In the center of a town stood two figures, one human and the other a demi-human. Around them were knights wearing iron armor, rotting corpses, and giant dead insects; the knights walked around the battlefield stabbing the corpses ensuring the corpses were dead.
"Mr. Naofumi, look." The raccoon woman pointed towards the sky. The glowing red cracks that covered it stopped sending monsters and began to fade away.
"Raphtalia! Pay attention! Just because the wave is ending doesn't mean the remaining enemies are gone!" Naofumi glared at Raphtalia as he yelled.
"Yes, of course!" His words proved true as twenty armored zombies shambled toward them.
Unlike Raphtalia, Naofumi was not a denizen of this world but rather was transported here as the Shield Hero, one of four Legendary Heroes. The heroes were icons of worship for the people of this world. However, this worship was not universal throughout the entire world as the shield hero held a stigma in Melromarc, and only the other three heroes were worshipped. Along with a plot that framed him as a rapist, he was quickly hated throughout Melromarc.
After a half hour, the remaining zombies and insects were either eliminated or wandered away from the town. From a nearby forest path, over a dozen adventurers slowly sauntered to the town.
"Ha! That boss wasn't even difficult." "If it keeps going like this, the next wave will be no problem." Though the entire party indulged, most of the boasting came from the three leading the group. Each one of them held a unique weapon: a spear, bow, and sword. These three were the other legendary heroes.
Naofumi glared at the approaching party, but they completely ignored him. A soldier, seeming to be the leader of the knights, walked in front of the party. "Very good work heroes, thanks to you…" The soldier was cut off by a boom from the sky.
"What is that?!" "Is it another wave?!" Panic began to spread throughout the nearby villagers, as they just spent the last few hours dealing with hordes of insects and zombies.
Another crack then pierced through the sky, but unlike the previous ones, there was only one, and it had a dark purple hue. Red lightning seemed to dance around the crack, creating an electric buzzing.
"Ha ha ha!" A laugh cut through the panic. "If it's like the last one, we'll have this done in no time." "It may look different, but it's just a beginner wave." "There is only one rift, it must be weaker than the last one." The boasts and confidence of the leading heroes quickly raised morale throughout the group, with one exception.
'Why is there another one!? Why must there always be another problem I have to face!? Why do they get praise when I'm the one putting my life on the line!? WHY!?' Rage filled Naofumi's head as the soldiers cheered for the other heroes.
The tear in the sky closed suddenly, but not before spitting out a single figure. The figure sped towards the ground and crashed not far from the group.
"Let's go!" The three heroes rushed forward toward the impact zone with their parties behind them.
"..." Raphtailia looked at Naofumi expectantly.
"Come on, we have to get there before they take all of the materials for themselves." Raphtalia smiled. "Right!"
Following behind the three heroes, they were running towards a crater that was nearly five meters deep. Naofumi, after catching up to the other heroes, looked in the crater and saw a skeleton wearing dark purple robes looking at its hands. Noticing their approach, it looked up to the gathered forces and gave a polite bow.
"Greetings." The group, not expecting the creature to bow to them, nonetheless speaking to them, were frozen in place.
"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown."
Walking through the castle corridor was Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King. He was on his way to meet up with one of his guardians, Demiurge, who requested his assistance. To his right was the homunculus maid on duty today.
'I wonder what Demiurge wants of me. Even after fifty-two years, I still can't figure out what he's planning next, and trying just ends up being a waste of time. He rarely asks me to come to his lab personally. '
As Ainz pondered Demiurge's intentions, the maid quickly ran ahead and opened a set of doors for him. When he stepped through the doorway, he was met with a large room packed with undead liches. Ainz was surprised to see humanoid figures scattered around the room as well.
The entire room gives a deep bow, "Welcome, Lord Ainz!" Ainz acknowledged them, raising his right hand. "Rise, and continue your work, I will not be long."
"Yes, Lord Ainz!" As they did, a demon wearing a western suit stepped forward and gave a slight bow.
"Greetings, Lord Ainz, and thank you fo…" Ainz raised his hand to cut him off. "It's fine, Demiurge, there is no need to thank me. Tell me, what is so important that my presence is required?" Demiurge raised his head.
