OMAKE:

200 YEARS, A LONG WAIT FOR ENEMIES

Now, if the chapter title intrigues or concerns you, I should point out that I've been mulling over this story idea for a while. I mentioned in a previous chapter a possible AU of this fic where Harry was kicked out of Ainz Ooal Gown thanks to Ulbert (with Momonga going along with it), and THEN ending up in the New World, only to end up as Momonga's bitterest enemy. This idea was inspired by Starknight 2 point 0's OC-centric fics Somewhere Far Beyond and Into the Pandemonium, where Momonga and his guildmates get called out by one of their victims (albeit somewhat hypocritically, but accurately).

Anyway, I've been considering this for ages, and now, I feel confident in giving you guys a sample of a potential chapter. Or rather, a potential ending. Yeah, I know, spoilers, but honestly, it feels better this way, especially for those who think Momonga didn't get any comeuppance for his actions in the original franchise.

It's interesting how I'm posting this on April Fool's Day (my time, anyway), even though this is no joke, just an AU and a glimpse at what may be a potential new fic. Hopefully, you'll enjoy this more than any April Fool's jokes…


Ainz Ooal Gown never knows defeat. And yet, the lie had been put to that right now, he reflected as he lay in the crater he'd dug when blasted here, his HP down to a sliver, his MP down to almost nothing. His equipment had been mostly stolen from him, his advantages taken, his limbs smashed, until now, he was little more than a skeletal torso and skull.

He was going to die. And the thought filled him with dread.

His would-be killer landed in the crater. A man who should have been dead a hundred times over, and yet would not die. Glaring down at him with those emerald eyes that seemed to burn with hellfire. Wings as black as night spread out behind his back. A man who was once a good friend, until a moment of weakness, and a series of unfortunate events turned him against him, forever.

Yet what Ainz Ooal Gown felt was anger. Petulant anger at this damned cheater not dying. No death spell in his arsenal could put the man down, and that was part of his specialisation! Death only interrupted his attacks for maybe a minute at most.

"As I said before, Momonga," the cheater said, his voice thick with rage, hatred, and sorrow, "we could have avoided this. You could have had the balls to say no to Ulbert's little witch-hunt against me, or you could have controlled the NPCs better when you came to this world, especially Albedo and Demiurge."

"…It didn't…stop you from…warning them…against us…cheating bastard…" Ainz Ooal Gown retorted.

The cheater scoffed, standing over him. "I only warned them of the potential threat you posed, Momonga. I hoped it would not become a reality. I hoped you would be better, that the Platinum Dragon Lord was wrong in his dying words when I killed him, before that bitch Rigrit finished what he tried to start. After I was freed…I was happy, you know. I had friends, I had…people you and those monsters killed to get to me. I always wanted to kill Ulbert's little toy, given what Ulbert did to me, but…what he and that Succubus did to me and mine…and you let it happen."

"Oh, fuck you, Enzo!" Ainz Ooal Gown snapped. "You knew the rules of Ainz Ooal Gown. You can't fault us for kicking you out because you weren't actually a working adult! You were loaded! And then, you sold information on Nazarick to those other guilds! You betrayed us!"

Suddenly, Ainz was gripped by the neck by the cheater, who hauled him up into the air, glaring into his eyes. "You betrayed me first! And I saw Ainz Ooal Gown from the outside. You may have believed you were standing up for monstrous Players, but you thought being the victims in the past gave you license to do whatever the hell you wanted! Instead, you became bullies every bit as nasty, if not more so, than the PVP griefers targeting monstrous Players! BubblingTeapot, Peroroncino, Touch Me, Yamaiko, they were the best of you. But no, Ulbert decided to get some petty revenge on me because I had money and that whiny prick didn't. And let's face it, you voted me out because you felt the same way!"

Ainz couldn't deny it, to himself at least. When he heard of the trust fund this cheater had to support his hospital bills, he felt resentful. So what if he had been in a locked-in state? The cheater had the life of Riley while Satoru Suzuki was struggling to make ends meet AND have enough to pay for cash store items in Yggdrasil! It wasn't like they were banning him from the game!

"And what did you do when you came here? You let the NPCs run rampant. You let Shalltear cause havoc, you had Demiurge plant Shadow Demons in Re-Estize, my new home, I should reiterate, and you let Albedo try to kill me."

"It was an accident! I didn't think she would go that far!"

