No. No.

Vagisilious couldn't believe it. She didn't want to believe it.

Nishikienrai, Nearata, and Denshosho couldn't have died. They can't die. They're not allowed to die.

But the evidence is right in front of her eyes, how could she just deny reality?

…Was Vagisilious… Wrong?

They died because they split up and were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The splitting up part was her fault. She allowed for everyone to split up from their gaze, and they paid the price for it.

Vagisilious let her friends die.

Nubo handed her Hygelia's Chalice, but she couldn't take it yet. She was having trouble comprehending why this happened.

She could fix this. She could fix this. She has to fix this. She will never allow this to happen again.

"Vaggy, if you're not taking this, I'm just going to hand it to someone else," Nubo said, both impatiently and solemnly.

Vagisilious woke up from her somber, and she quickly took the world item out of his hands, "Sorry. I'm just…"

Ulbert came up from behind and put a hand on her shoulder, "Vaggy, if you're thinking some sort of variation of 'this is my fault,' then you're stupid. Simple as that. The ones responsible are Seraphim, and I'm sure once we find out where the hell Momonga went, we can make sure they pay for this."

Vagisilious frowned, tears starting to form, "I let them split up, though. Punitto told them the words, but I let that happen."

Ulbert sighed, tired of her whining, "Ugh, just revive them, and they'll tell you that it wasn't your fault."

Vagisilious slowly nodded, raised up the cup, and chanted the spell, "[Mass Resurrection]."

Flashes of light covered the bodies of the dead, and within a few moments, they began to move as their bodies recovered and came back to life.

"Holy fucking what?" Nearata was the first to speak, his jellicent body regrowing from his core, "That feels weird…"

Denshosho groaned as he massaged his head, "What happened?"

"Got our asses kicked, that's what," Nishikienrai answered for them, immediately realizing what had happened, "Ugh, my memories are foggy though…"

Vagisilious casted healing magic on them, ensuring they were fully healed before asking, "Are you guys alright? Was… Dying not too bad?"

"Dying not too bad," Nishikienrai dryly repeated, "You know what? The endless nothingness was pretty comfortable, like sleeping. I guess death was alright."

Nearata agreed with Nishikienrai's assessment, "Yeah, it could've been worse. We could've actually remembered our deaths."

Vagisilious sighed in relief, simply happy that they were taking their own deaths well.

Then Ulbert ruined the moment by asking, "Hey, quick question because Vaggy's an idiot. She's feeling stupid because she thinks by letting you guys split up, she let you guys down or something. Is this stupid, or stupid?"

"What? That's stupid," Nishikienrai immediately agreed with Ulbert's assessment.

Vagisilious's mouth dropped at the total lack of care towards her feelings, "Ulbert? Why are you doing this to me?"

"Sadness isn't allowed here, duh," Ulbert easily answered, "Besides, the worst part about dying, actually dying, they don't even remember it. You're fine, just do better next time."

…Yeah, Ulbert was probably right. She was being a bit too guilty over… Someone else's crime. She'll just make sure Seraphim feels even worse later on. That's what she'll do to earn her happiness.

Then, Denshosho ruined the mood by saying, "Uh, that's not what I experienced?"

Touch tilted his head, "What? Did you see something else when you died?"

Denshosho scratched his chin, "Uhh… Yeah, I think I found someone staring at me. I can't really describe it, all I remember is like, a black and red color scheme that kind of looked cool before I woke up."

That's… Pretty alarming. Doesn't ring a bell for her at all.

Actually, from her vague memories when she first died, Vagisilious was sent to this place specifically because someone before her was feeling a bit mean. Could that someone be the person Denshosho met?

…That might be a bit of a stretch. Why would said person even be looking at Denshosho? And it's not like Bellriver or Temperance ever mentioned something like that…

Yeah, this train of thought was going nowhere. She's just going to be happy that nothing wrong happened with her friends. And Denshosho was just being weird.

They'll come back to it if it happens again.

Giving all of them a quick hug, Vagisilious said, "Regardless, I'm glad you guys are okay, we're just waiting on everyone else to get back right now. Let's move to the throne room where everyone else is."

Out of the groups, only the Slane & Argland Council State groups weren't back yet. Which was somewhat inconvenient, because Slane was supposed to be the backup group, and the Argland group had Tokino in it.

And for some reason, the Baharuth group, or more accurately, Liberta Evening, brought an old guy with them. Which was kind of awkward because her group brought Principality with them, another old guy. So Tokino had to reverse the aging on both of them, but she was running late.

And speaking of the devil, the Slane group just arrived at Nazarick's throne room, where they all agreed to have the massive meeting at.

And of course, the first thing that Genjiro shouted out was not to check if anyone was hurt, or to confirm they were here, but instead it was, "Hey! Cocytus! Can you prepare the jail on the 5th floor? Tangaroa swallowed someone and we need to imprison them!"

Cocytus immediately left to go fulfill his duty at the behest of his masters. Likely putting the prisoner next to Colette, who was sent there because she was asleep and couldn't fight back.

Then, Principality takes a look around the various members of Ainz Ooal Gown. He had never seen all 41 in person since the last time he was in Nazarick. Which was the guild raid where he made it all the way to the throne room before falling victim to the triple super-tier set up, an convoluted evolution to the double super-tier set up he created.

It sure was a varied group. Principality almost regrets not playing a heteromorph class. Sure, his build was only possible because of his vast array of job class slots, but Principality did have to admit it would be cool playing as a monster. Though, maybe less in real life.

For example, he did kind of pity the guy having so many mouths, who was currently talking to the jellyfish player who just died. Principality knows for sure Vagisilious went through her guild members with him a century ago. The name of the blood mouth guy was… Bellriver?

