Time Capsule

by Skryb

The previous reincarnate in line must've really hated her, because she's been forced to go to an dystopian world and play a game for a decade. Fortunately though, the game and the people in it aren't that bad.

22. Within Nazarick

As the gates closed and the Supreme Beings began their discussion, everyone began to split up, as the discussion tends to take a while.

Liberta Prime turned to Fluder, who was eagerly standing next to Liberta Evening, "You know who I am, yes?"

Fluder turned to him, and his eyes widened in recognition, "You look like a younger version of master Dottore…"

Liberta scoffed, "We are all Liberta, pay attention. I am the perspective in the Prime of my life. You'll be under the tutelage of the evening of my life."

Fluder excitedly nodded, "I see! Master Liberta, I look forward to learning everything I can under you and the Supreme Beings!"

Liberta rolled his eyes, "Yes, I'm sure you will…"

Liberta spotted Demiurge walking towards him, and Liberta used the opportunity to dismiss Fluder, "Go. This conversation isn't privy to your ears."

Fluder quickly leaves the area as he decides to go try and talk with Tokino to figure out how she manipulated time so easily.

Liberta slightly pitied Tokino, to have to put up with such fools. However, Liberta would not find it surprising if Leviathan dismissed Fluder as well. Leviathan's singular weakness has always been the purple qillin.

Liberta dismissed the thought to one of his lower perspectives as he turned to Demiurge.

Demiurge looked at Liberta Prime with a sly grin, "A student? Really?"

Liberta looked at Demiurge with a frown, "Do you take me as someone who would really take a student?"

Demiurge shook his head, "Of course not, but why did you decide to take him under your wing… That is what I'm curious about."

Liberta scoffed, "Perhaps I'll keep you in the dark for now. Though if you're truly so curious, Lady Orphea Scarlet knows."

Demiurge tilted his head, "My my, how arrogant of you to hide information from your superiors. I suppose I'll simply wait and keep observing you to figure out the truth behind your actions."

Liberta shrugged, "Feel free, it's not hard to figure out what I'm attempting anyhow. Someone of your stature should figure it out quite easily."

"Is that so?" Demiurge seemed disappointed, "There is a joy in crafting intricate plans, you know."

Liberta rolled his eyes, "We've had this conversation before. I follow the doctrine of "Simple is Better," as Lady Orphea Scarlet uses."

Demiurge shrugged his shoulders, "Of course. By the way, I was hoping to get one of your perspective's aid on something…"

Liberta raised an eyebrow in curiosity, "Oh? For what purpose?"

Demiurge explained, "As you've noted in our recent meetings, the mechanics of the natives of this world aren't quite the same as they were. I would like to dissect some of them to see if there are any differences between them and us."

Liberta hummed, thinking of the request and choosing which perspective to send, "I see, I believe the perspective in the adolescence of my life will be useful to your purpose. I'll send myself over when the Supreme Beings grant you permission."

Demiurge politely nodded, knowing full well that this was the expected outcome, "Thank you for your aid, Liberta. If there's anything I can do to help you, I'll make myself available for you."

Just as Liberta was about to politely finish the conversation, a thought appeared in his mind as he gazed at the newly youthful warrior in the room.

Principality seemed to be on track to join forces with Ainz Ooal Gown, but due to the nature of the incoming war with Seraphim, it was likely that Principality may be torn on who to side with. Principality was similar to Lord Momonga, as he usually only concerned himself with the wellbeing of Triumvirate. A war between two guilds he's friendly with wouldn't be very good for his weak position and he may do something foolish.

As the dutiful servants of Nazarick, such wildcards shouldn't be left to luck. Though Liberta knew the Supreme Beings were all-knowing, they still expected their servants to have some autonomy in acting. They may expect them to see their potential weak points and act to fix them.

So, after a brief conversation with his other perspectives, Liberta created a plan that wouldn't leave Principality's allegiance to luck, "Well, there is something you could do for me… But allow me to check the field we're playing with."

Demiurge followed Liberta's line of sight, and he seemed to get what was needed, "Oh? I see now… Yes, I get it, I will be sure to plan for the future. Inform me of the scenario he chooses."

Liberta nodded, walking towards Principality, "Of course."

Apotheosis belonged to Ainz Ooal Gown, and the faithful NPCs of Nazarick will do all in their power to ensure it.

---

Principality wanted to wander off into Nazarick, as he hasn't actually been inside Nazarick since… Well, the big raid. And even that was limited to just the 8th to 10th floors. Ainz Ooal Gown was a pretty big roleplaying guild when it came to their guild base, unlike Triumvirate. So he wanted to check it out.

Unfortunately, not a single denizen of Nazarick wanted to let him go anywhere, doing their best to silently block his path out. Probably because they had bad memories of him beating the shit out of them with World Savior.

Hah. Does Seraphim even have that world item anymore? He never got to find out what the drop requirements for that thing were…

Well, with the amount of world items on Apotheosis (What an odd name Seraphim chose for this new world), it's likely that Seraphim picked up a bunch of new world items ever since they began sending their massive expeditionary forces out into the world. He wouldn't place any money on Ainz Ooal Gown winning a fight.

But regardless, Seraphim and Ainz Ooal Gown fighting would be such a monumentally stupid move, there's not a realm where it's happening.

Anyways, people began to take the portal that leads to the floor above, and Principality decided now was a good time to try and slip away.

Unfortunately, Principality spent too much time in a stun-lock with everyone silently judging him and stopping him from exiting the arena, so that Liberta Prime finished his conversation with Demiurge and was now coming straight towards him.

"Principality," Liberta Prime said, looking Principality straight in the eyes.

It actually took Principality a few moments to actually remember the significance of this one NPC. He never actually got to see Liberta since his removal from Stormwind, as Liberta was stationed on the 6th floor where Principality completely skipped them.

"Hm," Principality tried to think of what to say, "Good to see you again?"

Liberta didn't seem very amused, "I suppose it is nice to see us on the same side again. Regardless, I must ask if your cooperation with Ainz Ooal Gown is secure?"

Ah, all business. Principality never checked any of the NPC bios, so he isn't sure what Orphea wrote for him. Or if she changed it when she ended up moving guilds.

Still, considering the massive favor they did for him, Principality could easily say, "I suppose so, unless they do something really dumb."

Liberta's eyes narrowed, "Oh? Like what?"

"Trying to fight Seraphim, probably," Principality said, "Or trying to conquer the world? Who knows, there are a bunch of deal breakers."

Liberta didn't look too fussed, to Principality's surprise, "I see. Then what are your own goals? Why are you here?"

"Uh…" Principality hesitated. What was he going to do? This world wasn't that fascinating due to everything being too weak to be of interest. His NPCs just made him sad because his friends aren't here, and he couldn't look at them until a lot of them started to die out to their mortality. He was trying to be friends with Seraphim, but BlessThyHearts died way too soon, and Mustapha Mond was not as friendly to him.

He really was just waiting for his friends to show up.

Liberta picked up on his hesitation, sighing in disappointment, "It seems as though Gavus's words ring true. You have no ambition at all, swung by the wills of people more determined than you. I hear you've been in this world for a hundred years, yet I can clearly see only the actions of a month on you. You are aimless, lost, and have no positive qualities for yourself. You are not the Guild Leader of Triumvirate, you're just a man."

Principality blankly stared at Liberta.

What a nice NPC Orphea created.

He was completely right, what has Principality done in the past 50 years? The first decade was the most exciting, but then he lost all hope for something he actually was interested in and wanted to invest in.

The adventures quickly became stale when he ran out of patience beating what were effectively low leveled players with only half of the enjoyment from actually spawn-camping low leveled players.
The faces of those he saved eventually blended together just as the corpses of the dead did in Tokyo, and eventually, why did he care about saving people he didn't care about?

The kingdom he was the king of, Principality held no desire to rule. He left everything to his subordinates.

He couldn't handle the adoration of his NPCs, and he increasingly sidelined them until they started dying and their faces began fading from his memory. Then when he tried to reconnect with them, he learnt too late that their rose-tinted glasses had long fallen off and they no longer respected their master in the same capacity they did before.

But now, he was back to his peak physical performance. Now was the right time to become the person he wanted to be…

…But what would that type of person be?

Principality agreed with Liberta, "You're right, I am just another guy. It isn't really befitting of Triumvirate, is it? We were filled with the greatest players in Yggdrasil, and I should be no different. Thank you, Liberta. I'll be sure to carve out a destiny fitting of my name."

Liberta hummed, "And shall that destiny be a part of Ainz Ooal Gown, or separate from it?"

Principality walked towards the portal, no longer hampered by the visage of others, "Who knows? See ya."

Liberta watched him disappear into the portal, and sighed.

"Against us, then," Liberta disappointedly said, "How expected. Then the Supreme Beings truly have expected us to nip this problem in the bud…"

Liberta looked towards Demiurge, who was busy discussing something with Albedo, "Hm, perhaps a more sadistic plan will convince him to go along with me…"

---

The first thing they needed to do was to figure out how the hell do they send a message to Seraphim without accidentally revealing Nazarick's position.

The Message spell could be easily traced, they didn't really know how many divination players Seraphim had, and all of their minions looked too inhuman to easily just cross large distances without being sniped out of the air or plucked from the ground as just another monster.

They couldn't quite locate where Kami no Toshokan was on Atlas either. But that was to be expected, as the world was rather large and they weren't actually quite sure where Seraphim's guild base were. Though they showed themselves to the world in the place they now call London, it could've just been a distraction to avoid revealing their true location.

So, the only way to send a message to Seraphim and get a response back right away was to either message them and be traced, potentially revealing where Nazarick was, or to go in person and put themselves in enemy territory.

Of course, it was just suggested that whoever was to message Seraphim could always just teleport to the other side of the world, then message Seraphim. But then that would mean that they would almost certainly perish in an ambush if Seraphim was to choose such an option.

The safest option was to just send out a minion with some capacity to speak, and just send it into the territories of the Holy Kingdom and hope that they don't kill it because they realized it's theirs. Then hopefully whoever picks it up isn't as zealous as Mustapha Mond. But then that would give Mustapha Mond the opportunity to hide Ainz Ooal Gown's request from the rest of his guild and twist the narrative.

Unfortunately, nobody wanted to risk themselves if Seraphim turned out to shoot first, so they ended up deciding on sending a minion and letting fate decide the rest.

Luckily, Momonga had a few minions like that which would be able to transmit his thoughts into words. However, his minions were on a timer unlike basically every other minion from the other players.

Ulbert had a fun idea, where Momonga could also have his minions become timeless as long as he used a dead body to summon the undead. However, nobody was actually insane enough to pick up a dead body from their adventures to test out his theory. Not to mention that despite most of them losing most of their human empathy, many were still a bit hesitant in actually killing people who haven't done anything outwardly wrong.

So, knowing that Seraphim were already brainwashing the people of the District of London, they decided that it couldn't hurt to send their minion to London and loudly announce their request there. And with enough luck, Nubo shouldn't get hit by anti-divination spells that would compromise their location.

With their plan of action now decided, they decided sooner was better than later, and they immediately sent out Momonga's minion to announce their presence.

---

"LORDS OF SERAPHIM! AINZ OOAL GOWN HAS AN OFFER. YOUR CURRENT TERMS FOR AINZ OOAL GOWN TO UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDER ARE CURRENTLY UNACCEPTABLE TO AGREE TO! THEREFORE WE INVITE YOU TO THE DRAGON KINGDOM TO RENEGOTIATE THE TERMS OF THIS NEW WORLD! WE HOPE THAT YOU-"

"[Beam of Light]"

Everyone around London was temporarily blinded as a massive light in the sky erased the undead messenger from existence.

Mustapha Mond sighed, turning to the much taller angel, "Spike, do you think that Ainz Ooal Gown seriously thinks they have any leg to stand on?"

Spike dutifully shook his head, "Of course not."

Mustapha Mond nodded, "Who else heard that wretched cry repeat its message?"

"Aside from the entire city of London? Makel, Honkai, Vivar, and Katakuri," Spike replied, "All but one are in our clique. And nobody cares about the NPCs, right?"

Mustapha Mond sighed, mildly annoyed at the whole situation, ignoring the rhetorical question, "Tell Vivar I need to speak to him. But allow me to quickly help our citizens forget that ratchet."

Spike knew what was about to happen, and quickly made himself scarce.

