Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue: Birth of the Raid Boss

The first thing Harry saw upon opening his eyes was a clear, blue sky. He could feel grass underneath him, and a soft breeze that was comfortably cool. He let out a soft sigh, silently thankful that it seemed to be a calm, quiet day.

…Yet another world, eh?

Considering there were times when Harry landed in the middle of bloody war, this peaceful scenario was certainly welcome. Lying over the ground without a care in the world, he simply admired the sky and the calm chirping of birds for a moment until he felt it had been long enough.

Rising from the ground so he was in a sitting position, he looked around lazily in a seemingly uncaring manner. At first glance, there was nothing but trees surrounding him, the only thing different from the green scenery were the rocks at his back, leading up to what appeared to be a mountain.

No immediate threats at least.

Standing up in a relaxed manner, he stretched until he felt his back and shoulders pop satisfactorily, releasing a contented sigh.

Merlin, world-traveling is so tiresome. The body is always tense upon arriving.

Rolling his shoulders experimentally, he was surprised to feel the usual lethargy fade away as if it never was. It was a little too fast for it to be normal, considering previous travels always took from two to five days.

Maybe this world’s gravity was lighter? Although there was quite a huge amount of magic in this world as well; Harry could feel it practically oozing from the ground… the latter was probably the reason he had recovered so soon. He could feel his magical core latching at the magic on his environment, making up for the loss the travel to a new World always caused.

Mentally shrugging, he made a mental note to experiment with it later and started to walk in a seemingly random direction. First things first, he needed to know what kind of world this was. No matter the amount of magic or magical creatures it held, if this world didn’t have a race intelligent enough to be civilized, he was leaving.

Using sensorial magic, he searched for any living forces within the vicinity, only finding it after half an hour of mindless walking. It was a small group that was situated to the east, where at least ten creatures seemed to be resting, judging by the lack of movement.

Harry should be able to catch up with them in no time.

Once he was closer, Harry could see the party of humanoid creatures. Their equipment varied a lot, even from such a long distance; he could distinguish gear that resembled a cleric, a swordsman, a lancer, an archer, a wizard….

…even from such a long distance?  

Why was his vision better?

On normal circumstances, Harry would have needed to enhance his vision magically in order to be able to at least distinguish their forms as humanoids. But he was capable to see not only their silhouettes but their gears, even the runes and other small details that covered most of them.

How odd.

Harry frowned, closing his eyes as he focused on himself instead of in his surroundings.

His magical core felt… different, much stronger than usual. The magic of this world seemed to be attracted to him as well, since he could feel it surrounding him as if he were perpetually walking around steam. It was only noticeable if he focused on it however.

This world automatically enhanced any magical beings? It had never happened before, so Harry wasn’t sure, but that was his best bet at the moment.

After hesitating for a short moment, he decided to approach them. He needed information from this world, and the group of people over there was his best option right now.

Once Harry was closer to them however, he was forced to jump sideways to avoid a rain of magical arrows. The items impaled the ground mercilessly, just over the spot he had been at.

“Over there!” a male shout was heard, which was immediately followed by another rain of arrows, this time accompanied by harmful spells and long-ranged weapons.

Tsk. Why were they attacking without confirming who he was?

Quickly deciding that they may stop upon seeing his human appearance, Harry ran towards them, not too close to be in their range of attack, but enough to be seen. He could have apparated, but he had felt reluctant about showing his own magic so soon. What if this world didn’t have teleportation magic? He didn’t want to drag attention to himself, not so soon.

Wanting to avoid that, he decided to go the old fashioned way, but was surprised to see he arrived at his intended destination in nothing but seconds. It had been so fast he might as well have apparated.

…Why was he faster than usual? Physical attributes were automatically enhanced by magic as well?

The party of ten was still looking at the direction he had come from, and stayed like that for another few seconds before they all turned at the same time, almost completely synchronized.

“What the—? How did it—?!” the male lancer babbled, before assuming an attack position once more. Harry raised his hands in an unthreateningly manner, but that only caused some of them to shout out random variations of “It’s preparing an attack!” before reassuming the battle.

…Well damn it.

If he had to beat them up before they would be willing to listen, then so be it.

Determining the best way would be to knock them out, he summoned his elder wand and fired a couple of stunning spells in quick succession. It was just a warning, so there was no need to incapacitate all of them—

Immediately after however, Harry froze in shock, at the same time shouts of “Orazeq no!” and “Dian just died!” resounded around him.

What the—?! Why did a stunning spell kill them?!

Even odder, the corpses of the fallen had disappeared in a colorful light immediately after, leaving behind only a random piece of equipment.

“What the hell! This is supposed to be a Level 30 zone!”

“Shitty devs!”

“Retreat! It will wipe us out otherwise!”

“No shit Sherlock!”

A chorus of shouts and bickering followed the unexpected situation. Harry cursed under his breath, before trying to speak once more.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“ Harry started to say, but his words didn’t seem to reach them. The battle resumed once more, but this time Harry simply evaded their attacks, focusing solely on defense.

Their movements felt oddly slow; it was highly unusual considering he was a wizard, not a warrior. He had some practice in close-range battles sure, but he would always be better on those large-ranged, if simply because that was his specialty.

Still, the swords of the warrior and the sharp end of the lance didn’t hit him. It was almost as if the world around him was moving in slow motion. He was thankful for it, since it made evading much easier, so Harry simply added this fact to the mental list of things he would need to investigate later on.

Sighing at the current situation, he mentally cursed at his carelessness.

He had just killed two of their comrades; it was obvious they weren’t going to listen. He should retreat and search for another—

His line of thought was cut abruptly, and for the second time in the last few minutes, he tensed in surprise. Distracted, one of the arrows almost hit him, but he managed to evade it at the last moment.

The people he had accidentally killed, was back!

Without any sign of injury, as if nothing had happened. Their comrades, who had taken the fallen pieces of equipment, simply tossed it to them as if it was a common occurrence, and they quickly placed them on before joining the battle once again.

A thousand theories ran through his head, but all of them pointed at the same direction. Reluctant to believe it, he lost focus on the battle he was participating in, evading only with automatic motions. The only reason he had yet to be hit at this point was due to his, now enhanced for some reason, reflexes.

Could it be that this world… allowed resurrection?

“It’s not attacking! We may be able to defeat it!” cried the one that appeared to be the leader of this group.

“Come on everyone, let’s do the usual!” the female cleric cheered, which was immediately followed by a chorus of “Yeah!” from the rest of the humanoid team.

A few other words were exchanged, but Harry was not hearing them anymore.

A world that allowed resurrection was against Death’s law. So why was this different? Why was this world an exception to this unbreakable rule?

Harry made his resolve, tightening the hold on his wand as he changed his position. The party in front of him seemed to notice this movement, since their attacks stopped abruptly for a moment. It was nothing but a small pause in the battle, but it brought with it a huge change.

Harry’s role as Master of Death would not let him leave without investigating this at depth.

Having reached this conclusion, Harry mentally apologized for what he needed to do, before starting to fight back. He made sure to kill only one at the time, and to receive a few attacks from the remaining nine members so the enemy would not lose their fighting spirit. Harry also made sure to study the battlefield at all times to determine from where the resurrected person was coming from.

Slowly, he redirected the battle towards the direction the resurrection seemed to be taking place at. It took around ten deaths, which meant that all the group had died at least once, but Harry was eventually able to reach the resurrection point.

A bright circle was drawn in the ground, with glowing runes he had never seen before. He witnessed as the lancer appeared directly in it before the man immediately jumped out and resumed the battle. Harry tested it a couple more times, taking out the cleric and the archer, just to see if it applied to the other members as well. Once they appeared on that same circle however, his theory was confirmed, so he determined the experiment had been going on for long enough.

He needed to summon Death and study that mechanism at once. The last thing the universe needed was a world where death was not present.

Mentally apologizing once more, Harry killed them all at the same time, in quick succession. The whole party appeared over the huge runic circle, which had extended automatically in order to accommodate all of them, and Harry immediately wiped the whole team once more.

And again.

And again…

“What the hell!! Why the sudden change—?” the warrior began to say, before disappearing in a bright light as he died once more.

“We were fighting against it just fine one moment ago—“ the lancer shouted in confusion, before following the warrior’s fate.

“Could it be this thing is a Zone Boss?!” the female cleric exclaimed, which made Harry pause for a second before continuing his attack. He had never heard that term before…

“More like a goddamn Raid Boss!”

“What would a Raid Boss be doing in the middle of—“

“This is not a dungeon goddammit—”

“Fucking devs!”

Again and again they appeared, and Harry terminated them just as quickly. He paid attention to their parting words, but the terms they were using were unknown to him.

Curiously, after the 30^th death or so, the whole party did not appear anymore. Instead of ten members, there were only seven left. After another round of death, only five came back, then two, and finally none.

 It made Harry sigh in relief, since the conclusion of this experiment was evident. The resurrection had a limited amount of times it could be used.

It seemed to vary according to the strength of the individual, since those Harry identified as stronger lasted more times than the others, but it seemed permanent death was still possible in this world, it just was harder to reach.

The situation was not nearly as bad then.

Still, the circle with runes had yet to disappear, so Harry couldn’t count it as completely good. It most likely meant that this specific group was not the only one that could resurrect…

Passing a hand through his hair tiredly, he called for his old friend to come. The immortal entity appeared in front of him instantly, this time having chosen to appear as a female, hooded figure, and lasted the whole amount of three seconds before the eternal being started to laugh at him.

…what was so funny?

In the meantime, the defeated players complained about the unfairness of it all in Yggdrasil’s fan-made community, telling to anyone willing to listen how their whole party had been wiped out by a random Raid Boss, which had come absolutely out of nowhere.

 “The damn thing continued to kill us until we had no levels left! I refuse to level up from the beginning all over again, I’m quitting!”

“Me too! Damn thing ruined the game!”

“Fucking devs!”

“LOL there’s no way that’s true”

“You were just PKed massively, eh?”

“It was not a player!”

“Sure bruh, whatever you say”

“Just a strong MOB?”

“No! The zone was for level 30 monsters! That thing WAS NOT!”

“Maybe there is a dungeon nearby and the Raid Boss is unusually guarding the entrance?”

Comments like these could be read all over the website, even more so when, after some time, more parties claimed to have encountered this particularly difficult ‘Raid Boss’ (although some insisted on calling it a ‘Zone-migrating MOB Boss’). As such, as more battles were described, the story inevitably changed over time.

More details were added, describing how this out-of-the-norm ‘Raid Boss’ seemed to actually keep the equipment their avatars dropped upon dying, and how the players that had insisted on fighting to try to get their gear back always ended up dying many times consecutively.

There were also stories of how this Raid Boss didn’t have a pre-defined set of attacks, nor did it seem to follow a pattern. If they didn’t know any better, the players would say that this particular enemy actually adapted to the battlefield, according to the situation at hand.

But that was impossible. No Non-player character could be created to fight that way, there had to be a limit.

The rumors twisted continuously, but at least half of the community agreed that the ‘Raid Boss’ existed, and that it was so strong that if a party weaker than Level 100 fought against him, it would be wiped out without trace.

The Raid Boss, odd as it sounded, seemed specialized on PK. This enemy would secure the resurrection point and wait for his enemies to resurrect… so even after the members of the affected party re-spawned, this dangerous foe was on them again, PKing them again and again. Eventually, this would force the party to disband in order to escape from their repeated harassment.

 These stories eventually reached a particular player. The person in question hummed interestedly, tapping their fingers over the wood of the desk where the screen was placed at.

“It sounds fake but… the rumors say that defeating that Raid Boss unlocks a special feature in the game. It doesn’t have a defined dungeon though, so we would need chase it out… ah, but it may be worth it!”

With that excited phrase, the player nodded with determination, before connecting to let his friends know about these rumors. If anything, he was sure Momonga and Ulbert would agree!

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 Nine's Own Goal

Harry cursed under his breath as he ran away from yet another enemy party.

A whole year had passed since his arrival to this new, odd world, where he had been forced to fight at least twice a week. Seriously, why was everyone so focused on hunting him down? Even worse considering the fact that the battles were now always against relatively strong beings, much more different than the ones he had first encountered.

“We almost got it! [Raigeki]!”the magic caster of the group enchanted. The spell called forth a powerful thunderbolt, which fell from the sky in a concentrated manner, making it look more like a huge laser beam than simple thunder.

Harry had seen this one before. It dealt great damage, but it was meant for only one enemy, and it was relatively easy to evade.

Apparating out of the way, Harry casted [Synchronized attack] over the enemy’s wizard. It forced the victim to repeat their last move two more times consecutively, so Harry would know what was coming, and the enemy would lose magic power with ineffective attacks.

Once that was done he apparated again, this time as an offensive action instead of an evasive one. It had taken some time, but he had finally localized their healer. Harry needed to take that one down first, otherwise the battle would be a long one.

However, once he was just behind the Healer, Harry was immediately intercepted.

“Coming!”

The air split as the female stepped forward and launched at him with a shout, before hitting him directly with an immense hammer, that was big enough to touch the ground even when the carrier was standing.

Where had she come from—?

Ugh, [Perfect Invisibility] was it?!

Although Harry had unconsciously blocked the attack, the terrible impact of the bludgeoning weapon pierced right through him. The air got forcibly out of his lungs, which made Harry cough a couple of times as he was sent flying.  

Still, the damage produced by the impact was negligible, since the physical attack itself had been blocked, but the hammer seemed to possess a [Rejection effect] that had affected his magical defenses, pushing him back.

That being said, the attack had not caused much damage in comparison to others he had endured, so he regained his footing almost immediately.

That attack was only meant to place some distance between Harry and the priest he had meant to take down. Sighing in annoyance, he magically altered his vision in order to see through the female’s invisibility, so he would not be taken by surprise again.

If anything, this party was one of the best he had fought against, being much more coordinated than others he had encountered. In which case… that should be the best way to defeat them quickly.

Moving until he was just in the middle of the battlefield, Harry suddenly stood still, enduring the attack of the warrior and the monk of the enemy party. It hurt, to the point where he had to grind his teeth, and he could tell that the damage they were dealing was a lot higher than the one the female with the hammer had caused, but he needed to be immobile in order to use this spell.

Once he felt his magic had enclosed the desired area, Harry smirked and finally activated his curse, engulfing the whole area with a greenish light.

[Infinity Clock]

It was one of Harry’s favorites to be honest. He learned it around four lives ago, and was simply enchanted by its usefulness.

This spell was able to unleash the terrifying magic called "Real Nightmare", which caused a distortion on the perception of time for people, bringing them madness and creating chaos among the affected population.

As just like that, their perfect synchronized attacks were no more.

The warrior suddenly moved too slow, attacking the place where Harry had used to stand at. The Monk moved way too fast, attacking the places Harry was planning on moving towards to but had not yet. The archer was attacking the spot Harry had been over two minutes ago, just like the wizard. The priest tried to heal their comrades, but didn’t really target anyone since there was no one in the affected area, so it was nothing but a waste of magic. The girl with the hammer was attacking thin air, seemingly defending the priest from an invisible foe.

Wonderful chaos, since the team was fighting the same battle but at different set of times. The warrior, archer and wizard were fighting over past events, while the Monk, Priest and Hammer-girl were fighting on future events.

As such, Harry had the present time all for himself.

It would have been even more effective if they could harm each other, since the forced-repetition of [Raigeki] was actually falling over the members of their own party, but the beings of this world seemed unable to damage affiliates of their own team. Harry had attributed this to some sort of defensive magic, since he had never seen friendly fire happen in any of his previous battles, even when he had placed so much effort in implementing a strategy that would end up in that kind of situation.

Oh well, right at this moment, Harry was free to hunt them down at his leisure.

Even when the members died, his magic was time-based, working over a specific area instead of focusing on the individuals within. Harry had already secured the resurrection point of this area, so it was way too easy to kill them now, since every time they resurrected, they were automatically placed under the spell’s effect once more.

By the time his spell ran out of time, the enemy party had gone down thirty times −losing strength with each time− so they weren’t a threat anymore. Smirking at his imminent victory, he finished them mercilessly again and again, until they could not come back.

Sighing in a satisfied manner, he made sure no one was in the vicinity before allowing his muscles to relax. Merlin, the continuous fights were taking a toll on him…. mentally at least.

Still, Harry couldn’t deny he was getting stronger. Since the battles came rather periodically, it served as training for his magical and physical reflexes. It also gave him brand new equipment with the defeat of yet another enemy party, since they always dropped something at random every time they died.

Studying the items that were now in his possession, Harry equipped some of the wizard’s and priest’s artifacts, while placing the rest on the small bag hanging around his neck, which had an undetectable extension charm on it.

That being done, Harry resumed his way towards the forest, which was his original destination before he had been rudely interrupted by the party of ‘adventurers’ from before.

One more, he only needed one more ingredient and the ritual he was preparing would finally have all the pieces to work properly.

When summoned, Death had been surprisingly vague, only saying that this world didn’t really count as one, but that Harry was free to roam and investigate as much as he liked. When Harry pressured the issue of resurrection, Death had simply shrugged uncaringly, telling him that it was his job to investigate more on the subject.

The bastard.

The only hint his annoying friend had given him was the instructions for this ritual, which should “help him blend in”. Harry didn’t really understand it, but he figured the ritual would put a stop to the ambushes and fights he was forced to deal with on almost every other day.

Finally, his peaceful days would return. Instead of being alert all the time, he would finally be able to relax without fearing for his own safety. He was so close…

Stepping into the forest, he almost felt like exclaiming in relieved happiness when he found the last ingredient just a few yards from the border. Bending down, he picked a good amount of the roots of the tree he had been searching for, before deciding he had gathered enough.

Rising up, he hummed in good humor before apparating away, going towards the place he was using to prepare for the ritual, and the closest thing he had for a “home”.

That place had been very difficult to find, hidden at the depth of an active volcano, Harry would have missed the entrance if not for the large creature that had leashed at him from within.

After defeating the large Fire Salamander, he had ventured inside the tunnels that were past the lava, where he was forced to fight against a great variety of Fire-based creatures.

It took him half a day, but he wiped them out on his own. Upon reaching the end of the tunnels however, Harry had found himself trapped on a large, circular room, which was empty except for a goddamn big ass demon, which surprisingly enough, used ice-themed attacks and summoned minions earth-based. It was almost as if it had prepared to confront people that were only prepared to fight against fire.

Determining the creature was probably the one in charge of the hideout, he had cursed at the heavens before engaging in a fierce battle, knowing fully well that victory would be anything but easy.

He had been, after all, tired from fighting all the way into the tunnels, both physically and mentally, and his magic had been weak from overuse. Harry would have been mercilessly killed if he had not taken Pepper-up potions to regain some of his magic during the battle.

Taking so many potions in such a short period of time had negative effects, but it had been worth it in the end. As such, after a long battle, Harry ended up winning by a frog’s hair.

A weird parchment had slowly descended from the ceiling then, landing just at his side. Harry had been lying down, having collapsed in complete exhaustion, but still forced himself to take the paper and read it.

"Congratulations! For the conquest of the Inferno Volcano, you have obtained the property rights of the Guild Base: Inferno Volcano. "

So this parchment was… a property title? It came with a set of instructions about “The total amount of NPC levels” he could use, along with a bonus for “conquering it on the first try” among other concepts he didn’t really understand.

He had tossed the parchment weakly at a random direction, not really caring since at that moment, all he had wanted to do was to rest.

But Harry knew the world didn’t work like that, so he had only sighed when another parchment flew towards him. It was probably due to his exhaustion, but the shiny parchment had seemingly fallen at an almost unbearably slow speed.

Unable to wait any longer, Harry had extended his hand, irritably grasping the second parchment from mid-air. Unrolling the empty scroll — why bother with one if it didn’t say anything? How bloody idiotic — a voice had immediately spoken to him:

"Congratulations! By completing a dungeon with a recommended level of 80+ on the first try, and with a party of less than 8 members, you have received the World Class item, [Strike of the Monarch]!”

An elaborated staff had fallen slowly, dramatically just like the parchment had, but Harry hadn’t been conscious enough to see it descend. He only examined the item once he woke up once more, around a week later, and by then he had already forgotten the words “World Class Item” had been uttered.

As such, he saw it as a peculiarly strong weapon, but had yet to test it out.

Harry had no way of knowing that, in the game of Yggdrasil, a solo-player was not supposed to be able to conquer a Dungeon by himself. There were no rules, neither a set of instructions that forbid such a thing from happening, but the dungeons were designed so not even a Level 100 Player could finish them on their own.

As such, Harry was the only case in the whole nine Worlds where a single player was deemed owner of what was supposed to be a Guild Base.

Blissfully ignorant of this, Harry finally arrived to his “home”.

Landing in the circular, large room that had witnessed the last battle Harry had fought within the dungeon, he prepared the last stages of the ritual he was about to perform. Although he didn’t really understand the objective behind this, he knew Death’s hint was not a mocking one, so he crossed his fingers and whished for it to work.

He wanted to roam around without having to fight every other day…. and maybe this way, Harry would actually be able to communicate with others.

It had taken him around a month to accept it as truth, but Harry was currently unable to communicate with others. No matter how many times he tried or with whom, since all heteromorphs, humans, and demi-humans (which he deemed as the intelligent species) seemed unable to understand him.

Please let this work.

After placing the last ingredient over a specific set of runic symbols, he apparated to the center of the huge ritual and started to imbed it with his magic, chanting out loud in a hopeful manner.

Please let this work.

That was the only thing he could think of, under these circumstances. There was no way he would be able to learn more about this world if his speech continued to be blocked… that, and he was seemingly everyone’s enemy, so he wanted to change that as well.

He stood perfectly still, until the ritual gathered enough of his magic to function on its own, and Harry could feel his body tingling with… something. The magic he had just lost due to the ritual unexpectedly came back to him, although it seemed to be slightly altered, it wasn’t harmful or painful in the slightest.

It was over faster than he thought possible.

…that was it? Was it normal for it to be over this soon?

Harry closed his eyes and focused on himself to try to determine if anything had changed, but he couldn’t perceive a thing. To him, there were no noticeable differences at all.

Had it failed then? What had he missed?

Harry worried over it for a short moment, before forcefully dispelling his negative thoughts. Just because he couldn’t perceive it, didn’t mean that nothing had changed. Instead of coming up with theories he should go out and try it for real.

With that in mind, Harry apparated to a place he normally avoided, since he had noticed many ‘adventurers’ gathered in there. He had heard passing conversations about it, it was usually denominated as ‘Hunting zone’ that they used to ‘level up’. Harry simply considered it like training grounds for the groups of beings he usually fought against.

Harry didn’t apparate directly into it, since that would be asking for trouble if the ritual really hadn’t worked, so he simply went to a place close-by.  Upon arriving, he made sure to be invisible, silent and odorless before finally starting to walk towards the forest-like training ground.

Soon enough, he encountered a group of humans fighting against what appeared to be a pink slime. Nothing new, considering this world seemed to be discriminatory, so this was not the first time Harry saw a group of human adventurers hunt down demi-human and heteromorphic races.

But different from other times, this seemed to be an ambush for the human adventurers.

Out of nowhere, a rain of magical arrows came from the sky and towards the human group. Harry looked up; trying to find the archer based from the angle the arrows came from, and finally found it flying at quite the distance. The source resulted to be a four-winged birdman that was so far away Harry could only see his silhouette. The birdman must have had incredible eyesight, since the arrows went directly towards the human party and away from the pink slime, but still the humans managed to repel most of them.

Then again, that seemed to be only a distraction, as the human group was immediately after attacked by three figures specialized in close combat.

A nephilim samurai (at least at first glance judging by its equipment), some sort of ninja whose race Harry couldn’t discern at first glance, and an insectoid warrior wearing a pure sliver armor and a red cape.

After them were also powerful undead creatures coming as support, which Harry guessed had been summoned by the skeleton mage — an Overlord— that was at a safe distance from the ambush-zone.

It was an interesting fight.

Instead of approaching as he had originally intended, he sat down at the edge of the rift. At this distance, and with the spells he had on, not even the archer should be able to spot him.

Harry watched with interested eyes as the whole human group perished, the heteromorphic beings claiming with happiness the fallen pieces of equipment their enemy had left behind.

Harry had been hunted down by all races, either human or not-human, so he wasn’t sure if he should test the ritual’s result with them or not. It probably would be better to test it with a smaller party, just in case it went wrong.

In the end however, he didn’t have the chance to decide.

He heard steps coming from behind him; along with a killing intent so strong he could almost see it as something physical in the air.

Instinctually, he apparated away from the rift’s border, which was impaled almost immediately after.

“Shit, he noticed!” a male human assassin cursed, taking back his thin sword and moving away from the rift and towards the surrounding trees, hiding among the bushes once more.

Harry was surprised to hear he was referred to as a “He”, since normally all adventurers talked about him as an “it”.

Now was not the time to think about that however.

Harry was supposed to be invisible, so for the assassin to have spotted him… maybe the other was actually a Master Assassin?

Harry moved sideways when he sensed something coming at him, a couple of daggers slashing mercilessly at the tree that had been at his back just one second ago. Harry jumped backwards, trying to put some distance between the new enemy —a petite female human whose job class he guessed was ranger— and himself, but was instead intercepted by the assassin once more.

Annoyed at being attacked without reason again, he repelled the thin sword of the assassin with his own weapon, a lance that also served as a magical staff of sorts. Since his weapon served a double function, it wasn’t particularly strong in neither of them, but since Harry also used his Elder Wand he didn’t see much loss on it.

Apparating away once the Ranger of the group came towards him as well, he appeared on the sky. He couldn’t see much other than trees while on the land, so going away to a random part of the forest would have been troublesome.  That was the reason he was now falling from the sky as if he were parachuting.

Taking advantage of the view, he used his high senses to determine how large the enemy party was this time around.

It’s a group of… only three people? Why are there so few of them?

Harry supposed he had gained a reputation after some time, because the groups that usually attacked him usually went from twelve and up to thirty people, and they always were strong.

So why were there so few now?

A Ranger, a Master Assassin and a Sniper. It wasn’t even a well-balanced party.

“Where did he go to? Come out! I need some points goddammit!” the female ranger said out loud, turning around as she searched for Harry.

“Two more PKs and I will be able to change classes!” the master assassin exclaimed, seemingly happy about it.

“Over there!”

The Ranger pointed upwards at him, and the sniper immediately readied his weapon and shot. Harry twisted in the air while calling forth a magical shield, which managed to reflect the bullets coming at his direction.

Against such a small group, maintaining the invisibility was only weighing down on his magical core. Taking off all the hiding measures he had implemented, he summoned the elder wand and prepared his counterattack.

He should take down the sniper first, then the master assassin—

But someone beat him to it.

The Insectoid Warrior— no, now that he could see it up close, wasn’t it a paladin? — The Insectoid Paladin he had seen before ran in the forest with incredible speed, slashing at the hidden Sniper with consecutive movements, in such a way that tracking the sword’s path became almost impossible, even to Harry.

The Sniper, not prepared for close combat, was unable to fight back much and ended up dying quite easily.  The other two couldn’t do much to prevent it, having been forced to run through the forest to avoid the magical arrows that were suddenly falling over them.

Harry landed over a particularly wide branch of a tall tree, so he could see the unexpected fight develop from a higher position.

The two humans that remained fell right into an immobilizing trap, a set of bone-ribs coming out from the ground and impaling right into them. It didn’t seem to be effective for long, but it had been enough time for the Ninja to close up the gap.

And just like that, the Master Assassin and the Ranger met their end.

“We did it ~!” the pink slime he had seen before exclaimed with an overly sweet, playful voice as if she were a small child, which didn’t fit with her appearance at all. She was moving towards the base of the tree where Harry was currently at, so he still had an aerial view as all the heteromorphic beings came closer as well.

“Heh, you didn’t do anything tho?” the four-winged birdman said upon landing, a few feet away from the slime.

“What is my stupid brother saying? I didn’t hear, repeat it louder this time,” the sweet voice was immediately replaced by a very menacing one. More than that however, Harry was surprised to hear the word ‘brother’.

“N-no, I didn’t say anything,” the birdman hurriedly said, stepping back defensively.

“You should know better than to say that Peroroncino,” the ninja said mockingly upon arriving, which was so fast he might as well have materialized.

“Calm down, we shouldn’t be fighting right now,” the overlord said with a hand-motion, as if he could dispel the playful animosity with his boney hands alone.

As if on cue, the Nephilim warrior and the Insectoid Paladin arrived to the group as well.

“Are you alright?” the Paladin said energetically. Harry couldn’t see any expression on the insectoid, but for some reason he imagined it to be making a happy, smiling face.

Feeling hopeful, Harry answered with a grateful smile.

“I’m fine, thank you for your help.”

“No need, saving someone who is in trouble is common sense!” the insectoid said while taking a pose, which made his fellow friends groan. For a moment, Harry could have sworn he had seen the words ‘Justice has arrived’ shine from behind the Paladin, but it was gone in the blink of an eye.

Ignoring that oddity, Harry mentally celebrated. He had interacted with someone! They could hear him!

Harry felt so overjoyed he couldn’t help but laugh in relief, muttering “Thank you! Really thank you!” as he came down from the tree. After a year of pretty much complete isolation, it was liberating to see that his efforts paid off.

The heteromorphic beings seemed to share a glance, before the overlord asked “Could it be that… you are hunted often?”

They seemed to have misinterpreted his joyful, relieved laugh, but he answered nonetheless.

“All the time. I can’t do much without having to fight off this or that group… it’s really frustrating.”

“Well, being alone and heteromorph, it’s kinda like asking for it,” the birdman Peroroncino said simply, before rapidly moving away from his ‘sister’. Harry got the impression that the pink slime was glaring at the birdman, which was impossible since she didn’t have any eyes.

Harry was aware that in this world, he was considered to belong to the “Heteromorphic” race rather than the human one, since he was deemed to be a Homunculus. He supposed that, since he was immortal, the world had categorized him as being an artificial human instead of completely human.

“Being alone is like asking for an attack? Why?” Harry asked simply, which brought back the attention of the whole group towards him.

“What do you mean ‘why’? You’re kidding right?” the ninja asked incredulously, posture shifting in apparent disbelief.

“Everyone knows that there’s no penalty for humans killing heteromorphs and demi-humans. Besides, there are also a large number of classes that require players to PK a certain number of heteromorphic beings to obtain them. Hunting us it’s almost sport at this point,” the overlord said as if speaking from experience, with a tired sigh.

“Shitty devs,” Peroroncino muttered lightly, before adding “Although it’s just common knowledge.”

“Have you never joined a clan? or a Guild?” the Nephilim asked surprisingly kindly, although the disbelief was evident on his voice as well.

“Not really… I’ve never been with a group before,” Harry said honestly, which made the Ninja whisper “How the hell did he survive until now?” to the birdman, who answered back with “Beginner’s luck?”

Was it really that weird for him to roam alone?

“Well, would you like to accompany us? We were planning on going to a dungeon, but our clan is only of 15 people right now so we need to gather a few more,” the Paladin said in welcome, which made the Pink Slime nod enthusiastically.

“Come with us~ Come!” she switched back to her childish voice.

Logically, there was no better way to gather information than with a group, so Harry smiled and nodded at them.

“Of course, thank you. My name is Harry, very nice to meet you.”

The others seemed taken aback for a moment, before the pink slime said “You’re so formal! Even when your name is hanging over your head,” — his name was what? — “I’m Bukubukuchagama-chan, very nice to meet ya’~”

The others seemed to shrug it off and presented themselves out loud as well, but Harry was still confused.

Why would his name be displayed over his head?

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 Ainz Ooal Gown

Immortal entity or not, Harry was absolutely killing Death once he saw them again.

A game, Harry was living in a bloody fictional world and they knew it!  Considering the unusual terms the adventurers had used and the resurrection, now that he thought about it, it made sense for this to be a videogame… but still, why would Harry be able to land over such a world in the first place?

It didn’t make any sense, no matter how much he thought on the subject. Oddly enough, Death seemed to honestly not know the answer either.

Not that it mattered much however. Now that he could actually speak with others, living in this world wasn’t so bad. He didn’t know how exactly it happened, but Harry had ended up joining the clan of Nine's Own Goal, which was now composed of 28 members. It was still a small group, but they were able to fight amazingly well all things considered, normally winning even when the other party had a numeric or field advantage.

It was rare for all members to be reunited however, since all of them worked in real life, Harry was usually alone most of the mornings and early evenings. Harry had justified his perpetual presence saying that he had a working schedule more flexible than others, since no matter at which time, his name always appeared as ‘connected’.

They had joked on how Harry practically lived in Yggdrasil now, to which he had snorted and smiled thinly.

If only you knew.

As such, he ended up passing away his mornings in the place he now recognized had been a dungeon, Inferno Volcano. This was still Harry’s refugee for things such like Potion-making and item-testing, as well as his investigation notes regarding runes and magical creatures from this world.

Harry had felt tempted to offer it as a base for the clan he had joined, but had decided against it since he still needed the hideout. That, and he couldn’t exactly tell them that he had conquered it all on his own. Not even Touch Me, who was a World Champion, was capable of defeating a whole Dungeon by himself. It simply wasn’t supposed to be possible.

So he had kept the base to himself, merely because he still needed it, and the alternative was way too bothersome.

Dispelling the annoying thoughts, Harry came back to the present and hurried to finish his solo-hunting, since a reunion was supposed to take place soon. As always however, killing off monsters was not difficult at all.  He would very much rather go against something more powerful, like dragons or Raid Bosses, but those were not easy to find. It was odd how he had complained about being ambushed so periodically, only to miss the good fights a few months later once they became less common.

A soft sound interrupted his thoughts, before he heard Touch Me’s voice in his head. By this time, he was already used to the [Message] function, although Harry would never be able to understand what the others meant by ‘controls’ or ‘visual screens’.

“Are you coming? I think everyone is going to gather for this one!” the World Champion exclaimed enthusiastically. Harry shared the sentiment; it had been too long since all of them had been reunited.

“I’m already on my way,” he answered smiling before using [Greater Teleportation] to go back to the Clan’s base.

Harry always made sure not to use any magic that wasn’t from Yggdrasil when he was with or near the clan. He didn’t know what would happen if they asked him what spell he was using otherwise.

Harry shivered upon remembering how Ulbert had asked him once about one of his Runic spells. Harry had fallen silent, internally panicking until Momonga came with urgent news, which made the other forget about his original question.

That had been way too close. He never risked it again after that particular time.

Arriving at the base, he hurried to go to the room they used to hold their meetings.

"—well, just like my brother said. Touch-san, what will we do after today's meeting? " the childish voice of the pink slime was the first thing he heard the moment Harry opened the door.

"Now that I think about it, it's about time. Everyone ... oh, this is very good. They are all here," Touch Me said upon noticing him, making a hand motion to invite him in.

Surprisingly enough, it seemed that the other 27 members, heteromorphic beings of all kinds, were already present in the room as well.

"So, my apologies for interrupting your fun, but since we're all here, we should be able to start. All right, guys, the meeting is about to begin,” Touch Me said as the leader of the clan, standing up from his seat. Everyone else settled around the table, one by one, looking for a place they liked and sat down.

"Then, we will begin the meeting. I have some things that I would like to discuss with you later, so I hope everyone can give me some time. But first, has anyone discovered anything this week? Does anyone have anything to share? "

Most of the table turned to look at Harry. Since he was the one that spent more time in this place, it was common for him to share a few things he discovered from time to time.

This time around however, Harry simply shook his head negatively. He couldn’t exactly tell them that he had finally found the difference between the Shining mushroom and the Lightening mushroom in potions, could he? He wasn’t supposed to be an alchemist, after all.

Upon noting Harry’s silence, Touch Me was about to continue speaking, but was interrupted by another member.

"Yes,” said Nishiki Enrai, the ninja Harry had met when he first got in touch with this clan

"Nishiki-san. Something happened?"

"That's right, Touch-san. It’s a truly amazing discovery,” Nishiki made a dramatic pause, letting expectant tension accumulate within the room before finally continuing, “I have discovered an unexplored dungeon."

The curiosity was quickly replaced by joyful surprise, and many of the members of the clan made sounds of astonishment even greater. Everyone asked Nishiki questions, while Harry simply grinned in excitement.

This ‘game’, which Harry had been thinking about as a ‘universe’ of its own, was composed of nine separate worlds. Each of them was ridiculously huge, and there were many places that were hard to explore. For example, there were giant swamps, green expanses of tropical forest, scorching deserts, and the like. One needed special equipment to enter the dungeons of those places, as well as an appropriate strategy.

But it was all worth it, since these hard-to-find dungeons contained monsters that dropped precious data crystals. Anyone would be excited to find a dungeon so far unexplored, since it was the equivalent of finding a gold mine.

Harry was excited at the prospect of a difficult battle more than about the treasures they could find, but didn’t say anything out loud. There was enough noise in the room as the other members of the clan interrogated Nishiki after all.

"Where exactly did you find it?"

The one who had asked the question on behalf of the unbelieving clan members was not the clan leader, Touch Me, but the man who had taken a goat-headed demon as his avatar, Ulbert Alain Odle.

He belonged to the class called World Disaster. From what he had explained to Harry, that class was supposed to be limited, so only a small number of people could take it. This was due to it having the requirement to kill its former owner.

It was a class that specialized in magic of destruction, and he was the man with the greatest firepower in the clan, including Harry since he limited himself to using Yggdrasil-spells only.

"Do you know the huge poisonous swamp in the swamps of Helheim?" Nishiki said in a voice that sounded like he was grinning, even if his facial expression couldn’t change.

"You mean the giant camp of poison-resistant Tuvegs? Is that poisonous swamp? " Peroroncino asked with surprise, which made the other nod in satisfaction.

"Indeed. I found it in the swamps there. "

"…but how did you do it? Many people made aerial reconnaissance, but none of them reported anything about a dungeon. I've seen their recordings, and they were not lying," Tabula Smaragdina said skeptically, tentacles curling and uncurling seemingly at random.

"We aren’t doubting you," the man who continued was Punitto Moe, which was a plant-type heteromorph known as Death Vine. "When the Tuvegs spot intruders, they shout and alert the entire tribe. Therefore, they are annoying opponents; it can’t be easy to remain hidden until you reach the dungeon."

Indeed. Harry had been tempted to go, since the place was considered to be difficult if going solo, but in the end he had postponed it since his investigation over potion ingredients had started to improve.

"Ah, it's in the depths of the swamps. I found it while looking for something else, so I can’t say how far it is in a straight line,” the ninja answered with a careless shrug.

"…Did someone here accompany Nishiki-san?"

Everyone shook their heads when they heard Punitto Moe's question.

"So, you commanded a huge group of mercenary NPCs in that place? No, if you took them with you they would be discovered and overwhelmed by numbers. It’s too difficult, and that’s why other people have only investigated the area from air. So, how did you find it, Nishiki-san? "

Punitto Moe gently touched his temple with a vine that looked like a finger, as if pensive, which made the Ninja answer with a prideful voice.

"Detective-san, you made a fatal mistake," the masked ninja declared with a smile, or at least that’s how it sounded, "The only thing necessary is to sneak up on a Tuveg and free it from the weight of its head in a single swoop. That way they will not alert their friends too. "

Punitto Moe seemed to be speechless. Harry nodded in silent agreement, recognizing that such a feat was difficult even for him considering they were talking about a swamp that limited movements, reducing the speed considerably. Harry would probably have used a silencing spell over the whole area, had he had the time to actually go.

"For me it's a child's game to kill someone from behind in a single strike. That's how I went into the depths of the swamp. Although there were some worm-like monsters that used vibrations to navigate, I'm pretty sure I can go unnoticed by their detection ability. "

"... Nishiki-san, something has been bothering me. To be able to do all that, even for a ninja ... how did you build your character to be able to achieve all these weird things? “Punitto Moe said this stunned, and Nishiki Enrai replied laughing.

"Oh, don’t you know? It's a simple stealth attack. There is a damage multiplier for hitting people in the back.” Harry nodded in agreement. That was one of the reasons he used to apparate behind the players that attacked him; it was easier to kill them that way.

“My defense is trash and I would die if they discovered me, but I love that emotion. I have always liked the characters of the type 'crystal cannon' and high speed. You could say it's my dream construction," the ninja pridefuly finished his explanation.

Before the conversation could get even more off topic, Touch Me clapped several times and said "Very good, very good, but we have deviated from the subject. Nishiki-san, tell us about that dungeon."

"Ahh, yes Touch-san, I apologize. Then, there is an island in the depths of the poisonous swamp, or rather, there is a base in that place, and in the middle is the entrance to the dungeon. "

Nishiki Enrai said that it was called The Great Tomb of Nazarick.

"…Why has nobody discovered it before with an aerial reconnaissance?"

In response to the question, Punitto Moe replied "I think it's a dungeon that can only be discovered under special conditions."

Some dungeons could only be discovered under certain circumstances. For example, the entrance to a dungeon in a field of flowers in the depths of a forest, could only be seen under the light of the full moon. Another example was the Frozen City in Niflheim, which could only be entered in the middle of a snowstorm.

Harry’s own dungeon was passing the Volcano’s lava, so he silently agreed with Punitto Moe.

"Maybe the Great Tomb of Nazarick is only shown to people who have crossed the swamp on foot? Or maybe it's only visible at a certain altitude, " Tabula added, which made the other members nod in acceptance.

"Then, I have a suggestion. Why don’t we go there after finishing this? “Nishiki continued excitedly, which made the whole clan murmur to each other indecisively.

Since it hadn’t been explored, there was no way of knowing what dangers were waiting in it. It could be a very difficult dungeon, which could end with the extermination of most of the group. Yggdrasil dungeons were not the type that indicated the level required for the players either, that was something they would need to discover at trial and error.

"It's interesting, don’t you think? This is an unexplored dungeon, so we should try it despite the level of difficulty, “Harry commented excitedly, wanting to go if not the same afternoon, at least soon.

"I also agree. If the dungeon is dangerous, it will also offer a great reward once we complete it. I want to take advantage of our discovery and try to get the reward for defeating the monsters inside. We should go and get information on how to complete it before other people discover it,“ Ulbert added, which made a few others agree.

"Apparently this has the support of the majority. Then, we will go to that dungeon after the meeting. After all, it is quite strange that we are all gathered at the same time. "

Shouts of approval echoed in response to Touch Me’s decision. Although there were a few who opposed, in the end they were moved by the passion of the other excited people.

"So, is there something else that anyone wants to share?" There was no answer to Touch Me's question, so he nodded and continued "All right. Then, although this is not the end yet, I would like to say something. "

The Paladin looked around the table, and then dropped a nuclear bomb.

"First of all, I want to dissolve this clan."

For a moment, everyone was silent.

Then, the room was consumed by confusion and panic. Momonga's cry, along with the others that had been with the clan since the very beginning, seemed to come from the very depths of their hearts. Harry felt suddenly lost, why would he disband them now? Weren’t they going to go conquer a dungeon together?

Although it was true that this clan had very few members, and that it had been founded by Touch Me, the clan had reached where it was now by the efforts of all present. Shouldn’t he have mentioned something sooner before announcing a conclusion?

Touch Me lifted his hand, apparently to add something else, but then a voice broke through the chaos.

"That person left because you're a selfish bastard."

The air froze. Harry mentally cringed, knowing fully well where this was going to.

The one who had spoken was Ulbert. His previous courtesy had disappeared; bringing up old resentments. His words were felt, since the person Ulbert was closest to had left the game, which was something the man could never forgive.

Even when the ‘Players’ could not show facial expressions, Harry would swear Ulbert's face seemed to be twisted by rage.

"You son of a bitch—"

"Ulbert-san, you've said too much," Momonga interrupted the Goat Demon. Ulbert turned to look at Momonga, but there was no enmity in his eyes. The demon’s shoulders rose and fell, as if he were breathing deeply, and then, after suffocating the flames of his anger, he spoke again in a quiet voice that seemed to seek approval.

"Momonga-san... You're right. However, don’t you think he is being selfish? First he made that person leave, and now this. If this is how it’s going to be, shouldn’t he have dissolved the clan earlier? "

Harry didn’t know much, other than what Ulbert had told him, so he only knew that when the clan had been founded, there was a great disagreement that led a person to leave the game. The matter had left a big scar in the demon’s heart, considering how close they had been.

"I understand perfectly how you feel Ulbert-san, and I was very surprised when that person left the game... This might not sound very good, but I knew that person before you. However, I think it would be better if we heard Touch-san first. What do you think, Touch-san? Could we hear everything you have to say?" Always the mediator, Momonga controlled the situation impeccably.

"Thank you, Momonga-san. Ah, sorry for alarming you all with my poor choice of words. I have been thinking for a while, since our numbers have increased, that the name of our clan is no longer appropriate. Therefore, I plan to dissolve the clan and found it again as an official Guild."

Sighs and exclamations of relief could be heard throughout the room, and Ulbert could be heard muttering, "Then, he should have just said that." Touch Me saw this as the time to raise his voice once more.

"... Is there any objection to disbanding this clan and founding it again as a Guild?"

There were none. That was to be expected, after all, becoming a Guild was more advantageous than being a clan, so even Harry was looking forward to it.

Touch Me nodded and cleared his throat, before continuing with "Well, this time, I will have to refuse the position of leader of the clan— no, of Guild master. I feel bad saying something like this even before being elected, but I hope everyone will take it into account. "

The clan members looked at each other in silence, not knowing what to say.

"So, who will be the next leader — the next guild master? Is there someone who wants the role, or who wants to recommend someone else for that role?" Warrior Takemikazuchi, the Samurai Nephilim that Harry had met back then, asked out loud.

Touch Me looked around briefly, before gently extending a hand towards a particular person.

"Personally, I would like to recommend Momonga-san."

"Gehhh!" Momonga made a strange, strangling noise, before hurriedly looking around as if searching for help. Harry smirked, commenting with those seated at his sides “It should be fine if it’s Momonga,” and watching gleefully as the good whispers spread all over the table.

A mix of “Not Bad” and “We can trust him” variations could be heard from all the members. There was not a single voice in disagreement. Having noticed this, Momonga seemed to send Harry a betrayed look before rushing to say:

“Hey, are you serious?! Do you really think I can do it?! "

In response to Momonga's exclamation, Touch Me made a magnificent evasive.

"Well, I've revealed this to you so suddenly and without getting approval from Momonga-san, so is there anyone else you'd like to recommend? Is there someone who wants to volunteer? "

No one answered Touch Me questions. Rather, everyone seemed to be watching Momonga expectantly.

"Hey, hey, come on, give me a break. Seriously, give me a break, Touch-san. All this is too sudden; won’t there be someone upset about it? These things can’t be decided so quickly. Give me some time." It was precisely because Momonga had that kind of attitude, which always took everyone in consideration, that Harry thought him fit to be the leader. The other members gathered to have a fun time, since this was a ‘Game’, so Harry’s realism wouldn’t fit in the slightest. The consequences were very real for him, after all.

In the end however, the person who responded to Momonga's protests was Ulbert.

"I don’t think so. Personally, I feel that Momonga-san is an excellent candidate. He connects regularly, is meticulous, and has no strange habits. Also, he is a neutral party without preferences for anyone,“ Ulbert said approvingly, which generated acceptance noises from everyone around him.

"No, wait, wait a minute! Ulbert-san! I'm not sure I can manage everyone as extraordinarily as Touch-san. Wouldn’t someone else be better for this? "

"Everyone here supports you in that regard. There is no one in this clan who will deny you help, Momonga-san. "

Touch Me kept repeating, "It's okay, it's okay” and Momonga continued to comment on how he didn’t feel like he would be the best choice, but the rest of the members kept on recommending him.

Indecisively, Momonga ended up rising from his seat and said “I get it. If there is no one else, then I will assume the role ... Of course, that is, if everyone is willing to help me.” Momonga looked slowly around the table, as if still expecting someone to oppose, and only once everyone expressed their support did the Overlord fully accept it.

"So ... although I am not very reliable and could cause you problems, I will take the position of Leader of the Guild. Let's work together in the future." Momonga bowed to a thunderous, welcoming applause, before insecurely saying “Then, as the future Leader of the Guild, I should start to work. What about the name of our guild? Should I think of one?”

The excited air was immediately filled with nervous ruckus after Momonga's suggestion. That was because, as many virtues as that man had, naming things was not one of them.

"No, it's not necessary, don’t worry about that, I think—" Bukubukuchagama hurried to say, and although she tried to hide it, she sounded quite scared.

"...I would like to know, just to test the terrain, as a hypothesis, for comparison... what kind of name would you choose for the guild, Momonga-san?" Peroroncino said sounding almost as reluctant as his sister.

"How about Heteromorphic Zoo?" Momonga said honestly, which made most of the members cringe, Harry included.

Hell no.

"Heteromorphic Zoo, eh. It's surprisingly good, and it fits with our image. It's just ... well, it makes us sound like nothing, " Peroroncino said, trying to express his disagreement kindly.

"It sounds a little exotic, but it's not bad ... er, but…” Punitto Moe started, trailing off without really completing his sentence.

"I kinda like it though; it has a nice sense of evil in it," Ulbert said with a shrug, which made the others look incredulously at him.

"Personally I think it makes us sound like trash Mobs, so I don’t like it. Oh, I'm sorry, Momonga-san," Yamaiko was muttering among the group of people arguing nearby.

"Still, I feel it's a waste to completely abandon the current name of our clan. It would be nice if we could choose a new name that had some relation to the old one" Bukubukuchagama added, which was met with a chorus of approval, including Momonga’s.

"Nine's Own Goal. Nine suicidal people? Is there anything related to this? "

The Nefilim Warrior Takemikazuchi didn’t immediately take part in the dialogue. Instead, he plunged into his thoughts, scribbling some things before speaking.

"If we want to use the sound ... what do you think of Ainz? Nine's begins with the letter N, and in Hiragana, N is the final letter. So if we use an A, which is the initial letter, to replace the N, we get Ainz. "

"Not bad. So it represents the end of our current clan, and a new beginning in the form of 'Ainz'? "

"It feels somewhat forced, but it's definitely the best suggestion so far... How about we leave it at Ainz?"

Well, it was better than Momonga’s proposal.

"Both are fine, right? It’s not a big problem. Instead of thinking about that, we should look for ways to use ‘Own’ and ‘Goal’. "

"If we agree with that," Punitto Moe began. "How about Ooal Gown? Let Own Goal become Ooal Gown. "

"Ohh! It's perfect... hm? There is an extra O, where did it come from? Without it, would it be Gwn? Ainz Ooal Gwn?"

"Well, you don’t always have the opportunity to play with anagrams."

The debate continued coming back and forth, but in the end there were no more suggestions.

"Then, we will combine the suggestions of Takemikazuchi-san and Punitto Moe-san to form the name of the new guild. Does anyone disagree? " Momonga asked after a while.

"Nop ~"the pink slime said sweetly, which was seconded by everyone else.

"Then, the name of our new guild is Heteromorphic Zoo!" Momonga said playfully, raising both arms energetically.

In that instant, the sounds of laughter and jokes resounded in the room. Momonga showed both palms to indicate that he understood, and then coughed fakely.

"Well, it was a silly joke. So, do we decide on Ainz Ooal Gown?" Momonga asked once more, and the members of the clan agreed in one voice.

"Then, I'm going to dissolve the clan," Touch Me said, raising his hand to click on a screen only he could see. A dark and dismal music came from his place not too long after, as he sent the request to all members.

Harry didn’t have a console, nor could he see or interact with any screens. To him, it was more like a mental command, as if someone had asked him if he accepted the dissolution of the clan and he had answered affirmatively in his mind.

After a minute of tragic music, the message of the dissolution of the clan appeared as if it were a hologram over everyone’s heads, informing them that it had been completed.

At that moment, a brief burst of fanfares resounded.

"Everybody! I’ve already created the guild. Next, I'll send the invitations. Be alert."

In a similar manner, Harry mentally agreed to join the Guild of Ainz Ooal Gown. A bell rang continuously from Momonga’s seat as the number of guild members continued to increase, until finally all the members of Nine's Own Goal were now in Ainz Ooal Gown.

Therefore, the clan of the past had vanished, and a new guild was born.

"So, for our first guild activity like Ainz Ooal Gown, I plan to conquer that dungeon in the swamp that Nishiki-san just found. However...” Momonga hesitated briefly, before taking a deep breath and continuing with "Please listen to me. I was hoping to complete the unexplored dungeon of the swamp in a single attempt. "

That statement brought commotion, which was only to be expected. The unexplored dungeons had unknown monsters waiting on them, and there was no indication as to the traps that would be present. Therefore, they usually had to mount multiple attacks to a dungeon to discover all of this.

Usually, a dungeon could not be completed without using this method.

Since Harry limited himself to Yggdrasil spells only, he wasn’t particularly helpful either, so that had been the norm to follow until now.

"That should be impossible. We don’t know the ideal level to complete that dungeon, and trying to complete it blindly will be very difficult, even if it were to be a dungeon that requires a low level. "

The person who had said that was Bellriver, a magical heteromorphic knight who looked like a mass of flesh covered with mouths. Several others — around a third of the Guild — also began to express their opposition, supporting the sensible conclusion of Bellriver.

Harry could understand them, considering the facts he had gathered about what happened when the Players died.

For them, dying meant two types of losses: the first was the loss of XP and a consequent loss of levels, which wasn’t much troublesome since this world allowed them to recover it easily. The problem was the second type of loss, which was the loss of a random equipped item.

Weapons and armor in Yggdrasil were made by inserting data crystals into an item, which took much time and effort to complete. Very few people could remain calm after losing a personalized piece of equipment.

If the expedition to a dungeon was very difficult, one could lose one or more pieces of equipment. Because of this, people were usually equipped with second-class items, the kind they wouldn’t mind losing.

However, players couldn’t complete a dungeon on the first attempt with second-rate stuff, so they would have to use their best items. Additionally, the developers designed the game so that the most valuable pieces of equipment fell first, which meant that the chances of an item that was integral to a player's strategy falling first was significantly high.

That was at least, what Harry had gathered from his friend’s rants.

Just when the discomfort was about to spread to the other two thirds of the union, someone finally spoke up.

"Let's do it. Don’t you think it will be fun? "said Warrior Takemikazuchi with obvious excitement “Well, I'm not going to say that Touch-san was wrong or that he's a coward, but the raids on the dungeons he planned weren’t very exciting. I still want to take part in this expedition of fools and battle like an idiot. Momonga-san, you're the best. I knew that choosing you as a Guild Leader was the right decision.”

"If we all die, then we will be really stupid," Punitto Moe muttered while crossing his arms, clearly against it. As soon as he finished speaking however, Warrior Takemikazuchi laughed it off.

"It's a game, a game! If the whole group dies, it’s just part of the fun. After all, Nine's Own Goal was a clan founded by fools. Why do you think that name was given to the clan? Didn’t we all do silly things in the past? The humanoids mocked us, while the other heteromorphic players hated us for doing unnecessary things. We only became more respectable after increasing our numbers. And I'll say it again, Touch Me didn’t make any mistakes, but... I still want to fool around again. "

In the silence, one of the people that had originally founded Nine's Own Goal clan, Ancient One, also spoke.

"... I agree with the feelings of Take-san. Don’t you think it's great? We would start our guild with a bang. After all, wasn’t that foolishness the one that made us get that World Class item in the first place? Just see it like this, this game was made for players to throw themselves into danger. With that in mind, isn’t it a good thing to complete a dungeon on the first try? Let's become a guild that does that kind of thing. "

"And what about the equipment that we will lose? I don’t want to have to depend on cash items..."

"Ah that's true, Bellriver's concern is well founded. After all, the loss of items is a nightmare for us who have been prey of the PKs,” Warrior Takemikazuchi admitted, before looking down towards the katana he held.

Even knowing all that, Harry didn’t feel guilty in the slightest. It was the other player’s fault for trying to kill him after all.

"…Well, I'll be upset if I lose this friend. However, all I need is to create an even stronger sword, right? Since I don’t know everything about this game, I can’t say that the equipment I own is the strongest. The more I learn the better weapon I can create. Don’t you think it would be too sad if we denied the world to ourselves, our enjoyment of the game, for being too afraid of losing them?" Warrior Takemikazuchi finished his explanation, which made Harry nod in agreement.

He had never died in this world, but even if he did and ended up losing one of his items, he wouldn’t really mind. He wasn’t sure that’s what would happen however, did the resurrection points actually apply to him? Or would he follow the process he was already accustomed to?

"I think everyone enjoys the game in their own way, and forcing one's point of view is wrong," Momonga surprisingly interrupted, which made Harry raise an eyebrow at him. Not like the other could see it though, since no facial expressions could be seen by them.

"Uwah, I didn’t think Momonga-san would say that. A comrade shot me in the back!" Warrior Takemikazuchi said with mock hurting, placing a massive hand to his chest as if he had been physically impaled.

After apologizing to Warrior Takemikazuchi, Momonga looked at the members of the guild and said "Frankly speaking, the idea of completing an unknown dungeon on the first attempt is my own stubborn idea. And you are right to ask yourself, 'Is this challenge worth the risk of losing the equipment I created by investing my time and effort?' Bellriver is right. It’s me who is wrong. However, I still believe that we should do it. I feel that the members of our guild are people who would make an idiot their leader, and when that idiot asks them to do something silly, they will laugh and take charge immediately. Can you help me with the nonsense I just said? Please," Momonga lowered his head slightly at the end of that phrase, before falling silent as he waited for their response.

Several seconds later, the first answer arrived, coming from Ulbert.

"Well, since it's an order from my comrade Momonga-san, I'll be happy to help."

"As a Guild Leader, I would put the security first ... but as a player I want to have some fun," Touch Me admitted, nodding in reluctant agreement.

"I was planning to do this from the beginning. I just kept silent because Takemikazuchi said it first," Harry added, nodding approvingly at the Nephilim samurai.

"As a guild member, I have to support the new Leader, you know," The siblings Peroroncino and Bukubukuchagama made their opinion known.

"I'm not sure about this, but since Momonga said that, I'll take part. Although I would like it to be recorded that I opposed it,” was the hesitant answer of Bellriver.

Although his words sounded like an annoyed child, Bellriver's approval started a fire, and those who opposed the idea slowly changed their minds one by one.

"Thank you," Momonga ducked his head, "So, our next goal is to defeat the boss in the depths of this unknown dungeon!"

"Yeah!" The assembled members responded with hot screams, Harry even going as far as rising a fist to the air, excited at the prospect of the oncoming battle.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 The Great Tomb of Nazarick

There were 28 people gathered in the meeting room. In Yggdrasil, the groups were composed of six people, and a Raid band could have a maximum of 5 groups. Judging by the current number of members, there were two open spaces.

Since having two missing people was a big gap in the capabilities of a group, the intention was to fill those places with mercenary NPCs. Still, their AI was not good, and their combat ability was even lower than that of a mediocre character of the same level, so the people leading them needed to have experience in doing so, otherwise they would be hampered once they entered the dungeon.

Considering this, the ones leading the NPCs were Punitto Moe and Tabula’s groups.

Momonga raised his hands and shouted, "I'm sorry for repeating it! Everyone, please listen to me! I intend to assign the groups. As usual they will be grouped into physical attackers, magic attackers, defenders, healers, and others. I also need to assign the explorers—“ Momonga paused briefly, coughed a little, and then reluctantly continued with "We also need to assign sentinels. Does anyone have any objections? "

The sentinels were a group that would be used to guard the entrance of the dungeon, being alert against anyone who came near, and depending on the circumstances, would eliminate any intruder.

Harry smiled sympathetically at Momonga, knowing it had probably been hard for the Overlord to decide that. This was a group activity, but assigning sentinels meant that some of their companions would be left behind guarding the entrance.

It was necessary however, since there was a method of PK called ‘Crushing’ that involved attacking from behind a group of players who had just entered a dungeon. Once their opponents were forced into the depths of the dungeon, they would have no way to confront the monsters in the dungeon and at the same time the PKs attacking them from behind. It was a kind of pincer movement. Momonga was probably making that suggestion because he knew how powerful it could be.

There was the disadvantage of dividing the Guild’s fighting power of course, but in the end the pros were greater than the cons. As such, there were no objections.

"Then, the next thing will be to decide who the sentinels will be ... How many will we need?" the overlord said with a tinge of guilt, which made some of the Guild members raise their hands.

"I'll be happy to stay behind," the first person was the alchemist Amanomahitotsu, who resembled a giant crab-like monster. After that, two more people raised their hands, which were also members of craft classes.

The clan had never really focused on completing dungeons and PKing, so there were many people that were not necessarily combat-oriented, but simply liked to discover things. Naturally, even the members of the artisan classes didn’t invest all day in their workshops, and they took some levels in basic combat classes to be able to take care of any problem, to a certain extent.

That said, since their avatars contained artisan classes, they felt they were a burden during dungeon assaults.

Momonga bowed his head to the three of them and said gratefully “I'm sorry, but can we leave this to you?"

"Don’t be like that Momonga-san, please raise your head. We are the ones who talk nonchalantly while everyone else is fighting. "

"I also want to try to create a new weapon. I just discovered a rare metal processing technique, so I want to try it. "

"We will only take our tasks to the entrance of the dungeon. Don’t worry about it."

After Amanomahitotsu spoke, the other two followed him. Even so, Momonga inclined his head towards them again before turning to address the Ninja.

"So, Nishiki-san, I would like you to share your map with the rest of us. Is that alright? "

"Naturally. Also, I have just finished collecting information about the monsters that appear in the swamp. Nobody minds if I share that too, right?"

Nishiki Enrai produced a series of scrolls, one for each member, and pointed at them with his finger to produce copies. Once that was done, all present extended a hand to take a parchment.

Harry looked closely at the cartographic information. There was an X in the exact center of the extensive swamp, where it was messily identified as "Dungeon Here". Beside it were three symbols marked "Base of the Tuvegs", and other icons labeled "Many Slippery Things", "Poisonous Gas", and things like that. Additionally, there were lines labeled "Probable Patrol Routes".

There were also facts about the monsters, with their name, level and other information.

Nvl.74 Grenbera Purple Worm, Nvl.78 Lord Plague of Grenbera, Nvl.80 Demented Devourer, Nvl.80 Naga of Pantano, Nvl.83 Priest Tuveg of Grenbera, Nvl.84 Knight Tuveg of Grenbera…

"And so—" Nishiki's words made him stop midway through his study of the monsters, and he turned around to look at him. "These are the guys I found. Around level 80 means that the monster’s higher level in the depths of the dungeon will be around level 90. That should also be the ideal level."

Most members of Ainz Ooal Gown were level 90 or close, so they should be able to complete the dungeon without problems…. If all went right.

"Still, we shouldn’t be careless. It’s common knowledge that dungeons are more difficult than the areas that surround them. "

"Even so, luck is going to be an important factor. Completing a level 90 dungeon in a single attempt is not completely impossible. If that is the case, then let's go with everything we have. Now is the time to use our cash items. "

…Ah, cash items.

Harry couldn’t get them, since this world was his reality, he had no access to the thing called “Cash shop” and he couldn’t ask for his comrades to buy things for him since Harry couldn’t exactly pay them back in their real-world currency.

That being the case, he made do with the ones he had gotten from the adventurers he had PKed so constantly, but that meant that he couldn’t chose the items he got, so he had no word on whether it was useful for him or not.

When they didn’t fit with his fighting style however, he had the chance to trade them with the members of the Guild in exchange of something that would be useful for him, so it wasn’t a complete loss either.

"Right! Then, everyone, we will leave for our goal in 30 minutes. Please prepare!”

A chorus of “Yeah!” resounded so loud Harry was sure it could be heard all over their base.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Guild members of Ainz Ooal Gown gathered outside Helheim, about a hundred meters from the Poisonous Swamp covered in smog, at a place called the Perforating Crystal Plains.

Similar to the Poisonous Swamp, the Perforating Crystal Plains were a dangerous place, covered in frozen vegetation similar in appearance to glass blades that produced damage with each step taken within the plains. Additionally, mineralized monsters roamed the plains, and anyone who didn’t use blunt-type weapons would find it quite difficult to deal with them.

In any world, especially in the territory of the heteromorphic species in Nilheim, Helheim and Muspelheim, the further one went from its center, things became more dangerous. In addition to the monsters that roamed the site, the terrain itself became a danger.

Still, considering no one on the guild was human, they had certain countermeasures that allowed them to move at full speed through the Perforating Crystal Plains. They had yet to move forward however, since they needed to be careful with other players that may be out there as well.

The group threw several layers of defensive magic, and used eyes created with magic to explore the surroundings. Additionally, they used magic of illusion of the highest range, the spell [Mirror World] to create a hemispherical screen that enclosed the members of the guild.

From inside the bubble one could observe the outside without any problem, but from the outside, the inhabitants of the barrier were invisible, and the people from the outside would only see the bottom. Apart from making it difficult for users to detect, the spell could also deflect a certain portion of the attacks aimed at the occupants of the interior.

Some members also used divination magic, as well as going to personally explore the surroundings to make sure there was no one watching their movements. Only once this was done did Momonga gave the instruction to move forward.

"This is a huge wetland area riddled with poisonous swamps, controlled by the Tuveg, which are immune to poison," stated Nishiki, leader of the exploration team that was guiding them.

Players received different types of information when entering a new area, depending on the natural and learned skills they possessed. For example, alchemists and herbalists, with their skills, could obtain information on the many herbs they could collect in the area.

This was the reason Harry always made sure to tag along whenever the crafters went to a new area. It had simplified greatly his investigation regarding potion ingredients after all.

"And then... uh, it's nothing special. The monsters in the place are almost the same as those that Nishiki-san discovered. There is no information about oddities either... could they be hidden? Or maybe there's no unusual information?” the Nphilim samurai said, since a warrior could get details of the monsters that inhabited an area.               

"It’s impossible that there is no unusual information, it must be hidden. I feel like it’s most likely in one of the Tuveg villages. Also, if there are some herbs not discovered in this place, we might be able to create a rare potion. Man, the game developers are insane, they make it too difficult to collect the ingredients for your potions... I have already created more than 200 types of potions, but there are still many that I have not even discovered yet. "

Harry internally sighed, agreeing with the alchemist Amanomahitotsu. Discovering potions always was a pain, although in the end it was usually worth it.

"Well, developers are one thing, but I think the game company is also insane. I mean, with all the content, you can play for a long time... but they seem to have forgotten about the term 'user-friendly'. "

"Effectively— ah, shoot."

"Hm? What's wrong? Are you low on nanomachines? "

Harry perked up at that, since he had never witnessed what happened to the Players that ran out of those.

"My nanomachines are fine. I replaced them before connecting,“ the single phrase made him internally scoff, disappointed. Maybe another day he would have more luck.

"Really? It's fine, then. This could take a long time, so it would be a good idea to make sure your nanomachines are on top before entering the dungeon. It would be bad if you were disconnected by force at a critical moment…. I have a friend in real life who was taken out of the game during a guild classification battle, and by the time he returned, his guild had lost and he was fired for that. And it was not even their fault they lost. "

"... That's pretty scary."

"I know our guild wouldn’t be like that, but there are other guilds like that out there. You know, the ones that try too hard. I hate those demanding guilds. The games are made to be played after all. “

Harry stopped paying attention at that point, knowing he would probably fit better in such a Guild. This was his reality after all, so he had considered leaving behind this one, which was conformed of calm adults playing only for fun, to join one that took things a little more seriously.

But in the end, the ones that actually took the game seriously more often than not were teenagers, so he wouldn’t last long in such a Guild. Having reached that conclusion, Harry had decided to stay.

That and he actually liked the members of this Guild.

"Come on, give me a break," Harry heard Momonga say lightly from somewhere behind him. Huh, he hadn’t noticed he had slowed down his pace, he could now hear the conversation between Momonga and Herohero.

"Anyway, Herohero-san, how did you get human vision?" he heard the Overlord ask.