The same Bellriver who… Was dead.

Wait a second.

Going through the depths of his memories, Principality attempts to remember what his friends told him about Bellriver. Principality was pretty sure Vagisilious told him Bellriver was supposed to be dead, though.

Which makes it really clear to him that Ainz Ooal Gown somehow found a way to transport a dead guy into his game avatar.

Which means…

Principality squashes that hope in his heart. There was nothing left for him in such a reunion.

Still, it would be nice to find out why Bellriver was alive, so he walked up to him and asked, "Hey, I heard you were dead?"

Bellriver blinked, "Uhh…" Bellriver looked to Vagisilious, helplessly looking for aid.

Vagisilious noticed Bellriver and chuckled as she floated over to them, "Oh! Yeah! I managed to revive him through some Yggdrasil biography shenanigans. I basically made coffins that held the bodies and souls of any of our guild members who died. And, well, it worked!"

Principality understood the subtext of there being no possibility for any external souls getting the opportunity to be revived.

It was a shame, but not unexpected. Principality had a century to cope, either way.

Still, Principality had to ask, "So, you guys just shrugged off dying? That feels like you would be left with some trauma, you know."

Nishikienrai groaned as he got up from the floor, "Dude, I don't even remember how I died. It's fine."

Principality hummed, deciding that, sure, it was probably fine.

"I'm not fine," She said out loud, "I feel like shit. But slightly less shit now that Ulbert is making fun of me for it."

Ulbert glowed with pride as he basked in the fact that tough love actually worked sometimes. If it were still Yggdrasil, Ulbert wouldn't see any healing for the next two dungeons.

Blue Planet then chose that moment to ask, "Wait a second, what the hell is Principality doing here?"

Ulbert answered for him, "He was waiting for us because he knew that we had Tokino as our chronomancer. He was also playing with Momonga, Vaggy, and I while the game was dying. He's cool. He became the King of The Dragon Kingdom while he was at it. Which is doubly cool."

"Oh," Blue Planet lamely said, before turning to Principality, "Nice to meet you?"

Principality nodded, "Nice to meet you."

At that moment, the Argland group finally turned back to Nazarick, being the final group to be back.

And naturally, they brought a dragon home as well.

And a bunch of animals. Aura immediately understood her assignment, and went to herd all of the incoming animals to the 6th floor where all the other animals the other players picked up for fun.

Before anyone could say anything, Ancient One pointed to Leviathan and said, "Leviathan decided to fight a dragon and got Tokino to revive it and bring it home. Don't blame me."

Vagisilious blinked, then, she turned to Leviathan to ask, "Uh, Leviathan, why did you do that?"

Leviathan vaguely gestured to the silver colored dragon, and the dragon seemed to get the message.

The dragon bowed down and humbly announced, "I am Euryalus Joukahainen, the, ah, Lesser Primordial Dragon Lord. I am one of the dragon councilors of the Argland Council State."

Lesser Primordial? Oh, was he calling himself a Primordial Dragon Lord and Leviathan got a bit pissy about it? Well, that's like cultural appropriation or something, so Vagisilious could understand why they got in a fight.

Punitto confusedly asked, "Wait, Leviathan, you fought a dragon? Why? Wait, nevermind that, is he in our service now?"

Leviathan nodded, "After our fight and his subsequent revival, he has pledged himself to Nazarick. And, barring one move that was slightly dangerous, he poses no danger to you, my lords."

"Well, what level would you say Euryalus is, then?" Orphea asked.

Leviathan briefly looked at Euryalus before answering, "Fully geared level 90. With special abilities that take him higher."

"Right, that's not that bad," Punitto said, before turning to Tokino, "Hey, Tokino, can you reverse Principality's age and… Uh, the other old guy?"

"My name is Fluder."

Tokino ignored Fluder's words as she nodded, "Very well, Lord Punitto Moe. Will you two please come closer?"

The two did so, and Tokino said, "[Reversal]."

Within an instant, two old men became just men.

Principality laughed with joy, stretching his body, hopping around very excitedly, "Haha! I knew it! They were just lying about their Chronomancer not being able to do it, just to be a bitch!"

Fluder laughed with insanity, staring at Tokino with awe, "Hahaha! This mastery over time! I've never seen it before! And you're another follower?!" Fluder turned to the Supreme Beings with an ecstatic look on his face, "Then you all must be the gods of magic!"

"Thanks?" Tabula asked in confusion, "Wait, who is this guy? Who brought him?"

Liberta in the Evening of his life raised his hand, "I brought him, my lord. After a simple display of knowledge, he agreed to defect from his kingdom to join us. I believe he will be quite helpful in gaining knowledge of the mechanics of this world as well."

Liberta in the Prime of his life agreed, "Yes, this was a decision made by all of my perspectives. I believe that this will help Nazarick in further understanding the world."

Punitto allowed it, "Alright, Fluder can stay, then. But Liberta, er, if you do any experiments or something… Be sure to just grab one of us to watch, okay?"

Liberta Prime nodded, "Of course, Lord Punitto Moe."

Principality and Fluder basked in their youthfulness, but then Orphea looked around the room and noticed something.

"Hey, guys," Orphea called out, getting everyone's attention, "So, seriously, where is Momonga?"

That triggered everyone to look around the entire room. But after a solid 5 seconds of just aimlessly looking around, they all came to the same conclusion. Momonga was still missing.

Vagisilious panickedly asked Touch, "Hey! Touch! He was with you guys, wasn't he?! Where did you let him go?"