Mustapha Mond raised himself into the sky, holding up Grasscutter to the sky, its almighty ominous glow taking the attention of everyone in the city, "It's such a shame that I must resort to such baseless means to keep you all happy. When you should all be capable of being happy yourself."

3 massive magical circlets covered the entirety of London, as Mustapha Mond's voice echoed throughout the entire district, "[Widen Triplet Magic: Mass Control Amnesia]."

It was an unremarkable day for the citizens of London. Barely even worth remembering.

---

"What do you mean they just killed it?" Ancient One incredulously asked Momonga, just 25 minutes after they sent the undead minion.

Momonga helplessly shrugged, "I mean they just killed it. They let the message continue for like, 5 minutes, then they just killed it."

Nubo offered up his own observations, "I'm 99% sure it was Mustapha Mond that did that. But I think I saw other Seraphim members show up to listen so… I guess it could've worked?"

Herohero sighed, "Well, that's enough for me. You said that we always had to wait a few days no matter what happened. Can I go now? I'm hungry."

Tabula nodded, agreeing with Herohero, "Yeah, we did what we needed to. So can we just leave? I'm okay with Nubo and Vaggy taking care of everything from here."

Punitto nodded, "Yeah. Nubo, you're up first for today, and then we'll keep rotating until we finally see Seraphim. Hopefully sooner than later."

Nubo groaned, "Why am I always the one up first?"

Vagisilious patted Nubo on the back, "There, there. It's fine."

Ulbert was also doing his best to comfort Nubo, "Nubo, you're our best divination player. That's why you're up first."

Vagisilious blankly stared at Ulbert, who simply shrugged in return.

"You can be the best divination player when you're sad again," Ulbert said, "Until then you're… The cutest divination player, if I had to give you something?"

Vagisilious's heart fluttered a bit at the title, but she was absolutely not going to show that in the guild meeting, "Well you know what? I'm a mature lady, I'll let it be."

"Mature, she says," Orphea said in heavy quotation marks, "Bawling her eyes out at every opportunity and being petty in every conversation."

"I'm not healing you."

"I'm sorry, you're very mature, Vaggy."

Wish impatiently asked them, "Very nice, you two, but can we actually seriously go now?"

Nobody had any objections to ending the meeting, and so they all began their weeklong resting period within Nazarick.

---

Colette was busy trying to do handstands on the slippery floor in her humanoid form when someone decided to enter her jail cell.

It had been a very distressing day so far, as Colette lost in the span of basically an hour, her home, all her valuables, all of her friends, and basically everything that she loved.

Now, Colette was in a frozen cell in the base of her most hated enemy, and there was no hope left for her. All she could do now was to distract herself with the silly little things that her creator used to do, and wish for the best.

And also, she was still bound by rope. Which made her handstand just that much cooler.

She tried her best to turn while handstanding using the ice on the floor, but she had no luck as she fell down on her back, her sight catching the upsidedown form of some weirdo in a super fancy black suit. It was clear to Colette that the guy was a dragon though, and Colette fondly remembered the days when her friends could go out into the world and just do stuff…

Well, until the dragons began to team up against them and they all decided it would be safer to just stay inside and wait for better times.

Better times never came, and catastrophe struck them first.

The dragon man spoke first, "So, you are Colette, of the Bad Bad Bathhouse?"

Colette would've given him a thumbs up if she could, "Yes, that's me. Who are you?"

"My name is Leviathan," He said, "I have been requested by Lady Vagisilious to be the 'nice cop' in her words, in attempting to gain information out of you."
Colette raised an eyebrow, "Really? What information?"

"Everything," Leviathan replied, sitting down on the only chair in the room, leaving her stranded on the floor, "Now, you will either cooperate with me, or you shall find yourself wishing for death."

Wow, he stole the only chair in the room as a power move. That was really evil, in Colette's opinion. But also very understandable because, of course, that's what she would've done.

Colette really didn't feel like finding out what "wishing for death" meant in this context, but at the same time she really had no idea what he meant by "Everything" and she didn't want to make herself look dumb by asking questions.

Colette briefly looked at herself, still lying on the cold icy floor due to the failure of turning on the handstand.

She didn't want to make herself look any dumber than she was now by asking questions.

Leviathan looked directly into her soul, "Let me make this easier for you. That red crystal which teleported the Supreme Beings and their convoy into your guild base. What was it?"

…Red crystal?

Colette tried to think of red teleportation crystals, but there was nothing that fit the description of what Leviathan was trying to find.

So, Colette had to honestly answer, "We don't have red teleportation crystals? Especially leading into our home?"

Leviathan frowned, "Really? Then do you know of anyone who had come in contact with your guild base who might've been able to craft something as such?"

Colette tried scratching her head, but was incapable of such due to the rope, "Uh… I mean, nobody has ever found us before, until you did…"

Leviathan raised an eyebrow, "I hear that the entrance to your home was located beneath the ground, hidden within a cave. I suppose it would make some sense to never be found. However, you are still responsible for everything that happened on that day."

Colette pettily poked her tongue at him.

"If you do that again, I shall fill your mouth with Kyokhou's brood."

Colette quickly stopped, not wanting to find out what that meant.

Colette instead tried to convince Leviathan, "Well, I don't know anyone who actually managed to find the entrance. But a few dragons did get kind of close and we did have to fight them off for a bit…"

"Name them."

"I can't. I didn't fight any of them, my friends dealt with them."

"Tch," Leviathan looked disappointed, "Then divulge information about your peers, then. I hear that three of them, known as Ouro, Prata, and Biblioteca, who has also claimed the name Archivist, have escaped our grasp and are now at large. What do you know about them?"

Colette blinked, "Oh, them? Uh…"

Colette wracked her brain for what remaining information she had on the three siblings. She knows that their names aren't technically their real names, but it's been a really long time since she's last heard of their actual names. She couldn't even confirm Archivist being her true name, as those words weren't uttered in her presence in years.

Since she was also missing at all of the big fights because she was busy making sure nobody entered the Bad Bad Bathhouse, she couldn't be sure of the exact details of their powers…

Colette had to be honest, she wasn't liking her odds of somehow managing to leave this jail cell in one piece. If she were them, she would've just subjected her to whatever Leviathan was threatening her with.

Leviathan seemed to have noticed it as well, as he simply sighed, "Tell me, do you have anything interesting to say?"

"Sorry?" Colette helplessly shrugged, not knowing what to say.

Leviathan's expression turned pitiful, somehow, "Your creators have done a grave injustice upon you, Colette. Hopefully, you will one day overcome your past and forge a brighter future for yourself. It is the privilege that should be granted to all of us, who are beyond the constraints of the player."

Colette confusedly looked back up at Leviathan, not really understanding what he was saying. What was wrong with her life? They were the ones who ruined it all.

Leviathan stood up, "I shall inform the Supreme Beings of your lack of knowledge in essentially everything. They may wish to dig deeper using more disruptive means, so I would advise you to mentally prepare yourself for such."

Colette frowned, "Ah, man."

Leviathan chuckled at the childish response, "Ah, man, indeed."

Leviathan left the room, leaving Colette all alone to ponder her future.

This sucks.

---

Garud nervously fiddled with his thumbs as he nervously waited for his captors to show up.

Currently, he was in some sort of pleasant waiting room, with some assortment of treats and drinks already placed there. However, because of the way he was brought here, he couldn't bring himself to consume any of the delicacies in front of him.

Damn it, he shouldn't have trusted those two strangers. Were they spies from the Holy Kingdom, trying to keep their monopoly on runecrafting?

It wouldn't be the first time the Holy Kingdom offered him a job in their country. But Garud still had a wife and son that he had to take care of in the Dragon Kingdom! They couldn't just take him away like this!

Still, it did take quite a while for anyone to come for him. It's almost as if they forgot him or something…

Eventually, someone- someTHING did show up. A giant crab-like monster walking on two legs as if it were trying to imitate being human.

Garud gasped in fear, "You're a monster!"

The monster hummed, "Eh, I guess I am. But either way, you do have a skill we're interested in. Runecrafting."

Garud nervously took a step back, "I'm not giving you anything!"

"Even after we gave you the food you-" The monster looked at the untouched food on the table, "Oh, you didn't eat any of that?"

"It's poison!"

"It's art!" The monster responded, causing Garud to flinch back.

If Garud tried to fight against this monster, he would be dead!

"Ah, but where are my manners," The monster switched his way of speaking, "My name is Amanomahitotsu, you can just call me Amano if it's too much of a mouthful."

Garud blinked. He hadn't expected the monster to be capable of such a basic thing like introducing himself.

And the more he thought about his situation, the more he realized that he could actually leave this room alive as long as he cooperated.

"My name is Garud," He introduced himself, "I have a wife and child, so I hope you will be merciful to me…"

Amanomahitotsu nodded, "Of course. Help yourself to the snacks, by the way. I can personally attest to their tastiness."

Garud decides to just take Amanomahitotsu's word at face value, and eats one of the snacks, a simple cookie, and bit down on it.

It was the greatest cookie that Garud had ever eaten. It put everything he ate in life before to shame. It was as though the secrets of the universe could be found in this cookie.

Amanomahitotsu confusedly looked at Garud, as he seemed to be stuck in a trance.

Were the cookies actually poisoned? Amanomahitotsu didn't know.

"Well," Amanomahitotsu's words revived Garud from his trance, "We would just like to… Hire you, to put runes on various gears to test its effectiveness."

Garud blinked, "Really? That's it?"

Amanomahitotsu nodded, "Yes, that's it. If you would like, we could take your wife and child here to-"

"No! No!" Garud absolutely did not want to put them in danger! "They'll be fine without me for a few days!"

"We were hoping we could keep you here for at least a month."

Garud flinched back at Amanomahitotsu's words. They wouldn't survive a month without him…

Garud gulped, "Fine, but I want them with me at all times."

Amanomahitotsu nodded, "That's fine. We'll find them for you."

Amanomahitotsu pulled out a badge from what looked to be an infinite void, "If you walk out of this room, this will let everyone know you're supposed to be here. I'll take you to the forge myself, but I'd like to know the history of your runecrafting first."

Garud feels as though Amanomahitotsu is deliberately trying to get him to not think of his family right now. However, he couldn't do anything about it because he had to obey his words if he wanted to get out of this alive. So, he thought about the history of runecrafting, something he hadn't thought of in a very long time.

Garud scratched his beard as he thought of it, "Hmm… Well, the history of runecrafting is fairly simple, the more I remember things about it. It all started with the Runesmith King 200 years ago. There was some evidence of runecraft before then, but the Runesmith King was the one who really popularized it. He managed to put 6 runes on an item before, however… He never taught us how exactly he did that. Either that, or that information was lost in the sands of time. Either way, over the past 200 years, our art stagnated, and as enchanting was made more prevalent, we eventually realized that it was just better to enchant than to use runecrafting. So 10 years ago, our art was practically on the brink of extinction, but… Well, as you might know, the 72 Lords of Seraphim appeared 7 years ago, taking over all of the human kingdoms and forcibly deporting everything that didn't look human. We were next, but…"

Garud's face cringed as he spat on the floor, "It bothers me just thinking about him! Gondo Firebeard! That traitor! When the 72 Lords of Seraphim came to our doorstep, we had already heard of how they treated non-humans, and we were ready to fight them to the very end… But that rat! He went to the other side and told them of runecrafting, and for some reason, the 72 Lords of Seraphim 'spared' us… But now, there's a new status quo in my old home."

Garud sighed, "I can't even begin to describe the atrocity happening there! It's like they respect our right to live, but don't respect our right to live! They've banned practically everything that they don't like, but the runesmiths aren't affected by those bans because those are the only dwarves the 72 Lords of Seraphim cares about! It pissed me off so much, I left!"

Amanomahitotsu took that moment to ask, "Oh? How did you leave if they had you all on a tight leash?"

Garud humphed, "A few years back, some of their angels accidentally attacked innocents, so they had all of their angels to not attack someone unless attacked first. I managed to find a day where there weren't any supervisors, and I managed to walk out of there. It doesn't happen often anymore, so I'm probably one of the few who actually managed to escape that way. Every other dwarf you'll find is descended from some earlier dwarves who left before then."

Well.

It sounds like Seraphim has been doing a lot.

"I see," Amanomahitotsu answered neutrally, not really sure how to respond to such a thing.

So instead, he made a note about it somewhere in his head, reminded himself to tell it to everyone else later, and instead moved on.

Amanomahitotsu told Garud, "I've sent my own NPC who will tell you what you need to do. Have a nice day, alright?"