That was a valid question considering Herohero was a slime. Instead of ordinary vision, slimes used a kind of sense of motion detection to recognize their surroundings, so he shouldn’t be able to perceive the world as a human did.

"Ah, I equipped myself with a magic item that gave me that ability. The ability to detect innate movement that all slimes possess is very useful, but it is only effective within a limited radius. I can’t see beyond 100 meters, which is a bit scary if you ask me. I would be in trouble if someone attacked me from outside that range, so I decided to use something that would allow me to see normally. "

"Any advantage comes with a weakness. This is how this game works. "

"The good serves as a balance to the bad. Oh, I'm feeling something with my sense of vibration. "

Momonga gave a silent signal, which made the whole group freeze. Harry didn’t need to look around to search for the source of HeroHero’s unease, since the outline of a gigantic worm could be seen from among the mist surrounding them.

It was a large purple worm, almost ten times the length of a human torso, and its surface was glistening wet. It looked frankly repulsive, but Harry had found that it was very useful for creating Stamina potions, so he hunted them often.

Those worms moved in packs however, so it would be annoying if it detected them.

Completely synchronized, the magic throwers pointed their fingers, wands or staffs, at the worm, while the warriors prepared their long-range weapons. If the creature detected them, they were ready to destroy it in an instant before it could call its friends.

After several seconds passed, it seemed as if their enemy hadn’t noticed them, since the worm slowly slid back into the swamp.

"I'm not someone who likes stealth. I want to make my way through them,"Ulbert complained from somewhere in the distance.

"Ulbert-san, please don’t waste your MP. You should use everything with the boss," Tabula reprimanded seriously.

The construction of Ulbert's character revolved around the World Disaster class, which had incredible firepower. On top of that, the demon had taken levels in classes that specialized more in offensive skills. Considering only firepower, he easily found himself in the top five of the guild, but he still had a great weakness. Although he had a large reserve of MP, his rate of consumption exceeded even that, so he exhausted his MP too quickly.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the difficulty of the expedition to a dungeon was directly related to how much MP Ulbert would be able to save to face the boss.

"Aww I was kidding, I'm aware of that. I've been keeping it all this time, right? Since this is the first adventure of Ainz Ooal Gown, I'll make sure everything goes well! " Ulbert exclaimed, clenching his fist to show his sincerity, before adding "Oh, but I wouldn’t mind if you lent me some of your MP. That way, we could go through them and still have enough for a big show with the boss," The demon said as an afterthought looking at him.

Harry smirked knowingly, and gave thumbs up at the demon while answering "It's not a bad idea. If the time comes, I’ll lend it to you."

Even if he was limited to the use of Yggdrassil spells, transferring magic— in this world ‘MP’— to another person wasn’t a problem, since he knew the appropriate spell.

"Ahhh let’s hope it doesn’t get to that though, the last thing we need is for Harry to run out of MP in a critical moment. If it gets from bad to worse, we’ll need a thief to get us the hell out of there,” Punitto Moe interjected.

For some reason, Harry seemed to have some levels as a thief. He didn’t really understand why, since normally all he did was use wandless variations of [Alohomora], but the ‘Game’ had seemingly classified him as such.

Truth be told however, Harry really had opened the exits in case of emergency more than once, whenever they ended up trapped in whatever place, dungeons included.

From his perspective, it was safe to use his original magic so long it wasn’t terribly obvious, since he only needed to know Yggdrasssil’s equivalent. In this case, since lock-picking didn’t produce any lights, runes or sounds, he could simply say it was another spell when asked and be done with it.

Nodding in acceptance at the other’s suggestion, the conversation ended at that, and the group followed the vanguard through the swamp.

They found many Tuvegs on the way, but the Guild moved carefully around them so they wouldn’t be spotted. These monsters had the ability to see through the magic of concealment, so they were very careful on that regard, which made the trip take a long time.

Once they finally passed the Tuvegs however, they could see something on the other side of the swamp. It was their destination, the dungeon.

The wall that separated the dungeon’s entrance from the swamp was covered in moss and destroyed in several places, so it couldn’t really serve its purpose as a barrier. One could see the interior through the cracks.

There were ruins in that place - the ruins of a tomb. The destruction was complete, even the tombstones had been smashed. There seemed to be something like a mausoleum in the middle, but it was beginning to collapse, and the whole place looked more like a ruin than anything.

At first glance, there was nothing suspicious.

"There are no signs of monsters. There is also no sign of incorporeal beings. "

"The same here. There are no signs of objects moving above or below the ground. "

"There are also no undead reactions."

"Do you think a boss will appear? Or a trap? It would be difficult to deal with multiple summoning traps at the same time. "

"In any case, I have already used my trump card once of the four times I can use it a day. At a minimum, there are no magic traps in place. "

The other members of the guild had already used their own means to examine the place, and the reports came slowly. They paused to look at each other, and then began the march toward the small island. The rearguard team —where Harry was located at— was on alert, keeping an appropriate distance from the scout team in case something happened.

"... So this is the kind of dungeon in which the real battle begins after we enter that old collapsed structure?"

"No, it should happen once we cross the mausoleum and enter underground, right? After all, we're still pretty close to the swamp. In any case, keep your sensors away from the structure so they don’t activate anything. It will be a different matter after we put our feet on the island. So, Momonga-san, please do the honors," Tabula extended one of his arms on the last sentence, long fingers curling as if inviting the other to enter.

 "Well then…" Momonga muttered simply, before setting foot over the dungeon.

 "…there's nothing, Momonga-san. I sent my arcane eyes to the central mausoleum, but there were no contacts in the sound of enemies," Punitto-Moe said after a while, since nothing had happened.

"In other words, this place is a safe area, then?"

"Even so, this place was built by those fucking developers, there could be some kind of timed effect waiting for us..."

"Exploration team, is everything okay? If it is, then I think the dungeon is in the basement of that building.”

Nishiki used a couple of skills, which made the ninja’s body glow, before he gave the signal that all was clear.

"Then, everyone, let's get going."

After indicating that they agreed, everyone went abroad. Harry looked around the devastated cemetery, still on guard, but was distracted by the voices of his friends, which were seemingly discussing about something.

 "−Aw man! I thought you were one of ours, Flatfoot-san! "

"Nah, I like them flat, but not necessarily lolis."

"Look who's talking, after naming your weapon like that ... Or is it referring to something else? Could it be that you like men's chest, Flatfoot-san? "

"C-Chest of men?"

"Am I wrong? Don’t you like them flat? If that's the case, then a man's chest would be... are you gay? "

…That was Peroroncino all right. With him around, that kind of topic wasn’t exactly surprising.

Harry felt pity for the stupefied Flatfoot, but there was no need to interfere, since the formation allowed that person to be close to them.

"...People might laugh about it at a party, but do you really think you can scream that kind of thing just because you're among friends?" scolded Bukubukuchagama, with a tone of voice that was a bit too low to be normal.

However, for some reason, her younger brother Peroroncino didn’t seem to notice that yet. And Flatfoot, in an impeccable show of his assassin skills, had already left Peroroncino behind, moving away from the pair of siblings.

Harry took some distance as well, to make sure he wasn’t going to be dragged in.

"Well, big sister, it's because you are flat yourself that men are not—"

"—Hey." That cold voice carried in like the blade of a guillotine when it fell. The birdman immediately stopped talking, but it was already too late. "Hey, brat. Do you want me to tell everyone about what you did when you were twelve? "

"...um, I'm very sorry for what I said."

"Hey, did I give you permission to shut up? What I said seemed like a joke? Hah? You better—"

Harry hurriedly made the silent ‘help’ signal to Momonga, who looked at him oddly before Harry pointed to the siblings. Immediately understanding the situation, the overlord hurried over to them before the quarrel could escalate more, physically stepping between them and forcing them away with his body.

"Chagama-san, Chagama-san. Calm down a bit, please. "

"Ah— Momonga-san," Bukubukuchagama's voice seemed to have returned to normal, but the flames of her anger were still noticeable.

Probably this was only a small pause on her fury, so Momonga continued hastily, "Well, ah.  Soon we will go to the dungeon. I think it would be better if you calmed down, is that alright?" the overlord begged with both palms together, which made Bukubukuchagama relax her shoulders.

"…Ahhh, I can’t believe I let that fool irritate me. Sorry about that," she said lightly, before turning to face Peroroncino. “Hey, silly brother of mine. Remember this well, take care of your manners, even if you get along with people. Especially when you count your dirty jokes. Don’t embarrass me just because you got emotional with your friends, got that? "

"…Yes."

“Shouldn’t you thank Momonga-san? "

"Mm. Thanks. Sorry about that."

There was no energy in Peroroncino's words. The submissive and obedient manner in which he spoke made him sound like a dog that had been hit with an electric baton.

After hearing her brother's apology, Bukubukuchagama left them behind without another word. Of the three people watching her as she left, Momonga was the first to break the silence.

“Why did you call me over instead of stepping in? Come on Harry, give me a break!” the overlord said accusingly with mock fatigue, to light up the atmosphere.

"...that lady is terrifying. She really knows how to change her voice," Harry said smiling, shrugging it off. “And as Guild Master, aren’t you the best option to dispel this kind of quarrels? You're really strong Momonga." He finished the sentence with a smirk and mock bow, as if awed by the other’s intervention.

"Ugh, seriously…. I'm not so strong. Anyway, I felt like I was standing in front of a terrifying boss. "

The three of them laughed softly, which meant their attempt at cheering up Peroroncino was successful.

"All right, let's move! We are the only ones left," Momonga exclaimed with a hand motion, so they picked up pace until they caught up with the others.

With one eye on their surroundings, the Guild climbed a run-down flight of stairs into the building. The interior was unexpectedly impressive, with five statues standing tall, it was as if those immobile figures were looking down on them.

The sight of these statues made the enthusiasm of the Guild drop, even if it had the contrary effect on Harry, the others thankfully couldn’t see his expression.

They had seen this sort of dungeon design several times in the past.

“Ah, Momonga-san, this looks like a simultaneous attack dungeon. It seems to be the hardest kind, the sort that needs five parties to progress... Then again, we should probably be glad it’s not one of those dungeons that needs 36-man parties (a legion) and allows two guilds to cooperate on invading them. Those are just crazy,” Tabula complained to the Overlord.

Those are the best actually, not even I can get past those alone Harry thought, feeling excited at the challenge, even as Momonga groaned quietly at Tabula’s words. There was muttering from around them as well, as the rest of the Guild complained about how the simultaneous-attack dungeons, which were also known as ‘die-by-yourself dungeons’, required them to split up.

This was also an unknown dungeon which nobody had explored before, so they didn’t know what was awaiting them.

Just then, Punitto Moe began suggesting team assignments “How shall we proceed then, Tabula-san? This is a deviation from the original plan, and now we’ll need five parties.”

“Indeed. The question now is how to allocate everyone. We should probably discuss this together. Things being as they are, we should have the crafters come in as well, since it would be hard to be pressed from behind anyway.”

The basic 6-man party configuration in Yggdrasil was one tank, two attackers, one healer, one seeker and a wildcard—also known as other—who was capable of adapting to changing situations.

They had to evenly allocate their manpower into five parties, which was a fairly brainpower-intensive task. Anyone taking on this task needed to be intimately familiar with everyone’s abilities and preferences, to make sure all of them made it to the center of this dungeon.

Dungeons like these were typically designed so that everyone would meet up at the boss room, where they would face the Raid boss together. If this pattern held true, then the parties had to be balanced, since all of them needed to survive and go against the Raid Boss. There was strength in numbers after all, 24 people would always be better than 12 people.

Therefore, the most important thing was to not lose anyone and reach the dungeon’s core.

Punitto Moe stood before everyone and discussed the matter of personnel assignment with Tabula. The rest of Harry’s guildmates started to make their own preparations, changing their gear and verifying their items. Some of them had suddenly disappeared, so Harry deduced they were ‘offline’ for a bathroom break, and some others were talking excitedly about the raid.

Slowly, the Magical Attackers, Physical Attackers, Tanks, Healers, Seekers and Others were assigned to their parties.

Harry fell into the “Other” category.

Harry used the equipment dropped from PKing other players to learn or gain many different spells or skills. Because of that, he was typically placed in this position during dungeon raids. Depending on how the battle developed, Harry could end up stepping in as replacement for the Magical attacker, the seeker, the healer, or the tank.

Finally, Punitto Moe announced the party assignments. By far, Momonga’s group was one of the strongest, closely followed by Harry’s group.

On Momonga’s side, the Magic Attacker was Ulbert, the Physical Attacker Warrior Takemikazuchi, the Tank Bukubukuchagama, the Healer Yamaiko, the Seeker Nishiki Enrai and the Wildcard: Momonga. This was a team made of members who were fully optimized for their role.

On Harry’s team, Tabula was the magic attacker, the Physical Attacker and Tank was Touch Me who was supported on long distance by Peroroncino, Herohero was the seeker, Wish III was the assigned healer and Harry was the Wildcard.

The rest of the teams, in contrast, were not nearly as good balanced as these two. Momonga seemed to have noticed as well, since he was arguing against this distribution with Punitto Moe.

“—I think putting Bukubukuchagama-san and Warrior Takemikazuchi-san in parties with NPCs would be more even. However, we know nothing about this dungeon. Therefore, I think it would be better to have two strong teams rather than an even distribution.” the Death Vine was explaining to the Overlord, who still seemed reluctant “Momonga-san, if the worst comes to pass, please take down the boss with Touch-san’s group. Although I understand that defeating a 30-man boss with only 12 people is incredibly difficult, I feel that it would be better to make preparations for that situation.”

Harry hummed at that, balancing the pros and cons in his head for a short moment before deciding the strategist was right. This was the best they could do, considering they knew nothing about the dungeon… since the objective was to clear it on the first attempt, it was better to ensure that at least the strongest members would make it to the Raid Boss.

The Overlord looked at both teams for a short moment, before nodding with reluctant acceptance.

“…I understand. Please accept my humble contribution.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Punitto Moe agreed, and the overlord finally moved towards the center, giving the instruction to move forward.

After assembling the parties, they each arrived before the stone statues. Once they were close enough — most likely for having triggered an automated sequence — something activated.

“How dare you profane the Great Tomb of Nazarick, oh foolish and greedy ones,”  a male voice resounded around the room, as if coming from the walls.

“Or should I say, brave ones,” a female continued, speaking mockingly to them.

“Be you foolish or brave, we shall measure your resolve. We stand before you, the Five Rulers.” It was a hoarse man’s voice, different from the first two, it sounded much older.

“You who desire this land. Defeat us, and show us your true power,” the fourth challenged, before all fell silent. Oddly enough, the fifth statue didn’t ‘speak’ at all.

Once that ended, a light appeared on the stone slabs laying at the statues’ feet, which were probably a teleportation device of sorts.

 “That thing said ‘You who desire this place’. In any case, it’s clear that this is a Guild base dungeon.” Tabula commented towards the others, genuinely surprised.

“An unexpected bonus.”

Clearing a dungeon often yielded a variety of items, from rare data crystals to artifacts. However, clearing a Guild base dungeon merely gave you owner’s rights. In addition, guilds could only own one dungeon at a time. If they wanted to claim another dungeon, they would need to relinquish their claim on their present one.

Harry internally worried what would happen to the one he had found first, if they managed to conquer this one. Would he have to give up the Volcano?

 “...Would anybody want to use a guild base in a far off place like this?” Herohero asked out loud, seemingly to no one in particular.

“Probably not. Besides, we don’t know what kind of base this is,” Peroroncino answered him, crossing his arms over his feathery chest.

It was unknown how many total levels of NPCs they could create. And then, they also had to consider the problem of maintaining POP monsters, the monsters which automatically spawned under level 30.

They had maintenance costs, depending on their type. It was zero for undead, but living creatures, in particular large creatures, had maintenance costs which increased proportionally to the size of their bodies.

In other words, a guild base which only popped large living creatures would rack up a ruinous maintenance bill. If a guild base’s innate income wasn’t sufficient to cover those costs, the guild members would have to earn that money themselves. In addition, trap activation and monster summoning were expensive as well. Being attacked by an enemy guild could incur incalculable expenses for the defenders, and might even force them into bankruptcy.

Harry had ‘deactivated’ the POP monsters creation for this very reason. He had warded heavily the whole area after all, so it’s not like he actually needed them.

‘“We won’t know until we claim this place.”

“...Well, we could always sell the information.”

Their enthusiasm had cooled off by now. After all, even if they did take this place, they would have to either give it up or sell it, even  when the entire guild had worked so hard to conquer it.

Sensing the mood in the air, Touch Me spoke up.

“Still, everyone. Don’t you think we ought to have a proper Guild base? Not a rented one like we have now, but something we can change and rearrange as we see fit.”

“Well, if we’re talking about making anything we want, I’ve been thinking of settling down somewhere and then making something in earnest. However, will it be here?”

“Even if we don’t find a place to settle down, I agree with Touch-san that we need a proper guild base. I mean, we can’t leave too many things behind because we’re afraid of being attacked at any time, right?”

He was answered by a chorus of people saying, “That’s right”.

“I think using this place for experiments in building a guild base would be a good reason for conquering it. Besides, I read up on the guild base system on the developers’ site, but it seems different from how it actually is in the game.”

“The Experimental Tomb of Nazarick, huh. It has a nice ring to it.”

“Well, we won’t get anywhere just talking here… let’s just do as Momonga-san says and clear this place once. We can discuss everything later. Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched.” Punitto Moe interjected, which was met with shared agreement.

Soon, they would be treading into uncharted territory, an unknown dungeon. They needed to keep a clear mind.

“Say, you think we can sustain our buffs? If we could, then we could use extended buffs on ourselves, right?” Herohero asked to Tabula, the magic caster of the group.

“I don’t think the devs would be that nice. Be ready to have them all stripped off you the moment you step through that door,” was the realistic answer of the Brain Eater, the long tentacles of the head curling as if bothered.

“Those devs are real shits.”

Someone laughed uncontrollably. This was how much the Yggdrasil devs were trusted. Fully 100% of players agreed that they were sadists, to the point where they would be more worried if the devs didn’t place any evil traps.

Therefore, when something unreasonable happened, there would be a great cry of “shitty devs”. In fact, calling them “shitty devs” was in its own way a form of affection from the players.

…Although there had been numerous occasions where they cursed the devs in earnest.

Harry found it amusing. He had always thought the World was trying to expulse the ‘adventurers’ for some reason, placing as may hardships as possible when it came to them. When he discovered this was actually a ‘Game’, he understood that whoever had made it probably just liked to see them suffer.

“Then, why don’t we have our lovely guildmaster Momonga, who suggested we attempt this unknown dungeon, come out and address us? Come on, Momonga-san, say something.”

The overlord let out a nervous squeak that sounded like “Eh?” as Punitto Moe spoke, but once he noticed the others were looking expectantly at him; he coughed and raised both arms before exclaiming.

“Everyone! I’m the newly elected sadistic Guildmaster, Momonga!” Amidst the chuckling, Momonga continued with a determined tone “This is Ainz Ooal Gown’s initial venture! We shall conquer this difficult dungeon that we have seen for the first time! We shall make the shitty devs grind their teeth in frustration! We shall do what no normal guild can do! Everyone! Let’s go!”

“Ohhhh!” an overflowing cheer echoed through area, before each group started to walk towards their assigned statue.

— Momonga —

After passing through the rightmost of the five doors before the statues, Momonga saw a classic graveyard sprawling before them. The place was veiled in fathomless darkness, aside from the parts lit by magical illumination.

However, even if Momonga could see in the dark, he could not see his companions. It would seem they had been teleported elsewhere. Well, if there were only one teleport destination, there would be no need for so many doors, so it was a logical conclusion.

Momonga abandoned his vain hope. All he could do was pray they all met up again inside.

“Good grief, what a relief. Those devs might be shit, but even they aren’t shitty enough to split up the team. You know, split them up and make them meet up again later.”

“Take-yan, so you’re saying that if they ended up sending multiple people of the same roles together, we might as well forget about trying to conquer this dungeon, then.”

“...I really think those shitty devs would actually do that.”

“Mm, I agree with you, Buku-chan. Honestly, sometimes I feel the developers are too evil. ‘Ah, sucks to be you’, is what I imagine they’d say.”

They talked and laughed as they prepared themselves.

Unbeknown to them, that had actually happened to three of the teams.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4 Raid Boss

When monsters attacked, they would target “the one they wanted to hit the most”. This could be expressed as a numeric value, called Hate. Causing more damage, healing HP, buffing, debuffing or using taunting-type skills would increase Hate. When a player was hit by a monster, it would “resolve” the matter and that monster’s Hate for the player would decrease. Because Hate values fluctuated often during a battle, tanks had to pay close attention to monster Hate values, lest the backliners take a hit.

Harry could serve as a tank, not because he knew how to handle all those things, but simply because MOBs seemed to instinctually hate him. He couldn’t partner up with Bukubukuchagama for this very reason, since she couldn’t do her job as a tank whenever he was present.

As such, Harry was the one on the receiving end of the attacks of the massive imp horde that had appeared out of nowhere, while the others tried to desperately help him. There were too many of them however, so Harry was practically fending them off by himself, while the other focused on their own defense.

“Shit! What happened to our pre-made teams?” Bellriver exclaimed angrily as he fought against the imps that were attacking them. Being a Magic Knight, he wasn’t completely specialized on close combat, but he ended up at the front for lack of better options.

“Shitty devs!” Amanomahitotsu cried for the tenth time, as he tried to support Bellriver on the front. Still, since he had job-classes as a crafter, he wasn’t completely combat-oriented so there was only so much the giant Crab-like heteromorph could do.

The NPC that had arrived with them hadn’t lasted long, dying since it didn’t receive proper guidance. No one here had any experience leading mercenary NPCs after all, so it wasn’t supposed to come with them and ended up dying quickly.

Actually, scratch that, this team wasn’t supposed to be conformed this way at all.

“Take some distance; I’ll use a wide-ranged attack!” Harry warned to those closest to him, waiting for them to fall back before exclaiming “[Wabbajack]!”

The area around him was illuminated by a vivid orange color, engulfing a great part of the army of imps that were surrounding him. The creatures that had been in the affected area were turned into harmless, skittish rodents, scattering away unassumingly. The only downside to this spell was that it also restored a great quantity of their HP, as well as duplicated their original number.

Regardless, they were so weak they could handle them without issues now, along with the imps that had been out of Harry’s area-attack, so the improvised battle finished in a relatively short time.

Amanomahitotsu, the heteromorphic crab-like monster, clacked his pincers a couple of times while looking around in a worried manner, but couldn’t speak since the others beat him to it.

“What happened? Why were we separated?” Genjiro muttered apprehensively, claws extending and retreating in quick succession as if in nervousness. He was a Worgen, which was basically a huge beast that looked like an odd mix between a wolfman and a dragon, a standing large canine that had scales instead of fur covering his skin. His job classes were spread as well, being a druid as well as a cleric.

“It’s obvious this dungeon wasn’t going to let us decide how to even our forces. There’s nothing we can do to change that however, so how should we proceed?” Ancient One spoke much more calmly, being one of the more experienced players on the group. His classes were also mixed up however, being a monk and a bard at the same time.

It seemed this group was solely composed of the ‘Others’ category, since none of them were specialized on any role at all.

But they would have to work this way, so Harry mentally hoped they wouldn’t die and spoke up.

“We will need to work with those roles, even if we may not be experts. Since all of us have a varied set of skills, we can change places as needed with one another… at least until we clear the dungeon and meet with the others in the Raid Boss room. Don’t worry, this is just a temporal hindrance,”  Harry took the lead, successfully calming them.

After discussing back and forth for a short moment, the new formation ended up like this:

Harry would serve as Seeker and Tank at the same time, so he would be on the lead. He hoped his sharp senses would be enough to spot any approaching enemies, and his job was to distract the enemy and receive their attacks while the others eliminated them.

Bellriver along with Amanomahitotsu would be the physical attackers, coming to Harry’s support once the enemy was within range.

Genjiro would serve as Magical attacker and Healer, and was the one they needed to protect at any cost.

Ancient One would alternate between Physical and Magical attacks as needed, and would be Genjiro’s guard.

They were short one member since the NPC had died, but there was nothing they could do about that now.

Taking their new assigned places among the group, Harry slowly began to move forward, expanding his senses to try to find anything unusual. 

Completely unexpected to the Tomb they had entered, this floor seemed to be composed solely of lava. Harry was happy about this fact, since he had previous experience on dealing with the environment and fire-based creatures, thanks to the dungeon he had conquered back then.

“It seems there’s no secret doors,” Harry determined after a while.

“Then I guess we have to go forward… or do we?” Genjiro said insecurely, head moving in all directions as if expecting an ambush.

“We ought to move on. It would be bad if we were the last to arrive at our destination,” Ancient One directed, making a head motion at Harry.

He nodded in response before turning around, starting to guide them towards the only path available. On normal circumstances, the magic casters would have buffed up the team, but since this was not the pre-made organization, doing so now would end up as a waste of mana. It would be better to keep those until they encountered the Raid Boss along with the other teams.

“Then, we’ll go with the standard lineup. Stay behind me at all times, I’ll be looking out for traps as well” Harry instructed to his team, to which they responded with variations of “We’re counting on you.”

After receiving acknowledgement from the others, Harry slowly moved towards the front, before immediately falling back.  Something huge had slid out of the river of lava that was at their left, some sort of lava slime.

It was closely followed by smaller slimes, which were starting to surround them.

As a Tank, it was Harry’s job to avoid that, so he stepped forward and started to slash them with his spear, while firing up spells towards the ones that were far away. Without bludgeoning weapons on the team however, it was difficult to completely defeat them.

Harry was seemingly easier to hate than the others, so the attack was concentrated on him while his team helped with the extermination of slimes. Harry endured it without much issue however, since his defense was unnaturally high, something Bukubukuchagama always told him was ‘cheating’.

She had continuously asked him how did he manage to improve his defense so much without sacrificing his attack power, but Harry really didn’t know how to answer her, and ended up avoiding the topic like the plague.

It didn’t help matters that Harry’s HP was also considerably larger than normal, being out of the measurable scale.

The creatures only stopped coming once the largest slime was defeated, so it took much longer than with the imps. Still, all things considered, it was a good result since none of them were too heavily damaged. For now, Harry’s job as Tank had proven to be sufficient.

Their victory was short however, since Harry could see something crawling towards them in the distance.

 “[Discern Enemy]!” Harry casted his spell to gather information about monster’s level, shouting “Level 83!” once he could see it more clearly.

“Something of that level should be fine.” Bellriver muttered with relief, preparing to fight the moment that thing —which resembled some sort of hydra— came close enough.

“Oraaaaaa!” was the war-cry of Amanomahitotsu as he joined Bellriver on the front, launching attacks while the others casted offensive magic as needed. Harry took a purely defensive role, intercepting the attacks of the enemy so they didn’t reach his teammates.

Given that the creature was merely level 83, there was no need to use their more powerful skills, which had limited uses per day. They could finish this battle easily with skills that refreshed after a short rest.

“It seems we didn’t take much damage, so what should we do, Genjiro?” Ancient One asked to the healer of the improvised team once the battle was over.

“Hm… well, something of this level should regenerate by itself, so let’s move on” the male answered after a careful evaluation of the team’s HP, excluding Harry since his was still out of the charts.

Meanwhile, Amanomahitotsu was picking up the gold and data crystals that had dropped after wiping out the monsters, taking it into the inventory before lifting his arm to wipe his forehead, as if cleaning up sweat.

“All done here,” the crafter said happily, which made Harry nod at him before addressing the others.

“Then, let’s advance. [Extend Magic - Bless of Titania]. [Extend Magic - Lead of Yatagarasu].”Harry casted both spells on quick succession, before any more enemies could interfere.

A tiny fairy appeared in front of them. She wore a crown, yet was only the height of a little finger. She flapped her butterfly wings, enveloping her in a sphere of light, and floated at the head of the group.

The next spell created a three-legged crow. Unlike normal crows, it exuded a stern majesty. It flapped its wings, and flew to the head of the formation as well, beside the little glowing ball.

The Yatagarasu guided players along the shortest path to the heart of the dungeon, while the fairy queen beside him would take them along the least dangerous path.

They would decide which to follow depending on the resource expenditures, traps and monsters encountered along the way. However, neither of these spells indicated hidden routes. In addition, there were magical traps which were designed to confuse spells like these, so they had to stay on guard.

“Huh, to think you actually knew two 9th-tier divinations. You really have a big arsenal eh? I’m pretty envious,” Ancient One said playfully, which made Harry grin at him.

“I’ll let you know if I get my hands on any items that help expand the spell-arsenal,” Harry replied, knowing that the spell casters were supposed to have a limited capacity of spells that they could learn.

He couldn’t even imagine how his life would be if he were limited to only 300 spells, so Harry respected them a lot.

“Please do, I’ll buy it for the right price!”

The whole group chuckled a little before following Harry’s lead once more, stopping every time the path divided to discuss which creature they should follow. If this was not the first time they had seen this dungeon, they could probably go straight to the heart without further ado. However, they knew nothing of this place, so they had to keep an eye out for traps as they moved, choosing which path to follow after careful consideration.

“…What if we don’t meet up with the others? If each floor actually has a different Raid Boss, we would have to defeat it by ourselves,” Genjiro whispered after a while, breaking the silence.

“Indeed, I think the developers would be capable of that.”

“They’re the shitty devs, after all. Why would they let you clear a dungeon you’d never seen before?”

As if on cue, Harry hear the familiar bell that signaled he was receiving a [Message].

 “Yo~ free to talk?” Momonga said lightly, which meant that his team was most likely doing fine. The Overlord’s team actually got to stay as it was designed then?

“Yeah. Well, we’ve finished fighting, so it should be all right,” Harry replied, stopping just before reaching a huge, cave-like entrance. The others moved until the team formed a U shape, wanting to cover all sides in case of an ambush.

“How are you over there? We’re moving through a tomb now,” the overlord explained, which made Harry curse heavily. It made his teammates whistle and laugh playfully, while Momonga freaked out and hurriedly asked “Wha-what happened?”

“We were teleported to some kind of lava land. Fire-type monsters have been attacking us from all sides, and the thing that ambushed us from the magma really did a number on us.”

“Really?”

Harry waited until Momonga passed on his [Message]. Their responses seemed to be something along the lines of “Ah, as expected.”

“...Do you think we could swap party members with teleportation magic?” Momonga asked worriedly, it seemed that two other teams had been mixed up at random, just like them.

“Well, I think it’s worth a try, but do you think the devs would be that nice? Since we’re on different floors, we might not be able to teleport at all. Otherwise why would they put those doors at the entrance?” Harry explained skeptically. His apparition normally could get through places were [Greater Teleportation] could not, but he couldn’t use it right now.

Even if he lied and said that his apparition was the Yggdrasil’s equivalent, since there were other members that knew how to use [Greater Teleportation], it would be odd that they couldn’t do it but Harry did. His hands were tied on that aspect, so they would have to made do.

 “Then how are you guys over there? Can you break through?” Momonga insisted.  Since the Guild had come at his insistence, he was probably feeling guilty all over for this unexpected outcome.

“Right now, we should be able to handle it,” Harry reassured calmly, sounding more confident than how he truly felt.

“Ahh… I see. Got it, good luck guys.” Since there was nothing they could do to fix the current situation, Momonga reluctantly accepted Harry’s words as true, although his voice still sounded tinged with guilt.

“You too,” Harry said lightly before finishing the [Message].

Harry then tried contacting the other parties. After a few minutes, he learned that the dungeon they had invaded was one with five different floors — a glacier, a volcanic region, an underground lake, a forest and the tomb which Momonga and the others were presently in. In addition, the monsters in each floor were different, and it seemed the undead were only present in the tomb.

“Wow, as expected of our new Guildmaster! Not bringing specialized gear was the right choice,” Amanomahitotsu praised Momonga’s good thinking once Harry told them the current situation of the Guild, which made the others nod in agreement. They would have been screwed otherwise.

If they had simply loaded themselves with fire and holy-elemental equipment in order to take on the undead expected from this place, quite a few teams would have been exterminated.

However, because this was the first time they were raiding this unexplored dungeon, they had brought along all sorts of gear. In other words, they had the ability to adapt in response to changing situations, and thus they had a fighting chance to make it deeper into the dungeon.

“However, the shitty devs are really shitty. I won’t forget to add ‘shitty’ in front of the developers whenever I speak of them.”

“...Did you only just realize that now? Like the Longinus event, what the hell is up with that? It’s just impossible to clear!”

“Well, it seems this is the kind of Dungeon that will have a Raid Boss per floor, so let’s buff ourselves before going into that cavern,” Harry interrupted them before they could deviate out of topic.  All spell casters, Harry included, did their best to buff the whole team, and only once that was done did Harry turn towards Genjiro.

“How’s your MP? How well can you heal everyone?”

“It’s fine. Actually, I’ve been healing with wands up until now.”

Even wands imbued with high-tier spells would only heal about half as much as Genjiro could if he personally cast a healing spell. Still, that was adequate for the task at hand, which was a sign that the improvised group had adapted surprisingly well.

Harry nodded before casting a tenth-tier spell, his last buffing spell, over the whole team.

“[Ultimate Armor].”

Technically, there was no need to speak when casting spells, but one’s colleagues couldn’t know what was going on if nothing was said. Therefore, magic casters announced their spell names as a sort of courtesy.

“Very well, we’re counting on you, oh great Tank.”

“I’ll do my best. Sorry in advance if the Raid Boss ends up focusing on you at times though,” Harry said sincerely to them before they all went into the suspicious-looking cavern.

After several easy battles, as they moved following their magically-created guides, Harry made the silent signal to stop.

“It’s a teleport trap. Disarm difficulty looks to be… red? Not sure about that,” Harry stated sincerely, looking interestingly at it.

A red disarm rating meant that the chances of successfully disarming the trap were very low. The most common methods of disarming traps were through the use of a skill to temporarily raise one’s success rate, using a magic item, or by casting a trap-disarming spell.

“Then, I guess it’s my turn,” Genjiro muttered, stepping closer.

However, this team had a method apart from those. It was a brute-force method that was also known as the warrior’s disarm, or a summon disarm.

As a Druid, Genjiro could summon creatures such as fairies, Ents, and pretty much any Earth-based creature. In this case, he seemed to have chosen a small, unassuming wolf.

“[Slave Sight].”

Genjiro casted his spell on the creature before sending it towards the trap. That spell was supposed to make the caster be able to see through the eyes of their summon, so it was useful to investigate what was lying ahead of them.

Genjiro let out a surprised “Woah!” as the wolf was teleported away from them due to the trap’s activation “A large chamber, filled with lava up to the knees. An imposing dragon is lying in the center of the room unaffected by the magma. I can’t see the monster’s name or level but… Ah, it died.”

For the wolf to have survived for a few seconds, instead of immediately dying, it meant that it had been teleported to a part of the floor that wasn’t covered in lava.

“...20 seconds have passed. The teleport trap’s stopped operating… which means it’s inactive for now. Wait a little longer,” Harry instructed to Genjiro, waiting a whole minute until he noticed the trap reactivating.

“Then, let’s try it again.”

Genjiro summoned another wolf, and sent it into the trap with the same spell as before. After a short while, the druid nodded and confirmed that the teleport destination was the same chamber from earlier, guarded by the same monster.

“Same place. Can we conclude that the trap only goes to one location?” Ancient One asked out loud at the whole team.

“It seems so. Judging by the description of the monster, it also seems to be a shortcut to reach the Raid Boss of this floor,” Harry replied, looking at the statue that was situated just behind the trap.

Since they had made it all the way here, it was unlikely they would find any endlessly-respawning monsters, so the team had the luxury of changing out their gear for an anti-boss loadout. That said, nobody in this group trusted the developers, so Harry kept an eye out in their surroundings while Ancient One used spells to check for secret doors nearby.

Harry didn’t have much gear to switch out, so he was the first to finish, wand in hand instead of his usual spear −which also served as a staff− as well as other defensive equipment. Then, being the one with time to spare, he contacted the other parties with a [Message].

Since [Message] was a spell that created a one-to-one conversation, it was difficult to share information with the rest of the group. While there were certain commander-type classes who had skills that allowed for simultaneous communication with many people, no one in Ainz Ooal Gown had such skills.

After speaking to everyone, it seemed that the rest of the teams had made it to their respective Raid Boss as well, but…

“How did it go, Harry? Did the other teams all make it?”

 “Yes, the other four teams have reached the dungeon’s heart. They’ve all expended some resources, but they’re all in tip-top condition and ready to fight.”

A small cheer came from the group. However, beating trash mobs and the environment made up 40% of the difficulty of raiding a dungeon, while beating its boss was the other 60%. In a way, they were not even halfway through.

 “Still, there are some problems. One team has already started fighting their respective boss. Judging by shared information, it seems the bosses have different abilities, appearances, and boss rooms. While ours seems to be some sort of dragon, the party in the underwater lake seems to have encountered some kind of pure white bat.”

“I see… so we can’t use information gained from people who went in first. What’s the second problem?”

“There were announcements once that team entered the boss room, and judging by the content of those announcements, the bosses get stronger in order of encounter. Which means, the team that fights their boss last is going to be also against the strongest. Momonga’s team is going to tackle that one, while Touch Me’s going to tackle the 4^th, so we’re coming in 3^rd.”

“I see… well, our team didn’t end up that bad, so it makes sense for us to be in the middle.” Ancient One nodded, before sighing tiredly “It would be simple enough if the bosses were even in power, but after several encounters, a strong boss might get even stronger.”

“Well, if it’s the shitty devs, they’d probably level up the boss until it’s unbeatable. ‘How many times should we make them fight before letting them win’ they’d ask with smug grins on their faces,” Genjiro muttered annoyed, shaking his head negatively.

“...And without any concrete information, we can’t formulate a battle plan,” Bellriver added, crossing his arms over his chest. The multiple mouths that covered his body were opening and closing at random intervals, seemingly in annoyance, which made for quite a scary picture.

“We’ll also need to see how much of its health we can burn off in a short time, so let us work together. Everyone ready?” Harry asked, looking at them to see their complete equipment.

The others agreed unanimously.

“Good,” Harry smiled proudly at them, even knowing the others couldn’t see expressions reflected on his face. “But also, and this is probably the most important thing, consider that we won’t be able to retreat from this fight.”

The atmosphere changed from excited to nervous immediately. They had one shot at this. They had to bet everything on the first try.

Boss battles typically took place in a separate map, and there were some boss battles which allowed players to retreat from the fight. Therefore, most players would do so if they felt things were getting dangerous. Of course, the enemy would recover all their lost HP, so it would be best not to use trump cards and the like before retreating.

“Really, they don’t want newcomers to beat this dungeon in one go,” Bellriver said before cursing the developers once more.

“Ah, there’s almost nobody who could beat this dungeon blind anyway,” Genjiro added, shrugging as if saying it couldn’t be helped.

“Just so. The deck is stacked pretty high against us. However, I feel our team can do it. Right, guys?” Ancient One cheered, which was met with approval all around.

Harry nodded, and seeing the team ready to fight, simply waited for the [Message] of the team that would go in second, so they could be the third to walk through.

And so, when the time came, Harry led the party and entered the magic circle.

They ended up in a room that resembled the very nucleus of a planet. The walls were high and curved into a dome, which made Harry sigh in relief. Since there was a roof, there probably wouldn’t be any flying monsters dropping on them.

Next, they inspected the ground beneath their feet, which was covered by a never-ending river of lava. They had changed their gear so they were fire-resistant, but even so, it would be better not to come in contact with it at all. Since the magma covered the whole surface, there was no way to know if there were any traps on it.

One could also use the super-tier spell [The Creation] to directly alter the circumstances to their advantage, but all super-tier spells had an unavoidable cooldown time whenever they were cast. Therefore, the trump card of super-tier magic could only be used when it was absolutely vital.

Having appeared over a rift that was just over the floor covered in lava, Harry and his team turned their eyes in unison, to the massive being that stood in the center of the room like a wrathful omen of doom.

It was a boss which stood nearly five meters tall, with gold scales covering the body, the dragon stood up and roared angrily at them. Judging by the form of its wings and tail, which were pointy but not overall spiky, Harry deduced it was either a lightning dragon or a fire dragon.

These creatures were known to have only one element, but since this was a Raid Boss, Harry wouldn’t be surprised if it had two or more.

Lightning began to crackle all over the walls and ceiling, while the lava at the dragon’s feet got higher as it increased its volume. All this suggested that the dragon was a wide-ranged attacker with multiple elemental attacks. Considering it was a boss monster, the oversized reptile most likely boasted a plethora of resistances, so it wasn’t the sort of creature which could be felled by an instant-death attack.

The main problem with designing boss encounters in Yggdrasil was that the players had the same skills and spells that monsters did, but during raid boss encounters, there would be 30 players facing a single monster. Even with enhanced stats, one monster would still be obliterated by sheer weight of numbers, which meant that there was no challenge at all.

As such, two main patterns of boss encounters appeared to address this issue.

The first was to meet numbers with numbers. Sometimes the boss would come with minions, or the boss arena would constantly spawn monsters. In this approach, the boss was usually not very strong. In some cases it would only have several times the HP of a player character.

Harry rather liked this kind, since it was easy to sneak in and attack the Raid Boss directly. That was how he made it when conquering his current base after all.

The other method was to send out a single boss, generated with different data from the player characters. This sort of boss typically had abilities which would give a lot of trouble to parties which encountered them for the first time, and it could use those abilities continuously.

Judging by the look of the boss, it was highly likely that it fell into the latter category.

“Oh foolish ones who challenged us at third, know the might of those who become stronger with every layer of binding removed from us,” the dragon challenged, menacing jaws opening wide as it prepared its first attack.

“Well, here we come!”

Harry leapt forth, running away from his team as he circled around the boss, using the very narrow canal close to the walls that was the only place not covered by lava yet. He needed to be careful not to touch the walls however; he suspected the electrical lightning clacking over them would end up paralyzing the victim.

Alternating between attacking and moving, Harry easily attracted its attention. As a Tank, he couldn’t let the boss’ first strike hit anyone but himself.

The Dragon opened its huge mouth, a runic circle forming just in front of its jaws. That same circle was replicated just below Harry’s feet, which made him curse internally.

Since the circle moved along with him, Harry knew this was an undodgeable attack.

“[Lightning Flare].”

Those words floated in the air as it activated a unique boss skill, which didn’t exist as a spell which players could access. A burst of lightning erupted from the ground, and Harry for a moment compared it to the feeling of stepping over a grenade.

He gritted his teeth, refusing to scream out in pain. This was a ‘game’, so he couldn’t be careless on this aspect, since no one but him actually felt pain when getting damage. Instead of focusing on that, he pointed his wand at the dragon, continuing to fire up offensive spells.

Bosses with multiple unique skills were very hard to deal with. This was because there was no way of knowing what type of attack or magic would be effective. There was no time to fight the boss out by trial and error either, all they could do now was use all the tricks they had learned and hope it sufficed.

The bothersome tingling on his muscles was alleviated when Genjiro casted a healing spell over him, so Harry smirked and continued to drag the Boss’ attention.

Muffliato.

“Hey! Why are you looking away? Aren’t you underestimating me?” Harry shouted out, firing a 9^th tier offensive spell that made the dragon turn its glare towards him once more.

“You who resembles me in power, why are you with the likes of them?” a grave tone asked, before the boss let out a breath of cursed green fire.

Another reason Harry liked to fight against Raid Bosses, was because he could talk with them as well. Not a single player seemed to be able to listen to them however, other than their challenging greeting, so Harry always made sure to use Muffliato while talking with them.

Maybe this was the reason it was so easy for him to accumulate Hate?

“Isn’t that obvious? I want to take over your domain!” Harry challenged, and the vertical iris of the dragon’s eyes grew even thinner in rage.

“So you wish for death. In that case, I will gladly grant it,” The dragon hissed out, extending its wings as it called forward a rain of volcanic rocks, covered in glowing lava.

The rocks fell all over the place like meteorites, which made Harry curse silently in his mind as he skillfully moved to evade them. Such a wide-ranged attack, there was no way it hadn’t targeted the others.

Bellriver and Genjiro seemed to have avoided it by [Teleporting] towards the ceiling, but Ancient One and Amanomahitotsu had received some damage.

Mentally chastising himself, Harry laughed mockingly out loud, screaming “That’s right! Focus on the small flea! I’m no threat at all, right?” as he fired another harmful spell at it.

The boss hissed out in pain before turning its body so it was completely focused on Harry once more, and breathing out poisonous smog. His teammates moved towards its back to attack from there, so he cheered mentally and continued to run, even if the poison was making his head hurt.

The Dragon noticed its breath had been mostly fruitless, and released an angry roar before striking again. For the first time in the battle, it attacked physically by swinging its massive tail at Harry, but he could react on time to evade it.

Jumping so he could land over the appendage, Harry took advantage of the physical proximity and let out a spell he wouldn’t be able to use otherwise: a tactile spell.

While most of the spells had an effective range, some spells had a range that was practically zero. These spells needed direct contact with the target to function, so only people with high levels in "spell caster" and warlike classes could use them well. It was because they were so inconvenient that they were more powerful than spells of a similar level.

Harry used an eighth-level spell he had learned [Drain Energy]. It was a spell that drained the opponent's levels and granted several benefits depending on the number of levels drained. Naturally, this spell had also been maximized.

Harry felt his strength grow marginally at the same time the Dragon let out a pained hiss. For as long as the spell were effective, the enemy’s natural resistance to magic had been greatly lowered, while Harry recovered a good amount of HP. That said, that was all this spell could do in terms of healing.

Harry’s skills were temporarily improved, and received a special benefit that would vanish in a short time. On the other hand, the Dragon had received a low level disadvantage that could not be eliminated.

This time, the Dragon backed away, having surmised that close physical battle was disadvantageous against him.

“We’re almost there guys!” Ancient One’s voice reached his ears, even if he couldn’t pinpoint his exact location.

The two frontliners advanced. Like a rubber band stretched to its limit, they snapped forth, reaching the boss in an instant.

“[Shadowbind], [Hobble].”

 “[Razor Edge], [Rasetsu].”

As the words were uttered, several black blades flew through the air. Those were attacks which lowered evasion and movement speed, and now that the boss was presumably weakened, the physical attacker Bellriver slashed wildly at the boss.

Multiple slashes appeared on the boss’ body, and Harry saw the boss’ HP bar waver, thanks to his ‘Life Essence’ spell. It had taken less damage than expected, and it was this, more than anything it said, which made them think that this was really a raid boss.

“[Arm Slice], [Headshot].”

 “[Rasetsu], [Slash-All].”

More words were shout as the team used their best skills, and their chained attacks mauled the boss’ body.

While they usually could speak while fighting mobs, they couldn’t have that luxury when fighting against a boss, there was simply no time to banter. However, their teamwork would break down if they didn’t indicate what they were doing, so they only shouted the names of the spells and skills they were using.

The Dragon turned away from Harry, rising on its rear legs before impaling the ground with all its weight. The action caused an earthquake, which in turn made the lava that had covered the ground flood over the whole area. Ancient One and Genjiro, being the ones with more distance from the Boss, could react on time to activate their defensive skills, but Bellriver, Amanomahitotsu and Harry were not so lucky.

“Hey! Watch your Hate! Stop attacking!” Harry screamed to his teammates, momentarily taking down his Muffliato.

“Roger!”

Harry then placed the Muffliato once more, before jumping out from his position and running towards the Dragon. He didn’t stop until he was close enough that his teammates wouldn’t be able to spot him.

Raising his wand, he used the spell that was guaranteed to cause so much Hate the Dragon wouldn’t focus on anyone else for a long while.

Crucio.

The characteristic light the curse produced was hidden by the Dragon’s huge size, not to mention that Harry’s teammates where all the way at the other side of the room, so there was no risk of getting spotted.

The Dragon roared angrily in pain, before viciously attacking him in reprisal. 

Normally, Hate increased along with damage done, but Harry caused very little damage with this curse. Still, the resulting pain was much higher than the one his teammates were doing, even if they dealt more damage, so the boss once more targeted Harry and only Harry, using single-target attacks instead of those wide-area that had damaged his team so much.

“How dare you!” the Dragon repeated like a mantra, as it tried to hit him.

The two frontliners matched their movements and attacked, while the magic casters alternated between buffing, debuffing and casting harmful and defensive spells. Still, the dragon ignored them on favor of attacking Harry, as it was supposed to.

“[Poison Vines]!”

“[Penetrate Magic - Slow]!”

Genjiro and Ancient One enchanted at the same time, spells streaking toward the boss, leaving a white trail in their wake.

The battle was progressing smoothly. The vanguards suppressed the boss while the rear guards whittled it down. It felt like they were off to a good start, but they still didn’t let it go to their heads.

They continued like this until the Dragon’s HP was considerably lowered, at least low enough to start to get serious. Harry mentally sighed in relief, since the attacks coming in his direction were starting to get harder to evade, becoming much stronger and faster.

“Uwah, time to spend! Damn cash shop!”

“3000 yen! No more than 3000 yen! Those shitty devs must have done this to force people to use the cash shop!”

 “Shit, I’ll have to use cash items too…”

Harry couldn’t really empathize with them. The concept of Cash Shop didn’t exist to him, since he wasn’t part of their “Real World”, so he only smirked and took out his one-use-per-week items.

Although he didn’t know what kind of cash item the frontliners had used, the boss’ health was dropping faster than before. Because of that, the boss used a new attack — raising on its rear legs and extending its wings so it covered the whole area.

“[Neptune Lightstorm].”

The hot vapors flowing formed a sphere of bluish-white energy over the boss’ head. This must be some sort of super move.

Lasers sprayed in all directions from the blue-white orb. Although most of the beams seemed to fly at random, some of them seemed to follow a specific pattern. Of course, it was impossible to tell what that pattern was on the first encounter.

Ancient One immediately ran over to Genjiro’s side, acting as shield as he was hit by a bolt of light. As expected, that attack was an electrical one, since he seemed to be temporarily paralyzed.

“[Haste]!” Genjiro shouted, targeting the frontliners.

The three vanguards, Harry included, were under a Slow debuff, which had happened because they were struck by the lasers. That being the case, Genjiro countered it with the appropriate, opposed magic.

Now able to move freely, the three of them could move around to evade most of the oncoming lasers. But just as they thought they were through it, the boss began another round of attacks.

The shrinking interval between the usage of skills was a sign that the boss was picking up the pace.

“[Venus Monsoon].”

Heavy clouds appeared above the boss’ head, blanketing the battlefield. It would seem it was going to call down acid rain.

“[Great Cyclone]!” a gigantic hurricane whirled into existence as Genjiro casted his spell, but it didn’t disperse the gathering clouds overhead the dragon.

“Shit!” the healer exclaimed, followed by a chorus of “Shitty developers!” coming from the rest of the team.

If the boss used a spell which players had access to, they would probably be able to counter it in some way. However, if it was a skill, all they could do was guess.

This time, the guess was off.

Probably a defensive spell would have worked better, but it was too late. This wasn’t the sort of opponent that would give them the luxury of a second move.

A torrential rainstorm filled everyone’s vision. At first, it seemed to be a surprisingly mild attack, but that idea was immediately discarded the moment the acid came in contact with the lava covering most of the floor.

The deafening sounds of explosions filled the whole room. It seemed that the acid had a very strong reaction when coming in contact with the lava, since the whole area ended up swallowed by one explosion after the other. It was as if suddenly the whole floor had been filled up to the brim with grenades.

The whole team cursed as they received the undodgeable attack. This might have been the sort of attack which could have been avoided if they had gotten rid of the lava, but they had no way of knowing that on the first encounter against it.

Once the attack ended, Genjiro casted healing spells on the front liners, whose health had been reduced almost by half. Harry was not included, considering his HP was larger than the others, it was better not to focus too much on him.

The boss opened its jaws and raised its head, nose pointing towards the ceiling instead of focusing on anyone of them.

Because its health was going down very fast, the delay between each attack was now very short.

Judging by the color of the spell it was enchanting, it was most likely some sort of lightning-elemental attack. If that was the case—

“Everyone! Heading up!”

There was no time to wait for their responses. Harry casted the [Greater Teleportation] spell, appearing as high as the ceiling allowed. Just as the view in his eyes shifted from the teleport—

“[Jupiter Tempest].”

—Streaks of blinding white lightning raced across the ground. A simple [Fly] spell wouldn’t have been fast enough to allow them to make it up here in time.

Normally speaking, flying up was a bad move. However, Harry had ascended because the boss’ previous attacks descended from above. He guessed that there wouldn’t be so many consecutive attacks which came down from the sky.

He was lucky.

“Going down.”

“Okay!”

The team, that had followed Harry up here, descended as one using [Fly].  After all, there was a chance that the next attack would heavily damage anyone in the air.

As they came down however, the boss flew up, using for the first time in battle its wings, and started to fly around in circular motions.

“[Great Ore of Mercury].”

It would seem the boss had buffed itself, because the cries of “So hard!” could be heard from several members of the team that had attacked with long-ranged attacks.

Harry was surprised to see that their damage output had dropped to 1/10th of normal.

“Meteoric Turtle!” Bellriver shouted, naming a boss they had defeated in the past. Harry immediately understood the meaning behind those words. The Meteoric Turtle had a move where it enhanced its defense, then took to the sky before crashing down again like the meteor it was named after, dealing a party-wiping amount of damage to everyone in the area.

The countermeasures to this move were: unbalance the boss and forcibly break its defensive stance, take to the skies and halve the damage taken, or to continuously use defensive spells or skills to endure the onslaught.

The frontliners began using their unbalancing skills, while Harry and the others coordinated with them and casted debilitating spells on the boss as well.

A prickly sensation hung in the air, and immediately after, the boss swung down to the center of the room once more, breathing fire madly as though remembering that it had forgotten to attack while its defense rose. The sense of relief that came from disrupting the boss’ previous attack was replaced by the pressure of defending against its harmful breath.

“[Lunar Gaze].”

The dragon’s eyes suddenly glowed a bright blue, and time suddenly stopped. Still, everyone here was level 90 and above, so they already had equipment and skills that could help them get out of the [Time Stop] effect.

This caused a gap on their defense however, and the Boss immediately took advantage of that by lashing at them.

The air pressure from the strikes turned into slashing shockwaves which tore through the air. It made no difference whether one was in the sky or on the ground, there was no hiding from it.

“[Wall of Jericho].” Harry, as the tank of the group, used his area-defense skill to become a wall behind which everyone could hide. Even so, that meant receiving the hit directly, so the end of his HP bar was finally reflected for the others.

It seemed he had finally reached the point where it was measurable.

Harry grinded his teeth and refused to let a single sound of pain come out. Even if his muscles were beginning to spasm lightly, and his legs were trembling somewhat, he still could move on and fight.

A game was supposed to be fun, so it wasn’t like the rest of the team could fill any pain even when hit. If anything, it was reflected only like some annoyingly persistent tingling sensation, according to his comrades.

Harry suddenly felt very envious of them.

“Genjiro… can you heal me a little?”

“Sure thing Harry!”

As he was being healed, the pain was reduced enough for him to concentrate on the enemy. Now that the boss had lost quite a bit of HP, its attack patterns were becoming more aggressive. There was a chance it might use that attack repeatedly.

In the meantime, the boss’ HP was decreasing steadily, since the frontliners had come back to attacking it. Although the boss had abnormally high HP, the attackers’ firepower was gradually overcoming it.

Suddenly, the dragon roared and laid down, like a feline that was about to jump forward. The whole team worked together to hinder it as much as possible, but they couldn’t prevent the attack’s completion on time.

Well, that was to be expected. It wasn’t like this team was ideally formed after all, so they were lacking in a lot of fields.

“[Saturn Meteor].”

The boss jumped up towards the sky, tackling the ceiling with a force so mighty Harry wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole room collapsed over them.

Instead of that however, an inky black void appeared — the void of space — which swallowed the whole ceiling without trace. Not satisfied by that, the sudden void expanded to cover the entire battlefield. It would seem that the range of this attack was as large as the previous one.

Well shit.

“[Field of Force].”

“[Sanctuary Protection].”

His teammates shouted as many defensive spells as they could. Harry couldn’t use [Wall of Jericho] two times in a row after all, since it was limited to be used only once every 36 hours.

As Genjiro put up another layer of protection, Harry tried to help them by casting yet another defensive spell. This was because they had no idea what kind of attack was coming next.

Just then, a shrill screech rang through the air, and countless meteors flew through the air at them.

The initial impact shattered their main defense, which had been further reinforced by the [Sanctuary Protection]. After that, the shockwave broke the [Field of Force] and damaged the whole team, far more than the previous attack had. Half of their previously full HP bar vanished in an instant.

However, that was the end of the attack, and the whole team was still alive. Nobody had died, and Harry still had more than enough HP left.

In this kind of formation, if the tank was fine, then they could still fight.

Genjiro did his best to heal everyone quickly, but since he wasn’t a specialized healer, there was only so much he could do. For this reason, the team started to take their healing potions, which were obviously a limited amount, so they would have to fight more carefully from now on.

If they took another attack from that Dragon, they would die. Therefore, Harry watched the boss’ movements as he made sure the target would only be himself, trying to encourage the Dragon to stop using area-wide attacks.

The frontliners stopped attacking and took defensive stances, healing their wounds and repairing their equipment with potions. This was so that they didn’t complicate the Hate management.

As if mocking their effort however, the Dragon’s whole body started to glow a dangerous red, several ribbons of magic flowing around it, symbols changing so fast it was impossible to predict how the next attack would be.

Given these special effects, there was no doubt that it was preparing for something big.

“To think you have made it this far, it appears I have underestimated you. In that case, come forth, my minions!”

The floating ribbons suddenly arranged themselves into the points of a five-pointed star, and then thrust themselves into the ground. Five monsters appeared from those places.

Level 87: Wyvern Fire Elemental

Level 87: Wyvern Water Elemental

Level 87: Wyvern Air Elemental

Level 87: Wyvern Earth Elemental

Level 90: Wyvern Star Elemental

Each of them was half the size of the boss, and they were monsters of equivalent level to Harry’s own teammates.

The six of them, including the boss, would surely crush the party into a paste.

Harry internally groaned. If the others weren’t with him, he would have been able to use magic different from that of Yggdrasil… no, no sense in thinking about that now.

He could hear his teammates either cursing the devs or laughing hysterically. They had not expected the boss to be this powerful.

Time to use Super-Tier magic.

It had a long activation time, even cheating by using ‘cash items’, so they needed to defend the caster.

Bellriver, the Magic Knight, used [Berserker soul] on the strongest Wyvern. It made the enemy enter a wild rage, increasing their attack level and allowing friendly fire, pretty much making it a killing machine that would go against anything that was alive and in its range of attack.

Since the target would be forced to attack whatever was nearest for some minutes, the team made sure to stay as far away as physically possible from the enraged creature, which had started to attack the nearest Wyvern.

Amanomahitotsu, the crafter, threw away his strongest one-time item with a pained cry, the small unassuming object hitting the Raid Boss directly.

It was a [Square of Self-Destruction]. By activating this Magic, the caster placed a complex self-destruct sequence on any person or object. Without the cancellation code, this Magic couldn’t be stopped.

While it wouldn’t kill the Dragon, it would cause a huge blow at its HP. It was hard to create however, since it needed a good amount of rare materials, so it was no wonder the crafter hadn’t wanted to give it up.

Similarly, Harry inwardly cursed his position as the Tank, but still gave his two cents, shouting out his spell [Draining shield] as he ran towards the oncoming hell.

This spell absorbed the magic the enemy used to attack him, but didn’t stop the spell from taking effect. It was like trading HP for MP in that aspect, so Harry endured their attacks the best he could.

The MOBs automatically hated him, so there was no need to attract their attention. It only worked on a maximum of two enemies however, so he made sure to stay the hell away from the Berserk one and target only the other Wyverns.

Once he felt he had gathered enough magic however, Harry smirked an activated a high tiered spell.

“[Chain Destruction]!”

He watched with glee as pure destructive energy surged through the battlefield.

The five −already somewhat damaged − Wyverns were taken down all at once. This spell dealt the same damage to all enemies by only hitting one, as if they had been stroke by a direct attack, so long the others were of the same species and didn’t differ for more than 5 levels from each other. The area of effect was only of a few kilometers, but it was enough since the battlefield was restricted to this room.

Just at this moment, the [Square of Self-Destruction] activated at its fullest, which resulted in the boss losing an alarming amount of HP.

At the same time, Amanomahitotsu ran toward the boss.

Thanks to the hate generated by [Square of Self-Destruction] the boss wouldn’t stop attacking until it hit the crafter, Amanomahitotsu, at least once. No amount of attacks Harry did would be able to deflect this much Hate, so the Giant Crab-like heteromorph accepted his fate and allowed himself to be hit.

As though to switch with him, Harry ran to the back and began to take a role as Magical attacker.

The attack the Dragon used to attack Amanomahitotsu was quite particular however. It was the first attack it had used when they first began with this battle, a runic circle forming just in front of its jaws. That same circle was replicated just below the crafter’s feet.

“[Lightning Flare].”

A burst of lightning erupted from the ground, and Harry immediately stepped forward to resume his role as Tank.

“Everyone! Kill it quickly! It’s starting its rotation again!” Harry shouted to his team. The enemy’s life force was low enough now, so there was no reason to hold back anymore.

“[Triplet Maximize Magic — Reality Slash]!”

“Push it!”

“Roger!”

This was when the boss began attacking in earnest, using its skills back to back. Was it because it was low on HP? And most importantly, could they deplete its HP fast enough? If it reached the point where the Dragon could summon another wave of Wyverns, Harry’s team would surely perish.

 “How about it? Can we kill it in one shot?” Ancient One asked as he switched with Amanomahitotsu on the front line.

“We can do it! Everyone, target your healing items on Harry, we’ll use that for the kill!” Bellriver shouted out, which made the others chorus with agreeing exclamations.

Harry exhaled heavily at the nice feeling of being cured. He could feel his whole life force return to normal, so it was out of the measurable scale once more.

To be honest, Harry hated to use this skill, but they didn’t have many options right now. Maybe if his team had been strategically chosen, instead of it being formed at random, this wouldn’t have been necessary.

“Roger! Then let me begin!” Harry shouted at them before standing still just in front of the Dragon’s furious gaze. Taking in a deep breath, he mentally prepared for what was to come and exclaimed “[Sacrifice]!”

The boss hit him directly as expected, which made Harry bite his cheek until it drew out blood.

Pain, pain, pain, pain!

Harry took a huge amount of damage, even though he had an extremely high defense. At the same time, a black mist enveloped the whole battlefield.

“[Beacon of Hope]!” Harry forced himself to exclaim through gritted teeth, since he needed the others to hear it out.

This sacrificial ritual, only available for those who had job classes in Martyr, allowed for the others to attack without needing to preserve their defense.

That was because of the combination of these two spells. [Sacrifice] would make the next hit take 50% of his total HP, no matter how strong or weak the attack actually was, going through his high defense as if it didn’t exist. [Beacon of Hope] on the other hand, would protect one’s allies, so the enemy would not be able to damage them until it had lost the HP it had taken down on the previous hit.

Since Harry’s sacrifice exceeded the HP the Boss had left, they had deemed it unable to deal damage anymore.

It could still attack Harry freely however, since this only protected one’s teammates, and the magic would come undone if Harry were to die.

So he switched back, focusing solely on evasion and defense, as he let the others take the —now neutralized— attacks of the Dragon.

This strategy normally didn’t work so well, mostly because a Player wasn’t supposed to have such a large amount of HP as Harry did. It was only because he was the one using this magic, that they could act so freely now.

This way, Harry let the others do their part on taking down the boss.  He could hear out a combination of their most powerful skills, as well as a specific super-tier magic.

 “[Judgement of Osiris]!”

 “Here I go! [Acalanatha]! [Fudo Kensaku]!”

 “[Trailokyavijayarāja]!”

 “[Yamāntaka]!”

 “[Kundali]!”

“[Vajrayaksa]!”

The instant the attacks touched the boss, a frightening series of damage numbers that looked like they came from a multi-part attack spewed forth. Harry couldn’t help but laugh tiredly as the boss’ HP went down drastically.

And then, cracks appeared all over the boss’ body. Light flowed out from between the gaps, followed by a great explosion.

Harry’s team froze for a moment, before the overflowing joy came forward as random exclamations and cheers.

An orb floated in the place where the boss used to be. It didn’t look like a data crystal, nor did it resemble an artifact. They probably had to take it and place it on another part of this dungeon.

Harry laid his back over the walls of the room, which weren’t electrified anymore. He felt tired as shit, and his body trembled due to the attacks it had endured. His magic was about to be exhausted as well, so all he wanted to do was rest.

“Come on Harry, the boss dropped an item.” Genjiro called for him happily, which made Harry glare at him, even knowing that the other couldn’t see his expression.

“In that case, the two attackers should—” Harry began to say tiredly, not wanting to move in the next week or so.

“Harry, it’s not like that,” Ancient One interrupted him, “Things ended up like this because we could use your sacrificial skill. If you weren’t here, even if everyone played their part, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do it!”

Something along the lines of “What he said!” came from Bellriver’s direction.

“Harry, you protected us in many ways, didn’t you? It’s not just the front liners who shone in this fight, don’t you agree?” Amanomahitotsu finished, looking expectantly at him, before adding, “Come on, go take it Harry. We should hurry up and meet with the others, right?”

This was supposed to be an honor, as a way to recognize his contribution in their victory. Harry knew that, they were doing it with the best intention at heart, so he swallowed his protests with nothing but a small sigh.

“…Thank you, everyone. Then, don’t mind if I do!” Harry forced himself to exclaim as happily as he could muster, slowly moving away from the wall that had helped support his weight.

Shit it hurts, each step hurts, fuck I finished all my HP potions… and I don’t have enough magic to heal myself. Merlin, let this end—

With that mental mantra in mind, Harry reached out for the floating sphere and touched it.

In that instant, the world blacked out.

By the time he could see again, he was in a wide-open space, completely different from before. They seemed to be in a slightly-elevated place, at the top of a flight of stone steps. The ruins were located within a sprawling expanse of wilderness, but there seemed to be something glowing in the sky which cast enough light so they could see at least from 200 to 300 meters away.

The other teams were here as well, the only one missing was Momonga’s group.

Harry cursed heavily, and this time, instead of being playfully chastised by his teammates, the others followed swift with an even more colorful vocabulary.

You got to be bloody kidding me! Fuck, it hurts!

“How much longer?!” Harry heard Punitto Moe exclaim anxiously from somewhere at his left. Harry deflected an oncoming attack and fell back, so he could now see the other briefly. The Death Vine strategist seemed to be currently speaking through [Message] so Harry guessed he was talking with Momonga’s group.

“Could you hurry it up a little? Three teams have already beaten their bosses— ah, wait, Harry’s group just arrived, ok, then we all just moved on to the sixth floor— shit!”

Punitto Moe was almost struck by one of the enemies, but Touch Me had helped deflect it on the last moment.

“We ran into a constantly-respawning horde of monsters and are currently fighting. We might have to fight until everyone wins and reaches the 6th floor.”

That was most likely the case.

As soon as Harry’s group arrived, they had been forced to fight against the oncoming, non-ending horde of enemies.

Needless to say, this was a dire situation for the teleported parties. Being forced to fight even more monsters after expending their MP and limited-use skills against the boss was an arduous task.

The proper way to clear this dungeon was probably to learn which bosses would get stronger, and in which order. Then, the parties would simultaneously enter their boss fights and beat them at the same time.

But since they had cleared it on the first attempt, no one here had known that.

Curses against the shitty developers ran everywhere, but Harry stopped paying attention to his teammates.

Please hurry! Shit, it hurts!

Even if fighting under pain wasn’t exactly new for Harry, in this world he had never had the need to do so. His body was constantly failing, the reflexes he had grown accustomed to were not fast enough to repel all of the oncoming attacks, which only caused even more pain as his HP was continuously lowered.