Touch touched his chin to remember, "Hm… He said he was going to try and fly away from Re-Estisize to message you guys, but…"

"I sent the backup team to Re-Estisize when Nubo told me that both the Slane group and Re-Estisize group got isolated from his vision," Punitto said, "I never heard from Momonga, so he must've been stopped along the way…"

She tried to message Momonga, but her call was stopped by another barrier, "I can't message Momonga either. But the spell in Re-Estisize is already disabled, right? So where is he?"

"Not in Re-Estisize, that's for sure," Nubo said before complaining, "I absolutely hate the fact that the counter against anti-message spells was to use the in-game chat. Something that we don't have anymore."

BigStall refocused on the problem at hand, "Okay, our guild master is missing. We have no idea if he's okay or not- Actually, can we bring up the guild menu or something? The Throne of Kings had a function like that because it's the Master Throne, right?"

She blinked, taking a moment to remember what the hell BigStall was talking about. Then, she pointed out, "Isn't it only guild leaders who can use that stuff?"

BigStall shrugged, "It's worth a shot, isn't it?"

Peroroncino immediately volunteers himself, "I got it!"

Peroroncino leaps over to the Throne of Kings, sitting on it, "Alright, now show me the guild menu!"

Surprising everyone but Albedo, the guild menu actually appeared in front of Peroroncino.

"Holy shit that actually worked," She said, astonished.

Peroroncino eagerly searches through the menu, and announces to the room, "Ladies and gentlemen, Momonga's name is green like the rest of us! He's definitely alive!"

A weight was lifted off all of their shoulders, as the worst possible option was dashed. But now, they had to contend with the possibility that Momonga might actually have been captured by Seraphim.

"So, do we just continue without him here?" Genjiro questioned, "What if he comes back and we have to explain everything to him again?"

Bakuita explained with the obvious, "Then we'll just explain everything to him again."

Then, Wasewaru opened Pandora's Box by innocently asking, "Well, while he's gone, who's the leader?"

Silence ensued as the extremely touchy subject was brought into the open.

There were a few options in her mind. At least, viable options. The most obvious option would be Punitto, seeing as how he decided he was going to be the group strategist. But herself and Ulbert were also good choices, seeing as they were the ones who stayed the longest.

Going beyond that, Orphea was someone who was actually a leader, as she was the CEO of a massive mega corporation. And Ainz Ooal Gown was… Kind of like a mega corporation. If Orphea really wanted to, she could be legitimate competition to the throne on the basis of competency.

Touch, being the previous leader of the guild, was also a contender. But it was unlikely he would attempt to stake a claim.

And, of course, if anyone else was feeling bold, given how all 41 members are equal to each other, they could all stake their own claim to the temporary leadership.

If any two combinations of people decided to try and take the reins, the clash of ego would surely result in an argument. And in a room filled with NPCs and visitors, the damage to their reputation would undeniably destroy any credibility that they had. And they weren't very eager to test the limits of their NPCs' loyalties.

Game theory dictates that the safest option is to all cooperate and choose to just not have a temporary leader, and trust that either Momonga will come back soon, or just go without a leader and go with the usual voting system. But it also shows that if just one person took the reins, they benefit the most.

Even if Momonga comes back, it establishes the precedent of "If Momonga is gone, they're the leader." And that second-in-command slot could one day be very valuable. After all, there are plenty of people in the room that have no aspirations to lead, and would willingly follow their guild deputy to the ends of the Earth because it's Ainz Ooal Gown.

Two or more, the entire system starts to crumble until somebody backs down.

And Vagisilious had absolutely no faith in the elementary-schooled adults in the room to understand any of that.

So, she hastily defused the bomb before anyone got the opportunity to do something stupid, "Let's let Momonga decide that, right? Because he's obviously coming back."

"Vaggy…" Ulbert started, before she quickly shushed him.

She repeated with full confidence, "He's coming back."

Punitto quickly shut everything down, seemingly coming to the same conclusion she did, just a few moments slower, "We'll come back to this topic later. For now, we need to share information. We'll fill in Momonga when he comes back. Do you guys want to start with- Actually, let's start with figuring out what Principality and the other guys are doing here."

Everyone immediately looked to Principality.

Principality pointed at Ulbert, "I just followed him. Don't ask me, I have no idea what the hell he was doing."

Ulbert helplessly looked at Vagisilious.

She looked away.

Ulbert sneered at her, quietly whispering to her, "You traitor."

Then, he cleared his throat and summarized how Athalia, a Seraphim member, randomly attacked him after he split up from BigStall who wanted to sign up as an adventurer. Which then resulted in a fight where Ulbert may or may not have annihilated a good solid quarter of the population of Triumph because he activated his true demon form and decided genocide was a good way to go. Then, when he was getting his ass beat, Vagisilious came in to rescue him. But before they won the battle, Principality came out of nowhere, putting Athalia inside a world item and using a different world item to stop Ulbert's minions. Then Principality revealed that he was waiting for them because he knew they could reverse his aging, because apparently Seraphim wasn't willing to with their own chronomancer NPC.

Vagisilious had to interrupt a few times to point out a few fatal flaws in his stories, but other than that, Principality's presence was understood by everyone.

Then, discussion immediately opened up.

Orphea pointed out the obvious, "So, uh, this is kind of awkward, isn't it?"

Principality gave her a thumbs up, "Nah, we're cool. Pretty sure we buried that grudge in the sand."

Orphea gladly took the easy way out, "Right, right. We're cool, totally forgiven for robbing like, 5 world items from you."

"We're slightly less cool now that you brought that up again."

Then, Yamaiko asked, "Principality, you've been here for 100 years, right? Do you happen to know anything about a cult named… Uh, Incarnation of Fate's Will?"

