353Regaining What is Lost
Chapter 1: First Contact
Momonga sighed, glaring wearily at the image in front of him as it reflected nothing but a lush grassland and empty greenery.
"Is something the matter, Momonga-sama?" The Overlord of Death turned to look at the well-dressed butler at his side, whose stone-like countenance had been broken by Momonga's first reaction within several minutes. The man's gaze was sharp, but the skin around his steely eyes wrinkled almost imperceptibly in what could be sensed as worry.
"...No, it is nothing Sebas."With the hand that wasn't held over the large mirror he had been viewing, Momonga provided a gesture of dismissal to his servant's concern. In truth, Momonga could hardly tell him that the reason he felt at odds was because he was bored of staring at a screen with nothing on it.
It had only been hours ago that Momonga had been transported alongside his Guild base and everything within to this strange yet familiar world. Yesterday he had been Satoru Suzuki, an ordinary salaryman who enjoyed playing YGGDRASIL, one of the oldest DMMOs on the market. Back then Momonga had been a mere game avatar, nothing but a program of zeroes and ones that merely tried to imitate reality.
In the present that reality had changed, and it was the Momonga that sat on this room of Nazarick who was real and Satoru the consciousness that existed only inside Momonga's imagination. Had his own game abilities not carried over with this phenomenon and activated to keep his composure calm, it was probable that he would have still been panicking.
However, the truth was that Momonga did not hold many attachments towards his life as Satoru Suzuki. That was not to say that he had discarded reality, he was proud to call himself a member of society after all- However, he had never held too many expectations as to where he would go in life, nor did reality ever look as bright to him as his time playing YGGDRASIL had been.
Momonga had many good memories of playing YGGDRASIL. Though initially he had hated the game for making him a target of the fantastically racist human players, he had been stopped from quitting thanks to the efforts of his first DMMO friend, a player with the nickname of Touch Me. He and seven others had become Momonga's friends in the game and together they had founded their guild: Ainz Ooal Gown.
Those days were Momonga's fondest times- Ainz Ooal Gown had started as a humble base for their adventures and it had grown into a full-blown virtual community, fueled by the dreams and imagination of all 41 of its members. Together they had spent weekends farming for rare items, hunting down event bosses or just sharing fun stories and experiences with each other. It was the first time that Momonga had felt that he was special, just as each and everyone of his comrades had been.
All of them had done their part to build the place that Momonga stood on right then, the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The Tomb's 10 floors had been painstakingly built by the illustrators, programmers and designers of Ainz Ooal Gown, and everything inside of them were either creations of the guild members or things earned by their actions. There was not a single thing within it that could not be traced to the efforts of him and his friends.
Together with the lonely Momonga, Nazarick had been transferred into this new world. The man at his side was no less than another of his friends' creations, a custom NPC by the name of Sebas Tian. He was Touch Me's creation, and had been designed as one of the leaders of the Pleiades, a combat force solely composed of maid-like characters.
This character, as well as every other NPC within Nazarick had seemingly obtained sentience upon being transported from the game. He could not know if they were truly intelligent, but for all intents and purposes Momonga could not distinguish the game's NPCs from other living beings anymore. Even then, that wasn't an issue. What was a problem was that no sooner had he gathered the most important NPCs of his guild together, they had proceeded to fanatically proclaim their eternal loyalty and devotion to him.
Which had brought him to the current situation. He, Satoru Suzuki, who was but an ordinary salesperson trapped in the body of a game character, had suddenly been placed in a position of leadership as the Supreme Overlord of Nazarick. Fearing any possible retaliation from the NPCs, he had been pressured into acting like the character they expected him to be and had been thrown into this strange situation.
The first thing he had done when that had happened had been to panic. When that didn't present results and he had shortly calmed down, he proceeded to try his best to assess the situation, and acted accordingly. It had only been a day, but after having set his mind to the task of becoming acclimated with his current predicament, he'd learned several things in a short timespan, such as the effectiveness of his magic spells or the layout of his surroundings.
Having more or less finished delegating most of his current worries to Albedo the Overseer of the NPCs (as well as one large source of embarrassment from his part), Momonga had then stepped back to do a less stressful task- That was, play around with a scrying magic item while simultaneously using it to scout Nazarick's surroundings from the comfort of the Royal Suite.