Had he been alone, he would have been able to place a defensive ward between him and the never ending wave of enemies, but this was not an Yggdrasil spell, so he couldn’t use it now.

He didn’t know for how long he fought, nor how many times he cursed pretty much everything that came to mind, until the enemies suddenly halted and vanished, as if the battlefield had been nothing more than a cruel joke.

The sound of relieved exclamations came from everywhere around him. Looking around, he saw his guildmates cheering loudly at Momonga’s team arrival, who seemed to have appeared just now.

“Yoshaaaa! Damn we’re good, beating an unknown dungeon in one try! How about that, you shitty devs?!”

“If you want to take a toilet break, you’d better go now! Don’t miss out on what happens next!”

Momonga and the others descended the stairs, bathed in everyone’s praise. These were their accolades for beating the strongest boss, since his team had been the last to begin their fight. Harry simply laughed weakly, using his spear like an improvised cane to support his weight.

“Then, Momonga-san. Put that in there,” Touch Me pointed towards a stone plaque. There were four orbs like the one Momonga was holding, and one empty slot.

The one Harry had touched had disappeared from his hands and appeared over there automatically, but it seemed like the last one needed to be added manually.

Momonga headed straight for the plaque, and slotted his orb into the final depression. The orb fit into the indentation as though it had been sucked in, and then all the orbs glowed gently.

A scroll descended from the sky, landing beside Momonga. In its place, the plaque vanished, replaced by a richly elaborated throne.

There was no doubt that the scroll was the ownership deed, which meant that the throne was some sort of artifact. Usually, the dungeon reward was one or the other, but this seemed like an exceptional case. An artifact of this class ought to be pretty useful, since even if they didn’t like it, they could probably still sell it for a good amount.

Harry, who had been smiling tiredly while looking at the scene, suddenly froze, closing his eyes in a dreadful, tired expression. He was glad the others couldn’t see it.

A mental question had arrived to him... It seemed he could only belong to one dungeon.

“Huh? Why is the scroll not opening?” Momonga questioned in a worried tone.

Do you hearby renounce to your Property rights of the Guild Base: Inferno Volcano?

Harry sighed, looking pensively at the floor.

He used that dungeon for his tests, for his investigations regarding things his guild mates couldn’t know. He needed that personal, safe place….

But, judging by Momonga’s question, it seemed that his Guild wouldn’t be able to claim a base if he didn’t give up his.

Making up his mind, he gave the mental command to agree with his Dungeon’s dissolution.

“Oh! It opened. Shitty devs, were they trying to be dramatic or something?”

“It’s nothing new since the shitty devs are the shitty devs. You know, really shitty!”

This is fine, Harry thought with a small smile, looking at his Guildmates’ antics.

Besides, this place was big enough; he surely would be able to secure a small room for his own or something.

“Congratulations! For conquering the Great Tomb of Nazarick, you have earned the ownership rights to the Guild Homebase: Great Tomb of Nazarick,” a calm male voice resounded when Momonga opened the scroll, allowing everyone to see the contents of the title deed.

There was a cry of surprise as they looked through the data on the guild territories and income.

“This...! We can make up to 2750 levels of NPCs!”

“Ehh? Really? It’s true!”

“Why is it so high?!”

There were only nine places in the game which offered more NPC levels, at 3000. Since this place was almost on par with those, it was no wonder they were surprised.

They read through the guild home base details again, and the person who had first discovered it exclaimed again.

“The base amount is 2250, with a bonus of 500… has anyone heard of anything like this before?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Could it be that if you successfully beat a guild home base location in one shot, your maximum NPC levels increase?” Harry said lightly, he remembered having read something like that before, somewhere...

Silence fell across the group in an instant, and then someone shouted angrily:

“Uooooohhh! You shitty developers! As though anyone could do that!”

“Damn shitty devs!”

“Is that what you mean by seeking knowledge with no fear of death, you bastards?!”

The people who were venting their emotions were now laughing. In fact, everyone was laughing.

They patted each other on the back, grasping their shoulders and slapping their heads, all to celebrate the achievement they had won. Harry winced at the particularly hard strike that came from Touch Me, but other than that, endured the celebratory antics of his friends.

From the corner of his eye, Harry even noticed Ulbert and Touch Me patting each other on the back as well.

“—Then, is this an artifact?” Punitto Moe asked, staring at the throne.

“How nice of them to provide a throne for us. Then, please take your rightful place, Guildmaster Momonga-sama. After that, let’s take a commemorative picture with him in the middle!”

“Sounds good! Sounds great! Come, come! Guildmaster, come have a seat!”

Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi’s words were met with general approval, so Momonga did as he was told and sat on the throne.

And immediately after, the overlord froze in apparent shock.

“What’s wrong, Momonga-san?”

Even in a world without facial expressions, anyone would find it strange if someone suddenly froze and didn’t move.

“Is it a nanomachine depletion message?”

“No… This… this is a— a World-Class Item.”

Silence fell across the guild members, who were lined up for the photo shoot. They could not understand what Momonga was saying.

“Hey, it’s true. Seems to be a reward for clearing the dungeon on the first try,” Harry confirmed once he got closer to the World-Class Item, which seemed to be named ‘The Throne of Kings’.

A great commotion erupted from his friends upon hearing his words. At first, it was only the phrase “World-Class Item” that fell from their lips — and then it was thunderous cheering. Just like before, great shouts of “shitty devs!” rang out everywhere.

“I knew it from the start. Clearing this dungeon in one shot would give us a World-Class Item!”

“As if you really knew that, you arse!”

“Awesome! How about that?! You bastard developers!”

As everyone began dancing strangely, Momonga decided to rise from the throne and vacate it, so anyone could sit down.

Harry was too tired to do much, so he only sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. He tuned out the passing conversations of the people around him, until a particular piece actually called his attention.

 “No, no, no, Momonga-san. There’s no need for that. If the venture failed, you were willing to bear everyone’s disappointment and unhappiness, weren’t you? If that’s the case, then you should accept the praise that comes from succeeding. Otherwise it would be strange, no?” Ulbert stated, seemingly chastising the overlord about something.

“Aw, don’t be like that. I regretted this thing so many times,” Momonga spilled his guts in a thoroughly exhausted voice. The others seemed to find it amusing, but their laughs were not those of scorn.

“Got it. For all we know, this reluctance of yours might make you a good Guildmaster. Though I think it would be good if you were more of a take-charge kind of person—”

“What are you saying? Isn’t that one of Momonga-san’s virtues? I mean, aren’t we all following him because he’s like that?”

“That’s right… yes, indeed, it’s just as you say,” Touch Me said in a self-reflective voice.

 “Hey! What are you babbling about, over there? Come quick! We’re taking the photo now!”

“Come, come! Guildmaster! Have a seat on the throne!”

“Harry pick up yourself from there, you look like a deflated balloon!” Peroroncino called him over as well, which made him roll his eyes playfully before slowly standing up.

Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi practically pushed Momonga onto the throne, while everyone else took their place around the World class item. Harry, being one of the shortest on the Guild, ended up on the front just behind the Throne, at Momonga’s right side.

“All right! We’re taking the photo!”

Everyone struck a pose of some sort, using their bodily motions to compensate for the lack of facial expressions in the ‘Game’.

“Here we go! Three, two one!”

The floating orb-like camera before them was a cash item, which made the sound of a shutter clicking. At the same time, a ding-dong rang in Harry’s ears.

He knew without looking that this was the chime of a received message, as the picture of Ainz Ooal Gown materialized on his hands.

Looking at the photo warmly, Harry smiled.

It was alright, even if he didn’t have his old dungeon anymore.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5 Jaldabaoth

Harry walked down the familiarized path that led to his old base, the one he had given up in order to belong to the Great Tomb of Nazarik.

He needed to pick up the belongings he had left there after all. Still, oddly enough, he couldn’t simply apparate to it as he had gotten used to, so he didn’t have much option but to come the old-fashioned way.

Tired as he had been, he had slept for around five days straight after Nazarik’s conquest, placing notice-me-not wards around him so he wouldn’t have to worry about someone, be it ally or foe, stepping up on him.

Upon waking up however, he had remembered he had left some notes, potions, and a few other things in his old base that he would need to continue investigating, which led to his current predicament.

…Why can’t I get in?

He had arrived at the entrance that was past the lava, but there was a magical ward preventing his entrance. Not just any magical ward however, but the very same one Harry had placed to keep intruders away.

Refusing to be kept out for something Harry himself had done, he proceeded to slowly, carefully, take down his own wards. Considering how intricate he had designed them to be, he was proud of the fact that it only took him an hour.

The moment he stepped on his old base however, a Fire Salamander started to crawl towards him.

…No shit.

He would have to conquer it again just to recover his old notes?!

Harry blamed it on passing too much time with his Guildmates, but he ended up cursing out loud the developers.

Taking out his wand, he was mentally prepared to conquer the whole dungeon once more, but the Salamander surprisingly stopped. The creature tilted its head as if confused, thin tongue tasting the air experimentally before it laid down unthreateningly like a domesticated dog.

…What?

Harry stared at it blankly. Thinking it may be nothing but an alluring trap, he walked towards it slowly, wand pointed at the floor even if he was still on alert.

Upon arriving at the salamander’s side however, all the creature did was roll around so its belly was upwards. When Harry didn’t move, the Salamander rolled again, threw him an expectant look, and then rolled once more so its abdomen was up again.

What the bloody hell.

Harry slowly bent and scratched the offered, smooth belly, watching with incredulity as the huge reptile moved its rear legs as if pleased.

There was something very wrong with this.

Standing up once more, he ignored the sad noise the creature let out and continued to walk deeper into the dungeon, taking the shortest path to its heart.

Harry met the creatures he remembered, the ones he had fought against when he first conquered the place, but they all seemed to be oddly docile. The hellhounds, salamanders, phoenixes, kitsunes, slimes, infernal spirits, even the bloody Wyverns were acting as if happy to see him.

It didn’t make any sense.

Disbelievingly, Harry arrived at the heart of the dungeon in nothing but minutes. He unconsciously repeated in his head the word that would activate his emergency portkey, still convinced that this could be just an alluring trap.

After all, maybe they had let him pass through only so they could fight against him in the Raid Boss room all together. Harry would be very hard pressed to win if they implemented such a strategy.

Upon arriving, he saw the huge demon he had defeated back then. The creature was humanoid enough to stand on two feet, but it had six thin tails sprouting at its waist— that the creature used as whips — and its torso had three sets of arms.

On each arm it held a different weapon, and the multiple eyes —like those of a spider — allowed it to attack without it having any blind spots.

“Greetings intruder,” the raspy, deep voice of the Raid Boss was just as Harry remembered as well “at least that’s what I’d like to say. But there’s something different, isn’t it?”

Of all things Harry had expected, chatting calmly with the resurrected Raid Boss Demon was not among them.

“What do you mean by different?” he asked curiously, looking up to meet the demon’s gaze straight on.

“You are not here to challenge me for ownership,” the huge Boss said with a smile full of sharp teeth that made him look frightening more than anything else, “You don’t even have any killing intent… just the will of fighting in self-defense.”

“…Are you not going to attack me then? An intruder in your lair?”

“Are you, however? Even when you took control of this place, you never summoned anything. I’ve heard from my peers that other owners always summon monsters, treating them as nothing but sacrifices, the first line to die in case of invasion. Had you done that to my minions, we would be fighting right now.”

Merlin, he couldn’t be serious. That was how the world saw the POP —automatically spawned — monsters?

It was logical in a sense however, since those monsters were supposed to be part of the dungeon itself. If a Player moved from one base to the other, they would automatically lose all the POP monsters of the place they left behind.

“I am more than capable of defending my own home,” Harry confirmed, nodding warily at the demon, “Or used to, at least. This is not my place to defend anymore.”

“You’re not the owner, no. That right is mine once more;” the Raid Boss nodded its gigantic head, the long-curled horns at its top getting dangerously close to scratching the wall at its back, “Is precisely because you have a new home that I don’t mind your presence. Besides, with your level of power, you resemble one of my peers more than you do them. All they do is attack, they kill everything on their path, be it good or evil, it doesn’t seem to matter. All they ever bring is death.”

Understanding the demon was talking about other players, Harry sighed but nodded in agreement.

Players hunted down MOBs, conquered dungeons, and killed each other for the sole reason of leveling up, getting stronger, or acquiring new job classes. It was no wonder the world itself hated them.

“You don’t mind my presence then? Even when I attacked this place once in the past?”

The demon’s red eyes looked down at Harry with genuine interest, before it did the unthinkable.

The Raid Boss abandoned its weapons, and sat down cross-legged as if chatting with a friend, tails curling around his legs.

“You attacked because I was too slow to stop the guardian of my entrance,” the demon said lightly, giving off an air of tranquility, “The fact that you came here without killing anyone is proof that you don’t attack unless provoked. In a sense, we were the ones that challenged you first, hm?”

Harry looked owlishly at the Raid Boss in front of him, still unconvinced, but decided to give him a chance and sat down as well.

Due to the huge difference on size, even when Harry was sitting at the highest spot in the room, he still needed to look up to meet the demon’s gaze.

“Well then, I’ll be honest with you. The reason I came back was to recover my investigation notes, as well as the other belongings I left here.”

“I deduced as much, this was the only room you ever used, wasn’t it? The dungeon was all the same except for this place,” The demon looked around the room at the end of that phrase, as if appraising it, “I’ve never seen this kind of magic before. Its defense is so high, I won’t have to send my people to fight against intruders anymore.”

Harry nodded in agreement, that was the point of having wards after all.

Since this was the room Harry used the most, he had placed all kind of wards around the place. Now that he had personally come, the defensive magic seemed to recognize him as the caster once more, so the ties were renewed. However, it seemed that the change of ownership made it so all the original creatures of the dungeon were included on its protection, so it didn’t serve only for Harry anymore.

He curiously wondered what would the wards do if Harry fought against the demon in front of him. If the magic was supposed to protect both of them, would it simply stop the fight forcefully? Or would the magic be forced to choose only one of them to protect? Maybe it wouldn’t react at all?

“I’ll let you keep the wards if you give me back my belongings,” Harry proposed, deducing that was the point the demon was trying to get at.

“I’ll do something better. You don’t know much of this world, do you?” the Raid Boss tilted its head, leaning so it was closer to Harry. He made sure not to change his expression, but the demon had most likely read through the notes, since it confidently stated, “If you place this magic over my whole dungeon instead of just this room, I’ll teach you all you want to know.”

Harry narrowed his eyes distrustfully at the tempting offer. Was it wise to trust a demon, of all things?

Then again, there was no need to do that.

“Agreed. But only if you can swear an unbreakable oath with me,” Harry smiled invitingly, raising an arm as if to shake hands with the demon, “In this ritual magic, you will die if you don’t utter the truth, so don’t accept unless you intend to fulfill your end.”

Even after that warning, the demon extended one of its massive claws at him, gripping his whole forearm instead of just his hand due to the size difference.

“Deal.”

Harry hummed interestedly, instructing the demon to repeat his words for the oath. He paid close attention to the wording as the Raid Boss muttered it, but there was nothing wrong on it, so he mentally shrugged and said his part of the oath as well.

The thin ribbons of brilliant flame issued from the wand and wound its way around their hands like a red-hot wire. Each oath called forth a new ribbon, and in the end an interlaced glowing chain could be seen over the skin of both arms.

Deeming it sufficient, Harry finally relaxed on the other’s presence.

While he still didn’t think the demon in front of him was ‘friendly’, they had agreed to a peaceful cease on fire until both sides of the agreement were completed.

Harry had the right to get 100 questions about this world truthfully answered, only counting if the demon knew the answer and Harry understood it. If the demon wasn’t sure of the given answer, it would count as a ‘lie’ so Harry would still have 100 questions. If the demon did have the right answer, but phrased it in such a way that Harry didn’t fully understand it, it would also be insufficient.

Same with partial answers, since the demon’s oath was for its complete knowledge regarding the chosen topic, not only a part of it. Also, the questions only counted once Harry numbered them, so it wasn’t like any question uttered would count as part of their deal.

For example, Harry’s first question had been “One; what do you know about the Glacial Thunderstorm?”

Had he neglected to say the word ‘one’ at the beginning, it would not have counted into their deal, so the demon wouldn’t be bound to utter the truth.

The Raid Boss could refuse to answer a given question however, so it wasn’t like Harry could force him to say something he didn’t want to. It simply would be discarded, instead of counting on the limited amount of questions Harry had at his disposal.

In exchange, Harry was to place his wards all over the dungeon instead of just the Boss room. According to the percentage of questions answered, he was to place wards over the similar percentage of area of the dungeon, which would be chosen by the Raid Boss.

Until both sides of this agreement were fulfilled, they wouldn’t be able to harm the other.

 Considering he had only come to get his notes back, and that he didn’t mind placing some wards in the first place, this had been quite profitable.

“Well then, I’ll be taking my leave for now. Will come to visit in a couple of days or so…” Harry began to say as he picked up his belongings, which had been brought by an enthusiastic Cerberus, but suddenly paused.

“Hm, we didn’t meet properly right? My name is Harry, nice to meet you,” He added as an afterthought, looking up at the huge demon.

The Raid Boss chuckled in what seemed genuine contentment, before replying, “My given name is Jaldabaoth.”

Huh, not a weird name for a demon.

“Until next time then, Jaldabaoth,” Harry finished with a hand motion, before apparating out of the Dungeon.

It seemed he hadn’t been able to come in at first since his wards had recognized him as an intruder, but now that he had personally come to renew them, there was nothing preventing him from coming in and out as he pleased.

All was good indeed.

As such, for the next year, he passed off his mornings with his new companion— probably ‘friend’ would be accurate at this point— Jaldabaoth, even if he only had ten more questions remaining. He doubted it would impact once they were finished however, since they were more acquainted with each other’s antics at this point.

Heck, Harry even considered the creatures on that dungeon as familiars by now.

Still, since neither of them wanted to admit they had become friends, Harry left the last ten questions unasked, and the demon never again brought up the issue.

Since their oaths were still present, they were still unable to harm each other, so there was no need to be careful in their interactions. The only downside was that Harry couldn’t completely ward the Dungeon for free, so a few hallways remained, in a sense, vulnerable.

Not like the bloody apocalypse would be enough to enter that dungeon however, considering the amount of work he had placed on the wards that covered 90% of the place. It was, Harry considered, the safest place in this specific world, if one didn’t take Nazarick into account.  

There was no way he would leave his new home unwarded after all, so Nazarick enjoyed a complete protection.

Harry’s evenings were also something he looked forward to. It was at this time when he would fool around with his Guildmates, watching happily as the number of members continuously grew. The addition of new members, along with the addition of floors on their Guildbase —which was bought with an incredibly huge amount of Gold, even by their standards— and the customizing of NPCs, made for entertaining afternoons.

“Have you decided on your NPC yet Harry?” Blue Planet asked him one day, after an afternoon spent designing the 6^th Floor’s sky. It still had a long way to go for it to be finished, but it was progressing quite nicely.

“An automaton, most likely, although I’ve been thinking about creating a parasite too,” Harry answered with a shrug. Although he had been working on the programming code as a side project, he had yet to create a NPC to imbed it with those details.

“Hmm I’ve been thinking about designing some Winter Damsels to guard the 5^th along with Cocytus. I haven’t discussed it with Takemikazuchi-san though,” Blue Planet answered truthfully, scratching the back of his neck as if embarrassed.

“Probably won’t be a problem, but you can ask him just in case. His group went out to hunt, right? Something about points for a new job class?”

“Yeah, but I can go with Bellriver to the 10^th Floor in the meantime. We want to make a spa resort!”

Harry chuckled, thinking not for the first time that he was lucky this Guild liked to add so many unnecessary details. They had already created 42 rooms, one for each member, some for any possible new additions, and a few other chambers for visitors.

Since each member was on charge of designing their own room, Harry had warded his own even more heavily than he had the rest of Nazarik, before starting to place magical runes all over the, quite considerable, surface.

The area assigned for the rooms of the Guild members were meant to act as a presidential suite; capable of holding a large bathroom, a bar, a piano room, a master bedroom, a guest bedroom, a kitchen for a personal chef, a dressing room, and many other really unnecessary rooms.

Instead of doing all that, Harry had covered the floor, walls, and ceiling completely with runes, so it looked like a weird collection of graffiti all over the available surface.

As such, after a long and tedious process that took almost a whole year to complete, Harry had finally managed to replicate the Room of Requirement.

If one entered like they would a normal room, they would see nothing but an elegant, quite spacious chamber. Harry had designed it in such a way that its power was only activated if one held the doorknob without turning it for five seconds, while thinking on the space needed, and then turning the handle in the opposite direction to open the door.

His efforts were more than worth it however. Just like it used to work on Hogwarts, the room was capable of transforming into any given space so long it actually existed and could be created or summoned with magic.

Although food and potions seemed to be part of what it couldn’t summon, it was capable of replicating the ingredients at least. For example, although it couldn’t become an Apothecary no matter how much Harry wished for it, it could still transform into a forest that would have the ingredients, like Lightning Mushroom, available.

This was to be expected; considering it was part of the limitations the original room had had in Hogwarts.

Just like the one present on his old school, the room in itself wasn’t static. If Harry were to wish for additional details once inside the room, the magic would add it even if he was already inside, so long it was possible.

The space he had available was also limited however. Even if the room itself had an undetectable expansion charm on it, it didn’t mean it could suddenly hold in a whole building, like a castle, in it. As such, Harry could only wish for things that would fit among one floor.

Considering each Floor in Nazarik had a huge area, he deemed it was more than sufficient.

“Well then, let’s leave it like this for today.” Blue Planet’s voice brought Harry back to the present, so he only nodded distractedly.

“See you later then.”

Harry stretched as he watched his guildmate leave the 6th Floor, before deciding to go pay a visit to another friend on the 8th.

“How is it going?” Harry greeted the Brain Eater that was currently working on his NPC, Rubedo.

Tabula Smaragdina tensed upon hearing him, obviously startled, before he held up a hand in a ‘wait’ motion. It was only after he was finished writing something into the NPC’s code that he turned to greet him.

“Good Lord Harry, you should put on a bell or something,” Tabula reprimanded playfully, which made Harry smirk at him.

“It’s not my fault you’re too immersed in your work to notice the outside world,” He replied lightly before looking at the female NPC the other was customizing “Almost done?”

“No, I haven’t written the background yet.” Was the immediate response, long fingers closing the book he had been writing on with a soft thud, before the item disappeared.

The way to code the NPCs was via writing in specific books, which would disappear into the creation once it wasn’t in use. The creator— or Guildmaster— could take out the book to modify it as many times as they decided, be it to add or delete stuff, but at the end of the day it would always go back inside the NPC’s body, as if it were some sort of intangible object.

“You’re too perfectionist,” Harry stated not for the first time, which made the brain eater smack him on the back playfully.

“Not really, you’re just too carefree Harry-s... ugh, sorry. No honorifics, right?”

“Thanks for remembering, I never get used to them.”

“Sorry, sorry, I use them daily on work, so it’s kinda habit at this point, you know?” Tabula shrugged, before pointing one long finger at him as if accusing “It’s your fault though, what kind of person comes to Japan without liking honorifics? It’s part of the culture!”

“Ahh please don’t, it makes me feel old for some reason,” Harry breathed out exaggeratedly, as if the mere concept of it tired him.

Tabula laughed, and they passed off the time with the Brain Eater teasing Harry by adding ‘Sama’ to his name, to which he reacted by feigning sickness.

“Please stop, you’ll kill me,” Harry whined, supporting his weight on the wall with fake weakness as they walked out of the 8th Floor and towards the 10th.

“Oh please,” Tabula said while laughing, pausing for a moment before changing the topic “Hey Harry, have you decided yet on your NPC?”

“Ah, I haven’t decided the race yet, although I have some bits of the code. Care to have a look?”

“Sure thing.”

Harry took the book out of his inventory— something he hadn’t known existed until he met the clan of Nine’s Own Goal — and passed it to Tabula.

They walked in amiable silence as the Brain Eater read through the code written so far, while Harry busied himself by looking around the floor and making sure his friend didn’t collide with something on their path. Walking and reading at the same time wasn’t the best of ideas after all.

“It’s coming on good. If you want the NPC to have that kind of multitasking function though, it would have to be either an automaton or a parasite.” Tabula said as he closed the book and returned it to Harry. Since he hadn’t created anything but the code yet, the item didn’t disappear, so Harry placed it back on the inventory with a sigh.

“Yeah, I thought the same. I’m not sure which to pick though.”

“Well, I think Wish III-san is working on an Automaton for the 9^th Floor already…”

“Ah, the ‘Six Sisters’ project, right? Should I go with a parasite then?”

“It’s up to you, frankly I think no one is intending to use that one. Ah, and I think it’s named ‘Pleiades Six Stars’ now? I remember Yamaiko-san said something like that.”

Harry hummed in interest, the topic changing to focus on the Pleiades project. A small group of people of the Guild was working on it, while others focused on the floor’s strengthening and/or customizing other NPCs.

Seriously, Harry always noticed a new addition whenever he came back to Nazarik, and he came daily.

The rest of the day passed in the blink of an eye, with Harry helping with the design of this or that part of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. New traps were added, NPCs were modified, and the design of some floors changed in a few details.

Once everyone retired for the day however, Harry decided to speak with Jaldabaoth. There was something he needed to check before starting to work on his NPC after all.

Apparating directly on Inferno Volcano, he arrived at the chamber that was just before the Raid Boss room. Harry waited for only a short moment before the raspy voice of the demon invited him in, so he entered calmly after petting the Salamander that guarded the entrance.

“Hi Jald, how’s everything?” Harry greeted as usual, which made the demon humph exasperatedly.

“I’ve told you not to call me that,” Jaldabaoth said without energy, distractedly, as if it was just a passing comment. Since Harry never listened to his complaints, the demon had begrudgingly accepted it wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

“Sorry, sorry,” Harry said in a voice that was mockingly apologetic “are you busy?”

“Do I look like I’m busy?” the demon, who was laying on his back while reading one of the books Harry had lent him, replied with a mocking tone. Harry snorted before sitting down at his side, which made the demon close the —ridiculously small in comparison to the demon’s hands — book and sit up.

“Sorry to bother you this late. I just wanted to ask about something,” Harry’s apology was actually sincere this time around, but the other simply made a hand motion to dismiss it.

“You’re always a bother, no matter at which time you come,” the raid boss said in a jokingly fed up voice “What is it now?”

Harry took in a deep breath, but sighed instead of speaking up. Truth be told, this was something he had wondered often since Nazarik’s conquest, but he had been reluctant to ask about it.

If Harry really was going to create a NPC however, he needed to know.

“Are you familiar with the term ‘NPC’?” he muttered after a short pause, sharp emerald eyes completely focused on the demon to gauge his reaction.

However, instead of the angered or disgusted expression he had been expecting to see, Jaldabaoth simply sighed calmly.

“Yes, I’ve heard of them. The Killing Machines create them from scratch using a rare ritual; playing to be God,” the demon said, mentioning the nickname he always used when speaking about the players “They might as well be, at least from their creation’s perspective. I’ve never seen one with my own eyes, but one of my peers mentioned that they seemed happy to live, to serve their creators however they could.”

Harry hummed in interest, nodding in understanding. He had suspected after hearing Jaldabaoth speak about the life of POP monsters, that the NPCs may be considered as living beings as well.

Not even Harry could interact with them however. In his eyes, they only had an idle mode and a roaming mode, programmed facial expressions, and couldn’t speak save for a few, pre-determined phrases.

Just like machines. Nothing more than realistic dolls.

 Looking up at the ceiling, he organized his thoughts before looking back at Jaldabaoth, commenting with a deceivingly light voice:

“I see. It seems I’ll be allowed to create one as well…” seeing no reaction on his friend; Harry exhaled in relief and continued, “but I’m unsure. Is it really something I should do? Create life like that?”

The demon at his side raised a huge hand, before placing it over Harry’s back reassuringly, in a way that was surprisingly careful.

“If you were to choose between existing and not existing, isn’t the former the best? Between being something and being nothing, even if life ends up being hellish, it’s better than to not have lived at all.”

Well, that was surprisingly philosophic.

“I guess that’s true. I don’t want to be seen as some sort of God though…”

“Well, the Killing Machines create their personalities too. Just make it so they are aware you’re not a deity,” the demon shrugged, taking back his massive hand to scratch his jaw pensively “I wonder if they would be stupid enough to believe that however. After all, if you truly were a deity, the world would be done for.”

Harry snorted at the teasing, smacking the demon’s arm good-naturedly as he played the offended role.

“You’re too exaggerated for a demon. Aren’t you supposed to be unemotional?”

“I’m not some kind of automaton. And it’s not exaggeration when it comes to you, part of me really does think you could end up blowing up the planet,” Jaldabaoth said with a smirk “You’re that kind of idiot.”

“Woah, thanks for having so much faith on me. I’m touched, really,” Harry replied while rolling his eyes.

The rest of the night was passed off with playful banter, so Harry only left when morning arrived once more.

Still pensive, he didn’t start working on the design of his NPC until a week later. He waited until his Guildmates left for the day, before placing his hand over the doorknob of his room.

I need to appear as offline was the thought on his head as he imagined a spacious, mostly empty room.

If he wanted to focus on this, he would probably need a few days to work uninterrupted after all.

Once the five seconds had passed, he turned the knob on the opposite direction and entered the room, which was empty except for the minimum necessities.

Sitting down at the edge of his bed, he took the book out of his inventory and finally went towards the sheet that described race and appearance.

Having finally decided on a parasite race, Harry thought about the list of sub-species that fitted his criteria. In the end, from the available options, he chose it to be a Zerg.

He intended to use the NPC as personal assistant however, so having hands to manipulate the objects was a must. With this in mind, he started to write about the most human-like appearance he could phantom.

It took him all night and a great portion of the following morning, but Harry had managed to finish the carcass of what would be his NPC, which had started to materialize in front of him as Harry wrote and drew it on the book.

While the head looked human enough, with short black hair and smooth, pale white skin, the rest of the body from the collarbone and below was only humanoid in shape.

The torso, arms, and legs were covered with an exoskeleton that served as a natural light armor —comparable to modern technology in terms of toughness— its color being a dark wine-red. It was as if a human had chosen to cover their skin with egg shells and then painted over them, having the skin covered in wide, insect-like scales.

It looked human enough, if one ignored the sharp claws present on both, hands and feet. Although not overly long, it was obvious they were part of its natural weapons.

Even if one managed to ignore all these characteristics, the thin, skeletal wings could not pass unnoticed. The wings that sprouted from its back were like that of a bat, except there was no meat nor skin on them, and could extend until they were twice the length of the owner’s height.

Looking at his progress, Harry nodded to himself in a satisfied manner.

Even if this NPC wasn’t meant to be combat-oriented, this species was the perfect option.

The Zerg race was a terrifying and ruthless amalgamation of biologically advanced, arthropod parasites. Dedicated to the pursuit of genetic perfection, the Zerg relentlessly hunted down and assimilated advanced species across the nine Worlds, incorporating useful genetic code into their own.

It was to the point of having their own ‘Game event’ in which players had to prevent them from taking over the world. The player community despised them since, due to the parasite’s tendency to mutate, they always discovered new sub-species with new attacks and magic resistances.

More than that however, the most frightening aspect was the fact that the race was mentally linked to a greater creature normally denominated ‘Overmind’ so all the individual units could act as a single entity, frequently conveying information received in order to make decisions.

Harry had fought against a colony once in his first year, and it wasn’t pretty in the slightest.

Jaldabaoth had cemented that image, when they had talked about that race. All Zerg breeds were efficient killers and possessed special abilities that, combined with their one-mind asset, always ended up in the destruction of its enemies.

Harry had been lucky to find the Overmind of that specific colony; otherwise it would have been much more difficult to deal with. He guessed it had been an ‘event’ of some kind, since he had been rewarded with some rare Data Crystals.

As such, the NPC in front of him was of the sub-race “Overmind”. Harry had already written pieces of code regarding the Commander abilities it needed, as well those focused on analysis —such as Divination magic— and adaptation —like the Changeling race classes.

The Zergs had a high rate of reproduction, which was transferred on the NPC as the ability to create new Zergs with a short cooling time between each creation—although it increased according to the power level of the summons. The new creatures were automatically linked to the Overmind, so even if they weren’t proficient on One-on-one battles, attacking in group would be hard to overcome for the enemy party.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the Zerg, as a whole, could be considered to be a macro-organism, a kind of “slave race" to whatever entity controls them, which normally consisted on an Overmind per colony.

Following this definition, even if his NPC ended up having many lesser creations, it would still count as only one NPC with level 100 on the total levels the Guild had available. It was the same principle they had used to create the Area Guardian Kyouhukou, which had a room enclosed with its daily summons of cockroaches.

Generally, communication between Zerg members was done through psionic, mentally, but Harry designed his NPC to be able to process, understand and issue vocal commands.

“Well then, how shall I name you?” Harry asked out loud even as he started to equip his NPC with weapons and useful items “Should be something fitting for a personal assistant.”

He thought it over even as he worked on the NPC’s specific set of details. In the end, it was only after adding the rest of Racial levels and Job levels that he decided upon a name.

“Jarvis. Yes, he was the best assistant I’ve known at least… it’s fitting, don’t you think? I will name you Jarvis.”

The NPC, as expected, simply remained stoic. Harry wondered if Jaldabaoth would see something different, but customized NPCs couldn’t leave the Guildbase. He couldn’t exactly bring the Raid Boss to Nazarik either, so he would have to imagine his new assistant could hear and understand him.

It felt like speaking alone however. He really hoped it wouldn’t turn into a bad habit.

“Well then, let’s place the vocal commands so you can lend me hand on my investigations,” Harry muttered smiling, patting the NPC’s shoulder.

The NPCs didn’t understand any commands other than those originally programmed to them, which meant that Harry and the others had to use specific words for them to accept the order. For example, if one ordered them to “Stop” but the command programmed was called “Idle mode” they would ignore the order and continue.

This way, since Harry needed his NPC’s help for very specific tasks, he ended up passing the day adding accepted orders, as well as adding descriptions to the background lore.

A couple of days after his initial isolation, Harry let himself fall heavily over the only bed in the room.

“Merlin, I can’t tease Tabula’s perfectionism anymore. It would be highly hypocritical,” he muttered tiredly before yawning.

Sighing sleepily, he decided to rest for the few hours he still had left, at least until it would be late enough for his Guildmates to come.

“I’ll present you to my friends later… they’re quite the lively bunch. I’m sure you’ll get along just fine,” He muttered softly so it was little more than a whisper, before falling asleep.

As Homunculus, sleep and food were still required to survive. However, he had quite recently found and equipped a ring to make such things unnecessary, so he was sleeping to rest his mind more than because he actually needed to.

By the time he woke up, most of his Guildmates were already ‘online’.

Stretching lazily, he stood still until all traces of sleep were gone, before making a head motion for the NPC.

“Follow me.”

He passed a great portion of the day ‘presenting’ Jarvis to his comrades, who never failed to summon the NPC’s inner book to take a look at the coding. Some whistled playfully upon seeing its width, some others simply congratulated him, some asked for advice with their own NPCs, and last—

“And you called me perfectionist!” was the accusing cry of Tabula upon seeing the, quite heavy, book of the NPC.

“Woops, did I say that?” Harry had feigned innocence, which only made the teasing worse.

Since not all members came at the same time or on the same days, it took around a week for everyone to meet Jarvis, but it was generally well-accepted.

“Where are you intending to place him?” Punitto Moe asked after reading the NPC’s code, the book disappearing from his vine-like hands.

“I’m honestly not sure. I was thinking about the 9^th floor.” At least on the mornings, when Harry was alone, so Jarvis could help him investigate. He didn’t know where to place him on the evenings however.

“Well, the 10^th already has Albedo in it, and the 9^th has Sebas, so maybe another Floor would be more useful?” Momonga said pensively, before turning towards the Death Vine for advice.

“The 8^th is ridiculously strong already, what with Rubedo and Victim in it— oh, wait, it’s a summoner Zerg right? so what about placing it on the 6^th? It could act as support for Chagama-san twins, and ambushes should be easy to perform among so many trees,” Punitto Moe replied, hands moving as he explained his reasoning.

“That’s fine by me. I’ll let her know so we can make the NPCs work together,” Harry nodded in approval. If friendly fire were active, it would be a bad idea since so many summoned creatures would probably just get in the way of Mare’s wide-ranged attacks, but members of an allied party couldn’t harm each other.

“I’ll leave it to you.”

Reaching that decision, Jarvis was programmed to spend the mornings on the 9^th Floor guarding Harry’s room, and the evenings on the 6^th hiding among the trees among the summoned zergs. The time it took him to move from one floor to the other was too long for Harry’s liking however, so he ended up adding the [Gate] spell to his arsenal.

The days moved on peacefully, Harry advanced faster in his investigations now that he had an assistant, and Jaldabaoth was seemingly a never-ending source of information that only led to new tests and experiments.

At this moment, all was good in Harry’s life.

But life was always a mixture of ups and downs, and he had been living on the upside for long enough, it seemed.

“I’ll be quitting the game.”

After only a year since Jarvis’ creation, this particular phrase was starting to become more, and more common. As such, Harry watched as the 42 members that had once been part of their Guild, of Ainz Ooal Gown, went down to 35 as people started to leave the game.

They would go with Momonga to leave their equipment— as well as pretty much everything that had been present on their inventory— before quitting, which probably only made it harder for the overlord.

Harry watched them leave with a sad smile, wondering if this was only the beginning.

As time passed by, the remaining members didn’t really come that often anymore, and a few more started to quit as well for personal, real-life reasons.

Nazarick, once filled with activity on pretty much all evenings, was now mostly habited by the patrolling NPCs. Harry wondered if Momonga would start recruiting more people now that the Guild was growing smaller, but the overlord never indicated any such thing.

“They… they left me their equipment. It’s possible they may choose to come back, don’t you think?” Momonga had said sadly. Harry had smiled thinly, knowing that scenario wasn’t going to happen, but refused to say as much to his friend.

“The Three Burning Eyes Guild has been moving around too, sending spies to join other guilds in order to steal information… it would be dangerous to bring on new members,” Harry added, which made the overlord nod enthusiastically.

“Yes, exactly! We need to be careful.”

Having found the perfect justification to keep the Guild small as it was, the group of five that still met regularly – Harry included – went off to hunt.

Well, it was probably just temporary. The others’ departure was still fresh on everyone’s mind, so Momonga would probably recruit more people once he got over it.

With this thought in mind, Harry passed the following days with this small group of friends, wondering what the future would hold for them.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6 NPCs

How long has it been since I came down here?

Harry thought as he slowly walked through the hall that led deeper into the treasury. He looked around curiously, admiring the work Momonga and the others had done. Harry didn’t have a hand on the crafting of this particular area, so he always ended up seeing things, small details, that he hadn’t noticed before.

However, just as he reached the common area —which was just before the room that warded the strongest items— he halted in surprise.

A doppelganger was standing at the middle of the room.

Well, Harry was completely sure that hadn’t been here before. Now that so many had left the Guild, who would—?

…Ah, now that he thought about it, Momonga had yet to create his NPC.

Curious, he walked over to the idle NPC —seemingly named Pandora’s Actor— and started to check his character sheet. The background written was particularly amusing, Harry was seriously tempted on teasing Momonga to death, but the moment he changed from background towards the set of skills, all his good humor disappeared.

That was because this NPC had been created to copy them.

With a limit of 50 pre-set characterizations, the ones written on the Doppelganger were only up to one third of the Guild, but it was obvious Momonga intended to place the entire Guild, all 42 of them, within his NPC.

He must miss them terribly.

Right now, only ten members remained, but they didn’t come nearly as regularly as before. At this point in time, pretty much only Momonga and Ulbert kept on with their daily connections, so they were only three when going out to hunt.

Even worse, all three of us are Magic Casters, so we always end up summoning Mercenary NPCs. Merlin, it’s taking a toll on our gold.

Shaking off the depressive thoughts, he closed the book; which disappeared from his hand and into the doppelganger.

Smiling sadly at this new creation, he simply patted Pandora’s shoulder while muttering “Good work,” before going to the deepest part of the treasury, his original destination.

Placing the item along with the others, he sighed tiredly and left the room.

He didn’t come to this room again until half a year later. Since all the gold normally was automatically transported here when Momonga and him collected it in their regular hunts, coming personally was only necessary when it was an item of some kind.

Ulbert had ended up abandoning the game due to a very serious ‘Real-Life’ situation. The enterprise he used to work in had suddenly declared bankruptcy, so he was too busy searching for something else to play games anymore.

The goat demon had said he would come back once he found something, but once he finally did connect again, it was only to say he was quitting permanently, leaving behind all his equipment to Momonga.

To say the Guildmaster was utterly crushed would be an understatement.

There were only two of them now; at least, only two of them that ‘connected’ regularly. The guild still had another four members, but since those never came, they might as well have abandoned it too.

Sighing, Harry looked at the divine item held in his hands. He had been lucky, obtaining it from one of the players he PKed this morning, so he had come to the treasury to leave it with the others.

Reaching the wide area that was just before the place where the strongest items were contained, Harry was surprised to see the doppelganger again.

The clothes had been changed, it now seemed to be wearing something like a military uniform, the jacket hanging off his shoulders instead of it being properly wore.

“It’s been a while, hm? How are you?” Harry spoke out loud. Since he knew the NPCs were ‘alive’ even if he couldn’t interact with them properly, he always talked with them. This was a habit Momonga was picking from him actually, which amused him to no end.

Walking past the idle NPC, he tipped the military hat downwards in a playful manner.

Now that he thought of it… wasn’t it similar?

His son, James, had gotten on a rebellious phase where he simply had refused to comb his— already messy— hair, so Harry had ended up buying all kind of hats and caps to cover the unruly mane of his oldest son.

James used to have a cap similar to this one, didn’t he? Not military of course, but the shape…

He smiled happily, feeling nostalgic. Harry had always tipped James’ hat downwards when greeting him, which would make his son stick out his tongue in mock annoyance.

Leaving the hat obscuring Pandora’s eye sockets, Harry went towards the deepest part of the treasury to place the divine item along with the others currently unused.

It was morning, so he still had some hours before Momonga came back. He didn’t feel like visiting Jaldabaoth so soon however, considering he had seen the demon just the day before, so Harry decided to walk around Nazarik.

He couldn’t remember the last time he explored his own Guild base, after all.

Walking back towards the zone preceding this one, he did a double-take upon seeing Pandora’s Actor.

The hat had been accommodated.

…how odd. Was it part of its programming? Maybe one of the macros made it so the NPC would place his hat at a certain angle, after a certain period of time had passed. After all, even when they were supposed to be alive, they never did anything not previously programmed into their code.

Dismissing the action, Harry smirked playfully and tipped it downwards once more before using the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to teleport out of the Treasury.

He only detoured around the 4^th floor however, improving a few random protections and traps before he noticed Momonga’s online status. Going towards the meeting room to greet the overlord, they didn’t stay long in the Guild base and instead got out in a mission together.

Most days passed like this, so Harry didn’t come down to the treasury until a couple of months later.

This time, the item he had gotten his hands on was a rare Crystal Data. On normal circumstances, he would have shown it off to Momonga, but the overlord had warned that he wasn’t going to log in for a week, due to accumulated work he had in real life.

Harry was getting bored without his friend around. Jaldabaoth was good to speak with, but the Raid Boss never left the dungeon, so there were only so many things they could do.

Passing at Pandora’s side, he tipped the hat down with an automatic, subconscious motion, not pausing on his walk towards the deepest part of the treasury.

Once again, by the time he came back, the hat was already properly accommodated.

Walking towards him, Harry chuckled and tipped the hat once more, this time upwards.

“It really is similar, isn’t it?” Harry looked warmly at it, before taking the tip and yanking it downwards lightly, so it was covering the NPC’s eye sockets once more “Really similar. I should thank Momonga for choosing this, it’s so nostalgic.”

Patting the NPC’s shoulder twice, he used the ring to get out of the treasury after muttering a farewell.

Last time, he had only gotten around the 4^th Floor, but now Momonga was going to be absent for a few days. He should be able to complete a tour now.

Deciding he wanted to start in order, he went to the deepest part of the Guild base, the 10^th Floor. Harry’s footsteps echoed in the passage to the Royal Suite, followed by the sound of his Spear —his main weapon, improved by the blacksmith of the Guild— striking the ground. After turning a few times around the corners of the wide hall, he saw a woman walking towards him in the distance.

As per its program, once they were close to each other Yuri Alpha stepped to the side and bowed deeply at Harry. He almost passed without giving her more than a brief glance and a quick salute, but halted upon noticing something.

The glasses… weren’t they slightly crooked?

Lifting his right hand towards the Pleiade’s face, he gently accommodated the glasses.

“That’s better, right?” Harry ended up saying, nodding to himself before continuing to walk once more. Still, why would her glasses be crooked on the first place?

He passed through the deserted hallways musing about this oddity. The only semblances of life present in Nazarick nowadays were the NPCs, which roamed around at specific intervals, in a pre-determined patrol route.

Harry always greeted them whenever he crossed paths with anyone, but this was the first time he had noticed something out of place in them.

Walking just outside the Meeting Room he and Momonga used to greet each other, he encountered Solution Epsilon. The assassin slime did the same as her older sister, stepping towards the wall before bowing at him.

Harry looked at her, halting upon noticing another peculiarity.

Wasn’t the maid-diadem a little too loose? It was already threatening to fall down from her golden hair.

Frowning lightly in confusion, he raised both hands and placed the diadem rightly over her head.

“Well, we couldn’t leave it like that, right?” Harry said lightly, patting the head of the Pleiade before walking down the hallways once more. Deciding he wanted to take a quick look at the Throne room, he passed through the circular room covered to the top on handmade Golems, waiting for the great doors to open automatically before going in.

Upon entering however, Harry halted in surprise for a moment, before mentally shrugging and continuing his stride.

Albedo was standing still just at the Throne’s left side, but what surprised him was the World item held in her delicate hands. It wasn’t supposed to be here, so Harry deduced Tabula had given it to her at some point.

There was no harm on it however, since no invader could hope to reach this floor.

Nazarick had been invaded only once, by an alliance of eight guilds, players and mercenary NPCs, which made their army a grand total of one thousand five hundred people. They had predictably perished upon reaching the 8^th Floor, but the fact that the first seven had been surpassed had made Harry go and thank all the NPCs that had died for their good work, showering them with heart-felt praises.

Harry had been very pleased to see that his wards could only be surpassed by the use of the World item Ouroboros, which was one of the main Twenty World Items, said to be a superior version of the Super-Tier Magic "Wish Upon A Star."

Momonga had explained to a stupefied Harry that the world item could directly make contact with the operating company who was responsible for the development of YGGDRASIL and request one wish the holder of Ouroboros wants granted from them.

Harry had been searching for this one-time-use item ever since. If he could speak with those people, maybe he would be able to understand why this fictional world was real enough for him to live in.

Not like he had had so much luck however.

Coming back to the present, Harry ignored the Guardian Overseer and instead looked around the Throne room nostalgically, warmly remembering happier, much livelier times.

It was so sad they had to leave. But one couldn’t compare a ‘Game’ with the responsibilities real life held, so there wasn’t much to do about it.

Smiling nostalgically at the empty Throne, he finally walked around it to examine Albedo’s World item.

He didn’t focus much on the item however, once he noticed yet another oddity.

One of her pure, white gloves —which were supposed to cover all the way up to the elbow— was missing, so only her right hand was covered.

Raising an eyebrow, Harry looked around briefly, before noting the glove was hanging unassumingly from the throne’s back.

Well, that was certainly odd. Was Momonga pulling a joke on him? With her, there had been already three NPCs with appearances out of the norm.

Smiling amusedly at the thought of someone doing all this just for the heck of it, Harry took the glove from the Throne and turned towards Albedo.

“Arms on front,” Harry gave the pre-determined command, so Albedo extended her arms in front of her. Placing the glove on her left hand, Harry ended the command with “Rest,” so she returned to her previous position.

“I wonder if the others are like this too,” Harry muttered pensively, studying Albedo’s form before deciding to leave the Throne room.

Whatever had happened to the female NPCs, it seemed to be highly contagious, because each and every NPC he encountered had a little something that wasn’t supposed to be like that. It reached to the point where Harry was actively searching for the NPCs, wondering what would be wrong with the next one.

One of the ribbons on Entoma’s shoulder was unmade, so he had stepped closer to tie it up. Pestonya’s hat wasn’t covering her canine eyes properly so he had raised a hand to accommodate it, Lupusregina’s collar was untied around her neck, Éclair’s bow was crooked, the list just went on and on.

If Harry didn’t know any better, he would say the NPCs were like children misbehaving to get their parent’s attention. Seriously, all of the ones he had encountered on the 10^th and 9^th Floor had had something to fix, the homunculi Level 1 maids included.

Going towards the 8^th, Harry walked around the desolated land for a long time, but all the NPCs he found looked normal enough.

It really had been a prank then.

Whoever had made it seemed to have done it only on those two floors, after all. Still, he had more than enough time to spare, so Harry went to check the other floors as well.

“Oh, you too? I wonder why the 8^th Floor was spared.” Harry chuckled as he fixed the ornaments out of place in the Evil Lords, as well as Demiurge’s tie once he found him. It had been a little loose, Harry probably wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t searching for any oddities on the NPCs.

A walk all over Nazarick revealed that most NPCs had something off, except for the ones that didn’t have any visible items, like Cocytus. There was nothing to fix if they didn’t have anything equipped on after all.

This way, he buttoned up Aura and Mare’s vests, tied up the ribbon on Shalltear’s hat, accommodated the crown on Kyouhukou’s cockroach head, and so on.

It was only once he was at Nazarik’s entrance that he noticed he hadn’t paid attention to the Guild Base at all. Too focused on the NPCs, he hadn’t checked the floors’ structure as he had originally meant to.

He didn’t feel like going through all the floors again so soon however.

Internally groaning for getting side-tracked, he mentally shrugged and decided to go to his room. Using the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, he teleported directly in the hallway that led to it.

“Hi Jarvis,” Harry saluted upon noticing his NPC, which was on idle mode, warding Harry’s room as he did all mornings, “well, at least you don’t have anything out of norm.”

Then again, maybe that was because he didn’t have anything equipped over the exoskeleton, other than a necklace and some bracelets. Harry had focused on improving Jarvis’ stats more than anything, after all, since this was the best strategy when it came down to this kind of race.

It was the same reason Cocytus didn’t have anything equipped either.

Since their exoskeleton acted also as their armor, Harry and Warrior Takemikazuchi had decided to strengthen it with the increase of their level and the use of data crystals. The good thing about this decision was the convenience of not needing to replace the equipment should it be damaged, since it would be repaired when the NPC’s HP was restored. It wouldn’t drop upon death like normal equipment and it provided many other small benefits as well.

However, the drawback was that the exoskeleton's hardness, toughness and other stats would always be comparatively lower than player equipment of a similar level. It was almost impossible for a level 100 weaponized body like Cocytus' or Jarvis’ to reach the stats of divine level equipment.

Their weapons had been created to make up for that. Cocytus, as a warrior, was focused on attack, but Jarvis wasn’t supposed to be on the front either way, so Harry had focused on giving him defensive, evasive and healing items.

Arriving to his door, Harry thought about the Potions room he needed before turning the knob on the opposite direction, with a quick instruction to Jarvis to follow him in.

“Everyone seemed to have something out of place today,” Harry talked one-sided with Jarvis as he prepared the table of ingredients “Ah, Jarvis, pass me the Ent’s Sap. Oddly enough, only the 8^th Floor was normal, everyone else had— oh thanks, everyone else had a little something to fix on their appearance, you know?”

Harry emptied the flask over the cup he was using to mix up the ingredients. He needed to form a paste before pouring it on the cauldron.

“I wonder if Momonga was playing a prank? I ought to ask him once he returns tomorrow. Here, mix these up and tell me once you’re done. I’ll be preparing the cauldron.”

The rest of the day, as well as the following, passed by with Harry investigating in his room. Normally, once evening came Jarvis was supposed to leave towards the 6^th floor, but he had overridden the program with a command.

It was only after finishing the 3^rd batch when he noticed the time. His friend would probably come over soon.

“Let’s leave it like this for today. Thanks Jarvis, you can go to the 6^th floor now.”

The human-shaped Zerg nodded once, before leaving the room. Harry had warded it so no [Gate] could be used inside, so the NPC needed to be at least on the hallway before using it.

Deciding to wait over for Momonga on the Meeting room, Harry passed the time reading until he felt a presence suddenly materializing at his side.

“Hi Momonga, how—“ Harry started to say, intending on telling him about the NPCs oddities.

He never finished that sentence however. Even if the Overlord couldn’t change his expression, the lowered head and fallen shoulders spoke volumes of his friend’s humor.

Momonga looked utterly devastated, defeated.

“What happened? Is everything ok in real life?”

Are you going to leave as well?

“Ah… yeah, all fine. I just…” Momonga started before sighing heavily “I can’t believe Yggdrasil is going to disappear. The game is going to be de-activated.”

Harry stared numbly at Momonga, not processing his words.

“What… ah, an announcement? What exactly did it say?” Harry managed to say after a pause, even if he still couldn’t believe his ears.

“You didn’t receive it? Harry, you really should fix your email account, you know?” Momonga said with sad smile, at least by the sound of it. The overlord’s mannerism seemed to be resigned.

As Momonga told him about the ending date, as well as the other details the announcement had entailed, Harry started to focus on how much time he had to prepare for the end of this world.

Maybe if this news hadn’t surprised him so much, Harry would have investigated more about the odd behavior on the NPCs.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7 Servants

The first thing he did after receiving the news was, logically, speak with Jaldabaoth.

“The World is ending,” the demon greeted him before Harry could say anything, voice calm as if stating that the sky was blue.

“…You knew?”

“Only a few hours ago, but yes.”

Harry looked up at him owlishly, too startled to react before he frowned in confusion.

“I’ve always wondered, how exactly do you gather information of this World? I’ve never seen you leave the Volcano.”

This was not the first time Harry had asked this, but the demon had always refused to answer him. Harry wondered if that would change now that the World was ending, so he waited patiently for his friend’s response.

“… there’s no need for me to leave,” Jald stated after a while, looking pensively at the ceiling, “and to be honest, I’m not sure either… I just know.”

“Like a thought coming from nowhere? One moment you don’t know and at the next you do?”

“Harry, the world is ending. Does it matter how I know things or not?” the demon replied tiredly, leaning back against the wall of the room, “We don’t have much time left.”

Harry sighed, mumbled a heartfelt apology, and laid his weight on the wall as well.

“Only a month. Why announce the end when there’s only a month left?” Harry wondered out loud, looking at the ceiling, “Shouldn’t they have given more time?”

“They? You speak as if there was something out there causing this,” the demon stated in confusion, and Harry wisely chose to remain silent.

“…Well, it doesn’t make much of a difference. The world ends when it needs to,” Jald continued after it became apparent Harry wasn’t going to speak.

“I am aware of that.”

And Harry really was. This wasn’t the first world he had lived in, after all, “I just can’t understand the reason it needs to end. I can’t see anything wrong with it.”

“And yet, it will happen regardless of whether you understand it or not,” Jald shrugged carelessly before crossing the upper pair of arms over his chest, the other two pairs resting at his sides, “Nothing we can do but prepare for that.”

Harry closed his eyes and exhaled heavily, before nodding in agreement.

“Prepare indeed,” Harry said after a while, much more determined, as he pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning on, “Need to pack things up, as many as possible.”

The demon looked at him oddly, in such a way Harry could imagine him quirking an eyebrow, if he had had any.

“It’s the end of the World. Why would you need to pack things?”

“Better leave everything in order, don’t you think?” Harry replied with a shrug, which made Jald humph in annoyance.

“Fine, don’t tell me. You’ve always been an odd one either way.”

“I try,” Harry said with a smirk, before waving at the demon, “I’ll come back in a few days.”

“See you then.”

Harry apparated out of the dungeon, going back to Nazarick once more. It was early in the morning, probably around 3 a.m. so he still had enough time to prepare for it all.

Since Momonga had said he would stay until the final day, he would only have the mornings and early evenings to pack everything.

“Come on Jarvis, we have a lot of things to do and very limited time,” Harry said as greeting, activating the Room of requirement before entering his chambers.

If the world was ending, he would need as many samples as possible from potions and magical plants and creatures. Once that was done, he would need to go to the treasury and take all of the Legendary items, Divine Gear and… World items.

Harry hadn’t done anything yet, but he still felt somewhat guilty. Since those were the treasures of the whole Guild… but if the world was going to end, it would be a waste to leave them behind.

He needed to take the world item in the 8^th floor as well, in possession of Aureole Omega and the one in the 10^th floor with Albedo.

This thought made him pause in his work briefly, before slowly reassuming his task, frowning lightly pensively.

…what should he do with the NPCs?

Should he say something? What could he say to explain everything was suddenly going to end?

Harry thought it over as he picked as many ingredients from the artificially-made forest as possible, Jarvis working just at his side. Looking from the corner of his eyes at his NPC, which was working methodically as always, he gently shook his head.

No, it was better not to say anything. Not about the world ending anyways, considering it wouldn’t do much of a difference.

He should go and congratulate everyone for their good work though. That should work well for a farewell.

ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

The NPCs instantly knew, from the moment they were conscious enough to think, that the one in front of them was their creator.

Their God, their parent, their everything.

There were other Gods present in their home, Supreme Beings that they happily served, but their creator would always be at the top, the most important of them all.

The NPCs were happy to be able to see their own creator every day. The Supreme Being in question would come and make them better, adding skills, knowledge, likes and dislikes. The creations grew to expect their daily visit, knowing they would be better than the day prior, better suited to serve and fulfill their assigned role.

This was a routine very well respected, at least, until their creator decided that they were good enough. That they were complete.

Some of them worried once these visits stopped, but their comrades— the older servants that had been created before them— assured them that it was normal. Once they were perfectioned, once they were as they were meant to be, the Supreme Beings would leave them alone, trusting them to perform their assigned function.

Feeling proud that they were entrusted to work on their own without supervision, the newly created servants would do their best.

As such, for the first few months, they were glad to be of use, for the opportunity to demonstrate they were worthy of existing, worthy of having the honor of working for the Supreme Beings.

And perhaps, the boldest NPCs thought, even worthy of praise.

The image of their creators coming to speak with them to congratulate their effort was their greatest dream.

But after a while, the absence of the Supreme Being that had created them began to be more and more noticeable.

And they started to miss them.

Not like they hadn’t missed them from the start, but at this point it was simply impossible to ignore.

Was it really alright? For them to selfishly want to see their Lords? Specially their creator?

Sometimes, as if hearing their mental prayer, the Supreme Being in question would come briefly and the creations would instantly brighten up. It was as if their inner, metaphorical battery was filled, they would feel strong, renewed, ready to fight against the whole world, go through hell and back if it was for them.

To do everything if it was for them, and even that felt like doing too little.

So even if the Supreme Being in question grew absent again, they would assume their creator was working on another floor, maybe helping the other Supreme Beings, and would not question it any longer.

Most of the times they were right, as proven when their fellow comrades told them they had had the honor of seeing their creator this or that time, visiting their floor.

…But after some time, even that stopped happening.

—Yuri Alpha—

It hadn’t been that long after her creation, but she felt terrible.

Yuri had worriedly asked for the tenth time to her sister Aureole Omega — who resided on the 8th floor, but had the ability to see other Floors as well — if she had seen Yamaiko-sama on any of the floors.

It had been a while since she last saw her creator, and she couldn’t help but worry. She felt empty, as if something essential, integral to her very being was missing.

But the answer of her sister had remained the same, that she hadn’t seen Yamaiko-sama for the last weeks— maybe even months. Yuri wasn’t sure if she was perceiving time properly anymore.

The oldest of the Pleiades internally cried at the feeling of helplessness, knowing she couldn’t do anything to even inquire about her creator’s health.

At that moment, as if somehow sensing her inner despair, steps had resounded on the hallway she was patrolling. It was the unmistakable presence of a Supreme Being getting closer to her.

“Hi Yuri, thank you for your work.”

Harry-sama greeted her as he always did, with a quick salute as he passed by the hallways of the 9th floor. She had bowed in response, the inquiry about her creator’s health in the tip of her tongue but even then, she couldn’t speak it out loud.

Even when she knew it should be acceptable if it was Harry-sama.

Everyone agreed that he was the most approachable of them all, since he was the only Supreme Being that deviated out of his way to greet them. They suspected he was the friendliest even when interacting with their other Masters, since the other Supreme Beings never used any honorifics with him, and neither did he with them.

Considering all this, why couldn’t she muster the courage to ask him? She felt like crying, but her expression remained stoic as always, as her creator had meant her to be.

Much to her surprise however, Harry-sama halted instead of passing by as he always did.

“Now that I think of it… you are Yamaiko’s creation right?” He asked, and Yuri was absolutely certain he had heard her silent prayers.

Yes! Yes I am! Please, please tell me how is she, I beg you my Lord, please let me know!

Even if she wanted to say that, no words came from her mouth. Yuri felt like she was going to be swallowed by despair, wasting Harry-sama’s precious time with her silence, so she was beyond surprised when he continued.

“I’m not sure if she had the time to see you or not… forgive me if I’m speaking unnecessarily, but you need to know that she has decided to leave the Guild,” Her Lord said sadly at her, in a manner that seemed resigned.

Yuri wondered if he knew how her world was crumbling now.

What had she done wrong? Wasn’t she up to her expectations? Where had she failed?

As if knowing she was blaming herself, Harry-sama placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

“I know it must be hard… but Yamaiko is doing her best, in a World different from ours, where we can’t follow. She is alright, she is happy, and most importantly… she wishes for you and Nazarick to be as well,” Her Lord smiled sincerely this time, even if still laced with a tinge of sadness, “so let’s do our best, alright? Let’s do it for her.”

Yuri had been created with a purpose in mind, the one Yamaiko-sama had assigned to her. What could she do, other than honor her creator by fulfilling it to the best of her capabilities?

So Yuri bowed in acceptance, silently thanking him for hearing her prayer, for letting her know. For confirming what she had already suspected.

She felt calmer now, knowing that Yamaiko-sama was happy. It would be alright, so long Yuri could fulfill her purpose and serve Nazarick’s Masters. Her duty as a servant was to fulfill her tasks and be here for the Supreme Beings, whenever they chose to come back.

… If they chose to come back.

Adding her creator to the list, back at this time, it had been ten Supreme Beings that had left them behind. Yuri wondered if their respective creations knew, if Harry-sama was going to tell them like he had done with her.

Harry-sama had smiled and left after that, as if happy she understood. Yuri had wanted to thank him from the bottom of her heart for letting her know, but…

…Ahh the curse of shyness was heavy.

She knew she wasn’t the only one experiencing this kind of problem, all her peers had commented as much whenever she encountered someone around the hallways.

“I really wanted to smile, to thank him,” Narberal had confessed to her once, “Harry-sama is the only one that always… but I couldn’t. I shied away and just bowed to him.”

In the end, what could they do but bow to him in reverence?

To him and Momonga-sama, the only ones that still came to Nazarik at this time, the only ones that had stayed until now.

The only Supreme Beings that actually talked with them.

At first, it had only been Harry-sama, but after some time Momonga-sama had also began to do it.

So when Yuri felt the presence of a Supreme Being — of Harry-sama most likely, considering it was morning— approaching, she halted on her patrol. It was disrespectful, to suddenly stop her work like that, the one Yamaiko-sama had given her, but she couldn’t help but remember something CZ Delta, her automaton sister, had mentioned a few days ago.

Pandora had told CZ— when she went to the Treasury to check on the traps as she was meant to do— that Harry-sama had noticed when Pandora accommodated his hat, and had approached him a couple of times to see it. The Guardian of the Treasury sounded happy as he stated that, the automaton had mentioned.

Yuri could feel her face blush in mortification at the idea that struck her, but it was too late to get rid of it.

“I wonder if Harry-sama would…notice?” It was an embarrassing thought, she felt childish just by thinking of it.

But when she heard steps approaching, along with the soft thud that her Master’s spear caused upon hitting the carpeted floor, she decided on the last minute to go with it.

… And regretted it immediately afterwards.

But it was too late to accommodate her glasses now, since Harry-sama was already in her field of vision.

Oh Lords, I can’t move. The presence of the Supreme ones is so mighty, I can’t move to fix it. This is so silly, I shouldn’t have—!

She thought embarrassed, as she moved closer to the wall and bowed to him. Harry-sama greeted her as he always did, and for a moment, it looked like he would continue walking.

Please don’t notice, please don’t notice, please—

Yuri didn’t have such luck however, she noted upon seeing the feet of her Lord suddenly halting in front of her.

Oh no, no, no, no!  please forgive my shameful appearance!

It was only out of sheer power of will that Yuri could stop her body from trembling in mortification.

“Rise.”

Oh my Lord, I’m so sorry! She thought over and over as she straightened obediently, wondering which would be her punishment—

But all thoughts halted when she felt his fingertips brush against her brow however slightly, as his hand accommodated the glasses over her face very gently.

“That’s better, right?” Harry-sama said with a small smile, nodding in approval before continuing to walk once more.

Yuri simply blinked, looking at the empty wall completely frozen until she couldn’t feel Harry-sama’s presence any longer.

Feeling her face blush, she covered her cheeks with her hands, hoping that the cold palms would be enough to extinguish the sudden fire dancing under her red face.

“—ri-nee…Yuri-nee? Is everything alright?” Solution’s voice suddenly reached her, which made Yuri’s shoulders tense, startled.

Among them, the Supreme Beings had designated Yuri Alpha as the older sister, and Lupusregina Beta as the second oldest. However, this was not so clear regarding the others. Solution Epsilon and Narberal Gama were treated as the third oldest, while the role of the youngest was disputed between Entoma Vasilissa Zeta and CZ2128 Delta (Shizu).

“I— Solution? I mean— Shizu said— and I—” Yuri spoke brokenly for a moment before taking a deep breath to calm down. Once she had regained her senses she explained exactly what had happened, blush still present but now under control.

Solution’s eyes— even if not real, considering she was a slime— lit up in excitement upon hearing the good news.

“I see! Then, let me try!” the assassin slime exclaimed happily, hurriedly crooking her maid diadem over her head and going through the walls to reach Harry-sama’s current path.

Yuri smiled at her sister’s departure, before deciding she should [Message] her automaton sister to thank her. After all, if it hadn’t been for Shizu’s passing comment, Yuri would never had thought about doing such a thing.

Considering Yuri had only spoken with Solution and Shizu… well, she wasn’t sure how it happened, but the idea had spread like fire over all the floors of Nazarick.

 Yuri was surprised to hear the other servants had chosen to implement it as well, considering their ornaments and items were gifted by the Supreme Beings, wasn’t it rude to purposely alter the appearance they were meant to have?

Not like she could say that, considering Yuri had been the one to start everything.

But even so, she didn’t regret her actions, nor the fact that the idea had somehow made its way towards all her peers. The way everyone was smiling, obviously in good humor, was due to the fact that Harry-sama had actually walked through all the floors— something neither of her Lords had done in a very long time — and greeted all of them.

Even better, he had noticed. He had taken a quick look at each of them and immediately determined something wasn’t right.

And then he went and fixed it for them.

The fact that everyone was feeling giddy wasn’t surprising at all.

Yuri was tempted to repeat the action whenever she felt that powerful presence approaching, but the part of her that could still think properly would never allow such a thing. She shouldn’t be so selfish.

This way, a couple of days after that incident, when she spotted Harry-sama again, she bowed at him calmly, knowing everything was alright with her appearance this time around.

Which was the reason Yuri was surprised to see her Lord halt in front of her once more.

“Rise.”

The voice sounded gentle like it always did, so Yuri didn’t know what to expect of this interaction.