Garud slightly nodded, but otherwise didn't say anything.

After Amanomahitotsu left, Garud breathed out a sigh of relief as he survived interacting with that monster. All he needed to do now was survive the next month, and hopefully everything will be okay…

---

Saibandoke, eating his free lunch in Nazarick's cafeteria, decided that out of all his decisions he's made in his long life, leaving Nine's Own Goal was probably the most wrong decision.

Saibandoke really didn't like being wrong, but this was a scenario so far removed from reality that it literally wasn't his fault. The only way the correct decision could've been made was if Saibandoke had some insane future telling powers to tell him that Yggdrasil would become a real thing, and the guild base his former friends would make would've been exquisite.

Hell, he was already lucky that he made up with Touch enough to the point where he was nice enough to pick him up to bring to Nazarick. Though unfortunately, he didn't get his game avatar which… Well, considering the clown look he went for, was probably for the better.

Still, it did suck that he essentially passed up the opportunity to become a really big deal.

While Saibandoke was mentally grumbling about his poor luck, four new people then decided to sit next to him with their own lunches, and Saibandoke immediately recognized that they weren't from Earth.

There was a certain style that people from their world carried themselves. Usually all gathering under the umbrella word "Defeated," as nobody could truly say that they were doing better than their ancestors and they were all powerless to do anything about it. Living under the corporate boot for their entire lives essentially killed any bigger hopes they had.

But these people seemed to have some self-respect, so they clearly couldn't be from Earth.

And also, one of their members was some sort of weird cow-man creature. But that was beside the point.

Saibandoke decided to initiate a conversation, just to be polite, "Uh, hey, you new here?"

The person sitting next to Saibandoke looked at him and politely said, "Ah, yes. My name is Kaleen. These are the members of my party, Meyin, Bondook, and Harley."

Saibandoke played a lot of games back in the day, and he could tell that this was a pretty solid team. Kaleen and Meyin seemed to be the damage dealers, Bondook the tank because he's the biggest guy there, and Harley the healer.

It was very cool, and the sense of bitterness he felt with not getting his avatar despite being there for Yggdrasil's shutdown was steadily increasing.

"My name is Meija, nice to meet you," He really wanted to introduce himself as Saibandoke, as it seemed like Ainz Ooal Gown is sticking with their avatar names, but of course, no avatar.

He was still going to mentally do it in his head, just because he wanted to feel included.

Bondook asked a question, "Say, where are you from? I've kept asking the servants around here, but they keep insisting that they've always been here…"

Saibandoke tilted his head, not sure on what he's allowed to say.

After all, it might be a little dangerous to just say that Ainz Ooal Gown, the mad bastards, somehow made a portal to Earth…

But fuck it, he balls, "Oh, yeah, I'm from a different world like everyone else here. They made a portal. The guys in charge are just that good."

Meyin's eyes widened, "They made a portal to a completely different world?!"

Saibandoke nodded, "Yeah. Hey, you know I was part of their group once? I was one of their founding members."

He was going to take all of the credit he can take, because he's going to be that petty. If Touch didn't want that to happen, maybe he should've been a better leader.

Harley's eyes widened, "Really?!"

Saibandoke pridefully nodded, "Yeah! I was basically the co-leader."

"Was?" Kaleen pointed out.

Saibandoke deflated, "I ended up quitting because their former leader was an ass. Then somehow, years later, I ended up back here with none of my cool powers."

The entire alien group suddenly seemed a lot less interested, as Kaleen quietly muttered, "Uh-huh…"

Saibandoke's eye twitched, "You think I'm lying, aren't you?"

Bondook light-heartedly chuckled, "Well, you do look human, and the rulers of this place- aside from one- don't really look human, don't they?"

"I was once half-robot once," Saibandoke bitterly said, "Wait a second, why haven't I just asked Touch to get me some goddamn recognition around here?"

Seriously, he's had all this time to just ask his sort-of friend to up his name recognition, and he just didn't? Is he stupid?

Saibandoke stood up, "Excuse me, gentlemen, I have an annoying bug to bother."

Hopefully, Touch becoming a genuine pest didn't make him any more annoying than he was before…

---

Principality stared at all of the humans in the 9th floor's theater, watching the other humans who wanted to do something act out on stage.

These were… Regular people. Not homunculi, not NPCs, not minions. Just… Humans.

How?

There was no connection from Apotheosis to Earth. He was sure of it. But Principality also knows that the people in front of them weren't living a lie. They were real.

It's a situation that only has one conclusion.

Ainz Ooal Gown somehow has forged a connection to Earth.

Principality can't even fathom how they managed to do it. Was one of their world items so powerful it could literally connect worlds?

A little nugget of information buried deep within Principality's head resurfaced. Atlas.

Principality adventured with Momonga, Ulbert, and Vagisilious for the duration of the "End of Yggdrasil." And during those adventures, they had countless conversations about so many things to pass the time.

One conversation, they talked about how they ended up being able to use Atlas, their very first world item, to make a portal device that allowed them to use [Gate] to literally anywhere in Yggdrasil.

What if it wasn't just Yggdrasil anymore?

No, it had to be not just Yggdrasil anymore. That's how they made the impossible possible.

Principality was mildly hurt by the fact that Ulbert or Vagisilious didn't tell him about this yet, but considering the timeline, he was pretty sure they would tell him about it later today.

Principality wanted to be happy with this newfound knowledge, but unless Ainz Ooal Gown had mastery over both space and time at once, then it was already too late for him.

So, Principality decided he wouldn't dwell on it. It would be ill-befitting to their legacies, after all.

---

Bellriver entered one of the living rooms on the 9th floor, specifically designed for the players of Nazarick to just chill out. There, he found Pannokishi, Daijobubua, and Momonga discussing their recent adventures.

"Ah, so Bellriver ended up terrifying this one kid when his illusion kind of messed up when he ate a bit of bread from the arm, which obviously doesn't line up with his human disguise," Daijobubua described, not knowing of the imminent threat.

Bellriver was slightly hungry… For humor. So, he loudly announced his presence to the room, "Hey guys!"

Momonga sounded joyed to see him, "Oh! The man of the hour, Bellriver! We were just talking about you!"

Bellriver put his hand on where his chin would be if he had one, "I heard, and you know what, I'm feeling as though a repeat is coming."

Daijobubua tilted his head, "What?"

Pannokishi seemed to realize what his words meant, "Wait, you can't be serious…"

Bellriver began marching towards Pannokishi, "Pannokishi! I'm going to eat you!"

Pannokishi incredulously stared at him for a few moments, before chuckling, "I'm a tank, Bellriver, I'm as stale and hard as a loaf of bread can be. You have no chance at eating me."

It seemed as though the two's brain cells connected to go all in on the joke.

"Guys?" Momonga tried to say, "Please don't tell me you two are about to fight."

"I can't eat him without getting closer," Bellriver stated.

Pannokishi pulled out his sword and shield, "Then come as close as you'd like!"

Every mouth on Bellriver began to water as they hungered for the feast, and Pannokishi buffed himself with every skill that he had, ready to ensure Bellriver paid dearly for his attack.

Daijobubua's mouth fell as he realized they were completely serious, "Wait, you guys are seriously going for it?"

Bellriver and Pannokishi didn't even grace Daijobubua with a reply as they leapt towards destiny.

---

Bellriver and Pannokishi laid on the floor a few moments later.

"Ow… My mouths hurts."

"That's what you get- oh my gosh, missing parts of my body is really weird…"

"You guys… Ugh, Momonga, can you go get a healer?"

"Yeah, I'll go do that."

---

Takemikazuchi was on the 5th floor, simply enjoying the cold floor. It was not for any training purposes. It was not to test his mettle. It was not even to brag about the low temperatures he could endure.

He just liked being cold.

As a nephilim, he probably should've been more accustomed to warm temperatures, but as a former human, the warmth just reminded him of the smog. It wasn't as though the cold didn't remind him of the air conditioning, but one was obviously better than the other.

As he was sitting with his legs crossed, he heard Cocytus approaching him. Because he didn't really want to get up, Takemikazuchi spoke first, "I'm not looking to spar right now. I'm relaxing right now."

Cocytus exhaled, "I. Wished. To. Ask. A. Question. My. Lord."

Well, that was a lot more doable while sitting down, "Ask away, then."

"Is. It. Ever. Honorable. To. Interrupt. A. Fight?"

Hm, it sounds like Cocytus interrupted a fight. Though, Takemikazuchi honestly wasn't fully invested in the guild meeting that went over what happened where. Maybe it was explained and he just wasn't listening.

"Well, there are times when it is justifiable," Takemikazuchi explained, "After all, not all warriors seek death, and so being saved is a preferable option." In his head, Takemikazuchi mentally listed Vagisilious saving his ass from cancer, "But it's mostly a case-by-case basis, where you never know if you're right until after you commit to an action. Just go by your gut, and it should be fine."

Then, Takemikazuchi asked, "By the way, what fight did you interrupt?"

Cocytus took a moment to reply, seemingly digesting his previous words, "It. Was. Liberta. In. The. Prime. Of. His. Life. Against. One. Of. Triumvirate's. NPCs."

Takemikazuchi paused.

"Wait, what?" Takemikazuchi looked to Cocytus for further elaboration.

Cocytus picked up the cue and so he elaborated, "Liberta. Had. A. Conversation. With. Gavus. One. Of. Triumvirate's. NPCs. And. Gavus. Lead. Us. To. Stormwind. Where. Liberta. Split. Up. To. Gather. Materials. For. His. New. Perspective. I. Was. Ambushed. By. A. Mage. Named. Eugene. Liberta. Fought. Imperious. I. Forcibly. Retreated. When. The. Supreme. Beings. Demanded. A. Retreat."

Their NPCs fought Triumvirate's NPCs.

And nobody except Cocytus and Liberta knew right now.

Holy shit.

"...Why didn't you tell that to us earlier?" Takemikazuchi cautiously asked.

Cocytus seemed confused, "Because. I. Assumed. The. Supreme. Beings. Already. Knew."

"Yeah, don't assume that, just uh…" Takemikazuchi scratched his head, "I'll tell the others about this… So, uh, just don't tell anyone else? And tell Liberta to keep his mouth shut."

Cocytus bowed, "Yes. Lord. Warrior. Takemikazuchi."

Takemikazuchi stood up, messaging Momonga, "Hey, so uh, we have a slight issue…"

---

"If no one died, it's fine," Principality had ended up saying when Momonga, Ulbert, and Vagisilious awkwardly went to talk to Principality as a group for the first time since Yggdrasil, "After all, the NPCs are a bit dumb sometimes."

Everyone breathed a massive sigh of relief, as Vagisilious spoke for the trio, "Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried that we somehow already cut ties with you without knowing it."

Principality laughed, "Hahaha! Really, it would take something really stupid on your part for me to just straight up abandon you guys."

Ulbert sheepishly scratched the back of his head, "So, uh, are we cool about the whole… Y'know."

Principality gave Ulbert the thumbs up, "Mass murder is cool when one of my friends does it, no worries."

Ulbert glowed, "Sweet! No worries!"

Momonga sighed, a bit perturbed about the last 3 sentences, "Man, it really says a lot about us now that we're just excusing the death of innocent people like that…"

Principality shrugged, "Well, it's terrible, sure. But I couldn't really care less about my nameless civilians, in the same way I couldn't care about the bodies in Tokyo. Do you get me?"

Momonga nodded, "It makes sense, I just… Don't like it."

Vagisilious patted Momonga on the back, "Yeah, that's fair. That's totally alright, though."

It wasn't like she could claim moral high ground either. She literally signed off on death warrants without a second thought back then. There really wasn't that much of a difference between that and this, in her head at least.

Both were just normalizing the blood on her hands. Something that the dystopia already did just fine.

"By the way, Principality," Vagisilious moved the topic, "Do you know the real names of your old friends from Triumvirate?"

Principality answered in a roundabout way, "The only people I was really friends with were Crackaslama and EmpireOfWar. Everyone else was… Somewhat disposable to me."

Vagisilious frowned, "Oh. Uh, well. Do you know their real names, at least?"

"No, but…" Principality hesitated, "I realized what you somehow managed to do with, what I assume to be, Atlas. But I can't really do anything about it because…" Principality sighed in frustration, "Ugh, nevermind, I'm still not over it."

Ulbert looked at Principality a bit suspiciously, "Did something happen between you three? The last I heard about them from you was when you said something about them logging in to just chat with you for a bit."