But…
"Nothing as far as the eye can see, huh…?"
Admittedly, Momonga shouldn't have expected to find anything noteworthy given the angle that the [Remote Viewing Lens] used for its display. Although a useful magic item that reflected a view of the desired target area, without the game's camera interface the scrying tool had started on its default viewpoint… Which was no better than a sea-level human's eyesight.
This had translated into several minutes of Momonga making several different kinds of sweeping and sliding hand gestures just to fumble his way through the same monotonous, endless plains that only differed in very very slight shades of green. He thought he might have caught sight of a forest at some point, but he couldn't be so sure when it pertained to the damn thing doing its job.
"If there is anything I can do to help, Momonga-sama? Should you require anything you need only ask, and I shall aid you to the full extent of my abilities." Sebas sought to lift the disgruntled mood of Momonga, who was rather sulkily staring at the mirror that continued to refuse his commands to display the only thing more boring than waiting for paint to dry.
"No, I really don't need anything. But this damn thing… Oh!" Had he possessed eyes, Momonga would have blinked in surprise when one of his wild gestures suddenly caused the screen to pan out. The rush of his successes temporarily clouded his mind, and he gave a short victory cheer.
"Congratulations, Momonga-sama! Truly magnificent!"
Is it really!? I just spent 10 minutes swinging a toy a kid could use and that's what you say!? Though he really did feel as if he was a kid who was being praised for something insignificant, Momonga nonetheless thought it would be rude to act in such a way towards Sebas when he clearly looked pleased at his success.
"Ah, uhm… Thank you Sebas. Aren't you mad at me for making you wait so long for anything to happen, though?" If it had been one of his friends, Momonga was sure they would've called him all kinds of stubborn by then and wrestled the mirror away from him. He could imagine the figure of Touch Me scolding him while Bukubukuchagama teased him and called him a "bonehead".
Sebas looked shocked at his master's words. "Nonsense! What are you saying, Momonga-sama!?" He exclaimed it as if the mere notion of being angry at his person was a freak thought. "To be at your side and grant your wishes is the duty of a butler such as I. There is no need to apologize, especially when you have been working so hard." Words more mellow, the butler next presented an inquiry to his lord. "Speaking of which, Momonga-sama… Would you like to take a break?"
"There's no need for that. As an undead I don't feel tired at all." That was the truth- Momonga felt that ailments such as fatigue, hunger or sleep would never bother him anymore. In the game, that had been one of the many benefits of playing an undead race- A tireless zombie had no need for anything but the negative energy that powered its existence, after all. "If you are tired however, Sebas…"
"Please do not worry yourself. Something like this is not enough to cause me fatigue, and even if it did there are items at hand that could waive such needs anyways. I would be grateful if you allowed me to accompany you until you are done scouting the surroundings."
The office slave turned lich wearily endured the butler's passionate gaze, and simply nodded his consent. He felt his own curiosity start to rise when he finally turned back to the mirror, which was then displaying a large area under a clear blue sky. He could see the grasslands just as clearly as before (much to his displeasure), but in the distance he thought that he could see the darker shade of what could possibly be a forest.
When he gestured to the mirror to take his eyes there, however…
"Oh…! Wheat fields! Then this must be…!" About ten kilometers away from the Tomb's current position was the first bastion of civilization that Momonga had sought. Though it looked no more than a hamlet, the freshly cared for farmlands and the picturesque houses in the distance proved to Momonga that this was no ghost town. More importantly, he could make out the tiny movements of people within the village itself, though there was something about the scene that bugged him…
When he swept at the screen in order to zero in on that view, he heard a brief gasp behind him. He did not need to turn his head to understand what it was that had surprised Sebas Tian.
"This isn't some kind of festival… right?" He muttered anxiously when he saw the frantic villagers, fleeing from their houses in a chaotic state that tugged at his mind.
"No… That's no festival." Sebas replied tightly, with a somber expression on his face. As Momonga continued to zoom in the view, his own expression also darkened.