Harry-sama looked at her with a small smile— even if it looked different somehow— and placed a warm hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you for your hard work, Yuri Alpha.” The words were the same as the ones he always used to greet her, but he had never stopped in his walk before, “I’m very proud. I know Yamaiko is too, you’re everything she ever wished you to be, really.”

Yuri felt like crying in sheer happiness, but that would be a shameful display. As such, all she could do was bow low in gratitude at the genuine words of her Master, wondering what she had done to deserve such an amazing reward.

Had Yuri been able to look at Harry, she would have seen how much her sudden bow startled him.

—Harry—

Was that actually programmed?

It felt oddly…. real.

But the behavior of the NPCs hadn’t changed after all this time. Why would it be different now?

Harry hid his surprised expression and patted her shoulder a couple of times, before leaving with a last, “Thank you.”

He had seen all the NPCs just a couple of days ago, so he decided to leave his departure words for a later date. As of now, he would thank them only if he encountered them by chance while he moved around Nazarick.

Harry left Jarvis collecting ingredients in his room, so he was free to go to the Treasury to check which items would be good to take with him. As such, after the encounter with Yuri, he only muttered some grateful words towards Pandora’s Actor as well, since he only encountered those two on his path.

It took him a while, mostly because there were way too many items to choose from, but in the end Harry managed to pick the best of the lot and place them on the bag hanging around his neck.

“Crystal Data… would those even work in other Worlds?”

Based from experience, it was highly likely that they would not.

It wasn’t like all magic or items could be used once the original World perished, so Harry normally only bothered to take the ones he could use freely in other worlds. He strongly suspected the Crystal data were meant to be used only on this universe, where they belonged to. Taking them would most likely be just a waste of space.

But still, his bag had an undetectable extension charm on it, so he could spare to take a few just in the odd case they worked.

With this thought in mind, Harry picked the strongest, the most rare, and left the rest in the depths of the treasury room.

Crossing that off his mental to-do list, Harry sighed tiredly.

Ingredients, Potions, Items…. Yes, other than the knowledge he already had about Yggdrasil spells, that was all he could take from this world before jumping towards the next one.

And he only owned farewells to the NPCs, Jaldabaoth and the creatures of the Volcano, and Momonga, so he still had time.

Harry smiled thinly as he walked on the deserted Mausoleum of the Treasury, looking at the hand-made statues of the Guildmates that had left.

He was tempted to take their equipment as well, but it was highly probable that Momonga would come to see the statues on the last day.

It was better not to risk it.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8 One Last Battle

Harry’s everyday routine could be surmised in three sections: the time spent investigating in his own room, the time spent with Jaldabaoth, and the one spent with Momonga hunting out.

It had been quite a while since he had gone out on his own. Since the Room of Requirement could replicate all he needed, Harry had gotten used to search for things in it instead of traveling to this or that part of this Universe, the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil.

But since it was going to disappear in the next two days, he had decided to go and have one last look around.

With this in mind, he went out of Nazarick, crossing the swamp without difficulties as he walked in a seemingly random direction.

Jarvis had been ordered to perpetually collect ingredients from his room, and he had already gone through the items in the treasury he considered were good enough to be preserved. He still needed to give his farewells, but he was postponing it for the last day.

Simply put, he was as ready as he could be to face this world’s apocalypse.

Momonga would arrive at night as he always did, so Harry still had some hours to roam around, visiting places he had only replicated in the Room of Requirement.

Seeing the real thing was always better, Harry couldn’t help but think, as he gazed around like a newbie tourist in a richly cultural community. He was walking around an enormous lake, which could be accessed only after crossing through a haunted forest in a very particular path.

The water was a black, thick substance that looked very toxic. The background lore said it had been cursed by a World-level enemy, so it had the effect of causing quite a few negative statuses if a distracted player made contact with it.

The trees on the forest were dried, the wood being a horrible sick-green color that could also poison the players that didn’t take the proper countermeasures. All of the creatures that inhabited this forest were the kind to be proficient at venomous attacks, especially if it was done in an ambush.

The ground, in contrast, was an ironically healthy-looking grass. It had healing properties if used in the right potions, as if mocking the highly poisonous environment, but it was difficult to harvest; even worse if one tried to reach its roots.

Harry walked slowly near the lake, simply gazing around with a calm mind. It was incredible how many small details were different than the image he used to replicate—

“Woah, you look just like it!”

Harry halted upon hearing a masculine voice address him. Frowning lightly, he turned to face the source.

He had sensed the group of ten players was within the area, but since the end was just around the corner, he surmised people had better things to do than PK others, so he had only placed some mid concealing charms on himself.

The one that called out for him could obviously see through them.

But since the whole party of ten was visible in front of him, he deduced they weren’t here to attempt to PK him. If that were the case, they would have left some people hidden, slowly surrounding him.

Considering this, Harry mentally shrugged and annulled his concealing charms before replying.

“Like whom?” Harry said simply, quirking an eyebrow at the male lancer, a Naga.

“Don’t play dumb. You did it on purpose, didn’t you? Replicate the appearance of that shitty Raid Boss!”

…Well damn.

Harry internally cursed, looking more attentively at the demi-human players and quickly determining that, indeed, they looked somewhat familiar.

Of course, he had such bloody bad luck that he would encounter someone from that time the moment he decided to tour around this world.

Now he clearly remembered why he had stopped going out unless it was to hunt with Momonga.

Harry seemed to be cursed with bad luck when it came to encounters with other players, so all of them either thought he was mimicking the ‘Raid Boss’ that had previously wiped the floor with them or recognized him as a member of the generally-hated Ainz Ooal Gown guild.

Both options normally resulted in the players wanting to kill him.

“Is that a crime?” Harry replied nonchalantly, shrugging carelessly as he sharply studied the group facing him, “so what if I like to roleplay?”

“That stupid thing killed us thirty times consecutively,” The female cleric, an elf, muttered to her companions, and Harry bitterly thought that he should have done so another seventy times.

“Want to even the count?”

“Sounds good.”

“Why not, this is my last day after all.”

“Might as well.”

“It’s his fault for choosing that appearance anyways.”

Phrases of agreement resounded among the group of players. Harry sighed tiredly, wondering if he should just apparate away as he usually did in situations like this.

Since the world saw him as a player, he had tried to keep things limited to Yggdrasil spells when fighting against other players, in order to blend in. This limitation was also meant to help him get used to those spells, instead of casting the ones he had learned before arriving to this world. The last thing he had wanted was to slip up while being with someone from his guild after all.

But now, with the end so close… well, it had been a while since he vented out some steam. Besides, since this “Game” was about to end in a couple more days, he might as well stop holding back and have some fun.

He wasn’t going to see them ever again, and there was no real harm done since they were just game avatars. It wasn’t like he would actually be killing someone.

Harry activated the spell that allowed him to see the level of the enemy party, smirking in anticipation upon seeing they all were level 100.

“Bring it on then,” he accepted the challenge, summoning his elder wand. His spear was in his inventory, and for this quick battle, it shouldn’t be necessary to take it out.

The party of ten players immediately tensed. Not because they thought they could lose against Harry— a “player” they saw as level 100, since that was the limit on the measurable levels— but because it could be a trap.

When doing PK, it was common for a few guild members to act as bait, while the rest would attack the enemy once they were close enough.  Of course, the possibility of the bait dying was quite high, but it was a good way to guarantee that the enemy that had taken the bait was eliminated.

That was the reason they were wary now.

Harry smirked freely, knowing the others couldn’t see his expression, and chuckled softly before silently casting his first spell.

[Astral Binding]

He concentrated his magic in the surroundings, creating a ward that would keep them from fleeing away. It was probably needlessly strong, considering it was meant for long-timed imprisonment, but since he didn’t know all Yggdrasil-spells, it was better suited to make sure they would stay within sight.

While affected by this spell, the creatures imprisoned weren’t supposed to need to breathe, eat, or drink, nor would they age at a normal pace, but much slower. There were no known spells that could locate or perceive the targets within this ward either.

He was more than confident that not even a Super Tier spell could help them now.

It was one of the wards he had used on Nazarick and the Volcano after all, even if more for its concealing nature rather than the one meant to keep targets inside, and it had taken a World item for the invaders to get through it.

As the caster, he could control whether the imprisoning feature was activated or not, so those places enjoyed of the positive aspects only.

“Bah, it’s my last day anyways!” the male warrior, a half-Ent, shouted after this pause. It was a signal for all the frontliners to close the distance, appearing in front of him in the blink of an eye.

Moving with a speed which put gales to shame, the vanguards charged, wreathed in bloodlust. The ground seemed to explode beneath their feet with every step they took, which was most likely the result of an item for visual effect, considering there were no marks on the ground even after that illusory image.

In nothing but a moment, Harry was on the receiving end of the warrior’s long sword, a double-edged lance, the rogue’s axe, and he could feel a presence lurking from somewhere behind him, so he surmised a Master Assassin was there as well.

“[Divine strike]!” The Warrior used a special skill, copies of the bright silver sword surrounding him for a moment before rushing like arrows to strike him. Judging by the its name, it seemed to be high level faith-based ability.  Maybe he was a Paladin then?

“[Forbidden Force]!” The axe glowed an angry red, leaving behind a trail of light with its fast movement. Since the weapon was not only long, but also heavy, it was ideal for delivering especially powerful attacks, so long it connected with the intended target.

“[Razor Rush]!” A gigantic divine lance appeared in the lancer’s hand. It was well over three meters long with an especially large head, oddly surrounded by an aura of purity that seemed to emanate from its very core. It reflected the rays of the sun in its silver radiance, producing a beautiful and eye-catching display.

The male didn’t throw it like a javelin, but instead it rose by itself and darted out with absurd speed. The lance suddenly changed its course, somehow managing to be in many places at once, as if it had multiplied. It was impossible to deduce where it would come from.

“[Greater Lethal]!” The master assassin cried from somewhere behind him. Harry recognized it as a skill that would be on par with a 9^th tier instant-death spell, made much stronger since this one needed direct contact.

The phrase “one-shot kill” could not even begin to describe this perfectly synchronized combo of fatal blows, which tore through the air towards him. Surely, it would be enough to finish off a normal player.

However, despite the ever-approaching attacks, Harry remained unmoved.

He smirked and opened his arms as if in welcome, while silently chanting a single defensive spell, [Simulacrum].

He watched gleefully as the attacks— which were all level 8^th and up— bounced harmlessly on him, much to the shock of the front liners.

“What the hell!”

“How did he—?!”

“Shit!”

Harry simply smirked in amusement even as he prepared his next move.

A first-class fighter could not only deflect the attack without taking damage, but also respond with a counterattack of his own. As such, while [Simulacrum] was activated with a [Rejection effect] that made the enemies bounce back, Harry extended his magic so it was just within the imprisonment ward he had previously implemented.

[Storm of Vengeance].

Since he wasn’t using Yggdrasil spells, and Harry had no allies in this battle, there was no need to chant the spells out loud.

As such, seemingly out of nowhere his field-wide spell activated, caused a churning storm to spread over the whole area. Lightning flashed out as the thunder fell over all targets, the lightening moving to follow the ones that had tried to evade it.

Although not particularly strong, it was ideal for fighting against a large number of enemies, since the storm also served as a curtain to impede visibility. Although most players had either items or skills that could let them see through darkness as if it were a sunny day, it couldn’t help them regarding smoke or any other phenomena that limited their vision.

That and, after some time passed, if the caster maintained concentration on this spell the storm would produce an additional effect.

Harry deduced that the enemy had either underestimated him, or had been preparing for a possible ambush. Whichever the case, upon seeing that the four frontliners were not enough to even harm him, the whole party of ten finally started to move in a synchronized attack, the ones on the rear dispersing around the area to attack from all sides.

He apparated out of the way of the harmful magic, as the long-ranged attackers started to support the vanguards. As such, no offensive or debuffing magic reached him, so the only result was that the frontliners had been buffed up by their teammates.

Not like it made much of a difference however, considering not a single attack had landed on him.

“Annulate his [Greater Teleportation]!” One of the frontliners cried in exasperation after yet another evasive.

“I already did! I don’t know why is not working, the spell activates normally!”

Harry chuckled as he apparated out of the way of the axe’s path, successfully evading an attack that was supposed to be undodgeable.

“What the fuck!”

“I can’t see shit! Get rid of the stupid storm already!”

“Do you think I’m lazing around?! Nothing fucking works— shit!”

“To hell with it, use wide-area attacks!”

Harry sighed impatiently as they finally reached a logical solution.

In an area where Harry couldn’t move freely due to the lake’s presence, and where visibility was almost nonexistent, it was only logical to switch to wide-area attacks. Even more so if one considered that no friendly fire was allowed in Yggdrasil, so the fact that their fellow teammates were also in the targeted area didn’t matter.

This way, it didn’t matter whether they could see Harry or not, whether they could directly target him or not, since he just needed to be in the affected area for the attack to be successful.

It was exactly the way he had predicted it would go.

The female artificer — a gnome who had been moving underground around the field, placing traps — suddenly crashed into his invisible ward. Like a child running towards a wall, she bounced back and looked at the invisible border with confusion.

“Wait!” the female gnome tried to warn them, but her shout was drowned, eclipsed by those of her comrades.

“[Triplet Maximize Boosted: Thousand Lance]!”

Countless — well over one or two thousand — lances of steel erupted from the earth around the human lancer. The spears assailed the battlefield from all directions, scattered pieces of plants and ground alike flew wildly as they impaled the ground.

“[Maximize Magic - Vermilion Nova]!” Crimson flames flared up, easily covering the whole battlefield. It was the true definition of an undodgeable attack.

“[Triplet Maximize Magic - Astrophysical Smite].” That spell could temporarily nullify astral entities, so if Harry had tried to evade the attacks using such a method, it would have been for naught.

“[Greater Force Explosion]” An invisible shockwave exploded from the male Rogue, a dwarf, expanding horizontally like a wave would in calm water.

“[Greater Full Potential: Heavenly slashes]” As if physically cutting through the air, white trails left the warrior’s sword and covered the whole area, cutting everything on its path. The light traveled so fast in such a manner that evasion would have been almost impossible, even for someone as fast as the ninja Nishiki had used to be.

After that, spikes of ice sprouted from the ground, and the time-settled traps of the artificer activated, so only those sensitive to movement remained.

The cleric and the healer used defensive and healing magic over their teammates, as if to protect them from anything Harry could have in store for them.

The wide-area skills and spells were casted at the same time all around the battlefield. These powerful area attacks were all high tiered, possessing a great combination of everything: range of attack, power and area of effect. This, of course, meant that they costed a great deal of mana.

Harry almost felt bad for evading each and every single one of them.

Still, since they had fallen in his trap so willingly, he simply waited for the effects to be over in his secured place. He watched calmly as the attacks that were meant to cover around 3 miles were instead covering only the 1 mile he had defined as the battlefield.

The imprisonment ward didn’t allow anything to go in or out, not even magic.

So Harry had simply apparated out of the imprisonment ward he had implemented at the beginning of the battle, watching as the area in front of him was covered with all their combined attacks like one would stare admiringly at the fireworks.

If one wasn’t in their way, it made for quite a mesmerizing sight.

Once the effect of the attacks finally ended, he apparated back to the middle of the battlefield, not a single scratch on him.

“Is that all?” Harry inquired simply as the visual effect of his [Storm of Vengeance] receded. Visibility was no longer an issue for the enemy.

“How is… no, you must be using [False Data – Life]! [See Through]!” One of the magic casters shouted in a voice laced with panic.

That was a foolish theory. [False Data – Life] made it seem like you had less HP than you really had, so it didn’t serve to explain why his own would be larger.

 [See Through] was supposed to nullify any attempt at altering the perception of one’s HP or MP bar, but the magic caster seemed to be just as incredulous as before. It was to be expected, since Harry really hadn’t been hurt at all during the whole confrontation.

 “Are you finished? Then please allow me,” Harry said with amusement at the frozen enemy, who still seemed to be assimilating the truth.

Since this much time had passed, it was time for his storm to begin its next and final effect.

The dark clouds of smoke that had been hanging over their heads suddenly turned into white, transparent mist. As if summoned by this change however, gusts of strong wind covered the whole area.

At first glance, it didn’t seem to be such a big deal. Since the players were only game avatars, it wasn’t like they actually needed to blink, so visibility was not an issue, and at their level, this wasn’t enough to impede their movement.

That was only because the enemy didn’t know that the wind would automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area, whether mundane or magical in nature. Most importantly however, was the fact that—

“Kuh! Don’t look down on us! 「Maximize Magic - Reality Slash]!” One of the magic casters, an orc, used an offensive spell against Harry.

It was, by all rights, a powerful spell.

When one reached the highest level of the strongest warrior class, World Champion, one would learn the supreme, ultimate skill called「World Break]. This tenth tier spell [Reality Slash] was merely an inferior copy of that skill, but it was still among the most damaging spells in Yggdrasil.

It cleaved through the very fabric of space, so a hit from this powerful attack spell could disregard virtually any form of magical defense. Better than defending from it, it was better to try to evade it, even for someone like Harry.

More powerful spells consumed more mana however. [Reality Slash] was one of those spells, and it was quite inefficient, in terms of damage caused for mana expended. Still, it had been a good option for an enemy as desperate as this one.

Harry wondered what kind of face the players were making, once they saw the 10^th tier spell break undone before it could even begin to take form.

The second and last effect of [Storm of Vengeance] was that it annulled all long-ranged attacks in the area.

As if taken away by the strong wind, anything that didn’t involve direct contact automatically dispersed before it could even take form, resulting in nothing but a waste of mana and limited-use skills.

In other words, around 65% of Yggdrasil spells and skills had now been completely nullified.

He watched interestedly as the enemy party tried to use other ranged attacks against him, not yet understanding why it wasn’t working. It was only after they had wasted five attacks that they seemed to understand the nature of Harry’s spell.

“Then— then how about this! [Summon Monster Tenth].” The female cleric enchanted while raising her staff.

“[Greater Rejection].” Harry casted out loud for the first time in the battle. He did so without thinking, since he had used an Yggdrasil spell, it was a subconscious act more than anything.

The summoned monsters were dispelled in an instant, so fast that Harry couldn’t even determine what exactly had the Cleric elf tried to summon.

“This… doesn’t this feel like…?”

“…The battle we had against that thing?”

The battlefield froze, and Harry simply nodded mockingly.

“Nice to meet you again. It’s been quite a while since I last encountered you, hasn’t it?”

This was most definitely not what they wanted to hear.

The enemy party couldn’t understand the meaning of those words. No, they didn’t want to understand them.

“Fucking role-player!” The rogue dwarf yelled through the otherwise silent battlefield, refusing to admit the fact that, other than Harry’s last spell, the rest had been unknown to them. Just like the attacks of the Raid Bosses normally were.

Still refusing to admit defeat, the rogue dwarf kicked the ground and raised his axe once more.

After a small pause, those who could attack in close range followed suit. In Yggdrasil, the Players couldn’t change their expressions, but Harry could almost taste their panic in their voice.

This was the final, desperate attack of the enemy that had realized their mistake after the fact, but who was determined to not admit defeat.

“Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!” The lancer naga cried repeatedly before adding, “How did this happen?!”

“How did you prepare all those attacks? Was kind of cheating skill did you activate?!” The half-ent warrior added as he thrusted his weapon forward.

“What on earth is going on here?!” the rogue dwarf exclaimed angrily as Harry evaded their attacks yet again, being careful to not activate the traps the female artificer had placed around the battlefield.

 “Well, what sort of magician would I be if I told you the secret of my tricks?” Harry replied simply, as he silently prepared his final attack.

“A trick!? A trick couldn’t have done all this!”

Harry laughed with genuine amusement upon hearing that last phrase.

“Correct! Simply put, let’s just say I’m not really roleplaying, hmm?” the attacks that had been desperately chasing after him seemed to halt for the shortest of moments, as the enemy processed the meaning of his words.

“That being said, you should understand now, right? This is nothing personal, but let’s end the battle now—”

“[Shadowbind]!” One of the magic casters, an ogre, enchanted, and Harry found himself temporarily tied down by his own shadow.

He could break free without problems, but decided not to upon noticing that the warrior was now surrounded by a very particular magical dome.

Their desperate, ultimate move, was to use the spell which surpassed the 10^th tier of magic. Super tier magic.

From the perspective of the tiers of magic, spells of this level couldn’t really be considered as magic. To begin with, they did not consume MP, but instead they could only be used a limited number of times per day. Rather than call them magic, they might be better described as skills.

When a player first learned them, they could only be used once per day. Every ten levels after level seventy, however, one could use them an additional time per day.

The average player could only use four super tier spells per day at level one hundred. One might ask at this point — why not consecutively cast super tier spells to defeat the enemy? Indeed, the destructive power of super tier magic was unrivalled. If one could cast super tier spells one after the other, even the damage alone would only be survivable by a vanishingly small fraction of level one hundred players.

However, they could not do that.

The reason was because super tier magic spells could not be cast consecutively.

To begin with, each super tier spell needed a certain amount of casting time. Cash items could remove that casting time, but another penalty prevented the repeated casting of super tier spells.

Once any member of a team casted a super tier spell, every member of the allied team would be penalized by being unable to cast such spells for a certain period of time — in other words, a cooldown period.

This restriction was put in place to prevent guild wars from being decided by who could vomit out the most super tier spells. In addition, this cooldown period could not be eliminated by any skill or cash item.

Thus, when Players confronted each other, the party which casted a super tier spell first was often considered an idiot. After all, defeat was likely when one expended a trump card without properly understanding one’s foe.

Yet, they didn’t have much option left but to cast such a spell.

A gigantic dome-shaped magic circle had appeared around the warrior, extending about ten meters away from him. The magic circle shone brilliant white, as translucent diagrams of characters and symbols appeared all over the surface. These images changed ceaselessly, with kaleidoscopic speed, differing from second to second.

But Harry could see and understand most of them.

Contrary to popular belief, the sequence of each Super tier spell differed from one another, and Harry had spent a good amount of time investigating this difference. As such, so long he had seen it at least once, he could identify which Super tier spell was going to be used.

That being said, he didn’t really recognize this one.

Silently thankful that he was going to gain something valuable from this battle, Harry chose to remain bound by the enemy to see that spell activate. While most level 100 players could only learn around twelve Super Tiers depending on the job classes they chose to learn, he wasn’t exactly bound by such a requirement.

As such, so long he could understand and replicate the symbols, it wasn’t like Harry had a limit on the amount of Super tier magic he could learn and implement.

The warrior used a cash item— shaped like an hourglass— to instantly cast the Super tier spell. The blue light of the magic circle intensified, indicating that it was ready to be cast, and then—

“ [Susanoo]!”

—There was the sound of sizzling, as though someone had thrown a burning torch into water.

The spell, which surpassed the very definition of tiers, went off and the weapon on the warrior’s hands was replaced by a new one.

It was a weapon more than three meters long, covered in brilliant white, holly fire. The enemy swung the greater sword down, the blade brandishing very, very slowly.

Harry could now understand why the opponent needed to be incapacitated beforehand. Evading that attack would be ridiculously easy otherwise.

Still, he could see without need to analyze it that the power of attack of this gigantic sword far surpassed even that of a special being like a Raid Boss. Harry considered that a direct hit would be able to take down around 20% of the total lifespan of a normal Raid Boss.

There was no need for him to receive the slow-moving sword.

…Then again, there was no need for him to move either.

There were two kinds of magic resistance in this universe. One was based on the power level of the spells, and was the one that most Players used. Simply put, most magic resistance completely negated the effects of low and mid-tier spells, regardless of how powerful their casters were.

This way, even if it was a World-level enemy, if the spell used was tier 1 then it wouldn’t affect most of the Players.

Harry’s magic resistance was different however. Belonging to the second, much rare kind, he was affected by the opponent’s stats and levels. Even a 10^th tier spell would not be able to breach his resistance if it was casted by a weak magic caster.

As such, when it came down to magical attacks, only Raid Bosses and beings more powerful than Harry himself could hope to harm him.

He could still be injured by physical attacks of course, if those managed to break through his unnaturally high defense, but magical attacks were mostly negated. That being said, he didn’t like to get too confident, so he always fought and evaded naturally as if those could actually harm him.

But since this was the last battle he was going to have in this world… well, he couldn’t help but want to show off a little.

Thus, he stood still, and the sword made of pure mana finally got low enough to touch him directly.

As if a bomb had been activated, the exothermic conflagration generated a rapidly-expanding wave of heat, which greedily consumed everything within its radius.

Eventually, the brilliant white world disappeared. In the wake of the vanishing pulse of superhot energy was a large circular area — vastly different from before. Nothing outside the area of effect was affected. The trees were still trees, the lake’s surface wasn’t even waving, and the forest itself was untouched — an extremely normal world.

In contrast, the area in which Harry had been standing was charred black, converted into a dead zone. The awe-inspiring temperatures had consumed all the vegetation in the area, and there were several vitrified areas on the ground which were still emitting smoke.

And among this destruction, logically, only one person remained within that area.

Harry was still standing, completely unhurt by the attack, so he simply smirked and waved mockingly at them.

The demi human players cursed in earnest, using a language so colorful Harry couldn’t help but laugh out loud even as he slowly walked forward, his footfalls fracturing the charred ground underneath.

Step by step, he shrank the distance between himself and the enemy party, which were logically retreating.

“Well, that was a new one. Thank you for showing me a spell I didn’t know before,” Harry said sincerely, before pointing his wand at the ground beneath their feet, “I’m running out of time though, so this is it for today.”

Harry then cancelled his field-wide magic, the white mist immediately dissipating so now the long-ranged spells could be used once more.

Immediately after, a fully charged orb of light streaked out from his wand at the ground. His surroundings were enveloped by a blast of exploding brilliance the moment it made contact with the earth.

The enemy party didn’t even have the opportunity to try to move away, as his imprisonment ward shrunk until all of them were forced into the same area, the demi-humans crashing against the invisible walls as they were forcefully dragged to its center.

And just like that, the battle of 10 vs 1 finished with a clean victory.

Harry looked at the now-deserted battlefield and bent down to pick up the items left behind by the deceased game avatars. They weren’t particularly useful, but since the world was ending in a couple of days, leaving these on the Treasury would be nothing but a waste. As such, he placed them on the bag hanging around his neck, and left the area without a second glance.

That had been fun.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9 Farewell

In the blink of an eye, the final day arrived.

He had mixed feelings about the fact that Jaldabaoth hadn’t been present in the Volcano. On one side, he was saddened since he couldn’t give a proper farewell to his friend and ally, but on the other hand, he was dying of curiosity as he wondered how in hell the demon managed to leave his dungeon like that.

The POP monsters had been there, but none of them were intelligent enough to speak, so Harry couldn’t inquire about Jald’s whereabouts. That being the case, he simply wrote a letter and left it in the middle of the room, hoping beyond hope that it would suffice for a farewell, and that the giant demonic being would come back in time to read it.

It wasn’t like Harry could wait all day for Jald to arrive after all. He still needed to give his farewell to Nazarick as a whole, which was a feat that couldn’t be done in little time.

Frankly, he had been tempted to summon all NPCs to the Throne room so he would only say farewell once, but in the end, he discarded that idea.

If he did, he would have to exclude some of the NPCs. After all, while the Throne room was a very wide chamber, it was still insufficient to hold absolutely all of the handmade creations present in the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Thinking about that, he decided the best way to manage it was to go towards each floor guardian and gather all of the customized NPCs that were under their command.

Nodding to himself, he used the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to go towards the floors closest to the surface.

—Shalltear—

She wanted to shiver upon seeing that all the creations had been gathered, which included Kyouhukou, Gashokukochuuou, and a few other unsavory characters.

It wasn’t like she had anything against them, but there were some she really couldn’t stand to be close to. The giant cockroach at her left being a major example.

Following Harry-sama towards a wide, seemingly empty place — that was actually filled to the brim with magical traps to revel invaders — her Lord finally stopped moving and turned towards them.

“Hello everyone. Do forgive me for interrupting your assigned functions,” Harry-sama smiled at them in welcome, emerald gaze running over everyone present, “I just wanted to personally thank you for your hard work. My gratitude may be but a drop in the ocean when I compare it to what you have done to have me thank you, but even knowing it’s not enough, right now, that is all I have to give you – a heartfelt thanks.”

Shalltear beamed at the sincere praise. She didn’t need to look behind her to know the others were also feeling happy, the air felt light even in such a crowded room.

As if such magnificent words weren’t enough to make them feel joyful, Harry-sama waved his hands, and a bright golden light illuminated the room.

She relaxed as the bright light covered her completely. The magic felt warm, content, happy… It felt like a kind embrace, a warm love.

She didn’t know for how long she stood receiving this warmth, but it was over all too soon.

“Well, as I stand here looking at all of you, I realize that while I need to thank you, it is also important to keep my speech short because you already know I am really grateful,” her Lord smiled sheepishly at that, as if self-mocking, “I will always remember you; always remember this special home that my friends and I made with a lot of fond affection. I'm thankful you're here with me, working hard for maintaining our little paradise. Thank you for keeping up your roles, accept this simple gesture to let you know that I appreciate what you have done and that I love you for doing it.”

She felt her non-existent heart drop upon hearing those last words.

Why…why did that feel like a farewell?

She stared numbly at the way Harry-sama smiled sadly at them.

Such a sad expression, it couldn’t be.

It couldn’t be that he was leaving as well.

The happiness she had felt upon receiving her Lord’s praise disappeared without trace, immediately replaced by agonizing horror.

Please no, anything but this!

She needed to move, to kneel, to beg for him to stay, to do something.

So why couldn’t she move a single muscle?!

She gritted her teeth, trying to force her muscles to move, to respond, but it was useless. Her effort wasn’t even evident, her form didn’t even manage to shiver.

Why, why, why, why—

Her Lord gave the order for them to return to their assigned locations, to return to their duties. Her feet moved on her own accord, no matter how hard she tried to stop them.

As she passed by her Lord’s side, she could feel his hand patting her head a couple of times rather warmly.

“Thank you for everything, Shalltear.”

No, no, no!

She sensed helplessly as her Lord’s presence moved to leave the now emptying chamber. It was only once she couldn’t feel him near the room anymore that she could move freely again.

“[Summon Household]!” Shalltear cried the moment she could move, a few tears running down her cheeks in disbelief.

It wasn’t possible, he couldn’t be leaving, he was… he was the one everyone felt closest to.

If the Great Tomb of Nazarick could be described as a living organism, the brain would be Momonga-sama, the leader all the Supreme Beings followed, while the heart would be Harry-sama, the one loved by everyone.

Both were needed for the organism to function properly. The Great Tomb of Nazarick couldn’t survive without its heart.

She needed to do something, to convince him to stay…. but could she manage such a thing on her own?

As a vampire, the cold temperature didn’t have any effect in her, but she still shivered uncontrollably.

No, this mission was too important, she couldn’t risk failing. Shalltear needed to speak with her comrades, maybe if they all worked together…

With this thought in mind, she instructed her vampiric rats and bats —which were the best suited for this discrete mission — to follow Harry-sama, while she used [Message] to communicate with the only person capable of coordinating a joint effort with the other Floor Guardians.

The Guardian Overseer, Albedo.

—Harry—

He could feel something following him. Although every time he looked around him, there was nothing suspicious, he was completely sure he felt a stare.

It was more like intuition than anything, but he still trusted it was correct. This only served to confuse him however; for what exactly could be following him, if his wards weren’t broken, and he couldn’t feel any intruders or killing intent around him?

Not knowing what was going on was unnerving, so he decided to test the limits of his unknown persecutor, and activated the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to change floors.

Unbeknown to him, the moment the familiars lost track of him, Shalltear cried out loud at the thought of having already lost him.

5^th Floor

The 4^th floor was completely guarded by golems of all kinds, which weren’t alive like the NPCs were, so there was no problem in skipping it. With this in mind, Harry had gone directly towards the 5^th Floor.

Appearing over the white field, his feet didn’t sink into the heavy layer of snow covering the land, since he had equipped an item that annulled the [Slow] negative status.

Looking around, he relaxed his shoulders upon noticing that he wasn’t being followed anymore. It had been such an odd feeling, what could have caused that?

If he hadn’t such a limited time, he would investigate it at depth. However, since he needed to do this before Momonga arrived, there was no time to lose.

Following the pattern he made on the first three floors, he walked through all the 5^th floor and gave the order “Follow” to all the NPCs present.

Taking all of them over the snowfield, he allowed his gaze to fall over Cocytus, Nigredo, Neuronist and her crew, as well as the Winter Damsels, and the area guardians that were distributed and hidden all over the floor.

Taking a deep breath, he repeated his grateful speech, and bathed them all with positive feelings using a stronger version of the Patronus charm. Instead of coming out as an animal, the golden light simply covered the whole area like a small, harmless sun, shining brightly over everyone.

“—accept this simple gesture to let you know that I appreciate what you have done, and that I love you for doing… hm?”

Harry blinked at the suddenly kneeling NPCs.

Once, twice, the image didn’t change no matter how many times he blinked.

It wasn’t surprising, considering all NPCs had been programmed to follow the order “Kneel”. What shocked him was the fact that he hadn’t given such an order.

…Did something on my speech trigger them? A hidden command?

He tried to convince himself to believe this hypothesis, but in the end it was overridden by another, much stronger theory.

Logically, Harry knew they were alive, he had known from the start, and had treated them as living beings from the very beginning. Taking this into consideration, it wasn’t too farfetched to think that they had actually reacted to his speech.

After a short pause to process this thought, Harry smiled proudly at them, awed by the fact that they seemed to have been able to pass through their limited code however slightly. Seeing the NPCs that were kneeling on their own accord, he nodded once and accepted their respectful gesture with a soft chuckle.

Thanking them once more, he gave the order to rise before commanding them to “resume normal functions”. As he watched them scatter away however, he made sure to mutter a few “well done,” and “I know it must have been difficult,” to the NPCs passing by his sides.

It really must have been difficult, to act on a code without an explicit order.

Smiling proudly one last time, he activated his ring to go towards the 6^th floor, blissfully ignorant of the hopeless words muttered upon his departure.

“Albedo. I. have. failed. I. could. not. speak.”

6^th Floor

Appearing on the field surrounded by trees, Harry walked through the lively forest with a sad smile on his face. Although he felt genuinely proud of the NPCs for acting on their own accord, it was saddening the fact that they had only done so on the last day—

...that they had only… on the last day?

Harry halted on his tracks, freezing upon understanding that the “prank” hadn’t actually been one.

The NPCs had moved to purposely alter their appearance.

He laughed out loud at the revelation, feeling a mix of pride and amusement. He surmised they had done so to instigate Harry to visit all of them, and he had fallen for their scheme quite nicely. Not like he regretted his actions, but it was amusing that it had been part of the NPCs’ plotting all along.

Still chuckling, he repeated the process and gathered all the NPCs on the 6^th floor. This time around however, the group of NPCs he had gathered knelt as one before he could even begin his speech.

Knowing that doing that was difficult for them without an order, he decided to accept their effort instead of ordering them to rise. As such, he gave his speech and bathed them with the light of the Patronus, eyes attentive on them to see if they reacted in any other way than the one coded.

At the end of his speech, other than a light shudder traveling through the elf twins, none of the other NPCs even shifted in their kneeling position, to the point that they resembled statues more than living organisms.

He gave the order for them to restart functions, watching carefully as they moved to fulfill it. He ruffled the golden hair of the elf-twins when they passed at his sides, waiting until all the NPCs left the area.

Not noticing anything out of the norm, he mentally shrugged before going towards the 7^th floor.

Upon his disappearance, the pained sobs of the twins resounded over the clearance as they reported their failure via [Message].

7^th Floor

Harry was standing still, watching as the river of lava flowed calmly.

This floor was his favorite, since it was the one where Harry’s group had fought to conquer this Guild base, the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

He took his time walking around this one, as he slowly gathered the NPCs distributed all over the floor. He admired the changes his friends had made over the hellish floor, most specially, the way the Raid Boss room had been modified to hold the ruins of a sacred temple.

Ulbert really had put a lot of effort in this one, Harry couldn’t help but admire the finest details on the collapsed structure, laying down in an orderly mess that was, actually, key to activate its ultimate, protective function.

With a nostalgic smile on his face, he surmised that there was no better place to give his speech than inside the destroyed temple, so he went in with all the NPCs he had gathered following behind him.

"Stop."

Having reached the stairs that led to a higher plane inside the temple, Harry gave the order for the NPCs to stop following him.

When he took a few steps up however, he realized that the sounds of other steps were still following him from behind. Confused, Harry turned around to see that, indeed, they were still standing orderly behind him.

It was a strange sight. Some had stopped at his order, kneeling on their own accord, but the Evil Lords and Demiurge had kept walking and were now at the base of the staircase, having gone up the first few steps.

He wasn’t sure what to think of it. Was there a specific reason to keep tailing him?

Tilting his head, he looked at them with undisguised curiosity, but they didn’t do anything else out of their code.

"Stay here," Harry said with a hand motion, purposely giving an order he knew wasn’t coded into them, to see if they were capable of understanding it.

Turning around once more, he went up the staircase, feeling somewhat cross upon seeing— or in this case, listening— the result.

The sound of steps had stopped.

Harry climbed the final steps and turned around to address them, just in time to see Demiurge and the Evil Lords kneel, still at the beginning of the staircase.

He was aware he was probably smiling like a fool, but he couldn’t help but be proud by their development.

His voice carried a tinge of sadness as he gave them his thanks, wishing all this had happened sooner. Maybe Nazarick wouldn’t have felt so lonely, if the NPCs had been able to actually live and move on their own accord.

At the end of his speech, he studied them for a short moment, but there was no reaction at all.

Issuing the order for them to return, he walked down the stairs with his gaze focused on the demons that were positioned at staircase’s first steps.

They hadn’t moved an inch.

“What is it?” Harry asked them interestedly, internally dying to see if they could reply. Not the pre-recorded voices, but actually speak back to him.

But the silence remained unperturbed, the only sounds that could be heard were those of the flowing lava, and the batting of wings as the imps flew around the ceiling of the whole 7^th floor.

“Alright then, off you go. Resume normal functions,” Harry ordered again, looking at the small group intently.

Clank!

The sound of something metallic falling to the marble floor at great speed. Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise, staring at the source of the sound with confusion.

Demiurge’s metallic tail had impaled the floor quite harshly, moving much faster than Harry had ever seen before. At least, not when Demiurge was supposed to be in non-combat mode.

 If Harry had to describe the motion, he would say it seemed to be a frustrated movement.

He didn’t know which was oddest, the ‘attack’ on the floor itself, or the fact that none of them had moved from their kneeling position, ignoring the order to retreat twice.

Harry opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by another sound.

“Harry-nii-chan-sama-kun-dono! Time’s up!” the terribly childish sound of the voice actress, Bukubukuchagama, resounded from the watch on his left wrist.

Harry chuckled upon hearing that nickname. Since he had said more than once that he disliked honorifics, she had teasingly recorded that with pretty much all the suffixes she had thought in the moment. Hearing the alarm, it was almost like she was present in the room as well.

Harry looked fondly at the watch for a moment, before sighing tiredly.

He would have loved to stay until he could make the NPCs move, but he didn’t have much time left. He still had three floors to go before Momonga arrived, and the alarm indicated that he only had one more hour left.

“Forgive me for cutting this meeting short, but I must take my leave,” Harry said genuinely apologetic, “You’ve done a very good work, I’m really proud.”

And with those parting words he activated the ring to go towards the 8^th floor.

At his departure, another Clank! resounded over the room, this time much more loudly, accompanied by the sound of the marble floor cracking up.

8^th Floor

No matter at which direction Harry looked, all he could see was sand. The dry desert extended all over the floor, nothing but lifeless earth and the rays of a blue sun that shone over it.

There were way too many customized NPCs in this land, and he didn’t have enough time to go gather all of them in person like he had done with the others.

Considering this, he summoned the elder wand and placed it over his throat.

“Sonorus. Point of reunion, central,” He said the pre-coded command that would gather the NPCs. It had been designed for ambushes, when the combat-power needed to be focused on a specific area, but it served him all right.

The previously motionless mountains of sand moved as the creatures underneath gathered just below his feet. He waited patiently for everyone to come, even the ones that weren’t supposed to leave their position unless in very dire situations.

Aureole Omega —the only human in Nazarick that didn’t even count as one, due to her special skills and immortality — walked elegantly dressed in the traditional attire of a miko, which included a pair of red hakama (long, divided trousers) and a white haori (kimono jacket). She was flanked by Uka-no-Mitamas (short-haired girls wearing fox masks) and Ootoshis ( young men in a sun-drawing mask) under her command.

Behind the leader of the "Pleiades Seven Sisters" was walking Rubedo, who looked like a small, cute 6-year-old child with fair skin and short straight black hair that was pulled in twin pigtails.

Wearing a blood-red dress, she would look absolutely harmless if one managed to ignore the Death Scythe she was holding, which was twice her size. The weapon was constantly dripping blood, as if she had just used it on an unsuspecting foe, and once the drops fell over her dress the clothing would be momentarily covered in dark, malicious symbols, as if shadows were continuously dancing over it.

As if to contradict that dangerous image, a couple of wings made by pure, golden energy sprouted from her back. Those weren’t physical in nature, but translucent as if made of light.

She managed to give off a pure, yet very tainted image.

“A cute fallen angel that can cut you in two.” Were the words Tabula had used to describe the NPC that was considered to be the strongest entity of Nazarick. Capable of beating Touch Me in terms of raw power, nothing short of a World item would be able to ensure victory against her.

Which was to be expected, considering she wasn’t made the same way as the others.

There was a World Item called [Caloric Stone], which could only be gained by using massive amounts of rare metal from seven mines, hidden among the nine worlds of Yggdrasil. Harry’s guildmates had discovered one of those mines by chance, and ensured it was protected so only their Guild, only Ainz Ooal Gown, could have access to its treasures.

This way, for a long time, Harry and his friends had emptied it, gathering enough material to create a few [Caloric stones].

Which were then used in Rubedo’s creation, her race being half-golem and half-fallen angel.

This ended up busting her stats like no other combination of crystal data could have done. However, the drawback was that she couldn’t be healed by a third-party, so all her regeneration was done using only her own skills and items.

Personality-wise, Tabula had meant to make her… well, her background lore wasn’t supposed to be exactly the best. Still, after a few days of persuasion, Harry had managed to prevent that from happening, convincing Tabula to change it.

Since Tabula had been a fan of contradicting characters, in the end the Brain Eater had made Rubedo a sweet killing machine that actually didn’t like to kill, so she only moved when necessary. In other words, when it was ‘justified’.

This way, the strongest and most dangerous NPC of Nazarick ended up being a pacifist.

Rubedo could change her appearance depending on the skills she needed to have and, much like Albedo, she possessed a secondary form that activated when fighting. Harry would have loved to have a training match with her, if friendly fire had been allowed in this universe. There was nothing to do about it now, however.

He waited patiently until the slowest of them all, Victim, finally arrived at the area. Giving one last look around to check if everyone was present, Harry nodded to himself and repeated his speech once more.

This time around however, much like when he first gave his speech with those on the first three floors, there was no apparent reaction.

None of them moved on their own accord, nor did anything out of the ordinary. The only thing he noticed was the flickering on the light of Rubedo’s wings, which was most likely nothing but a visual effect.

Internally disappointed, he instructed them to return to their respective posts.

—Albedo—

10^th Floor

Albedo covered her eyes in worry, upon receiving the [Message] of the other Floor Guardians, whom seemed to have failed on expressing their thoughts out loud.

She didn’t fault them. Except for some, very specific phrases, speaking with the Supreme Beings wasn’t an easy task. Their presence was so mighty, it was difficult to do or say anything unless they ordered for it.

For the fourth time, he tried to use [Message] to reach Harry-sama’s creation, Jarvis, but as if blocked, the magic simply didn’t go through. If she could, she would personally go to the 9^th floor to search for him, but her duty was to protect the Throne room so she couldn’t abandon it without an explicit order.

She was convinced that, out of all servants, Jarvis was the one that could plead Harry-sama so he didn’t leave them behind as well. With that in mind, she paced from one side of the Throne room to the other, as she tried and failed to reach Jarvis.

It was only at the tenth attempt when the [Message] finally went through.

“Jarvis! Where are you? Is everything all right? My [Message] couldn’t reach you until now!”

“…Albedo? I apologize, no [Message] can get through whenever I am in Sir’s room. Did something happen?” His voice sounded worried, which was understandable given the panic present in her voice.

“Harry-sama, he is…” her voice shivered, throat constricting due to her sadness, but as Guardian Overseer she forced her voice to recover, “Harry-sama is l-leaving”.

She couldn’t help but stutter brokenly as the las word was uttered, still struggling to accept it.

“Sir? He is not,” Jarvis immediately denied, voice calm as if Albedo’s words were nothing but a delirious thought, “This is his home… our home. Sir wouldn’t leave just like that.”

“You haven’t heard him, the way he is thanking everyone is… is a farewell,” Albedo said sadly, closing her eyes and taking a shuddering breath before softly continuing, “come to the Throne room. If anyone can convince him to stay, it would be you.”

“…very well,” Jarvis agreed after a short pause, not sounding convinced, he had probably just agreed due to the strong emotion present in her words, “I still think is a misunderstanding however. Still, the words I can use to speak with our Masters is limited, I can’t assure I will be able to speak properly.”

Albedo logically knew this. Every servant— every one of her peers, even herself — was like this, unable to speak save for a few, very specific words. But what else could they do, other than try?

“I’ll be waiting for you here,” Albedo answered simply, not acknowledging Jarvis’ words before ending her [Message].

She couldn’t help but pace impatiently, throwing anxious glances at the main door fearing Harry-sama would arrive before Jarvis did, until a [Gate] appeared in the middle of the room.

The humanoid Zerg walked calmly out of it, before moving towards her with a straight posture, boney wings folded neatly so it surpassed his height by a few good inches.

However, Jarvis suddenly stopped at the base of the staircase that led to the throne, turning around without a word so he was facing the great doors of the entrance, showing her his back.

Albedo didn’t consider it rude in the slightest. She had felt that mighty presence was approaching the room as well.

She didn’t use any skills or magic faith-based, but she still prayed that their efforts would be enough to convince Harry-sama to stay.

Slowly, the great doors opened, and the male homunculus entered with long strides, as if in a hurry.

She watched as her Lord made a surprised expression upon noting Jarvis’ presence, step halting for the shortest of seconds before immediately resuming his pace. His expression changed to one of pride and confusion, as if he didn’t understand Jarvis’ presence but was proud of seeing him here either way.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise? It’s good to see you here Jarvis, I was worried when I couldn’t find you in the 9^th floor,” Harry-sama said with a genuinely relieved smile, which made Albedo feel guilty for causing him to worry.

“I really would like to know the reason you moved to the 10^th floor, but Momonga and Herohero are waiting for me already… so I’ll skip that and say what I originally meant to.”

Harry-sama gave a beautifully long, grateful speech, that only served to make her heart sunk in sadness. Albedo trusted the Floor Guardians when they confirmed, one after the other, that the speech really was a farewell, before reporting that they had been unable to speak out to beg for him to reconsider.

Now she understood clearly what they meant, and how frustrating, how despairing it was to know that no matter how much she tried, no words came out of her mouth. Harry-sama’s presence was enough to seal her lips, much like how it happened whenever a Supreme Being was present.

“I find the given task conflictive,” Jarvis’ serious voice was heard, and Albedo internally cheered for him, wishing with all her might that he could do what she couldn’t.

Form all her peers, it seemed that Jarvis was the only one that could voice disagreement in front of the Supreme Beings.

Harry-sama looked at his own creation with surprise, before asking, “Do you mean to say you didn’t understand my words? Or that you don’t agree with them?”

Jarvis was silent for a moment, before repeating, “I find the given task conflictive,” with a softer voice, sounding as lost as he probably felt.

Harry-sama showed a sad, understanding smile at his creation, before sighing in a resigned manner.

“I’m not leaving on my own choice, you know?” Harry-sama said as he walked closer to them, looking sadly at them both “This world… won’t be habitable anymore after midnight. At least, not for me and Momonga… the World will end tonight. I’m not sure what will happen to Nazarick, but rest assured that you did a great job, you performed absolutely perfectly, and I couldn’t be any prouder.”

At the last sentence he raised a hand to ruffle Jarvis’ hair, before walking over to her and doing the same.

Albedo really didn’t think that she could feel worse than she already did, but those words proved just how utterly naive she had been.

Harry-sama wasn’t abandoning them, he wasn’t leaving them behind like the rest of her Lords, like her very own creator had.

Harry-sama was saying his farewells because the world was going to end, and instead of fleeing away to another world like the other Supreme Beings had done, he had chosen to stay with them until the very end.

To die along with them, and The Great Tomb of Nazarick.

She felt like crying, she wanted, more than anything else in the world, to beg him. To beg that he didn’t stay with them, beg for him to leave them behind and survive.

Why, why, why had she been so selfish? Praying for him to stay when that would mean his end?

Her legs trembled as she wanted to kneel, but she was so shaken by this revelation that she couldn’t even do that much.

So she did what she could and silently prayed that he would leave, that they would leave, because Momonga-sama was also the kind of ruler that would stay with them until the end.

Please don’t, please survive, I don’t want to be part of the reason you’re staying, I don’t want you to die for us.

The Masters dying for their servants, just what kind of twisted, wrong world was that? They were the ones that should be doing everything for their Lords, not the other way around!

“I find the given task conflictive,” Jarvis repeated, before saying as much again and again like a broken record. She was sure the Zerg had reached the same conclusion she had.

“I find the given—“ the Zerg started to say for the fifth time, picking up pace so every sentence was muttered faster than the one before.

“It’s alright,” Harry-sama interrupted Jarvis when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to stop, “don’t worry, I’ve already taken care of everything for this day. Do me a favor and stay with me until midnight, can you do that for me?”

Emerald eyes seemed to be silently pleading. Jarvis stayed silent for a long moment, before softly saying “Understood Sir,” with a short nod, and a hand over his chest.

Harry-sama nodded, before saying “Follow me,” to them both. Albedo moved so she was walking at his right side, just a couple of steps behind him, while Jarvis walked at her left as they both followed Harry-sama out of the Throne room.

She had wanted to contact the Floor Guardians, to let them know how very wrong they had been, how selfish. To tell them the terrible truth that this was the end for them all, and that Harry-sama intended to go down with them, perhaps even Momonga-sama as well.

But she couldn’t use [Message] while in the presence of a Supreme Being, so she swallowed her words, throat burning as if she had just drunk acid. They walked silently to the 9^th floor, where the Meeting room was, and Albedo watched Harry-sama’s back as she did her best to memorize every small detail of her kindest Master.

Upon opening the door of the Meeting room, she saw an Overlord and Elder Black Ooze already seated down the table, conversation coming to a halt upon seeing their arrival.

“It’s really been a while, Herohero. I wasn’t sure you would be able to show up,” Harry-sama greeted the Supreme Being Albedo hadn’t seen in more than two years.

“Indeed it has, Harry. I stopped coming online after moving to another job IRL, so how long has it been... about two years? Ugh, it’s been so long… this is bad. I’ve been doing so much overtime recently that my sense of time is starting to go weird,” Herohero-sama said tiredly. His words lacked force, or perhaps it could be said that they lacked energy.

Harry-sama frowned worriedly, but couldn’t inquire on anything else since Momonga-sama spoke up.

“Hey Harry, any reason Albedo and Jarvis are following you?” the overlord asked curiously, but the homunculus simply shrugged lightly in response.

“I wanted them to come with me. I’ve been touring around all Floors actually… you know, sight-seeing one last time.”

“Ah… wished I had the time to do that too. I just arrived back home though,” the overlord lamented, and Albedo wanted to smile sadly at him, understanding that Momonga-sama cared as much as Harry-sama did.

Even if she didn’t fully understand what had kept the overlord from coming, if it was him, it was bound to be something important.

“That would have been nostalgic,” Herohero-sama agreed tiredly while looking at the homunculus, before turning to face the seating overlord “Momonga-san...I’m sorry for making you listen to my whining. I can’t complain much IRL.”

The place corresponding to Herohero’s head seemed to sway, as though he were bowing in apology.

“Don’t worry about it, Herohero-san. I made you come despite you being busy, so listening to your complaints is only expected. I’ll hear you out, no matter how many you have,” Momonga-sama said honestly, with Harry-sama nodding in agreement as well.

The Elder Black Ooze seemed to have recovered some of his energy, and with a somewhat more animated laugh, he replied:

“Ah, I’m grateful for that. I’m glad I could meet you both, it’s been so long since I could speak with friends…”

“I’m very happy to hear you say that too,” Harry-sama finally took a seat, with Albedo and Jarvis flanking each side of his chair.

“...Although it’s about time for me to log off.”

The homonculus tensed, looked at the watch on his wrist and then cursed softly.

Herohero’s tentacle waggled in mid-air, as though he were checking something only he could perceive. Albedo had no way of knowing he was operating a menu, after all.

“You’re right, it is getting pretty late…” the overlord trailed off with a tinge of sadness.

“I’m sorry about this, Momonga-san. Ah, Harry, I really did want to talk with you too, to stay with you to the end… but I’m about to fall asleep.”

“Ah— well, you do sound pretty tired. Then, you should go and have a good rest,” Harry-sama said with a resigned voice, and Albedo felt even more guilty for being the cause he couldn’t meet with Herohero-sama sooner.

“I’m really sorry… Although, how long do you plan to stay?”

“I intended to stay until I was automatically forced out once the servers shut down. Since we still have some more minutes, maybe someone might come by,” the overlord answered with steel determination and Albedo felt her heart break at the confirmation that the Guildmaster would stay as well—

“I will stay until the end as well,” the homunculus added with a nod and a sad smile.

No, please no, anything but that—

“Is that so? still—“the Elder Black Ooze seemed to yawn, pausing in his speech momentarily before adding, “You both must have kept the guild going so we could come back to it at any time. Thank you very much. I hope that when we meet again…. ugh, I’m having trouble staying awake… I think I’ll leave first. I’m glad I could meet you in the end. Goodnight.”

The Elder Black Ooze was swaying lightly from one side to the other, as if he would fall over at any time.

 “I was very happy to meet you too. Goodnight.” Momonga-sama raised a boney hand in farewell.

“Rest well.” Harry-sama said with a small smile and a hand motion.

Herohero’s last words were, “Let’s meet up again somewhere,” before he disappeared from the room.

Albedo was sure that he hadn’t used the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to go to another floor, but that the Elder Black Ooze had left the Guild completely.

The Guildmaster looked at the place where Herohero-sama had been sitting, before sighing tiredly.

“He was the only one that came when you sent the emails?” Harry-sama asked towards the overlord, who nodded dejectedly.

“He was the only one that came… the others just replied saying they couldn’t,” Momonga-sama muttered, before turning his head from one end of the table to the other, as if counting the empty seats.

“Let’s meet up again somewhere… huh,” the overlord whispered with a lowered head.

“I think is unlikely anyone else will come... There’s no need to stay here.” Harry-sama rose from his seat, placing a hand over the overlord’s shoulder “Let’s go to the Throne room and wait there, all right?”

Of the forty-two members of the guild, forty had left them behind. Actually, excluding the Elder Black Ooze, Albedo hadn’t really seen the other Supreme Beings in around 3 or more years.

“Yeah… I guess that’s true. Thank you Harry,” Momonga-sama rose from his seat slowly, as if reluctant, glancing at her and Jarvis before turning his gaze towards the wall “Hey, what do you think about moving this?”

A boney hand was gently extended towards the wall, where an elaborately decorated magic staff was kept. Seven serpents twined around the body of the staff. The serpents’ mouths gaped open, and each mouth held a gem of a different color.

It was the Guild Weapon, the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

“Sure thing. This is the last day and is already so late, it should be safe to move it.”

 “No invaders would be crazy enough to attempt anything today of all days,” Momonga agreed as he reached out and grasped the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

As Momonga took the Guild Weapon, it radiated a nimbus of reddish-black light. Tormented faces occasionally coalesced out of the roiling light, and then they crumbled and vanished again. They looked so realistic one could almost imagine them wailing in agony.

“...I wonder if they went overboard with the details.”

Harry chuckled, playfully patting the overlord’s back as he replied with “What do you mean ‘They’? We all used to be like that! Just think about Nazarick, isn’t it amazingly well done?”

The words worked like a miracle to rise the Guildmaster’s spirits, who laughed freely like Albedo had never heard before.

“You’re right, we most certainly did!”

Among laughs and easy-going chatter, Momonga-sama and Harry-sama left the Meeting Room with Albedo and Jarvis following behind them.

The light atmosphere would have warmed her heart any other day, as she witnessed firsthand the friendly interaction between the only two Supreme Beings that had stayed with them, but right now all she could feel was despairing sadness.

Why weren’t they leaving, if their lives were at stake? Why couldn’t she voice out her wish, for them to leave?

The feeling of powerlessness at their current situation was unbearable, as if someone had a firm hold of her heart and was squeezing—

“—Just think about the level of detail in each floor. The Great Tomb of Nazarik used to be a six floor dungeon, but it wasn’t enough for us so we went and altered it so it had ten wonderful floors.”

Harry-sama mentioned a detail she hadn’t been aware about, successfully taking her mind from the depressive spiral of thoughts.

Momonga-sama chuckled longingly at Harry-sama’s words before adding, “And now each floor has its own unique theme. A tomb, an underground lake, a frozen glacier, a rainforest, a sea of magma, a wasteland… and of course, the Ninth and Tenth Floors are the realm of the Gods!”

Harry-sama smiled wistfully in response, before mentioning how their home base of Ainz Ooal Gown had ranked among the top ten of YGGDRASIL’s thousands of guilds.

The sound of their footsteps and the tapping of the staff Momonga-sama was holding were drowned by their voices as they conversed amiably.

After turning several corners in these vast hallways, they crossed paths with the regular maid Fifth, who darted to the side and bowed deeply as they approached.

Albedo wanted to stay behind and speak with her. Since she couldn’t use [Message] to let the others know about their precarious situation, the best would be to inform someone else so they could do it for her.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

The Supreme Beings walked past the maid after that painful farewell. As they passed by, there was no response, but Albedo could see her shiver, sad eyes looking at the floor as they passed without halting in front of her.

Since she had been ordered to follow them, Albedo couldn’t stay behind no matter how strongly she wished for it, so she silently lamented her missed opportunity.

After a while, a gigantic staircase appeared before them. It was wide enough that over ten people could walk down it side by side, arms outstretched, with no problems. The Supreme Beings slowly descended the stairs, until they reached the lowest floor — the Tenth Floor of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick, and the one she was meant to guard with her very last breath.

The place where they had arrived was a large receiving room, with Sebas and the Pleiades currently in standby guarding it.

Without orders, all they could do was wait for a chance to be of use.

Momonga-sama placed his thumb on his chin, and looked at the butler and maids who were bowing to him before looking back at her and Jarvis.

“Well, since this is the last day… Follow me,” Momonga-sama gave them a command before resuming his conversation about times long past with Harry-sama.

Sebas and the maids bowed respectfully, to show they had heard and acknowledged the order, and it was precisely because of this action that the Supreme Beings couldn’t see the sadness and confusion present in their eyes.

They didn’t know. Sebas and the Pleiades didn’t know.

They didn’t know and Albedo couldn’t tell them.

They had already been devastated by the thought of Harry-sama leaving them, but now also Momonga-sama had mentioned it was “the last day.”  It probably came as a surprise for them, who didn’t know the World was ending.

Albedo glanced at them, wanting to explain the terrible, terrible truth, but she had orders to follow. As such, she walked silently, with Sebas and the Pleiades now following behind her and Jarvis in a straight line.

Walking thorough, they finally arrived at the giant doors that led to the Throne room.

Both Supreme Beings raised their hands to softly grace the doors with their touch, and the entrance slowly opened by itself.

 “This is a good place for an ending, right?” Momonga-sama muttered, his words were directed at Harry-sama as they reached the base of the stairs leading to the throne, before adding “Ah, stand by,” as an afterthought.

Sebas and the Pleiades stopped, but Jarvis and Albedo had been following Harry-sama, not Momonga-sama, and thus they continued to walk up the stairs with them.

“There’s no place more appropriate,” the homunculus agreed with the overlord upon reaching the throne, “This is good enough, stand by.”

Albedo and Jarvis stopped, so they were just at Harry-sama’s side at the throne’s right.

Momonga-sama sat on the throne, and Harry left them behind as he walked towards the other side, so the overlord was flanked on both sides.

Momonga-sama extended a hand regally before lightly bringing it down.

“Kneel.”

As one, Albedo, Jarvis, Sebas, and the six maids fell to one knee in respect.

“Well then, how long do we have?”

“Haha! Harry, I really don’t understand why you never had your account fixed,” the overlord replied with amusement to the homunculus’ question before adding, “Five more minutes.”

Harry-sama’s reply was drowned out by the sheer feeling of anguish that traveled through her.

Only five minutes?! No, no, no, NO!

She gritted her teeth, she needed to speak up, to tell them.

Please leave us, please live on, please survive.

Please, please, please, please, please—

Judging by the way Jarvis was trembling, he was probably experiencing something similar.

“Well, it was nice while it lasted. I will miss you a lot, Momonga, thanks for staying up until now.”

“Yeah, it really was fun… thank you for staying with the Guild all these years too. I really can’t imagine how it would have been if you hadn’t stayed with me. We should meet IRL, don’t you think Harry?”

“If I were in the same country as you, I’d agree, but sadly…”

“Ah... that’s right. Your Japanese is so good, I tend to forget.”

Only ten seconds left! No, no, no, no, no!

The countdown mercilessly continued in her mind, and it was about to finish. She closed her eyes, body trembling lightly due to the effort she was placing on moving, on speaking out without an order.

And as the countdown finally reached zero—

“Please! Please my Lords, please live on!” her loud cry resounded over the previously calm room along with a softer cry of “Sir!” coming from the Zerg kneeling at her side.

“...Eh?”

“Incredible!”

Raising her head without permission— please forgive my rudeness—  to look up at her Masters, Albedo smiled in pure, sheer relief upon seeing they were still here with them, tears running down her cheeks due to her happiness.

The world was still spinning, and the Great Tomb of Nazarick had not only survived, but actually managed to give sanctuary to two Supreme Beings as well.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10 Transition

Momonga opened his eyes slowly. Maybe this time, the image in front of him would actually change…. Ah, no.  He hadn’t returned to his familiar room, this was still the Throne Room in YGGDRASIL.

The time was right, so he and Harry should have been forcibly logged out by the server shutdown. It was definitely past midnight; the clock couldn’t have gone wrong because of a system error.

“…are you alright? I’m sorry for worrying you, please stop crying.”

There was, also, the very shocking scene unfolding in front of him.

Albedo was sobbing loudly, still kneeling at the Throne’s side, and Harry had walked over to her and bent down to pat her comfortingly, throwing worried glances at her and the humanoid Zerg. Jarvis, still kneeling, hunched down until his forehead touched the carpeted floor, letting out a single, long sigh as if he had been about to suffer an attack, but had managed to avoid it in the last second.

Sebas and the Pleiades had looked up for a moment to see this scene, but upon noticing he was observing them, they had apologized profusely and bent down their heads once more.

Confused, Momonga looked around him, searching for any clues in the vicinity.

“What… on earth happened?”

Momonga was filled with panic, frustration, and suspicion, but oddly enough, all those feelings seemed to be suppressed by a greater force. As such, he was surprised by how calm he felt considering the circumstances.

“Um… Harry?” His voice sounded much more deep than usual, but was steady all things considered. It surprised him to no end, since he was actually feeling very, very lost.

“Ah, of course, sorry!” Harry left a much calmer, hiccupping Albedo — who now seemed to be smiling in relieved happiness, even if tears were still running down her cheeks — to approach the Throne. “Can you see me?”

Momonga didn’t know how to respond. As it was, there were far too many things he didn’t understand, so his thought processes short-circuited somewhat.

“See… what? Wait, your face is…?”

Harry beamed, looking at him with a bright smile that only served to confuse him even more. He couldn’t understand why Harry wasn’t shocked by the way the NPCs moved, or by the way his own face now seemed to be able to make expressions—

“Wonderful! Then the magic I felt— an update? What else is different?” Harry seemed to be simply speaking out loud, not particularly directed to him, which was good because Momonga frankly couldn’t keep up. “We need to check this up and fast. Better make sure there’s nothing urgent or life-threatening to handle.”

Those words seemed to make the NPCs perk up in attention, and Momonga just wanted to dig himself underground and disappear. Why were they looking at him so expectantly? Why could they do so in the first place? What—?

What the hell was going on?!

“Um…”

“Is it ok if I tackle this one?” Harry asked distractedly, seemingly pensive, and Momonga automatically nodded wordlessly.

When his Guildmates, his friends, started to leave, he had begun to think that maybe he was doing something wrong; that he wasn’t a good leader after all. Sometime later, he had started to discuss things with Harry— since Punitto Moe and Tabula had already left — just to double check if everything was alright before taking a decision.

So he nodded in agreement before he had a chance to actually process the question, and Harry nodded back at him with an excited grin before he got serious and turned around.

“Well then, first things first… Jarvis, are you alright bud?”

“I… wasn’t aware I could experience such an anxiety attack. If I may Sir, I would like to request for you to not do that ever again.”

The NPCs seemed to look incredulously at the kneeling Zerg —who had a small, relieved smile and was still catching his breath as if to calm down — before Albedo cried an indignant “Jarvis—!”

“—I’m really sorry about that.” Harry interrupted Albedo while giving her a meaningful look, before turning to the Zerg once more. “I didn’t mean to worry all of you in such a manner… please forgive me.”

Harry bowed his head, and Albedo practically freaked out while Jarvis simply sighed and nodded.

…What the hell was Harry talking about however?

“Harry-sama! Please don’t—!”

“Please raise your head!”

Sebas and the Pleiades had raised their heads again, and were now in the middle of a panic attack along with Albedo. Frankly, only Jarvis seemed to remain calm at Harry’s apology.

On the other hand, Momonga was relieved that the attention was now focused on Harry and not himself. Sighing softly, he tried to open his console to log out. He was too tired for this. He would come back and check what was going on tomorrow.

But the menu that should have appeared simply didn’t.  How… how was he supposed to log out then?

“Alright, alright, I take you’ve accepted my apology?”

“There’s no need to apologize!”

Partially drowning out the commotion happening around him, Momonga decided to call on other means. Forced connections that didn’t require a console, the chat function, a GM call, a forced logout—

But none of them responded. It was as though they had been deleted from the system.

“...What the hell is going on!?” Momonga’s panicked voice, even if not particularly loud, echoed through the Throne Room. Today was the last day of YGGDRASIL, yet all these things were happening. Was this some kind of prank they were pulling on the players?

As if he had thrown a bucket of icy water over the others, the discussion seemed to end abruptly, and only then did he realize he had spoken out loud.

“Hm, you’re right, we should be focusing on that.” Harry nodded in agreement to him, and Momonga froze upon seeing that the attention of everyone was back on him.

“Eh?”

“Alright guys, please hear me out! Sebas, take the Pleiades back to the 9^th floor and patrol through it, ok? maximum alert.”

“It shall be done, Harry-sama.”

“Albedo, contact all the Floor Guardians, make everyone check their own floors. If there’s anything out of place let me and Momonga know immediately. Coordinate with them as necessary to rise the defenses as much as possible.”

“Understood, Harry-sama!”

“Jarvis—” Harry started to say before pausing, humming for a moment before tentatively continuing with “…think you can make some Zerglings leave the Tomb?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem Sir.”

“Right, make those good at infiltration and surveillance check the outside then. Some… ten kilometers should do, make sure they’re not seen, and avoid fighting. Let us know your findings once that’s done.”

Jarvis nodded silently, and Harry returned the gesture before speaking to all the NPCs present in the Throne room.