"Of course, Lord. I have been working on a personal project for the last few years, but, about a month ago, I encountered an issue. If you would follow me, Lord." He started to walk down a connecting corridor and began to explain the project, with Ainz following behind.
"Over the years we have been expanding our territory far and wide throughout this new world and are now on the verge of controlling the entire continent. During this time, we have come across many pieces of evidence that suggest there have been other 'players' in this world" Ainz nodded.
This was not new information. There were many records of player activity throughout the continent, but as far as they could find, Nazarick was the only Yggdrasil organization currently active on the continent.
"But none of the evidence we have uncovered points to these 'players' being one of the supreme beings." He said, unable to hide the hint of sadness in his voice.
"Realizing this, I became, for lack of a better word, depressed as a result. I began to believe the other supreme beings would never appear in this world. It was simply unforgivable." A pain struck Ainz's chest as he thought of Ainz Ooal Gown again, how he was the only one left, and how alone he was. He hadn't thought of them in a long time, making the pain that much worse. Demiurge continued to speak as Ainz reflected on his past friends.
"I spoke with the others about my worries and most of them agreed that this was not only possible but most likely the case. But then…" He suddenly chuckled. "...I spoke to Shalltear and she asked an extremely simple question, 'If they aren't in THIS world, why don't we go to the one where they are?'" He smiled ear to ear.
"As ridiculous as the idea was at first, that was the birth of my project, to create a portal connecting this world to whatever world the supreme beings are currently located in." Demiurge opened a door to a courtyard where over a hundred undead mages were surrounding a large inactive portal. 12 overlord Wisemen stood in front of the portal, awaiting the orders to begin.
"The only problem now is the portal doesn't have a destination, and while I tried my best to make a connection to Yggdrasil, the connection would always fail. Which is why I asked for your assistance, Lord. You are Ainz Ooal Gown, if you are unable to make a connection, then no can." Demiurge looked at Ainz expectantly.
'My friends… comrades… will I finally be able to see you again after all this time? Is this possible? To travel back to Yggdrasil or, at the very least, Yggdrasil 2. What will happen to the guardians? Will they be the same? Would I get my human body back?' Hundreds of questions and possibilities ran through his mind.
He stood there for a time, but then finally came to a decision. "Demiurge, start up the portal." Demiurge beamed and immediately started to command the undead to begin the ritual.
All the undead kneeled before the portal and started to channel their mana to ritual. As soon as all the undead began the ritual, the portal was activated. It was extremely similar to the spell [Gate] in its appearance, but anyone could determine it was much more powerful.
Ainz then walked up the stairs to the portal and set his hand on the purple surface. Thoughts of a new world, a better world, one in which he could be with his friends once more, Yggdrasil 2, went through his mind as he poured his mana into the portal. And then, he saw something.
[WARNING! YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO TRAVEL TO A SMS UNIVERSE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?]
[YES]
[NO]
'It's possible! I can find my friends!' His emotional suppression kicked in. 'I hate that. But what is with this warning and why am I seeing it? Is this telling me I'm entering Yggdrasil 2?' He moved his hand over the [YES] and pressed it.
The portal suddenly grew, and red lightning began shooting from the portal surrounding it and began to pull Ainz in. Behind him, he could hear shouting. "Lord Ainz! Liches close the portal! NOW!" But it was to no avail; the portal didn't close but rather seemed to siphon mana from the undead around it forcefully.
In moments, Ainz was completely enveloped by the portal. Ainz felt himself moving faster than ever before, but then he suddenly stopped, floating in a black void. Text started popping up around him completely blocking his view.
[ERROR! UNKNOWN SMS ITEM INTERFERING WITH LEVEL REMOVAL!]
[DO YOU WISH TO TRY AGAIN?]
[YES]
[NO]
'Item interfering with level REMOVAL!? Wait… my world item!' He reached down to his robe and touched the red sphere resting in his lower abdomen. 'Does this mean I can keep my levels? That's good to know but I must return to inform Demiurge his portal works.' Ainz put his hand over the [NO].
