"They call themselves the 72 Lords of Seraphim."
The world stops for a moment as the words register inside of their souls.
Then the panic starts a second after.
For the members in the safety of Nazarick, it was a loud panic, for they didn't need to hide anything in a group of their peers.
For the members in the backup group, it was a quiet panic, quietly whispering to each other in the fears that if they speak too loudly, they might be found.
For the members in that room, far outside any comfort zone, they stood in uncomfortable and silent worry as they didn't know if they were in danger yet.
"Seraphim…?" Momonga quietly muttered as he then lightly bowed, "Thank you, but do you have a map of the country we could use? We were hoping to keep a copy."
Honestly props to Momonga and his emotion suppressor, because Vagisilious was not that calm.
Because now Vagisilious knows that Emily is a filthy liar who lies, and this was absolutely not that type of anime where they steamrolled everything with no issue.
Seraphim was a massive issue. It can't be overstated how a 72 member Seraphim guild totally curb-stomps them with god knows how many world items and overpowered NPCs with their overpowered bios they have.
A 31 player difference, where the players were all of equal skill level, was a near insurmountable challenge to surmount, considering that Ainz Ooal Gown usually favored ambush tactics because of the relatively low number of players they had compared to other guilds.
And Seraphim, the top guild in Yggdrasil, was definitely no push-overs skill-wise.
The amount of damage 72 players could throw in the duration of a fight basically guaranteed them any win compared to the damage the 41 of them could output in that same time. That's one of the main reasons Ainz Ooal Gown didn't try to mess with the big top tier guilds back in the day.
Not to mention, Vagisilious really didn't want to see a recreation of that big day when 5000 players came down on Nazarick.
Hell, they might not be safe even now! They might just have God as an NPC! With Seraphim's massive ego, she wouldn't put it past them to have multiple Gods! What chance do they have against that?!
Okay, maybe she's just overhyping her enemies right now. After all, if that was true, they would probably be dead by now.
Yeah, she's right. Seraphim probably kept some of their ego in check while making their NPCs.
Right. She'll be fine. Nazarick will be fine. Her friends will be fine.
Clocking back into reality, Momonga, being the good dependable leader that he was, and managed to get a map from Azuth, asked a few more short questions, "Why are there so few jobs in the adventurer's guild?"
"Ah, well, the Holy Kingdom has taken it upon itself to eradicate the monsters by cleansing the land once a month, and relocating the more sentient demi-humans to other places, I don't know where. But since then, adventurers have been treated more like guards or mercenaries," Azuth answered, with a mixture of relief and bitterness in his eyes, "I think it's good that young adventurer's aren't pointlessly killed anymore, but at the same time, this was our entire life. And it feels… Bittersweet, I think, to see our job fade away like this."
Momonga hummed, "I see. By the way, do the 72 Lords of Seraphim leave any way to contact them? By either a capital to mail, or perhaps a subordinate that could directly talk to them?"
Azuth thought about it for a second before shaking his head, "No, not really. Perhaps the closest thing is our mayor, who was directly chosen by the 72 Lords of Seraphim, but he's the owner of a lot of the land around here, so he isn't even around often."
Momona tilted his head, "Oh? What's his name, then?"
"I believe his name was Gabot." Azuth said, "No last name or any other titles."
Momonga nodded, then stood up, "Thank you for your time. I apologize that we can't really give you anything in return, seeing as we just returned, but I promise we'll come back sooner or later to pay you back for this information. We'll be taking our leave now."
Momonga then turned to the front door and started speed walking out of there, and they all speed walked alongside him.
They quickly made their way outside of the city, probably confusing the guards a bit, and as soon as they linked together with the backup squad that were waiting outside of E-Rantel in case of emergency, Momonga immediately and promptly made a Gate to Nazarick, which they all swiftly entered.
And so, they were immediately greeted by Punitto bluntly saying, "Vaggy, I can't believe you've dragged us into this."
Vagisilious loudly defended herself, "How was I supposed to know that SERAPHIM of all guilds would show up?!"
"It really couldn't have been any other guild, huh? It just HAD to be Seraphim!" Orphea complained, her head on Peroroncino's side.
"Yeah, what the hell are we supposed to do about that?" Bellriver asked, "Are we just gonna go up to them and say 'hey, man, no harsh feelings?' and hope that they accept us?"
Punitto quickly denied that plan of action, "Absolutely not, that would be the dumbest thing we could do right now."
Herohero tilted his body, "Why? We were both humans at one point, yeah?"
"They've been here for at least 10 years, we have no idea what that did to their minds," Vagisilious answered for Punitto, knowing his line of thought.
They don't even know what their own avatars did to their thinking. How were they supposed to even figure out how actual angels thought?
Momonga nodded, "Not to mention that they've apparently been killing and relocating demi-humans and heteromorphs to other places."
And that too.
Ulbert nodded as he said, "Yeah, I feel like they'd look at us and go 'yeah, you're not it.' and kill us."
Ankoro raised her hand, "But what if they, I don't know, used that world item you guys were talking about yesterday to change other monsters into humans?"
"So like they'd change demi-humans and heteromorphs to humans and say that they were exterminated?" Yamaiko scratched her head, "I don't think that'd make much sense…"
Nubo went into it from a different angle, "Or maybe they'd just let us have the world item, change us all into humans, and we can live the good life with them."