“Then, off you go. Be careful.”

“Yes!”

Harry then turned to face the Throne once more.

“Momonga.” He almost jolted at being suddenly addressed, worried for a moment that Harry would give him a weird instruction too. “I know it’s kind of sudden, but we need to know how many things have changed. Albedo, Jarvis, can you leave the room for a moment?”

Both NPCs tensed, shared a worried glance between them, and then—

“I’d rather not Sir. I can coordinate the Zerglings while performing other functions.”

“Is… is it truly necessary?”

They both replied at the same time, seemingly feeling insecure about something. It made Harry smile understandingly at them before replying. “Sorry, but I need to chat with Momonga for a moment, and I can’t let you be present. I promise we’ll be fine, ok?”

Momonga could only stare dumbly as they started to discuss once again, Harry asking them to leave and the NPCs refusing to. Their movements, expression, speech patterns, the three of them radiated an undeniable humanity.

Impossible. This should have been impossible.

The closest thing NPCs could come to conversations was with macroed responses to being addressed in a certain way, but actually allowing an NPC to engage in conversation was an impossible task. But they had been speaking all this time, reacting… Why had such an impossible event occurred?

Momonga still had the feeling that something was terribly wrong about them, that something was terribly wrong about himself, but he had no way of understanding exactly what the problem was. All he could do in this ignorant state was to suppress his fear, shock, and other unnecessary emotions. However, Momonga was a common person so he couldn’t do that, not completely.

Just as Momonga was about to cry out again something suppressed his emotions, so he slowly regained his composure. Silently thanking whatever was helping him keep calm, he decided that if Harry wanted to speak with him without the NPCs present, then it was probably for the best.

“Is something the matter?” He asked out loud while standing up, taking a single step away from the Throne.

His words cut through the seemingly endless discussion like a knife. Albedo bowed and apologized for questioning orders, and Jarvis seemed to hesitate for a long moment before doing so as well.

“Well, you heard the Guildmaster,” Harry said simply, smiling amusedly. “Off you go, we will be fine.”

Momonga, who had calmed himself after much effort, was in danger of being driven into panic again upon having both NPCs focus on him. Thankfully however, they didn’t do anything other than express their reluctant agreement, before slowly leaving the Throne room, as if wanting to delay it as much as possible.

Once the great doors finally closed, he released a breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding in. Harry chuckled, still looking at the closed great doors, before making a circular hand motion.

“Thanks Momonga, I thought we would be debating all night.”

“Ah… it’s ok,” he answered lightly with a dismissive hand motion, before going back to his senses. “Wait, it’s not ok! What the hell is going on? Harry, your face is moving, the NPCs are moving!”

“I know! Isn’t it wonderful?”

“Wonder… what?” Momonga looked oddly at Harry, who was smiling wolfishly as if this couldn’t be any better.

“Haha, sorry, sorry, let’s start from the beginning.” His friend finally seemed to calm down somewhat, which made Momonga relax his shoulders minutely, “What is different? What have you tried?”

“I... well, I can’t log out.” He decided to mention the most important bit first, before adding, “The [GM Call] function doesn’t seem to be working either.”

“GM… ah yes, the developers. All technical issues are addressed like that, correct?”

“Obviously.”

Momonga was speaking very calmly. He felt uneasy at the lack of strong emotions within himself, but couldn’t really focus on that since there were many things unknown to him at the moment. Now wasn’t the time to ponder these things.

“Ok, what else? Can you see your screens? Smell anything? Feel anything?”

“My screens? Those are your screens as well, you know?” Momonga couldn’t help but scoff somewhat defensively. The way Harry was speaking, as if all these changes were only happening to Momonga, was slowly putting him on edge. Harry was here as well so he should be experiencing all these things too, right?

“Sure, sure, I just… well, can you please answer my question?” Harry asked again, his previous excitement nowhere to be seen. Looking at the now worried face of his friend made Momonga feel calmer, like he wasn’t alone in all this.

“I can’t access the menu either. Smell… well, I could smell something flowery when Albedo was here, I think?”

Harry nodded encouragingly, looking somewhat expectantly at him, so Momonga only added

“I don’t know, feeling…I just felt the Throne I guess…?” Trailing off, Harry simply hummed in response, looking down to the floor pensively for a moment.

Harry looked much calmer… so maybe this really was an update? It would be ironic, to think that Harry would receive an email stating as much but Momonga wouldn’t, the roles reversed. He could imagine his friend saying “You should fix your email account”, throwing his words back at him playfully—

“I see. I wonder if…ok, here, try to take my pulse.” Harry offered his wrist, and Momonga reluctantly did as instructed.

“How… is this possible?” he muttered slowly, disbelief prominent in his voice. “You have pulse, your face moves…”

Harry snorted before taking his arm back and casually saying, “Your mouth is moving as well.”

Momonga hurriedly placed a hand on his mandible and spoke, all thoughts coming to a halt upon feeling movement.

 “...pos...sible!”

Momonga stood still, silently pondering about everything he had discovered up until now. Movement, expressions, smell, a pulse, the NPCs… his inability to log out.

Logically, one of the fundamental rules of DMMO-RPGS was that forcing a player to participate in a game without permission could be treated as a form of cyber-kidnapping. Which company would risk arrest or worse to commit a corporate crime like this? Considering this, there was no way these changes were the result of a game update, which only left another possibility... The possibility that the virtual world had become reality.

“Impossible…”

Momonga could feel the certainty he had in the world evaporating away, replaced by an ever-growing uneasiness. He suppressed his desire to shout out and, like he expected, his surging emotions were suddenly quashed.

How many times had that happened? Was it normal?

“Momonga? Calm down, breathe in and out,” Harry said while doing so himself, as if to show him how it was done. Momonga repeated the motion unconsciously, the uneasiness going away until it was bearable.

 “...What should we do… Is there anything we can do?” He knew nothing about what was going on, but he wasn’t alone. There was a saying, two heads worked better than one, right?

“I’m not sure. If my hypothesis is correct though… hm, let’s see if you can still cast magic first. Use any non-combat spell, whatever comes to mind.”

Momonga froze, the uneasiness coming back much more strongly before he tentatively said, “[Message] Can you hear me?” with a soft voice.

He was afraid.

Momonga was a level 100 spellcaster. If he couldn’t cast spells, his mobility, his ability to gather information, and his fighting power would plummet drastically. In these unknown circumstances, he had to be able to use magic, he just had to.

“Ok, I heard that twice since we’re in the same room, but it definitely worked,” Harry confirmed, his voice sounding with a weird echo since he had answered his [Message] with another one. “Maybe we should test other things as well though. Alright, throw a buffing spell at me.”

Momonga relaxed upon hearing his spell had worked, even without the need of using a console. Taking a deep breath, he raised the staff and pointed it at Harry, muttering the first buffing spell that came to mind. It was odd, how he instinctively knew how to cast magic, even when he had never done so without using buttons on a screen…

The Homunculus’ body glowed, and Harry nodded in confirmation.

“Good, I felt my defense raising. Alright, I think it’s safe to assume spells work well for you still—”

“Harry,” Momonga interrupted him with a raised hand, unable to keep silent any longer. “Why am I the only one testing? Why…” he hesitated for a moment, before taking a deep breath and finishing up with, “Why are you so calm?”

Momonga looked seriously at his friend, who hadn’t looked stunned by anything up until now. Harry looked taken aback for a moment, as if his train of thought had been cut off abruptly, before he quickly recovered and nodded in understanding.

— Harry—

The change had been so small, so insignificant, Harry almost missed it completely. It was like a flash, gone in the blink of an eye, and everything remained the same yet seemed to be different somehow.

This was only proven right when Albedo exclaimed out loud. He had felt so overjoyed by the simple fact that she could move and speak, he hadn’t paid much attention to what she exclaimed at the moment —should probably address it once Momonga is calmer however— and instead had simply focused on the rest of people present in the Throne room.

Everyone was acting alive, truly alive now.

And Momonga was still here. Whatever he had expected from the ending of Yggdrasil, he had been certain he would lose his friend forever, so seeing the Overlord made him glad. Harry was still getting used to his friend’s new voice since it sounded quite different now, but other than that he was the same old Momonga.

If what he suspected had happened really did happen… if the world was now reality for Momonga as well, then Harry needed to be honest about his situation, otherwise, he would be forced to hide a big part of his skills. That and, if he ended up being forced to use them in front of Momonga, the other most likely wouldn’t trust him ever again for hiding such a thing.

One simply couldn’t bluff his way through life like that.

“Momonga,” Harry said seriously, which made the Overlord tense immediately. Even when the other couldn’t show any facial expressions, the tensing of the shoulders and the way his grip had gotten stronger around the Guild Weapon were an obvious telltale.

“…What is it? Please don’t scare me like that, I’ll end up having a heart attack.” Momonga exhaled in a mix of worry and curiosity. Harry smiled thinly at him, before releasing a tired sigh.

“I need to speak about something, but you must promise you’ll hear me until the end, ok?”

“…Yeah. Well, it’s not like I would interrupt someone when they’re speaking,” Momonga said lightly, probably trying to ease up the tension in the atmosphere. “What is it?”

“This will sound odd, but you need to consider that our current situation is also odd in itself,” Harry pressed, which made the other release a stressed short laugh.

“The NPCs talk and think by themselves, and we can’t log out… I don’t think it can get weirder than that.”

Harry hmphed at that, raising an eyebrow in a manner that practically exclaimed ‘you just had to say it’ and finally dropped the bomb.

“I’ve… I’ve never been a player,” he said simply, pausing to let his words sink in.

Whatever Momonga seemed to have been expecting, that most definitely wasn’t it. The Overlord tilted his head in obvious confusion, raising a skeletal hand before pausing and simply saying “…Eh?”

“I was never a Player, Yggdrasil has always been my real world. I never interacted with screens, never could see the Cash Shop, nor any events—“

“Wait, wait, what do you mean by that? You— eh? Is this a joke? You can’t— but—” Momonga interrupted, tripping on his words while shaking his hand from side to side disbelievingly.

“…Remember that you guys asked me about the ‘construction of my character’? What was always my answer?”

“Eh? Um, you always said, ‘It’s a secret, a Magician never reveals the tricks under their sleeve’ or something like that. What does that have to do with—?”

“That’s because I never constructed anything, I’m simply the way I am because of how I’ve lived. If I decided to pick locks for fun and ended up having Job classes as thief, I never knew. I can’t see my own Job classes… and neither could you.”

Although his friends ended up ‘deducing’ Harry’s job classes whenever they saw the kind of spells he used, nothing was set of stone since they couldn’t see them. Harry was rather happy for this, since he was sure he probably had more job classes than the Level 100 limit allowed for.

“But… but that was because you have an item—“

“That was the only excuse I could come up with. Besides, didn’t you think it weird that it would also work on the Guild members? Items are not supposed to affect your allies, unless it is to buff them or protect them.”

“Well— yeah, ok, but still… eh? You can’t be serious… right?” Momonga tilted his head, then shook it negatively, before looking down at the floor and then up at him again. It was the perfect picture of honest confusion.

“…The number of spells I can learn is not limited by Yggdrasil either. It never was.” Harry tried a different approach, which seemed to catch the Overlord’s attention, glowing spots of fire suddenly getting brighter in interest. “As a result, I know plenty of spells that don’t exist in Yggdrasil.” Just as he finished that phrase, he summoned his elder wand and pointed it lazily at the other “Expelliarmus.”

The Guild Weapon, that had been in Momonga’s hand, was hit and thrown a few feet away, just so it was out of reach for the Overlord. Harry paused for a moment, but when Momonga didn’t react and just stared stupefied at the Guild Weapon, he decided to use another spell.

“Expecto Patronum”

A brilliant stag walked proudly towards the Overlord, who raised a skeletal hand in wonder at the animal’s head, fingers going through it.

“It feels… warm. An illusion wouldn’t feel warm at all… right?”

“It’s a charm, made of good memories. It serves to relay messages with others…” Harry paused, studying the other’s posture before continuing, “I know plenty of other spells as well, magic that was not available for you as Players.”

Momonga walked slowly around the Patronus, watching interestedly as his hand went through, boney fingers poking here and there.

“…but we could still see your character chart. Your HP, MP, agility…” the Overlord muttered, not looking at Harry but actually completely focused on the stag.

“Yes well… you can see that on MOBs and pretty much anything alive in Yggdrasil.” Harry shrugged at the look of perplexity Momonga sent him. “And my ‘construction’ didn’t make any sense. My defense was ridiculously high, but my attack was actually pretty good. Bukubukuchagama always scolded me for that, wondering how I managed it… it would have been impossible for a Player, but for me, that’s simply how it was.”

Momonga was speechless for a long while, gaze turning away so he was simply looking at the shining stag. Noting the other was avoiding him, Harry dispelled the Patronus, so the Overlord didn’t have much choice but to face him again.

“…This really isn’t a joke, is it? But we could see your level, your race and name, just like any player.” Momonga muttered, looking over Harry’s head as if expecting to see that screen again.

Well shit. Now it was Harry’s turn to look away, looking at the Throne interestedly.

“Ah… yes, it wasn’t always like that.” Harry scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, avoiding Momonga’s searching gaze. “Er… well, maybe you heard about the wandering Raid Boss?”

“Who didn’t? Peroroncino told us it would be fun to hunt it down together, but even when he succeeded in convincing Touch Me, we never managed to find it,” Momonga said simply. Harry could feel the stare directed at him, which made him sigh tiredly.

“Yeah… you did find it actually,” he said in a resigned manner, smiling thinly while still avoiding Momonga’s gaze. “It was me.”

“…Eh? Wait, what?”

“At first, I wasn’t really able to interact with Players. I could hear them and all, but they never heard me… I think I was considered as a MOB back then.” Harry looked at the ceiling, lost in memories of his first year in Yggdrasil, unsure on whether it would be wise to look at Momonga or not. “But then one day, I’m not sure how I did it, but suddenly the Players could hear my voice. I wonder if it was that weird thing I ate?”

He laughed lightly at his own bad joke, before deciding he couldn’t postpone it forever and looked back at Momonga.

Who seemed to be, reasonably, in shock.

“…Momonga? You there bud?”

The Overlord covered his face with a large hand, while the other was raised in a ‘wait’ motion. Harry decided to stay silent until the other spoke, which happened some minutes later.

“…You— a Raid Boss? That Raid Boss? The one that wiped the ‘Wandering Angels’ and the ‘Underworld Pack’ guilds? It was rumored in the fan-made community at least—“

“I really have no idea how they were called, but I do remember defeating an Angel-based team, as well as a Werewolf-based team.”

“You gotta be kidding me.”

“I’m afraid I’m not.” Harry looked at his friend seriously, before smiling understandingly and shaking his head. “Still, you don’t have to believe me right now. I think you’ll notice with the passage of time, so I wanted to tell you that.”

Not giving him a chance to reply, Harry shook his head and sighed. It was obvious by Momonga’s posture and body language, he didn’t really believe his words, and although it was to be expected, they couldn’t focus too much on this topic, not yet.

“Besides, you’re my dear friend that is here too, so I wanted to be honest. Well then,” Harry clapped his hands as if shaking off dirt, and smirked at the stupefied Overlord. “How much do you bet that at least one of them is staying out of the room, waiting for us to be done?”

“One of… ah, Jarvis and Albedo? Why were they acting like that?” Momonga accepted the change of topic, seemingly grateful he was given time to think about the nuclear bomb Harry dropped on him.

“Ah, I thought the world was ending so I sort of… said my goodbyes,” Harry said sheepishly

“I really thought it was going to end, you know?”

“Wait, does that mean you were actually gonna die? If Yggdrasil was— Ugh, my head hurts.”

As if struggling between accepting Harry’s words as true and understanding everything such a thing would imply, the Overlord covered his eyes tiredly, in a very human gesture.

“Don’t think too much about it. We can speak about that some other day.”

“…I guess.”

“That being said, I should go speak with the NPCs… not sure if all of them are as worried as Albedo and Jarvis were, since Sebas and the Pleiades left without much of a fuss, but—”

“The NPCs,” Momonga interrupted him with a soft voice, as if still distracted. “Are they… have they always been, you know?”

“…Alive? Yeah, I think so.”

“Alive? Was that the reason you always— no, wait, don’t tell me anything. I need time.” Momonga stated matter-of-factly, with a hand over his head as if trying to force his brain to work faster. “Wait, Harry, do they… what is our level of authority? Do you think they would…?”

The Overlord trailed off, but there was no need to complete that sentence. Harry hadn’t given much thought about whether the NPCs would follow orders or not, if simply because their reaction at his farewell seemed to show respect, and the NPCs reactions at his apology just now in the Throne room were comically exaggerated.

“I don’t think they would rebel against us,” Harry stated sincerely, before smiling knowingly at his friend. “But knowing how needlessly paranoid you’re—”

“It’s not being paranoid if they’re really out there to get you!”

Harry laughed out loud, and Momonga seemed to relax at the usual, playful banter.

“Sure, sure, for your peace of mind, let’s have a chat with them ok?” Harry conceded, and Momonga chuckled and nodded before he opened his left hand, gripping the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown that sailed into his grasp.

“Then… it should be ok if I send a [Message] to Albedo, right?” Momonga asked for confirmation as it was usual, and Harry simply nodded in agreement. “Let’s meet the Floor Guardians on the Colosseum in the 6^th Floor.”

“Sounds good,” he replied simply, before silently taking down the wandless Muffliato he had implemented once the NPCs had left the Throne room. Turning towards the closed entrance, he called out, “Anyone out there?”

The great doors opened immediately, a single figure showing between the gap.

“Albedo left to personally visit the Floor Guardians Sir. How may I assist?” Was the immediate response, which made Harry chuckle softly.

“I knew someone would be waiting,” Harry muttered amusedly, tuning out his friend’s conversation as Momonga contacted Albedo to order all the Floor Guardians to gather in the Colosseum. “Well, since she went personally… Jarvis, go to my room, check if it works properly. Once you’ve done that, come to see me at the 6^th Floor.”

“…Understood Sir.”

Jarvis had hesitated for a moment, but in the end seemed to leave without making much of a fuss. Momonga had tensed a little when Jarvis had entered the room, but relaxed minutely at his departure. It would seem that seeing the NPCs move so freely still caused him conflictive feelings.

But Momonga was still at ease around him, so Harry guessed that the Overlord didn’t really place him in the same category, even if Harry had told him he never had been a player. He wondered if his friend would end up considering him like an AI now, but figured that chat could wait for another day.

After a short discussion on whether Momonga could use items or not, they decided that they would try to reach the 6^th floor using the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown. The Overlord took a deep breath, grasping the Guild Weapon more strongly before he disappeared soundlessly. It was only once Harry saw Momonga disappear that he activated his own ring as well.

The world turned black for an instant, before he found himself standing over the center of the Colosseum, just at Momonga’s side.

“It worked,” Momonga said simply looking around the Colosseum as if appraising it for the first time. The Overlord probably hadn’t set foot in this area for quite a while. “Well, it will be some time before the Floor Guardians come, do you mind if we practice harmful spells and skills? Those are the only ones we haven’t tested yet.”

“I don’t mind. How long will it take them to arrive?” Harry asked inwardly surprised. After seeing Albedo’s reluctance when leaving, he had thought she would come as soon as possible, maybe even drag the other Floor Guardians with her.

“Well, Albedo requested I give her an hour to speak with the other Floor Guardians… She sounded— er, quite emotional, so I didn’t ask much about it.” Momonga sounded quite uncomfortable, so Harry simply nodded in agreement, even if he was still curious.

“Then we have an hour to practice. What do you want to test first?”

“Damaging spells, since they’re more relevant in battle,” Momonga answered simply before assuming a pensive pose. “Now that I think of it… my passive ability should be active, but I didn’t hurt you when I took your pulse right? So friendly fire is still impossible?”

Harry pondered his friend’s words for a moment, feeling actually intrigued.  Friendly fire had been impossible even for him before all this happened, so he didn’t see why it would change now.

“Most likely. Throw one at me then, we just need to check if it works after all,” Harry confirmed with a small shrug, before walking away so there was more distance between them.

“Alright, ready?” Momonga asked, waiting until Harry nodded before raising the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. The Overlord seemed to hesitate, as if unsure on which spell to use, before he finally muttered “[Darken a Life]” uncertainly.

Probably afraid that their theory would be wrong, Momonga used a weak debuffing spell that only dropped the ‘Luck’ status, instead of anything that could cause damage. The spell hit Harry square in the chest, but…

“It flashed out, so it activated correctly right?” The Overlord asked out, to which Harry simply shrugged.

“I think it activated, but it didn’t affect me. Well, I don’t feel anything different at least...” he trailed off, not sure if it was because friendly fire was inactive, or due to the difference in levels. His magic resistance was like that after all, when it came down to magical attacks, they were all negated unless the caster was at least of Harry’s same level.

Harry placed a hand under his chin, wondering which would be the best way to test it out, before focusing on the staff Momonga was holding.

Yggdrasil’s equipment was classified according to how much data each item possessed. From the lowest to the highest rank, they were low class, middle class, high class, top class, legacy class, relic class, legendary class and, the most powerful would be divine class.

But the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown was much stronger than that, being a Guild weapon. The seven gems in the Staff’s snake mouths were all purely made up of divine-class artifacts, and having them together unlocked even greater power beyond their base abilities. It would be more accurate to say that the staff's power was almost on the same level to that of a World Item due to the amount of data embedded into it.

Better yet, since Momonga was the Guildmaster and had it currently equipped, it should enhance over his stats. If it was with this weapon… then Momonga should be able to harm him, probably?

“Try out a 10^th tier spell,” Harry instructed, to which Momonga immediately shook his head.

“Harry, isn’t that dangerous? What if friendly fire is actually active?”

That’s exactly what I want to figure out Harry thought simply, but knew better than to voice it out loud.

“I really don’t think so. Besides, even in the odd chance it did, a single spell isn’t enough to do much. My HP is unnaturally large, remember?”

Momonga hesitated, before shaking his head again in negative. Harry took in a breath and started to give off more arguments, trying to convince his friend to test this out. He was so focused on this, he didn’t really notice the presence that had appeared close to the Colosseum.

—Jarvis—

Was there any reason they were fighting?

Jarvis had arrived through [Gate] just in time to see Momonga throw a debuffing spell at Harry. He had frozen in his tracks, before quickly determining this was nothing but a mock battle; some sort of test.

His creator was quite fond of performing those, doing experiments of all kinds. Jarvis knew this better than anyone, being there to assist on most of them, but he still tensed at the conversation happening in front of him. Wouldn’t that actually harm…?

“Fine, fine, just… your HP is out of the charts, so tell me if it works ok? [Reality Slash].”

Jarvis jolted, stopping himself from running out to try to defend his creator.

This is just a test, this is just a test, this is just a test— What kind of test is this?!

He tensed, knowing very well that Harry had been the one to insist to be on the receiving end of the attack. From an objective perspective, Momonga was logically not at fault, and had actually voiced out his disagreement more than once.

Still, seeing the way his creator flinched and bowed slightly, brows furrowing in obvious pain, made him want to run over to his side protectively. This was, of course, an illogical solution, Jarvis knew it was better to just wait for the test to be over before approaching Harry to heal him.

Closing his eyes, he simply sighed and forced himself to stay still. He probably wouldn’t feel so restless if not for the very recent incident of his creator almost dying along with the entire Tomb. The fact that he had been unable to voice out his plea was understandable, but even if it was to be expected, his inaction still stung deeply.

As Harry’s personal assistant, wasn’t it his duty to stop his foolish creator from doing stupid things like that?

“Harry? Oh no, it totally worked! Sorry, sorry, are you ok? Can you feel pain now? Shit, I’m so sorry, I told you it wasn’t a good idea—”

“Woah, calm down, easy! I’ve always been able to feel pain and this is not much, it just surprised me. Sorry, didn’t mean to worry you.”

“What…? Wait, what do you mean you’ve always felt pain? Harry? Harry, look at me!”

Did that mean the test had ended? Could he go heal his foolish creator now?

“…Weren’t we going to test skills as well?”

“Don’t avoid the question!”

Probably not then. Still, Jarvis smiled approvingly at the way Momonga lectured Harry for his foolishness, insisting quite heavily on the subject.

All things considered, Jarvis was rather glad that he was the only one witnessing this quarrel. Even if he hadn’t passed much time with his peers, he still thought that they would have reacted much more strongly at the sight of Momonga ‘attacking’ Harry, or maybe the sight of them discussing would be enough?

Why were they so… intense however? Although he could understand the respect they felt towards the ‘Supreme ones’ and the will to follow their orders, sometimes the way they expressed it was a little too much. Jarvis felt respect and admiration towards the 42 that had worked together to create Nazarick and his fellow servants, but he wasn’t under the delusion that everything they did or said was law, that they were perfect.

He could see the Supreme Beings’ flaws quite clearly, but considered it normal. There was no being who could be perfect in all aspects after all, so taking everything they said as if it were accurate would be a mistake.

“…It’s nothing worth talking about really.”

“Harry, you can’t avoid this topic forever—"

Deciding to lend a hand to his imprudent creator, Jarvis finally moved to approach them at the center of the arena. Momonga stopped his restless rant upon noticing him, and Harry smiled as if he had been saved.

“Jarvis! Just in time bud.”

“This is not the end of this conversation.”

Momonga was an Overlord, so there weren’t expressions on the skeletal face, but Jarvis still got the impression that he was glaring with worry at Harry. His creator made a dismissive hand motion with a careless “Sure, sure” before grinning at him.

“Well, was the room working properly?”

“Yes Sir, I tried five different scenarios and it seemed to function correctly.”

Harry nodded in satisfaction, throwing a casual “I’ll show it to you once we’re finished here, I think you’ll be impressed,” towards the Overlord. Momonga seemed to want to reply, but after glancing at him seemed to refrain from doing so.

…why would the Guildmaster act like that?

Jarvis couldn’t think of anything he had done to warrant it. Then again, he may also be looking too deeply into things.

“What about the outside? Is all ok?”

“It’s a work in progress, but so far I’ve only encountered a plain. It has normal grass, harmless even for the weakest of creatures, the earth-based group is currently investigating a forest that is nearby. I’ll present a full report once I’m aware of all the species present and their respective levels. The group doing air-reconnaissance have spotted a village, but it is farther away than the delimited area you instructed. Do I have permission to proceed further?” Jarvis stated all this without pause, waiting expectantly for his creator’s permission.

“Not a swamp anymore… so the whole Tomb was moved,” Momonga muttered in response after a short pause, before adding, “Jarvis, is there anything floating in the sky, or did anything like a message appear?”

“Nothing at all, Sir Momonga.”

“Hmm, I wonder if we moved from Helheim to Midgard? The magic feels different though,” Harry muttered, closing his eyes as if to focus.

“…you can feel magic?”

“I’m in tune with it, I guess it’s similar to a sixth sense?” Harry answered distractedly, before looking back at him. “Ah, sorry Jarvis, you can go further to surveil the village, just make sure you’re not spotted. About the species in the forest, a full report is probably going to take some time, so for now focus only on the ones that could be a threat to us.”

Jarvis nodded in understanding, mentally correcting the course of the expedition group that was moving out of the Tomb. In a sense, it was like he was there himself, since anything he summoned was just like an extension of his own mind.

In the same way he knew what his hands were doing, even without having to look at them, it worked like that for his summons. It was like having extremities that could leave the body, Jarvis was mentally linked to all of them and could control them naturally while doing other things.

“What should I do with the creatures that could pose a threat?”

“Hm… it’s better if we avoid conflict, so just keep tabs on them and let me and Momonga know.”

“Understood.”

“Harry, we should work on hiding Nazarick from prying eyes as soon as possible. Using illusions would affect the maintenance costs terribly though…” Momonga muttered pensively. “Unless you think that glitch is still in effect?”

“…it wasn’t a glitch. I implemented a ward to conceal Nazarick— Ah, sorry, sorry! In simple terms, there’s a sort of defensive barrier that hides the entire Tomb, and repels anyone that gets too close.”

Momonga had raised a hand to hide his face in apparent stress, something Jarvis didn’t really understand. Weren’t those good news?

“We really need to talk about all this.”

“There’s no need to rush things. We have plenty of time.”

Harry patted Momonga’s back reassuringly, almost apologetically. Before the conversation could continue however, several pairs of steps could be heard approaching at great speed.

—Momonga—

There were too many things he didn’t understand; his mind just couldn’t keep up with everything. His head was starting to hurt, and the thing overriding his feelings had activated more than once. He couldn’t help but wish that Tabula or Punitto Moe had stayed with them, they would have been able to understand Harry faster than Momonga did.

Maybe Harry wouldn’t have been able to convince them to test attacking spells against him.

He felt terrible at the thought of having hurt his friend, and the way Harry waved it off as if it were something he was used to only served to worry him.

If he had always felt pain, why would he agree to go to dangerous expeditions? Harry was always the first one to agree to go conquering dungeons as well, wasn’t that unnecessary? There was always the risk of getting killed after all—

Momonga froze, his line of thought turning towards a very dangerous topic. If Harry really never was a player, what… what would have happened if he had died in one of those raids?

“Harry—”

“H-Harry-sama! Momonga-sama!”

A child’s voice called out to them shakily, interrupting his train of thought. Turning to look at the source, Momonga wasn’t too sure what to think of it.

The elf twins, Aura and Mare, were running at top speed towards them. On normal circumstances, Momonga would have suspected an attack, but this obviously wasn’t the case this time around. Not only had they called out for them —something that wasn’t necessary if the intention was to attack them— but also addressed them as “—sama”.

The most important detail however was the fact that they were crying, tears running down their cheeks as they ran in a straight line towards them.

In the end, he didn’t have enough time to understand what was happening. Aura, running much faster than her brother Mare, was the first to reach them, legs flexing for an instant before she jumped with open arms towards Harry.

Harry looked surprised, but still caught Aura in his arms, taking a step back to keep his balance as he was all but tackled by the dark elf. At this point Mare was about to reach them, but he seemed to be directed towards him instead of Harry.

Momonga tensed, but instead of a tackle Mare simply hugged him, crying over the front of his robes. Aura seemed to be doing the same, her sobs resounding much louder than Mare’s.

…Why were they crying? What was he supposed to do to comfort them? How does one make children happy?

He didn’t have any experience dealing with children, let alone knew how to calm them down, so he turned to look at Harry. His friend was patting Aura’s back with his free arm —the other busied with carrying the child —while muttering “It’s ok, everything is ok,” reassuringly in a soft voice.

So Momonga raised a skeletal hand to pat Mare’s head. His hair and scalp felt smooth as silk, so ruffling his hair was very comfortable, and Mare’s sobs seemed to immediately quiet down until they were hiccups. Mentally patting himself in the back, he allowed his shoulders to relax for a moment.

His victory was short lived, however.

“Harry-sama!! Momonga-sama!”

If Aura had reached their position in nothing but seconds, Shalltear did so in the blink of an eye. The Vampire was one of the best when it came to Melee combat, so her physical abilities were something to beware. She showed just how mighty her strength was as she reached them, tears in the corner of her eyes, arms outstretched.

Seemingly deciding on the last second that Harry made a better target, she tackled him with full force. It was no wonder Harry’s balance lost the battle, since he had an arm already holding Aura, he had hurriedly tried to make space for Shalltear and thus couldn’t prepare to withhold the tackle.

Jarvis had moved and placed his hands over Harry’s back, as if to help with the balance, but in the end all that happened was that the four of them went down to the ground.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry!” Shalltear apologized over and over, eyes shut down strongly as if in pain. Somehow, Momonga didn’t think she was apologizing for the tackle, which was proven right by her next words “To think I m-misunderstood so terribly! I’m so sorry!”

…What did she mean by that?

Momonga wanted to ask, but if he was at loss on what to do with crying children, it was ten times worse if it was a woman crying. Not knowing what to do, he turned to look at Harry, but his friend seemed as confused as him.

“Shh calm down, it’s fine, is ok,” Harry said softly, patting Shalltear’s back and Aura’s head at the same time, since both Floor Guardians were crying over his shoulder and chest respectively. While the dark elf had calmed down somewhat, the vampire’s arrival had made her sobs return at full force.

Harry turned to look at Jarvis —who had already sat down— as if silently asking for help, but the humanoid zerg simply shrugged in response, seemingly as ignorant as them regarding this topic.

“…It’s fine. What do you mean by ‘misunderstanding’? Can you tell me?” Harry asked softly, trying to rise. Upon noticing the movement, Shalltear and Aura moved to allow him to at least sit up, but none of them seemed to want to answer. In the end, before any of them could reply, the silence was broken by a new arrival.

“ouy ees ot yppah os ma I [I am so happy to see you.]” A soft voice traveled through the area, words spoken in the language of angels: Enochian. Even so, Momonga didn’t have any issue understanding them, as if the words were automatically translated to Japanese.

Victim was slowly floating towards them, or well, more specifically, towards Momonga. Once the Floor Guardian was close enough, he took his hand from Mare’s hair to prepare to receive Victim. Momonga caught the slow coming Victim like he would have a balloon, so the Guardian of the 8^th Floor was resting on his arms.

“Nice to see you too, Victim,” Momonga greeted him, internally glad that the angel seemed to be calm, unlike the rest of the Floor Guardians that had arrived. “It’s been a while.”

The angel closed his eyes in apparent satisfaction, and he could imagine a cat purring all too well. Looking down, Momonga saw Mare looking up at him expectantly, so he resumed patting the child’s head absentmindedly.

“…Are you calm enough to speak now?” Harry asked from somewhere at his side. Harry was starting to stand up, while Shalltear and Aura were now sitting like Seiza, with knees together, back straight and buttocks resting over the ankles. It was almost like they were waiting for a reprimand.

Wasn’t Jarvis behind Harry just a moment ago? Where was the Zerg now?

“I’m so ashamed… please forgive me,” Shalltear muttered, while Aura just hiccupped at her side.

“No need to be, I’m here to listen to— oh shoot, Cocytus? Are you ok bud? Calm down, deep breaths!”

Cocytus had just arrived at the arena, moving with slow, heavy steps as if depressed. That wasn’t what called their attention so easily though.

Although the bipedal insect was supposed to be surrounded by glacial air, this was too much to be considered normal. Cocytus was surrounded by a frightening aura of cold, so dense it seemed like he was surrounded by white mist, and the ground where he walked was freezing and unfreezing perpetually, uncontrollably.

It was as if Cocytus was trying his best to suppress his instinctual freezing on the ground, but was failing miserably. The head hung low, and the tail was being dragged carelessly instead of it being raised so it wouldn’t touch the ground.

All in all, it was the very picture of sadness.

Harry muttered a quick “Wait here,” to the female guardians, before walking over to the slowly-approaching Cocytus. Once Harry was close enough, he waved his arm as if to make sure the male guardian was actually paying attention to him, before saying. “Cocytus, can you hear me? Are you ok?”

Seeing the short Harry waving at the tall Cocytus was almost comical, Momonga would have chuckled any other day at the massive height difference. Now however, he was also worried about Cocytus’ mannerism.

“I. apologize. profusely. I. can’t. control.” A puff of white mist left Cocytus’ mandibles as he spoke stressed, “I. am. just. so. thankful. to. see. you. here. with. us.”

The insectoid Guardian knelt heavily, as if his legs had given up on him, and the ground suffered through yet another wave of freezing, which this time stayed like that instead of the ice retreating.

“Ah, I’m happy to see all of you too,” Harry replied sincerely. Now that the Guardian was kneeling, he and Harry were around the same height, so his friend simply raised his hand to pat Cocytus’ head. “And we aren’t going anywhere, Nazarick is our home after all, right Momonga?”

“Hm? Yes, we are here to stay,” Momonga replied sincerely with a nod, since he had his hands otherwise occupied.

Those were the magic words, it seemed.

The water in the air froze with a crackling sound as it made contact with the white vapor puffing out of Cocytus’ mouth, and the clacking from his lower mandibles sounded like the threatening noises of a wasp. However, Momonga had the feeling that he was laughing.

“I. can’t. express. my. gratitude. with. simple. words.” The long tail moved happily from one side to the other, but since the ground was covered in ice it slid smoothly “I. am. so. happy. the. world. didn't. end.”

“That the world… oh.” Harry said as realization struck him, and Momonga suddenly knew why Albedo had been so emotional when she requested for an hour to speak with the Floor Guardians.

What exactly had she told the Floor Guardians to leave them in such a state—?

Momonga froze as he remembered, hadn’t Albedo exclaimed something… that sounded like a ‘please live on’? Back at the time, he had been too shocked by too many things to actually process those words, but now that he thought about it, didn’t that mean that she thought that Yggdrasil’s end would mean their deaths?

It was true in a sense, since the character of ‘Momonga’ would have ceased to exist—

No, wait, wasn’t that true for Harry? What did the end of the world mean to him?

Momonga could feel his non-existent heart clench at the thought of his friend accepting his imminent death alone, not having anyone to speak with about it, smiling sadly while being unable to mention it even as he comforted Momonga’s own feeling of desolation.

And all because Yggdrasil developers had decided to drop it. In all his years playing the game, he had never cursed the shitty devs with so much anger as he did now. How could they—?

A wave of forced calm arrived to suppress his anger, but it only flared up again, along with a feeling of guilt and remorse. He had noticed something wrong in Harry’s voice, but he would never have even imagined—

“Yeah, I’m happy it didn’t end too,” Harry muttered softly with a relieved smile of his own, which only cemented Momonga’s hypothesis. “We’ll be able to live many adventures together now. I’m sorry we made all of you worry, it must have been hard.”

Momonga told himself that he had to leave Harry’s situation at the back of his mind. After the important things were taken care of, he could agonize over it later.

“After. hearing. your. words. I. feel. much. more. grateful.” Cocytus replied with a lowered head, tail waving animatedly behind him. Momonga turned to look at the others, the still-kneeling female guardians, Mare, and Victim, all of them seemed to have relaxed upon hearing Harry’s words.

And behind Cocytus, he could see the figures of Demiurge, Jarvis and Albedo, who had stopped dead in their tracks. Having arrived just in time to hear Harry’s last phrase, Albedo and Demiurge seemed to beam with pure, sheer happiness, while Jarvis simply smiled as if in agreement.

“Oh, everyone is here now. Come on guys,” Harry waved invitingly at the new arrivals, seemingly unsurprised at seeing Jarvis among them, before turning around to look at Shalltear and Aura. “Oh no, I didn’t mean for you to stay in that position, rise up. You too Cocytus, stand up— ah, Momonga, have a moment?”

Shalltear and Aura did as instructed, while Harry left Cocytus behind to walk towards him. Momonga nodded in response, letting go of Victim and ruffling Mare’s hair one last time before walking away from the gathered Guardians.

“What is it Harry?” Momonga whispered, feeling nervous since all the NPCs were looking in their direction attentively. Harry waved his hand in a circular motion, and Momonga could swear something had shifted in the atmosphere around them.

“I just placed a privacy ward, they won’t be able to hear us now.” Harry explained simply, before continuing, “I forgot to ask you earlier, but what are we going to say to them?”

…Ah.

He had originally gathered the NPCs with the intention of seeing if everyone was loyal to them. But now, having personally looked at his friends’ creations, at the way they had reacted, it didn’t seem like the NPCs would betray them. 

Although he didn’t understand what were the limitations in this aspect, just what exactly defined whether they followed an order or not, he felt like he didn’t have to worry anymore. That being said, although it wasn’t good to have too many doubts, blind trust was not a wise move either. As such, Momonga decided that he would cross that bridge when he came to it, and would just keep an eye on their movements for now.

“Um, we can just mention that Nazarick has moved… and emphasize that we need to act very cautiously. What if everyone out there is Level 200? One wrong move and we would be squashed.” Momonga shared one of his worries with his friend, who looked at him incredulously before laughing.

“Sweet Merlin, you’re too paranoid!” Harry laughed out loud with an incredulous tone, before doing a dismissive motion “Jarvis is already checking that forest remember? And since he has yet to say anything, I very much doubt the world outside is level 200.”

“Well, the fact that none are in that forest doesn’t mean—” he began to scoff defensively, but was interrupted by Harry.

“I know, I know, just rest assured none are in our immediate surroundings,” Harry said lightly, still chuckling, and Momonga felt his shoulders relax. He breathed out in relief, not for the first time thankful that he wasn’t alone in this new, unknown place. “Well then, I’ll let you do the honors, dear Guildmaster.”

Momonga hmphed, shaking his head lightly with a soft chuckle, before walking away and towards the Floor Guardians with Harry following behind him.

The moment they were in front of the gathered NPCs however, all of them kneeled and lowered their heads in respect.

Momonga couldn’t speak as he looked at the six lowered heads before him, so he frantically racked his brains to recall a scene from movies or television which would tell him how to respond appropriately.

“…Raise your heads.”

The NPCs followed his command with a coordination so immaculate Momonga wondered if they had practiced that movement together.

“Then… first, I thank all of you for coming here.”

“There is no need for thanks. We are all your loyal subordinates, give the order and we — all the Guardians will accomplish any task set to us, no matter how difficult, with every fiber of our beings. We hereby swear that we will never allow the Supreme Beings of Ainz Ooal Gown, our creators, to be disgraced by our actions.” Albedo removed the smile from her face, speaking with a respectful tone that was laced with a stern strength.

“This we swear!”

The Floor Guardians chimed in right after Albedo, their voices filled with power, an adamant loyalty and determination. It was as though they were mocking Momonga’s previous worries that the NPCs might betray them.

Momonga looked on the Guardians, a choking sensation in his nonexistent throat as the weight of being a leader fell over him. Would he lead the Great Tomb of Nazarick to destruction because of his decisions — the unease generated by that thought flooded his heart and mind.

“I’m sure everyone would have felt proud upon hearing you,” Harry spoke sincerely, and the NPCs beamed in response.

The darkness in his heart vanished like shadows in the morning sun, and he couldn’t help but sigh softly in relief. He wasn’t alone, and Harry was a good strategist. Once Tabula and Punitto Moe left the game, Harry had stepped in to take their previous advice-related tasks with him, which had saved him more than once. Surely, if they worked together, Nazarick would have a wonderful future.

Focusing once more on the Guardians, Momonga was moved upon seeing the steel determination present in the NPCs designed by the members of Ainz Ooal Gown. The embodiment of everyone’s hard work, their cunningly crafted creations, were still here. It filled him with joy.

Momonga smiled, and although his skeletal face could not display any emotions, the points of crimson light in his eye sockets seemed to shine exceptionally bright. His prior unease was no longer present, and he simply spoke the words expected of a Guildmaster.

“Excellent. Guardians, I know that you will understand our aims and successfully carry them out. There may be some things which are difficult to understand, but I hope you will pay attention and listen... I believe the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick has been caught up in some kind of unknown situation.”

The Guardians’ faces turned stern, but there was no trace of surprise on them.

“Although we don’t know what has caused this incident, the Great Tomb of Nazarick has been transported from its place in the swamps to a vast plain. Have any of you discovered anything strange in your floors?”

Each Floor Guardian responded, in their own way, that there were no abnormalities, so Momonga nodded and addressed the Zerg that had knelt just behind the elf twins.

“Jarvis, your report on the surrounding conditions.”

“Yes. To begin with, the terrain surrounding us in each direction is a plain. There’s a forest relatively near so I’m currently investigating it at depth, but nothing above level 25 has surfaced up until now. The village near Nazarick seems to be inhabited by humans who work in agriculture, but until the sun comes out that’s all I can deduct from them.”

“Level 25?” Momonga muttered in surprise, turning to share a look with Harry, who smirked in a ‘I told you’ kind of way. The expression made Momonga humph in mock annoyance, but was actually feeling quite happy that there was nothing dangerous near them.

Smiling, even though he knew his face hadn’t actually changed, he nodded towards Jarvis. “I see. Thank you for your hard work Jarvis. Even so, Guardians, increase the defenses of each floor. We are unsure of what has happened, so don’t act carelessly. If you encounter an intruder don’t slay them, but capture them alive at all costs, and try to do as little harm to them as possible.”

The Guardians voiced their acknowledgement and nodded in unison.

 “Excellent. Next, Nazarick’s defense commander, Demiurge. Guardian Overseer, Albedo. The two of you will be in charge of drawing up a security system for Nazarick.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll carry out your will.”

Momonga nodded, before looking questioningly at Harry. This was all he could think of at the moment, so he wondered if he had anything to add.

Harry simply nodded lightly, adding, “Jarvis, maybe we can use the Zerglings to monitor key places inside the Tomb, so work together with Albedo and Demiurge. For the moment, the ones that can pass undetected are needed, so you can focus on creating those instead of stronger branches.”

“Yes Sir.”

Harry looked at him, conveying without words that it was everything, so Momonga nodded silently. There were probably a lot of holes left in the plan, but those could be dealt with slowly, later on. After all, it had only been a few hours since all this had happened.

“Then, you are dismissed for today. Everyone, take a break before beginning your duties. There are many things we don’t know, so don’t push yourselves too hard.”

The NPCs nodded as one to show that they understood, before turning expectant gazes towards Harry.

It was curious, they seemed to look at Momonga with respect and admiration, but when it came to Harry, their gaze turned warm and happy. In a sense it wasn’t surprising, since Harry was the one that spent more time within Nazarick, they were probably more used to him.

“If you have any questions or comments on your assigned duties just let us know, so we can work in a solution together. Also… please let everyone in your floors know everything is fine, alright?” Harry said the last bit looking directly at Albedo, but all of them nodded with a bright smile in understanding.

After seeing the Guardians bow their heads once more, Momonga placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder and teleported away, so they both left at the same time.

The scenery before his eyes changed in an instant, from the Colosseum to the chamber that was just out of the Throne room. After turning around to make sure nobody was looking, Momonga sighed deeply.

“I’m so tired…” Although his body didn't feel worn-out, the mental fatigue was weighing down on his shoulders.

“Go up and rest, I’ll take care of any urgencies that come our way,” Harry offered, looking as energetic as if it were midday. He felt kind of envious, how could he be so calm after everything that had—?

“No, wait, you owe me several explanations.” Momonga pointed an accusing finger at Harry, who seemed to freeze in mock terror. “Come up, you said you would show me your room. What’s so special about it that you had Jarvis go check it up?”

Harry grinned mischievously, answering, “Oh, you’ll absolutely love it!” and Momonga immediately felt he was going to regret ever asking about it.

—Jarvis—

The presence that characterized their leaders suddenly vanished.

The first to get up was Albedo. She flapped her wings to swipe off the dirt on her feathers, and as if that had been a signal of sorts, the other servants stood up as well.

“They l-looked happy!” Mare exclaimed with a shy smile, looking at the ground. Aura was nodding vigorously in agreement at his side, hands on her hips as if satisfied by that outcome.

“Yeah, I had never seen Harry-sama’s eyes shine so brightly before!”

 “That does seem like the case.” Jarvis agreed with a nod at the elf twins, studying his fellow guardians closely. He was still trying to understand what they truly thought about the ‘Supreme Beings’ so this was a good opportunity.

“To have such caring Masters, we are lucky,” Shalltear added from somewhere at his left, cheeks blushing lightly.

“meht evres ot ronoh na stI. [It’s an honor to serve them.]” Victim raised small paws to his face and closed his eyes, giving off the image of happiness.

“They are so kind, staying with us even though we were crying.” Aura smiled brightly, scratching the back of her head with light embarrassment.

Aura’s words caused the only two demonic Guardians —that had arrived late— to emit an air of tension. If Jarvis had to name it, he would choose the word ‘jealousy’. The other guardians reacted quite happily at her words however, since they had received the same kind treatment, so the atmosphere resulted in an odd mix of heavy tension and light contentment.

“We are fortunate they chose to remain... even though the World was ending. To have such selfless Masters, what can we do other than give our all to serve them?” A pained expression crossed Demiurge’s face as he muttered those words softly, tail grazing the ground as it swayed dangerously low from side to side.

That changed the mood instantly. The Guardians exchanged looks, a mix of worry and relief prominent in their eyes. Jarvis thought it was to be expected, after all, although it was worrisome that their Masters would be willing to give up their lives for Nazarick’s sake, they would be leaderless now if they had chosen not to.

How where they supposed to react, if not with conflictive feelings?

“There’s no use thinking about something we cannot change. They are our absolute rulers, the kind Masters that remained here with us until the very end… We must show we are worthy enough to serve them, no failures allowed!”

Albedo’s words put a determined look on all the Guardians’ faces. Jarvis looked at them with worried eyes, wasn’t that asking for too much? They were bound to make a mistake in the execution of an order at some point, they couldn’t perform their tasks perfectly…. Nobody could.

“As. Guardians. we. are. to. serve. Momonga-sama. and. Harry-sama. faithfully. so. they. may. stay. That. is. what. we. were. made. for.” Cocytus let out another cloud of icy air from his jaws as he spoke determinately.

“…Let’s do our best,” Jarvis muttered simply, closing his eyes in resignation. Truly, he had wanted to tell them that doing everything perfectly was very much impossible, but had the impression that his words wouldn’t be well accepted.

Actually, if the talk he had with Albedo and Demiurge before their arrival to the Colosseum was anything to go by, wouldn’t they consider he was harboring ‘disloyal’ thoughts?

It had been a short chat, happening only in the time it took them to pass from the 7^th to the 6^th floor, but Jarvis had gathered some facts from it.

First, there was nothing which could delight his fellow guardians more than to aid their Masters, to whom they owed their utmost loyalty, in some way. The next best thing would be to receive their trust and to be treated as useful servants. This was the greatest joy in life for these characters who were created to aid the Supreme Beings.

Basically, the word ‘refusal’ didn’t exist in their vocabulary. Even if the order made them terribly unhappy, hurt them, or even if they simply didn’t think that was the best course of action, they would accept it so long it came from one of the Supreme Beings.

Another thing was that whoever dared to go against an order was automatically placed under suspicion of treason. Jarvis was quite sure that whoever the suspect, nothing short of an order coming from the Masters of the Tomb would be enough to stop a long-drawn execution.

And then, there was also—

…wasn’t that… military gear?

His train of thought was cut off abruptly by the findings of the Zerglings, since the earth-based group had spotted a campfire of human soldiers relatively near the Village. They all looked weak, so probably weren’t a threat by themselves, but the fact that they belonged to the human species in this unknown situation was worrisome.

Since humans normally formed somewhat civilized communities, it would be bothersome if they found the Tomb and reported it to their superiors in the militia. Even more so if one took into account that neither his creator nor Momonga knew anything about this place. It wasn’t too farfetched to think that the Great Tomb of Nazarick may be invading someone else’s territory.

While the villagers didn’t pose a threat in this aspect, the village being too humble for that, human soldiers were a different matter.

Of course, his creator had mentioned that he had implemented a ward to conceal the Great Tomb of Nazarick, but truthfully speaking, he hadn’t tested it out yet, right? Not in this new world. There was a thin chance it may not work properly.

Still, was their presence significant enough to warrant a report? He probably should, at least, comment this development with his creator—

“Jarvis.” A female’s voice reached him. Judging by her tone, this wasn’t the first time she had addressed him.

“…Hm? My sincere apologies Albedo, I was analyzing the findings of my troops.” He said with an apologetic bow of his head, but didn’t kneel.

Of course, he had to show his respect to the Guardian Overseer Albedo, but she was not his master. While the Forty-Two Supreme Beings had set her over all the other characters that they had created, the position of Guardian Overseer was merely one set down by the Forty-Two Supreme Beings, and as such the other Guardians needed only to pay her the respect due to her station.

“Have you found any threats?” her vertical pupils grew dangerously thin, smile long gone from her face.

“No, just something that could be of interest. Once you’ve assigned our functions, I will report it to Sir and Sir Momonga.”

That was, it seemed, the wrong thing to say.

“…that’s another thing I wanted to ask you. Why ‘Sir’?”

“…I beg your pardon?”

Jarvis was surprised to find out that it wasn’t only Albedo, the other Floor Guardians seemed to be focusing on him as well, the tension in the atmosphere quickly becoming dense.

“…It’s part of my code, to address our Masters as ‘Sir’ and ‘Madam’ respectively.” Jarvis answered the unspoken question, feeling puzzled.

“Exactly, the right word is address them. When you speak to them, then I understand it was the way Harry-sama wanted you to.” Albedo nodded seriously, golden eyes focused on him.

“But when you speak about them, shouldn’t you use ‘-sama’?”

…She was serious. Was the way he spoke about them important? Be it ‘Sir’ or ‘Lord’…

He felt annoyed and, oddly enough, defensive. Since it was the way he had been created to be, what right did she have to criticize? Wasn’t that equivalent to doubting Harry’s judgement?

The two of them stared at each other, a blank expression on their faces. The rest of the Guardians didn’t seem to know if they would fight as a result of this, but the way they were exchanging looks was very unsettling.

Still, before this could develop into a trade of verbal barbs, Jarvis looked away and sighed tiredly.

“…I understand your point. It would be… Momonga-sama and… Harry-sama?” It felt out of place, speaking like this. Still, if something so irrelevant as changing ‘Sir’ for ‘Lord’ was enough to calm her down, then he didn’t see any loss in it. Albedo nodded, angelic smile returning as if she had always been like that, and the tension in the air vaporized without trace.

They are so odd.

Jarvis wondered why he was so different from them. After all, even when they had been created by different ‘Supreme Beings’ no one else seemed to share his way of thinking.

“Well then, now that it’s been settled… Albedo, won’t you give us our orders? There will be many things to do later on.” Demiurge was the first to speak, easily returning the topic to their respective duties.

“Indeed, you’re right. Very well then, let us move on to our plans for the future.”

Albedo assigned their duties efficiently, so it wasn’t long before he was free to go with his creator to report on the bunch of soldiers that were camping in the forest. Opening a [Gate], he only relaxed once he was away from the other Guardians.

He should mention their point of view to Harry. Jarvis was quite sure that his creator didn’t fully understand just how far loyalty went for the NPCs living inside the Tomb. Since they wouldn’t listen to him, maybe Harry or Momonga would be able to do something about their… fervent devotion.

Surely his creator would see both, the advantages and the risks.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11 Catch And Release

Harry walked down the hallways with a wolfish grin, happiness and excitement practically oozing off him. Seeing the previously monotone Nazarick suddenly so inhabited was simply astonishing.

“Greetings, Harry-sama,” a deadpan voice sounded, as the owner bowed to him.

“Nice to see you, CZ!” Harry greeted back happily, waving as he passed by her side with an excited grin.

It was simply wonderful, the way Harry always managed to encounter someone. Up until now, he had only walked through the 9^th floor, but not a single hallway had been empty. It was almost as if the NPCs were taking turns to greet him.

…which was, actually, very probable.

Then again, Harry didn’t really mind. It was nice to see them act so freely, so very alive now, and they always seemed to be happy to see him.

There were so many things to discover now, so many unknowns, all Harry wanted to do was go outside with Momonga and the NPCs to discover all of it. How long had it been since he felt so energetic? It was so exciting.

Harry really needed to work on keeping it under wraps though, since Momonga was still adjusting to this new reality. With this in mind, he took a deep breath before letting it out slowly, his excited grin turning into a content smile. He continued to walk down the hallway, stopping only until he was in front of Momonga’s room.

After meeting the Floor Guardians the night prior, Harry had shown Momonga his own chamber, the Room of Requirement, but it had been a little too much to handle in so little time. As such, Harry left Momonga some time alone to think things over, so the Overlord ended up resting in his own room.

“Hey, you there bud?” Harry called while knocking on the closed door, feeling quite shocked to hear an immediate, relieved, “Enter!”

The door was opened from the inside by Sebas, who bowed in greeting like the perfect butler. Patting the dragonoid’s shoulder a couple of times in thanks, Harry walked into the room to approach the desk.

“…hey, weren’t you supposed to be resting?”

“Ah, about that, we really need to talk about something,” the Overlord said seriously, raising a hand to stop Harry’s reply before he could voice anything. “Let’s go to another room. Sebas, you wait here.”

“Momonga-sama, as your butler, I cannot—”

“No, I need to speak with Harry alone for this topic. I apologize, but I won’t accept any objections,” Momonga said quickly, as if in a hurry. Frankly, he looked like he was itching to catch a break.

Harry mentally cheered at Momonga’s effort at acting like a leader, but still felt bad for the NPC that was just trying to do his job.

“It’s ok, if we need anything we’ll let you know,” Harry added, and Sebas’ eyes seemed to lose a bit of their steely nature.

“Understood, Harry-sama.”

“Thank you for your work Sebas,” Momonga said at last towards the butler, before making a hand motion for Harry to follow him. They walked past Momonga’s personal kitchen and towards the Dining room, where Momonga sat down in one of the elaborated chairs. Harry took the one at his left side, placing the elbows over the table’s surface before looking curiously at him.

“Ok, what is it?”

“…I really, really can’t,” Momonga let out, with so much anxiety lacing his voice that it made Harry immediately straighten with worry.

“What do you mean? Did something happen?”

As if he had taken a drain plug, his friend’s worried words flowed out like a river, and his form seemed to shiver uncontrollably as he shook his head negatively. “I can’t, I can’t, I just— I’m a normal person! Just a salaryman, I’m not so smart, I can’t be what they think I am— I can’t!"

“Momonga— Ok, ok, calm down, wait—"

“Please just get rid of it, it’s better if I have something to calm down— this is not— I really, really can’t do it Harry!”

Harry took his friend by the shoulders, trying to calm him down, but Momonga just kept shaking his head while repeating “I can’t” like a broken record. If the Overlord was physically able to, Harry was sure he would be tearful, which made him feel guilty as hell.

The night prior had touched plenty of topics, revelations mostly done by Harry’s own side. Still, there was one thing Momonga had mentioned in a careless way that had worried him to no end.

Something was restricting Momonga’s feelings. According to the Overlord, it happened whenever they surpassed a certain limit, so anything too strong was automatically brought down by a third force. It didn’t take a genius to determine that this was happening due to his new nature as an undead, something that immediately raised Harry’s warning flag.

If that was truly the case, didn’t it mean Momonga would end up losing his humanity?

So he had told his friend that he would place a layer of protection over his mind, so the Overlord that was now part of him wouldn’t take over the mind of Suzuki Satoru, the player behind the game avatar. Momonga had agreed immediately, very much wanting to still be himself, but now… The pressure seemed to be too much.

“Momonga. Listen to me— wait, wait, calm down…. Hey, listen, according to the background lore, what’s the lifespan of an Overlord?”

His friend panted, trying to catch up his breath enough to speak again. Harry waited patiently, hands still over Momonga’s shoulders as if to remind the other that he wasn’t going through all of this alone.

“They... they don’t die naturally?” Momonga answered slowly, still out of breath, but seemed to be slightly better... probably. Damn, it was difficult to tell without expressions.

“Exactly. If you start feigning that you know everything... well, do you really see yourself keeping that up for the rest of eternity?” Harry asked softly, which made Momonga cringe before he covered his face with his skeletal hand.

“…that’s right. If you don’t know something just say so, or you can simply say you are going to discuss it with me or something...” Harry continued, looking at his friend worryingly. Momonga sighed heavily, and Harry simply stayed patting his friend’s shoulder reassuringly, silent until the Overlord spoke up once more.

“But... won’t they hate me? What if the NPCs leave Nazarick in disappointment...?”

Harry smiled reassuringly, even knowing his friend wasn’t looking at him. “No. Believe me when I say that doesn’t matter at all. I think they would follow us regardless of whether we are strong or weak, smart or not— heck, I think they would follow us to the end of the world no matter what.”

Which was worrying in itself, but that was a topic for another day.

“How… how can you be so certain?”

“When I left last night I had a very interesting talk with Jarvis… and although he raised some concerning points, we should be able to get around those given enough time.” Harry replied, before noting that wasn’t a good answer. “Well, it seems they consider us to be absolute rulers, so they always put their own thoughts and feelings aside to make us happy. In a sense, I guess that seeing us happy makes them happy as well.”

Momonga sighed deeply, as if he was trying to completely empty his inexistent lungs. He stayed silent for a while, until he muttered, “What if… that’s not enough? If they leave Nazarick in disappointment, I won’t be able to face my friends ever again.”

Harry smiled thinly, sitting down again so he was facing Momonga. He made sure his friend was paying attention to him before softly saying, “…I think the NPCs are afraid of losing us too.”

Momonga couldn’t make any expressions, but Harry was completely sure the Overlord was still unconvinced. Thinking about a simple way to word it, he finally decided to use a comparison.

“In a sense, since they are our Guild’s creations, you can consider them as our children, right? If you’re worried, just think that as a parent all you need to do is be there for them and try your best to give them all they may need. After that, if they want to go out and explore the World, live somewhere else, it’s alright too. We just need to stay here for them, receive them whenever they choose to come back to visit,” he said convincingly, having determined that a family analogy was good enough to explain things. “After all, since they can think and move freely now, it wouldn’t be right to force them to stay here if they don’t want to.”

“But Harry, what if I— what if we mess up so bad they all end up leaving?” Momonga said brokenly, shaking his head from side to side, like he couldn’t imagine anything worse. Indeed, an empty Nazarick would be terrible, but…

“That’s impossible. The fact that you’re like this, it means you care a lot for them. Just— just think about them like a family. Just like how parents love their children unconditionally, their kids love them back just as much. So long you show that you care, I think they can forgive our mistakes. And even if they end up leaving, don’t worry too much, I’m sure the others would understand that we tried our best.”

The ‘others’ being the Guildmates that weren’t in Nazarick anymore. Momonga was nodding slowly at his words, and although he didn’t seem relaxed, he wasn’t nearly as tense or panicked as he had been before.

“They would… yes, our friends would understand. I just can’t help but think, they should be here too, you know?” Momonga said sadly, seemingly lost in old memories. “Do you think… they may be out somewhere? In this world?”

Harry felt concern at the hope present in Momonga’s question, and although he felt bad about doing this, it was better to not encourage this idea. When Momonga sent the emails, the only way the others could have come on the last day would have been by creating a new avatar altogether, which wouldn’t be part of the Guild, and would be, obviously, level 1. Such a thing happening was simply impossible, since they would have needed to let Momonga know so he could allow them to enter Nazarick…

“Most of them deleted their accounts, their avatars. They really can’t… come back, even if they had wanted to,” Harry stated honestly, and Momonga raised a skeletal hand to cover his eyes in distress. “I’m sorry, I’d have liked to have them here too.”

Harry stayed silent after that, giving some time for his friend to recover before adding, “Regarding the emotional suppression, I guess I can lift my protective magic partially, just enough to help you.”

That phrase finally made Momonga uncover his eyes, muttering a hurried “Please do. Thank you.” quite softly, with a voice so small Harry couldn’t help but feel guilty. Still, knowing this was a delicate topic, Harry got stern and looked straight at the Overlord.

“Now, everything concerning the mind is overly complicated, and I have never done something quite like this before. If you notice any negative change in your personality, you need to tell me so I can fix it, understood?” Harry said seriously, using the same voice he normally reserved to the battlefield. “No buts, no nothing, you come directly to me.”

Momonga nodded vigorously, mumbling agreeing words while looking expectantly at him. Harry summoned his elder wand, pointing at the skull while carefully getting in tune with the layer of protective magic he had placed just a day ago. Unsure on how much he should lift it, he just took off 30% of it before stopping.

“Ok, how do you feel now? Any cravings for killing the living?”

Momonga smacked his arm playfully, chuckling breathily in relief. It seemed to have worked miraculously in rising his friend’s humor.

“Haaah~ much better. And no, I don’t. Really, I would never do such a thing, I’m not sadistic,” Momonga said sincerely, rolling his shoulders to dispel the previous tension. Harry decided that was good enough for now, so he only would keep an attentive eye on the Overlord in case anything else changed.

“Well then, how are you feeling? Are you ok now?”

Momonga nodded silently before laying back on the chair with a very long sigh. Harry chuckled, commenting “You sound like an old man,” with a playful grin.

“...Shut up Harry.”

The silence remained unperturbed for a moment before they both laughed the whole issue off, atmosphere now much more relaxed.

“Ah, before I forget, I wanted to share Jarvis’ findings with you,” Harry muttered lightly, keeping an eye on Momonga’s reactions. Determining his friend was calm enough to listen, he continued, “He found humans in the forest near the village. Armored soldiers, bearing an unknown crest. Since we need information, I told him to do a non-permanent infection to gather what they know about this world.”

An infected enemy would be turned into an ally, considered as one more of the Zerglings. It would, thus, be connected to Jarvis’ mind however temporarily, so his NPC could gather information without need to go out of the Tomb. In a sense, he considered it was like performing Legilimency from far-away, something he was quite envious about.

Since it wasn’t a permanent infection, once the parasite left the victim’s body they would just be disoriented, not remembering anything, so no harm done either physically nor mentally… at least, that’s the way it was supposed to go. This was the first time they were doing this, so Harry mentally hoped his guess— based in the background lore— was accurate.

“What has Jarvis gathered so far?” Momonga asked, laying back on his seat in apparent interest. It was shocking, just how much a calm mind affected his mannerisms, he looked much better now.

“Not sure, it’s a slow process so I left him to it.” Harry shrugged simply, before adding, “He should be finishing up soon though. Have you discovered anything on your end?”

“Hmm, I can’t equip an armor or swords if I don’t use [Perfect warrior], just like in Yggdrasil… and either Sebas or one of the Pleiades is always following, so it was— um, probably why I felt so pressured. I’m sorry I raised my voice, please forgive me.”

Momonga bowed his head apologetically, but Harry immediately dismissed it. “No need, it’s not good to bottle things up, so feel free to talk with me whenever.”

“…Yeah, same. Which reminds me, Harry, I’ve been wanting to know… what… what did the end of Yggdrasil mean to you?”

“…Eh? You mean the fact that we switched worlds?”

“No, no, I just— um, if we hadn’t been moved to this world, if the game just turned off like it was supposed to, what would have happened to you?”

Oh, that.

“Ah… well, I can’t exactly stay if the world disappears, right? So I would have jumped to another world, I guess.” He refrained from adding ‘upon my death’ at the end of that phrase, considering it was unnecessary to worry Momonga about such things.

“Jump to another— eh? You can do that? But how— wait, wait, how does that…?” Momonga tripped on his words before humming, assuming a thinking pose for a short moment before adding, “Harry, if you can do that, then can you go back to the swamp where we used to be?”

Well, Momonga had certainly become better at believing his words. Harry smiled thinly, before shaking his head negatively.

“I can’t. I haven’t tried, but the way to jump through worlds is kind of… specific. There’s only one way for me to move, and I don’t get to choose where I arrive to, so I won’t risk it.”

Basically, he could only move to another world by dying. Once dead, he would be able to choose whether to wake up on the same world or move over to the next one, but choosing his destination was impossible. In a sense it was good since it kept boredom at bay, but at the same time it was saddening to think that, if he left a world before it’s destruction, he would be leaving forever. The possibility of arriving back to a world he was already familiar with was so small it was laughable.

“Hmm…. I don’t get it, but still,” Momonga said simply before sighing in relief. “I’m glad. I was worried you would die or something.”

Harry chose not to comment on that, simply smiling at his friend until Momonga spoke up again, “By the way, if Yggdrasil was your reality, what would have happened if— if you had died in a raid or something?”

The fire present in the eye sockets seemed to get duller, as the words laced with worry left Momonga’s mouth. Harry smiled truthfully now, feeling touched that someone was actually worrying about something like that —probably spending so much time with Death wasn’t healthy in this aspect — before replying, “The one constant is that, no matter in which world I am, death is not permanent for me. I’d have woken up after a while, so you don’t need to worry. If something happens, just let me rest and I’ll be good and walking in no time.”

“…so it’s like a slower resurrection?”

“That’s a good way to put it. The state of the corpse can make it be faster or slower, but I always wake up…. Consider it like a skill of sorts.” Harry shrugged, looking at the empty table longingly. It would have been good to have some food to accompany this chat.