"Something like that," Principality cryptically said, not willing to divulge.

Vagisilious shrugged, "We can leave them be, then. Just be sure to come to me if you ever change your mind, alright?"

Principality accepted the offer, and so he changed the subject, "By the way, what's going on with Seraphim? I heard off the grapevine that there was some trouble with them? I still have Athalia on me…"

Principality twisted his body to show Final Destination hanging off of his belt, "Maybe I could just return her right now?"

Momonga answered the question of what's happening, "Well, I ended up meeting Mustapha Mond and had a long conversation with him. And then his offer was to essentially unconditionally surrender and just turn into humans to live in his… Utopia, as he calls it."

Principality tilted his head, "Huh? That's not that bad though, is it?"

Vagisilious's face fell, "Principality, you seriously can't think that being brainwashed to accept everything and being forced to be happy is a good thing, right?"

Vagisilious's faith was shattered as Principality answered, "I haven't actually gone to see it, since it was too physically straining for me. But I did send one of my NPCs, Plemis, to take a good luck at it and send her perspective over to me. I think what they're doing is basically a better version of our world, and honestly, that's fine."

"How is anything that's even close to our world fine?" Vagisilious questioned, "The propaganda trying to convince you all that that was okay didn't work. You're above the veil. How can't you see that this is just a more gentle version of what we had?"

Principality frowned, "Isn't that good, though? Even in my kingdom, people still sometimes starve, get diseases, die in worry. What Seraphim is doing is basically making sure nobody has to fear tomorrow. And isn't that what all of us want?"

Momonga answered before Vagisilious could, "It's mostly about the methods. We don't agree with the blatant brainwashing that's required to uphold his society."

Ulbert nodded and followed up on the idea, "If we take Seraphim out of the equation now, that entire thing is bound to collapse."

Principality hummed, "I've heard Mustapha Mond talk about his plans for the future. I think he can make it last forever, without an angel in sight."

Vagisilious frowned, "It's not about lasting forever, or even the methods. It's just the simple fact that people don't get to choose the life they live."

"I don't think I mind not being able to choose," Principality said, "As long as I like it."

"What if you don't get a chance to decide if you like it or not?" Vagisilious questioned.

Principality shrugged, "I dunno. Sounds like something Mustapha Mond should think about."

Sometimes, Vagisilious really loved her friends. Other times, she really wished they cared more about the things their horrendous education system didn't teach them.

Of course, that just meant she had to do her best to make sure they understood what they were saying.

"There's a value in thinking for yourself, you know," Vagisilious said.

Principality shook his head, "Eh, sure. But it is just easier to not."

Yeah never mind, this was like talking to a brick wall.

Instead, Vagisilious makes her disappointment clear, "Ugh."

Ulbert decided to change the conversation, "Hey, while we were apparently busy with jumping the whole isekai line, what were you up to?"

Principality awkwardly laughed, "Oh, haha… Not much…"

"Not much?" Momonga questioned, "You were here for a hundred years, right? How could you not do much?"

"I got bored and just stayed home."

"That's embarrassing."

With the topic shifted to a much lighter tone, it was silently agreed to leave the heavy topics until after Seraphim gave them a reply. So they acted as though they were still in Yggdrasil, enjoying the good old days of just being friends.

---

Fluder was overjoyed when he heard that Master Liberta had arranged an experiment for him to go through. What kind of unthinkable thoughts could go through a master mage's mind that would require him to test?

Fluder hopes for just the slightest bit of insight into his master's thinking, for if he could do that, then it may advance his understanding of magic.

Liberta has set the end goal for Fluder. The 10th tier of magic, something Fluder could only dream of until Seraphim came. Liberta ensured that Fluder now had a goal to reach, and Fluder needed to do everything he could to please his master, and explore the depths of magic.

So, when Fluder had reached the 6th floor, some kind of arena, with one of the 41 Supreme Beings Fluder could not yet name, and a canvas, he was quite confused.

The Supreme Being looked to Liberta, "Are you sure you can trust him, Liberta?"

Liberta Prime dutifully nodded, "Yes, Lady Orphea Scarlet. He is quite the loyal pet."

Orphea Scarlet tilted her head at Fluder, "You're willing to just take that?"

Fluder was not offended at all as he answered, "Is he wrong? I am so beneath you all in power, and I cannot even see the mana you are emitting."

Orphea Scarlet raised an eyebrow at him, before seemingly realizing, "Ah, the mana suppressors?"

Orphea Scarlet takes off one of her rings, and Fluder's eyes burn.

The type of mana the 72 Lords of Seraphim exuded was, though incredibly massive and bright, was still easy on the eyes, due to their holy nature. It was like watching and feeling the warmth of a fire in the middle of winter.

Orphea Scarlet's mana was the exact opposite of that.

Her mana was one that commanded attention. Her mana exuded an aura of unfathomable feeling of hopelessness, as if it breathed in hope and exhaled despair. Fluder couldn't even breath, let alone widen his eyes enough to see the entire scope of her dark mana.

And it was beautiful.

Orphea Scarlet was not even phased at Fluder dropping to his knees, merely asking, "Oh, is that too much for you?"

Fearing that the joy in his heart will disappear along with Orphea Scarlet's display of power, Fluder shouted out, "Not at all Lady Orphea Scarlet! Rather, I am thankful that you would display your immense power for a being so lowly as myself!"
It was like staring at a mountain. Fluder could scarcely even imagine reaching her level. But that was the opportunity that Fluder was given. To be a student.

Orphea Scarlet sighed, as though she went through this exact same conversation before, "Hah… Fine, alright. The purpose of today's meeting is to test out Liberta's theory that you, at the peak of your potential, are actually of any threat to us."

Fluder confusedly looked at his new master. How could they determine such a thing? It would take decades- perhaps even centuries to even come close to their level.

Orphea Scarlet held up the canvas in her hand, "So, what you have the opportunity to do now is to take a shortcut to the top. Just to see what it's like."

Fluder's jaw dropped. He could scarcely believe it. They truly possessed something so powerful as to be able to take an ant like him and turn him into a giant?

"So, just toss your hand into this, and pull whatever you can," Orphea Scarlet said, "After that, we'll do some testing."

Fluder eagerly threw his hand desperately into the canvas, not wanting to disappoint his master by delaying himself.

A hundred points of information immediately entered Fluder's brain, informing him on the powers of the canvas. In his head, he saw his multitudes of options, from basic warrior powers to magic he couldn't even imagine.

In his haste, Fluder began taking everything that exuded magic power, but before he could truly begin, he was unable to take any more.

Fluder was suddenly taken out of his out-of-body experience, as Orphea Scarlet remarked, "Wow, you work fast. Didn't even take a moment for you to max out your levels."

It was just as she said, Fluder felt a hundred- no, a thousand times more powerful than he ever was before. He could feel his mana under his skin, wishing to be unleashed. His talent, if it were a real person, would be jumped in sheer joy with the amount of power Fluder had accrued in such a short time.

Then, Liberta asked a simple question, "May I begin?"

Orphea Scarlet nodded, "Fluder, your next goal is simple. Use your new powers to fight Liberta."

Fluder was not surprised. He had heard about himself supposedly being an anomaly to these beings of unimaginable power. Now that he had just gained the fruit of power, he had to be tested.

Fluder will not disappoint them.

Laughing, Fluder heartily agrees to the duel, "Of course, my masters! When shall we begin-"

If Fluder were still an old man, unaided by Tokino, Fluder would've lost his head from Liberta's first strike. Instead, Fluder narrowly managed to dodge the arrow aimed for his head.

"Oh, you do know how to dodge," Liberta said with some amount of surprise, "How surprising. I didn't feel you were capable of using your newfound speed."

Orphea Scarlet tucked the canvas under her arm as she turned away to leave, "I'll be in the audience. Have fun, you two."

The moment Orphea Scarlet leaves, Fluder unleashes one of the new spells he just obtained, "[Black Hole]!"

Fluder was never happier before when using a spell for the first time, as space bends to his will.

Liberta countered the sucking vortex with "[Voidward Sanctum]," a 9th tier spell that makes the user immune to being pulled. But in return, the spell forces the user to stay at the spot for 5 seconds.

He could use Greater Teleportation to reposition himself, but it is more costly than simply conjuring a shield to last 5 seconds.

Liberta then fired a beam of pure fire, "[Beam of Ra]."

Fluder was struck in the chest with the hottest thing he has ever experienced, gaining 3rd degree burn marks on his chest. After collecting himself he saw a large flying balloon machine that he couldn't even describe heading towards him at an alarming speed.

Thankfully he has the knowledge bestowed upon him and he countered with [Widen Magic: Thousand Needles] a perfect counter for thin masses.

---

"That guy is genuinely crazy," Orphea said as she sat down next to Yamaiko.

There were only a few people watching the fight. Mainly, people who wanted to roleplay and eventually pick up a student later down the line, and so wanted to see how a teacher teaches a student. But there were also some that were genuinely curious on how powerful the random mage they picked off the side of the street could be using Open Canvas.

Still, it was a shame that Jevil ended up using all of the best classes inside of that canvas. They could've had a second world champion in the guild. Or a disciple of disaster!

With that in mind, she has no idea why some people like Tabula or Herohero were there. Tabula would be a sorry excuse for a teacher, considering his hobbies in researching the occult has no real world applications, so he would have nothing to teach. Or Herohero, which Orphea is kind of surprised that Herohero could be away from Solution for an extended period of time.

Yamaiko chuckled, "He's just excited. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy to be randomly tossing out spells like he is."

The battle was fairly one-sided, as Fluder was too inexperienced with his new powers to know what he was doing. So he was just throwing things and hoping they would land.

Liberta, on the other hand, was easily dodging everything thrown at him. And his counter attacks were devastating as well, knowing full well that they could just revive Fluder with no costs.

That was the problem though. Liberta was decked out in a set of level 100 gear whose rarities ranged between legendary and divine. A normal level 100 with no gear like Fluder should've died long ago.

But Fluder is still somehow fighting, and with way more mana than an ungeared level 100 should have.

Fluder ended up using widen metamagic on [Thousand Needles] to counter a balloon powered missile that Orphea forgot she gave Liberta, which meant that the players were now in the attacking radius. And while Liberta tried his best to prevent a single strike to land on his superiors, a few attacks did make their mark on the players.

Nobody was even remotely hurt, the damage from a few needles was basically negligible until they started to pile up. But it did succeed in Liberta hastening his efforts in kicking Fluder's ass.

When Liberta got too close to actually just straight up killing Fluder, Yamaiko nudged Orphea, "Say, I think Liberta is upset. Maybe you should call it off now?"

Orphea was about to decline, but then Liberta began to use maximize and triplet magic just to be extra petty, and Orphea decided that it was probably for the best to stop the fight, "Alright, I think we got enough out of that!"

Liberta immediately canceled his spells, and Fluder simply laughed at how easily he was being defeated.

Orphea jumped down to the pits, landing in-between the two fighters.

Orphea asked Liberta, "So, how strong was Fluder?"

Liberta hummed, "Level 100 common gear. Maybe uncommon or rare at best."

That was probably the best case scenario. Boosted natives are strong, but not that strong without help.

Of course, the entire situation of the natives being able to put up a fight with enough assistance isn't ideal. But it is comforting to know that they could beat them easily if needed.

Now they were going to give Fluder what was basically a gun.

Orphea pulled out her magic set from her inventory, "I'll have someone heal you in just a moment, but the next test is another fight. I'll lend you my magic focused gear, and we'll see how much stronger you become."

Denshosho came down from the audience to give Fluder healing, meanwhile Fluder accepted the gear as if it were a holy artifact. And to be fair to Fluder, Orphea would've killed him if he treated it no less than an holy artifact because that was the gear she spent genuine weeks of her life to farm.

Back when she had no responsibilities.

As Fluder equipped the gear, even Orphea could sense the immense amount of power coming from Fluder. It also made her doubt that Liberta could actually fight him and win. Or even if Liberta were to win, Liberta would take far too much damage to continue.

Fluder just laughed hysterically, losing control over himself, "Hahahahahaha! This is magnificent! Wonderful! I've never felt more powerful in my life! Please, let us continue! I want to personally experience the true peak of my potential!"

"Good luck, Liberta," and with that, Orphea left her creation to the wolves.

As Orphea and Denshosho left, Fluder's first action was to cast the most powerful spell he found in his arsenal to compare it to the first time he used it, "[Meteor Fall]!"