Principality immediately answered, "Those wackos? Oh, yeah, those guys have been around for a while. Since like, 600 years ago or something. They're actually- Well, were actually a bunch of political elites that spanned basically the entire human kingdom. They basically had fingers in every pie, and everyone was connected to them in some way. But they were bothering me when I took the Dragon Kingdom, so I ended up smoking them out of my kingdom. I think they're ruled by a few immortal executives, though. I killed one of them, I think he was called Zenith? A few decades ago…"

"Wait, that can't be right," Whitebrim interrupted Principality's monologue, "We just fought Zenith! And he was like, a low level world enemy, that's what you said Nubo, right?"

Nubo nodded, "I said he was, yeah. But if the 7 of you could take him out, he might've just been closer to a dungeon boss, or a mini-boss in a raid."

Ankoro tilted her head, "I think we could take down Yowairyu with 5 of us because of the power creep, right? I don't think it really matters how strong they are, just whether they resist world items and super-tier spells or whatever."

Leviathan bristled as his dead name was brought up, and Tokino poked her head into Leviathan's body to calm him down. This evaded everyone except Vagisilious's notice.

Shizyuutensuzaku hummed, "Well, our super-tier spells worked just fine- Unless you count the part where Zenith grabbed my Celestial Nail and threw it at Albedo."

"That's definitely a world enemy thing to do…" Nubo pointed out.

Fluder was immensely interested in the ongoing conversation, and he desperately wanted to ask what super-tier spells were. But Liberta Prime put a finger on his lips to silence him.

"Back to the topic at hand," Punitto said, "You guys are saying you fought a world enemy called Zenith who seemed to be one of the head honchos of this cult? Someone with the same name that Principality killed a few decades ago?"

Ankoro raised her hand, "If it's any consolation, it sounded like Zenith had to be revived? Like, maybe by taking control over a body?"

Principality shrugged, not sounding too concerned, "Well, I've yet to see a singular person be able to match my capabilities, and if they died to you guys, I doubt they're an actual issue. Besides, Seraphim took care of most of them when they took over the 4 human kingdoms a decade ago."

"So… They're not going to be an issue?" Tigris asked for the group.

Principality shook his head, "Nah, they're not what they used to be."

Punitto hummed, "In that case, does anyone else have a question for Principality?"

There were none, so Punitto moved on, "Alright, between Fluder and Eur-something, I want to know why the dragon is here."

Leviathan cleared his throat, intending to explain himself, "While the Supreme Beings were off to forge commercial deals with the merchant class, Tokino and I were touring the city of Drako Urbo. Eventually, we stumbled on information relating to the rulers of the state. Namely, someone named the Primordial Dragon Lord. Of course, as I am a Primordial Dragon, I know how dangerous our kind are. And so I decided to check if he was truly one of my kind."

Leviathan's eyes flickered to Euryalus, then he lightly smiled, "He was not."

Euryalus quickly bowed in reverence of his new masters' might, "I am now Euryalus Joukahainen, the Lesser Primordial Dragon Lord. I am but an ant in your presence, my masters."

As the explanation was finished, Punitto immediately grilled Leviathan, "I heard you got into a fight. I told you all to avoid fights, and what do you do? You immediately got into a fight."

"So did half the Supreme Beings," calmly retorted Leviathan.

Which was a fair point. They absolutely did not follow the "No fighting" rule. Quite frankly, it probably would've been better if they all decided to run, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.

Punitto sighed, "Fair enough. Don't go looking for a fight again."

Leviathan bowed in response, "Thank you for your kindness, Lord Punitto Moe."

Otanabetabeki curiously asked, "So, how strong is the dragon?"

Leviathan hummed, thinking about it for a moment before answering, "By level? Perhaps level 90. Though, he has access to wild magic, which seems to be a variation of world magic that world enemies have, such as I. If his final desperate gamble hit you head on, it is likely you would die. Though, the chances of it actually landing is miniscule."

"Back up a second there," Denshosho said, "So the dragons here all have world enemy-equivalent attacks?"

Euryalus answered, "I am not sure what you mean by world enemy, but wild magic is the ancestral power of dragons. However, since the introduction of tier magic by the 8 Greed Kings, dragons are no longer born with the ability to use wild magic…"

"The 8 Greed Kings introduced tier magic?" Vagisilious muttered, remembering her journeys with the two Greed Kings she knew, Theadul & PopStarry, "Huh, now that I think of it…"

She turned to Ulbert, "Hey, Ulbert, doesn't that introducing tier magic thing sound like, you know, a world item? Something that PopStarry was bragging about and Theadul said to keep it secret?"

Ulbert blinked, "Uh… Actually, now that I think of it, I do vaguely recall that. I thought it was just something rare, not a world item though."

"Five Elements Overcoming?" She suggested, "That would've done the trick, right?"

Five Elements Overcoming, Ouroboros, and the developer part of the Caloric Stone stopped working after the developers died. But since this is a new world, it could be feasible for those world items to start working again. She felt a little betrayed that they didn't tell them that they had the world item, but she'll let bygones be bygones if she can talk to them again.

Principality chipped in on the conversation about the Greed Kings, "Well, I know where Theadul and PopStarry's tombs are, we could go there after today if we really wanted to."

"You know their names and where they rest?" Fluder questioned, grabbing everyone's attention, "That's… Everyone I've met who's older than me has told me that there was nothing left of the 8 Greed Kings aside from their floating city in Eryuentiu!"

Principality shook his head, "Nah, they have more than their guild base. Though, their resting place is nowhere near their guild base, and I've just been officially protecting it since it's in my borders."

"Forgive me for my rudeness, but were you not idle on your throne for the past 30 years?" Fluder said, "Who would have been there to protect it if you were not?"

"Their long-living NPCs," Principality said, then he realized, "Ah, wait, you wouldn't know that term… Ah, just know that it's handled."