“…hey, how old are you? They way you speak about it, it’s as if—

“—Ahh, don’t think too much about it.” Harry immediately interrupted, doing a dismissive hand motion, “In the same way an Overlord can’t die by old age, just think of me as the same. Don’t you dare talk to me as an elder though!”

He had worked hard to convince his guildmates to drop the honorifics, there was no way in hell he would allow their return. If Jarvis’ report was anything to go by then Harry accepted he was doomed with the NPCs, so Momonga better not suddenly add something.

“Pfft hahaha! Figures that the thing you would worry about would be the honorifics!” Momonga laughed freely for a moment, before lightly adding, “I’m still curious of your age, but I guess I can stand not knowing. You don’t act like the elders normally do, so it’s easy enough to ignore.”

“Geez thanks,” Harry muttered with mock annoyance, sounding very much like a moody teenager, which made Momonga laugh again. Harry grinned, glad that the Overlord seemed to be doing better now, before a polite knock was heard from out of the room.

“Please forgive me, Jarvis is requesting an audience with Harry-sama,” Sebas’ voice came from the other side of the door.

Harry looked at Momonga, silently asking if he was cool with receiving them now. The Overlord took a more dignified pose before nodding regally, which made Harry chuckle amusedly.

“Shut up Harry.”

“Sure, you both can come in!”

They spoke at the same time, Harry’s voice overlapping Momonga’s. The door opened a moment after, as both male NPCs entered the Dining room.

“You read my mind! Thanks Sebas,” Harry immediately said upon noticing the tray of food, which was perfectly balanced over the butler’s palm. Sebas smiled, placing the platter of food — which was a little too much for one person — over the table in front of him.

“There’s no need to thank me for something like this Harry-sama, I live to serve.”

“No, no, Touch Me would scold me— actually, he would reprimand us both, you know? Please accept our thanks,” Harry corrected while he pointed at himself and Momonga, with the Overlord nodding in agreement.

“T-Touch Me-sama would?! I deeply apologize! In that case, please allow me to humbly accept your gratitude!”

Sebas hurriedly bowed, looking pleased even if the man wasn’t outwardly smiling, so Harry mentally cheered. Since Jarvis had mentioned the NPCs held all the Guild members in high esteem — although probably phrasing it like that was putting it lightly — Harry figured that all he needed to do was mention it came from them, so the NPCs would be willing to listen and not overwork themselves too hard or be a little too servient.

Grinning in satisfaction, he took a bite from the cookies present in the trail before looking at Jarvis expectantly. The Zerg had been looking incredulously at him, as if silently questioning ‘that was all it took?’ before Jarvis sighed and nodded, taking a step forward as he took out an old-looking parchment from his inventory.

“Sir, I found this in one of the houses of the human village, it appears to be a map of this land,” Jarvis said simply. Momonga perked up at that, taking the scroll and leaning over to share it with Harry.

“This is wonderful, well done Jarvis,” Momonga muttered as he looked over the map, before commenting, “Any idea of where Nazarick is located?”

“Yes Sir Momonga, according to the information gathered from the soldiers that were close to the village, it seems we’re situated here.” Jarvis came closer and pointed at a specific part of the map, located just in the border of three different nations: Re-estize Kingdom, Slane Theocracy, and Baharuth Empire.

Momonga assumed a thinking pose, seemingly analyzing the map deeply, eyes roaming over Jarvis’ notes that had translated the Region’s names for them. Harry left him to it and turned towards his NPC instead. “What was the reason so many soldiers were in the vicinity to begin with?”

“It seems they were setting up an ambush for a man called Gazef Stronoff, a royal guard from the Kingdom. The soldiers come from the Slane Theocracy, and have been waiting for this man to arrive to this village. They have another allied group, conformed solely of magic casters, hiding among the forest with this same purpose.”

Jarvis got another, much longer scroll from his inventory, and gave it to Harry for inspection. He skimmed through it quickly, frowning as he read more about the situation currently at hand. It would seem that this group of soldiers, along with the other group called “Light Scripture”, were the ones appointed to do the dirty work for their country.

Passing the parchment over to Momonga, he saw his friend look oddly intensely at it, before he sighed and took translating-glasses from his inventory. Harry chuckled at the image of a skeletal face wearing glasses —how was that even possible without a nose or ears? — before muttering a quick “Sorry.” He had forgotten Momonga only knew Japanese, he should have told Jarvis to write everything on that language.

Mind going back to that small, unassuming village, he closed his eyes and thought things over. In summary, the Slane Theocracy’s higher-ups had been contacted by someone powerful from the Kingdom, a traitor, that wanted to get rid of Gazef Stronoff. The Kingdom was having issues with lack of available adventurers, and was currently trying to recruit more before the situation got critical, so they had sent Gazef like some poster boy to try to get people into recruitment for the Adventurer’s Guild.

This way, Gazef and a small bunch of his trained men ended up running all over the distant villages trying to find anyone strong enough to convince them to become adventurers. Carne Village, the one close to Nazarick, seemed to be their next destination, and since it was the closest to the Theocracy both ambush teams were waiting for them there—

Oh shit.

“Jarvis, where is the group of soldiers now?” Harry asked hurriedly, having realized something.

“I left them in the forest Sir. In order to not rise suspicion, they’re still preparing dutifully for the ambush,” Jarvis said simply, even if he had straightened at Harry’s tone of voice. Harry sighed in relief and nodded, he had been worried for a moment that Jarvis would get careless due to the enemy’s weakness, so he was glad to be proven wrong.

Turning to look at Momonga, Harry asked, “Want to take sides? Frankly, I think they’ll end up destroying the village if they fight there,” before noticing Momonga was still reading Jarvis’ written report.

Taking off the translating-glasses, Momonga sighed tiredly before looking at Jarvis, “What is the level of the soldiers? And the Light Scripture?”

…Ah, right. They had to be sure they could actually win the fight first. Harry was so used at not having to worry about the enemy’s level, he hadn’t really considered they could be stronger than him in this world. Surely if the infection took place, they couldn’t be higher than Level 60?

“No one present in either of the groups surpasses the 20^th level, Sir Momonga.”

The Overlord nodded, but didn’t seem to be satisfied by that answer, since he asked, “What instruction do they have in case they encounter something more powerful than them?”

Huh, well that was a good question. Even a Level 1 being was dangerous if equipped with a World Item, after all. Damn, did he really lack self-preservation instincts? Why didn’t he consider that? Harry had only thought about going out of the Tomb… take a peek at the dynamics of this world.

“The soldiers don’t have any such instruction, other than retreat and wait for the Light Scripture. I’m unaware if the latter has any tricks under the sleeve. Do I have permission to infect the Light Scripture as well?”

“Yes.”

“Please do.”

Momonga and Harry said at the same time, which made Harry grin before adding, “Same rules, avoid conflict and don’t let anyone see you. Take precautions as needed.”

“Yes Sir.”

Harry leaned over to Momonga so he could read the report detailing what had been surmised from the soldier’s minds — this time more carefully — asking a few quite specific questions now and then. Momonga placed the glasses on to do the same, so poor Jarvis was stuck with answering their questions and investigating what he didn’t know with the still-infected soldiers. Which reminded him…

“Well, since they are the ones doing the dirty work for the Theocracy, I think we can switch from a temporal infection to a permanent one. It would be good to have ears and eyes in that country, don’t you think?”

Momonga hummed, not sounding so convinced, before tentatively replying, “Isn’t that kind of dangerous? We don’t know if they have any means to detect the infected people… what if they’re discovered?”

“It shouldn’t be an issue so long they can’t track it back to us, right? I haven’t heard of any magic that can pinpoint the Overmind’s location just by capturing a single Zergling.”

This developed into an interesting debate, and by the time they had reached a conclusion Harry’s tray of food had been emptied.

“Permanent infection it is!” Harry grinned in victory, which earned him a scoff from Momonga’s side. He imagined his friend was rolling his non-existent eyes at him.

“But make sure they have a ‘natural death’ if you so much as suspect they may be discovered,” The Overlord added, to which Jarvis nodded in understanding.

“How is the second group going? Already infected?”

“It took longer than expected Sir. The Light Scripture was being tracked by Divination magic, so I had an anti-information Zergling interrupt that spell before infecting them.”

“…what?”

“Oh shit.”

Momonga and Harry shared a worried look, before Harry smiled uneasily, “Yeah, well… what was the last thing the observers saw before you broke it off?”

“Nothing of importance Sir. They were praying for victory in their next battle, since their target is expected to arrive this afternoon.”

“Ok, ok, we can fix it then, right?” Harry muttered in relief, with Momonga nodding in agreement. That was a close one.

“We just have to fabricate a story about an ambush and make it believable. We don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t in this world though…” Momonga said with a tired sigh, sounding mentally exhausted.

“Well, there’s only one way to figure it out then. Let’s go meet this Royal Guard… since he’s supposed to be the ‘strongest man in the Kingdom’ we could measure what’s considered ‘strong’ in this world if we get to see him.”

“…Isn’t that risky though?”

Harry was beginning to think that maybe he wasn’t so bad at self-preservation, but Momonga was just paranoid by nature. It was amusing, that they were opposite sides of the coin in this aspect, so he mentally accepted the new challenge and started to throw arguments at his friend, as yet another debate ensued.

This way, around an hour later, a grinning Harry walked out of Momonga’s room, feeling satisfied by the final decision. In summary, they would go meet up with Gazef, use [Discern Enemy] to check his level and stats, and fabricate a fake-battle story based on that for the ‘defeat’ of the Light Scripture, before sending some random people to return to the Theocracy with their tails between their legs.

Since they couldn’t make the whole group return —every battle had its downs after all— the others would either be killed or simply lose their memories and be sent towards random villages, as new workforce for them. If the other villages were like the one near Nazarick, they most certainly needed all the help they could get.

Momonga had been hard to convince, but Sebas and Jarvis had liked the idea, so in the end he had caved in. Decision taken, Harry was supposed to go to his room to prepare for going out, but…

“Hey Jarvis, do me a favor and take this down to the Treasury,” Harry said to his NPC, which was following dutifully behind him, giving him the unassuming bag that was normally hanging around his neck. “To think we wasted a month in this… hah. Return the World items and the others you recognize aren’t mine to the right place, make Pandora help you if needed. The password is ‘Hogwarts’.”

“I apologize Sir, but I’ve never been in the Treasury before—” Jarvis began to say before halting to catch the ring Harry had tossed at him.

“That should do, just think about the Treasury and it will activate. Remember to take it off once you’re there though,” Harry said dismissively, walking once more down the hallway.

“…Yes Sir,” Jarvis said pensively as he looked down at the ring in his hands, seemingly shocked for a moment, before nodding and putting it on. “I’ll be back in a moment, please excuse me,” his NPC added at last before disappearing.

Well then, now that Jarvis had left, he could finally address the presence lurking in the shadows, which had been following him since he got out of Momonga’s room. With this in mind, he suddenly halted, turning around before slowly speaking out.

“… Hey, there’s no need to be shy.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“For leaving my post without permission.”

Harry smiled, crouching down so he was at eye level with the speaker. “I don’t mind, but you should at least tell your sister Albedo, so she doesn’t worry. Can you promise that?”

Rubedo nodded, looking up at him with big brown eyes full of wonder, before softly saying, “Understood, Harry.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise at the lack of honorifics, before grinning widely at her. “Come on then, why don’t you tell me the reason you left your floor, hmm?”

Harry straightened, offering his hand to the child and waiting until she took it before starting to walk again. Honestly, the only reason he was going towards his room was to define which of his robes was low-ranked enough to be used in the village without dragging attention, but meeting Rubedo was a nice surprise.

“I’m not going to get mad, I promise,” Harry added after a while, as the silence prolonged, turning the knob of his door in the opposite direction before going in.

“I… wanted to see. Albedo-nee said everything was fine, but I still wanted to see,” Rubedo whispered, looking at the floor shyly. Her wings flickered, and the light seemed to get duller somehow.

“I’m sorry for worrying you, everything is fine now,” Harry said reassuringly, patting her head a couple of times before an idea struck him. “Well, since you’re already here, mind helping me out with something? From these options, which would be good to blend in with Level 30 humans?”

—Momonga—

Truth be told, he didn’t get it.

He was just a salaryman, so it wasn’t surprising, but he still felt an odd mix of curiosity and reluctance. Honestly, he couldn’t even begin to fathom how Harry’s life had been, couldn’t imagine what traveling between worlds was like, or how old that would make his friend out to be.

But Punitto Moe had told him more than once that, as a leader, he needed to always remain calm and keep thinking logically, rationally. To keep calm, plan for the future, and most importantly: to not waste time thinking about trivialities.

So he chose to let it rest, not inquiring more about that particular piece of Harry’s never-ending set of fairy tales… or what sounded like fairy tales. Truly, it was difficult to believe, and a part of him was still expecting to suddenly wake up in his room to go to work, but the unavoidable fact was that this was his new reality… which wasn’t so bad, really.

Nazarick had always felt more like a home than his own apartment would ever hope to be, so he didn’t mind. The pressure of leading the NPCs was still there sure, but it was acceptable since he didn’t have to shoulder it alone. And since nobody in Nazarick had an actual lifespan… well, he guessed he still had plenty of time to slowly come to terms with everything. With this in mind, Momonga pushed the curiosity of Harry’s past back to a corner in his mind, to focus instead on the present situation.

“This is…”

“Level 50 Momonga-sama,” Sebas’ voice replied, and he hummed in response before tossing it aside. He was worried, what if they equipped themselves to blend in with Level 20 people, but Gazef ended up being Level 70? Maybe even higher up? What if it ended up in confrontation?

He could practically hear Harry calling him ‘paranoid’ in his head, but it was better to be prepared. With this in mind, he decided to keep all the Divine items that characterized his usual PK gear, and just hid it under a conjured armor.

Since the armor was created magically, the moment Momonga decided he needed to fight with all his might, he would just need to dispel it and it would be replaced for his usual PKing gear. The armor was Mana-consuming, but its rate of consumption was laughable if he considered the plan was to be out of the Tomb for only a couple of hours or so. This way, his level of Mana available for PK shouldn’t be particularly affected.

Looking at the conjured black armor, red cape moving behind him, he decided that a couple of Greatswords would be enough to make his disguise as a warrior believable, so he equipped them behind his back before deeming he was ready.

“This should be acceptable.”

“Indeed Momonga-sama, you should blend in without issues.”

Nodding at Sebas’ confirmation, he walked out of his dressing room, passing through his bedroom, the piano room, and the office-like room before finally reaching the hallway. He sighed in his heart, wondering what was the need of having so many rooms in the Guild member’s personal chambers, before placing the thought aside.

Walking towards Harry’s room with Sebas following behind him, Momonga knocked and waited for a reply before entering. He only took one step inside before immediately halting however.

“…Harry, why is Rubedo here?”

Harry was wearing a set of robes that were white with black patterns. In his right hand was a simple-looking wood staff, while the left hand had another set of dark green robes, golden ornaments traveling around the sleeves and torso. He was standing in front of a small, six-year-old child that Momonga recognized as Nazarick’s strongest creation.

“I stumbled on her in the hallway, so I asked for her opinion,” Harry replied nonchalantly with a shrug, before turning towards the child sitting on the floor. “What do you think of these two? Which is better?”

“The green one is cool!” she really acted and spoke like a child would, even going as far as leaning forward in apparent excitement. It was difficult to believe she was one of the aces in Nazarick’s defense.

“Yeah? Ok, I’ll keep this one then,” Harry said smiling, waving his hand so his white robes were exchanged with the emerald ones in nothing but a quick flash of light, before looking at Momonga again. “By the way, why are you dressed as a warrior?”

“Just in case,” Momonga said simply, trying to shrug it off, but it was apparent Harry had deduced the armor’s true purpose, because he snorted and shook his head disbelievingly.

“You’re beyond help,” Harry muttered teasingly, obviously amused.

“Hmph, excuse me for being careful,” Momonga replied with a playful scoff, before adding, “one of us needs to be, right?”

“Now, now, what are you implying? I serve as the tank and seeker when we hunt, and I’m always careful. Whenever have I let you down?”

For a moment, it was almost like the old times, when only the two of them and a group of mercenary NPCs would go out to collect gold for covering Nazarick’s maintenance fees. Smiling at the familiar banter, he replied almost automatically.

“Never, but you always get needlessly hurt—”

“Hey! It’s not needless, what kind of tank would I be if I—?”

“No Harry, you can’t really expect to protect the team perfectly from everything—”

“And I don’t! I just calculate which strikes to take and how—”

“Which is the reason you always get—”

“Harry is going to get hurt?” a soft childish voice interrupted their usual, never-ending banter, which made them fall silent immediately.

“No, we were just—” Momonga began to say, but stopped upon seeing the tearful eyes of the kid.

“No, I’m not. I’ll be fine— wait, wait, wait!” Harry’s reassuring voice was quickly replaced with alarm as Rubedo stood up and ran, the room’s shape shifting to suddenly add a hallway that led to who-knows-where.

Rubedo was proficient in melee combat, which would explain how she disappeared in nothing but a blink of an eye. The only thing that denoted she was still running down the recently-created hallway was the far-away cry of “Albedo-nee!”

“Wait, don’t tell her!! Rubedo wait, we were only joking!” Harry exclaimed before cursing loudly, “Agh, I can’t make the hallway disappear if it’s in use.”

Harry passed a hand through his hair in apparent stress, looking at him with worry before his eyes lit up. “Ok, it’s not too late yet.  [Message] Hi Albedo! No, no, everything is fine, just— um, your younger sister is probably going to come with you soon.  She’s a little distressed, and is only a huge misunderstanding, so don’t pay too much importance to her words, ok? She’s just confused…”

Momonga had no way to know what Albedo was replying on her side of the line, but Harry suddenly cringed.

“Sweet Merlin, she’s crying her lungs out. I’m sorry,” Harry muttered after a while, before tensing and looking panickily at him, as if silently asking for help.

“Wha— what is it?” Momonga asked, finally entering the room with Sebas in tow, but Harry just seemed to sigh silently.

“We? No, no, we’re— everything is fine. We won’t be at risk— hm? No, no need, Momonga and I are more than enough really— it’s just a human village. Jarvis already checked it out, there’s nothing above Level 30 in there…”

The discussion progressed with Harry trying to talk his way out of a reprimand, but Momonga was quite sure Albedo wasn’t going to let him.  After a while, the conversation seemed to get cycled, which made Momonga feel impatient.

“Harry, what is she asking for?” Momonga asked after a while, as Harry’s [Message] didn’t seem to be going to end anytime soon. “Maybe you should just comply?”

Harry gave him a look, before loudly saying, “No Albedo, a troop of 500 NPCs is not necessary, we’re not going to battle…”

Ah.

Well, he agreed that was a little too much. But they were never going to leave if this kept up, so he commented, “Just tell her we won’t be going alone. We can take one of the Pleiades to human town without dragging attention, right?”

“…Ah, I understand, yeah… We’ll be taking one of the Pleiades with us, alright?” Harry replied, before immediately adding, “Two! We’re taking two of them, and Momonga is wearing his Divine-gear and everything.”

Silence followed after that, a feeling of anticipation filling the air, before Harry grinned and made a thumb up signal at him.

“Neat! Thank you, see you soon!” Harry exclaimed before dispelling [Message] and sighing deeply. “Well, that happened… what time is it now? Has that guy arrived at the village yet?”

“I don’t know, the one monitoring is Jarvis. Where is he? Shouldn’t he be here with you?”

“Ah, I asked him a favor,” Harry said looking away, and Momonga mentally narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He looked kind of guilty—

“I didn’t expect him to take long though, so he should be back here already... Let me check. [Message] How’s it going?” Harry hurriedly continued before Momonga could say anything, which only served to increase his suspicions. The silence was uninterrupted for a moment, as Jarvis no doubt answered on his side, before Harry finally spoke up again, “…is that so? Huh, sounds interesting, I’ll go pay a visit too then, once I have a chance. For the moment though, how is the village? Is that guy…? Ok, got it, thanks!”

Harry dispelled the [Message] and grinned at him, before saying “Stronoff is in the vicinity, so we should go. We may end up arriving at the same time otherwise.”

Momonga made a mental note to ask about Jarvis’ errand later —which sounded suspicious as heck — and turned instead towards the butler behind him. “Sebas, which of the Pleiades would be fine with coming with us to a human village?”

Sebas didn’t even think it, or maybe it was that he had anticipated the question, since he answered immediately with, “Yuri Alpha and CZ Delta, I believe would be the most appropriate, Momonga-sama.”

…That was curious. Since Momonga and Harry both were magic casters, he would have chosen close-ranged fighting styles to complement them in case of battle, like Solution, but with the suggested formation only Yuri was good at close combat.

Then again, they should be able to manage any emergencies with Nazarick being so close to the village, so he nodded in agreement. “Bring them here then, tell them to switch gears so they blend in easier.”

Since having them go as maids would no doubt raise some eyebrows, it was better for them to use something simpler-looking. Sebas bowed, before excusing himself and going to the hallway to cast [Message]. Harry insisted they waited for the Pleiades in the hallway as well, so they left the room just behind Sebas. Momonga didn’t think much about it, only realizing a few minutes later that Harry had probably done it to avoid speaking about Jarvis’ errand.

Internally cursing, Momonga didn’t have the chance to inquire about it as Yuri and CZ arrived. It was surprising, how the Pleiades were ready in nothing but a few minutes, so everyone was gathered soon enough in the hallway just out of Harry’s room.

Yuri could be confused with a scholar, since she was wearing a buttoned up white blouse, and a long dark skirt that reached her ankles, but that image was quickly shattered by the pair of green, spiked gauntlets that were on her fists.  CZ looked normal enough too, Momonga considered, wearing long-sleeved black shirt and white slacks, which would look too formal if not for the green, out-of-place scarf around her neck, and the automated rifle stripped to her petite back.

“We’re good to go then?” Harry asked looking almost impatient, so Momonga chuckled and nodded. “Awesome, let’s use [Gate] then.”

The circular portal appeared, swirling waves of magic dancing within, and Yuri was the first to go through before the rest of them followed. The fact that the opposition had not used teleport-blocking filled Momonga with relief, but he chose not to voice this out and simply followed the others as they slowly started to walk away from the forest and towards the human village.

—Gazef —

They had only just arrived at Carne Village, the last they were meant to visit before returning to the Royal Palace, but Gazef could already discern that finding someone strong in this far-away land was like asking oranges from the apple tree. It was nothing but a waste of time and effort.

Truly, what were the Nobles expecting from this little crusade? Only 1 out of 50 adventurers came from farming villages, and those usually stayed at Copper plate, perhaps reaching a Silver plate if they were lucky and had a well-balanced team.

Gazef sighed tiredly, a gesture that was mimicked by his Vice-captain, as the small group galloped closer to the Village. At least this was the last one… it was a pity, but he would have to report there was no one that fitted the profile to at least attempt to become an adventurer.

Truly, how had they reached such a critical situation? Even though the Adventurer’s Guild wasn’t part of the Kingdom officially, the Royal Family and the Nobles had agreed that it was necessary to help them with the recruitment. Their number diminished with every passing day, and with the lack of workforce controlling the monster population, making sure that the creatures didn’t invade the Villages and Cities was becoming more and more difficult. The Katze Plains were, specifically, the most dangerous of them all when out of control.

Slowing his horse down to a walk, his men moved into the pre-defined formation until they completely stopped at the same time, in front of the man that had come to greet them at the village square.

“You must be the Chief of this village. I am the Captain-Warrior of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff. By order of the King, I have been visiting each of the frontier villages to personally make sure everything is in order. Ensuring the safety of its citizens is the duty of the Royal family, as these lands fall under his territory, please don’t hesitate to let me know if you’ve seen anything that can endanger this village.”

Gazef grinned with practiced ease, acting like the inspiring role-model he was supposed to be. His baritone voice echoed through the village square, and he felt the familiar guilt crawl up on him as he saw the admiring eyes of the Chief of this humble village look up at him.

“The Kingdom’s Captain-Warrior… to think that the Royal family would go to such extent, we have a generous King.”

His majesty was very kind, Gazef really wished that was truly the reason he had come in such a long trip. If that had been the case, then acting this conceited wouldn’t feel so forced.

Not wanting to stay up on his horse while the Chief of the village was simply standing, Gazef immediately dismounted, his armor clattering loudly as he did.

“His majesty is truly benevolent, Chief-san,” Gazef said sincerely, smiling honestly instead of the forced grin he had been bearing in the other Villages he had visited. “So please tell me, have you had any issues with monsters recently? How have you been dealing with them?”

He just needed to ascertain whether there was someone good at fighting off monsters in this village before leaving, but he normally stayed a few days just to truly check on their safety. Making a silent gesture for his men to scan the surroundings, he watched them leave before giving his horse to another villager and walking away with the Chief.

Gazef listened attentively as the Chief explained, even as they walked towards the man’s house, that Carne Village was protected by the presence of The Wise King of the Forest, which repelled most low-level creatures that could pose a treat. In this sense, the villagers only needed to worry about thieves and other such characters, but since they didn’t have anything valuable, it was quite unlikely.

Gazef smiled sincerely, glad that Carne Village wouldn’t have to worry about the lack of adventurers for a while. He then followed the protocol and proceeded to inquire about any villagers that had an interest in fighting, or had any birth talent in martial arts.

“No one in this village is good at fighting… but the group that arrived an hour ago seems really strong,” the Chief muttered pensively, looking at the ground for a brief moment.

“…A group?”

“Four people came out of the forest and approached us for directions, so my wife and I explained them how to go to E-Rantel before your arrival, Captain-Warrior-dono,” the Chief replied honestly, which immediately caught Gazef’s interest. For the group to have come out of the forest, it meant they were strong enough to face the creatures living within.

“Are they adventurers?”

“Ah, no, no… they said they’re travelling, but got lost. They must come from very far away, they look southern I think…”

 “...Travelling, you say. Could you please tell me about this group that arrived at this village?”

“It would be my pleasure, Captain-Warrior-dono!”

He listened attentively, but the Chief didn’t seem to know that much about them. Still, even for a village located at the border, for travelers to come… it was odd. Considering this village was situated near the border with the Empire and the Slane Theocracy, it wasn’t unreasonable to think that this group may be wolf in sheep’s clothing. Perhaps an ambush against Gazef himself?

“Where are they now?” he asked neutrally, not letting any of his thoughts reflect on his face.

“At my house. They were interested in purchasing one of our sacks of herbs; for potions, you see? We were discussing that before you arrived, Captain-Warrior-dono.”

Gazef hummed noncommittally at that, as they finally arrived at the Chief’s house. The man opened the door, and traces of the conversation happening within could be heard.

“—I’m sorry, we don’t have enough money in the village to give you proper change. We manage copper coins mostly…” a woman, probably the Chief’s wife, was bowing apologetically at the group of four people that was in front of her.

“As I thought, this gold coin was too much…” a male warrior wearing a full-plate dark armor muttered softly, before crossing his arms over his chest.

“Sorry, we were the ones that were inconsiderate, there’s no need to bow— hm? Who is this?” the male magic caster, who had been apologizing to the Chief’s wife, suddenly turned at him with a lightly surprised expression.

The only two females in their group had their gazes fixed on him as well, one with an indifferent expression, while the other seemed politely attentive. It was hard not to get drawn in by their beauty, but the weapons present on all members was enough to keep Gazef’s mind from drifting away.

Their looks were definitely southern, since black hair was predominant there… the girl with the light hair was the only one that stood as rare even among the already extravagant group.

“Allow me to introduce myself, I am the Captain-Warrior of the Re-Estize Kingdom, Gazef Stronoff,” he said with a greeting nod. The action seemed to make the female wearing glasses furrow her brows, but he didn’t understand what had bothered her so.

“Captain-warrior?” the tall dark warrior asked lightly, turning towards the caster.

“I’ve never heard that title before… how odd.”

The members muttered among each other, seemingly in honest confusion, so Gazef cleared his throat and added, “I am a vassal of the King, and have come as per his instruction. Could I bother you with your names?”

“I see… I’m Momon, nice to make your acquaintance,” the armored warrior said with a simple nod, before offering a greeting hand. Gazef took it, releasing an immediate “Kuh!” at the strength behind the shake. Had he been any other person, he was sure his hand would have been redeemed useless.

“Woah, don’t break the lad’s fingers!” the male magic caster said while elbowing the warrior’s ribs, although he looked somewhat amused.

“Ah? sorry, it wasn’t my intention. Please forgive me.” Momon lowered his head, an action that made both females perk up in obvious distress.

“Momon-sa…n!” a panicked voice.

“Please don’t,” a monotone phrase, even if the brows were frowning lightly with concern.

Gazef couldn’t understand what exactly was going on, so he only closed and opened his palm to shake off the remaining pain, and dismissed Momon’s apology. After a short while, a round of introduction followed, as he met James, the magic caster, Shizu, whose area of expertise was hard to grasp, and Yuri, whose gauntlets were obvious at first sight.

“Pardon me if I’m wasting your time, but I need to ask, what is the reason you’re traveling?” Gazef questioned, looking at the males that seemed to be the leaders of the group.

“For research. As a magic caster, I’m especially interested in potions, spells, scrolls and any such item. They vary quite greatly from one region to another!” James said with honest excitement, but Gazef still marked him as suspicious in his mind.

The term "magic caster" referred to a lot of things. It included clerics, priests, druids, arcaners, sorcerers, wizards, bards, mikos, talismancers, sages and countless other magic-using classes. Normally, only those ignorant of this used the term ‘magic caster’, so the fact that James had used it to refer to himself could only mean he intended to hide which was his specialty.

“Similarly, I find the use of Martial Arts intriguing, and would like to meet warriors that can use them,” Momon said seriously, before gesturing towards the females at his side. “Shizu and Yuri are just accompanying us, to cover our backs as needed.”

Both females seemed to straighten, as if proud of their role. Gazef nodded at Momon in honest understanding, as a fellow warrior, he could accept that as truth. Still—

“May I ask you to remove your helmet?” the fact that Momon was wearing it even inside a house was worrying in itself.

“I can’t. I understand your caution, however… I must refuse. I apologize.”

“It’s a matter of religion, sorry if it appears as rude,” James added, looking at Gazef with an understanding gaze. “We explained as much to them when they invited us to enter, to avoid misunderstandings.”

Gazef had completely forgotten they weren’t alone. Turning to look at the owners of this house, he saw the pair of villagers was calm, the female nodding in confirmation while the male simply smiled in agreement.

“I see, so that is the reason you are dressed like this, even when inside a building. I apologize if I was rude for inquiring.” He had no idea what kind of religion was common on the South, nor knew anything of their customs, so he bowed lightly to Momon.

“No, I see the logic in your thinking, Gazef-dono,” Momon muttered as he touched the helmet in self-awareness, “thanks for understanding.”

Gazef nodded to let the topic rest, before inquiring again, “Is there any reason you want to go to E-rantel specifically?”

“Not really, but it’s the nearest city. We will decide where to go afterwards,” James said nonchalantly, which made Gazef internally sigh. Accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to learn much from them, he evaluated each member carefully.

An extravagant group, they were bound to call for attention no matter what, which would go completely against an infiltrating mission… besides, he had a gut feeling that these were not bad people. Dangerous maybe, every strong individual had the capability of being a threat, but they were exactly what he had been sent to find. Critical situations called for drastic measures, so he swallowed whatever doubt remained and grinned at them in a well-practiced manner.

“In that case, why not register as adventurers in E-Rantel? The Guild has branches in several nations; it should be easier to travel among countries if you have an identification card.”

There was no immediate answer, but Gazef could feel the weight of Momon’s gaze beneath the helmet.

“…Please permit me to refuse.”

“…Sounds interesting, what does it entail?”

Two completely contradictory answers were thrown at the same time, which made the speakers exchange a look.

“Ha— James, you can’t be serious right? We’ve never been to E-Rantel, we know nothing of that… city.”

“Which is precisely why enrolling would be good… once we know the rules of course. As adventurers, we would end up meeting a lot of people, traveling who knows where in whatever mission, wouldn’t that be exciting? Is a good way to learn more, don’t you think?”

Seemingly deciding that speaking to James was hopeless, Momon turned towards him instead.

“Gazef-dono, which are the most recurrent quests? How is the level of danger measured? Do adventurers have the right to refuse? Is there a minimum of quests an adventurer must fulfill in a specific interval of time? What happens if—“

Suddenly bombarded by a ton of questions, Gazef raised his palms in surrender to stop Momon from firing up more, as he started to explain what he knew of the Adventurer’s Guild. His heart felt more at ease however, as he had a decent grasp of their character now… at least the pair of males. The females were inscrutable, seemingly content with witnessing their interaction instead of actively participating in it.

With such an odd group in front of him, he couldn’t help but wonder where they came from. He felt tempted to ask, but decided not to. After all, his questions had received nothing but vague answers until now, so he didn’t expect that to change anytime soon.

Actually… wasn’t James always the one that answered vaguely? Momon seemed to be more of the direct kind, the one that cut straight to the point regardless of the question. Gazef pondered silently over this, as he continued to explain about the Adventurer’s Guild. He had belonged to it once, a few years ago, so it wasn’t like he had to think hard to answer Momon’s questions.

As Gazef continued to think, he focused completely on Momon’s helmet. What did he look like underneath? Was he someone that he knew? In this group… Momon seemed to be the strategist, and the one that had the last word, given their interaction, it was obvious he was the leader among the group of four.

But James was the one that spoke up whenever Momon didn’t answer immediately. Didn’t that mean he was covering up Momon’s hesitancy? And then, there were those two, who had refrained from speaking all this time. The way those women acted… it was as if they considered themselves to be inferior. Where they actually slaves? Servants? Perhaps Momon was actually some sort of Noble? No, James wouldn’t have elbowed him if that were the case—

“What’s wrong? Is there something on my helmet?”

“Hm? I apologize, I must have lost myself in old memories. I used to be an adventurer after all,” Gazef made up, mentally kicking himself for getting too sidetracked. “Is there anything else you would like to know?”

“Hell no, the sky is growing dark already!” James hurried to interrupt just as Momon seemed to take a breath to speak up. “If this goes on we will be here all week. Let’s leave it at that, alright? We got enough to think things over at least.”

James seemed to be begging with nothing but his eyes alone, which made Momon sigh before releasing a deep chuckle.

“Ah, fine. Don’t blame me later if I prepare more than needed though, since you didn’t let me investigate further.”

James released a long-drawn sigh, sounding a lot older than how he looked like, which made Momon bark a laugh in obvious amusement.

“…You’re terrible, Momon.”

“Takes one to spot one!”

After a quick exchange of playful banter, they started to give their farewells. Yuri went towards the owners of the house, the married pair, to thank them for their hospitality and for the instructions given, something Gazef noted for future reference. It seemed she was amiable by nature.

Shizu did nothing but stare though, even as she said her goodbyes, and he internally marveled at how expressionless her poker face was. He genuinely had no idea what to think of her. What was she thinking? What area of magic did she specialize in? Why was the staff on her back shaped so strangely? In fact, with the staff’s awkward shape and seemingly random protrusions, where was she even supposed to hold the staff?

And then there was Momon and James, who were contradictory figures in almost all aspects.

“If you should ever visit the Royal Capital, do let me know. Honestly, if we had more time, I’d request a spar before you leave,” Gazef said sincerely, grinning challengingly at Momon. He genuinely wished they would enroll as adventurers in E-Rantel, since that would make them visit the Royal Palace at some point… so long they survived that. They seemed strong though, so he had faith.

 “Once we meet again then. As for now though… please take this with you.” Momon took an item from James’ hand —where had it come from? — and handed it to a surprised Gazef. It was a small, strangely carved statuette, which didn’t seem to have anything special about it. “...I know I asked a lot of questions. As travelers, our knowledge of local matters is somewhat lacking, so I’m thankful that you answered them so diligently.”

Gazef looked confusedly at the strange thing, but he didn’t feel it was something that would harm him. He would have it appraised once he got back though.

“If it is a gift from your good selves, I will gladly accept it.” Gazef bowed lightly in gratitude, before turning towards the window. “Time grows short however, so I understand you have to take your leave. I wish you a safe journey home.”

“Then, I wish you all the best, Captain-Warrior,” James said with a small wave, before doing a hand motion to call over Yuri, who had stayed chatting with the villagers up until now.

After watching them leave, Gazef asked for shelter for the night to the Chief, before immediately freezing as apprehension struck him. Gut clenching with a terrible foreboding feeling, he cursed at his carelessness as he all but ran out of the house. He had been too focused on this odd group of four, he didn’t notice that his vice-captain didn’t report back to him.

Barking out an order, he felt an odd mix of relief and confusion as his call was answered, his group of warriors reuniting keeping the usual formation. Gazef immediately requested a report from the vice-captain, sharp gaze studying his surroundings.

…what had happened while he was entertained in the Chief’s house?

—Harry—

 “...Ah, this act is tiring,” Momonga quietly grumbled as they walked into the forest, with Yuri at the head and Shizu at their back. Harry had told them that keeping a formation wasn’t necessary, but Momonga had agreed with being alert just in case, so Harry had admitted defeat and let them be as paranoid as they wished.

“It was worth it though; we got a lot more of information than what we had originally expected,” Harry answered back simply. Momonga hummed in agreement, looking up at the sky that was beginning to show a few stars, as dusk finally turned into night time.

“Yeah… the fact that Gazef brought with him so many warriors was lucky.”

Harry grinned, feeling quite satisfied at the current situation. Their objective was to obtain information, but directly asking for it would be considered as strange. Although they had the excuse of being ‘travelers’, that could only work for so many topics before it would raise suspicion.

All in all, it was good that Jarvis could infect creatures. Surely Gazef wouldn’t mind, since his men were under a temporary one, no harm done, right?

Chapter Text

Chapter 12 Destination

The Guildmaster of the Great Tomb of Nazarick had a luxurious office.

Said office was filled with tasteful and exotic furniture, every single piece being of exquisite design and decoration. The crimson carpet upon the floor was thick and soft, swallowing the footsteps of those who trod upon it, and flags bearing the Guild’s insignia hung upon the walls in the depths of the room.

An imposing mahogany desk sat in the center of the office. Momonga sat behind it, upon a black leather chair, reading through the written reports and trying his best not to look at the NPCs gathered in the room. He felt so pressured, it was as if there was something heavy hanging over his shoulders.

Why was he alone with these three again? …Ah right, he needed to confirm if the current security system was good enough. It was a necessary step before he and Harry could even mention the idea of adventuring outside the Tomb, after all.

I think it’s good, but I’m not sure if Harry’s got anything else like that ‘glitch’ guarding the Tomb. Shouldn’t he be here too? I need to ask him.

Nodding to himself, he tried not to think on how that was only an excuse to have Harry validate the security system as well, and raised his head to meet the gaze of the NPCs in front of him. They weren’t doing anything but look expectantly at him, but that was enough to make his non-existent stomach clench in nervousness.

“It seems adequate… but I’d like to have Harry double-check it just to be sure. Sebas, can you call him over?”

“Of course, Momonga-sama.”

“…Sir Momonga, I’m afraid Sebas won’t be able to reach him,” Jarvis said bowing apologetically, which made the dragonoid pause “My creator is currently in the Treasury.”

In the— oh no.

“Wh-what? I mean, why is Harry…? Er, did he say anything to any of you?” Momonga tried not to choke out. Oh God that guy was there! How long had Harry been in the treasury?! Oh shit, oh shit—

“I didn’t receive any message from him, Momonga-sama,” Albedo replied, making a sweetly worried expression that immediately distracted him from his inner mortification.

“Regrettably, I find myself under the same situation as Albedo, Momonga-sama,” Demiurge answered with a short bow, as if sorry he couldn’t be of use.

“I was just told he wanted to meet Pandora’s Actor, Sir Momonga,” Jarvis answered, boney wings moving behind him as if shrugging helplessly. Momonga internally cursed, raising from his seat as quickly as he could without making it look like he was in a hurry.

“I see, I see… in that case I’ll go fetch him,” Momonga said, looking at the ring on his finger, which was the only way one could access the Treasury. Since only the guild members had it, currently only he and Harry could enter that area. “You can go out to reassume your duties, I will call you once we’ve reviewed the security system.”

The NPCs bowed in understanding, which made Momonga pause in his frantic movement. At this time, there was an invisible line of respect between him and the NPCs, but he wanted them to be more at ease around him… but since Momonga was their superior, he needed to be the one to take initiative in order to change that.

Thinking about this, he decided to walk around the desk to approach them, hesitantly placing his skeletal hands over Albedo’s and Demiurge’s shoulders.

This should be good right? Not too invasive like a hug would be, but it was still an appreciative gesture that was more casual. Ugh, just thinking about it made him nervous, he wasn’t messing it up right?

“Good work… guys,” Momonga said uncertainly, taking his hands back to pat Jarvis’ shoulder too before stepping back and adding, “keep it up.”

He tried to talk casually, but it ended up sounding way too timid. Agh, it was like being a newcomer at work all over again, everything was awkward until he started to know more about his coworkers…

Since he was thinking like this, the completely excited reaction he got from the NPCs caught him by surprise.

“Please, there’s no need to mention it! As the creations of the Supreme Beings, our very lives are yours to use!” Albedo exclaimed happily, wings flapping softly a couple of times.

Wait what? Wasn’t that a little—

“Exactly so.  We Guardians were created by the Supreme Beings, which is why, until the very moment of our extinction, we will be completely loyal to you. Your gratitude is wasted on us, Momonga-sama! " Demiurge added with a happy grin, tail swaying merrily behind him.

"Ah... uh, well, then, I expect your loyal service,” he answered awkwardly, not knowing what else to say. Jarvis seemed at loss too, since he had simply bowed deeply in appreciation without uttering another word. It was better in Momonga’s opinion, Harry’s creation was—

No, no, no! Harry was with Pandora’s Actor right now!  He had to hurry, his own creation was like that…. How was that guy going to act now that he could move and speak?

He internally shuddered, feeling more mortified than ever.

“Well then, I’ll be going to the Treasury now. I’ll send Albedo a [Message] for the next reunion.”

And with those hurried parting words he disappeared silently from his office.

 After teleporting to the Treasury, he looked around him to make sure that no one was watching before running ahead as fast as he could. He probably looked silly, what with his robes getting in the way, but he still moved considerably fast.

 He passed through the room holding mountains of gold and jewelry, scattered items and crystal data. There were perhaps two or three hundred items gathered messily in the room.

Ignoring all of it, he just ran over the path that was clean of items, not stopping until he finally reached the door that led to the armory. No, could it really be called a door? It was shaped like a door, but it looked more like a bottomless abyss placed on the wall.

 Arriving at this peculiar door, Momonga was absorbed in his thoughts as he tried to catch up his breath. What was the goddamn password again?!

 The door could only be opened using a predetermined password. Maybe with magic or with a skill of the Rogue class, one could have opened the door, but he had never learned such a thing, therefore, it was necessary to say the password.

 Ack... I forgot it. I don’t have time for this!

 Mechanisms similar to this one were abundant in the Great Tomb of Nazarick. It was possible to remember passwords for the places that one visited frequently, but there were few opportunities to visit the Treasury. To be honest, Momonga only came to this place to withdraw funds to pay for the maintenance of Nazarick so it had been quite a while since he had last set foot in this place.

 Having failed to remember the password, Momonga hurried to say the universal code:

 "Glory to Ainz Ooal Gown."

 The black door responded to this phrase, and a few words appeared as images floating on the surface of the water.

 "... Tabula Smaragdina-san was really a perfectionist," Momonga muttered tiredly as he wracked his brain to answer the riddle. It took a short while, but he finally remembered the code in his deepest memories.

 "It should be 'So you will gain glory in the whole world, and the darkness will come out of you at once.' Right?"

 As if responding to Momonga’s wishes, the shadow was sucked into a single point, and in a short time it had disappeared as if it had never been there, leaving only a black sphere the size of a fist floating.

 Since the shadow that covered the door had disappeared, it was possible to see inside. It was like stepping into a museum exhibit, the dimly lit hallway was quite long, extending continuously outward, and the walls on both sides of the room were covered with numerous weapons. It was a spectacle to contemplate.

Knowing that Pandora and Harry were at the end of the corridor, he walked at a fast pace instead of outright running, ignoring the variety of weapons that were hanging on the walls at his sides.

After about a hundred meters —passing an approximate of several thousand weapons on his way— he arrived at his destination. This rectangular room, apart from sofas and tables, was oddly empty of treasures and items. This was the area where Pandora resided, and the last defense of the World items that rested ahead.

“You’re gold, absolutely gold!” Harry’s voice, filled with obvious amusement, was the first thing Momonga heard. There was a mop of messy black hair coming from the sofa that was facing on the opposite direction, which meant Harry was sitting there. And Pandora—

Oh God, Pandora!

He felt the sudden, very real need to just dig himself underground and stay there. Forever. The fact that the Area Guardian behaved like this due to Momonga’s own programming made it even worse.

Pandora had an egg-shaped head and a flat face. Instead of eyes and mouth he only had three holes that looked like those drawn by a child using a pencil. This strange character, like Narberal, was a Doppelganger.

Pandora stopped mid-pirouette upon spotting him, which made Momonga freeze in consternation. He watched helplessly as the Guardian clamped his feet together with a click, and brought his right hand to his cap in a dramatic salute.

"Welcome, my creator Momonga-sama!"

Someone please just kill me.

This thought only gained strength when Harry asked, “Momonga is here?” with clear anticipation, standing up from the sofa to look at him with an amused grin.

“Ah… hello Pandora. You look pretty animated.” He decided to greet his creation, ignoring Harry’s smirking presence as much as he could.

“Affirmative, every day I am full of energy!" As if to demonstrate, Pandora showed an exaggerated, flourish bow that made him wonder how the cap hadn’t fallen from his head. Seriously, why were his actions so exaggerated? ...No, Momonga knew the reason.

In the past, Momonga had thought that those who wore uniform were awesome, and since he was an actor, his actions should be more exaggerated. Momonga had been happy and proud at the time he had given those adjustments, but seeing it come alive and actually do these things...

"Ugh, this is so... how unfortunate..."

Momonga couldn’t help but let out a small whisper of his true opinion, so low that no one else could hear him. It really was a grim story; Pandora’s Actor, a living relic of his dark past.

Harry chuckled, walking towards Momonga with an expression full of mirth, which made him take a small step back. He could already imagine the endless teasing that was going to follow; damn, it would be weeks…

 As Harry passed by Pandora’s side however, he raised a hand to tip the cap downwards in an almost natural movement. Harry halted on his walk then, as if surprised by his own action.

 “Sorry, I’m used to— er, does it bother you? Sorry, sorry,” Harry muttered sheepishly, raising both hands apologetically.

 "Not at all! I couldn’t move or speak freely before, but now I can finally show you!” Pandora exclaimed happily with open arms, the cap still covering his eyes sockets.

 And then, as if it were the most natural thing to do, Pandora grabbed the tip of the cap with his long fingers, bent like an Actor would at the claps of the public, and did another grand pirouette like the one he was performing when Momonga first arrived.

 At the end of it, Pandora’s eyes were somehow uncovered again, arms doing an exaggerated flourish that seemed to scream “Ta-Da!”

 “…Did you do that every time I flipped it down?” Harry asked, amused grin returning at full force.

 As Pandora exclaimed, “Of course!” quite proudly, Momonga internally wished he could have his full emotional suppression back. Maybe then, he wouldn’t feel the need to bang his head against the closest wall repeatedly.

 “Neat! You know what? I think you should go meet the othe— hey!" Harry exclaimed rubbing his shoulder, where Momonga had instinctually hit him.

 “…It wasn’t that hard,” he mumbled unapologetically, which made Harry roll his eyes at him.

 “I’m emotionally hurt though.”

 Momonga snorted, shaking his head disbelievingly before he remembered the reason he was here in the first place.

 “Harry, why are you in the treasury to begin with? This isn’t the kind of place we should visit without a good reason,” Momonga said seriously.  Originally, it was to prevent the leak of information regarding how to access the treasury, but now it was also because his shameful NPC was here…

 “How could I not? He’s such an interesting character, didn’t you notice?”

 At first, Momonga thought the teasing was about to start, but that idea was reluctantly discarded when he saw Harry’s serious and somewhat expectant look.

 Notice? What exactly was he supposed to notice?

 As if sensing his inner confusion, Harry smiled knowingly, turned to face Pandora again and… bowed apologetically?

 “Pandora, back at the time I didn’t know whether I was bothering you or not, I’m sorry I never asked you. Please forgive me,” Harry said while still bent. Momonga didn’t really understand why he was apologizing so seriously though.

 Pandora tilted his egg-shaped head to one side as if confused as well, before placing a hand under his chin in a theatrical pensive pose. After a short moment, he snapped his long fingers as if happy he got an idea, and proceeded to take his military cap off.

 A couple of steps later, the cap was now securely on Harry’s head. The action made Harry straighten, green eyes bright as if expectant.

 “It’s not bothersome! See?” was the only phrase Pandora said as he tilted the cap downwards, so Harry’s eyes were now hidden from view.

 Momonga watched the scene utterly confused, a part of him still embarrassed at seeing his creation behave so dramatically. He couldn’t imagine any of the other NPCs, like Albedo or Sebas, acting like Pandora did—

 Realization hit him like a bag of bricks, as Harry laughed out loud in obvious glee.

 “Is that so? Thank you, Pandora! Even if I can’t exactly see now, can I?”

 Ignoring their chatting, Momonga focused his attention completely on this new discovery. The NPCs, all of them, even with their different personalities, creators, species and functions, all of them acted with the utmost respect, almost reverently whenever Momonga or Harry were present.

Sure they seemed more at ease around Harry than around him— something he was working on — but the overall picture stayed the same. Heck, hadn’t they done a scene when Harry had apologized on the first day, back in the Throne room?

The only other NPC he could think of that behaved more ‘naturally’ was Jarvis.

Momonga watched distractedly as Harry placed the cap on Pandora’s head, before returning the favor and yanking it downwards lightly, mumbling things about “seeing” and “not seeing”. Truthfully… Momonga had internally wished that the other NPCs would be more like Harry’s creation, who seemed respectful but not overall reverent. He didn’t feel nearly as pressured, since Jarvis didn’t seem to expect the impossible from him.

Perhaps if Pandora left the Treasury, the others would know that this was the kind of treatment Momonga would prefer? Since Pandora was Momonga’s creation, and Jarvis was Harry’s, surely they would notice after a while that they both would like better a less… fanatical attitude?

Momonga was brought back to reality when Harry grinned evilly at Pandora, asking, “Could you imitate Tabula again? That’s the one I liked the most,” rather amusedly.

Pandora immediately complied, shape shifting effortlessly as he imitated the brain eater…. quite terribly. Oh no, why was he making those strange poses?!

Momonga silently apologized to Tabula, as Harry laughed his lungs out.

“Tabula-san wouldn’t do that…” he tried to defend his absent friend, but Harry just shook his head negatively.

“He totally would, under very specific circumstances,” Harry said amongst chuckles, a huge grin on his face.

“…A bet?”

“A bet.”

Momonga nodded solemnly, turning his head to look at Pandora’s poor imitation. They stayed in expectant silence for only a few seconds before both of them burst out laughing. Pandora seemed confused, but overall happy at their reaction as their laugh wore down until it was only chuckles.

“He’s totally leaving the Treasury.”

“I think he can leave from time to time, yeah… meet the others,” Momonga replied much more insecurely. He was torn between feeling concern at Pandora’s flamboyant attitude, and wanting the other NPCs to learn to be more like him. Wait, weren’t those contradictory thoughts?

“Yeah! He can fulfill his duty in the Treasury and still go out and help the others from time to time. What do you think Pandora?”

“It should not pose a problem, Harry-sama! Momonga-sama, I will not let you down!”

The fact that these excited words were exclaimed while still looking like Tabula made Harry cough to hide his grin. Momonga silently decided that his creation wasn’t so bad… so long Pandora didn’t take Momonga’s own form. He would surely die from mortification if that—

“You told him to imitate me too!” Momonga exclaimed accusingly, taking a step back and mentally crossing his fingers, hoping he was wrong—

“I totally did. Hadn’t laughed so hard since that time Ulbert’s spell exploded quite literally in his face!”

Momonga hurriedly tried to think on what excuse he could give to avoid Harry for the next week. Surely after that the teasing would at least be bearable—

“I had never been more grateful to have a recording cash item too. Would you like to see Punitto Moe dancing? It was one of my favorites,” Harry added nonchalantly, and Momonga sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he would be continuously dying from embarrassment on the next few weeks.

Having accepted his fate, he nodded in agreement to Harry. If he was doomed, at least the other guild members were too... Besides, Harry wouldn’t always be with Pandora, so Momonga needed to think about what he would ask for when he requested his creation to imitate Harry. In that sense, watching his friends do embarrassing things was justified, it was for the greater good, a necessary revenge to recover their honor.

And that wasn’t an excuse. It really wasn’t.

Nodding to himself, he tossed a ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to Pandora with a quick instruction on when it was ok to leave the Treasury, before placing a boney hand on Harry’s shoulder and leaving.

Arriving at Momonga’s personal dining room — which had become a meeting place of sorts, to the point that now it always had snacks available for Harry’s visits — they watched Pandora’s interpretation of quite a few guild members. Momonga laughed at most, felt embarrassed for others, and hit Harry on the back of the head when the performance was way too ridiculous. All in all, he was torn between feeling glad and downright cursing the fact that Ancient One had gifted Harry the recording cash item.

As the hours passed, reviewing the security system was the last thing on Momonga’s mind, and thus, didn’t exactly ask what he had meant to originally.

— Narberal —

Her heart ran wildly in nervousness, even if she couldn’t exactly comprehend why she felt as such. It probably had to do with the fact that this would be the first time she met one of the Supreme ones after Nazarik was moved to this new land… yes, that was most likely the reason.

She couldn’t help but smile at the thought. Her sisters had met either the homunculus or the overlord when they passed through the hallways of the 9^th floor, but Narberal had never had such luck. It didn’t matter now however, not when she was tasked by Sebas to deliver the ingredients collected on the 6^th floor to Harry-sama personally. She mildly wondered why he needed such a wide combination of herbs and creature’s body parts, but it wasn’t her place to inquire.

All that mattered was that she had a valid reason to meet him now. Her heart flickered as she unknowingly started to walk a little faster, wanting to arrive to her destination as soon as possible. Her efforts proved useful as she soon reached his room, easily distinguishable from the others due to the strange, meticulous carving of symbols upon the door.

Knocking softly over the surface, she heard a distracted “Enter!” reply to her call. It was odd, wasn’t Jarvis supposed to be working with him? Why hadn’t anyone opened the door then?

Expertly balancing the numerous containers in one arm, she opened the door and took a tentative step inside. She had expected the room to be similar to that of Momonga-sama, so the thick fumes covering the ceiling and the weird, colorful illumination surprised her. There were three cauldrons at the back of the room — which were the source of the fumes — and a few tables and racks storing all sort of materials. Some were already opened, substances messily spilled over an unfortunate table.

Looking around the room, she called for her Master confusedly. The homunculus replied from somewhere at her right, and it was only then that she noticed there was a smaller, much simpler door present over there.

Leaving the containers she was carrying over a mostly-unused table — as per Harry-sama’s instruction— she organized them neatly before walking towards that simple door. A part of her felt anxiety, wondering if she would be punished for this… her instruction was only to deliver the containers and nothing more, but she wanted to see her Master as well.

As if sensing her hesitation, the homunculus exclaimed a hurried “Come in!” which was accompanied by the sounds of something metallic clashing, along with the sound of fire. Having been granted permission, Narberal smiled happily for a second before deciding that it wasn’t a proper expression, so she composed her features into a blank face and went in.

Her excitement quickly turned to surprise, then worry, and no matter how much she tried she couldn’t prevent her expression from changing as she exclaimed, “Harry-sama please don’t!” agitatedly.

“…is there someone spreading rumors that I cook badly? Those two reacted the same,” her Master mumbled somewhat exasperated, shaking his head negatively at her reaction before adding in a reassuring tone, “no need to worry really, I can cook just fine.”

Narberal wanted to exclaim that wasn’t the problem, but managed to keep her words from spilling. With so many servants around, why did he feel the need to cook for himself? Did that mean they were inadequate? What did that mean for Sous chef and Chef, whose work was mainly to cook and attend the bar on the 9^th floor?

“Narberal? Is everything ok?”

She took a shaky breath before bowing low to apologize, but even then, her mind still went over to the cooking experts. Had they done anything to anger their Master, or perhaps they weren’t good enough in their job? But if that were the case, what would happen to them? Would they be discarded at their lack of use?

“Are you in pain? What’s happening?!”

His voice was bathed in worry now, but she didn’t dare straighten up or answer back to him. Narberal could feel her shoulders trembling as she heard steps coming closer, unsure on whether this fearful behavior could be justified or not. How could she explain that she feared for the fate of the cooking NPCs? Was that even appropriate?

“Up, up, look at me for a moment, ok? Calm down…”

Narberal breathed in deeply before complying with the order, doing her best to remain impassive under the scrutiny. Oddly enough, all Harry-sama did was meet her gaze worriedly, eyes moving slightly from side to side as if searching for something… or reading something.

After a while his eyes widened, a whisper of, “Merlin, where did that come from?” falling from his lips before he placed a warm hand on her shoulder.

“Alright, listen carefully… “ the homunculus said seriously, and Narberal could only nod, patiently waiting for the reprimand—

“I find cooking relaxing.”

…Did she hear correctly?

“I like to experiment with it and come up with new dishes, but that doesn’t mean that I dislike Sous Chef’s and Chef’s cooking. I know you guys like to support us in everything Momonga and I do, and we really appreciate that, but we like to do things on our own from time to time too… and that doesn’t mean we stop appreciating your work, or that you’re performing poorly. Does that make sense?”

She blinked, doing her best to hold back the tears as she nodded. To have understood what was going through her mind, even when she didn’t express it out loud… that her Master would care to understand his subjects so well , it was really touching.

“Of course, Harry-sama.”

“Yes? Good, good… can you mention this to the others? Your sisters and Sebas for example, just to spread it out— just tell them not to worry about this kind of thing. We all belong to Nazarik, so it’s only fair that all of us work together, Momonga and I included.”

Harry-sama took a deep breath, clearly about to dive into a longer explanation, but the sound of the main door opening interrupted him.

“…why are the potions in— ah, no, that’s not important right now. Harry, where are you?”

She jolted lightly upon hearing Momonga-sama’s voice, trying her best to fight off a smile. She was going to be so lucky as to meet both of her Masters at the same time? She could already imagine the jealous expressions of her sisters — Entoma and CZ excluded.

“At your right! The door adjusts to your height so don’t worry.”

Narberal hurriedly walked to Harry’s side and bowed deeply at the door as it opened, several pairs of steps entering the room.

“What a nice smell… hm? Narberal, you can rise,” the Overlord’s deep voice was music to her ears, but she still waited respectfully for a few seconds before complying. Straightening up, she nodded in greeting to Albedo and Demiurge, who were flanking both sides of the Guildmaster.

“Yeah, I was cooking. Should be ready soon actually,” Harry said calmly, looking back to see the pot and ingredients moving on their own, as if held by someone invisible.

“…You have cooking job classes?”

“I was used to living alone, of course I know how to cook,” Harry said with a voice that denoted this should have been obvious, before throwing an exasperated look at the Guardians “and no, this does NOT mean that Chef and Sous chef—”

Harry-sama started a rant that was quite similar to the one he had given her, and she watched interestedly as both demonic Guardians protested against it.

Albedo and Demiurge answered, in their own way, that Harry was one of the Supreme ones, so he didn’t need to act personally. That was because the NPCs, the servants— us, a part of her mind supplied immediately— were created to serve as his arms and legs, to carry out any task that was issued no matter how difficult.

Their argument was, in her eyes, solid. There was simply no way to argue against it.

The inhabitants of Nazarick existed to receive orders and execute them perfectly. No, it would be more accurate to say that they were allowed to exist to achieve that goal. Nobody in Nazarick would even dare to think different.

It was logical, it was something that shouldn’t even be up to discussion… so why was her Lord fighting against it?

—Harry—

“That’s not the point— listen, I understand that. I’m just saying that this is our wish. We want to contribute, to help around in Nazarick because this is our home too. What kind of Lord would just sit back and let the others do everything?” Harry said genuinely concerned as he explained the same point yet again.

What was so hard to understand? He felt about ready to strangle someone. Stubborn NPCs that insisted on overworking and worrying themselves to death, and damn Momonga that wasn’t supporting his arguments. Why had the Overlord stayed silent? Bloody hell, it wasn’t even that hard to—

“Harry-sama, if you feel the need to do things on your own, doesn’t that mean that you have found flaws in our service?”  Albedo countered, brows frowning in confusion and worry.

“No, no, wait a second—”

“Naturally, establishing as our goal to be as flawless as the Supreme Ones is not only disrespectful, but also foolish in the extreme. However, no matter how unattainable it may be, even if it's just a step, I feel that we should strive to reach Harry-sama and Momonga-sama.” Demiurge added, bowing with utmost respect.

He wanted to facepalm so badly. Instead of that though, Harry only let out a long, tired sigh, and turned his gaze towards Momonga, not for the first time silently begging for help. His friend, who had been silent up until now, simply coughed loudly before raising both palms soothingly.

“Well, it seems we won’t be reaching an agreement anytime soon. Let us put aside that topic for another day, alright? Harry, the reason we came is for you to review this.”

Harry had thrown him a disbelieving look at the beginning of that sentence, for what could be more important that making the NPCs understand that they didn’t have to be perfect? But as Momonga offered a thick file that might as well contain over 300 pages, he reluctantly let the matter rest.

“…What is this?”

“Nazarick’s security system. I— ahem, I’ve already evaluated it…. But I wanted to have a second opinion before deeming it acceptable. Could you take a look at it?”

Harry raised an eyebrow at the obvious lie, but chose not to comment on it. Most likely Momonga had skimmed through it before choosing to think that Albedo and Demiurge probably knew better than him. Truthfully, they were so competent there shouldn’t be any issue in let it as it was, so why was this more important than their previous discussion?

Throwing Momonga a look that clearly said “we will talk about this later” he instead chose to focus on the heavy pile of paper on his hands.

“Yeah, give me a moment.”

Placing a hand over the pile, he closed his eyes and channeled his magic through it, a runic symbol appearing on the otherwise unmarked cover of the folder. A couple of minutes later, he sighed and opened his eyes again.

“It’s really… complete actually. The opponent would find it difficult to bypass, if they don’t use a World item, or an ally of the similar caliber, like a World enemy. In its current state, even a Raid Boss would have trouble breaking through… the only thing that concerns me is that it depends heavily on the presence of everyone. What would happen if one of the Floor Guardians are out of the Tomb at the moment of the attack? Or me or Momonga? Who would take the decisions?”

Harry asked this casually, mind going over the parts of the system that were prone to crumble in the absence of a specific individual. It was for this reason that seeing the alarmed looks of the NPCs took him completely by surprise.

Albedo’s wings had instantly closed around her hips, as if trying to hug herself for reassurance, while Demiurge’s tail had frozen mid swing, shoulders tense and perpetual smile slowly turning into a worried frown.

Hell, he could even hear Narberal gasp miserably from somewhere behind him.

“A-are you planning on leaving Nazarick?” Albedo whispered brokenly, the fear and worry lacing her voice so heavily that it felt like a direct stab of guilt to his heart.

“What? No, that’s not— you don’t know? Momonga, didn’t you tell them about the next step?”

Momonga was supposed to tell them about the adventuring-outside plan that would follow and discuss the details with them, while Harry prepared the potions they may need in their travel. Since most of Nazarick’s potions were high level, it was bound to drag attention, so he was creating a few batches of low-level ones as to not raise suspicion. The plan was also to sell a few, to see just how valuable they may be considered in this new world.

“Ah, about that… I wanted to hear their opinion first.” Momonga shifted uncomfortably, now clearly avoiding his gaze, which made Harry narrow his eyes in suspicion.  Before he could say anything however, Momonga added, “Albedo, call the rest of the Floor Guardians and tell them to come immediately.”

“…Of course, Momonga-sama.”

The air felt tense as Albedo spoke and coordinated the Floor Guardians flawlessly. Since she had been designed to be the Guardian Overseer, Tabula had added the needed commander-type classes that allowed for simultaneous communication with many people, much more efficient than Harry’s and Momonga’s one-to-one conversation through [Message].

Harry felt grateful for this fact as the uncomfortable silence was interrupted by his door opening not too long after. Mildly deciding that the current room wouldn’t do, he mentally instructed for another, more spacious chamber, and silently led the way through.

It was an empty room, with no ornaments or furniture. The absence of chairs was to make sure that they all would remain standing on equal ground, and he barked a quick “no need to kneel,” a little too seriously as they entered the newly created room.

 Harry watched as the NPCs turned to look at Momonga, silently asking if that was really alright, and the overlord nodding wordlessly. This way, he and Momonga ended up standing at the end of the room, their back towards the furthest wall, while the NPCs stood silently in front of them in a semi-circular formation.

“Well then… let me start from the beginning. I’m not sure if you already know this or not, but Ainz Ooal Gown is a guild that used to emphasize the majority vote.” Momonga’s baritone voice had nostalgy almost dripping from it, which made Harry smile sadly in agreement, never mind if he was at odds with the Overlord at the moment.

“Although I have the position of Guildmaster, all decisions were always taken using this rule. It was the best way to gather the opinion of everyone, double-check strategies and generally avoid misunderstandings. This is the reason I want to implement this once more with you, Floor Guardians, so we can hear your opinion… what do you think of this management?”

The NPCs looked genuinely lost.

Harry watched distractedly as they exchanged looks, seemingly feeling uneasy, and peeked at the mind of the closest guardian— which happened to be Mare— to see what was going on inside their stubborn little heads.

The general thought crossing Mare’s mind seemed to be “what could we know that you don’t?”

To be honest, Harry agreed with Momonga’s idea. It was better to have more people check the delicate matters, and the fact that he wanted to include the Floor Guardians was good to make them see that their opinion was valued, and that the ‘Supreme Beings’ could also make mistakes or miss something vital.

What he didn’t agree with was the reason Momonga was doing this. Harry would bet all the gold in the Treasury that his friend was doing this to avoid a direct confrontation with him; which was frankly ridiculous. What was wrong with a little discussion?

In summary, Momonga wanted to go to the Re-estize Kingdom, since it was the country they knew the most about, he felt it would be the most secure to investigate further. Harry, on the other hand, wanted to go to the Baharuth Empire, since it was the closest region where they didn’t have anyone infiltrated yet, he felt they could advance faster on their world-exploring by starting with it.

They hadn’t been able to reach an agreement, and since there were only two of them left, the ‘majority vote’ rule was utterly useless. Harry had tried to discuss the subject quite a few times, but Momonga had always changed the topic before they could reach a resolution.

Which brought them back to this.

Harry watched silently —partially in revenge, but mostly in curiosity— as the NPCs started to discuss with Momonga, expressing their doubts and concerns, and the Overlord struggled to answer them.

It was only after a few minutes had passed that he decided to lend a hand to his friend —who seemed to be getting more nervous by the minute— and started to bounce back some arguments. As expected, the NPCs’ way of thinking was circular, a never-ending batch of “the Supreme ones are perfect and we are inferior beings only meant to serve you”, so he decided to use his trump card to end it.

“—I’m sure this is what your creators would have wanted.”

It was almost funny how all arguments died on the light of that sentence.

Momonga sighed in relief as the NPCs practically puffed proudly, as if honored that their creators would consider them worthy enough to discuss ideas with them. Harry thought it was kind of cute — not like he would ever say so out loud— but would rather not use that particular trump card too many times. It felt like cheating, and although it served to reach the goal and make them participate, it wasn’t for the right reason. All in all, it wasn’t the right way to settle things, so he would have to make some time to speak with them thoroughly one of these days.