It was a scene not unlike that of a medieval war movie. A company of knights spread across the village, bloody sword in hand as they gave chase and slaughtered the hapless villagers who had no means of defending themselves. It did not matter whether they were women or children, any the knights caught were given equal death.
Momonga immediately wanted to change the image. There was no sense in continuing to watch this bitter struggle, which brought a sour taste to his mouth. Even if he ordered his guardians to mobilize and stop the knights, what could that possibly gain him? He thought this without feeling an ounce of pity or sympathy towards the massacred villagers.
-But the moment he did, he immediately second-guessed himself. Had his undead form affected him to the point that he could no longer hold any positive towards mankind? He vaguely remembered the setting information of YGGDRASIL, in which most undead were created with an ingrained hatred towards the living. Was he going through a similar experience and was it influencing his thoughts so as to make him indifferent to the massacre happening before his eyes?
His reluctance to admit such a thing caused him to freeze up, halting his decision to abandon the village to its ultimate fate and instead linger on the nature of his own thoughts. His mind raced desperately, trying to seek out a justification for why he felt as if he shouldn't help the villagers hurt in front of his eyes.
Had he saved this for a later moment and abandoned the sight of the village, then the next events might have played in a radically different way. He may not have noticed in time, and missed the window of opportunity that would appear in the next few moments. If he had, then a different future might have played out.
Where the lonely Momonga was pressured by the expectations of his Guardians and his own vague memories of his friends to hold on to the first and last precious thing that he possessed, where he sacrificed all notions of his human life and took the mantle of his guild and character, reaching great heights to hurl himself to the height of glory and infamy alike, through any means necessary.
In hindsight, perhaps it was for the best that Momonga had never been the one to make rash and impulsive decisions. Just as he had been agonizing over his decision…
"...!? Momonga-sama, please look over there!"
-Sebas noticed it, the scene that would steer Momonga away from the clutches of another fate.
The Overlord immediately turned his head towards where Sebas had pointed at, and he immediately shared his disquiet. Quickly gesturing with his hands, he guided the mirror towards the strange event. There, pictured as clearly as the horrors of the massacre had been…
...Was one of the knights, writhing like a worm as he tried to escape from the thick layer of tar-like liquid that pasted him to the splintered walls of one of the village's houses. All of Momonga's movements halted, like a puppet that had its strings cut.
He recognized that lump of tar. There was no way that he couldn't have noticed something so obvious that showed such a large contrast to the relatively mundane scene from before. After all-
-That move, it resembled one of the racial skills used by one of his guild members.
"S-Sebas, more! Do you see anything else like that!?" Momonga felt a rush of excitement unlike any other surge through his body. He knew, he knew how unlikely it was for the scenario in his head to be true yet he still could not discard it the moment the possibility reared its head.
"...Yes! Please look over there!" Guided by Sebas' incredibly sharp eyesight, Momonga continued to look for similar signs of interference over the village fields. Past the knight were several more strange instances, such as unconscious men who were being apprehended by angry villagers or signs of heavy trauma on the houses that looked as if someone had fumbled his way through the road with a bulldozer.
With these obvious signs, it did not take the two of them long to find the source of the commotion.
The first he noticed was the beast. Its silver fur glistened in the sunlight, with a luster that spoke of a well-fed lifestyle. Though it was slightly marred with the sight of freshly stained blood, it also served to enhance its quality, giving it a more ominous look. Its scaled tail swished back and forth, its powerful muscles contracting as it disposed of another knight that had been hunting the awed villagers kneeling a way's away from the scene.
However… The sight of it immediately caused confusion to erupt in Momonga's heart.
Isn't that just a hamster!? There was no doubt about it, the monster that was throwing knights around left and right like they were crash test mannequins was nothing more than an oversized hamster, with a huge face, even larger eyes and long whiskers that twitched at the slightest movement.
"Momonga-sama! That person is…!"The lich was at first confused by Sebas' words and the way they rang with awe, but the moment he turned his eyes away from the hamster his eyes widened in recognition.
There was no way… That he could mistake the figure that his item reflected.