The clouds form in the sky, parting to reveal a massive meteor falling down onto the arena.

Liberta destroyed the previous meteor before it could even land using a basic destruction spell. But even Liberta could tell that it would be too much trouble to do so. So instead, Liberta teleported outside of the arena, not wanting to deal with the AoE damage of the meteor.

Fluder didn't miss a beat as he immediately flew above the meteor, letting it land inside the arena, "[Ice Age]!"

Liberta was caught by surprise by the speed of Fluder's spell as his legs were encased in ice.

Fluder continued his attack by chanting, "[Reality Slash]!"

Liberta conjured a shield using silent metamagic, but it was quickly shattered as Fluder landed his strike directly into Liberta's chest and launched him away.

Reality Slash made a deep slice into Liberta, hurting him severely. Liberta could tell that if he were to be hit again, Liberta may actually lose the fight.

So when Fluder sent out another reality slash, Liberta was quick to react as he teleported out of the way, before using his own spell, "[Equilibrium]!"

With their souls linked in Liberta's favor, all he had to do was outpace the amount of damage Fluder could do. But with Lady Orphea Scarlet's gear on Fluder, Liberta was hesitant to strike, as it could potentially ruin the gear.

So instead of fighting Fluder with direct strikes, Liberta would instead wear him down using Damage over Time spells and attacks that don't cause physical damage.

With this in mind, when Fluder turned around to respond to Liberta's spell, Liberta sent off another spell, "[Life Rot]!"

Fluder's skin began to slowly decay, as the gear prevented Fluder from immediately rotting away. Fluder simply pointed the book he was granted to by Orphea towards Liberta, "[Twin Magic: Tornado]."

Fluder had no reservations about the amount of destruction he was causing, as his two tornadoes ripped through the 6th floor's forest, both intent on harming Liberta.

---

The players who were in the air to continue watching the fight were mildly surprised with the size of the attack, as Tabula asked, "Those attacks usually aren't that big, are they?"

Orphea hummed, "Well, magic attacks usually get bigger the more magical attack stats you have. And my magic set is all in on it."

"Ah," Tabula tilted his head, "Should we be worried?"

Orphea shrugged her shoulders, "Eh, I think he has this."

Liberta ended up just flying all the way to the ceiling just to dodge the attack, continuing to barrage Fluder with more affliction spells.

Orphea was initially a bit confused on why Liberta wasn't going for an all-out assault, but then she realized that Liberta was probably treating her magic gear as a holy artifact not to be damaged.

And to be fair, the repair costs on the gear would've been really massive, so she was slightly glad that they were treating it with the respect it deserved.

Though, because of it, Liberta was definitely handicapping himself.

As the fight continued, Fluder became more attuned to what he could do, as he began using his spells more creatively to catch Liberta.

Liberta was also becoming more used to what Fluder could do, as he began to find his groove and started to become more comfortable with dodging spells by the skin of his teeth.

In the end, however, Liberta's build was not made for damage over time damage, and he was slowly losing due to his respect for the gear Fluder was wearing.

If Liberta were to fight without any restrictions, it was likely Liberta had enough tools in his toolkit to take Fluder down despite his strength being that of two players. Liberta's build focused a lot on crowd control, and strong spells that would take advantage of his enemy's immobility.

But instead, Liberta was fighting with his hands behind his back to avoid ruining Orphea's gear. And because of the lack of NPC scaling, Liberta's crowd control spells didn't last as long, or didn't even work due to the resistances offered by just being level 100.

Still, Liberta was holding up just fine until Liberta mistimed the speed of Hades's Grasp and got stuck in it, soon to be hit with another devastating attack, Orphea intervened, "All right, that's enough!"

Fluder immediately shut his mouth to stop his next attack, and Liberta simply went limp with disappointment and the stench of failure.

Orphea raised an eyebrow at Liberta, "Liberta, why didn't you, oh, I don't know, just use actual spells instead of that DoT crap? I gave you those spells on a whim."

Liberta, upon escaping the spell he was temporarily stuck in, kneeled before his creator, "I'm sorry, Lady Orphea Scarlet. I was attempting not to sully the gear you lent Fluder."

Orphea sighed, "I could just get Amano to repair it, you know. It actually disappoints me more to watch you hamper yourself than to see my gear be torn up."

All Liberta said was, "I am sorry, Lady Orphea Scarlet. I will be sure to etch this lesson into my soul."

Then, Orphea turned to Fluder, "Fluder, nice fight. If I were to fight you, I would have a rough time, even if I were to win in the end. If I were to place a level on you, it would be… Hm, post 80 scaling, maybe level 120? 125? Not an impossible task to beat, but you would be pretty annoying."

If it was pre 80 scaling, then nobody in Nazarick would stand a chance against Fluder as each level would be a 5% increase in power rather than 2%. But seeing Liberta's performance, it isn't that out there to assume that Fluder was maybe 40 or 50% stronger than him just on base stat total.

Quite frankly, the entire fight would hinge on how much damage Orphea could do to him when she silenced Fluder. But considering Fluder is wearing her own glass-cannon magic-focused gear, her guess is that she would win the fight.

Orphea lifted the canvas, "Now, give it all back."

Fluder seemed disappointed, "May I please ask why you wish to throw me back to the floor after elevating me to such heights?"

"Do you expect a kid to swim when you immediately toss him into the ocean?" Orphea said, "You did pretty good, but Liberta still would've beaten you if he wasn't being stupid. With the amount of raw power you had, that's pretty bad. You have a lot of power, but you were only scratching the surface of how to use it, something that you usually learn by getting your spells one by one and testing how they work."

Fluder seemed to understand what she meant, "I see… Yes, you're right, short cuts only hurt the student, after all. Very well, I will return this power."

Fluder willingly takes off Orphea's loaned gear and gives it back, while also taking the canvas and carefully putting back the classes he took.

Orphea was only mildly disappointed, as she actually wanted to see him try to fight her. It would've been a quick and easy fight, considering the crowd, but it would've been fun.

With the results in hand, they were pretty sure that they really didn't want to give the native people anything that they owned, as if they gained a full set of level 100 gear, they would be pretty dangerous.

With that in mind, they were also pretty sure that Seraphim seemed to have come to the same conclusion as well. After all, a brainwashed populace simply couldn't imagine rebelling against Seraphim. And, considering Seraphim didn't expect Ainz Ooal Gown to show up so early, they were probably going to annihilate any resistances before they could show up to arm them to be a nuisance.

Well, it's a good thing Ainz Ooal Gown had no intention of starting a war, so hopefully all of this information should never come up again.

---

Tangaroa spat out Zenith onto the cold floor of the 5th floor. Zenith, however, was still conscious as he tried to get up to figure out where he was.

He was immediately knocked right back down, however, as none of the players present really wanted to fight what was apparently a low level raid boss.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," Touch said, his boot planted firmly on Zenith's back, "Cooperate and tell us what we want, or die."

Well, in Zenith's opinion, this was an unideal position to be in. Especially considering his mind fully finished forming while in the giant dumb whale's mind.

Seriously, what a dumbass his host ended up being. Picking a fight with Ainz Ooal Gown. Did his co-workers set him up for failure?

Still, dying so soon after dying not too long ago to Seraphim would be extremely annoying, and if that happened, Zenith probably won't make it to The Final Festival. And that would be… Annoying.

So, Zenith relented, "Ugh, fine. What do you want?"

The tension in the room fell as Zenith became cooperative. In Zenith's opinions, this only solidified the fact that he pitied whoever was the-

Zenith's body went limp and all the thoughts in his brain disappeared as Fate prevented his thoughts from forming prematurely.

What a stupid way of enforcement.

The one he recognized as Punitto made his presence known by walking to somewhere he could see him, "First of all, who are you?"

Zenith scoffed, "My name is Herring."

Albedo snarled from behind him, "You dare lie to a Supreme Being? You named yourself Zenith upon completing your transformation."

Punitto followed up by saying, "Don't make it harder for yourself by lying. We can make whatever situation you're in worse, don't test us."

Zenith rolled his eyes, knowing what they had in store was basically nothing to the other side, "Fine, my name is Zenith."

Punitto asked his next question, "What's the name of the group that you're in?"

Zenith actually had to think for this one, as the name of the group was something that Moniseven came up with while they were all betting on who gets to do what, "It was… Incarnation of Fate's Will. But we sometimes call ourselves the Cult of Fate or just the Fate Cult."

"And who's the incarnation of Fate?" Punitto questioned, "Or is it just some abstract thing you worship?"

Zenith sighed, "He's just some abstract thing we worship."

Punitto tried to subtly signal someone behind Zenith something, but Zenith caught it. Of course, he wasn't going to say anything, but he did pride himself on catching it.

Punitto made no reference to the signal as he continued, "Who are the other higher ups of your cult? And how do you get people to join?"

"Are you asking to be invited?" Zenith feels the boot on him press down harder, and he immediately answers the question, "Agh- There are a few others that are technically my equal. But I'm the strongest." At this current moment, "Then to get people to join, we just offer them protection and food. Only a few of us are actually part of the cabal who believes in fate. They're the ones who were with me when you guys found me."

Punitto hummed, "Then what were you there for?"

"We were destined to meet, it just happened to be there," Zenith said.

Punitto didn't seem convinced, "I heard you were there for a ritual."

Zenith sighed, "Yes, for my ascension."

"Why did you ascend in a small shack, then?" Punitto asked.

Zenith was getting annoyed by all of the little questions, could they really not have come up with anything more creative? Zenith irritatedly said, "It just so happened to be there."

Punitto didn't seem satisfied, "You said something about us being tainted with some sort of energy, but not being the source of it. Explain."

Zenith's eye twitched as he was, once again, feeling the consequences of his host being a stupid monologuer, "I did not say that."

"...You did."

"Herring did. I'm Zenith. Two completely different people," Zenith tried to convince them by just being stupid.

Unfortunately, it did not work.

Punitto said, "Explain anyways, then."

A three word response, how the hell is Zenith supposed to work with that?

Zenith reluctantly said, "Well, it's pretty self explanatory. You guys are wet, but you're not the water that made you wet. I drank it, and here I am."

"That made literally no sense?" Luci*Fer said.

"Just explain what the damn 'water' in your analogy means," Punitto was obviously getting frustrated with the whole experience, considering he was starting to use the word 'damn' and becoming more snarky in his wording.

Zenith replied with glee, knowing it'll piss off Punitto, "It's actually just water! I need it to survive, and you guys brought it to me! Nothing more, nothing less!"

Punitto looked to someone behind him, "Leviathan, break his knees."

Who the fuck is-

He feels someone violently stomping his knees, and Zenith has to grit his teeth to deal with the pain.

It wasn't the worst feeling he's had to face in the world. There were far worse pains in the universe, but having your knees broken was one that mostly hurt your pride.

At least it wasn't by a baseball bat.

"Alright," Punitto seemed to be satisfied with the level of violence inflicted upon Zenith, "Would you like to try again?"

Zenith grumbled, "Dicks."

Punitto said, "It's not that hard. Just explain what energies we apparently have."

Zenith glared at Punitto, deciding to be stubborn just to be petty about him breaking his legs, "I would rather-"

Someone teleported behind Zenith, likely to just watch what was going on.

But Zenith, in his heart of hearts, knew who had just teleported behind him. He stopped talking for a split second out of the instinctual fear of being the prey.

While Zenith was technically rendered immobile by his broken knees and Touch Me standing on top of him, Zenith was far stronger than Touch's physical strength and his knees weren't that important to him in standing.

Knowing he may never get another chance to, he threw Touch off of himself and turned to look behind him.

The group of players were nothing interesting, as his eyes immediately lock onto the source of the energy-

He laughed.

Zenith was immediately thrown back onto the ground with a sword pointed to his neck, but he kept laughing.

Even as Punitto tried to get an answer out of him on why he was laughing, he kept laughing.

When they eventually gave up and decided to just toss him into the most secure cell they had, he was still laughing.

In the end, it took him 3 days of non-stop laughter to finally come up with a coherent thought.

They're fucked.

---

Vagisilious awkwardly looked at Zenith being dragged away, "Uh, why was he laughing at me?"

Genjiro shrugged, "Who knows, dude. Maybe it's something on your face?"

Vagisilious self-consciously rubbed her face, "I don't think I look that bad, do I?"

"I'm not saying anything," Genjiro looked away from her.

Vagisilious's face fell. The absolute nerve of him.

