the last wheel controlling the water level in the Dungeon.
As the level was draining, the door in the last room opened.
Miriel discovered a majestic room with a high ceiling supported by carved pillars, and waterfalls falling from the walls. Nevertheless, a dry stone bridge crossed the huge hall. The half-elf walked to a sort of altar. On a red cushion was placed a sphere in metal similar to silver.
Reaching out, the Wizard grabs the object.
There was a ringing before the System announcements. The announcer's voice sounded.
"Congratulations, you have just obtained the Orb of Usha, a coveted Artifact, and conquered the ruins of the Omalhu fortress. You will now receive the reward that..."
The voice suddenly stopped as the images were pixilated and distorted.
Haruko stood up in her computer seat.
"A bug?"
Her character no longer responded to her movements. Besides, the scene was completely frozen, with the exception of the Usha Orb, which radiated more and more violently.
The young Japanese girl move her hands to the VR helmet to remove it, but at that moment an unbearable pain pierced her skull. Like a dart of light, the brightness that radiated from the Usha Orb poured out into the real world.
Haruko did not shout, but she collapsed at once and remained motionless.
When the Watanabs returned from the office, they found their daughter collapsed in the chair in front of her computer, the VR headset still on her face. She was dead but the causes of her death remained unexplained. Watanabe Haruko suffered no physical injury. The possibility of a malfunction in the VR helmet was evoked, but the manufacturer summoned a horde of lawyers while Haruko's parents received a check with a few zeros on the condition that they forget their intention to file a complaint. Soon these nasty rumors that might lower the manufacturer's sales disappeared from the Internet, and the corporation could focus on the next release of a new VR headset.
After all, it was just the death of a child.
It was not as if something bad had happened, the stock market was doing well and the shares of the manufacturer were up.
"Wake up, child. I want to speak to you!"
Haruko moaned and blinked. Holding a hand to her head, she stood up... and stopped... stunned.
OOO's interface occupied her field of vision and the hand before her eyes was clad in metal... the glove of an Elven Chainmail.
She had fallen asleep with her VR headset? Haruko carried both her hands on her face... without meeting her VR headset... But she jolted feeling the metal of her gloves on her skin.
The metal of her gloves!
But she wasn't really wearing metal gloves! It was Miriel who had armor gloves... the VR helmet didn't allow her to... anyway she wasn't wearing her VR helmet... so... so...
Her brain was spinning in circles, sending her from one impossibility to another. Her face was as white as chalk, she trembled, sitting on the ground.
"Child, listen to me, I must speak to you!"
Startling once again, Haruko looked around searching for the one who had just spoken. The teenager discovered that she was sitting between two rows of benches in a vast cathedral. Beautifully colored stained glass windows brought in sunlight and candles shone here and there. Opposite her, the main altar was installed under a symbol she had never seen: a candelabrum surmounted by several books of different colors.
"Listen to me, Miriel, we don't have much time. I have to leave because I answered the prayers of those who called me."
Haruko felt nauseous... Miriel? So she was in OOO... Was it some sort of Event related to the Usha Orb quest?
Almost in spite of her, Haruko replied.
"I... I listen to you!"
"You have been summoned into the New World to answer a call that has awakened me. This world is threatened by the arrival of an evil god commanding hordes of Beastmen, Undead, and Demons. The Pontifex Maximus and the Executive Council called the Six Great Gods for help. I exist to answer that kind of call, so I looked for a hero to help them. I elected you to do that."
"Me?"
"Yes, you proved in the Omalhu Dungeon that you were capable of accomplishing a task that no one else had done before you. As you were in contact with an Artifact allowing you to travel between worlds, this facilitates your invocation. So you were the perfect candidate to fight the Sorcerer King."
Haruko blinked, stunned. This was a third-rate Isekai plot! It didn't sound like the plot of OOO at all. The main enemy of the game was Obscura, the princess of the Onis. Haruko had never heard of a Pontifex Maximus or a Sorcerer King!
The invisible being who was speaking to Miriel did not seem to notice her trouble.
"However, as you are now, you are not capable of beating Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King of the Sorcerer Kingdom. So I'm going to give you an Instrument of Power of your choice, to make you more powerful."
Despite the absurd situation, Haruko had to refrain from laughing. Now the creature who summoned her wanted to give her a Cheat Item! That was ridiculous. This quest looked more and more like an unimaginative accumulation of Shounen's mangas clichés...
"Can I ask anything?"
Haruko just expected to see a screen with a list of objects and their descriptions. But the nameless being who summoned her answered that he could create whatever she was capable of imagining with sufficient clarity. Everything that men imagined existed in a state of potential. And he had the power to make real in this world what existed in the potential state.
Haruko wasn't really sure about it, but... it meant that if she asked Sauron's One Ring, he could make the ring appear and... no, bad, very bad idea... The One Ring was a cursed object. But there were a lot of legendary artifacts she would have dreamed of owning, starting with...