"Ehh…" BigStall didn't seem too confident, "I don't know, they might still be upset with us about the whole leaderboard thing."
"Huh? Why would they be upset about the leaderboard?" Daijobubua questioned.
"Don't you remember Mustapha Mond? That annoying guy who most definitely was there for the last day? That guy would definitely be petty about it," Ulbert pointed out.
Peroroncino said, "Yeah, but they have 71 other guys to keep him in check, right? And their guild leader wasn't a bad guy from what I remember."
Right. BlessThyHearts was a pretty chill player all things considered. Actually, most guild leaders in that top 20 list were relatively easy-going. It was mostly just their members taking things too seriously.
If BlessThyHearts was in this world, he would definitely tell them what's going on.
"Do you think we can message Bless?" Vagisilious questioned, "He might be nice enough to accept our random message and tell us what's going on."
"Don't do that," Punitto flatly rejected her idea, "And for that matter, don't contact anyone that isn't part of our group either. We can't let anyone know we're here yet."
Vagisilious tilted her head, "Why not?"
Punitto pointed out, "Again, like we said earlier, things might've changed, and we're way too sparse on information. We don't even know who's here yet aside from 72 members."
"Speaking of knowing names, was Gabot a name we knew?" Amanomahitotsu asked, "Because I don't remember any of Seraphim's names."
Everyone turned to Coup De Grace, the world's premier forum bullier.
If anyone was to know the name of a Seraphim member, it was him, because he relentlessly bullied anyone with the Seraphim guild tag ever since both the big raid on Nazarick, and their successful ambush on Seraphim.
Coup De Grace used all of his brain's potential in that moment to tap into his memory from years ago, and after a year's deliberation he gave his final answer.
"Yeah, I don't remember."
Genjiro groaned, "Well, that sucks."
"If we need information, what's our method?" Momonga asked, "Are we going to be covert about it? Or are we just going to ask a lot of people questions and hope that we get what we need in time?"
Ulbert hummed, thinking out loud, "So the problem here is that there's 72 members that could catch us at any moment, yeah? And we have no idea who they are. So I think we should just shotgun it and go as wide as possible and get as much information as possible so we can have enough information when we inevitably get caught."
"I wouldn't say that it's inevitable we get caught," Nubo argued, "I think we need to do this one place at a time, piece together what's happening like a puzzle."
"If we get caught, it needs to be on our terms, so I agree that we should take a more measured approach to this," Momonga said.
"Eh? But that'll mean we have to stay inside of Nazarick for longer, doesn't it?" Bellriver worriedly asked, "I don't want to be inside of Nazarick for that long! I wanna see the sun!"
Orphea nodded, "Yeah, as much as I enjoy being in Nazarick, I wanna actually go outside and experience it."
BigStall hummed, "Yeah, the ratio of having fun and actual important stuff needs to equal out here."
Seeing everyone agree with the assessment that they wanted to explore the outside world, Punitto caved to peer pressure, "Fine, we can go wide on our scouting, I just want to make sure none of us get caught off-guard and get ambushed by Seraphim, alright?"
"Who do you think we are? Amateurs?" Ulbert chuckled, "Don't worry, we won't get caught."
Punitto just laid it off and turned to her and Nubo, "You two need to stay here to monitor everyone, though."
Vagisilious's face fell, "What? Seriously? But I wanna go on an adventure!"
Nubo was equally upset by Punitto's command, "Yeah! I wanna touch some grass!"
Punitto flatly denied their request, "Nope, if we're doing something as dangerous as stretching ourselves thin like this, we're going to need you two to keep an eye on everything."
This is so unfair! Vagisilious wanted to go out on a super cool adventure with everyone, but she has to stay in Nazarick?!
"You guys can leave here after this initial scouting wave is done, alright?" Punitto tried to lessen the wound, but they were both already upset by the decision.
"Momonga, help us?" Vagisilious tried to coax Momonga into vetoing Punitto's reasonable decision, but…
"Sorry," Momonga left them to the wolves.
Nubo and Vagisilious groaned simultaneously, as she accepted the reality of the situation, "Ugh, fine, fine. Nubo and I will do our thing here."
"I'll stay with you guys to act as mission control again," Punitto told them, which made them feel only a slight bit better that Punitto won't be basking in the sun without them.
Nubo leaned back in his chair, "You suck, man…"
Vagisilious planted her head on the table as she despondently asked Nubo once she remembered something, "Hey, Nubo, don't we both have the ability to look at multiple things at once?"
It wasn't a particularly useful thing, but she remembered that in one expansion or another, the developers added a spell for most divination classes to have the ability to have multiple screens at once. It wasn't useful in most scenarios, because you only have 2 eyes to look at things, but it was sometimes nice to just cast a bunch of divination spells and check one by one to see if you found anything useful.
But maybe with their newfound bodies, maybe they'll actually be able to use that ability to their full potential.
Nubo scratched his head, "Oh, I forgot about that… You can only cast 4 places though, right? And I had like, 6."
Vagisilious shrugged her shoulders, "Hey, that's still 10 different places we can keep eyes on."
Punitto nodded, "That's good, so we'll have 10- No, let's go maybe for 5 teams in case you guys get split up."
"In that case, let's take a look at the map and see where we could go," Momonga proposed as he laid down the map on the table for everyone to see.