Ankoro chuckled, "Aw, don't worry, Vaggy! You look fine! Still, I have no idea what Zenith was alluding to by laughing at you."

Vagisilious sighed, "Maybe I'll go ask him myself when he stops laughing."

Punitto nodded, "That's probably for the best, then. Alright, just note that whoever Fate is should probably be a secondary threat we should deal with when we have the time, since Zenith referred to Fate as a 'he.' So keep an eye out for that. Other than that, you're all dismissed."

---

Upon entering Nazarick's hot springs on the 9th floor, Peroroncino was hit with a sudden wave of shame as he realized that there wasn't a gender-neutral section where he could enjoy the warm water with Orphea.

Instead, they were just going to talk over the rather tall fence.

Which was doubly annoying, since there were already people here.

"Oh, hey Pero!" Whitebrim greeted as he somehow made himself float on top of the water, "How's it going?"

Mekongawa was basically half-asleep, but he additionally greeted, "Hey."

Herohero was sadly looking at the water, "I can't enter this without losing half my body…"

Peroroncino winced as he remembered that Herohero once said, "Why do I need water resistance abilities? There's only like, a single digit number of water dungeons and raids in the game."

Now, Herohero couldn't take a bath or shower without dissolving. Truly, he was the most unfortunate one here.

Well, he could be in light rain since the water outside isn't as concentrated as a shower or bath, but that's beside the point.

"Hey," Peroroncino greeted, "I was just thinking about how we don't have a gender-neutral one of these, so I could just sit with Orphea."

"Just take a bath-" Whitebrim paused, "Wait a minute, we didn't put any private showers or baths anywhere, just this public one, huh?"

"What a blunder," Commented Mekongawa, "Well, you could just talk over the wall."

Peroroncino nodded, "Yeah, that's what we were planning," Peroroncino shouted, "Hey Orphy! Can you hear me!"

Bukubukuchagama's voice came over the wall, "We kidnapped her for our vile plans!"

Herohero slumped even further into despair in the background as he was reminded Bukubukuchagama did take water resistance abilities.

Peroroncino mockedly shouted in despair, "Nooo! Can I hear her voice, at least?!"

Orphea shouted, "Pero! Can you toss your bow over?!"

"What, why?!"

"I'm going to beat Ankoro and Buku to death with it!"

"Oh, no problem!"

Ignoring the girl's cries of protest, Peroroncino tossed over his most prized possession to the other side.

Immediately, a cacophony of girlish screams erupted on the other side of the fence.

"Say, why didn't we just put a wall there?" Mekongawa mentioned, still half-asleep.

"For exactly this purpose," Whitebrim said, "So we can do funny shit like this."

Peroroncino glowed as he finally sat down within the hotspring, "We really were visionaries back in the day."

"Except Herohero," Whitebrim said, looking at him sulking about not being able to enter the water.

"Except Herohero," Peroroncino agreed.

"What the heck?!" Herohero protested, "You can't kick a man while he's down!"

---

Tokino was eating dinner with Leviathan in their 4th floor mansion. This night's dinner was a fairly simple pasta, made of level 87 Soulsent Noodles, bacon from the level 63 pig summons, level 72 Truffle Onions grown in their farms, and unleveled salt and pepper which Lord Yoipesuto created a truckload of many years ago.

The buffs gained from the pasta was nothing revolutionary, just a simple speed and strength increase. But it tasted good enough, and was simple to make, so they made it quite often.

Tokino would love to sample a full level 100 meal using the specialized ingredients personally procured by Lord Yoipesuto locked away in the deepest parts of the kitchen, but only the Supreme Beings are entitled to use those ingredients. Though, Lord Yoipesuto has not yet touched any of those ingredients since the transfer.

Leviathan hummed as he finished his food, looking to her, "Tokino, would you do me a favor?"

Tokino tilted her head, "A favor? We would do anything for each other, why ask a favor?"

Leviathan frowned, "What I am about to ask is a bit… Risky, to say the least."

"How is it risky?" Tokino asked.

Leviathan said, "I would like for you to keep an eye on Liberta."

Tokino blinked, "Liberta? Why?"

Leviathan sported a deep frown as he elaborated, "Since coming back from the Dragon Kingdom, Liberta in The Prime of His Life has sported an… Inane look in his eyes. I believe Demiurge has noticed it, but he seems to be encouraging it. Quite frankly, I do not trust what they plot in the shadows. I cannot get close to them without arousing suspicion, as I seem to be too dangerous in their eyes to be let off the metaphorical leash, but you are a pure creation. You would be fine appearing by their side more often."

Tokino sighed, "That sounds like a hassle…"

Leviathan's eyes softened, "You do not have to do it if you don't want to, my dear. I would just like reassurance that Liberta's actions do not doom us both."

Tokino thought about it for a while. Did she trust Liberta? Most definitely. Did she trust Demiurge to not do anything shady by helping Liberta? Maybe not.

While she knows that everyone will do their best to aid Nazarick unconditionally, there was definitely a cause for concern on how they plan to aid Nazarick. After all, they weren't half as clever as the Supreme Beings.

Half of this was simply paranoia, as Leviathan has always been somewhat distrusted within their hallowed halls and thus is more distrusting as a result. But she could see where he was coming from on this. Liberta was, after the developers bit the bullet without Leviathan's destiny being fulfilled, the most actively ambitious NPC in the tomb. Being in 6 different places at once was something that Liberta used to great advantage during their expedition.

It would be good to ensure that Liberta did not abuse his position of power to do things that would disadvantage Nazarick in the future.

So, Tokino decided, "I'll keep an eye on Liberta."

Leviathan smiled, "Thank you, Tokino. Are you still hungry? I could ask the chefs for seconds."

Tokino stared at her empty plate, wondering where it had gone.

"Can you get me a salad?" Tokino asked.

Leviathan nodded, "Of course, my love. I will be right back."

Leviathan departed for the 9th floor kitchen, and Tokino sighed as she simply collapsed onto the nearby carpet.

Trying to spy on one of the smartest creations in the tomb… Well, it wasn't impossible. But this was still going to be difficult.

---

While they sent the Primordial Dragon Lord back to Argland to try and keep the knowledge of Nazarick's existence on the down low, there were a few experiments they wanted to test out on him. So they ended up calling him back into Nazarick's 4th floor to try out some things.

Since Aura was a beast tamer and Leviathan was a dragon, they were entrusted by the Supreme Beings to question the Primordial Dragon Lord.

Leviathan was being lazy, though, so he turned into his dragon form and laid down in an open space nearby.

Aura looked mildly displeased, "Leviathan, seriously?"

Leviathan exhaled, causing a non-insignificant gust of wind to blow through the 4th floor, "I am here if you need me. However, I have no desire to test the capabilities of an inferior dragon."

Aura sighed, looking to the nearby Supreme Beings for help.

Ancient One shrugged, "You have this, Aura."

Aura sighed, "Okay! So, Euryalus, I'm going to use a few skills on you and you're going to tell me how you feel, okay?"

Euryalus nodded, "Very well."

What proceeded after that was Aura using every skill she had to try and somehow tame Euryalus. However, none of it worked.

Aura hummed, "Well, I guess it makes sense. I heard from Leviathan that you weren't a pushover, so it makes sense I can't tame you without roughing you up first…"

Aura didn't want to fight someone who was effectively already on their side, however, so instead she moved on, "Okay, well. The next thing I wanted to know is about the wild magic stuff I heard you mentioned? Just use a random spell on me, so I can see how it feels."

Euryalus looked somewhat concerned, "Are you sure? I know you are strong, however…"

Aura scoffed, "Nothing you can do can hurt me! Just do it!"

Euryalus looked over to the superiors in the room, and when they didn't object, Euryalus obliged.

In just a second, Aura was completely covered by the stone of the 4th floor.

Aura seemed a bit amused, "Huh, is that it? I expected more from him."

Aura punched the rock so she could get out.

…But the rock didn't break.

"Huh?" Aura was confused. The 4th floor was strong, but everything in Nazarick was fairly easy to break through if it was thin enough.

A moment later though, she was freed.

"How come I couldn't break through the rock?" Aura asked when she was out.

Euryalus answered, "I infused the surrounding rock with my wild magic and forced it to surround you. Because it is wild magic, it is near impossible to break through. It is the way I killed all of the players who stood in my way. They foolishly thought the ground was their ally, when I am the master of the earth."

Leviathan chuckled, "If you could manage to kill them using rocks, they weren't very strong in the first place."
"You are the exception, my master," Euryalus said, "Before you, only the other true dragon lords could break free of my stone. Even so, they were quite hard pressed to avoid being dragged to the center of the world."

Leviathan rolled his eyes, "As I said, they aren't very strong."

Euryalus nodded, "Indeed, you may be stronger than the Dragon Emperor."

Leviathan raised his eyes with some interest, "Who?"

"Nibelung-"

"I've lost interest, stop talking."

Euryalus seemed rather lost.

Ancient One stepped in, "No, keep going, I want to hear about Nibelung."

Euryalus obliged, "Nibelung was the first of our kind, and the most powerful. For thousands of years, he ruled this world. He was a prismatic dragon, able to use almost every single combination of magic. He was… Magnificent. However, he was immensely greedy, and in his search for wealth, he created a spell that would directly bring wealth to him. That was 600 years ago, and the spell did work… For a terrible price."

600 years ago? Ancient One vaguely remembered that date being…

Ah.

That was when Slane arrived.

Ancient One may have stumbled upon the reason for why they're here.

Euryalus continued, "500 years ago, we began to see the consequences of our actions. And so, the 8 Greed Kings arrived and waged war against us… and won."

Euryalus' face fell, as if he was bitter about the loss, "In the end, Nibelung told us that we would all be a distraction in the fight, and so Nibelung went to battle with all 8 Greed Kings. And though it was a close battle… He lost. We tried to avenge him, but we could not shatter their spirits, and so most of our species were wiped out. In the end, though, the Greed Kings' greed proved to be their undoing, as they eventually split up and killed each other."

They did what? Why? He heard good things about them from Momonga, Ulbert, and Vaggy. Were they really that dumb?

Leviathan laughed, "Those fools. No wonder why he died to such inferior beings."

Aura nodded, "The 41 Supreme Beings are way stronger than any of those guys! If we were there, you wouldn't be alive."

"I don't doubt it," Euryalus said to Aura, "From what I can see, Nazarick is much stronger than the 8 Greed Kings ever were…"

Ancient One stood up, "Well, you guys continue without me, I have some stuff to do."

Leviathan nodded, "Very well."

Ancient One left to go tell everyone about his findings.

---

Denshosho hummed, "This is a great find, but it's not that useful to us right now."

That was basically the group consensus on the information of why they showed up in this world specifically. It was a great bit of background lore, but everyone involved in that lore is dead, and it didn't really affect how they'll go about things in the future.

Especially considering that they have a portal that leads to a whole different world.

Vagisilious, meanwhile, was more concerned that her friends somehow ended up killing each other.

How on Earth could they possibly fall into such disarray where killing each other was the best option?

Principality already revealed the location of where PopStarry and Theadul were buried, and they were ready to go visit it after it's confirmed what Seraphim were going to do.

Even so, she was unsettled for what answers may lie there.

---

Momonga sighed as he finished signing all of the signatures that needed to be signed for the operations of Nazarick to continue.

Thankfully, Momonga had the authority to declare that Albedo's signature was basically his signature, so that was really helpful in cutting down the required work by basically ten times.

And Momonga didn't even fully read through half of the stuff he was presented with! Albedo is such a good worker, Momonga would hate to lose her.

Since Momonga strived to be a decent boss, Momonga decided to thank Albedo, "Thanks for doing most of the paperwork for me, Albedo."

Albedo gracefully smiled, "It was nothing at all, Lord Momonga."

Momonga hummed and went back to staring at his desk.

…It feels like he should say more, but he can't really think of anything else to say…

Trying his best, Momonga asked Albedo, "Uh, is there anything you want as a reward?"

"Being by your side is enough of a reward, Lord Momonga!" Albedo assured him with a massive smile on her face.

…Momonga didn't know whether to curse Tabula for adding that last bit into her bio, or him for volunteering to be the subject of her lust, despite fully knowing it was all going to become real one day.

---

Punitto wanted to check up on how Nazarick, the boss, was doing. But at the same time, he really didn't want to find out, if Rubedo was out of position, how much damage Nazarick could do to him.

So, Punitto brought Demiurge along to provide minion support for stalling.