Punitto gestured to Fluder, "Alright, then let's move on to Fluder. Liberta, the floor is yours."

Liberta Evening spoke up as he showed off Fluder like a pet, "While we were in Artwintar, the capital of Baharuth, Lord Wasewaru Kakyoku unleashed a distraction song across the entire city. So Lucilla and I made our way inside of the academia that was visible from practically every corner of the city-"

Coup De Grace interrupted the story to ask, "Why did you enter the academia?"

"Lady Orphea Scarlet and Lord Peroroncino have said in front of us that there are always important items to be found in an academia," Liberta Evening answered.

Orphea and Peroroncino looked very pointedly away from everyone.

Liberta Evening continued his story, "As we entered the academia, Lucilla and I split up. Lucilla would comb through the books to find the ones of interest, and I would go to the headmaster's office to find anything that may be used for my new perspective. It was there that I found some impure angel dust, which I took. And it was also there that Fluder found me pillaging his office."

Liberta in the Prime of his life spoke up, "I shall now demonstrate to my peers what the Supreme Beings have already gleaned from Fluder's presence here."

None of the "Supreme Beings" had any idea what Liberta was talking about, but all of the NPCs seemed enthralled, so they all collectively and silently agreed to stay quiet.

Liberta Prime looked to Fluder, "If you will, cast fireball on my Evening perspective."

Fluder seemed somewhat surprised by the order, but he recovered and pointed his wooden staff at Liberta Evening, "[Fireball]."

The resulting blast did minimal damage to Liberta Evening. Though he did have to lightly shake his clothing in order to put out the fire.

Liberta Prime smiled, "The attack of a level 39 mage," Then he turned to CZ Delta, "Shizu, if you will, could you please attempt to use my wand, Equilus Gemini?"

Liberta Prime tossed his wand to Delta, who caught it easily. Then, she swung.

The wand fell out of her hand.

"And my hat, could you please wear it?" Liberta tossed his hat along as well.

Delta securely placed Liberta's hat on her head.

The hat fell off her head.

"As you can see, my level 100 items cannot be worn by those beneath its level," Liberta Prime explained as he used some form of telekinesis to get the wand and hat back, "Now, Fluder, will you please put this on, and use the wand to attack Evening again?" Liberta gently ordered, using that same telekinesis to grant his gear to Fluder.

Fluder complied, putting the hat on, which did not fall off, and aiming the wand, which did not drop out of his hands. Then he casted, "[Fireball]."

The fireball burned much brighter than before, and Liberta Evening flinched as the fireball hit him. Every other Liberta gave off some sort of reaction to being hit, as they all shared the same memories.

As the smoke cleared, Liberta Evening was missing an arm, and he was covered in burn marks.

Everyone was completely caught off guard by the change in power. Fluder's ability to use gear higher than his level could be legitimately dangerous if someone armed him properly. Not to mention his level 39 attack having the strength of a geared level 39…

"Tokino," Liberta Prime said.

Tokino immediately reversed Liberta Evening's wounds.

"As you just saw," Liberta Prime turned to the audience, who all seemed surprised, "Fluder was completely unaffected by the laws of Yggdrasil. It is completely unexplained by anything we know. Even talents, which are native to the people of this new world, a type of special skill they attain from birth, cannot explain this. Fluder's talent is to be able to see mana."

Demiurge raised a point, "Does this truly mean anything, though? Do these humans have any way of actually obtaining gear on our level?"

Liberta shook his head, "They do not. However, we do."

Demiurge smiled, understanding, "I see! Yes, I will be taking this into consideration, then."

The players also took this into consideration as they silently looked at each other.

Though Fluder was only level 39, and would never be a threat to them even if he had full gear, the possibility of finding higher leveled people in Yggdrasil gear was unsettling.

But also, this was definitely the tip of the iceberg, and they needed to get all the minor details settled. For example…

Vagisilious turned to Takemikazuchi, "Hey, Takemikazuchi, do you have a spare sword with a special effect on it?"

"Eh?" Takemikazuchi tilted his head, thinking about it, "Uh, I think I do…"

"Can you hand it to Fluder and see if he could use the ability on the sword?" She asked.

Takemikazuchi pulled out a sword from his inventory, "Yeah, sure. This sword summons a clone of yourself."

Takemikazuchi handed the sword to Fluder, and Fluder raised the sword up and stared at it. Then, he swung.

The sword stayed in his hand.

After a moment, Fluder declared, "I cannot use the magical effect on this sword."

Well, that was good to know.

Fluder returned the sword to Takemikazuchi, and everyone was only mildly worried about what crazy army Seraphim might have in the back wings, waiting for them to make a mistake to pounce on.

Punitto checked the room again to make sure nobody wasn't accounted for, then he decided, "Alright, everyone not a part of the 41 members of Ainz Ooal Gown, exit the throne room, we're about to have a discussion!"

Principality raised his hand.

"Yes, even you!"

Principality lowered his hand.

Everyone eventually filed out of the throne room, having small conversations with each other as the gates slammed shut.

A moment of silence passed.

"Are they gone? They can't hear us anymore, right?" Amanomahitotsu cautiously asked, staring at the door.

Silence.

Punitto then began the meeting, "Alright, now that all of the NPCs are out of the way and we got all of the info we need out of them, let's begin. First of all, what the fuck happened in Re-Estisize? "

Everyone looked to the Re-Estisize group, who all shuffled around awkwardly.

"Well, I died," Nishikienrai said, making excuses.

For most of the guild, that was the first time they had heard about the deaths of their friends.

"Wait, you died?!" Tabula shouted in shock, "Seriously?!"

Most of the guild also responded similarly.

Denshosho raised his hand, "Nishiki, Nearata, and I, yeah. Flatfoot carried our bodies back here."