Punitto created a few markers with Create Item, and pinned the location of where Nazarick is, "So, that's where we are, and we're in the Holy Kingdom, so our main focus should be on exploring some of these districts… But we're going to be avoiding their capital district, London, for now."
"Ah, because that's where Seraphim probably is, right?" Nearata guessed.
Punitto nodded, "Yeah. So that just leaves the other 3 districts. Re-Estisize, Baharuth, and Slane. So we should take a group each to investigate those 3."
Peroroncino pointed to the wilderness section of the map, "Can we travel outside the Holy Kingdom?"
Punitto hummed, "Hm, maybe. We should get a wide perspective on what the world thinks about the Holy Kingdom after all…"
"Can I go to the Dragon Kingdom, then? I wanna see if the fluff about the 'world's strongest human' is true," Ulbert asked.
"Then can I check out the Argland Council State? I wanna see some dragons!" Ancient One excitedly asked.
Bellriver pointed out, "If we're doing all the 3 districts, plus the 3 other areas, that would be 6 groups, though."
"We can handle it," Vagisilious waved off Bellriver's concern, "Just don't split up too much."
"Can you guys even see that far?" Bukubukuchagama asked.
Nubo hummed, "Eh, I might have to be outside of Nazarick to see everyone in the Holy Kingdom."
Vagisilious gave her own two thoughts, "I might be able to anchor my sight on someone and act from there."
"Dang, Vaggy, did you think about that when you chose the Overseer job class?" Yoipesuto questioned.
"No," Vagisilious flatly answered back.
"Of course," Yoipesuto disappointedly sighed.
Tabula tilted his head to ask, "At that point, are you just an genius who doesn't know it? Or are you carried by dumb luck?"
"Dumb luck, probably," Punitto answered for her, getting a cry from her before Punitto moved on, "Anyways, we should probably take the NPCs with us this time, so we can see how they do."
"Huh? We only have a few level 100s though…" Variable Talisman pointed out, "And I don't really want to have the lower levels try to fight something they can't, and die."
"Hm, I don't think this world's power level is very high, though," Vagisilious theorized, "If the angel guards were only up to tier 5, then it's likely that the humans there were only up to, or even below that level, right?"
Punitto agreed with her assessment, "Yeah, that's what I thought too. But this world might have some other dangerous stuff, so just keep an eye on the NPCs when you see them try to fight things…"
Then Punitto loudly told everyone, "Don't go purposely fighting things though! Try to avoid fights! Anyways, let's make our groups! If you want NPCs, ask for them! Otherwise I'll just assign them to you!"
After everyone decided where they were going, if they were even going at all, they decided to start tomorrow and Momonga declared the meeting over.
Back in Yggdrasil, this would be the point where everyone would start logging off, but alas, now they had to find other things in Nazarick to occupy their time.
"Hey, Vaggy," Touch called out to Vagisilious, taking her attention, "Do you mind if we go back to the old world so I could maybe take some of my other friends and their friends and family to Nazarick?"
Which then caused an avalanche of everyone remembering that they left some people they liked back in the old world, so they were suddenly asking her to help them find them.
Vagisilious just groaned at all of the requests, "I swear you guys just held this off until this moment just to mess with me."
Touch quickly denied the allegations as he said, "No! No! I was just focused on my family first of all, that I forgot about the friends we left behind!"
Vagisilious sighed, "Fine, fine. I guess this is what I'm doing today… Nubo you're coming with me too."
"What?!" Nubo shouted in surprise.
"If I'm suffering for my divination abilities, you are too! Besides, consider this practice for tomorrow!" Vagisilious insisted.
Nubo groaned as he towed the party line and agreed to help.
"Don't get caught, guys," Momonga warned them before they set off, "We don't want Earth to know about us, alright?"
"Who do you think we are, amateurs?" Wish III asked.
Punitto stared them down, unimpressed, "Yeah, you are."
Wish III shrugged it off, "That's fair."
And so, they were off to the 4th floor, ready to abduct possibly up to hundreds of humans.
Shatallia's eyes gleamed as Lady Vagisilious told them about the upcoming announcement tomorrow where they'll take some of the NPCs to go explore the world tomorrow.
And she was one of them!
Lady Vagisilious and many other of the Supreme Beings had to leave shortly thereafter to go on a mission in the other world, of course. They told her that Tokino and Leviathan would be in charge of the portal today, so she was just patrolling through the 4th floor as the duo told her to do.
But even then, Shatallia couldn't keep the grin off of her face.
"...Ah… You look excited today, Shatallia," Heket pointed out as she was doing her usual patrol through the butchery, although Shatallia wasn't really paying attention.
Shatallia blinked and turned to Heket, "Aha, do I look excited?"
Heket nodded, "Yes, you usually don't smile, but you look ecstatic today."
Shatallia giggled, "Ah, well… I've just been blessed with wonderful news! I'll be able to go outside with the Supreme Beings to help them map this new world!"
Heket widened her eyes, "Oh, Really? That's good-" She then realized that the cut of meat in her hand was still alive, so she quickly chopped it up with her cleaver to properly kill it, then she continued, "That's good. I'm surprised, though, don't they have Atlas to map out the world, though?"
Shatallia's face fell, "Oh… That's true…"
…Maybe she won't be given the opportunity to properly map out the world, then…
Heket hummed, "Well, maybe they're just not using it to allow you to map it out yourself. You know, to be nice."