And Mare for magical damage.

And Shalltear for physical damage.

And Otanabetabeki for tanking.

One may call him excessively paranoid, but the last time they fought Nazarick, they had wiped them all because they failed a mechanic which killed everyone except Momonga, who was the guild's only undead player at the time.

So, in Punitto's opinion, this was a fairly decent countermeasure to avoid being killed by Nazarick.

Otanabetabeki obviously disagreed, though, "You know, you could've just asked Rubedo to be with you."

Punitto grumbled, "I didn't want to enter the 8th floor unguarded, that's why you're here."

"You could've just teleported directly to her. Or message her."

"Shut up."

Eventually, they made it to the place where Nazarick was currently held down in chains for his previous transgressions against Punitto.

Usually, Nazarick would be standing nearby all of the other strong 8th floor NPCs, but because of Nazarick's temper, he had to be put away somewhere else until he could prove to be trustworthy.

Nazarick instantly spat at the group when they entered, "Yoouuu…. BRaaatts…."

In Punitto's opinion, it was a good sign for the quality of the chains to not break when Nazarick tried to rush them.

Punitto really needed to ask only a few things, so he went by them quickly, "Well, do you want to start acting like a good boy? All you're doing now is being a waste on our resources keeping you locked up here. So you can either stop being a bitch and help us, or stay here and suffer."

"I… Will… Not… Yield!" Nazarick breathed out, each word harder to say.

Punitto shrugged, "Alright. I'll see you later, then. You four have anything you want to say?"

Otanabetabeki spoke first, "Dude, fix your speech, you sound stupid."

Punitto had to hold in a laugh.

Demiurge spoke next, "This is the first time I've seen you, and I am infinitely glad that I am blessed to be working under the Supreme Beings. It is a disgrace for you to be named after our glorious tomb, and I pity the denizens of the 8th floor for having to put up with you."

Mare nodded, "Um, yeah! That's what I think too!"

Shalltear agreed, "Yes, we are truly the luckiest servants in the world to have avoided being forced to serve under you."

Nazarick screamed, but nobody wanted to deal with him, so they simply left him to rot.

---

While Seraphim's Holy Kingdom somehow managed to brainwash Japanese into the minds of its citizens (Minus Re-Estisize and Baharuth, but it was likely they were going to get to them sooner or later), the rest of the world had a myriad of different languages its people used to communicate in everyday life.

Knowing that firm grasp of the language was required to make effective propaganda, Vagisilious needed to figure out what languages were important, and which languages could be ignored.

The slight problem was… She didn't actually want to do any of the work.

However, lazy people are most efficient when finding ways to avoid work.

Vagisilious heard that Mare recently finished covering Nazarick with dirt to try and camouflage it into the surrounding terrain, so Mare was currently free, and Vagisilious heard from a few people (Bukubukuchagama) that Mare liked to read.

So, the plan was simple. Vagisilious would get Mare to work with some of the natives to translate native languages into Japanese. And then Mare would use a scroll with Control Amnesia to input those languages directly into their brains.

Would it work? Who knows. Could Vagisilious just use her own magical translation powers to expedite the work herself? Yes, but then it would undercut her great idea of getting someone else to do the work she doesn't want to.

So, Vagisilious asked Euryalus for some basic books, roped in a few willing volunteers from the Argland Council State (Particularly in the cult of Ulbert Alain Odle) to help Mare translate.

So, they picked out a spot on the 6th floor and got to work.

"Um," Mare pointed to a tree, "How do you spell the word for tree?"

The kobold took a stick and drew an awful rendition of a tree, "Like this!"

The elf weaved an intricate display on the ground, "We elves live our entire lives surrounded by nature. We have almost a hundred different words for different types of trees. This is the word for that tree specifically."

The orc used some sort of basic alphabet, "Hmph, we just cut trees, no need to be fancy."

Immediately, Mare realized that none of these species had a united language. In fact, Mare isn't quite sure how they were talking to each other.

Mare sighed, "Okay, do you have, um, any common languages you all know?"

The elf seemed very proud to explain to Mare, "There are 3 versions of the spoken language and a written language for every individual race. After all, not every animal has the same throat."

The orc growled, "Do you want me to beat you to death?"

The kobold stomped, "I beat you!"

This was… Going to be very difficult. But Mare will succeed, as that is what the Supreme Beings demanded of her.

…It was just going to take a while.

---

"By the way, Ulbert, did you know you have a cult?" Variable Talisman said while Ulbert was eating some food with Momonga and Vagisilious.

Ulbert, predictably, spat out his food back onto his plate.

"Wait, seriously?" Vagisilious asked while Ulbert was busy trying to breathe.

Ulbert Alain Odle, a cult dedicated to himself? She couldn't believe it. It was probably the logical outcome of there being stories about Ulbert because of Slane, but she still couldn't quite believe her ears.

Suratan laughed, "Oh my god! I forgot about that! Variable, didn't you say you messaged Ulbert about it?"

Variable awkwardly laughed, "Oh, uh, I think Vaggy was busy talking to Ulbert, so I just gave up."

"You gave up? " Ulbert menacingly said to them, causing them to shiver a bit, "I got a cult… and you didn't tell me?!"

"Hey! We're telling you now!" Suratan defended themselves.

Momonga laughed, "Hey, that's nice for you though, isn't it?"
Ulbert agreed, "Oh yeah, that is nice. It also would've been nice to know A WEEK AGO!"

Vagisilious chuckled, "Ulbert, I can use this for propaganda purposes if we have to. Don't do anything before I check through it."

Ulbert sighed, "Okay, fine. I'll run through my cool ideas through you before I walk into my church- Do I have a church?"

Variable nodded, "Yeah! Though, it's shared between all the religions, so it's not your's exactly…"

Ulbert put his hand on his chin, "I can work with this. Vaggy, I'll come to you soon about my plans for revealing myself to my devotees."

Vagisilious shrugged, "I'll be waiting with excitement to see what you do. I wanna see this."
Momonga nodded, "Yeah, I want to see it too. Be sure to tell us when it's happening, alright?"

Ulbert nodded, "Of course! You guys can get front row seats to the revival of the Primordial Demon Lord, Ulbert Alain Odle!"
"That name sounds ridiculous," Vagisilious pointed out.

"It's cool," Ulbert said.

"It is," Vagisilious conceded, "But kind of childish."

"Shut up."

---

Touch entered the room his family was residing in.

His wife and daughter momentarily flinched upon seeing him, and he immediately took off his guild ring, transforming him back into his human form.

His wife, Nobara, scolded him, "Geeze, Sawaru, you'll never get me used to seeing you as that big silver knight. Can't you just enter the room as yourself?"
Hanami shook her head, "No! You can keep entering like that! It's cool! A scary cool, but still cool."
Sawaru chuckled as he patted Hanami on her head, "Thank you, Hanami. And I'm sorry, Nobara, but I can't let them see me as human."

Nobara frowned, "Why not? You're one of the leaders, right?"
"They don't like humans very much, so we don't want to test it," Sawaru said, "And also… I don't want to needlessly worry you, but I might be fighting again."

Nobara's eyes widened in fear, "What- No, you can't let yourself be involved with that again! It's far too dangerous!"

Sawaru sighed, "You said the same thing about me being a police officer."

"That's different!" Nobara argued, "Nobody could hurt you while you had that gun, and people liked you back then anyways. This is a lot different! There are people here that could seriously hurt you!"
Hanami hugged Sawaru, "I agree with mom. Please don't go…"
Sawaru's heart ached hearing the desperate pleas of his family, "I know, it's not ideal. It's not even set in stone right now but… Well, I don't really have anywhere else to go other than to stick with my friends. And I'm way too important for our… Rivals, to just let me hang around in a forest cottage with you both."

Nobara looked Sawaru directly in the eye, "Fine. But just make sure you come back to us safe, okay?"
Sawaru held Nobara and Hanami tightly, "I'll always come back to you. Don't worry."

Sawaru closed his eyes, "No matter what comes, I'll always be here for you."

---

As it turned out, declarations of war weren't very dramatic in real life as they were in TV Shows and anime.
Just a week after their expedition, the Primordial Dragon Lord, who was sent back to Argland, reported that the 72 Lords of Seraphim had sent back a simple paper message, transported by a simple tier 1 angel, to the council of Argland.

"7 days have passed without Ainz Ooal Gown's surrender. We have taken this as a sign you do not wish to better the world, and instead drown in your own ego and arrogance. Seraphim wishes for a world where all the worries of tomorrow are forgotten, and nobody cannot be happy. If you wish to disrupt our society, then it is with great regret that we have unanimously come to a decision. It is war.

Best Wishes,

Director of The Holy Kingdom, Mustapha Mond."

Naturally, everyone was immensely pissed with the decision.

"They're seriously going for it?!" Vagisilious was completely shocked when the message was read out to them, "That wasn't a bluff?!"

"Are they stupid?" Flatfoot genuinely said, "Like, are they actually retarded?"
Bellriver slammed his face into the conference table, "Noooooo! Those mouth breathing neanderthals! I get a second lease on life and I HAVE TO FUCKING FIGHT THEM FOR IT?!"

Temperance's winds were more violent than usual, "Yeah! I'm going through the same thing right now too! This is some serious bullshit!"

Nishikienrai was busy trying to convince himself that this was a bad dream, "There's no way this is reality. There's just no way. Seraphim is the highest ranking guild in Yggdrasil, there's no way he could've gotten there by being this stupid."

"I want to shoot Mustapha Mond," Garnet stated, "Anyone with me?"
"I'll kick him in the balls," Orphea said, "Peroroncino can claw his eyes out."

Suratan nodded, "Can we also demolish the rest of Seraphim for agreeing to the dumbest decision I've ever seen or heard in my life?"

"Yeah, what the fuck, how was the vote unanimous?!" Coup De Grace loudly pointed out, "They're lying. They have to be lying."

Ulbert put his hands together, "I'm going to nuke London."

BigStall chuckled, "Those are innocent people, but I agree with the notion that we should nuke them."

"We can nuke Kami no Toshokan," Proposed Blue Planet, "Their guild base looked ugly anyways."

"So, what are we going to do?" Touch pointed out the obvious, "We can't just walk in there and fight them. I'm pretty certain we would lose that fight. But I also don't want to pointlessly get the civilians hurt by fighting somewhere populated. But our only target right now is somewhere populated, since that's where we know Seraphim will be looking at."

Amanomahitotsu tilted his head, "Man, I know you're supposed to be a good person and all. But you literally destroyed half a city with the people still in it not that long ago."

Touch flinched, "That- It was a mistake."

Tigris raised an eyebrow, "You could say it was a world-breaking mistake, huh?"

"Will you just shut up-"

"That's enough," Momonga's words weren't very loud, but they forced everyone into silence nonetheless, "Seraphim has issued us a declaration of war. Are we to meet it, or not?"

A moment of silence passed through the room before someone, Vagisilious, spoke up, "Our only option is to meet it, right? But even then, I wouldn't like our odds of actually winning…"

"Then what can we do?" Bakuita asked, "If we can't fight them, we just lose, right?"

Wasewaru raised a finger, "Well, it's not like we have to fight them now. Even back in Yggdrasil, we would wait until all of our enemies' younger members had to leave to go to sleep before we attacked. It doesn't exactly work here, but maybe they might leave themselves mispositioned enough for us to pick off a member of Seraphim here and there?"

Wish frowned, "So the plan is to just pray that they're not only dumb as bricks in the logical department, but also stupid as hell in the PvP department? That's a hard ask, Wasewaru."

Tabula hummed, "Well, it might be possible to force their hands into splitting up, though it would require us to equally split up as well…"

Coup De Grace raised his hand.

Momonga addressed it, "You know you don't have to raise your hand to speak, right?"

"It's my signature," Coup De Grace said, "Anyways, I think I have a good way to separate Seraphim if we have to."

Orphea rolled his eyes, knowing what her servant was about to say, "It's by doing-"
"IT'S BY DOING A COUP DE GRACE!" Coup De Grace jumped onto the table to begin his explanation, "Think about it! If we just bribe, replace, and convince all of their human subjects to be on our side, then Seraphim and their NPCs will have to step in to fix the issue, right? But if we do that over a wide enough distance, giving the populace so much propaganda and dissenting information, that might trigger a rebellion they'll have to put down! And they're not going to send the entire fleet to deal with it, which means we'll have the opportunity to hit them if we're fast enough!"