[ERROR! UNABLE TO STOP ATTEMPT.]
[CONTINUING PROCESS…]
[ERROR! UNABLE TO REMOVE LEVELS]
[ATTENTION! LEVELS MUST BE RESET WHEN TRAVELING TO SMS WORLDS!]
[ACTIVATING BACKUP PROTOCOLS…]
[ACTIVATING PROTOCOL ALPHA-000001…]
[ERROR!]
[ACTIVATING PROTOCOL BETA-000001...]
[ERROR!]
'Wait! No! I must bring Nazarick with me! I can't leave them alone!' Ainz's vision was filled with errors and thousands of protocols, but eventually, it stopped and prompted another notification.
[SUCCESS!]
[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL ZETA-99999 IS BEING USED.]
[LEVEL WILL BE RESET UPON ARRIVAL. ABILITIES AND STATS WILL BE TRANSFERRED.]
[USAGE OF THIS PROTOCOL HAS BEEN LOGGED.]
Suddenly, Ainz could feel himself being shot toward the ground before he was able to cast [Fly] he crashed into the ground creating a crater underneath him. He slowly gained his bearings and picked himself up, dusting off his robe. Then he noticed what was in front of him.
'What the? I have a HUD again, but… this isn't Yggdrasil's HUD. It significantly less complicated, more like a single-player RPG but not quite.' He looked down and saw his skeletal hands and moved them around. 'I feel the same as I did before. But what is going on?! Where am I?'
As he was thinking, he noticed roughly a dozen humans watching him. In a panic, he quickly took a regal stance.
"Greetings! My name is Ainz Ooal Gown." The group hesitated for a second before one of them yelled.
"Let's go!" "Wai…" Before Ainz could respond, spells and arrows started flying towards him. Of course, all of them were blocked by his natural resistance.
"Spells don't seem to work on him! Everyone, switch to physical attacks." An archer yelled from the back.
Strangely enough, only two of the adventurers charged at him at this declaration, while the other melee adventurers just stood there.
'What the? Are they so confident they think only two of them can defeat me?' He could only stare dumbfounded as a spearman and swordsman charged at him.
The spearman charged his front while the swordsman tried to flank his right. He noticed both of their weapons having a similar style to the archer's bow. These could be specialty weapons, but considering the archer's attacks were blocked by his resistance he shouldn't need to worry.
Ainz just sighed.
"Overconfident." He grabbed the spear, mid-thrust and swung it, along with the wielder, right at the swordsman flanking him. The two crashed into each other with a deafening crack.
Ainz could hear many shouts come from the rest of the group as they stopped watching and rushed him like a mob.
'What is this? Amateur hour? The Swords of Darkness would have given me more trouble, at least they were coordinated in their attacks.' A few more arrows hit him interrupting his thoughts.
He noticed the two adventurers he had just dealt with started getting up. "I guess I should test your magic resistance. [Magic Missile]."
Ten spikes of pure energy shot towards the two struggling to get up before they could react.
"AHHH!" Both were hit by the attack, with all ten shots piercing their legs without resistance. Without missing a beat Ainz looked towards the group rushing him.
"[Maximize Magic] [Triple Fireball]" Three fireballs flew towards the group attacking him, two towards the frontline running towards him and one to the backline. The sudden spell caught the group off guard as they didn't even have time to block his attack.
"Hmmm, good, you survived." Many of the attacking group were covered in burns or collapsed because of their metal armor, all of them were badly injured, but alive.
'I shouldn't push my luck; I don't want to kill them accidentally. I would hate for my first impression with whatever organization they belong to be negative. Though, they did start the attack… I might be able to use that later during negotiations.' Ainz shrugged as he was about to leave, but, in the corner of his vision, he saw two in the backline hiding behind a shield and a group of knights running towards him.
Author Note:
Hello, this is my first story so please forgive any mistakes I make along the way. This story idea has been rolling around in my head for a few months now and I finally decided to write it. I hope you enjoy it.
Also, for those wondering what SMS stands for, it is Status Magic System. It is the system that the Shield Hero world is based on.