Shatallia gasped, "They wouldn't go that far just to allow me to indulge in my desire!"
Heket shook her head, "The Supreme Beings probably already know everything about this new world, they probably just want to let you experience everything for yourself if they're bringing you along to wherever."
Could that… Really be true? That the Supreme Beings would just allow her to indulge her deepest desire to explore, despite the Supreme Beings already knowing everything about this new world and could easily just tell her about it? But instead of doing that, they're allowing her to find everything herself!
Shatallia started to tear up, "That… We are so blessed to serve under the 41 Supreme Beings…"
Heket nodded, "Of course. They are our masters, after all. Anyways, I need to get back to butchering these pop animals, so have a good day, Shatallia."
Shatallia nodded as she quickly excused herself to drown her tears of joy in the lake of the 4th floor.
"...Doesn't Atlas have the ability to see the entire world?" Orphea asked Vagisilious while they were trying to find the location of some people.
Vagisilious paused, "I'm going to be honest, I totally forgot about that."
"...Shouldn't we, uh, use that?" Mekongawa slowly asked.
Vagisilious shrugged, "Ah… I mean, it's not a political map, I don't think it'll come in handy."
"Ah, you're right," Orphea nodded, before getting back to looking at her laptop to try and dox some people for her friends.
Demiurge, Albedo, Pandora's Actor, and Liberta. The 4 smartest NPCs in Nazarick, all gathered on the 9th floor by Lord Punitto Moe's command.
He had simply given them a map that was acquired by the Supreme Beings, some basic knowledge such angels known as the '72 Lords of Seraphim' ruling over the Holy Kingdom, dragons ruling over the Argland Council State, and the strongest human ruling over the Dragon Kingdom, and they were told to make theories.
And so, they did.
Albedo started off the conversation, "Hm, so, for the angels ruling over the Holy Kingdom, I believe it goes without saying that they are likely that same most detestable group that once invaded Nazarick, yes?"
Demiurge hummed, "That may be giving the Holy Kingdom a bit too much credit, Albedo. It may just be a weaker group of angels masquerading as Seraphim."
Albedo's eyes didn't change at all as she simply stated, "If it were a lesser group of angels, the Supreme Beings would've likely skipped all of this and taken over this 'kingdom' already. And Pandora's Actor and I are the only ones who can attest to Seraphim's power."
The mood of the room dipped down upon the mention of that day, but they continued on regardless of their past failures as Pandora's Actor nodded, "Yes, it is as Lady Albedo says! I cannot imagine any other group of angels having this much success in anything! So it obviously must be the strongest group of angels there is."
Liberta Prime chuckled, "There were countless angels who dared to strike Nazarick, and they were nothing to scoff at either. It always could be some number of them who managed to scrape together enough camaraderie to create a small cover such as this. Besides, the notion that any group of angels would be Seraphim is flawed, for if that is the case, the strongest human in the Dragon Kingdom must be Lo- Excuse me, Principality from Triumvirate."
The slip up of almost calling Principality a 'lord' did not go unnoticed.
Though Liberta was a creation of the 41 Supreme Beings like all others in Nazarick, Liberta alone was originally created somewhere outside of Nazarick and has memories of his old home. And as such, he retained a few behaviors from those days, though many of them have faded away since Liberta made an effort to erase such flaws from his consciousness.
Though Liberta calling Principality 'lord' has still remained for reasons even Liberta himself cannot properly explain. And he knows that if he were to ever finish that word, he would doubtlessly be attacked by his peers for it.
Albedo simply conceded the point, "I suppose. Then, who do you think the 'strongest human' is, then?"
Liberta shrugged, "I struggle to think of any human that's actually strong in comparison to the 41 Supreme Beings. It may just be a native creating a mask for themselves to prop up their kingdom as something not to be trifled with."
Demiurge agreed with Liberta's assessment, "I agree. Though there were many humans who intruded upon Nazarick, I doubt they would live up to 100 years as the 'strongest human' claims they did. Human lifespans are so short anyhow."
Pandora's Actor disagreed, "Nay, I think it is likely, maybe even probable, that the Dragon Kingdom is ruled over by a powerful player! Though it is likely just a große Fische in einer kleinen Teichsituation."
A player calling themselves the strongest because they haven't encountered any other player? It could be possible.
Pandora's Actor was not finished, though, "However, I raise something else! Perhaps the ruler of the 'Dragon' Kingdom is actually a dragon disguised as a human?"
Demiurge hummed, "That is far more probable than a human being strong, yes. But with the Argland Council State in play, it might not be very likely."
Albedo wasn't swayed, "It may be too early to call the 'strongest human' a player. Why don't we leave it here for now and move on?"
Liberta shrugged, "I suppose so. Then, let us move onto the dragons of the Argland Council State."
Demiurge offered a simple explanation, "If they feel the need to create a state in order to consolidate power, it's clear that they must be weak dragons. If I recall correctly, dragons are solitary creatures most of the time, yes? I doubt a state ruled by dragons could hardly be a threat to us."
"Alternatively, they could be our most dangerous opponents," Albedo countered, "Dragons are strong creatures by nature of their birth. Perhaps the dragons ruling this state are blessed intellectually, and have realized in order to effectively counter the threat of our masters and their peers, they must team together to try and level the playing field."