"Speaking of which," Flatfoot cut in, "Don't die again, all of you, actually. Carrying your dead bodies back was super uncomfortable."

Nishikienrai sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "Haha, sorry…"

Herohero asked him, "Who did it?! Seraphim?! Which member of Seraphim?!"

"It was-" Nearata paused, "Huh, actually, I have no idea. I lost my memories of that fight when we were revived. Hey, Touch, you found our bodies, right? Who did we lose to?"

"Seraphim's caloric golem NPC, Deltarune," Touch answered, "I couldn't kill her because our builds were both specced into holy, and her build was centered around killing evil-karma enemies. So we couldn't really harm each other, even with Deltarune's caloric properties."

"Well, I feel better about dying now," Nishikienrai said as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders, "No way we could've won that fight, then. Even as a 1v3."

Garnet pointed something out, "So, uh, not to be a downer or anything but like, most of this guild has negative karma. And Seraphim is full of angels that probably have weapons specifically designed to kill us. I don't think we would win that fight…"

She disagreed, "Who cares if they have the build advantage? Seraphim doesn't have an all-star cast of players. Their entire strategy revolves around having the most competent people most of the time. Meanwhile, we have Touch, a world champion, Ulbert, a world disaster, and with Leviathan actually becoming a world enemy and Principality maybe joining our side, we probably out-skill them too! Not to mention my Mianguan, which makes it tilted in our favor."

No matter which way you slice it, Ainz Ooal Gown would win a fight right now. It would be costly, yes, but they would still win.

Pannokishi nervously laughed, "Haha, uh, Vaggy, you sound as if you want to fight now…"

She looked at Pannokishi oddly, "They killed our friends, didn't they?"

Pannokishi replied, "Yeah, and we revived them! I think that we should just focus on trying to talk with whoever's in charge of Seraphim now, and go from there-"

Momonga suddenly teleported inside of the throne room using his Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"I'm back," Momonga announced, to the surprise of everyone inside, "What did I miss?"

Everyone was instantly relieved that Momonga was alright. Ulbert and Vagisilious immediately jumped on the skeleton to hug him. Which then triggered an avalanche of everyone else trying to jump on Momonga as well.

"Hey! Hey!" I'm fine guys! Seriously!" Momonga protested the sudden wave of physical affection given to him, "I can't even hug back because all of my senses are dulled!"

"You missed quite a bit," Punitto answered as everyone crowded on Momonga, "More importantly, where the hell were you?"

"Oh, Ah…" Momonga went into business mode, straightening his act, "Well, Touch, you did mention how I tried to escape Re-Estisize to go get help, right?"

Touch nodded, "Did you get caught?"

"I got caught, yeah," Momonga confirmed, slightly ashamed, "I'll be honest, I have no clue how he knew I was going to be there. So, I got caught by the new guild leader of Seraphim, Mustapha Mond."

"Mustapha Mond?" Vagisilious questioned, "What happened to BlessThyHearts?"

Momonga said, "He died, apparently. To a dragon, I don't quite remember the name he told me, a few years ago."

"Wait, seriously?" Suratan asked, "To a dragon? Didn't Leviathan just beat one up and call it weak?"

"Leviathan did what now?" Momonga confusedly asked.

"We'll fill you in later," Punitto said, "Continue, please."

Momonga pulled out a crystal from his inventory, "Actually, I got this from Mustapha Mond. Apparently, he picked up a spell from somewhere that allowed him to copy memories and show it to other people when I break this."

"Well, isn't that just convenient?" Otanabetabeki said, "Well, show it!"

Momonga complied, breaking the crystal.

The film started shortly before Mustapha Mond used his super-tier spell, Judgment of Osiris, forcing Momonga to quickly explain what happened before that point and why he was suddenly human.

Naturally, the entire experience was a rollercoaster as revelation led to revelation. For example, Mustapha Mond casually letting Momonga turn into a human, the two world items on his person, then the spell that let Momonga not be evil.

Then Mustapha Mond pulled out Brave New World, and something immediately clicked inside of her head. She read that book before in high school because her English teacher was a socialist hippie that basically shouted out "I am a feminist."

She only remembered that book because she ended up forgetting to turn it back to the school library, and she got hit with a $5 fine that she was still salty about to this day.

She couldn't remember the exact contents of the book at first, but as Mustapha Mond let Momonga explore London, she remembered the one thing that her friends thought about the book.

The dystopia book about the author's thinly veiled fetishes.

And apparently, when Mustapha Mond went to open the gates, he essentially snitched on Ainz Ooal Gown and sent most of his guild to Re-Estisize. Dick move.

As the recording continued, she began to remember more and more details about the dystopia Mustapha Mond was trying to recreate. And the way Momonga's conversation with the newly named Lenina happened definitely reinforced her idea of the author just being very horny when he wrote his book.

Obviously, Seraphim doesn't have the technology to fully replicate the book, but with magic, they're getting pretty close.

Then, Mustapha Mond makes his offer.

As the recording ends, everyone explodes with their own questions, thoughts, and opinions.

Yoipesuto asked Momonga about his race change, "Momonga, why did you change back into being an overlord, man? I thought you wanted to go back to being a human again?"

"Ah, well, apparently I'm really susceptible to being affected by karma…" Momonga replied, "I couldn't handle all of the hate, so I just went back to being my usual self."

Bakuita turned to Touch, "Say, that line from Mond about what affects your personality probably makes sense to why a paragon of justice like you decided to use world break on that city, huh?"

Touch sighed, "Yeah. I really wanted to kill them, I wasn't thinking straight. Instead, they probably just got away and the only thing I got in return was a city filled with dead people."

Momonga's jaw dropped, "You did what?"