Momonga pointed out the obvious flaw in that plan, "If I were Seraphim, I would just put down the rebellions using a death squad made up of every non-meta Seraphim member and NPC. Then have the heavy hitters come in after they're attacked. Not to mention, Seraphim may just be able to attack Nazarick straight up now, since we've confirmed there's no NPC scaling."
"Would the coup efforts convince them not to attack Nazarick?" Suggested Yamaiko, "Since if we had a switch that could basically destroy what they've been working on for the past 10 years, they might be more hesitant in leaving their cities unguarded."

"Maybe?" Punitto gave his own opinion, "What's more likely though is that if we're attacked, we should just attack Kami no Toshokan, forcing them away from Nazarick."

"We don't know where their guild base is though," Shizyuutensuzaku pointed out, "Even if we did, their guild base world item scares me."

Out of all of the guild bases in Yggdrasil, Kami no Toshokan probably had the highest chance of still being a viably defensible guild base without the crutch of the NPC scaler. That was how busted their world item, Praise The Lord, was.

"So we just lose," Nearata summarized the thoughts of the defeatists in the room, "We don't have the tools to reliably fend off a Seraphim attack on Nazarick, and we have no means of being able to attack Seraphim in any meaningful way."

"I wouldn't say we lose," Defended Punitto, "I would just say that it would require some serious misplays by Seraphim for us to win."

"That's basically just saying we lose, Punitto," Variable Talisman said, "Honestly, if this declaration of war isn't a bluff, I would just say surrender."

"Counterpoint," Denshosho said, "Seraphim already killed 3 of us, I'm feeling fairly wrathful."

That did sway the opinions of some members in the room. Vengeance was a powerful factor, after all.

"I think," Vagisilious said, "We should, at the very least, act as though we're going to fight the war. I like Coup's plan of just rigging their kingdom with rebellion, I think it's the best option that isn't just us going to London and looking for a 41 versus 72 fight. But the moment we see one of the members of Seraphim, we need to have a serious discussion about what the hell is going on."

Momonga nodded, "I agree with Vagisilious's decision. Does anyone disagree?"
It was a fairly middle ground solution to their problem. So while it didn't satisfy everyone, nobody was outright disappointed by it.

With no dissenting opinions, Momonga said, "Well, in that case, our next course of action is to relay our decision to the rest of Nazarick and hope that nobody thinks we're stupid, weak, or some combination of negative traits."

Oh, that was going to be fun, wasn't it?

---

"Are you kidding me?"

Principality was the lone dissenting voice in the throne room where everyone in Nazarick was gathered.

Worst of all, it was the one voice they were really banking on not being against them.

Principality continued to the glaring eyes of the audience, "I know that some of you really don't like the methods Seraphim uses, but their end goal is just. Great, even. Why are you so easily saying you'll fight? I haven't heard a single other suggestion for what'll happen after in a world where you defeat Seraphim. Are you supposed to just let people be unhappy? Are you going to do the same thing as they are? Are you just trying to switch the name Seraphim and Ainz Ooal Gown?"

Momonga tried to salvage the sinking golden geese that was Principality, "It's not fully decided yet. However, we can't just surrender-"
"Why not?" Principality interrupted, "Instead of worrying about fighting other people, you could just go to London and say, "Hey, we're sorry. We don't really want to worry about tomorrow" and you could just come to some sort of alliance! Do you really think they could use Control Amnesia on you? You're all level 100! And why would you fight if you don't have any ideas on what'll come after!"

Momonga hesitated, "That's…"
Principality did not stop, "What I'm seeing is simple. You're all too self-absorbed about the name of Ainz Ooal Gown, and you're trying to desperately cling onto the past where you guys were the top dog for a day."
"Isn't Seraphim doing the same?" Momonga pointed out, finally recovering from the stunlock, "You could say that Seraphim's demands for surrender are them trying to ensure that nobody could ever challenge them."

"There's a difference. You're the challenger," Principality stated, "Seraphim was here first. They had no resistances, they took the world for themselves. You're the new kid on the block, you don't have any tangible ideas of improving what they've already built."

Ainz Ooal Gown was silent.

Principality turned around, pulling a Gate scroll out of his inventory, "I'm out of here. I'm declaring neutrality until both of your guilds get a grasp on reality."
"Wait-" Momonga stood up from his throne, but Principality already casted gate.

"I'll see you later," Principality left Nazarick, the gate quickly closing behind him, leaving a silent throne room.

After what must've been a full minute, Ulbert Alain Odle summarized the thoughts of all 41 Supreme Beings, "Well, fuck."

---

Bonus scenes that I had no idea where to fit in so I put down here.

Bonus Scene 1: City of Greed (Canon)

One day, in the city of Sanchez, a switch flipped within the minds of all the residents.

It started out slowly at first. Less purchases began to be made. People were generally saving more money. People were being more frugal about what they used.

Sanchez was a coastal trade city, so there were always a few ships coming from other parts of the continent to trade. But as the month progressed, more ships stopped leaving the city, leaving the harbor full, unable to take in any more ships.

The farmers who came into the city with a full pack of produce didn't leave with pockets full of coins. Rather, they left almost as soon as they came, unable to part with their valuables.

However, as the month progressed, people began to leave less and less outside of the house. And more people began to have less involvement in the commercial activity in the city.

Even more oddly, people began to eat less.

Until one day, it all came to its natural conclusion.

No one took a bite of their food, for it was something that should be saved for later. No one traded their valuables, as the value of them may increase later on. No one spent any money, as money was the single most important thing in the world.

Then, like a plague, someone had the thought of "I need more."

People began fighting each other on the streets for the smallest of items. Families were broken apart by the shine of coins. Deals were struck and betrayed for sticks and stones.

Sanchez would die, all their citizens firmly believing that they were the richest.

Among it all, a small trio were simply reading the newspaper.
"Ouro, this was a nice city, why did you have to use your Aura of Greed?" Biblioteca complained.

Ouro hummed, "Did you like it? I'm sorry, I'll be sure to remember to not do this again the next time we're somewhere populated."

Prata crossed his arm, "All this does is draw attention to us. We should leave."

Ouro nodded, closing the newspaper after he finished reading it, "Very well. Let us depart."

For years to come, the survivors of Sanchez would forever speak of those final days of the city as "The Day where Greed Ruled."

---

Bonus Scene 2: Ruin of Triumph (Canon)

Gavus looked out at the ruins of Triumph.

It's been almost a week, and Principality wasn't back to assuage the fears of his citizens. Hah, Gavus wouldn't expect anything else of his creator. He's always been a lazy one in every aspect except power.

The citizens of Triumph were starting to finally piece together their shattered lives again. Homes were slowly starting to rebuild after the display of compassion that every other citizen in the city displayed.

Even the richer nobles in Triumph were actually trying to help with rebuilding. Gavus really didn't expect that one.

Draudillon walked up to Gavus from behind him, "Sir Gavus…"

"What is it?" Gavus questioned, "Our king still isn't here-"
"I want him to resign," Draudillon said.

Gavus blinked, "Oh? I really wasn't expecting that."

Draudillon crossed her arms and frowned, "It's been a week since the demon invasion and he hasn't made a single appearance. He's unfit to be king, and… I have to replace him."

Gavus raised an eyebrow, "Well, I like the idea. But the moment Principality arrives, you're done for."

"Aside from him, you're the strongest person I know," Draudillon said, certainly not to boost Gavus's ego, "I want you to help me dethrone him."
Gavus stared at Draudillon with some shocked amazement in his eyes.

How did he not notice this bundle of ambition standing next to Principality all this time? That was probably the most exciting person from their bloodline.

Gavus grinned, "Well, it might be a bit difficult to dethrone the strongest… But I think I could help. Just be sure to follow my every word."
"I am not making you king."
Gavus raised his hands in surrender, "I said nothing of being king. I would just like to aid you in your quest. I have a few contacts that might help with our shared issue of our king being unfit for the throne, but it'll take a while for me to convince them to help. So just wait until I have everything prepared, got it?"
Draudillon looked in his eyes for any signs of lying, but found none, "Fine."

Gavus nodded, putting his hand on her back to nudge her towards the ruins, "Now go, the first part of being a queen is to be trusted by your subjects. Go help them rebuild."
"I've been doing so," Draudillon said.

"Then you're already doing more than he is!"

Draudillon left to go be with her people, and Gavus chuckled as he inspected the letter Liberta had subtly sent him through a crow.

It seemed as though that rapscallion was smarter than he was before, being able to predict something like this without even seeing Draudillon.

---

Bonus Scene 3: Boiling Hatred (Canon)

To the citizens of Re-Estisize City, it was as though a massive earthquake had just hit the city, causing the deaths of untold numbers of their people.

If it really were just an earthquake, they would've buried their dead and moved on. But, of course, it wasn't just an Earthquake. Rather, it was a deadly attack by monsters.

According to Seraphic officials, a group of 10 absurdly strong monsters came to Re-Estisize City with the sole intention of causing as much destruction as they could.

Though Seraphim did their best to fend off against the threat of the monsters, they could not stop them from unleashing their most powerful attack, which caused half the city to be destroyed.

And with that simple explanation, their hatred now had a target. Not a single heteromorph should be forgiven for what had happened on that day.

Re-Estisize vowed to never forget. And though Seraphim was attempting to rebuild the city, their lost friends and family will always serve as the eternal monument to the malevolent nature of monsters.

---

TO THE UPPER SERAPHIM'S EYES ONLY.

RE: ANTI-HETEROMORPH PROPAGANDA MEASURES.

LATEST STUDIES BY NPC GROUP "EXTERMINATORS" IN RE-ESTISIZE CITY HAS INDICATED THAT THE NUMBER OF HETEROMORPHIC SYMPATHIZERS IN RE-ESTISIZE CITY HAS DROPPED FROM 4.7% OF THE POPULATION TO 0.2% WITH NON-ZERO PERCENT CHANCE OF DROPPING TO 0% IN THE COMING MONTHS.

HETEROMORPH INTERFERENCE IN RE-ESTISIZE CITY HAS NO FEASIBLE CHANCE OF SUCCESS. IT IS RECOMMENDED TO SHIFT FOCUS TO OTHER MAJOR CITIES IN RE-ESTISIZE BEFORE MOVING ONTO BAHARUTH DISTRICT.

ADDITIONALLY, NPC: SIGMAR HAS SUGGESTED TO SIMPLY DISPOSE OF THE EMPEROR AND OTHER HIGHER UPS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE TO REMOVE THE POSSIBILITIES OF CORRUPTION.

IF NEEDED, WE MAY CLARIFY BEFORE, AT, OR AFTER THE UPCOMING GUILD MEETING TOMORROW.

MAY SERAPHIM CREATE A WORLD WORTH LIVING IN.

SIGNED BY THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH: EYESEE.

---

AN:

Thank you to Anonymous Penguin for keeping the google doc open, and thus be registered as being here. You were great for silently judging me into writing until you're gone (You're still not gone as I'm writing this ;-;) (Okay you're gone now.)

This chapter is 18k words long. Isn't that crazy? I initially predicted about 10k, but then I did way too much business and there ended up being 7k additional words.

Also, I was on 6k yesterday. Then, I decided, "Hm, I need someone to kick me in the pants." So I let people on the Library of Ashurbanipal discord server to watch me type in real time.

I wrote 4k words yesterday, getting me to 10.8k. Then I wrote 6.2k words today to finish this chapter out.

Truly, this is the power of friendship at its finest.

Shout out to Doppelganger, who wrote like 2 sentences for the initial Liberta v Fluder fight, and pointed out some typos. Then of course the anonymous penguin for silently judging me.

I might do this again if I'm having difficulties writing a chapter, so if you want to be there, be there.

(Also, I didn't catch anyone during my April Fools chapter. I think everyone willing to leave a hate comment left already. RIP.)

X

Also, Doppelganger drew this funny image for me a few months ago, and I asked if I could put it here when I finally got to this chapter to write the scene.

[You know the deal. Ao3 or the discord.]

What a magnificent chef. I should draw something for… Well, not the next chapter, nothing exciting happens in the next chapter. But maybe a few chapters from now, inspiration will strike.

X

Since I'm starting to work on a third fic in the background, Time Capsule's upload schedule might be stuck at 1 chapter a month for a while. I don't know for how long, but that's how it's looking.

Not to worry though, for as long as I live, this fic shall finish one day.

Throughout my vast array of fics, Time Capsule & Manifest Destiny are the exceptions.