"I want the Ring of Kings."
The Ring of Kings was the magic ring of the kings of Menilboné. For more than ten thousand years, the kings of Menilboné had made this ring the cornerstone of all their covenants with the Lords of Beasts and the Lords of Plants.
When asked which magical object was possessed by Elric of Menilboné, everyone responded by mentioning his cursed sword. But Elric was the most powerful wizard in his world thanks to the Ring of Kings. It allowed him to invoke almost instantaneously creatures that would normally require long ceremonies.
More importantly, the Actorios (or Dragon Stone) was inserted into the Ring of Kings. This magic stone had the power to dramatically increase the power of the spells of the one who used it.
"And of course, I want to be his legitimate user!"
The third power of the Ring of Kings was that only the kings of Menilboné could use it.
"Look at your hand!"
Feeling a slight burn on her right-hand index finger, Haruko saw appear a ring of tarnished silver engraved with runes. Embedded in the bezel, there was a red and translucent stone of hemispherical shape... the inside was a whirlwind of red smoke that was constantly deforming and reforming.
"I have accomplished my mission. I will leave you with the Supreme Executive Council of the Slate Theocracy. Farewell, Miriel, may luck follow your steps."
The doors of the cathedral opened in a thud, letting in several characters dressed in long robes and having miters like those of the Catholic bishops. They were escorted by armored knights with ridiculous helmets with a single round opening that made them look like fire hydrants with legs.
As Haruko was heading towards them, she hit a bench.
The noise made her flinch, but especially the young woman felt a slight pain...
Pain?
OOO was a game in Virtual Reality... there was no pain, you couldn't even really touch the objects in the game.
Suddenly, in a whirlwind, the facts took their place as pieces of a puzzle.
The bug of OOO...
Her fainting and...
Waking up in that cathedral...
The absence of the VR headset...
Her pain now...
She wasn't in OOO anymore!
What did the entity that invoked it say?
He said he could create whatever she was capable to imagine with sufficient clarity. Everything that men imagined existed in a state of potential. And he had the power to make real in this world what existed in the potential state.
Oh... Buddha sumimasen...
She was Isekaied.
She really was Isekaied in this New World as a Hero!
And the religious leaders that entered the cathedral wanted her to fight against the Demon King!
Completely stunned, Haruko wondered if she should jump with joy or scream with terror.
Questions and Answers.
Where does Haruko come from? She comes from a world and a time resembling ours. For her, Fate is a work of fiction. It should be noted that she does not know the anime Overlord. Either it does not exist in her universe, or she is not paying attention to this "third-rate Isekai" (this is her opinion... not mine).
Is it a Crossover with Fate? Yes, with Fate Prototype.
Shall we see Servant XXX or Servant YYYY? The only Servant that appears in this story will be Gilgamesh (Prototype version)... but even he won't really be the Gilgamesh you know. You will understand what I mean by reading the next episodes.
The story is centered on Miriel? Yes, Ainz Ooal Gown will become a central character in this Fanfiction, but later. In the first episodes, he only will be mentioned. You will note, however, that Watanabe Haruko/ Miriel has much in common with Suzuki Satoru/ Ainz. They are Japanese, belong to the same social class, and both were invoked in the New Word as their in-game avatar. Of course, this is no accident.
Miriel is parried with the Emperor Jircniv Rune Farlord El-Nix? Indeed, Haruko will realize her girly fantasy of being the beautiful princess who marries a beautiful emperor (the main Capture target of an Otome Game).
How powerful is Miriel compared to Ainz? I have broadly described the rules of OOO so that all people familiar with Overlord (and especially the VRMMORPG Yggdrasil) understand that OOO has a very different game mechanic. Miriel does not use the Tier Magic common to Yggdrasil and the New World. I imagined Miriel as a kind of Balance Breaker, a character whose abilities cannot be assessed by the inhabitants of the New World. But going back to the original question, even with the Ring of Kings, Miriel is much weaker than Ainz. It's logical. Miriel (according to the OOO rules) is a medium-level player's character (she played for a year but only on Weekends) while Momonga was a character played every day for ten years by Suzuki Satoru.
(1) It is always said that LOTR is in three volumes... it is false. The fourth volume (Appendices and index) is less known because it is published separately. There are several stories (the death of Isildur, how Aragorn met Arwen etc...) but also family trees, the chronology of the Three World Ages, and elements in the pronunciation and conjugation of Sindarin.
(2) The album Dark Blade of this band is of course inspired by Elric Saga... besides the lyrics were written by Moorcock.
(3) The name is inspired by Tolkien. Miriel is Silmarion's character, the mother of Feanor the legendary blacksmith, creator of the Silmarils, and the first Ring of Powers (Sauron and Celebrimbor - Feanor's grandson- are mere imitators).