Touch stared at Momonga, "...You haven't heard yet."

"Heard what?" Momonga questioned.

"We died," Nishikienrai decided to rip off the bandaid off quickly, "Denshosho, Nearata, and I. We died. To one of Seraphim's NPCs, a caloric golem."

Momonga was silent for a second as he registered the words inside of his head.

Then, he made a declaration from his heart, "We are not surrendering to Seraphim."

This decision was not unanimous.

"Woah woah woah!" Variable Talisman was the first to speak of the small dissent which immediately formed, "I understand where we're all coming from, but we just got here! We can't be declaring war so easily! Let's just ignore Mond and go talk to the rest of Seraphim and see if we can make a deal there, right?"

Mekongawa nodded alongside him, "Yeah, I don't think most of Seraphim knew that Momonga and Mond had a conversation. It's way too early to speak of surrender or war."

Ulbert immediately pushed back on the naysayers, "Consider this: Three of us were killed at their hands. It doesn't matter that Deltarune was an NPC or whatever. They don't give a shit about us, their fellow former-humans."

Orphea placed her hand on the side of caution, "When we briefly stood off against the actual Seraphim players in Re-Estisize, the general mood was total confusion. I don't think they would actually commit to a war. I think either Mustapha Mond is bluffing, or he's about to argue with the rest of his guild about this."

Vagisilious threw her opinion into the ring, "The utopia they're trying to create is literally based off of a dystopian novel. Anyone with an elementary level reading level could understand that. If they're all allowing that to just happen under their watch, then they're definitely not going to mind just straight up fighting us."

"Dystopia?" Temperance confusedly asked, "Wait, how was London a dystopia? I mean, being able to live life without worrying about anything is a good thing, right? I don't want to be the people that ruin it for everyone."

"They're deprived of options, basically," Yoipesuto explained for Temperance, "It's kind of like our old world, except in a nicer coat of paint. But that nicer coat of paint is really nice, and to be honest, I would totally accept it if I were any of those citizens."

Vagisilious's face fell, "Seriously? Momonga, you got a copy of the book they're basing their society off of, right? Let's just have a group reading session about it so we can figure out their endgame."

Momonga nodded, "Well, alright, we can do that. The more that I'm hearing the discussion though, the less I'm enthusiastic for war now… "

Touch then made his own feelings known, "It's a disgusting society, and we should destroy it."

Ulbert looked at him with a surprised look, "Seriously? I agree with you, but I never expected to hear those words come out of you."

Touch justified his position, "As a police officer, my job was to enforce the status quo by any means necessary. We stomped out their- your freedoms for the chains we called security. What Seraphim is doing in their kingdom is making sure that you can't even think of those thoughts. At least on Earth, you could come across nuanced opinions on the internet and through other people. In the society that Seraphim is building? They've completely killed individuality."

The Scales of Anubis shifts, and more people are leaning towards, at least in some form, destroying the society Seraphim built.

"They're humans- the citizens, aren't they?" Luci*Fer rhetorically asked, "If we destroy the society and pop their bubble… Uh, what happens then? Are we supposed to make a new nation? Are we basically throwing them into the deep end and seeing what happens?"

The warmongers' worst enemy just made a great point. They have absolutely no idea what happens after "Destroy society." They don't even know how said societies function yet, their 1 day excursion was not even close to scratching the surface of the world they ended up in.

Orphea pointed out, "Well, their cities are run by some administrators, right? So, if we end up at war, instead of fighting an actual war where we just run into each other hoping for victory, why don't we just try to pull their administrators to our side? So, you know, we can lessen the load when we do take over and try to de-brainwash all of those citizens."

Coup De Grace shot up like a rocket in the air, "ARE WE GONNA DO A COUP DE GRACE?!"

Orphea sideyed Coup De Grace, "...Yeah, we are."

"I AM SO FUCKING HARD RIGHT NOW!"
"I didn't need to know that," Bukubukuchagma blandly said, "Also, we still have no idea how to run an actual country, pull off a coup-"

Coup De Grace raised his hand.

"Only one of us know how to pull off a coup-"

Vagisilious raised her hand.

"Okay fine so we somewhat know how to pull off a coup," Bukubukuchagama corrected, "And we probably only somewhat know how to get everyone to stop living in a fake reality-"

Vagisilious raised her hand again.

"...Right, propaganda," Bukubukuchagama sighed, "Okay fine, if we have enough time to plan this out, we might actually be able to pull off a coup and have it work out."

Punitto decided to summarize it for everyone, "Alright, so basically we'll send a message to the other members of Seraphim, hopefully without revealing the location of Nazarick, on trying to work out a deal that doesn't surrender or die. If that happens, we go from there. If we can't do that, then we're going to choose war and try to pull off a coup. Coup De Grace, you're the self-identified expert here, you're planning the coup. Vaggy, you're the propaganda girl, you're figuring out how to counter actual legitimate brainwashing. Does anyone have objections?"

Nobody objected to the compromise, as they were all done arguing about it for the meeting.

Then, Momonga laid out the plans for the future, "So for now, just to try and avoid Seraphim finding us, we'll stay inside of the tomb for the duration that we need to come up with an answer by."

Immediately, Wish declared in protest, "I am going to kill myself."

Peroroncino rolled his eyes, "C'mon dude, we just went out and ended up getting into like a hundred fights. We can last a week."

Bellriver nodded, "Yeah, today was a mess. I'm just really hoping that the rest of Seraphim isn't as stupid as Mond is."

That was something everyone agreed with. So Momonga continued, "We're going to send our message to Seraphim tonight-"

Both Vagisilious and Nubo declared at the same time, "I am going to bed."

"Tomorrow," Momonga conceded, "And then we'll form our final decision on the day before the last day. Until then, enjoy yourself in Nazarick and think hard about what your decision is."