"But you dismissed the people she killed. And I don't think it was just because you're an Overlord, Momonga. I think you've been a horrid person for a long time. You executed the twins and Sebas when they expressed dissent. I'll be sure to revive them, and if they want to join me, I'll allow it. And thanks to you, the woman I've come to love is dead…or at least, she was. I got quite a few interesting items in the gacha while I was exiled from Ainz Ooal Gown. So congrats, Momonga, or should I say Satoru Suzuki. All you succeeded in was pissing me off."

All the anger and resentment he felt boiled over, breaking through his emotional suppression, and Ainz sneered, "I hope you fail. I hope that another Player comes for you, if not one of the NPCs of Nazarick. I hope someone kills you and makes sure you stay dead, or makes you wish you could die."

"Better people than you have tried and failed. You and your followers claimed you to be the Undead King, but I am the Master of Death. And I have decided on your punishment, Momonga." With that, he pulled out a Rubik's Cube with one hand, the other still grasping his neck. "See this, Momonga? I was imprisoned in this for nearly two centuries by Rigrit. She dumped me in the bottom of the ocean. But I won't do that. Can't have someone fishing you out. I'll bind your soul to it, and then send it into space, on a collision course with the Sun of this world. It'll take a while, I can't send it at lightspeed, but you'll have plenty of time to reflect on your sins."

"YOU SHOULD LOOK IN THE MIRROR, ENZO!" Ainz roared. "FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME AND MINE, YOU SHOULD BE DYING A THOUSAND AGONISING DEATHS!"

"Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, you bony hypocrite, Momonga," Enzo retorted. "Now, let's begin…"


Sometime later, Enzo, or rather, Harry Potter, was making his way through the manor granted to him by King Ramposa III. That had been a long story, and one that had more than its fair share of ups and downs. And yet, he had come to see this place, this kingdom, as his home. True, he had travelled to other parts of the world, like the Baharuth Empire or the Holy Roble Kingdom, and he honestly felt that the Empire was better-governed, but Re-Estize had become his home.

It didn't hurt that one of his oldest friends were here.

Speaking of, she was coming down the corridor towards him. "How is she?" Harry asked.

The seemingly pre-pubescent girl with golden hair and crimson eyes said, "She's doing very well, better than she ought to be. She's taken well to that new form. Too well. Is it over, Harry?"

"Not completely, Keno, but Momonga is on his way to the Sun, Albedo, Demiurge, Shalltear, and the nastier NPCs are now mostly dead, as is Pandora's Actor. I'll try reviving the better ones. Hopefully, Aura, Mare, and Sebas will accept me being in charge once they're back. And maybe Cocytus is amenable to following me too." Harry's teeth gritted in anger. "But still…I thought, even though we had our differences, Momonga and I were still friends, even if distantly."

"I thought the same of Rigrit. Anyway, come along. Your wife is waiting."

Harry chuckled bleakly at the thought. A wife…after the debacle that was Ginnymort, to say nothing of Rigrit being a woman scorned, he never thought he'd get hitched again. And given how she used to be, well, in a way, he was surprised he had come to love her, and vice versa.

When his Rubik's Cube was fished out of the ocean, it passed from dealer to dealer. Eventually, it made its way to the Slane Theocracy, bought by a certain family as a gift for their younger daughter, in celebration of her joining the Black Scripture, and her 18th birthday. However, she felt discontent at her role, despising the pious bleating and how much her brother was viewed as her superior, and having something of a lust for violence besides. She reminded him too much of Bellatrix Lestrange, and yet, she hadn't quite crossed the line when he first spoke to her.

The seal on his Rubik's Cube prison had been weakened by nearly two centuries at the bottom of the ocean, though. It had certainly weakened enough that he could speak to her. Her reaction was strange, to say the least. Hearing a strange voice in her head, she found herself curious rather than frightened or annoyed or angry. Harry was reminded unnervingly of a cat finding something to play with.

Yet despite how he reminded her of so many things from the past, many of them unpleasant, they ended up talking. Already deeply cynical about the Slane Theocracy and their much-vaunted 'Godkin', she was surprised to learn that the Six Gods, three of the inaccurately-named Thirteen Heroes, and the Eight Greed Kings, were players of a MMORPG, a concept she was also surprisingly quick to comprehend. He talked about his past, and she ended up enthralled, interested even.