Demiurge hummed, hand on his chin, "Dragons are prideful creatures, I doubt they would actually come together to accomplish anything together."
Pandora's Actor chuckled, "Ah, but that doesn't matter doesn't it? Demiurge, mein Freund, you must always expect the worst case scenario! These dragons could all be on the level of Leviathan, for all we know!"
Liberta tilted his head to look at Pandora's Actor, "You may be stretching things, Pandora's Actor. I don't think it's likely that these dragons are near Leviathan's power. Not to mention that if they were, it's less likely that they would actually create a functioning state."
Pandora's Actor nodded, "Of course! I don't actually think that the dragons are that powerful, but it is good to plan for the worst, don't you think?"
"On the topic of Leviathan, do you think it's possible that his newfound power may have negative consequences for the future of Nazarick?" Albedo suddenly asked, taking advantage of all 4 of them being gathered here, "I'm afraid I haven't spoken to him enough to gain an accurate understanding of his personality."
If there was a single NPC in Nazarick the four could confidently say they were the least sure about, it was Leviathan due to the nature of his soul not being the creation of Lady Vagisilious. Even Liberta was a pure NPC, despite being made in another location. But Leviathan alone was 'impure.'
Liberta thought about it for a moment before responding, "I believe that as long as Tokino is there to keep Leviathan in check, I believe that Leviathan will not foster delusions inside of his mind."
"But will Tokino-" Demiurge started, before stopping and bowing slightly, "Apologies, that is a useless question."
Yes, Tokino was a pure creation just like them. Tokino would never entertain a thought of betraying Nazarick for any reason.
And even if she did… Well, there is a reason why Lady Vagisilious designed Tokino to be a rather poor keeper of secrets.
Pandora's Actor gave his own two cents, "I believe that both Leviathan and Tokino have no desire to Stechen Sie uns in den Rücken. I think we have no need to question their loyalty to unsere Meister!"
The three of them were mildly relieved that Pandora's Actor had now hit his limit of how much German he could use, as decreed by Lord Momonga. While they had no problem deducing what was being said, it was somewhat inconvenient to follow along at times.
Demiurge nodded and took the opportunity to move the conversation along, "Very well, then back onto the main topic at hand… I believe to best achieve the Supreme Beings' goal of conquering this new world, I think it would be best to flatten anything that stands in our path."
The three of them agreed as Liberta voiced, "Yes, that would be the quickest and most efficient way to take control. I have no objections."
Albedo smiled at the thought and nodded, "Yes, perhaps we'll even be lucky enough to be called into battle against Seraphim, though our masters would doubtlessly not need our aid."
Pandora's Actor chuckled, "Ah! I hope that the world items will get a chance to be used! To see their almighty power used in the hands of our gods!"
"Hm," Lord Punitto Moe suddenly made a noise for the first time since the conversation began, causing the 4 of them to quickly divert their complete attention towards him.
Seeing that he had their attention, Lord Punitto Moe began to speak, "You don't know what we know, so I suppose the conclusion that you've arrived at does make sense from your perspective. But it's wrong."
Seemingly uncaring of the massive blow to their spirits at having their work be completely wrong, even though they had an inkling that he may say so, Lord Punitto Moe continued, "I won't bother telling you the right answer yet. You four can figure it out on your own time."
Lord Punitto Moe walked over to the table and took the map back, and just as he was about to leave, he turned around to dismiss them, "You're all dismissed."
And so, Lord Punitto Moe teleported out of the room.
"Wrong? Where have we led ourselves astray?" Demiurge questioned as he replayed the entire conversation back inside of his head, "Could it be just the conclusion…? No, we must've messed up further back than that…"
"Perhaps it was the direction we went into?" Liberta raised, "We were told to broadly theorize, but our ending conclusion was quite narrow…"
Pandora's Actor shook his head, "No! I believe we were thinking too highly of ourselves and tried to predict the goals of the Supreme Beings far before we were supposed to!"
Albedo nodded with Pandora's Actor's suggestion, "Yes, I believe that Lord Punitto Moe simply wanted to gauge our level of foresight, and I believe it suffice to say… We were quite lacking."
Liberta crossed his arms, "Then we're all lacking the necessary perspective…" Liberta closed his eyes, likely to communicate with his other selves, and then suddenly he announced, "I believe the next perspective of my life has to be in the middle of my life, with the added perspective of being a commander of some sorts."
Demiurge chuckled, "Oh? Will we finally be able to witness the creation of one of the perspectives of your life?"
Liberta hummed, "I'm afraid that this is a secret that Lady Orphea Scarlet has entrusted only to me."
Demiurge didn't seem to be upset about it as he replied, "Oh well, then. I would wish you luck on the creation of your new perspective, but considering your history, I doubt it would be much of a challenge."
Liberta shook his head, "No, actually. The shift from the old world to the new world may have changed some things, and procuring the materials required to create my new perspective might be a little bit more difficult…"
Albedo shrugged, "Then I will wish you luck," Albedo then began to exit the room, "And I will see all of you tomorrow."
Pandora's Actor made a flashy exit as he showed off his ownership of one of the rings of Ainz Ooal Gown to teleport down to the treasury.
Demiurge followed Albedo out of the room.
Liberta sighed as he messaged Aureole for a Gate down to the 6th floor, abiding by the rules of Nazarick.