“Well then, now that it’s been settled… please listen carefully. We — Harry and I — were thinking about parading around as adventurers to gather information,” Momonga raised a hand in a ‘wait’ motion, before adding, “I am aware of the danger, but we need to do this personally. Only giving orders from within Nazarick would cause mistakes in this unknown world, hearing about how something works and seeing it for yourself are different things after all...  we need to go abroad and experience this world for ourselves. Maybe there are better methods to achieve this, but we feel uneasy with so many unknowns, and think that becoming adventurers would be for the best.”

Momonga lowered his hand after that — a silent signal that they were allowed to speak now — and a cacophony of voices immediately replied back.

It was dangerous.

Who would manage Nazarick in their absence?

Was there a backup plan in case they needed urgent support? Surely, they would take a small army with them, for safety reasons?

What were the orders for those that would stay in Nazarick?

Fortunately, these were all questions he and Momonga had discussed and decided with anticipation, so the overlord answered them with conviction. It took a while though, and somewhere in the back of his mind Harry was regretting the lack of chairs present in the room.

How much longer would it take to settle their worries? Now that he thought of it, how much time had—?

A tentative tug on his robes interrupted his musings. Looking down, he discovered Mare as the source. The rest of the Guardians seemed to be still be discussing with Momonga, so the only ones that had noticed Mare’s actions seemed to be Aura and Cocytus.

“What’s up buddy?”

“Ah, um, H-Harry-sama, I just— em, c-can one of us accompany you?”

Mare’s voice was soft by nature, but in a room full of heteromorphs with good hearing, he might as well have exclaimed it loudly. The discussion came to a sudden halt, and Harry found that the attention of everyone was unexpectedly on him.

“That’s… a good question actually. I guess it would depend on our destination, so Momonga and I haven’t really discussed it yet. Now that we’re on topic, perhaps you could help us decide on the first country to go?”

Sidestepping Mare’s question masterfully, he proceeded to present both options, and the pros and cons of each. He didn’t mention who was in favor of which country, and simply smiled patiently as the Guardians meditated the information given.

“The Baharuth Empire would most likely bring more benefits, but it’s hard to say with our current information. At least from the Kingdom’s perspective, they seem to consider the Empire as an advanced country in terms of magic and politics.” Demiurge was the first to speak out, and Harry mentally grinned at the vote in favor.

“I agree with Demiurge on that aspect. Nevertheless, a greater gain often comes with a greater risk, and since we have just arrived at this unknown world, I believe the Kingdom would prove to be sufficient for the first exploration in terms of safety. We already have infiltrated people in the higher ups after all.” Albedo countered immediately, delicate brows frowning lightly with worry.

“But if Momonga-sama and Harry-sama are the ones exploring, then wouldn’t everything go according to plan? I can’t imagine it going wrong if it’s them!” Aura exclaimed cheerfully, seemingly trusting their judgement over any other worries she may have had. That was… a vote in Harry’s favor but for the wrong reasons, believing they were perfect wasn’t exactly—

“I. believe. that. the. Empire. would. be. the. best. option. so. long. as. they. are. well. protected. Their. security. must. be. the. most. important. factor. in. this. decision.” Cocytus added, and Harry honestly wasn’t sure whether to take it as a vote in favor or not. He would have to work on emergency plans to fully convince the warrior, most likely.

“S-so, if they c-chose to go to the Empire, it would be b-better if one of us goes with them?”

Aaand there was Mare’s question brought to the surface again. Smart little elf.

“I. would. like. to. offer. my. assistance. if. that. is. the. case.” Cocytus immediately replied, a puff of cold air leaving his mandibles. Harry looked up at the annoyingly tall guardian and grinned mischievously.

“Huh, now that would be—”

“Harry.”

“—quite indiscrete since we’re going to a human city, but if we go to a demi-human or heteromorph region, you can totally come.” Harry finished with a grin, Momonga’s warning voice interrupting his original phrase. It would have been fun though.

“If discretion is a factor, then none of us can go?” Shalltear spoke sadly, glancing at her peers. Truth be told, not a single one of them could pass as human. The closest would be Shalltear, but in a Guild full of human adventurers, they would most likely recognize her as a vampire on the spot.

Harry could place some charms to help them look more human-like, but he honestly didn’t want any floor guardian to accompany them, so he kept this information to himself. Having many Level 100 beings gathered in a single adventurer group would drag too much attention… it was better if they stayed in Nazarick for now, at least until they knew more about the surrounding countries.

“neht ecnesba rieht ni kcirazaN draug ot tif erom ma I [I am more fit to guard Nazarick in their absence then]” Victim added, floating lower as if to show his disappointment.

“Guys, guys, let’s leave that matter for later, we first need to decide on a country. Ready to have the final round of votes?” Harry intervened before they could get more off topic.

In the end, from the seven Floor Guardians present, the result showed 4 votes for the Empire and 3 for the Kingdom, which made Harry mentally cheer.

“Hmm, it seems the Baharuth Empire has the decisive vote. Are there any… objections?” Momonga asked slowly, probably hoping that someone would say something, but much to Harry’s glee everyone seemed to respect the majority vote.

“I see, in that case, the country has been decided. You may return to your other duties now, I’ll discuss the details with Harry first before arranging another meeting. Thank you for your time.”

The Floor Guardians bowed before slowly starting to vacate the room, so Harry turned around to address the Pleiade that had witnessed the whole exchange.

“Hey Narberal, sorry it took more time than expected, but can you do me a favor and go back to the Potions room? Since this much time has passed, Jarvis should be helping with the potions in process, but he will need a hand.”

She looked surprised at being suddenly addressed, but nodded enthusiastically at his request. And so, with a bow, she left after the Floor Guardians.

Harry sighed once the room was finally vacated, mentally added a couple of individual sofas to the otherwise empty room, and placed a Muffliato on his surroundings.

“Sit down dude.”

“There’s nowhere to— oh. I’m still not used to your room Harry, it’s different each time I come.”

“That’s why it’s so useful, right?”

Momonga sat on the sofa that was in front of him— or well, more like he let himself fall over it. He sat down so abruptly, it seemed as if his legs had collapsed beneath him. Harry mentally cursed the expressionless face of his friend, but his guess was that the Overlord was tired.

“That… that was more difficult than what I thought it would be,” Momonga exhaled heavily, skeletal hand going to his head in a very human, tired gesture.

“Certainly took a long time... that’s not what bothers me though. I trust you still remember the topic I was discussing with Demiurge and Albedo when you three arrived?”

Momonga cringed, before slowly, very slowly, sitting straighter, as if reluctant to have this conversation. Harry knew his friend wasn’t used to serious discussions — the majority vote was the way things were solved back then, after all — but it still exasperated him to no end. In silent retribution, Harry made Momonga’s individual sofa pink, fluffy, and with little hearts drawn over the surface, feeling mild amusement when the Overlord didn’t seem to notice.

The staring contest dragged on for a while, so Harry asked an impatient “well?” with a raised eyebrow, arms crossed over his chest.

“I… don’t really know what to say,” Momonga said uncertainly after a while, which made Harry’s temper flare for a moment, all humor evaporating.

“Momonga, what the bloody hell was that?”

“I know, I know, I just… I don’t want to see Nazarick abandoned again. It feels too lively with them here— and I’ve asked them. I’ve asked different NPCs what makes them happy, and they always say it is to serve us, so I thought maybe it wasn’t necessary—"

“What wasn’t necessary? I was trying to explain that they don’t need to be perfect, that they can make mistakes without being bloody exiled from Nazarick. Do you know that’s what Narberal was thinking was going to happen to Sous-chef and Chef? Simply because I was cooking! This isn’t something we can—"

“I know! And I agree, no one’s perfect and they need to understand that, but I knew that after that you would— I just— I just think they can stay here and be happy here. The 9^th floor has a lot of recreational places and—"

“What does that have to do with—?” Harry halted mid question, eyes growing as realization finally hit. After discussing with them that they were very much allowed to make mistakes, he would have mentioned the topic of hobbies, and that there were other options apart from staying in Nazarick.

And Momonga knew that, since Harry had told him before. That was the reason he had stayed silent and avoided the topic like a plague.

“You— that’s their choice to make! They need to know that they’re free to leave if they want to, they’re not chained to Nazarick nor to us, they can be happy somewhere else if they so wish!” Harry mentally stopped himself from rising from his seat, trying to reign over his temper. He couldn’t recall when was the last time he had felt so annoyed.

“No, no, if all of them leave, the company would—"

“Company? What do you mean?”

“Yeah, Nazarick is like a company, right? It functions as one, and if all leave—"

“No, this isn’t…. aren’t they more like family?”

Heavy silence ensued after that soft-spoken question. It seemed something was terribly different on their manner of thinking, from its very foundation.

“I… oh no.”

“…have you compared them to a Company all this while?”

“…yeah. I just… that’s the only thing I know of that— that it works, it came to mind since they treat us as superiors, so I thought we were kind of like those Company Presidents, you know? And… and a company is nothing without employees, so…”

“Yes... I understand that. I guess I’m just used to living and fending against the world on my own, so I didn’t really think much about the possibility of them leaving Nazarick.”

Another round of silence followed, each lost in their own thoughts, before Harry sighed heavily.

“We’re crap at this.”

“They deserve better, most definitely. I really wish we weren’t the only ones here,” Momonga mentioned not for the first time, laying back on his fluffy sofa as if suddenly exhausted.

“Somehow, I think things would go to hell very quickly if there were more of us here. Can you imagine what Luci-Fer would do? I shudder just to think about it!”

Momonga chuckled quietly at the jab, they both agreed that said guild member wasn’t exactly likeable.

“…what are we supposed to do then?” the Overlord asked after a while of staring numbly at the ceiling.

“Honestly... no idea.”

“Do you think they would leave? If you— if we tell them that about the hobbies and stuff…”

“I think Nazarick is their home first and foremost. I don’t imagine them leaving, at least not for the first few centuries.”

“The first— centuries? how can you look so far ahead? I don’t even know what to expect from next week!”

Harry had never heard Momonga speak so stressfully before, this must be something that hung heavily on his shoulders.

“I don’t look too far ahead either, I just go with the flow. Deal with whatever happens in the present. It’s… healthier that way. Try not to focus too much on the future, and make peace with the past, so you can move on at your own pace.”

“You sound like one of those motivational posters.”

“Kinda, but it’s true.”

Another round of silence followed. Harry mentally added a fireplace in the wall at their side, if simply because the sound fire was soothing.

“I… this is difficult to say. I normally talked about this kind of thing with Ulbert-san,” Momonga whispered after a while, looking intently at the recently-created fireplace, “I… back then— no wait. Hmm… agh, in real life, my— my parents died when I was little, so I didn’t— I don’t exactly know how a family works. Normally.”

Momonga shifted uncomfortably, at loss on how to say it, continually making hand gestures as if trying to explain without words.  Harry got the message without need to listen to it though.

“It’s ok, you don’t have to go into details. That’s the reason you related Nazarick with a Company right? Easier to understand.”

“Yeah, that’s the one thing I know how to manage, at least a little bit. I was never no one’s superior, but I know how to report things to a manager and how they acted with me.”

Harry nodded in understanding. The mind worked by relating new things to those it already knew, so it was no wonder Momonga had reached that conclusion. It was only logical.

“Since they look up to us so— well, so star-struck, it reminded me of very young children,” Harry said softly, looking at a random place on the carpeted floor. “They have that stage when they think their parents are perfect and know everything, that was the first thing that came to mind when I started to get to know the NPCs, you know? It’s been a while since I last worked in any kind of organization, so a company was the last thing on my mind.”

Momonga shifted on his seat, seemingly hesitating, before letting out a long sigh and mumbling, “The correct thing is to tell them. It’s their choice, and they have to know that’s an option… right?”

“I believe so, yes.” Harry replied softly, mentally glad that Momonga hadn’t inquired more about his previous statement.

“Right. Can we— is it ok if we leave it for later though? Maybe in a few months or something? I don’t— if they leave I just want to know how dangerous the world out there would be for them.”

“Now that’s thinking like family. Let’s check the surrounding countries first then, sound good?”

“Yeah, that would be fine.” Momonga seemed to deflate in relief, only then noticing the oddness of his sofa “…was this thing always pink? It looks hideous.”

Harry let out a short laugh, before explaining for the third time how his room worked. Anyone could alter the rooms after all, it wasn’t a privilege reserved only to Harry.

Once the explanation was over, Momonga created a pillow that matched his sofa, and threw it accurately at Harry’s face.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13 True Answer

AN: Really suggest you to read Author at the end.

The Baharuth Empire lived up to the rumors.

According to the surveillance report, E-Rantel only subjected those entering to a quick visual inspection, and it was relatively easy to bypass either by bribing the guards or through magic.

On the other hand, the Empire’s capital, Arwintar, was much stricter on this aspect. In order to enter one had to pass through both, visual and magical inspection, and the capital was regularly patrolled by magic casters and sky cavalry, making any attempt to sneak into the city through magic quite difficult.

That being said, Harry still considered that passing through the inspection had been relatively easily. As a magic caster, he had been the one to go through a heavier inspection, but in the end that low-level crystal ball hadn’t been able to detect anything unusual. His items had been subjected through inspection as well, and although it had instigated a few awed stares — why if everything was low level? — it had been allowed.

“The inspection took a long time, I thought we would be stuck there until dinner,” Harry complained with a small roll on his shoulders, as he led the way into the Empire’s Capital.

“It could have been worse though, keeping Shizu’s weapon in the inventory really was for the best…”

“Most definitely, I don’t think anyone here knows what a rifle is, so it would have taken all day.”

The group of four advanced calmly on the road made of bricks and stones, which was a sharp contrast with the muddy roads that were present on the villages and other lesser cities. According to the intel gathered so far, no other nation had attempted such a grand endeavor in paving a city, due to the sheer scale and cost in funding such a project. An impressive feat of civil engineering; Arwintar’s existence was testament of the might and wealth of the Empire.   

The architecture and layout of the city were advanced, with roads segregated into separate lanes to ease traffic, and raised sidewalks and fences bordering the streets to ensure the safety of pedestrians.

“Momon-san, is there something unusual on our attire?” Yuri asked with concern, looking up at the dark ‘warrior’ of the group.

“It shouldn’t be… but I also feel that they’re staring at us for too long. Do they notice—?”

“Don’t you dare,” Harry interrupted, knowing better than anyone Momonga’s tendency to think the worst of any given situation. “We’re just better equipped than most adventurers, that’s all. And yes, I’m sure, I’ve been eavesdropping a few conversations exactly for that reason.”

His friend hummed thoughtfully, and Harry simply rolled his eyes in fond exasperation. If anything, Momonga’s paranoid worries had actually saved them a lot of trouble when it was time to decide who would accompany them.

Since Yuri and Shizu had been the ones to go with them to the village, and they intended to keep that same half-improvised guise, Momonga had deemed that changing companions could be risky if someone that knew them from the village were to see them at the Empire’s capital.

…Which was so improbable it was almost laughable, but at least it served as an excuse for not choosing one of the floor guardians.

“Ha— um, James, Is that the Imperial Palace?”

“Should have chosen something more similar to my actual name, eh?” Harry teased before dodging Momonga’s predictable shove to his shoulder. “And yeah, I’d say it is, looks bigger and fancier than anything else around.”

The Imperial Palace was at the center of the city, its structure being wide enough to be at least half as big as Hogwarts had been. If rumors held true, it was the home of Jircniv Rune Farlord El Nix, The Bloody Emperor, and the current monarch of the empire.

True to the tales, it seemed that the Palace was surrounded by lesser, but still quite impacting buildings. Those should be the universities, magic academies and governmental institutions, displaying their importance as the heart of the empire. These significant constructions were surrounded by an enchanted wall —at least judging by the layer of magic present over it— and patrolled by the Imperial Knights, elite bodyguards of the Emperor.

All in all, it made Harry grin wolfishly, glad that their adventure could begin in this interesting city.

“If that’s the Palace, then… the Adventurer’s Guild should be over there?”

“According to the guards at the entrance, yeah,” Harry replied with a small shrug.

“In that case, please allow me to guide the way.”

Nodding in agreement to Yuri, they followed the pleiade at a moderate pace. Momonga was trying not to be too obvious when looking at his surroundings, but Harry didn’t have any qualms in turning around to look at everything like a newbie tourist, grinning whenever he found anything worth seeing. Merlin, did he want to visit the Central Market, what kind of items would be there? And the Grand Arena looked menacing, imposing, he couldn’t wait to go take a closer look at it.

By the time they reached the Adventurer’s Guild — after asking for directions a couple of times— the sun was beginning to hide for the day. This made the public lighting flare up to life, magical orbs floating all around the streets, which made for quite a spectacle.

“It looks like a festival, eh? Nocturnal life must be prominent in this city,” Harry commented as they entered the building, looking at the street that still had many pedestrians and carriages passing through.

“They must feel safer. The streets are paved and well illuminated, and the Knights are patrolling regularly to ensure public order…” Momonga replied softly, looking at the street one last time before making a hand motion for Yuri and Shizu to enter the building.  

The receiving area was almost empty, there were only two magic casters— at least judging by the robes— chatting quietly in a far corner, whispers halting at their entrance before they seemed to pick up pace, probably having switched over to gossip.

Harry mentally shrugged and followed Momonga to the main desk, where a petite, blonde female was looking interestingly at them.

“Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild, how may I help you?”

“Goodnight. We would like to know more about the regulations of the Adventurer’s Guild, and the process to register as a party.” Momonga’s baritone voice resounded on the otherwise-silent room, which seemed to make him feel self-conscious, since he straightened up and looked even more imposing when compared with the poor, very short lady.

Well, Momonga was unfairly tall, his voice was oddly deep, and the armor made it look like he was buff, so Harry couldn’t fault her for looking nervous.

“Ah— yes, of course, yes… g-give me a moment please.”

She hurriedly bent down, seemingly searching for something below the desk, and let out a small triumphant sound before straightening.

“A-about the— ehem, sorry. About the regulations of the Guild, this manual contains all the specifications, I can give you a copy for a silver coin if you’d prefer.”

The goddamn book seemed to be well over 800 pages, with nothing but gibberish written in the cover. Ugh, the Empire’s written language was so weird… they would have to use a translating item. Or well, more like Harry would have to. He was completely sure Momonga would be a bad friend and assign the task of reading that heavy-enough-to-use-as-a-weapon book to him. The lazy bastard.

“We’ll purchase a copy then,” Momonga said as he took a small bag filled with coins, taking a single silver coin out. Harry chuckled at the sight, coughing loudly when Momonga’s head turned towards him. Helmet or not, he could feel his friend’s unamused glare quite clearly.

It wasn’t his fault though, the story behind how they had obtained those coins was funny—

“Thank you for your purchase. Would you like to register your party now?”

“I would like to know the preliminary stages for registration, but we will only do so once we’ve evaluated the Guild’s regulations.”

Well, if anything, Momonga was careful enough for the both of them. If Harry had become an adventurer on his own, he would have given about two damns about the rules. He knew himself enough to predict that he would end up breaking them either way.

“Understood. In that case, allow me to explain the registration process—”

Deciding Momonga was doing well on his own, Harry turned away from the counter — giving a silent signal to the Pleiades so they stayed at the desk with Momonga — and walked towards the board that, he supposed, was covered with mission requests. Taking a pair of translating glasses from his pocket, he read a few to pass off the time, finding most of them boring or too easy to complete, before finally reaching one that was odd in every aspect.

The paper was old, which meant that the request had been pending for quite a while. Next, was that only Orichalcum and Adamantite adventurers —the strongest ranks, if he recalled correctly — could take it. And finally… it was lacking detailing information.

The mission consisted on “cleaning the Katze plains” … whatever that meant.

Nothing more was said about it, only to ask at the counter for more information about the mission and the reward that such a feat would imply, as if it were the most complicated thing on the board.

Taking the yellowish paper, he decided to approach the couple of magic casters that was whispering in the corner of the room.

“Hello! got a moment?”

The youngest-looking jumped, obviously startled, while the oldest simply tensed and narrowed his eyes distrustfully at him.

“…what is it?”

Did he arrive at a bad moment?

“Er, sorry to bother. I just wanted to ask about this mission since it doesn’t really say anything… do you know about it?” Harry said with an apologetic smile, keeping a polite distance from their table.

“Why don’t you ask at the counter?”

“I’m not an adventurer yet. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to take it, I’m just curious.”

If anything that seemed to make the glare become harder. Harry held the stare for a short moment, before sighing in defeat and shrugging.

“Guess not. Thanks either way—”

“—it’s not something you should take lightly,” the youngest whispered, sending an apologetic look to his bad-humored companion before turning to face Harry. “That… it has taken the lives of many adventurers. The Empire’s adamantite team, the famous Eight Ripples, were killed in that.”

“…What is that?”

“That’s the problem, no one knows.”

“No one— what? Then what’s the mission about?”

A humorless smile was drawn on the male’s face, and suddenly, he didn’t look so young anymore. Harry knew that look, had seen it plenty of times before. The tired gaze that only those familiar with a battlefield had.

“It’s exploring. Figure out what’s out there and either come back alive with the information… or die trying to defeat it.”

Harry sighed and nodded somberly, before looking down at the worn-out page that detailed the mission.

Well, Momonga and him had determined that the best way to gather information was escalate to the highest ranks quickly, so they could gain a good network more easily. Perhaps this was the quickest way to climb up? Not the safest sure, but then again… the humans in this world seemed so weak, perhaps the creature behind this mission was only level 60 or so…

“Where are you from?” the male that had been glaring daggers at him suddenly asked, gaze moving between him and Momonga, the latter seemingly bidding farewell to the lady at the counter.

“Why would you assume we aren’t from here?” Harry asked back, making a hand motion to Momonga, to let him know that he was already ending his conversation. The ‘warrior’ nodded and stopped, turning instead towards the entrance of the building with the Pleiades on tow.

“…whatever. I don’t care either way.”

Well, that was one heck of a way to finish a conversation. Shrugging lightly, he thanked them for the information and excused himself, going to place the tattered paper back in the board before catching up with Momonga on the entrance.

“Did you meet someone interesting?” Momonga asked softly as Yuri held the door open for them, before starting to walk in the direction of the pre-selected hotel they would be resting at.

“Not really, I just asked about a mission that was on the board. What about you? Something remarkable about the registration process?”

Momonga hummed, glancing around him as if afraid someone would be listening in, even if the street was apparently empty at the moment. Understanding the silent gesture, Harry placed a silent muffliato with a flick of his wrist before confirming, “Placed a ward, no one can hear our conversation now.”

“Thanks Harry,” Momonga said with something akin to relief before cursing out loud at the slip, which made Harry chuckle. “Ugh, still getting used to it… oh well. Harry, about the registration, I can’t help but think it’s odd… according to our intel, the Kingdom gives new adventurers a copper rank, and they must escalate from there. No exceptions.”

“I remember. I suppose here’s different then?”

“No, the lady said it was the same for most cases, but… since our equipment is of high quality, she suggested we apply for a ranking examination.”

“…so, we over-equipped ourselves? I don’t think our current gear is something to gawk about.”

“No, that’s not the problem. I think our equipment is fine, but the process of ranking is… I don’t know how to say it. We would have to do a mock battle against whatever they set us up against, and a wizard would come to perform a health exam among other things…”

Harry hummed, thinking that the process was like the Auror application he had gone through so long ago. He didn’t really get what was worrying about it.

“Sorry, I’m not following you. What part of the test makes you worry?”

Momonga sighed tiredly, muttering something that sounded remarkably like “so careless” before speaking in a serious tone, “Harry, what if they use the ‘test’ to make us get rid of something no one else can? Or do something that would be like shouting to the world that we’re players? What if the health exam is actually just to see what’s our level? What if they try to remove my armor? There are so many things that can go wrong.”

Harry smiled at Momonga’s familiar apprehension, before thinking about each specific concern.

“Well, about defeating something no one else can, I guess we can decide whether to win or not based on the opponent’s level, right? If they place us against a level 80 thing, maybe we can drag on the battle or something.”

“Hmm, make it look more difficult than what it would be. Perhaps receive some injuries?”

Yuri and Shizu looked alarmed at the thought, but this was only a hypothesis either way…

“Yeah. I don’t know how they would have a method to differentiate players from natives though, so can’t really prepare for that… all I can do is peek at their general thoughts and search for something fishy.”

Momonga nodded wholeheartedly, and Harry felt a familiar tinge of guilt before he forced it to recede. When speaking about this adventuring mission, Harry had told him about his Legilimency, saying he could only peek at unprotected minds… Momonga had assumed that it meant only humans and demi-humans were on that list, and Harry didn’t bother to correct him.

Since most heteromorphs had some level of protection against mind control, the undead’s being the strongest, Momonga probably assumed most of Nazarick was out of reach when it came to this special ability.

Harry didn’t use it with his allies though, or at least tried not to do it too often or if it wasn’t an emergency, but he knew the doubt would always be present if they knew he had the ability to trespass their privacy like that. From experience, it was better if this particular skill wasn’t detailed more than it had to be.

Clearing his throat, he pushed the topic to the back of his mind and continued. “Will do then. About the health exam, we can place some protections beforehand so they can only perform basic tests, but we would need to know what exactly they would be evaluating. We can ask that to the healer if it comes to that.”

The conversation halted at that as they finally reached the inn. With a silent gesture, he took down the Muffliato at the entrance just as Yuri held the door open for them to go through.

The interior was simple, with a small receiving area at the front and the bar/restaurant at the back, the stairs at the left side. Momonga registered the four of them and requested a single room to share — much to the receptionist’s surprise, who insisted the room wasn’t exactly equipped for housing four people — but in the end the overlord managed to convince her.

Bypassing the bar/restaurant without a second glance, they went up the stairs to the third floor and entered their rented room. It was simple, two beds that seemed to have seen better days, a simple wood-made curtain to block the sun’s light in the morning, a desk and a single wooden chair, and some candles to barely illuminate it at night. Presumably, using magical illumination was a little too expensive for this kind of inn.

Then again, since all of them were heteromorphs, there weren’t any issues by the lack of proper illumination.

“T-there are… only two beds,” Yuri whispered in something akin to embarrassment, before instinctively going to properly make the beds. The covers had wrinkles on them, something that probably triggered her as a maid.

“It’s fine, since we don’t really need to sleep we can just use them as seats or to rest if needed,” Momonga answered, armor disappearing to be replaced by a more comfortable-looking robe, before he placed a high-level lock on the closed door.

Harry took out his wand and added a few repelling and privacy wards around the room, before going to sit down in one of the beds. Momonga sat down in the other one, so they were in front of each other, while Shizu stood over the door as if to guard it. Yuri in the meantime, seemed to entertain herself by tiding up the room.

“I know you’re going to assign it to me, so just pass it over already,” Harry grumbled as Momonga guiltily took out the heavy book of regulations. His friend laughed sheepishly, muttering a quick, “You read faster than me,” as if to excuse himself before tossing the book at him.

“Yeah, yeah, I should be done by next morning. Before that though, what about the ranking examination? Are we going to take it?”

Momonga took a deep breath — looking at the ceiling as if searching for the right words — before starting to discuss, this time in more detail, about the testing process, the few examples he had managed to get from the lady at the guild, and what he thought could go wrong before, during, and after the examination. Harry listened attentively for the most part, discussing possible countermeasures for the, honest-to-God improbable, worries of the overlord, which turned into an even bigger picture of hypotheses and preparations.

By the time they reached an agreement on how to tackle the ranking test, the sun was beginning to peek out at the window, so Harry excused himself and went to the single desk present in the room to have a quick read at the unnecessarily-heavy book of regulations. Momonga in the meantime reported via [Message] to Nigredo, who was in charge of following their movements and send support in case of emergency. Honestly, they had had to prepare for so many emergencies before the NPCs felt reassured…

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he focused on the heavy tome of regulations for the rest of the morning, mildly wondering if preparing this much was even necessary.

— Fluder —

The carriage ran like the wind over the paved roads of the Imperial Capital Arwintar.

A pair of skilled-looking warriors occupied the driver’s seat, while above the carriage’s cabin — in a place modified from a cargo rack — were four magic casters and bow-wielding warriors, vigilantly watching their surroundings.

The reason why such an excessive detachment of security personnel — like a mobile defensive formation — was travelling so boldly over the roads was because they were escorting Fluder to his destination. He had discussed with Jircniv that this level of security was unneeded considering the reason he was traveling, but the young emperor had insisted that it was necessary, at least considering the report they had received.

The day prior, one of his most adept disciples — who could use up to the fourth tier of magic — reported to him about the results of a magical inspection that had taken place in Arwintar’s main entrance. The report wasn’t as detailed as Fluder would have liked, but it seemed that someone was in possession of a strong magical staff, belonging to the highest class: Legacy.

The Baharuth Empire prided in its magical knowledge — most of it obtained by Fluder’s own investigations — and it was for this reason that they knew exactly how beneficial, and how dangerous, magic could be.

One of his investigations was regarding the strength of magical items, valued depending on their capacity to store magic, how fast it could be used, and how powerful the result would be in terms of permanency and damage. Based on this, there were only two items in the Empire that qualified to be in the Legacy class, and both were in Fluder’s possession. It was so rare to find any such item, it was hard to think that a stranger — one that had passed through the inspection at that — was also in possession of one.

After discussing these findings with the Emperor, Jircniv, they had reached the conclusion that no one was foolish enough to pass through the magical inspection without expecting to attract attention, so this must have been a deliberate action, even if the reason still eluded them.

What did these strangers want from the Empire?

The reason that man — James, if the report was to be trusted — and his companions had given at the inspection post was that they wanted to become adventurers. Fluder had sent a couple of his disciples to stay at the Guild’s reception area for this purpose, and they had confirmed that the party of four had entered the building.

James had even talked with them, seemingly asking about the mission at the Katze Plains, and Fluder mildly wondered why the man was feigning ignorance. With the situation as it was, even the Roble Holy Kingdom — a nation that was past Re-Estize and thus, not a border nation — knew of it. It was something citizens complained about daily as well, since it impacted all markets quite heavily.

Fluder couldn’t understand the man’s behavior, and much to the Emperor’s chagrin, neither could he.

This was the reason Fluder himself was “appointed” to witness the ranking examination that was scheduled at this late afternoon. He was to witness the party’s strength first hand, add other tests as needed to compile information, and check the results of the health examination.

In a sense, traveling in this carriage could also be considered as a test.

Anyone with the slightest bit of academic knowledge would immediately recognize the emblem of three crossed wands on the side of the carriage, and from there they would know who it belonged to and who rode within it. Whether they recognized it or not, it would give Fluder information to work with… and then, there was also their reaction towards his very own presence.

Just as Gazef Stronoff was a famed warrior, when one spoke of magic casters, nobody’s name echoed across the surrounding nations like his own did. He was the Empire’s most powerful grand magic caster, “Tri-Arts” Fluder Paradyne.

He passed a hand through his long, white beard, a gesture he did whenever he felt contemplative, so the only other man accompanying him in the carriage knew better than to interrupt his thoughts.

Or should have, in any case.

“Master, what about his Majesty’s orders?” his best disciple nervously asked.

Fluder internally sighed at the impatience of the youth, before he replied in a calm, inscrutable voice:

“This is his Majesty’s will, and as his vassal I must investigate. However, doing so through magic is far too dangerous. We ought to see it for ourselves, to gather information.”

“So that means you don’t know either, Master?”

Fluder closed his eyes, then opened them a few seconds later.

“Unfortunately. I can’t help but wonder… if this party are hidden heroes that finally decided to make their move? If they go against that creature at the Katze Plains, there might be an intense battle like the one against the Demon Gods 200 years ago.”

“...Will there be one?”

“We don’t know yet. However, only a fool would discard it. The wise are always on watch against the future.”

The conversation ended at that and, eventually, the carriage reached its destination.

This evaluation was taking place at the border of the city, an area that was chosen specifically because it was the easiest to evacuate. The building was, in a sense, comparable to the Empire’s Arena in size, but this structure wasn’t designed to have many people overview the events. This way, instead of concrete bleachers, there were only a few designated seats at the furthest wall.

The security team dismounted, and after a silent evaluation, opened the carriage door for Fluder and his disciple to step out.

There were only a handful of people present. The Adventurer’s Guildmaster, the City’s Mayor, and Fluder himself were the only ones present to evaluate this ranking examination. And then, of course, were the party of four that would be evaluated.

Fluder was surprised to see that both females remained unperturbed by the carriage’s arrival, not looking surprised or impressed at all. It was… unexpected. The Sleipnir pulling the carriage was a luxury not even nobles could afford, and the extensive security team that had escorted him was only comparable to his Majesty’s personal guard. And yet, they remained impassive.

As for the males of the group, the warrior’s expression was hidden behind his helmet, and thus inscrutable, while the magic caster simply whistled appreciatively before receiving a reprimanding nudge from his taller companion.

"I apologize for my late arrival, I hope I didn’t make you wait for… long." Fluder apologized courteously, pausing at his discovery.

Or lack of.

“…I can’t see?” he muttered incredulously, which made his disciple gasp in surprise.

Fluder had a natural talent for determining the level of magic one was able to use, simply by observing the aura that the magical caster gave off. By all rights, his eyes should have been able to see how much magical talent this James character possessed, but he was unable to do so.

An anti-detection spell. This was the only conclusion he could reach, but that raised another question. Why would someone have to protect themselves from being investigated? Also, his talent to perceive magical auras was unusual, so few people would bother taking precautions against it…

 Not to mention, it was rude that they would throw this kind of defensive magic while they were being evaluated.

Well, I was also quite rude for trying to use my detection skill... But why hide?

Fluder's talent was well known, so this could be a countermeasure against him? He couldn’t really reach any conclusion.

"Excuse me, is something wrong?" the warrior asked simply, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"Oh no, sorry for being rude," Fluder replied apologetically, but he couldn’t stop looking at the wooden staff that was held so inexpertly on James’ grasp. Perhaps this man was only lucky to have found such an item? Or he may be ignorant of his power. After all, James didn’t hold himself with pride, or confidence that denoted that he had in his possession a legacy weapon.

Fluder looked at his own staff then, mildly wondering which would be stronger.

“Well then, since everyone is here, let’s start,” The Adventurer’s Guildmaster commented impatiently, lazily scratching the scar that adorned his right cheek. Upon receiving nods of agreement from the others, the man explained that the test was simple: defeat the enemy.

That said though, no one present thought them capable of doing it. In reality, the only reason such a creature was being released was due to Fluder’s presence, and the fact that they had made preparations for containing the monster when necessary.

The Empire had discovered this monster in that place known for being haunted by the undead— or at least back at the time, it used to— the Katze Plains.

The squad of Imperial knights that first encountered this monster had never seen it before, but they were under orders, so they attacked it as per standard procedure. Several moments later, they realized how rash and foolish they had been.

They had been utterly and one-sidedly overwhelmed — their opposition far too strong for them.

Of course, the Empire couldn’t just leave such a monster be, especially after personally witnessing the murdered knights become undead beings, serving the monster as its minions. Clearly, the more time they gave their opponent, the worse the situation would become. 

After intensive debate among the Empire’s higher ups, they decided to open with their trump card; the most powerful fighting force in the Empire, which was to say they would mobilize Fluder and his adept disciples.

This way, the Death Knight had been captured and imprisoned… only to be released again in this mock battle.

Unbeknown to Fluder, the party of four that was currently on the field just looked disbelievingly at the Level 35 undead, before engaging in “battle”.

— Pandora —

He strode happily on the 9^th floor, only stopping occasionally to salute the regular maids he encountered, performing a flourish and a bow with a small spin. They did strange expressions upon seeing him, but he attributed that to bafflement. He was the Guardian of the Treasury after all, so it was no wonder that they were surprised of seeing him on this floor.

Walking on high spirits, he continued to explore the hallways. It was nice, finally having permission to leave the treasury… not that he disliked his job or anything! It just got lonely after a while, so a break was very much welcome. He had yet to find any of his friends though, perhaps he should move to another floor? Or maybe— yes! One of them just appeared!

“Jarvis mein freund, fancy seeing you on this revered floor!” Pandora exclaimed happily, tipping his hat in welcome before jogging lightly to catch up with the other.

“Pandora? Oh, you’re just in time. Come with me, I don’t know what to do,” Jarvis said with a worried look, skeletal wings shifting restlessly on his back.

“No problem, how can I help?” Pandora had only just reached this floor, and he was already going to aid someone! His Masters will be so proud!

“I need someone to discuss things with, but the others are— hmn… different. I believe your point of view may be better suited for this delicate topic.”

Reaching a door that had twisted symbols carved on it, Jarvis quickly opened it and stepped inside, motioning for Pandora to follow him. The room was simple, with nothing but a desk and a few stands with books adorning the walls, and—

“OH! This room is magical! Is it thanks to an item? Can I take a look at it? I’ll be very careful, I promise,” Pandora exclaimed excitedly as a couple of chairs appeared from thin air, looking around as he searched for the item.

“Not an item, this is Sir’s room. I’m under the belief that it works through runes,” Jarvis explained with a small smile, taking a seat in one of the recently created chairs. Not wanting to be left behind, he happily let himself fall over the other one, the chair unbalancing for a moment before he shifted his weight to correct it.

“Such a pity. I love, love, love studying new items!” Pandora said while shifting his weight from one side to the other, playing with the chair’s balance as it moved along with him. “But worry not my friend, for I will live through my disappointment. Now that we’re seated, let me know what troubles you so, and I will support.”

He moved his arms and legs wildly to emphasize his statement, and was happy to see that Jarvis chuckled lightly, momentarily in better humor, before looking serious again.

“Ah, I have bad news, but I don’t know who to report them to…” the Zerg said while looking at the ceiling, seemingly just thinking out loud. “On one hand, I could [Message] my creator directly, but I believe that would be troublesome since I may interrupt something important… that and I don’t want to seem like I’m bypassing Albedo’s judgment. If I tell her though… hmn, I can’t predict her reaction, so I can’t prepare for it.”

“You’re too vague my friend, what exactly are the bad news?” he inquired simply, leaning forward while placing his chin over his palms, an absolutely necessary gesture to demonstrate that he was paying attention.

“The zerglings that had infiltrated the Slane Theocracy… I’m not sure what happened, but all of them died at the same time.” Jarvis admitted, looking frustrated as he tapped the chair’s arm distractedly. “I can’t even give a proper report. All I know is that the hosts were killed, and thus, my minions as well, but I can’t even fathom how they were discovered!”

The Zerg stood up abruptly, pacing from one side to the other as he ranted hypotheses and their possible consequences. Pandora thought he was worrying too much though.

“Calm down, calm down, it’s not like they can track us.”

“Not directly, but since those soldiers were sent to Carne Village, it is logical to assume that the Theocracy will investigate its surroundings—“

“Ja, but we’re hidden! They can’t possibly find us, if the last time Nazarick was invaded required a World item—“

“The thing is,” Jarvis interrupted him, looking even more distressed than before, “that I suspect they may have one or two.”

“…World items?”

His friend nodded gravely, and Pandora finally understood what worried him so.

“Let’s go tell Albedo then. She’s the best for this kind of situation, don’t you think?” Pandora spoke seriously, his previous playful nature disappearing without trace. “We may need to take drastic measures.”

“That’s… exactly what I fear. I’d rather not take action until having Sir’s confirmation— no wait, I think Sir Momonga would be better. My creator is too reckless.”

Pandora chuckled at Jarvis’ fed up statement, curiously wondering why the Zerg thought as much about his own creator. Not like he didn’t agree, but maybe something happened to reinforce that image?

“Harry-sama is a carefree soul,” Pandora commented with a light shrug, receiving an unimpressed raised eyebrow from his friend.

“Sir is the kind of person that would go head on towards a World Enemy. Alone. Unarmed. I believe carefree is putting it lightly.”

Pandora laughed at the blatant exaggeration. The Zerg was so dramatic, it was no wonder they got along so well.

“Ja, I understand. We can’t do anything else though, so let’s just go with Albedo. If the both of us go, surely we can stop her from acting right away even if she tries to!” Pandora exclaimed, swiftly standing up and saluting determinedly.

Jarvis didn’t seem to share his certainty, but he nodded nevertheless. The Zerg sent a [Message] to the Guardian Overseer, explaining that he had news to deliver, so it wasn’t long before they both started to walk towards the opposite side of the 9^th Floor.

Reaching Albedo’s room — or at least, the room that had been assigned to her when she brought to attention that she didn’t have one — Pandora gave one last reassuring pat at his friend’s shoulder before entering.

“… you didn’t knock,” Albedo immediately reprimanded Pandora, but he just twirled around in greeting.

“That’s because I really couldn't wait to see you Miss Guardian Overseer!” he exclaimed happily, bowing with a small flourish while tipping his hat with the other hand. “And of course, greetings to you as well dear friend!”

“Nice to see you again, Pandora’s Actor,” Demiurge’s response was collected, simply nodding at him with his natural grin.

Albedo was looking at him funny, and Pandora merrily thought that she must be impressed with his performance. With his looks, sense of style and bright personality, it was only to be expected!

“…I apologize for our abrupt entrance,” Jarvis muttered from somewhere behind him, and Pandora turned around to go to where the Zerg was standing, so they were side to side again. It would be rude to be so close to Albedo’s desk when his friend was so far behind.

“I understand,” Albedo said while looking directly at him, and Pandora waved playfully in response. The succubus’ wings flapped once, and if he didn’t know better, he would say she was irritated for some reason. “putting that aside, what news do you have?”

Jarvis took in a deep breath, before explaining what happened. The news were shocking enough to make Albedo rise in alarm from her chair, while Demiurge looked at the ground with a pensive face.

“That… was there really no sign that they had been discovered?”

“None that I could identify. Everything was running smoothly until a few minutes ago, when they died suddenly.”

“What about the place? Could they have triggered an unknown trap?”

“They were… in a temple, but they had entered that place many times before without issues. I didn’t notice any changes today.”

Albedo paced from her place behind the desk, just like Jarvis had acted when he first told the news to Pandora. They were more similar than they would like to admit, he thought amusedly.

“Then, their next step will be to investigate the surroundings, in hopes of finding Nazarick. Which wouldn’t pose of problem if not for those World items,” Demiurge muttered matter-of-factly, turning to look directly at Jarvis. “Do you know their effect?”

“…No. I’m not quite sure they exist either, all I have is… a hunch, based on nothing but stray phrases and rumors,” frustration laced his voice so heavily, it seemed to be physically dripping, so Pandora decided it was time to interfere.

Raising both arms to the ceiling, he exclaimed, “Then it’s settled! Should we contact Momonga-sama and Harry-sama now?” with his best, serious voice, which no doubt made him look really cool.

There was a pause of anxious silence, before identical looks of understanding adorned their faces. Well, everyone was in the same league here, intellect-wise, so it was no wonder they had reached the same conclusion as he had.

“Yes. We must move fast, if we want this to be contained,” Demiurge commented with a nod of agreement, smile slowly turning into a smirk.

“We also need them to decide who, how many, and with which equipment,” Albedo added seriously while crossing her arms under her chest, which made them bounce merrily.

“Can they be contacted right away? We should check with Nigredo just in case,” Jarvis added, looking much calmer now that they were set on a resolution. Honestly, Pandora thought that the Zerg had the capability of reaching this conclusion from the very start, if only he had been less troubled.

His friend really worried too much, unnecessarily.

Albedo delicately grazed her temple, no doubt contacting her sister. Expectant silence fell over them, since her [Commander] class allowed her for silent communication, but overall it wasn’t long before she spoke out loud again.

“We should be able to communicate with them once their battle is over,” Albedo said sweetly, smiling angelically for the first time since their arrival. “Only a few more minutes.”

Pandora internally smiled, feeling glad that everything was going to be solved smoothly.

— Kaire —

Perhaps she was getting too old for this.

Her legs would spasm from time to time in protest, as she forced them to continue moving. On normal circumstances, walking such a long distance wouldn’t be necessary since they could use other means of travel, but they were trying to keep a low profile in this dangerous land, the Katze Plains.

“Kaire-sama, can you—”

“Yes, everything is fine. Move faster, we don’t have much time,” she interrupted the Captain’s worried phrase with a reprimanding look, which made him chuckle. She may be old and tired, but she absolutely refused to admit it out loud. Not when it could jeopardize this delicate mission.

Silently, the Black Scripture continued to move. They had no option but to, not after discovering that.

Kaire clenched her teeth as she remembered those hideous creatures. To think they had been possessing the remnants of the Light Scripture under their very noses, from the moment those brave men came back from their unsuccessful mission on the Re-estize Kingdom— it was unforgivable.

The Cardinals — the Theocracy’s higher ups— hadn’t know what to think at first, since the mission of the Light Scripture had been in a small village situated at the border, how could they have had contact with that kind of creature? It took a lot of debating, but in the end, they had decided there was only one logical conclusion.

That small village, whose name she really couldn’t recall, was situated at the border of the Slane Theocracy, surrounded by both, the Baharuth Empire… and the Katze Plains. Based on this fact, it wasn’t difficult to understand what had happened.

Some decades ago, the Katze Plains used to be a place inhabited only by the undead that spawned naturally, which varied from the simplest of zombies to creatures as dangerous and rare as the skeletal dragons. Back at this time, regardless of the current political situation between the Re-estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, both countries would work together to control the undead population by sending adventurer teams.

But then one day, the undead stopped spawning, and were replaced by something much, much more dangerous.

Hellhounds.

Instead of zombies and skeletons, that were dangerous but mindless undead, the dried land was now mostly occupied by the smart, infernal dogs, whose jaws dripped lava instead of saliva, and that moved in packs around the land. As if that weren’t enough, other fire-based creatures could now be seen wandering around the deserted place, such as phoenixes, kitsunes, and worse, infernal spirits.

Adventurers were slaughtered, the trade routes that passed near the Katze Plains were closed for security— which in turn increased the prices of basic products like food and clothes in the surrounding regions — and the adventurers that were killed by the infernal spirits only served to increase the creature’s strength.

At this moment, the infernal spirits were the main cause the Cardinals had sent the Black Scripture in this mission.

On normal circumstances, the infernal spirits — who looked like insect-like demons — were prone to momentarily possess their victims in order to feed on their spiritual energy, swiftly killing the host in nothing but seconds of agonizing pain.

…but the Light Scripture seemed to have suffered a different fate.

Kaire shuddered to think that, if that young child hadn’t inquired about it, the possessed men wouldn’t have been discovered.

The infernal spirits seemed to have possessed them to infiltrate the Slane Theocracy, a behavior previously unheard of, and the danger that strategy posed was simply too much to leave alone.

The source of the infernal spirits now needed to be eradicated.

The problem was that the source was known for having killed the Empire’s Adamantite team— which was hard to accept, since it looked like an unassuming cave-like entrance — so the Cardinals didn’t have much option but to place this mission on the same rank as preventing the resurrection of the Catastrophe Dragon Lord; and dispatch several teams to deal with it.

Kaire’s team, the Black Scripture, was to perform recognition on that location, and break the outer layers of defense the cave was rumored to have. Once that was done, the Holocaust Scripture would take over with their specialized, wide-ranged warfare, so the cave could be mostly destroyed without the need of sending several teams inside. Both teams would then hunt down the remaining creatures, until all the Infernal spirits were annihilated.

Of course, the Windflower Scripture was monitoring the mission, and would help point out any creatures that may manage to escape from them. They didn’t know how many were inside that cave after all, it was best to not underestimate their number.

“We’re getting closer, be alert,” the Captain commanded without raising his voice, as their formation silently fell into a defensive stance. “Cedran, you can give them the greenlight now.”

Cedran — a muscular, robust man equipped with a mirror-like tower shield on his left hand, and a forearm shield with spikes on his right hand — nodded in agreement with a fierce grin, before using the mirror-like shield to transmit a visual message.

Naturally, killing the possessed Light Scripture right away upon discovery would have been foolish in extreme. It was best to postpone their death until the other Scriptures were ready to launch their attack on the cave, so the intelligent Infernal spirits wouldn’t suspect anything until the last moment.

Now that the signal had been given, the Light Scripture would be killed in only a few more minutes.

Kaire clenched her dress, Downfall of Castle and Country, silently praying for their souls to rest in peace once they were freed from their possession.

“Windflower has confirmed our surroundings are clear. Let’s move to its right side, be alert for underground attacks.”

Following instructions, the Black Scripture slowly crept towards the right side of the cave that seemed to be protruding from the ground. Attacking from its entrance would be suicidal since they didn’t fully know what could be resting within.

"Your turn Tenj.”

 The ranger of the team, Tenj, stepped forward with graceful, silent movements, before kneeling at a short distance from the cave’s outer wall. Taking out a variety of items, he performed his analysis efficiently, sometimes using skills along with the items to move faster.

“The rumors were right, it’s protected by a magical shield. I… I’ve never seen something like this before. I cannot rate this magic,” Tenj murmured apprehensively, frowning as he stood up and returned to his previous position. “It’s a good thing we came prepared.”

“A gift from our Gods, we must organize a festival to thank them once we return,” Kaira spoke gratefully, a hand still clenching her dress. She was mentally prepared to unleash its power faster than one could blink.

“Indeed Kaire-sama. Well then, is our gift ready, Divic?”

The holder of the 4^th seat in the Black Scripture, Divic, smiled sweetly at the Captain before muttering a soft, “Of course.”

She walked calmly towards the cave’s wall, golden locks dancing softly with the wind. It was the image of an angel, if one ignored the small dagger that was expertly handled on her delicate hands. The dagger was shaped like a key would, which denoted its true function.

No matter the lock or shield, this item— the one their Gods had left behind— could break through them. It could only be used five times though, and after that it would stop working for 72 hours.

Kaire held her breath in anticipation as Divic pointed the dagger towards the cave, the sharp end just barely touching the wall before the young blonde activated its effect. Immediately after, a shattering sound was heard, as the magic covering the place was irremediably broken.

“Good, now we need to— eh? why is…?”

The Captain wasn’t someone that would lose composure easily, but he still gawked as the magic covering the cave returned to its previous state on its own. It shone brightly for a moment, as if to mock them with its presence, before becoming invisible once more.

“It— why? True Answer activated correctly,” Divic muttered in disbelief, looking at the dagger in her hands worriedly.

“Calm down, perhaps this is a shield that can be restored a certain quantity of times per day. Try again.”

Divic nodded at the Captain before repeating the same action. Once more, the magic broke with a shattering sound, and again, it reappeared as good as new a few moments after.

“One more time.”

In the end, the shield protecting the cave was shattered four times consecutively. After that, the magic blinked, as if the shield was trying to appear again, but in the end it disappeared without trace. Tenj came closer to confirm that it was gone for good now, but they didn’t know if it would activate again after a certain time had passed.

They needed to act fast. With this in mind, Cedran used the mirror shield one more time, this time alerting the Holocaust Scripture that it was their turn.

They would get rid of this place before the sunset; that much was certain.

— Momonga —

Pretending to battle against such a weak undead… it was difficult. Against a monster of this level, they had to be careful not to end the battle too soon, or too easily. It really was hard to believe, was this really something the people of this world considered a threat?

Based on the awed looks of the judges, he was fairly certain it was. Ugh, against a Death Knight of all things, for how long would they have to drag on the battle?

Momonga and Yuri were “fighting” in close range, continuously parrying the monster’s sword and evading its slow, slow attacks. It was like fighting off a toddler. Harry and Shizu, in the meantime, were “supporting” them from far away, continuously buffing and shielding them when “needed”.

How much longer?

He was just waiting for Harry’s signal, since the plan was for him to check the judges’ thoughts from time to time, he was supposed to determine when it was ok for them to finish this.

Diverting the Death Knight’s sword and forcefully pushing it back, he turned his head lightly to see Harry. He was… what was he doing? Harry was slightly bent over, using the staff as a cane with an exhausted look, as if he was about to fall unconscious at any given moment. Shizu was completely ignoring the “battle” now, seemingly fretting over him.

Was this an act? To look as if he couldn’t fight anymore? This wasn’t part of the plan though, was he improvising as he read the judges’ thoughts? Truthfully, Momonga didn’t like that old wizard in the slightest, he seemed to be the most sharp-witted of them all.

“James! are you ok?” Momonga shouted, trying to determine what was going on, what he was supposed to do. They had created a silent sign language for this kind of situations after all, the ones were they couldn’t simply talk things over—

His train of thought was abruptly cut off, body freezing over as he saw Harry’s signal. Completely forgetting that he was supposedly fighting off the Death Knight, Yuri had to step in to shove away the low-ranked undead, with a completely, genuinely terrified look on her face.

Emergency. The gesture for emergency. It was signaled as “level 4” so it was the kind that required them to go back to Nazarick as soon as possible.

Then… this wasn’t an act? What was happening?

Worry and fear clouded his thoughts as he exclaimed “Now! Finish it now!” to Yuri, the only other combatant that was still fighting the Death Knight. He didn’t care if it wasn’t normal, didn’t care what the judges thought of them, didn’t care if they were discovered as players. Nothing mattered, it could be fixed, they could start over with a new guise in another land.

Understanding the emergency was the only priority now.

Moving in unison, Yuri punched through the head directly, at the same time Momonga’s greatsword slashed the chest, cutting the body in two. On normal circumstances, the Death Knight could survive a fatal attack with 1 HP, so killing it two times consecutively was a most.

This way, in nothing but seconds, the Death Knight turned to ashes, and the examination came to an end.

“W-what?”

“The Death Knight is…! To think that such people existed! Fuhahaha!”

“Fluder-sama?!”

He didn’t care. Momonga tuned out their incredulous voices, running towards Harry and Shizu even before the ashes of the destroyed monster could reach the ground. Yuri caught up to him only a moment after.

“How critical?” he asked in a low voice, glaring at the judges that were slowly coming towards them. They must have sensed something was wrong, or perhaps just sensed his killing intent, because they froze in their tracks with a frightened look, the Guildmaster even stepping back and taking the handle of his sword.

But the old wizard remained immune, continuing to stride towards them with a grin on his face.

“Fantastic, absolutely— move over boy, I need to talk to them!” Fluder shifted from excitement to fury in nothing but a second, as he glared at the young man that had stepped in front of him.

“Master, please hear me out first!”

Taking advantage of the situation, Momonga turned towards Harry again. His friend smiled weakly at him, muttering “Sorry, M’not feelin’ well,” with a voice so soft it was barely audible.

“What happened?” Momonga was itching to get rid of his armor, to check Harry for any negative status. Swiftly deciding that everything could go rot in hell for all he cared, he picked his friend up —worried when Harry didn’t even protest — and motioned with his head for the Pleiades to follow him.

“Get out of the way— ah, please wait!”

By the time Fluder shouted out his plea, they were already too far away to hear it.

Momonga thanked whatever entity was helping them out there that this part of the city was deserted. The ranking test was dangerous for the population, since the chosen monster could end up escaping, so the whole area had been emptied for security reasons.

Deciding that they were far enough, Momonga placed Harry over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and used his free arm to bring the Pleiades to his chest in a one-armed hug, before muttering the key phrase that activated his emergency portkey.

Their surroundings immediately shifted, a city turning into a forest, as they appeared near Carne Village. Getting rid of his armor, he immediately opened a [Gate] to Nazarick and ran through, with the Pleiades right behind him.

“[Clear Eyesight]!” he activated the spell that would let him see another’s status, even as he lowered Harry on the floor. He could find a bed later; he needed to know what was happening first.

…nothing? How could Harry have nothing?

“Isn’t n’gative status,” Harry said softly before yawning, “I th’nk magic ax— ex… exhaust. Lacking?”

He didn’t seem to be too lucid. Momonga could feel his non-existent stomach twist with worry, even as he hurried to take off Harry's anti-detection ring and casted “[Mana essence]”

How— how the hell had he lost so much mana?! Harry’s aura of MP, that should be similar to his own, was so low that he may as well not have one.

“What the fuck!”

“Ruuuudeee.”

“Harry, we both know this— in that mock battle you only used low-tier spells. There’s no way this is natural!”

“I know. I sorta’ felt a munch.”

Eh?

“What the— what?”

“A munch, and then pooff, a huge load of magic gone. Munch, munch… a few munchs. Some munchs.”

“…As if you were transferring mana?” he tried to make sense of Harry’s babbling, who seemed to be mildly entertained by his own vocabulary.

“Kinda? I didn’ tho. Stolen? How’s Nazik?”

“There’s no spell in Yggdrasil that can steal— Harry? Harry can you listen to me? If this is a joke I swear I’m killing you!” Momonga started to speak faster, shaking his shoulders to instigate a response, but all he got was mumbled gibberish.

The aura of mana surrounding Harry grew even smaller in just a second, it wasn’t noticeable anymore, and he was starting to look sickly pale. Momonga could hear sobs from somewhere behind him, which in turn only made him panic even more.

What is this? What was going on? Was this some sort of sickness in this new world? A curse? He didn’t even consider—!

No, not now. Think. If Mana is the reason, then he only needed to lend Harry some. Rational. Logical.

“[Mana Distribution]” he muttered with new found determination, watching with relief as some healthy color returned to his skin.

But then, just as Harry’s mana reached a decent amount, it suddenly disappeared again. Shit, shit, shit, this wasn’t going to be solved until he discovered what was taking it away!

“Go, bring all the healers! Bring also anyone that has enough MP for a transfer!” Momonga shouted to the tearful Pleiades, surprised when they stood immobile. Why weren’t they following orders? now of all times—

“M-Momonga-sama, this is the Treasury. We cannot— w-we don’t have!” Yuri said between sobs, and he immediately felt guilty for losing his composure. They didn’t have rings.

But why were they in the Treasury? Was this really the place he had imagined when he had opened that [Gate]? No, it wasn’t possible to reach this place with a [Gate]. Had he unconsciously used his ring? when?

“Momonga-sama! Momonga-sama! Please, please teleport to the 9^th Floor so we may support! To your office!” Albedo’s terrified voice echoed in his mind. A [Message]? He didn’t remember listening to the soft tinkling that normally signaled one. For how long had Albedo been trying to communicate?

He was a mess, he couldn’t think clearly, and he couldn’t help but curse colorfully at the lack of emotional suppression. Stupid panic wasn’t helping. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Waiting until more MP was transferred to Harry, he signaled for the Pleiades to come over before activating the ring to leave the Treasury.

Appearing in his office, a chorus of relieved sighs greeted him, before some of the occupants used [Mana Distribution]. Now, Harry was receiving MP from three different sources, as Momonga, Albedo, and Mare were using the same spell, so he regained a good amount of MP fairly quickly. Harry took in a deep breath, as if waking up from deep slumber, and blinked sleepily.

“Haah… much better, thanks guys. Sorry I worried you,” Harry muttered sheepishly towards the NPCs before turning his head to him, “And thanks bud, I think I can stand now. Let me down.”

Harry wiggled in his hold, looking uncomfortable, and he couldn’t help but release a short, relieved laugh before complying. He was still monitoring the aura of mana closely, worried that it may suddenly decrease again, but it seemed to be steady for now.

Harry seemed to be slightly disoriented, wobbling slightly from side to side before passing a hand tiredly over his eyes.

“Alright… before anything else, what tried to attack Nazarick?”

Nazarick was what?

The alarmed mannerism of the NPCs seemed to reflect this same thought, as they exchanged looks confusedly.

“We haven’t— we didn’t. The alarm didn’t ring. Harry-sama, please sit down at least, you must rest!” Albedo tripped on her words as she signaled for a pleiade to bring a chair, seemingly torn between fretting over Harry’s health and fretting over the concept that Nazarick had been attacked.

“Indeed, if something attempted to trespass, our security system was unable to notice it. To think we created such a defective—”

“I’ll stop you there Demiurge, it’s not your fault,” Harry hurried to interrupt the Guardian with a calming motion, sitting down on the offered chair before muttering, “I can’t think of anything that could pass unperceived. But for the wards to collapse…”

“The wards collapsed? Why in the— Harry, you need to explain fully from the beginning if you expect us to understand,” Momonga reprimanded, crossing his arms over his chest. He hated not knowing what was going on, he hated the fact that he couldn’t prevent this whole mess from happening. He hated the feeling of worry, fear, and anger that was coursing non-stop through him, and the way his fingers twitched as if itching to attack something, to retaliate against whoever was responsible.

“Right, sorry, sorry. Back in Yggdrassil, a few days after Nazarick was invaded by the use of that World item, I sort of…modified my wards. You see, since that item was a one-time-use, I thought that if my wards could become active again, automatically, immediately after their initial shattering, then no one would ever be able to trespass again,” Harry said matter-of-factly, passing a hand through his hair worriedly “I think— no, I know they were shattered consecutively. There’s no other reason for my magic to suddenly be borrowed in such large amounts so quickly.”

A dread silence fell over the room as Harry’s words were processed, but the look of panic and confusion remained on most NPCs — or at least for those that could show expressions.

“I haven’t received any reports from the first floor, and the ones on patrol can’t detect any intruders either….” Albedo whispered with a hand on her temple, seemingly communicating with multiple people.

“Well, I can feel Nazarick’s wards are ok now, so I guess the attack was stopped correctly. I can’t understand how they discovered our location though—"

“Sir, with all due respect,” Jarvis politely interrupted him with a raised hand. “Could it be this isn’t about Nazarick? since… wasn’t there another place that you protected as well?”

Jarvis seemed to be trying to leave out something, choosing his words carefully while stealing looks at the other NPCs and at Momonga himself. Hiding something? Harry must have asked him to hide something.

“Harry?” Momonga pierced him with a glare, looking at him expectantly. He wasn’t running away from this one.

“That’s… no, that’s not possible. That place was— eh?” Harry seemed genuinely confused, frowning pensively for a moment before his eyes opened in realization, “That son of a— a demon!”

Harry censured himself after a quick look at Mare, hurriedly pulling the collar of his robe in order to take out the small bag hanging on his neck. “If he is— but why would he be here? It doesn’t make any sense. I think I can feel something other than Nazarick’s wards linked to me though? Ugh, where is that thing?! Accio!”

Harry was muttering to himself while searching for something in his pea-sized bag, where his whole arm had now disappeared. Momonga couldn’t understand, and since Harry didn’t seem to want to explain anytime soon, he did the reasonable thing and turned to the Zerg.

“Jarvis, explain. That’s an order,” he commanded, trying to sound as authoritarian as he could, which probably wasn’t much. Then again, all the NPCs in the room seemed to shift in response to his voice, so maybe he actually managed to pull it off.

“Understood,” Jarvis muttered with a small bow, glancing at Harry as if asking for permission. When the homunculus didn’t protest — didn’t seem to be paying attention, really— he straightened and continued, “I don’t recall the whole conversation, only traces of it, but I’m under the belief that Sir had an ally that didn’t belong to this Guild. He would go often to visit them, discuss ideas and… place new wards, if I recall correctly.”

Harry did? Why did he never mention anything?

Some of his friends, his guild mates, also had family or friends that played Yggdrasil but didn’t belong to Ainz Ooal Gown, and they had brought those people to visit Nazarick a few times without problem. Harry could have done the same too, they wouldn’t have minded.

“Yeah, he helped me a lot really,” Harry confirmed Jarvis’ explanation, seemingly having found what he had been searching for, since there was a small, round thing in his hand. “let’s see if that’s really it. Point me: Jaldabaoth.”

Looking over Harry’s shoulder, he noted that the item seemed to be a compass of sorts, the little arrow running wildly for a few seconds before stopping to point in a single direction.

“Oh, that little— that!” Harry seemed to want to curse, but refrained from doing so in the presence of Mare. “He is here, which means my wards probably are too. And it’s close enough to be detected quickly, so he must be—"

“Harry!” Momonga interrupted his rant, placing a warning hand over his shoulder as if that would get him to focus “Explain. Fully.”

Some of his frustration must have leaked out in his voice, because the NPCs seemed to shudder for a moment, while Harry looked owlishly startled.

“Ah, right. Sorry, I tend to— right. Let me explain from the beginning,” Harry muttered sheepishly after a moment, a hand rubbing the back of his head as if uncomfortable at being the center of attention.

 This way, another tale ensued, as if the number of difficult-to-believe stories wasn’t big enough yet, Harry added this one to the pile with nothing but a small smile.

A Guildbase. Harry had conquered a Guildbase on his own… How though? No matter how hard he tried to imagine it, he simply couldn’t picture a single person cleaning a whole dungeon.

“Then…. you belonged to two Guilds?”

“Not exactly, I had to give it up if I wanted to belong to Nazarick, so I did.”

The NPCs’ eyes seemed to shine in this part of the story, tearfully happy that he had chosen the Tomb, that he had chosen them over his own, Volcano base.

“What… made you chose Nazarick over the Volcano?” Yuri’s whispered question seemed to instantly change the atmosphere on the room, it now seemed…. concerned? Why?

Harry didn’t seem to understand the sudden change in attitude either, looking puzzled at the NPCs in the room before slowly replying “Because, well, I wanted to have a proper Guildbase with my friends. The Volcano didn’t have anything except for my old tests and notes either way, so I didn’t see much loss in it.”

Expectant silence seemed to fill the room, before Albedo tentatively asked “...there weren’t— did you not have servants?”

Servants? Did she mean NPCs?

Harry seemed to realize something then, as he quickly replied “What? No! That base was only a place I considered safe enough to experiment in, I didn’t— I was utterly alone there. Not even POP monsters generating, no nothing.”

The NPCs in the room still seemed worried, so after a small pause Harry soothingly added “There’s really no need— I will never, ever, leave Ainz Ooal Gown behind, alright? This is my home, and you are my family. Ok?”

Oh.

His guild mates, his friends… everyone had left the Guild, left Nazarick behind to move on other, real-life matters. It was no wonder the NPCs would worry about such a thing happening in this world too.

Momonga looked silently at the NPCs, that had gotten back to being happily teary-eyed, and wondered if they resented the others for leaving. What did it mean for them, the absence of the other members? Did they feel the same combination of sadness, anger, and betrayal that he did? Perhaps a stronger version? Being as dedicated as they were, it was no wonder they were affected.

After a few more soft words of reassurance, the NPCs seemed to finally regain their composure, encouraging Harry to move on with his explanation. Harry smiled, assured them one more time, and finally continued with the other half of the story.

As if the image of Harry solo-conquering a Guildbase wasn’t disbelieving enough, the second part of the tale was just as much. Momonga stayed silent, happy that his face couldn’t show expressions as he listened about the existence of a conscious, resurrected Raid Boss— maybe the same as Harry? — and POP monsters that seemed aware. Alive.

He could now understand why Harry hadn’t invited them to Nazarick for a visit. They weren’t players.

And then of course, was the cherry of the cake, the deal. Information in exchange of protection, Harry placing wards for every question answered until he ended up befriending the Demonic Raid Boss. Information… if Yggdrassil was always ‘real’, then… 

“Harry, this demon, Jal— jer…?”

“Jaldabaoth. It’s a mouthful, so I just call him Jald,” Harry said with an amused grin.

“Right, then Jald, if he is really here, then he must know how everything works better than we do. If he could explain things to us… it would be a great help.”

“Yeah, I got many ideas for experiments thanks to him. We can—” Harry started to say before halting, excitement turning into a worried frown. “But the wards? If Nazarick wasn’t attacked, then the wards that were broken were his. A World item that can break them consecutively…”

World item. There were world items in this world too. Momonga mentally chastised himself, having forgotten about the most important detail of this whole mess.

“We need to know who was behind the attack; if they were to try to invade Nazarick… we need to be prepared,” Momonga muttered pensively. Truthfully, he wanted to use that compass thing to find Jald, and determine who was behind the attack to that base, to see who was in possession of the World items. But at the same time, it was risky. If they were to be discovered, if a battle ensued… were they prepared for that?

As if on cue, Mare’s form suddenly shifted, revealing instead— oh no. Oh no. Why was he here?!

“Do not worry my creator, Momonga-sama!”

Just why?!

Pandora’s Actor, in all his motion-expressive glory, dramatically took off the jacket hanging from his shoulders, and tossed it towards a surprised Demiurge before exclaiming, “We have information to deliver!”