With that, the meeting came to a close and everyone split off into different groups to spend time with.

For Vagisilious, that meant Ulbert immediately walked up to her and started to nag at her, "Going to bed already? You only did like, 2 things today."

She rolled her eyes, "I definitely earned that bed. Don't you know how annoying it is trying to look at 3 places at once?"

Ulbert raised his eyebrow, "That you failed at and ended up getting tunnel visioned and didn't realize what was happening in any of the other places you were looking at?"

She flinched.

Ulbert immediately backtracks on his words, feeling guilty, "I mean- uh, yeah it wasn't good but that was your first time trying, wasn't it? You'll just have to get better at it, I mean, we might've gotten all of our game fighting knowledge directly beamed into our brains. But you barely used that spell back in Yggdrasil, right? So it's only natural you only somewhat knew how to use it. You'll get better though, I promise."

She sighed, feeling a bit better at watching Ulbert basically try to suck up to her to get back into her good graces. No doubt Ulbert's karma was going to make his annoyingness double, if Mustapha's words about karma affecting thoughts you mostly have a neutral opinion on was true.

Though, if nagging her like that was neutral to Ulbert…

"It's fine, just, uh, I think I'm too bitter about losing," She said, trying to put a pin on her feelings. That terrible, sinking feeling of failure hurt deeply, and she definitely did not benefit from being from 21st century Earth, because she was, still at her core, an ipad kid that hated the feeling of losing, "Don't make fun of my failures while I'm already beating myself up for it, alright?"

Ulbert gave her a thumbs up, "Only positive feelings from me, Vaggy! When we get permission to go out again, we should go on a shopping trip or something. You know, like our ancestors used to when they had a bunch of money to spend and all the freedom in the world."

That did actually sound nice. She was capable of actually going on big shopping sprees on Earth because of her role in the propaganda department. But even so, there wasn't anything worthwhile to buy in the Fujitsu owned stores.

They probably didn't gather much of the local currency, so they would essentially be bartering their way up. And she was only somewhat proficient in bartering, as it was never a skill that came up often. But with Ulbert, she felt as if that could be a ton of fun.

Although…

"Ulbert, you're making me feel old when you're referring to stuff I did in my last life as 'stuff our ancestors did.'"

"Sorry, my bad."

They split up, and she eventually made her way into her room, immediately plopping onto her bed with a relaxed expression.

Holding onto a spare pillow that she kept on her bed as if it was another person, she sighed in slight disappointment, "I kept shipping all of those people, and I'm relying on my pillow."

If her own ancestors could see her now, she would be the family disappointment. She really needed a regular source of hugs. Nobody in this guild aside from Peroroncino & Orphea get any regular hugs and it sometimes shows.

Well, that's something she'll figure out when she gets back. For now, she's going to go to bed, and enjoy her completely peaceful dream.

AN:

This recap chapter was not the best chapter to write. This 7.9k word chapter was written in the span of about a week. But perhaps it's a mentality issue, because I was suffering throughout the entire writing process despite what I'm writing down being just recap and reactions, which I guess is fine.

Anyways, this 1st day excursion arc is now over! Rejoice! In just this one arc alone, I have somehow managed to double the length of Time Capsule from the 1st Act, all of Yggdrasil, to now. God have mercy on me if I somehow output another 100k words for the next arc that won't be as wide-spanning as this one.

Speaking of next arcs, the next chapter is the April Fools chapter. Is it canon? Is it non-canon? Is it just me having fun? Who knows.

Then chapter 22 is a Nazarick-focused chapter that is 75% filler content because I wanna write about the NPCs and players more.

Anyways, if I had to rank how much I enjoyed writing these chapters, I would rank them from best to worst like this.

1: Momonga & Mustapha Conversation (The Architect of Utopia, Mustapha Mond)

2: Argland Council State Chapter (Drako Urbo)

3: Wilderness Chapter (Bad Bad Bathhouse)

4: Re-Estisize Chapter (Tail Between Legs)

5: Dragon Kingdom Chapter (Prime of Their Lives)

6: Baharuth Chapter (Veiled Normalcy)

7: Recap Chapter (The Guild Meeting)

8: Slane Chapter (Dry Ocean)

Even with my less liked chapters though, I still enjoyed my time with them, even if writing was a hassle.

Anyways, with my objective complete, Time Capsule will be moving back to the 1 chapter a month schedule. Not that actually insane 3 chapter a month schedule I was somehow pulling off, with 4 chapters in November and 5 chapters in December. Don't worry though, functionally it'll probably be 2 chapters a month because I like writing for Time Capsule. But just don't be surprised if it's 1 chapter a month for a while because I have new fics that I want to sink my teeth into.

First, I want to write Momonga's Spellbook, another crackfic in a similar vein to Momonga's Inventory.

Next, I had a funny ship fic for Momonga x Furina (Genshin) that I wanted to do a small 5 chapter fic for. About 10k words maybe. So I'll spend some time writing that.

Lastly, I want to start another longfic, my third one. It's a Hazbin Hotel OC fic focusing on someone entering hell and trying to become an Overlord. That one is probably coming out in May or June.

It sounds like a lot, because it is. But I'm the guy who wrote ~300k words for this and ~100k words for Manifest Destiny in the span of 7 months, and I'm not yet feeling the burnout kicking in. I've got this.

Enjoy the April Fools chapter that'll drop in like 3 days (If you're on west coast American time zones.)

And my thanks to my cheerleaders who were awake in that 8 hour period while I was asleep to light beta-read this chapter on the Library of Ashurbanipal Discord server. Thanks, 0bama & Meme_man.

Anyways, feel free to leave a comment about any of that.