In the end, all four were thinking…
'Where did we misstep? And how could we improve ourselves to the level that the Supreme Beings require of us?'
Punitto Moe groaned as he looked over the notes he took during the conversation.
He loved his guild, but sometimes, he really just hated the fact that they were all edgelords back in the day and decided to create the evilest people on the planet.
Well, at least the fact that they could consider the possibility of being wrong was a good sign that they could maybe change for the better.
Anyhow, how is he going to split the NPCs to ensure that their worst behaviors don't come to light…
Tiansebas, the dutiful Nazarick Tomb Guide of the 9th floor, the color opposite homunculi of Sebas Tian, nervously walked up to Whitebrim, who was lying down on the floor for some reason holding a sketchbook and pen, "Umm, Lord Whitebrim?"
Whitebrim was in the middle of sketching a cool portrait of himself, while lying on the ground because it was softer than his bed in his old apartment. But Whitebrim was a cool dude, so he stopped sketching for a moment to ask, "Yeah, little dude?"
Tiansebas kicked the floor as he shyly said, "I noticed some new residents on this floor…"
Whitebrim noticed that. Whitebrim didn't really have anyone close to him, it really was just Ainz Ooal Gown. But he was happy for the others.
Whitebrim jumped off the floor as he already knew what the little tomb guide wanted to ask, "Ya wanna tell them about Nazarick, right?"
Tiansebas looked nervous as Whitebrim towered over him, "Uh… Yes! I do!"
Whitebrim chuckled, "Ah, man, I bet you're just dying to tell them everything you know, huh?"
"Yes! Everything I know!" Tiansebas eagerly said, nodding.
What a cute little guy! Whitebrim liked all of the Nazarick Tomb Guides. Vagisilious was absolutely on fire with some of her ideas! Even though she had some other terrible ones…
"Well, tell ya what, you can go tell the new guys about Nazarick," Whitebrim said before leaning down to whisper in his ears, "But I've got a few conditions."
"Conditions?" Tiansebas confusedly questioned.
Whitebrim nodded, "Yeah. You see, it's been a few years and I don't really remember what the others told you guys… And that's a bit of an issue, you see?"
Tiansebas gasped in shock, "Lord Whitebrim! Please don't humble yourself before me! Your memory is perfect!"
Whitebrim clicked his tongue, "Nah, I forget stuff," Whitebrim shrugged and moved along, "Anyways, I want you to create a list of all of the stuff you want to tell the newcomers. Then, you'll bring that list to me and I'll cross out all of the embarrassing ones I don't want them to hear about, alright?"
Tiansebas didn't quite understand why Lord Whitebrim wouldn't want the glorious history of the tomb to be spoken about. However, who was he to question Lord Whitebrim?
Tiansebas nodded, "Yes, Lord Whitebrim! I will begin immediately!"
"Very nice! Now, since I have the time, tell me something that you would tell the humans," Whitebrim said, coming closer to Tiansebas's face.
Tiansebas deliberated what he wanted to say for a moment, before eventually deciding on a few stories.
Tiansebas cleared his throat, "Did you know that all 41 maids of the 9th floor were individually created by each of the 41 Supreme Beings?"
So far so good…
Tiansebas continued, "The maze-like layout of the 9th floor was decided upon by Lord Punitto Moe, who decided it would buy time for the Supreme Beings to prepare their last stand if the 8th floor were to ever be breached!"
Okay, that's going to put a target on Punitto's back if anyone gets confused by the layout of the 9th floor. Maybe scrub that one…
Tiansebas finished off with, "The theater room in the 9th floor was created for what Lady Vagisilious called "peak cinema" when the combination of Lord Whitebrim, Lord Genjiro-"
Whitebrim quickly put a stop to that as he loudly interrupted Tiansebas, "Yeah, that's great, buddy. Go write it all down so I can take a look later."
They absolutely will not tell anyone about the American play. Whitebrim is taking that shit to the grave, knowing full well it's on the Yggdrasil forums.
Shit, he should find a way to wipe the Yggdrasil forums.
Whitebrim quickly made his way to the Gate of Atlas, hoping that he wasn't too late to make requests.
Takehiko nervously looked towards his wife, Kano.
Just a few hours ago, they were living their lives in their dystopian world. It wasn't fulfilling at all, but they were still living.
Then, out of nowhere, some sort of… Evil fairy came out of some magical portal, and took them with only one question, "Is there anyone you would miss?"
They couldn't name anyone. How could they? They were both in total shock. If Takehiko had some time to think about it, perhaps he would miss his friend and coworker, Daichi.
Because they couldn't name anyone, they were forcibly taken inside their portal.
Where they ended up wasn't expected at all, however.
They ended up in some sort of massive… Waiting room, of sorts. Where what must've been hundreds of different people like him were patiently waiting.
The monster that took them, some sort of evil fairy, then loudly asked something, "Does anyone here have anyone else they would like us to get?!"
There was complete and utter silence in the room.
The Evil Fairy then drooped down and breathed out a massive sigh of relief, "238! Finally! We're done!"
She aggressively pointed to some of the humans in the back, "I know some of you guys got the early explanation! Explain everything to the new guys! I'm going to take a well-deserved break!"
The no-longer-evil fairy suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.
Takehiko confusedly looked around, "Uh… Where are we?"
Daichi legitimately scared him when he walked in front of them from his position from the back of the room, "Hey! Takehiko!"