"Hero... hero… san…" Momonga mumbled out the words, as if he couldn't believe them himself. The tar-shaped slime on the mirror's screen was petite in comparison to the knight opposing it, but the moment the soldier swung his blade it side-stepped his attack with a movement not unlike that of flowing water, just to return to place with the force of a whip and hurl a mass of black sludge that caught the man on his breastplate and plastered him against a tree, with such force that the bark splintered and his face gasped in ardent agony.
"Momonga-sama…! What should we do?" Sebas questioned his master, for the first time finding himself without anything to say. There was no denying that he was just as moved by the vision of the slime creature as Momonga himself.
The Guildmaster of Nazarick straightened, the joy and relief in his heart giving way to a burning sense of duty that caused his next words to come out with the full force of his earlier statements. "Raise Nazarick's alert level to maximum and muster any forces that can form up quickly. Notify Albedo to gear up and follow me, we might need her physical defenses against any possible strong enemies. Prepare a detachment of stealthy monsters in case we need to deal with troublesome targets. I will go on ahead."
"It will be done, Momonga-sama! However, by my task as Momonga-sama's follower, I…"
He's taking that command so far? I just told him to follow me in the game for five minutes! Were he human, Momonga would have felt the urge to sweat. "Your duty is protecting the heart of Nazarick, Sebas. We cannot allow the 9th floor to go unsupervised. One of ours is already engaged in battle. Delaying our assistance any longer could prove to be a fatal mistake!"
All the while, Momonga had been following the movements of the slime which he suspected to be Herohero. It moved with surprising dexterity, such that Momonga would have had trouble following its movements were it just running nonstop. At the moment, it seemed to have disposed of a knight near the edge of the village and was apparently fussing over the form of two girls.
Without bothering to pay the strange scene any more attention, Momonga took out the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown and held it high, ready to make his grand entrance. His eyes transfixed on the black slime, he uttered a word that caused his very surroundings to quake with power.
"[Portal]."
The highest-ranked teleportation magic. A tear in reality manifested itself, bridging the distance between the locations to 'zero' in an instant. In the game setting, this was a spell that could even reduce the distance between worlds to such an insignificant number.
Without hesitation, Momonga strode through the gap in space. Wait for me, Herohero-san. He thought, eager to speak to his friend once again.
I will give you the greatest welcome in history, my friend!
Enri Emmott thought that for sure, this was the worst day of her life. She had been forced to flee with Nemu as her parents were slain before her eyes, in a tragic moment that would forever linger in her mind. They had barely made it to the end of the village when her legs lost all strength, and she had to struggle in vain with the knight that had given pursuit.
It couldn't be helped. After all, an ordinary village girl would have never been able to escape from a fully armed, highly trained knight. That she had entertained thoughts of saving herself or her sister could only have been said to be the desperate delusions of a person fearing for their life. However, even when her entire body burned with the pain which the knight's steel had carved onto her back, Enri had refused to cowardly accept death. She would not lie there like a puppet with its strings cut.
That was why, even if it was for a second longer, she had embraced her sister with the intention to shield her body from the knight's attacks. Even if she could not escape death, she could at least save the only family she had left in this world.
However… How had everything developed into this scene…?
"AAAAHHH! WH-WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?" The knight screamed in horror, clutching at his right arm which had moments ago been brandishing a sword. The smoking, sizzling stump that continued to drip black tar on the ground would surely never wield such a blade again. Remnants of the man's hand could be seen resting on the ground, the appendage a mix of charred flesh and black bones that still clutched at a halfway dissolved sword that continued to melt under the strange black substance.
"How could you…!?" A strange voice echoed through the clearing. It was muddled and bubbly, as if the person itself was speaking through water or other means. Nonetheless, it perfectly echoed through the ears of the two humans, who turned to stare at the direction where Enri had been fleeing from.
What they saw brought both shock and fear. The creature that advanced towards Enri and the knight was no chivalric savior, but a true monster. It crawled towards them on no legs, a formless mass of tar-like sludge which couldn't be considered to hold a solid shape. The expression on its face only vaguely resembled a human face, and its empty black sockets looked absolutely furious.
Enri inwardly shrunk when the monster's unyielding stare fell upon her and Nemu, and his expression seemed to take an even darker tone. "She's just a girl… and a little kid too…!"