Harry, in hindsight, felt that this was what helped push his lover away from an even darker path than the one she was already walking. Her parents forced her and her brother into the role she had. She had a burgeoning inferiority complex and a sadistic streak, and yet, there was still something left, a flame of empathy that refused to go out.

After some time, she opted to flee the Theocracy. It wasn't out of anything truly righteous, but she felt stifled in the Theocracy. What was more, she was concerned that one of her few supposed friends was actually trying to recruit her for Zurranon.

She fled to Re-Estize simply because there was one person there who could help him, at least potentially. Namely, Keno. With Keno's help, Harry was eventually freed. And his future lover's true identity was hidden under the Fidelius.

Over time, Harry rose in prominence in Re-Estize, until he became the Court Mage, just as Fluder Paradyne had been to Emperor Jircniv of the Baharuth Empire. His future lover, meanwhile, changed her name, and became, unofficially, the Chief Assassin of Re-Estize. With Harry's help, many suggestions put forward by him and Princess Renner, whom he mentored, began to be implemented, at least by those willing to listen. It was an uphill struggle, not helped by the Eight Fingers, the Nobility Faction, and even the Slane Theocracy coming after him. At one point, they even sent their trump card against him.

After he beat Antilene, though (to his lover's amusement), she tried to jump his bones, to the amusement or lack thereof of the bystanders. However, when he heard her story, he took her on an enthusiastic walk through Elf Country. That was fun, and the upshot was, the Slane Theocracy now had little reason to war with Elf Country anymore. He did make sure someone took Decem Hougan's place, though. Antilene defected from the Slane Theocracy, and left, though rumours abounded that she was working in the Baharuth Empire now.

Meanwhile, his would-be lover tried to woo and court him. Harry found himself resisting, considering how many times he had been burned. That, and his would-be lover enjoyed killing and being sadistic just a touch too much. Hell, she made a habit of killing rogue Adventurers, the ones disavowed by the Guild, and adding their nameplates to her skimpy armour.

And yet, over time, he saw the genuine kindness she showed, to him and others. She even helped Renner establish orphanages. She had been lauded as a saint for those actions, something she got embarrassed by, and something he loved to tease her about.

In their relationship, he saw a warped mirror of Momonga and Albedo. Albedo had been changed to fall in love with Momonga by the Overlord himself, in the dying minutes before the server shutdown. Harry had gleaned that while trying to attack Momonga with Legilimency. He couldn't do any lasting damage, but he'd gleaned the truth.

And he was saddened by how far his former friend had fallen, and even more so by the fact that there was still something of his friend left. But he still fought Harry, partly because of his smouldering resentment that drove him to help Ulbert vote Harry out of Ainz Ooal Gown, and also because he didn't have the courage to admit any kind of weakness to the NPCs. And because some part of him thought that taking over the world would be fun, and his Overlord body numbed him to the misery he'd be causing.

Harry had given Momonga a chance. But the Overlord and his cronies had wasted it. Now, they were dead or leaderless.

Harry had won the war. It was hard-won: even with his innate magic and the training he had undertaken ever since being released from the Rubik's Cube, it had become a war of attrition, and it was all he could do to keep Momonga and the NPCs of Nazarick from hurting those he cared about. True, his magic, the stuff that had come from the wizarding world, not the Tier Magic of Yggdrasil, had come in handy, taking Nazarick's forces by surprise. But he'd failed to keep his wife from being assassinated by Albedo, who did so out of sheer spite, to hurt Harry as a 'traitor' to Nazarick.

The irony is, Albedo gave him the opportunity to use an item he had from the gacha, one he'd kept, having become a hoarder like Momonga. Again, irony abounded. True, it changed his wife's species, but he didn't think she'd mind.

With that thought in mind, he entered the room, finding the remainder of the Blue Roses present. And sitting in bed was his lover, his wife. A slender and yet athletic-looking woman with a short mop of golden hair, with crimson eyes peering out at him from a face that seemed made for feline smiles. And a pair of dark wings protruded from her back, black as sin, glossy as a raven's feathers.

"Hey there, lover boy," Clementine, formerly Windstrider of the Black Scripture, drawled. "So, how did things go?"

"Momonga's on his way to the Sun. Albedo followed Demiurge and Pandora's Actor. And yes, I made it painful. I'll have to go to the Tomb of Nazarick, either get the remaining NPCs to stand down, or else deal with them. But the war's pretty much over."