Takehiko confusedly stared at his friend, "Daichi? What are you doing here?"
Daichi excitedly rubbed his hands as though he had a story to tell. And in Takehiko's opinion, it better be a good story, otherwise he was going to punch him.
Daichi then excitedly explained, "Dude, the friend of a friend of a friend got sent into another world with their gear and base from the game they were playing!"
Takehiko blinked. Then he did a double take. Then he pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
"For real?"
"For real for real!"
Takehiko excitedly turned towards his wife, who seemed to be a bit confused, "Kano! Kano! We hit the jackpot-" Then Takehiko turned towards Daichi, "Wait, is this place good?"
Daichi somehow had a glass of water in his hand, eagerly handing it to him, "Dude, even the water here tastes better!"
The water tasting good? What an absurd claim, that was only true 500 years ago!
But still, this situation was already absurd, so Takehiko cautiously took the glass from Daichi's hand. He sent a look towards Daichi that said 'If this sucks, I'm going to make fun of you,' and he lightly sipped the water.
"Kano, you need to drink this," Takehiko handed the glass to his wife.
His wife took a sip of the water with a bit of hesitation, then she immediately declared, "We hit the jackpot."
Haha! Goodbye Japan! Hello-
"Wait, where are we anyways?" Takehiko asked Daichi.
Daichi shrugged, looking very confused himself, "It's some place called Nazarick."
238 people.
That's how many people that they took from Earth to take to Nazarick. And they had to do it all silently too! And Vagisilious had to do research for some of those people to actually find them!
Vagisilious sighed as she lounged on her bed.
What a stupidly long day.
Well, it wasn't like it wasn't interesting. For example, despite staying on until the last moment, Saibandoke didn't get transported to the new world. Which spawned a whole bunch of theories on why the hell that didn't happen for him.
Personally, Vagisilious thought Denshosho's theory of only guilds or clans with world items being transported was the best one. But she also liked Genjiro's suggestion of maybe needing a certain amount of players to isekai was a good one, seeing as their only samples, themselves and Seraphim, all brought a bunch of players.
Oh, and Slane too, but they had 6 players from the myth of the 6 Great Gods, so it evened out.
Anyhow, another great thing they found out was that, yes, Tokino was able to reverse the effects of aging, effectively allowing people to be immortal.
Vagisilious did not at all gracefully take the compliments of her making Tokino and apologies that Tokino wasn't a bad NPC to create. She was super insufferable about it for at least a whole 20 minutes.
Anyhow, she's sure that the Japanese Government is going to have a bunch of fun figuring out why the hell 238 random people disappeared off of the face of the Earth, and the only one that had any sort of warning before disappearing was Saibandoke who released a retirement video which was hastily made in like 5 minutes.
Speaking about Saibandoke, that dude alone brought like 30 dudes along. And that took hours to do. Stupid bitch wanted to bring the whole damn crew with him, plus all of their friends and families too. At least Touch and Saibandoke are friends again. They somehow did that in the 4 years Yggdrasil was dying for.
Anyhow, it's a good thing that she had some level of foresight that this might've happened, so back in the Yggdrasil days, she ended up expanding the 9th floor with some more guest rooms, and added some housing to the 4th and 6th floor.
And in doing so, she beat the 'not doing anything useful in 4 years' allegations that Luci*Fer was accusing her of.
What else… Oh, right.
Principality's human body was dead.
Vagisilious tried to revive him, but nope, apparently his soul was somewhere else according to the gut feeling in her stomach.
So Vagisilious would put money on Principality being in the New World somewhere. She doesn't know where exactly, she hasn't been able to get animals to line up in a thousand mile conga line to be able to explore the world, but she definitely feels as if Principality made it.
Vagisilious would've taken some Triumvirate members back to Nazarick, but she doesn't know their real names, and quite frankly, she was getting tired of the whole thing, so she didn't end up doing that.
Well, it's not her problem anymore, because she's just going to go to bed, wake up tomorrow, and she'll get straight back to work by having to do all of the divination crap.
Vagisilious is glad to be helpful to her friends, but holy christ, not like this…
Basic Rules:
1: Do not fight unless it is absolutely necessary.
2: If you find something of equal or greater strength than you, run.
3: Do not split up unless necessary.
4: Ensure other members know of your location so they can keep track of where you are in the scenario you are split up.
5: Do not reveal Ainz Ooal Gown or Nazarick or any of the 41.
6: Stick to fake names. Even better, don't be in a situation where you would have to introduce your names.
7: If Punitto Moe, Vagisilious, or Nubo commands you to do something, do it.
8: This is an information gathering expedition. Learn something.
x
Teams:
Nazarick Control Center:
Punitto Moe
Nubo
Vagisilious
Nigredo
x
Re-Estisize District: (6)
Momonga
Touch Me
Nishikienrai
Bakuita
Flatfoot
Nearata
Denshosho
Pandora's Actor
Liberta (Penultimate)
Mare
x
Slane District: (2)
Whitebrim
Yamaiko
Luci*Fer
Genjiro
Ankoro
Shizyuutensuzaku
Liberta (Adolescent)
Demiurge
Albedo
x
Baharuth District Capital: (4)
Garnet
Wish III
Tigris
Daijobubua
Wasewaru
Bellriver
Pannokishi
Liberta (Evening)
Lucilla
CZ Delta
x
Dragon Kingdom: (5)
Ulbert
Takemikazuchi
BigStall
Amanomahitosu
Otanabetabeki
Yoipesuto
Cocytus
Liberta (Prime)
x
Argland Council State: (1)
Ancient One
Tabula
Mekongawa
Herohero
Suratan
Variable Talisman
Liberta (Youth)
Leviathan
Tokino
Solution
x
Wilderness (East): (3)
Peroroncino
Orphea
Coup De Grace
Bukubukuchagama
Blue Planet
Temperance
Shalltear
Shatallia
Aura
Liberta (Midnight)
AN:
First upload of the new year, on the night of the 4th! That's nice.