"You goddamn monster! My fucking arm, AHH!" As if ignorant of his own peril, the knight continued to wail in agony and disbelief. Such was the degree of pain that the weaponized acid of an Elder Black Ooze inflicted on his arm. Had the slime been aiming for his death in that first strike, a merely serious glancing blow would have shortly dissolved the better half of his body.
However-
"Shut up."
-Instant Death.
The moment the slime had turned to the knight, it defeated him in one blow. Having been unable to contain its rage, its whole form seemed to shudder before one of the thin, wisp-like tendrils that had resembled the slime's arms transformed into a giant fist of sludge that struck the knight with the sound and impact of a freight train.
Several trees collapsed on the path of the slime's attack, the grossly overpowered strike not even leaving behind any remnants of the knight other than a bloody smear and the crushed remnants of his armor, which were already dissolving under the slime's acid.
The slime's gaze seemed to linger on the scene, as if he were somehow hesitating, before something about his form seemed to harden in determination. Slowly, as if waking up from a dreamy haze, the monster began to turn the two girls.
"A-ah...! S-Stay away, please…!" Enri pleaded with an almost unhearable mutter, but the slime seemed to react to her words and recoiled like a marionette with its thread severed.
"W-wait! I promise, I'm not here to hurt you! Look…!" The monster's threatening aura seemed to fade as soon as those words escaped his mouth. As the creature's form looked as if it was shuddering, Enri was greeted by the most bizarre scene she had ever witnessed in her short life.
The slime seemed to place an arm-tendril within itself… And pulled out a clean-looking vial whose red substance looked vaguely reminiscent like that of a potion. Not a single speck of the tar-like slime seemed to cling to the surface, which merely reflected the crystalline liquid.
"H-here…" Stuttering in a shy, timid way completely unlike his earlier demeanor, the slime gently rolled the vial across the ground, where it bumped to a stop over Enri's feet. After staring at the scene with a blank face, Enri eventually picked up the bottle with her good hand. She looked at the slime with wary eyes.
"Please drink that. It's a healing potion. If you don't, you might bleed out or your wounds might get worse." The slime fiddled with its arms, as if it was waiting for Enri's own reaction.
Enri looked down at the potion, coiled tightly on her fingers. Could she really trust a monster that had appeared out of nowhere and killed a human so easily? However, what choice did she have? Injured as she was, did a monster really need to resort to any sort of trickery to get her? Could she afford to risk death and leave Nemu alone in this situation?
Gulping down her fears, she popped the lid off the bottle and downed it in one go. Immediately, she felt an amazing feeling coursing through her entire body. The pain which had been so gravely ailing her back seemed to fade until it was nothing more than a bad memory. Even her mangled hand seemed to turn back to its former, pristine state.
She felt better than she had in weeks.
"B-big sis! You're okay!" Before she knew it Nemu's crying face was pressing against her chest, her desolate sobs wounding her heart in a way the healing potion could never mend. Before she realized it, tears were running down her face as well and she joined her sister in embracing each other.
"Aahh… Somehow it feels embarrassing to look…" The slime had the decency to look sheepish, looking for all the world as if it'd just stuck around for something it shouldn't have seen.
But before this situation could develop any further-
"[Portal]."
-It was interrupted by the opening of a rift in space, a black void that reflected nothing but a distorted reality. From that realm of shadows, what Enri saw stepping forth was…
-To call it a person would be an insult to humanity. The mockery of life that crossed through that rift had the shape of a human and wore the clothes of a human, but it could never be called human. Burning red eyes glared from two hollow sockets in a chalk white skull, two miniature infernos swirling within something that should not be moving under its own power. The undead lord brandished a demonic staff the likes of Enri could not possibly comprehend, and she could not just hear but also sense the screams of the dead souls that surrounded its golden make. It was a true monster, which irradiated an aura of despair and death that had Enri shivering to the core.
At that moment-
Two people's emotions swirled with unexpected joy, in a fateful meeting that would alter the course of history.
"Herohero-san!?"
"M-Momonga-san!"
Enri and Nemu fainted immediately.