Clementine chuckled. "Ah, if only I had your strength, then I would've loved to have shown those monsters the meaning of pain. As it is…that bitch killed me by basically hugging me to death, making it long and slow." She looked at her hand and scowled. "Vomiting up your own crushed internal organs is not a fun way to die."

Harry nodded in sage agreement. That had happened to him once, albeit under different circumstances. "How are you feeling, Clementine?"

After a moment, her expression became unusually solemn. "Well, I won't joke about how weak people feel when resurrected through magic again. I've just been apologising to Lakyus here about it. Even with that gacha item doing the job, I feel weak. Or maybe that's my body getting used to its new form."

"You haven't gone down in levels, Clementine, so it's probably the aftereffects of your body changing," Harry said, before coming over, and giving her a gentle hug. "I'm glad you're okay, though."

"Awww, you're concerned about little ol' me?" Clementine drawled, her lips twisting into her familiar feline smirk again, before it became a more ordinary smile. "Hey, I'll be waiting for you. Just go and get those NPCs sorted. But don't take too long. Oh, and if that surviving Pleiades maid, the one with the glasses, is amenable…bring her back here to this room." Clementine waggled her eyebrows meaningfully. "Pretty pleeeease?"

Harry, after a moment, sighed. It seemed dying and being resurrected hadn't stopped her from being what Peroroncino would call 'Thirsty as fuck'. Then again, when you willingly dressed in what was basically a chainmail bikini in reality rather than some shitty fantasy story, it meant you were very comfortable with your body and how others saw it at the very least. Then again, Clementine was also a virgin until Harry took it from her, which surprised him.

Still, she had grown on him, much to his surprise. And now, the battle against Nazarick was all but over. True, there were people to mourn, NPCs to deal with, but victory had been achieved.

He hoped it wouldn't be like Voldemort's defeat, or the defeat of the Demon Gods two centuries ago. He didn't want betrayal again. Maybe third time would be the charm. He had friends, and a lover, a wife. True, she was a violent and sadistic woman, too much like Bellatrix Lestrange, and yet…thanks to him, she had tempered that, becoming more than a vicious killer. He reckoned that if he hadn't talked to her when he did, she might have become a cruel serial killer.

But now, she was his darling Clementine. And he wouldn't give her up for the world…

OMAKE ANNOTATIONS:

So, that just happened.

This idea had been mulling around for quite some time, not long after I started writing this. After reading Starknight 2 point 0's stories, I thought about them, and particularly what the character Oz says to Momonga in Somewhere Far Beyond.

"The word of Ainz Ooal Gown? Don't make me laugh! I've seen what your promises mean, back in YGGDRASIL. Sure, to the world, you seemed like a real band of brothers, a band of upstart [sic] citizens who got pushed around by everyone else. But on the inside, you guys were as filthy as the rest of us, maybe even filthier. [...] You guys acted like you were the shit when you ganged up on other people, but when people punched back, you played the victim."

Now, I should point out that Oz is a raging hypocrite. He's working for the Slane Theocracy, after all, and for all his cleverness, he should know better than to deliberately provoke someone who could end the world many times over, and who is willing to let innocents get caught up in his rampage. Instead, Oz is a self-righteous hypocrite working with a bunch of religious xenophobes.

Anyway, I thought, while Harry and Momonga are the best of friends in 200 Years, A Long Wait for Friends, I knew there was a possibility of them ending up on opposing sides. And I also knew how it would happen: Ulbert, and the rules of Ainz Ooal Gown.

Of the members of Ainz Ooal Gown, the one I detest the most is Ulbert. While he has many reasons to act the way he did, the fact remains is that he was a petulant and selfish manchild who wanted to be an edgelord. Many of Demiurge's atrocities are, at least in part, his fault. And he feels like the sort who would hate anyone who was well-off. So if he hated Touch Me, who, while rich, also had a job as a cop, how much would he hate Harry, who hasn't had to work for a living?

Ainz Ooal Gown's rule is that the members are exclusively monstrous players who have paying jobs. Harry doesn't have the latter. He has a trust fund. In 200 Years canon, Ulbert, after learning about it, decided that Harry was punished enough being in a locked-in state. But in this version of events, he instigated a vote to kick Harry out, and a majority did so, including Momonga.

Harry became an information broker, and sold information on Nazarick to the infamous raid, which got further than it did in canon, though it didn't reach the throne room. Momonga harboured some resentment against Harry for that, but they could have reconciled if it weren't for the NPCs. But more on that later.