This is a short 5k chapter, mostly because my motivation kind of stopped working for a while because I could not get that initial conversation going smoothly.
And also because this really should've been a part of chapter 11, but I was being impatient and lazy.
Everything else in this chapter was kind of just filler sort of in a way. I mean, I'm sure those 238 people we kidnapped will come up later, but for most of these scenes I was just thinking to myself 'Hm, I don't wanna write Punitto Moe explaining things… But then this chapter will be too short… I'll just write some fluff and call it a day.'
Especially that whole segment between the 4 smart guys of Nazarick. Feels kind of blasphemous to put my own OC in that group, but eh, that's what I wrote. But that entire scene was basically me trying to convince myself 'yeah, I can write smart people. That's totally within my skill set.'
Yeah, so anyways, it's the 4th of January, you might get another upload this month but I've got Manifest Destiny to write, and even though I lowered the bar to 2k words per chapter, it's a bit finicky for me on how fast I do that and how much I procrastinate.
X
Guess I'll just talk about my group decisions.
So, actually, I didn't really think of anything like 'balance' or 'friendship potential' I just sort of threw them into random groups and hoped for the best.
Originally, I was gonna leave some of them in Nazarick but then I was like "I have the entire 41, I'm gonna use the entire 41."
Canonically, they just chose the place that tickled their fancy the most and it all worked out.
Herohero and some of the other lazers probably had to be forced into choosing, though.
Anyhow, I did put slight thought into some of those pairings.
For example, the Slane group is because someone in the comments asked to go to Slane with the Washington group.
Touch is with Momonga because a lot of people asked for it.
I ended up having Ulbert go alone, because I could not find a way for Vaggy to weasel out of her divination duties for the 2nd time in a row. But no doubt Vaggy is just going to talk Ulbert's ear off for like half that chapter. She'll find the time to do it.
Liberta Prime is at the Dragon Kingdom because. Well. You know.
I was gonna have Liberta Youth in Nazarick, but I ran out of Libertas to use to act as a telephone. 7 places but only 6 Libertas.
And you know what, I thought about who shouldn't go a bit too.
Nobody from the 8th floor, because they're holding down the fort.
So the pleiades that are there are there because somebody asked for them. Sebas and the rest are in Nazarick with the maids attending to the 238 humans that were dumped in Nazarick. (And I'll get to talking about the consequences of that in like, chapter… Idk, 5 chapters of this, 1 chapter extra, so… chapter 19?)
Albedo & Shalltear are separated from Momonga because Punitto did not want this to turn into a rom-com. He did not factor in that Pandora's Actor is a comedy show all on his own.
Honestly it might be 2 chapters for some of them, and that's scary to me because I am a fool.
Also, the numbers (#) are in what order the chapters are coming in.
I know what's coming, so here are my own predictions on how much I'm going to enjoy writing each chapter. From most to least enjoyable.
1: Argland
2: Re-Estisize
3: Dragon
4: Baharuth
5: Wilderness
6: Slane
Once you read each chapter, I'm sure you'll understand why I labeled them that way. And at the end of it all, I'll tell you if my rankings held true.
X
I ended up rereading Time Capsule to procrastinate writing this chapter.
Honestly, not as bad as I thought it was, but it was still kind of embarrassing to catch my own mistakes.
I didn't fix most of those mistakes. I just laughed and moved on. And that was just on Ao3, cause I ain't touching FFN.
Overall, pretty nice fic, 7/10 personally. Maybe if I didn't write all of these chapters at night and post them immediately after I'm finished with them, it would bump up to an 8 out of 10. But then again, my standards are kind of trashy and all over the place, maybe it's higher or lower on other days. But today it's a 7/10.
Speaking of FFN, I think the views started working again, so that's nice. Not gonna check on it very often, but it's cool that's a thing again.
In other news, I wrote for April Fools a bit because, again, procrastination. And I'm very upset I can't share it with y'all until April Fools. It was the bonus story at the end of the April Fools chapter. I think it's hilarious, I know some of you are going to hate it, and I think that's even more hilarious.
What else…
Oh, yeah, so in one of the ANs, I said you'd find out what was up with Vaggy's bolded text thing in chapter 8 or something in like chapter 25-30.
That's not happening anymore, that's being pushed back to like the mid 40s I think.
And I felt the urge to make a crappy map today, so here it is.
[You know the deal by now. It's Ao3 or the discord.]
I'm aware that there's supposed to be a state to the east of Baharuth, but I decided 'eh…' and dissolved it. It'll give the wilderness group something to find out.
I decided not to label where they're going specifically, mostly because I'm lazy.
Anyhow, there's not too much to comment about on this chapter I think, but if you have a comment, feel free to comment it.