Harry arrived in the New World at the same time he did in this fic, 200 years prior to Overlord's canon start. But he was even more paranoid against betrayal, so once the Platinum Dragon Lord and Rigrit made their moves, he was ready. Harry actually slew the Platinum Dragon Lord, but Rigrit managed to barely seal him away, though not before Harry hit her with a nasty curse. She had him cast into the ocean before she died.

However, the Rubik's Cube he was sealed in was fished out of the ocean, and after being cleaned, sold through various dealers until it ended up in Slane Theocracy.

Choosing Clementine as a pairing wasn't done lightly. Outside of Nazarick, there aren't that many valid pairings. They're either teenagers, lolihags, or not interesting enough. It says a lot when the next most interesting non-Nazarick pairing for Harry in this would be Renner, and that would need a metric fuckton of work to make it happen. Ageing Renner up was a solution I considered, but there was still some squick to the pairing, given that Harry has spoken to Renner since she was a kid. It wasn't dissimilar to the relationship between Edmond Dantes and Haydee in The Count of Monte Cristo, but eventually, I decided against it, and substituting Clementine instead.

I thought her becoming Saint Clementine in the Mass for the Dead game sounded contrived and unrealistic as fuck. So I decided that she was closer to Raynare from my High School DxD crossover Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, albeit without the betrayal. I also used some of her comments from the second volume, especially her multiple choice past that she tells one of her victims. I actually think she was lying about…well, lying about at least two parts of her past. I think she was overshadowed by her brother and was jealous (her reaction to Khajit's taunt about him was telling), and was neglected by her parents, simply being pushed into being a member of the Black Scripture.

For the sake of argument, I'll posit that she's about 25 in her appearance in Overlord's second volume. By the time she gets the Rubik's Cube for her birthday, as a token gift to appease her from her parents, she's beginning to truly show her lack of empathy, but she hasn't lost it entirely. Talking to Harry rekindled her empathy, and just in time: the only Adventurers she had killed by that point were those who had caused trouble in the Slane Theocracy, even if she had started collecting their dogtags.

Harry eventually made contact with Clementine in a not-dissimilar manner to Antilene. Only this was due to the seal being corroded while the Rubik's Cube was at the bottom of the ocean. Harry listened to her, and reassured her, being someone she could confide in, and thus preventing her from losing all of her empathy. She fled for Re-Estize after a few years, seeking out Keno. Eventually, with Lakyus and Keno's help, Harry was released from the Rubik's Cube. He soon was assigned as Ramposa's Court Mage.

I won't go into detail as to how and why Harry ended up taking down Nazarick. Harry and Momonga were, albeit reluctantly, open to reconciliation, only Demiurge and Albedo, for their own reasons, threw a spanner into the works. And Momonga took the NPCs' side. Aura and Mare, along with Sebas, were reluctant to turn on Harry (their creators comforted Harry after his expulsion and even helped him out, as did Peroroncino), so Momonga agreed to have them executed to prevent them from betraying him, hoping to resurrect them later. Harry's Master of Death abilities, however, trumped anything Momonga or his underlings could throw at him.

I do hope to do a Harry/Renner fic down the track, but with them closer in age. The hows and whys are tricky, especially when you get Nazarick involved, and Harry would potentially end up fighting them unless I do a story based on the 'official' AU of Overlord where Satoru basically adopts Keno. But it's still a potential fic.

Anyway, before I go to the reviews, I thought I'd give a grateful shout-out to The Disquieting One. Thanks to their efforts, 200 Years, A Long Wait for Friends now has a tropes page on TV Tropes. While not the first of my fics to have a tropes page, it is, in my opinion if nobody else's, the best of my fics so far to get a tropes page on TV Tropes. Thanks, The Disquieting One! :)

Review-answering time! Skull Flame: Fair enough, but Albedo, ever since she became self-aware and aware of Harry's past, basically got a hobby. True, she technically had one already, being good at sewing, but she also wanted to find answers about the nature of humanity and existence, so she began reading the books in Nazarick's library. Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of those books that, depressing though it is, everyone should read.

Black Flame of Destruction: Her name is BubblingTeapot in Yen Press' translation of the light novels, presumably a direct translation of her Japanese name, and I prefer writing that out to Bukubukuchagama. So there.

No numbered annotations this time.