Unperturbed silence followed that exclamation, everyone’s gaze focused on Pandora before said Doppelganger gave one military-like step to the side and pushed Jarvis, as if saying, “your turn”.

Why did you do that if you weren’t going to say anything?! Take a goddamn hint! Momonga wanted to exclaim to his creation, who seemed unrepentant at having placed Jarvis on the spotlight, but surprisingly enough, the Zerg seemed to have been expecting it.

“Of course. Please allow me to deliver a briefing of the situation at hand,” Jarvis’ voice was collected, wings neatly folded behind his back, and Momonga mildly wondered if it was possible to somehow switch NPCs. Since his own was like that… ugh, no, that wasn’t fair, he was like that because Momonga had programmed him as such. Fuck.

Why was he still thinking about that? Stupid second-hand embarrassment. World items! Focus on Jarvis!

After mentally chastising himself, he threw one last look at Pandora before focusing completely on Jarvis’ report.

“…well, that was unexpected,” Harry was the first to break the silence once Jarvis finished, looking quite unconcerned even after listening to such news, “but thanks to that, we can safely say the Theocracy is the one behind this, right?”

“No, there are other possibilities… but that one is most probable,” Momonga countered, feeling cross at having been discovered so soon. What had they done wrong? What could they do now?

“Ja! And since it’s like this, then we should do that. Isn’t that right?” What was Pandora talking about? Ugh, did he really have to make such weird poses? Could he even talk normally without doing any kind of body motion?

“Indeed, it’s the only way to prevent an attack against Nazarick,” Demiurge nodded in perfect understanding, but he still didn’t get it.

“Momonga-sama, Harry-sama, please say the word and we will immediately take action,” Albedo said sweetly, placing a gloved hand over her cleavage. It was distracting, but his worry overpowered everything else. He didn’t understand, why did nobody speak clearly? Was that too much to ask for?

“We will need to temporarily borrow your compass Sir.”

“No, no, I’d like to go say hi in person so I’m going too. Momonga, since we’re going against people with World items, which should we take from the Treasury?”

From the— oh. Ohhhh!

“I see,” he muttered, feeling relieved that he understood their conversation now, “since it’s like that… four should be enough. Let’s prepare quickly and depart before their location changes.”

Unconsciously, he placed a skeletal hand over the red sphere floating under his ribs, the world item that had always accompanied him.

Quickly smoothing out the important details, they left the room to prepare as much as they could with such a short time.

Chapter Text

Chapter 14 Welcome

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? We could have— come on, Harry!”

Harry smiled amusedly at Momonga’s exasperation, mildly thinking that his body language somewhat resembled Pandora’s for a moment, since his arms were moving so vividly. The fact that they were currently walking down the Treasury hall only enforced that image.

“I wanted to blend in, remember? And since Yggdrasil didn’t have any MP replenishing potions—“

“Do you even realize the advantage this gives us? Just think about it!”

Momonga started a long, technical rant about things Harry already knew, but he let his friend let it out all the same. It had been a while, but the overlord really enjoyed talking about magic and the best strategies to use it, so even if he was acting exasperated Harry knew he was actually feeling happy about the discovery.

In Yggdrasil there wasn’t anything as convenient as a potion, item, or skill that could allow the owner to recover MP. The only way to get MP —other than by getting some transferred from a teammate— was by waiting patiently for time to pass, which meant that if a magic caster used it all up in the middle of a PvP, it might as well be over. The players that had chosen such a role knew this, and it was one of the most basic strategies— no, more like basic knowledge— that they needed to administrate well their mana if they wanted to succeed.

Since Momonga had just shared a large amount of MP with Harry, neither of them were at top condition for fighting, especially since they were going against people with World items, so Harry had just passed him a Pepper-up potion.

Which ended up in this conversation.

“I get it, I get it… we need to mass produce them, right?”

“Absolutely! We can assign this to Demiurge and Mare, they’re working well with the scrolls after all.”

“Guess so,” he replied with a grin, and even though Momonga’s face was expressionless, he got the impression that his friend was genuinely smiling too.

“You know what? We’re not reassuming the adventuring stuff until you tell me more about the things you used to do. It’s not fair, why do you have so many job classes?”

“What part of ‘No access to the goddamn cash shop’ you don’t get? Everything I have, potions, weapons, items, all of it I either did myself or got from a lucky PK.”

“Ah, yeah… that’s why you always had items that didn’t really benefit you. It’s very useful now though.”

Harry snorted, but nodded all the same. Since he had been forced to create his own items back in Yggdrasil, he knew a few methods that could now be replicated by the NPCs in this world.

He recalled the day he taught the NPCs how to create the one-use items, such as the scrolls and potions. He still had mixed feelings about Demiurge proposing to use skin out of all things, when they could simply get it from plants and minerals already available on the 6^th floor, but he attributed that to ignorance that Harry’s method even existed.

His method was only good for low and mid-tier scrolls though, if they wanted anything high level it required better raw materials, which couldn’t exactly be found inside Nazarick. He and Momonga would need to keep an eye out for those when exploring outside the tomb.

“How many Pepper-ups do you have?”

“A good amount. Actually, I should give one to Albedo as well, I’ll take down the privacy wards,” Harry warned, waiting for Momonga’s nod before taking down the Muffliato. He then turned around, so he was walking backwards on the Treasury hall, and grinned at the NPCs that were walking behind them before tossing a small flask at the succubus.

Albedo caught the potion and looked interestingly at it for a moment, before downing it without questioning its effects.  A puff of white mist escaped her ears, and her expression turned momentarily to surprise before she smiled timidly at him, in what he assumed was a mix of embarrassment and gratefulness.

 “Thank you, Harry-sama…”

“No need, no need— actually, thank you for transferring some MP to me earlier. Same to you Pandora.”

He briefly considered throwing a Pepper-up at him too but decided against it. Pandora wouldn’t really accompany them to the battlefield, so he should have time to recover on his own.

“As the creation of the great Momonga-sama —” Harry could already hear his friend groan somewhere behind him, and he had to swallow a chuckle, “— it was the least I could do! If anything, I feel I must apologize for my late reaction. I would have joined you in the Treasury if my transformation had gone right.”

Now that picked his interest, and it seemed Momonga’s too, since the overlord stopped walking down the hallway and turned to face his NPC.

“What do you mean?”

“Ja! At first I tried to transform into Harry-sama, since I felt it would be easier to transfer Mana that way, but the moment I took his form I— um…” Pandora, for the first time since Harry had met the guy, seemed to hesitate, his prideful pose shrinking lightly and gaze falling to the floor.  It was like a child expecting to be scolded.

“What happened?” Momonga prompted surprisingly softly. Now that Harry thought of it, how had his friend created Pandora’s settings? The overlord didn’t know half of the things Harry could do, so how was Pandora expected to imitate him?

“I— I don’t know why, I just… I know I looked like him, and the stats were right! But the moment I tried to use the ring to go to the Treasury, it was like… like being squeezed into a very thin tube, there was a loud cracking sound, and I somehow appeared on the other side of the room, feeling dizzy.”

Wasn’t that— did he just describe apparition?

“It’s not your fault Pandora, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Momonga reassured softly, which seemed to make the doppelganger relax slightly. “your settings— I mean, the way I created you regarding Harry’s imitation, it’s kind of… vague. Don’t use that form until we have sometime to perform a few tests.”

“Let’s place that on the top of the list actually, I’m very curious now,” Harry added, looking meaningfully at his friend, who nodded in return.  Having reached a silent understanding, they both turned around, and finally reached the area of the Treasury that guarded the Guild’s most powerful items.

“I can’t believe this is necessary, so soon….”

“I know, but we must be in top condition, right? Better safe than sorry.”

“That’s right,” Momonga said in agreement, fidgeting slightly with apprehension as he started to go over their improvised plan out loud. Again.

They didn’t know who the enemy was, how many of them were, nor what kind of items and skills they may have. They didn’t know where they were located either, and couldn’t plan based on the battlefield for this reason.

Actually, there wasn’t much they could actually prepare for.

Based on this, the idea was to go with the intent of gathering information and nothing more. If a battle ensued they agreed it was better to get away to safety, since they would already know who was the enemy… and where Jald was located. It would be easier to prepare a better plan after that.

Harry didn’t believe it would go so smoothly — mainly because he wanted to help Jald regardless of how risky it could be— but knew better than to share that thought with Momonga. The overlord would never leave Nazarick otherwise, and he wanted to check on whether Jald needed help or not.

“Well then, let’s grab a few.”

Normally, World Items couldn’t affect holders of other World Items, unless the holders happened to accept that influence, so it was necessary that all of them had one equipped. Harry looked with curiosity at the chamber while Momonga carefully selected which items to use, passing them over to the NPCs as the overlord pointed at them.

An armored Albedo, covered from neck to toe, was the first to receive hers. Instead of her usual axe, she had the World item her creator had chosen for her, a short wand with a black sphere floating in the middle. Ginnungagap, particularly useful to utterly demolish large areas, it may be useful if the enemy was large in number, in an open field… and they had enough distance between them, of course.

Aura and Mare were right after her. Mare had equipped a pair of gauntlets, one looking like a devil's hand, while the other looked like an angel's. Avarice and Generosity, with the ability of absorbing experience (EXP) points, which were the ones that dictated when a being was ready to level up. Since the gauntlets had plenty of EXP stored from Yggdrasil, Mare would be able to use his more powerful attacks without having to consume his own EXP, so he could remain as Level 100.

Aura on the other hand, had equipped Depiction of Nature and Society, which resembled a giant, oriental scroll that hung from her petite waist. This World item could seal a target into a closed-off space, basically converting the real world into a painted landscape, which was useful for both: preventing the enemy from escaping and inflicting damage with field effects.

Momonga always had equipped the red orb — floating over the area where his stomach would be — which was an item that got stronger the longer it had been equipped on a player. It had been a while since the overlord had it, so it was one of the most powerful World items present in the room, but it was meant to be used only in the direst of emergencies. It would probably consume a good bunch of Momonga’s levels after all, and they had the suspicion that leveling up in this world would not be a walk in the park.

Harry in the meantime, had equipped the staff he had gained on Jald’s dungeon, Strike of The Monarch, which was a tool that allowed the user to nullify the negative side-effect of spells, items, and skills. For example, if Harry’s pepper-up potions were meant to recover MP but took a toll on his magical core after a while, then he could nullify that effect so he could take them without risk. It was very useful, considering all advantages came with disadvantages. Had he had the staff equipped this morning, he would have been able to restore the shattered wards without them taking a toll in his magical core.

It was particularly useful when one considered Martyr skills. The ability to use that level of power without having to self-sacrifice was simply unbeatable.

The greatest limitation however, was that it needed to be an effect he knew of. If Harry encountered a new spell or skill; since he didn’t know its original effect, then logically he wouldn’t be able to change it to something else.

“Everyone ready?” Harry asked, waiting for Momonga to finish. The overlord had been speaking with Pandora, no doubt giving him lengthy instructions. After a moment, Momonga nodded, stepping away from his NPC and walking towards him tensely.

“All done here.”

“Y-yes, please leave it t-to us!”

“Ready as we can!”

“Communication has already been established, we will be able to react appropriately no matter the circumstances,” Albedo mentioned as she placed on her helmet.

“Good. Now remember, we are not going to battle, this is just a reconnaissance mission. If we encounter an enemy the priority is to retreat to safety, defend ourselves as necessary, and that’s it,” Momonga said the last phrase sternly, nodding in approval when no one protested before continuing, “Albedo is our main tank in this field trip, and Harry and Aura will act as Searchers. Mare and I will cover your back, and Demiurge and Jarvis will send backup from Nazarick if they determine is necessary, since they will be surveilling us along with Nigredo.  Pandora, you remain here, if you receive instruction to use that, then we’ll see you in the battlefield. Any questions?”

Momonga looked at everyone for confirmation, and nodded once more before softly commenting “We’re running out of time. Your turn Harry.”

“Grab on tightly,” Harry said simply as he stretched an arm, waiting for them to take hold before using his ring to get out of the Treasury. After that he opened a [Gate], the Point-me compass ready in his other hand. Once they were in the forest near Carne Village, Aura whistled a rhythmic tune to call her awaiting pets, while Momonga and Albedo [Summoned] their own mounting with their skills.

Once everyone was mounted and in the pre-set formation, Harry placed several layers of defensive magic around the group and used “eyes” created with magic to explore the surroundings. Additionally, Momonga used magic of illusion of the highest range, the spell [Mirror World] to create a hemispherical screen that enclosed their small group, making them pretty much undetectable.

Exchanging a confirming nod with Momonga, Harry finally turned to look ahead and ordered his assigned animal— some sort of six-legged wolf whose name he didn’t recall — to move forward.

Since his compass could quickly detect the demon, he couldn’t be that far away from Nazarick. They would find Jald’s location before the sunset, at least that much was for certain.

— Kaire —

In the blink of an eye, the hunters had become the hunted.

Kaire heard with mixed feelings of disbelief and shame, as her teammates cursed their Gods more times in the past ten seconds than she had in all her, relatively long, life. She heard as they spited on them, exclaiming that if the gods really did exist, then they should defeat these evil beasts right now.

Kaire still considered herself to be a faithful woman, but under these circumstances, even she couldn’t help but internally wonder… why?

“The Gods have abandoned us!” a male from the Holocaust Scripture, renowned for his merciless attitude in battle, exclaimed at the top of his lungs as he ran away from an enraged wyvern; which had already killed most of his team.

In the past, she had looked down on the people who didn’t believe in the Gods, regarding them as fools. After all, if the Gods didn’t exist, how could the priests work their magic? But now, she was starting to have her own doubts.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the monster before her — a Kitsune — as it drew closer with a furious snarl. She took two steps back in response, trying to get away from it while tightening the grip on her dress, wondering if her team would mind if she took back their improvised ally to defend herself.

Her Captain had quickly determined that the wyverns were the most dangerous creatures in this godforsaken cave, and thus, she had hurriedly taken mind control of the nearest one. Its presence was the only reason her team stood mostly in one piece if she was honest, since the other creatures seemed reluctant to attack it.

A shrill creaking noise resounded when a repelling potion was thrown directly at the Kitsune’s eyes, which made the creature temporarily retreat with a disgusted expression. She smiled gratefully at the thief’s support, and quickly moved to hide among her peers.

Although they were filled with fear, none of them ran. This was not courage — the grinding of their teeth could attest to that — if they could, they would run as fast and as far as they could.

The reason they stood immobile was because they knew there was no escape.

The plan to massacre this cave had been foolish from the start, they should have retreated the moment they noticed it was protected with a powerful magical shield. Should have retreated when the wide-ranged attack of the Holocaust Scripture wasn’t enough to collapse it, instead of stupidly venturing inside. Should have retreated when, after a while of not encountering a single creature, they found themselves cornered, surrounded by countless powerful beasts.

It should have been impossible. Nobody knew what was going on. How could they understand the reason why both Scriptures — one almost completely slayed already — were facing such a situation?

The sight of Erion— the leader of the Holocaust Scripture, and the only one remaining of his group — flying through the air and colliding with a thunderous crash against a wall made her snap out of her reverie.

A bone-chilling monster stood where Erion had been. This wyvern looked different than the others, much bigger, with numerous bone spikes sprouting from its spine all the way to the tail, scars adorning the scales on its face and torso.

Kaire immediately understood that she had chosen the wrong target.

The wyvern she had taken control of was petite in comparison, there was no way it would survive against this new enemy. Nevertheless, she made the brainwashed creature stand protectively at the front, unwilling to let go of the only reason her team was, for the most part, still alive.

Hopefully this one would be like the rest of the beasts, unwilling to attack the controlled wyvern.

The surrounding creatures — kitsunes, salamanders, infernal spirits, phoenixes, slimes — slowly retreated, disappearing among the shadows as if they could go through walls. Only the wyverns — two sized like the one she had controlled, and the biggest one — remained as the battle reached a stalemate.

“…would illusions get past them? If we hide—”

“Useless. Even if we managed to fool the wyverns, we’re still surrounded by the other creatures, they just got out of sight,” the Captain whispered back, frowning with a helpless expression as he tried and failed to come up with a plan that would let them survive.

If they ran, they would die swiftly, but if they stayed, they would die horribly. They knew that perfectly well, but still, they could not bring themselves to move.

“Hooooh? Look at you~ how very pathetic,” a mocking, female voice made their heads turn in unison at the source. There was no way any of them had forgotten that voice.

“You traitor—!”

“—Get a grip!”

The Captain’s shout tore through the other’s fury, even if he himself was glaring at the new arrival hatefully. The all too familiar female was standing near the biggest wyvern, a demented look on her face as she grinned and laughed at them. She seemed as sadistic as Kaire recalled.

“Well, well, you don’t really mind, riiiight?” the female mocked, a finger playing with the artifact she had stolen when she had fled the Theocracy, when she had betrayed them all. When she had given her back to the Gods.

The cave was filled with disbelieving silence, as though time was standing impossibly still, and at this moment there was only one thing they could do.

Everyone moved in an instant.

There was no sign of their earlier fear. They moved in silent unison, like a raging waterfall. Even without a voiced order, everyone had agreed on the same course of action. This, at least, served to show the great coordination they had achieved as a team.

The controlled wyvern tried to attack the biggest one but was instead intercepted by the two that were of the same size. The Captain, as well as two others that could fight in close range, swiftly ran among the wyvern’s legs and exchanged blows with the traitor.

Kaire was trying to buy them time as she controlled the wyvern’s movements, standing hidden between Cedran, who only had one, partially destroyed shield, and Divic, who was clenching her staff so strongly she had white knuckles.

If Kaire were to die, then the control would lift. She had to survive for as long as possible. Even if there was no way to escape, they had to, at least, get rid of the traitor before dying.

They needed to kill Clementine.

— Aura —

The closer they got to the cave, the stronger she felt something was watching them.

Upon arriving, they had circled the ominous cave that stood mockingly in the middle of a clearance, obviously defying nature. The compass Harry-sama held showed that it was their destination, but the fact that the surroundings were unearthly calm had made everyone stand on edge.  

Harry-sama and Momonga-sama were investigating through their respective magical means, but Aura was the one that was a specialized ranger, and was itching to go explore and secure their surroundings. She couldn’t however, since she didn’t receive permission for wandering away from the group, so she was instead using her pets.

“Found anything?”

“No, the place is deserted. It’s odd, if this is really the Katze Plains, shouldn’t it be filled to the brim with creatures?”

“…I expected that too. Aura, have you sensed anything unusual?”

She straightened, aware that her serious expression may look odd on her, before replying, “Nothing is surrounding us, but I still feel we’re being observed, Momonga-sama.”

Aura had expressed her worries before, when she first felt it, but they hadn’t been able to reach a conclusion about the source. The overlord hummed, placing a skeletal hand on his temple in what seemed to be a worried gesture, while the homunculus frowned confusedly at her before directing his gaze towards the cave.

“It seems everyone is inside… this is bad. Should we enter to investigate further?”

“I’m torn between sending Mercenary NPCs to investigate and just staying here to wait for something to happen,” Momonga-sama muttered stressfully, seemingly glaring at the cave reproachfully.

“But if Jald’s there— they’re not enemies, you know? I’m more worried about whoever broke the wards and invaded them. What if Jald needs support?”

The wolf he was mounting — Fernir— moved impatiently, itching to do what its rider wished. It showed that Harry-sama genuinely wanted to personally go inside that cave, which in turn made Aura frown. She felt weird, mixed feelings coming and going so fast that she couldn’t pinpoint all of them. Worry was prominent, that much she knew, as well as confusion, for even if Harry-sama was acquainted with that demon, it couldn’t justify the fact that he seemed willing to risk his health — her skin boiled with anger at the mere thought — to help him.

Nothing would ever justify putting in risk the security of the Supreme Beings.

“Harry, if a Raid Boss needs support it means the enemy is either very strong or very prepared. Whichever the case, it would be too risky for us to get in.”

“Well yes, but—”

“We are not going.”

“Wait, wait, I’m just— er, well… worried. What if something happens that I could have prevented? What kind of friend would just sit back and watch without helping?” 

The Guildmaster sighed deeply, breaking their formation so he could get closer. Aura immediately made her pet move aside, making space so the overlord could take her place at Harry’s side.

“Harry, we don’t know if… what if something happened when he was brought to this world? What if he doesn’t remember? We can’t be sure they’re allies—”

“Well, I do remember. Isn’t that enough? You don’t abandon a friend just because they’re amnesiac—”

“This ‘amnesiac friend’ could potentially kill us if we—”

“He would not! Besides, I defeated him once, and that was alone and without world items. Now we’re better equipped, better experienced and in a team. And we have portkeys! Surely—”

“Then think of the invaders! What if we need to fight all of them at once? What if we need to fight against both, the invaders and the Raid Boss? What about the other creatures of the dungeon or the World items? We are not going; we aren’t sufficiently prepared for that!” the overlord hissed agitatedly. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Mare shudder, and Albedo’s grip tighten around her World item.

As for her, this was the first time Aura saw them discussing, so she couldn’t help but look at their interaction worriedly. This… this was just a small quarrel, right? Normal?

“Point taken, but what if—” Harry replied with a calming gesture before straightening, “Hey! what if I can prove they’re not enemies? It’s been a while, but Sunny— I mean, er, one of the POP monsters in the dungeon, he may still recognize my calling.”

Harry-sama could tame creatures like she could? Then… they could exchange tips? Aura’s spirit brightened a little at the thought. She was now looking forward to returning to Nazarick, it would be nice if she could convince her Master to play with her and her pets. Mare would join too, surely.

“…what creature is it?”

“A Salamander, level 70 so nothing to worry about.”

“…we would reveal our position.”

“We can move around without issue, the Katze plains are wide enough. Changing our location should be easy.”

“What if it doesn’t come alone?”

“If Sunny comes accompanied with creatures equal or below to 85 then we can manage. Stronger than that, we cancel the experiment and switch locations.”

The Guildmaster didn’t seem convinced and, honestly, Aura wasn’t either. She knew Mare and Albedo well enough to know that they most likely disagreed too, even if they weren’t expressing it out loud.

 “...sorry, but it’s still too risky.”

“I can go to the other side of the plains and call from there. That way our position isn’t revealed, and I can apparate back here if needed,” Harry pressed, already dismounting Fenrir, which let out a sad whine.

“What? Harry, wait—”

“Harry-sama please don’t!” Albedo finally spoke, seemingly unable to keep silent any longer, “it’s dangerous. Please don’t wander away from us.”

“…sorry,” Harry apologized sincerely, avoiding their gaze as he petted Fernir’s head absentmindedly, “I understand the risk, I truly do, but I need to do something. He is my friend; wouldn’t you do the same for yours?”

Aura’s mind immediately switched over to Mare. If her younger brother were to be in such a predicament… no, she would trust him to defend himself, and wait for orders. She was sure her Masters would create a plan to help him—

She froze at that, finally understanding. Then, Harry-sama wanted to help because that demon wouldn’t receive support from any other source. Even with this understanding however, it was hard to accept that there was something outside of Nazarick that warranted such… care. In her opinion, nothing outside the Tomb was worth it.

Albedo and Mare seemed to have reached that same conclusion, if their faces were anything to go by, but the Guildmaster surprisingly nodded in acceptance.

“Momonga-sama?!” Albedo exclaimed worriedly, but he just raised a hand to silence her.

“I understand Harry’s point. If this… test goes well, I’m willing to go— but!” at this point the overlord turned towards the homunculus, an accusing finger pointed at him, “if at any point we determine the risk is too high, we’re getting away with the portkeys, no matter what may or may not be happening in that dungeon. Even if it means leaving them to their own devices.”

Even if it means they will not survive, was the message hidden behind that statement.

Harry-sama hesitated for a long moment, before nodding sharply, taking some distance from the group — although not so much that they wouldn’t be able to interfere, if necessary — before using a couple of fingers to whistle.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened. An instant later however, a single salamander came out running from the cave, in a manner that Aura recognized in her own pets and classified as “excited puppy”.

The huge reptile ran at top speed towards Harry-sama, who just stood there with an expectant smile. Aura worried slightly when the salamander came closer and still ran at top speed, but the homunculus just made a hand motion, and the creature immediately stopped in its tracks at a proper distance.

“Sunny? Down boy.”

The reptile immediately laid down, tail swinging excitedly, and claws scraping the earth in an obvious sign that it wanted to come closer but knew it couldn’t.

“Well, he’s friendly, and if he could actually come out, then whatever is happening inside is not that dire,” the homunculus mentioned lightly, and Aura— as a beast tamer— conceded out loud that the beast was still trained to respect Harry-sama’s wishes, so there was no immediate danger.

The group relaxed mildly at that, and the beast received the signal that it could approach them. The salamander didn’t waste a second in getting up, trotting towards Harry-sama excitedly and—

“Ugh, gross, gross, get off me you twit!” he exclaimed between chuckles, forcing the salamander to stay down while he cleaned his face from the remains of saliva. Trained, but still easily excited, Aura recognized the youth of the creature, and the fact that Harry-sama hadn’t performed an exhaustive training like she did with her own pets. She would have to give some advice to—

Her thoughts were interrupted by the huge killing intent coming from behind, and Aura couldn’t help but inwardly flinch at Albedo’s reaction. Had Aura not know to expect it, she would have turned and attacked simply by instinct, which would have been embarrassing.

Aura didn’t know if it had something to do with age, or if it was simply that Albedo was prone to swift changes in humor, but it certainly made her wish that she wouldn’t grow up too soon. Ugh.

By the time Harry-sama turned towards the succubus, no doubt having sensed the killing intent directed at the reptile, Albedo had calmed down and was probably smiling behind her helmet.

“If the situation is not dire, then we can stay here instead of venturing inside, correct?” she inquired sweetly. Yep, she didn’t want to grow up anytime soon. Decided.

Momonga-sama surprised everyone by clearing his throat and saying, “No, if anything, this only shows we can enter. There’s no better way to introduce ourselves than by helping them, even if they don’t necessarily need it.”

Albedo tilted her head confusedly for a moment, before exclaiming, “Of course! As expected of Momonga-sama, they will be indebted to Nazarick, and there’s no real risk for us.”

The overlord nodded. Mare looked at the Guildmaster in awe, but Aura was quick to notice that Harry-sama didn’t seem to like that reasoning, so she refrained from commenting that she agreed with Momonga-sama. The homunculus sighed and petted Sunny one last time, before asking it to be their guide.

The salamander obediently started to trot back to the cave — seemingly proud of its role as guide — with Nazarick’s group traveling closely behind.

— Momonga —

He felt trepidation crawl up his spine, as they slowly entered the cave. The only one that seemed to be just alert but not too preoccupied was, unsurprisingly, Harry. He just walked in and loudly explained to any creatures in the vicinity that Nazarick’s group was here to help. The dungeon’s POP monsters didn’t seem entirely convinced, but apparently trusted Harry all the same, since they didn’t approach them.

…Then again, they followed Nazarick’s group with their gaze, no doubt expecting an attack, so it wasn’t like they could actually relax in their presence. Momonga identified all kind of creatures, all with varying levels from 60 to 87, and was at least comforted that there wasn’t any particularly threatening by itself, so he only had to worry about a synchronized attack. Mare would be able to make them back off if anything happened, so he allowed his shoulders to relax a little bit.

Although… there was also the fact that they had yet to see any invaders appear. It made Momonga feel anxious all over again, and he clenched his chosen weapon, a metallic wand, closer to himself.

The situation repeated itself as they dove deeper into the dungeon. Whenever they entered a new chamber, Harry would explain out loud again, and the creatures would uncertainly let them pass. It went on like this until they reached what must have been the center of the dungeon.

There was a pack of wyverns waiting for them.

There were 7 small ones, whose level was only around the 70’s, and 6 big ones that leveled on the 90’s (a couple even reaching the 100!).

This chamber was, obviously, were the invaders had met their end. There were corpses and blood all over the place, which made him feel sick in the stomach, and he tried not to look too close at the ones that had been… ripped open or otherwise dismembered.

He felt like gagging. Momonga was immediately grateful that his body literally couldn’t throw up, so he just cleared his throat in an attempt to get rid of the nauseating sensation. The sound attracted the attention of those in the room, however.

“Help us! Please!”

It seemed there were still a couple of invaders— no, there was a third standing on the other side? — alive. An armored male, whose level was around the 70’s, and an old lady that didn’t even reach the 50’s. Then again, that was actually considered as strong in this world, wasn’t it? The Death Knight was just a 35 after all….

The other human, a youngish woman, started cackling madly. Momonga wondered if that was what a hysterical laugh was supposed to sound like.

“…What exactly is going on here?” Harry asked, seemingly put off by the weird scenery. Everyone was unnaturally still, and based on the difference of levels Momonga was honestly surprised that there were still survivors—

—the World items! Who had them? Was that the reason?

“Please! Help us get out of here!” the male pleaded again, stance still defensive in front of the old lady. One of the small wyverns shifted and— wait, was the creature defending the humans too? Why? No, stupid question.

So, a skill that made a POP monster switch sides temporarily… he could think of a few.

Harry made a calming motion with his hands — that surprisingly seemed to work — and instructed the invaders to approach Nazarick’s group. Momonga tensed, mind still going to the unknown World items, as the couple of humans and one small wyvern cautiously came closer. Both humans seemed to steal glances at Momonga a lot, seemingly distrustfully — probably because he was the only one that was distinctly non-human in the group — but focused mainly on Harry as they approached. They looked… kind of awed, actually, which was odd.

Harry seemed to have noticed it as well, because he seemed momentarily put off by their gaze before shrugging it off. Instead of commenting on it, Harry simply nodded encouragingly at them with a polite smile, before looking at the female that had yet to leave the wyvern’s side.

“She’s not with you?”

“She is a traitor.”

Harry frowned, confused, looking at the clearly deranged woman that was standing among the strongest wyvern, still unmoving. She seemed surprised by something, and Harry huffed and made a wand motion at her — no light came out though, what was that about? — before looking back at the slowly approaching invaders.

“Ok, that’s close enough. Don’t move, I will place a defensive spell on you.”

Surprisingly enough, Harry actually did place a defensive ward around them, his gaze focused on— eh? Oh! He was using the mind-reading trick, wasn’t he? There was a certain stillness to the whole scene, one he had learned to associate with that particular skill.

A moment later, Harry scowled. He seemed genuinely upset about something.

“You— how could you?! Come on, there are lines you don’t cross!”

“…what? but—”

Whatever the old lady tried to say, Harry didn’t let her. He waved the wand angrily at them — and they dropped like puppets whose strings had been cut, suddenly unconscious — before he turned towards Momonga with a frown still firmly in place.

“They only have two with them. The dress is for mind-control, the dagger for going through locks and shields. They took control of a pup, the youngest of the pack, so it’s no wonder no one wants to harm it. They made it fight against its family, for heaven’s sake!”

Momonga let out a sigh of relief, glad that none of the world items were specially fit for fighting purposes, and looked at the controlled wyvern again. Was that supposed to be a pup? Seriously? That thing could probably swallow him whole without issues.

He knew better than to say that though.

“The nerve of some,” Momonga agreed instead, trying to sound offended while looking at the survivors. They really seemed to have been knocked out, although Harry’s magic was still shining brightly over them. Knowing his friend, the ward was probably both, a shield and a cage.

The insane-looking woman that was still on the other side of the battlefield had stopped grinning, and was just staring blankly ahead, as if someone had flipped a switch to deactivate her. Was that the effect of whatever Harry did earlier? He would need to ask later.

“We gotta help the poor pup.”

“Wait, what if they wake up? If they were capable of breaking your wards, then they could escape this one too.”

Harry nodded distractedly, gaze focused on the controlled wyvern, shoulders tense as he murmured something along with a wand motion. Momonga didn’t have to wonder what he was doing, as the huge reptile dropped, seemingly asleep. Well, it looked much more harmless in that state, although it still didn’t look like a pup would.

“Not really. The dagger they used to break in is useless for the next 70 hours, and the dress is busy controlling the pup. They’re harmless as of now, even if they somehow managed to break off my sleeping charm.”

“…can the control switch targets?”

“Not until the target or holder dies, or the minimum time is met. The dress is forced to control it for another couple of days— which is an odd condition, don’t you think? Not something the devs would do, on normal circumstances.”

Momonga readily agreed. Indeed, such a World item wouldn’t be really useful in Yggdrasil, so why would they—?

He froze as the answer hit him, and judging by Harry’s troubled expression, he had reached the same conclusion.

“Sweet Merlin.”

“The effect must have changed.”

“Oh sweet Merlin.”

“Or new conditions were set over it. Which means we don’t know if ours would—”

“—act like they’re supposed to,” Harry finished the phrase with a worried expression, passing a hand over his eyes and breathing out slowly, before smiling weakly at him. “Well, aren’t you glad we didn’t need to use them?”

Momonga could have hit him. The fact that their own World items may not have worked as they should, it meant that they had taken a huge risk simply by coming. This was exactly the reason he insisted on preparing and checking everything twice—

“Not like we would have had time for doing any kind of test. The whole ordeal was—”

“Just shut up Harry.”

“Nothing happened! Don’t let it get to— yeah, I’ll shut up now,” Harry admitted at Momonga’s glare, before looking at the trapped invaders, “What do we do now?”

What to do indeed? Strip them of the World Items in their possession was an obvious must, but other than that… ugh. They couldn’t let them leave, the invaders had witnessed too much already, but Momonga honestly didn’t want to kill them.

This wasn’t a game anymore. He wouldn’t be killing an avatar, but real, living people…

“…the 5^th floor should be able to accommodate them, once we have them unequipped. We need more data, there could be other items out there,” Momonga didn’t know why he felt like justifying the reason he wanted to keep them alive, but he felt better at seeing the understanding faces of the NPCs accompanying them.

“You’re right. Actually, unequipping the item should lift the mind control as well! Good, good, Albedo, can you please?”

“Most certainly, Harry-sama.”

Harry used his wand to transform a rock into another dress and passed it over to Albedo before turning around politely. Momonga imitated him, not wanting to see the dress being unequipped, and turned his gaze towards the pack of wyverns.

The big ones— that he now recognized as adults — were surrounding the pup that had been under the invader’s control, licking and nudging as if encouraging it to wake up. Another small wyvern trotted over to them, lowering its head to whine rather pitifully at Harry.

“I know bud, I know. He’ll wake up soon, I promise. How you doing, Albedo?”

“I took both items, as well as any other weapons in their person. Should we pick up the rest of the discarded items?” Albedo asked amiably as she passed through the shield without issues, leaving the two humans trapped behind.

Harry looked at him expectantly, and Momonga turned to nod at Albedo. “It should serve to point out what’s the level of equipment that is considered powerful.”

Momonga tried to not look around as the NPCs dispersed to collect the items, having managed to ignore the massacre fairly well until now. The Light Scripture had been easier to deal with, since Jarvis had taken care of everything, at least it had been quick and painless for those few that had been chosen to be ‘casualties’.

As if to distract him — thank God for that — Harry waved his wand to wake the previously controlled wyvern. As expected, the creature seemed to be free of the mind control now, and the happy reunion was almost touching, if it weren’t for the approaching of a very menacing-looking wyvern. One of level 100.

There were multiple scars over its scales, bones protruding from its spine and head, and the claws seemed to be covered with glimmering poison. The wyvern growled defensively in an impressive show of sharp teeth, as the rest of its — pack? companions? — scurried away from them. Harry ignored it, turning to the NPCs to make sure everyone was finished picking the items; gathering everyone together once more before mentioning that they should go meet Jald now.

Nodding distractedly, Momonga followed Harry without taking his gaze away from the growling wyvern. He was starting to feel nervous, what would a raid boss be like? Would he even recognize Harry? What if—

“Oh yeah, that one is dangerous. You can tell, right?” Harry inquired when he noticed Momonga’s fixated gaze, successfully interrupting his inner apprehension.

Momonga continued to walk, still looking up at the wyvern's scarred face, slit eyes glaring at their group hatefully. If looks could kill...

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious."

Harry nodded, looking at Momonga seriously. "Yep, she's got one of the best puppy looks I've ever seen. It's like you can't help but cave in, eh?"

One of the what?

Momonga looked at the wyvern again, before turning to face Harry.

"Puppy eyes?"

"Of course."

"…Are we talking about the same thing?"

"The wyvern at my left, yes. Come on, you can't tell me you don't want to cuddle her!"

Momonga blinked incredulously, pausing for a long moment before laughing and hitting Harry’s arm.

"I can't believe I fell for that."

"Me neither, it was pretty obvious I was pulling your leg," Harry said after barking a laugh. "That one is, as you have no doubt noticed, one that has a temper problem."

The wyvern growled dangerously low, and Harry gave a dismissing "yeah, yeah" at it. Now in better spirits, Momonga finally turned away from the creature, looking back one last time to see the imprisoned invaders still sleeping, trapped on Harry’s “shield”. Deciding that he didn’t need to worry about them escaping, Momonga allowed his shoulders to relax a little as Nazarick’s group reached a gigantic set of doors, the set looked out of place in the otherwise natural-looking cavern.

They were heavily adorned, so much that it wouldn’t look out of place in a Royal Palace, and the stony walls supporting them looked golden instead of the dull gray of the rest of the cave. Harry stepped forward with a protective Albedo at his side, and pushed the doors lightly.

With a heavy thud, the doors creaked open. It was almost like watching them go in slow motion, as the interior of the next room was slowly revealed. It didn’t look like a cavern anymore, although they were still obviously underground, the walls were now of smooth stone and looked… actually human-made. There were a lot of torches illuminating the gigantic room, and there were symbols carved on the ground that made him think of the door that led to Harry’s room—

A second after the doors opened completely, none of those details mattered anymore. Momonga took a deep breath, almost choking, as his gaze turned towards what had to be the Raid Boss of the dungeon.

The presence was heavy, and all his instincts immediately flared up to life in a fight or flee response. If his body were able to, he was sure he would be sweating as he held his wand closer to himself, the start of a spell already on the tip of his tongue, while his mind worked relentlessly in a fighting strategy.

The demon— there was no way it was anything else— slowly turned its attention towards their group, and in the blink of an eye, the threatening killing intent was no more. The change was so abrupt, Momonga was almost physically disoriented by it.

“Ah, it’s only you.”

The voice seemed almost disappointed as the demon deflated with a long sigh.

“Pfft, what a touching statement. Do try not to cry in happiness, please.”

The demon chuckled lightly, before turning its gaze to the rest of Nazarick’s group with mild interest.

“You’re armed, I see. Did you come for a fight?” Numerous tails waved behind him, as his posture shifted lightly to a more defensive stance. There was still no killing intent however, something Momonga was inwardly grateful for.

“We came to help you, actually. I felt my wards go down and knew you were in trouble.”

“…Trouble, huh? Your wards are the trouble. Do me a favor and allow any intruders entrance, will you?”

“Any— what? Why?!”

This had to be the first time Momonga had heard Harry sound so incredulous and confused. A part of him was happy to see his friend was capable of getting startled too; he had started to think nothing ever would.

“Because I need them, obviously.”

“What do you mean, you need invaders? Why? I placed the repelling wards, at your request mind you, because you wanted to protect everyone in your dungeon. What’s changed?” Harry crossed his arms, looking defiantly at Jald, but the demon just chuckled again.

“You really haven’t been long in this world, have you? There are very few things that can be considered a threat here, there’s no need to be so… wary. Besides, at the time I requested that from you, I was under a misconception.”

Harry only raised an eyebrow as he asked disbelievingly, “Misconception?”

“The reason for our existence, our dungeon. We were never meant to just live and protect each other… it seems our purpose is to defend a single place, and fight against invaders. But we can’t do that if any can come in, you see?”

“Well… yeah? But why— what does it matter whether you fight against invaders or not?”

Multiple eyes blinked at Harry in what seemed an unimpressed fashion, before the demon slowly hunched down. It was a posture Momonga related to an adult lowering themselves to speak at a child’s level.

“I will explain this in the simplest form possible,” Jald said in a calm, slow voice, as if speaking with someone mentally impaired. “The dungeon feeds on invader’s emotions. The fear as they run for their lives, or the excitement at the prospect that they will get their hands on some unknown treasure. Whether the invaders win or lose, the dungeon always feeds in the end. If some of us are… lost in the process… the dungeon restores them to their previous state after the invaders are gone, so no real loss is ever taken. Do you understand?”

Momonga was intrigued at this point of view, it was something he would never have even imagined. It left him with a nice feeling, like the one he used to get when he first began to play in Yggdrasil.

Harry on the other hand just crossed his arms in obvious disagreement.

“What happens if the dungeon doesn’t feed?”

The demon shifted uncomfortably, seemingly pondering the question before replying, “…then it means we’re too powerful for our surroundings, and our level of… difficulty will go down. Become less of a threat.”

If only the devs had done the same with Yggdrasil! Momonga thought lightly, imagining how many raids would have been more successful. There was a particular dungeon Ainz Ooal Gown never could quite complete…

“Holly sh— shoot,” Harry corrected in the last second, glancing at the elf twins worriedly before turning towards Jald again, “how did you manage to remain like normal, then? I don’t think the dungeon’s level has gone down since my last visit?”

The demon nodded towards the door they had used to enter the chamber. Turning around, Momonga could see a couple of slimes escorting the ‘traitor’ blank-faced female from before, who seemed to still be under the effect of Harry’s spell, before she was thrown into what looked like an imprisonment cell.

“The human over there is… unstable, but quite sharp. Got in using the only part of the dungeon not protected by the wards. And her emotions vary so much even when she’s doing nothing at all, there was no way I could let her die,” Jald explained simply. She must really be insane, if her changing emotions were enough to feed such a dungeon…

Harry raised an eyebrow, and waved his wand in her direction with a small flourish. The female seemed to wake up from her trance, looking in horror at the cell she was trapped in before her gaze fell on Harry. Upon noticing him, her scowl turned into something akin to hope, as she crawled towards the entrance of her cell.

“Help! Please, let me out of here! I can’t— they’re torturing me!” she whined rather pitiably, extending a hand as if to reach out.

“We do not. It’s not our fault that you hurt yourself in your boredom.”

“Don’t listen, he’s a demon—“

“Can’t say you aren’t, you’re surprisingly sadistic,” Jald countered nonchalantly before turning towards Nazarick’s group again. “She was covered in human blood when she entered our cave, looking quite satisfied. Even asked if she could fight against the invaders from today, actually... old companions, I believe.”

“…right. Can I take a look though?”

“Be my guest.”

Harry nodded his thanks before turning towards the female. The atmosphere shifted lightly, and Momonga deduced he was doing that mind-reading thing again—

“Who are you, exactly?” Jald asked looking directly at him, startling him from his thoughts. Fuck, they hadn’t even been introduced properly, have they? You had one job Harry!

“My name is Momonga,” he muttered as calmly as he could, and was happy to think he even managed to sound somewhat regal, “the ones behind us are our guardians: Albedo, Mare and Aura.”

The NPCs shifted, looking mistrustfully at Jald. Based on nothing but their posture, it seemed like they were daring the demon to try to harm them.

Jald chuckled, waving with a gigantic arm in a mock salute before muttering a soft, “Pleased to meet you. Anyone that can put up with Harry for long periods of time deserves respect.”

Momonga couldn’t help but chuckle at the jab, which was probably what stopped the NPC’s from replying in defense of his friend.

“Oh yeah, there was this one time the wards misfunctioned. I was trapped here for a week, so we were basically stuck speaking with only each other,” Harry mentioned distractedly, seemingly still mind-reading.

“Can you imagine? For a week! I believe I should qualify for sainthood for my patience,” Jald scoffed, and Momonga chortled, raising a hand to try to cover a full laugh.

“We became friends afterwards.”

“I was tempted to just burn him, so many times. I could even make it look like an accident.”

“We understand each other quite well, thanks to that.”

“No witnesses. No one would ever know.”

Momonga fully laughed then, covering his mouth with one hand while the other one went to his ribs, trying to control the sudden fit. This demon— he had the same sense of humor that characterized Ulbert Alain Odle. Man, did this bring memories…

“Merlin, she really is sick,” Harry suddenly muttered with a disgusted expression, quickly turning away from the now crying female, “I can’t believe someone would— ugh. A long-life imprisonment is almost too good, but at least she’s serving a purpose here.”

 Harry patted himself, as if getting rid of imaginary dirt, and turned in such a way that the imprisoned human wasn’t even in his field of vision anymore. Had it really been that bad?

Apparently yes, because when the female tried to cry out for help again, Harry simply waved his wand lazily to knock her out, not even sparing a glance.

“Ok then, so you want me to take down the repelling wards, and the shields at the entrance, I suppose?” Harry asked to the demon, as if the prisoner behind him was no longer a concern.

“Only at the entrance, yes. I must admit I’m surprised by today’s group; they managed to tear down your shields multiple times… For a moment I thought they were trying to take control over them.”

“That’s impossible. The reason the wards are linked to me and not to the surroundings with runes is, precisely, so they can’t be tampered with. No one else can take over. I’m regretting that now though, it was very draining,” Harry said with a grimace, as he took out his wand and started to wave it seemingly at random in the air “Mind if I appoint you as the main lead now?”

“I don’t know how they work.”

“Yeah, you won’t be able to modify a thing, but you would know of any changes done by a third party, and if they’re broken they will flare up again by taking some of your MP. Only limited to one time though, don’t want you to faint in exhaustion or something.”

“Oh please, who would faint for such a ridiculous reason?”

Harry coughed, not answering that question, and the demon looked incredulously at him.

“You actually fainted?”

“Shut up!”

Jald laughed loudly, letting himself fall as if his legs had suddenly failed to support him. Sitting down, rocking with laughter, Momonga wondered how he could have thought this demon was threatening at all.

“I hate you.”

“Haha— ah, my sincere apologies,” the demon said breathlessly, managing to sound both, insincere and unapologetic, “are you— haha, are you finished?”

“Done,” Harry grumbled, managing to look offended for a total amount of five seconds before grinning again.

“Thank you.” The words sounded sincere now as the demon sighed contently, tails merrily waving at his back.

Harry nodded, smiling, and waved his wand to transform some rocks into chairs. The NPCs refused to sit down — still untrusting of the demon, apparently — but Momonga didn’t have any qualms as he sat down at Harry’s side, prepared to chat amiably.

They stayed like that for a long while. In the end, it seemed that Jald didn’t know how or why he was brought to this world either — which was a shame — but proved to have been living longer than them in this world. Momonga now understood how Harry knew how to do so many things, without the need of a console, because the Raid boss seemed to be knowledgeable in such areas. He was happy to note that Jald’s explanations were much better than Harry’s, so it was easier to understand and without Momonga having to ask so many questions. When he mentioned this, Harry pouted — even if he denied it a second later— and Jald grinned approvingly at him.

Momonga felt blissful. Back in Yggdrasil— no, even now it was the same — Momonga had never had anything other than Nazarick, other than his game avatar. No family, no friends, only his boring work at sales in real life. He wasn’t like Touch Me, who had a loving family and a demanding job as a police officer, nor was he like Bukubukuchagama with her travels as voice actor. Hell, even Ulbert had had a special someone outside of the game.

It was no wonder Momonga’s world had always revolved solely around Nazarick.

But now, he found the demon’s company very enjoyable, even more so because Jald easily made fun at Harry in a manner Momonga hadn’t quite perfected yet, so they could poke fun at him together. Having been on the receiving end of jokes and teasing since the world transition, it was a nice change to have Harry trying to defend himself now.

“That’s not how it happened!”

“Of course it did, you only chose to forget. Now, it’s not like I mind, but for how long will you stay here?”

Momonga shared a look with Harry, how long had they been here, again?

“Tempus,” Harry muttered, grinning sheepishly at seeing the late hour, “woops, kinda late now. We should probably get going, eh?”

At some point, Harry had picked up Aura and let her sit over his lap while they spoke with the raid boss. Momonga had done the same with Mare when he saw his childish jealousy, feeling kind of guilty as Albedo huffed, arms crossed while standing protectively in the middle of them. Even after so many hours of chatter, the succubus had yet to warm up to the demonic raid boss. The elf twins had been laughing at the stories —and one time at Harry’s expense, although it took a bit of prompting from Momonga, and Harry assuring them it was all in good fun — for some time now.

Letting down the children, Harry waved his wand to make the chairs disappear, before taking a hold of the staff, the World item that he had—

…that he had… gained in this specific dungeon, actually!

“Wait!” Momonga exclaimed excitedly, turning towards the demon once more, “one last question, how does it— I mean, can this dungeon produce data crystals or— or items?”

The light atmosphere he had gotten accustomed to suddenly felt tense.

Jald stood up abruptly, stepping backwards to put some distance between them. At the same time, Harry pushed Aura behind him while moving to the right, so he was standing at the front of Nazarick’s group almost protectively.

“Hey Jald, he didn’t mean anything with that…. he’s just curious by nature. He’s been asking questions all day, surely you’ve noticed?” Harry said tentatively, body tense in what Momonga assumed was a ready-for-battle stance. What was going on?

Albedo had joined Harry on the front, but the homunculus had a hand on her shoulder in an obvious “calm down” gesture. Jald, in the meantime, had yet to move or say anything.

“Jald? You even there, bud?”

The demon blinked, multiple red eyes looking at all Nazarick members at the same time, seemingly pensive, before slowly nodding once.

“Curiosity… I understand that. Perhaps I reacted too harshly. For a moment, he seemed like one of them.”

Who exactly? What had he said?!

“I know Jald, I know. But you don’t have to worry about us… we’re allies,” Harry said soothingly, still somewhat tense, “we would never endanger you or your dungeon.”

Endanger… oh, he had actually thought that—

“I didn’t mean it in that way, we wouldn’t— I mean, even if you had answered affirmatively… I— it wasn’t my intention. I’m sorry, I didn’t express myself correctly. Please forgive my thoughtless question.”

He liked this demon, who joked just like Ulbert had used to. He liked finally having something outside of Nazarick to care about, like his guildmates, his friends — who may as well have been his family— had used to. He really wouldn’t organize a sudden raid on this dungeon simply because it was possible to get items that way, even if he was a collector at heart. There were plenty already in the treasury.

Thus Momonga apologized like any Japanese would, by bending down his head with the arms at his sides. He could hear the NPCs gasp before he felt them surrounding him, asking him to raise his head in a state almost akin to panic.

Ah, they had reacted like that when Harry apologized in the Throne room as well. He had forgotten.

“…you’re quite amiable,” Jald admitted softly after a small pause. Momonga tentatively raised his head, relief flowing through when he saw that both, Harry and the demon seemed to have relaxed their posture.

“Only him? What about me?”

“You’re downright dreadful.”

Harry protested in mock offense, and the tense atmosphere finally dispersed completely. Even then though, Jald kept his distance, seemingly more alert, and Harry was quick to bid farewell before gently prompting Nazarick’s group to leave the room.

The twins gathered the couple of survivors — now unconscious — and once they had walked through the dungeon and were back on the surface, Harry opened a [Gate] to go to the forest near Carne Village, and then back home.

Going to the 9^th floor, Harry asked everyone to stay before the group could disperse, giving the task of delivering the prisoners to Yuri and Solution before closing the door of Momonga’s room. They were in the part that looked like an office.

“Well, I think I need to justify that somewhat,” Harry stated simply, looking at Momonga pointedly for a moment before deciding to focus on the NPCs, “you need to understand, his perspective is one of a dungeon MOB, having to fend against invasions fairly often. From his perspective, all the invaders ever did was attack, killing everything on their path— and, well, raiding the dungeon’s treasures, I suppose. You understand why he got a little defensive?”

“Harry-sama, nothing can justify that he threatened—”

“No, no, he was just defensive. There was no killing intent whatsoever—”

“— and he was justified. I really did ask a thoughtless question,” Momonga interrupted, raising his hand in a request for silence when he saw the NPCs wanted to object, “I was inconsiderate of his position, it was no wonder he felt threatened.  I really meant my apology, and do not regret it. He is an important ally, and I want it to stay that way.”

I want to have a friend outside of Nazarick, for once.

His words seemed to have some weight, as the NPCs nodded slowly in understanding, even if they seemed conflicted.

“You can at least see why he’s better as a friend than as an enemy, right?” Harry asked softly, which got a more determined nod from the NPCs. Momonga understood that was a more logical approach than the sentimental one he had given. After all, who would want a Raid Boss— a whole dungeon, as an enemy?

“Good, good, in that case, let us be cordial to one another, yes? Good,” Harry smiled approvingly, ruffling Albedo’s hair as he started to walk out of the office and towards Momonga’s personal dinner room, “go meet with the other Floor Guardians so you can tell them about Jald, ok? Momonga, got a moment?”

He nodded, ruffling the twins’ hair — simply because they were looking jealously at Albedo’s satisfied smile — before trailing behind Harry.

The moment they were alone in the dinning room Harry sighed heavily, smile transforming into a worried grimace.

“Sweet Merlin, I really thought he was going to lash out or something. Once upon a time, he would refer to all players as ‘killing machines’ you know? That was close,” he said tiredly, ruffling his hair nervously so it stood up in an even more messy way.

“Really? Well, from the perspective of Yggdrasil MOB, I understand that... Do you— well, think it can be… mended?”

“Oh yeah, he’s probably already over it. Jald totally likes you; probably because you’re all proper and shit. Very Japanese-like, I suppose.”

Momonga snorted, thinking that was one way to put it, but nodded in agreement all the same. Thinking back on it however, he couldn’t help but sigh tiredly.

“I was just…  I had wanted to propose an exchange of sorts. If he can create items or something, without anyone dying or anything like that, then we could make a deal. Help him by luring invaders to his dungeon, so they feed, and they could give us a few items or— or something like that.”

Harry looked surprised for a moment, before grinning excitedly.

“That could work actually. Even better, since this world seems kind of weak, perhaps we could propose turning it into a training ground of sorts… if Jald agrees not to kill any invaders we bring, and the invaders don’t deliver any killing strikes at the guys... Not like many people could actually kill one of them though. This morning is kind of fuzzy, were we seriously fighting against a Death Knight? That thing is a trash MOB!”

Harry started an undignified rant about how in hell a level 35 monster could be considered a threat to begin with, and Momonga happily joined him.

The day had been a roller-coaster of events, but at least it had ended well, so Momonga pushed back his worries about their performance in the Empire.

He could always worry another day, when he wasn’t so emotionally exhausted.

Chapter Text

Chapter 15 Testing

This… well, this had certainly taken less time than expected.

Since Jarvis was taking his sweet time interrogating the prisoners — they needed to know how many World items the human prisoners knew about, before deciding on their next course of action — Harry had decided it was as good time as any to investigate on the mystery surrounding Pandora’s actor.

If he was honest with himself, he had thought it would take him some months, perhaps a few weeks if he rushed it, but… in the end, it was fairly simple. It hadn’t even taken more than a few hours to figure out.

The investigation was done in two simple steps. First, he had asked Momonga how he had designed Pandora to imitate Harry’s own skills, and second, he had gone to the Treasury to test some things out with the doppelganger himself.

Looking back at it, it hadn’t even been a long conversation.

“I admit I placed you last, since it was very frustrating. I had the job and racial levels of everyone except you, but you wouldn’t tell me anything! In the end I just placed the skills I had figured out, but was still missing levels to reach the 100, so I added random ones…”

Harry had laughed then, mildly wondering what kind of ‘random’ Momonga had decided to add.

“Really? Huh… but, that doesn’t explain— I mean, there has to be something else there. For example, let’s say… what about the description? Anything interesting on the background lore?”

“The background lore? No, I didn’t really… hmm, well, I don’t remember the exact wording… I just placed something like ‘I give up, Pandora can do whatever the fuck Harry can do’ or something like that… I think?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I was just fed up with it.”

Wondering if something so vague could actually be the reason behind Pandora’s ability to apparate, Harry had left Momonga to his own experiment — something about his ever-changing room — while he went directly to the Treasury. They had agreed to share their findings with each other later.

…which brought him to this.

Harry and a transformed Pandora — it was kind of weird to see himself acting like Lockhart, but at least there were no witnesses — were standing side to side, with nothing in front of them except for a giant, red target Harry had drawn lazily on the wall. He had thrown a quick, wandless bombarda at it, and told the guardian to try to do the same.

Pandora — in all his dramatic fashion — had made a ridiculously elaborated flourish before screaming, “Bambarda!” at the wall.

It went against everything Harry knew about magic and how things were supposed to work. It went against the very nature of the spell itself, considering that the movement was all wrong, and he hadn’t even pronounced it correctly.

But damn it all, the result was still…similar. It still worked.

It was weaker, and somewhere on the back of his mind, Harry assumed it was because of his doppelganger restriction. Anything he imitated was only at 80% of the original’s capacity after all, but still….

This changed things.

This changed things a lot.

Oh Merlin, to think that Pandora could be the Guild’s ace in the sleeve, and that no one was aware of it…

But then again, there was a really big restriction on this newly found ability, wasn’t it? Pandora could only imitate that of what he was aware of —however vaguely — and there were plenty of things Harry had been keeping to himself.  That’s wasn’t going to work in the long run.

He internally sighed, his excitement suddenly drowned by indecisiveness.

Honestly, Harry had never liked the attention, never liked to stand out unnecessarily. He very much preferred being on the background, doing whatever the hell he wanted, however he decided to, preferably with no one being any the wiser.

He had toned down his skills for so long, from the moment he first joined Ainz Ooal Gown; tried so hard to blend in with his guildmates, that he still unconsciously did it. Even now, after coming ‘clean’ with his status as a non-player, while he was willing to show some of his original magic now and then, it was never too much, nothing too over the top.

Nothing that would drag too much attention.

“Harry-sama? Is everything alright?”

“Eh?” Harry muttered intelligently, having forgotten that the doppelganger was in the room with him, “ah, sorry Pandora. I got distracted.”

“Is something worrying you?”

“Nah, I was just… well, never mind that. Moving on with the test, this is something that I can only do with a wand, so let’s see if you can do without.”

Pandora tilted his head, his own face looking back at him with something akin to confusion —still weird as fuck, Harry would need to get used to his transformed appearance — but in the end let the matter rest as the testing went on. After a few curses were fired at the sturdy wall, it became apparent that Pandora could still imitate without the use of a wand — the lucky bastard — but only if he knew the “incantation” of the spell.

He couldn’t imitate something Harry did soundlessly — a silent protego had been his chosen example — nor could he imitate something whose effect was not immediately obvious — like wards with a ranging multitude of effects.

Runes were definitely not included on Pandora’s imitation skills — even after perfecting the symbols, the simple fire-inducing rune hadn’t worked — and although Harry had mildly wondered on the potion-making ability, he decided testing that would be a loss of time. Since that was an ability that actually existed back in Yggdrasil, Pandora would probably have to transform into someone else to do it efficiently, like Tabula.

What else could they test quickly? There were so many things Harry hadn’t tried— but, wasn’t it better for Pandora to learn over time? Although that would mean that Harry would have to stop restraining himself, which would mean that he would have to—

“Harry-sama?”

“…Hm?” Harry mumbled with a frown, his inner rant cut off again. Ugh, hearing his own voice saying something as silly as the ‘sama’ title was weird. Just saying ‘Harry’ would be less awkward at least.

“You’re doing that face again. If you’re feeling down, I can transform into Tabula-sama and dance!” Pandora offered enthusiastically, and the mere mental image of it was enough to make Harry snort.

“Pfft, tempting, but no. Thanks for the offer though, you really know how to cheer me up, eh?” he said grinning fondly at the NPC.

To think that this huge dork had the potential to be the strongest asset in Nazarick— perhaps it would be selfish not to teach him simply because Harry wasn’t entirely comfortable with what that would entail.

…Yeah, that would be a douche move from his part. What if a time came where Pandora needed to do something only Harry could, but he hadn’t bothered to teach him?

What if someone lost their life because of something as stupid as that?

Players and NPCs were supposed to be able to resurrect, but that could be different in this new world. It wasn’t a risk Harry was willing to take. If death was as permanent as it was supposed to be, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

Sighing with resignation, he looked at the time —still too early! — and decided he may as well get to it right now, since there was still time to kill. As much as he was tempted to postpone it…

“…alright Pandora, let’s practice apparition once more,” Harry said while placing a hand on the guardian’s shoulder, “take us to the 8^th floor, Rubedo’s area.”

“Rubedo’s? I see, indeed! Very well Harry-sama, it shall be done!” Pandora exclaimed confidently, and Harry mildly wondered what the hell was going through the guardian’s head, before the familiar sensation of apparition took a hold of him.

With a loud Crack! they appeared on a particular area of the dessert. More specifically, the one that was completely opposite to Rubedo’s location.

“You don’t even know where her place is, do you?” Harry sighed, which made Pandora laugh loudly. Merlin, did his laugh really sound like that? Or was it just Pandora’s poor imitation?

“I have no idea!”

“…you could have asked.”

“I wanted to try. Are we close?”

Harry snorted and shook his head negatively, before apparating to Rubedo’s location without a word, his hand still on Pandora’s shoulder.

They arrived silently on top of a ‘mountain’ of sand, one that moved seemingly at random all over the 8^th floor.

“Harry!” the child exclaimed happily upon spotting him, completely ignoring the doppelganger as she ran directly at him. Huh, how did she manage to differentiate them?

Internally shrugging, Harry grinned and crouched down in response, scooping her up in his arms with ease as she laughed delightfully.

“How have you been?”

“Good!”

“Not causing trouble to your elder sisters, right?” he said with a pointed look, which made her giggle childishly.

“I haven’t been caught!” was the honest response, which only made Harry grin wider.

Tabula had practically redone her entire personality thanks to Harry’s input, so he considered himself to be something like her co-creator. It was thus, inevitable that he would smile proudly at her mischievous nature.

“That’s the spirit,” he muttered while ruffling her hair, before turning to Pandora again, “by the way, have you guys met before?”

“Nu-huh.”

“Never had such luck, Harry-sama. Hello little lady!” Pandora greeted amiably, still looking like Harry, and waved in greeting with an exaggerated motion, “I’m Pandora’s Actor, the Guardian of the Treasury, and creation of Momonga-sama!”

“Hiiii~,” she waved back energetically, before turning towards Harry again, “did you come to play?”

“Hmm, perhaps later. First, I sort of— uh, need an honest answer… Rubedo, Pandora, can I count with you guys?”

At their affirmative answer, Harry nodded and asked directly, “Welp, if I told you I’ve defeated a whole dungeon by myself, would you believe me?”

“Not really!” Pandora saluted as enthusiastic as ever.

“Will that be my next bed time story?” Rubedo asked simply, blinking innocently at him.

“Focus Rubedo, focus. And Pandora, can you stop imitating my appearance for a moment? I’ll tell you once we reassume the testing, yeah? Ok, good. Now, if I were to tell you—”

About the defeat of several Guilds of level 100 players.

About some of his strongest skills and spells.

About the best results of his investigations.

As expected… they didn’t believe a single word. It was normal, considering Harry’s experiences were too different from their understanding on how things should work, they probably couldn’t even picture it as real scenarios.

“Thanks guys, I needed to hear that,” Harry said sincerely. It made him aware of how necessary demonstrating his abilities was, if he wanted the freedom to act as needed without making the others worry.

“Are you ok Harry?”

“Yeah, no worries! I just have a little favor to ask now. Say… How would you feel about a sparring session?” Harry asked tentatively with a small shrug, trying to keep things light.

Pandora’s Actor tilted his head confusedly; while Rubedo’s expression quickly changed from concern to uncertainty.

Harry knew her dislike for unnecessary fights, but there was no one else he could ask for a friendly spar.

He needed to have a spar with someone Nazarick denizens could recognize as challenging if he wanted to show them a bit of his true abilities, which limited his options to Momonga, Rubedo and… well, Jald.

Fighting with Momonga —even if only in a friendly spar — could rub some NPCs the wrong way, he didn’t want them to think they were seriously trying to inflict any harm on each other. That and, honestly, that fight would be over before it even started. It wasn’t challenging at all considering Harry could annulate all long-range magic on the area, which was Momonga’s specialty.

Fighting with Jald could lead the NPCs to believe he was facing real danger, not to mention the issue with locations, since Jald would have to come to the Coliseum — and boy, would that be something to discuss. The simple thought of trying to convince the Guardians that he would be bringing a very powerful, very dangerous guest to the 6^th floor was enough to give him a headache. The alternative— of having a spar on Jald’s dungeon— was equally troublesome.

By process of elimination, only Rubedo could help him out.

“That doesn’t sound like fun.”

“We wouldn’t harm each other, I was thinking of using [Translocation Damage]” Harry explained softly, patting her head comfortingly, “That way any hit will take MP instead of HP, so we don’t really hurt anybody. What’cha think?”

Rubedo seemed somewhat relieved at that suggestion, but she still frowned indecisively.

“Harry, why do you need a spar?” she said seriously, all traces of childishness momentarily disappearing.

“Because… I’ve been hiding the extent of my skills, and I don’t want to do it anymore. I want everyone to understand better what I can do, so they don’t worry or do risky things on my behalf,” Harry tried to summarize, smiling sadly at her.

“You’ve been… lying?”

“Lying? not exactly, I just…. eh… well, I guess is kinda like lying, yeah. That’s why I want to come clean. It’s the right thing to do,” he shrugged helplessly, bending to let Rubedo down.

“…Okay, then.”

“Really? You don’t have to—”

“It’s ok. The one that runs out of MP first would lose?”

“Considering we’ll be using it as if it were HP, I guess yeah—”

“Then it shouldn’t take too much time,” Rubedo said matter-of-factly, almost dismissively as she nodded to herself.

 Huh, she probably thought Harry was at disadvantage.

Harry relied on magic to fight, while Rubedo could easily focus on close-range sparring and rely on stamina. It meant that Harry would be losing MP points just by attacking and defending, while Rubedo’s MP would only get lower if Harry managed to land a hit on her.

Considering her pacifist nature, she was probably thinking on ending the fight by making him deplete his MP reserves, simply evading without her even having to lift a finger at him. That wasn’t going to work, honestly, and it would be cheating if he allowed her to spar with that as her main strategy.

“I’d like to add a condition, if you don’t mind?” Harry asked while sitting down on the sand, so he was more at her level, “at least 30% of the MP lost should be by the opponent landing a hit.”

Rubedo pouted childishly, in the way she did when she was ‘caught’ red-handed, before nodding with resignation.

“Thanks kiddo. There’s honestly no need to hold back with me, you know?”

“…mm-hmm.” Rubedo didn’t seem convinced at all, which made Harry sigh internally. This is exactly the kind of thing he needed to fix. He needed to have his Guild trust him when he said he could do something, and that wasn’t going to happen until he showed that his self-confidence was, very, very well-funded.

He probably wouldn’t be able to convince her on that with just words though.

“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Harry said with a wink, ruffling Rubedo’s hair affectionally before standing up. She giggled, raising her hands and making grasping motions at him until he complied and picked her up again.

Was he spoiling her? Perhaps. Was he going to stop? Hell no.

“Pandora, pay attention to the spar and note down whatever you see me doing. I want to see how many things you can learn just by watching, yeah?”

Pandora, who had silently witnessed their conversation, raised a hand to his forehead, military-like.

“You can count on me!”

“Great. Now, as for the organization… hmm, let’s go get Albedo before we pay Momonga a visit, he’s probably still experimenting after all,” Harry muttered to himself, placing a hand on Pandora’s shoulder before silently disappearing from the 8^th floor.

It was better not to drag Momonga into this yet, at least not until everything was ready.

— Momonga —

In the end, Momonga and Harry were just killing time while Jarvis interrogated the prisoners on the 5^th Floor.  They needed to understand, to know how many World items the human prisoners knew about, before deciding on their next course of action.

Thus, Momonga stood silently in the hallway, simply staring at the door that led to Harry’s room.

He couldn’t postpone this any longer. This room— if he could just understand the limits of it — it could help them out on the long run regarding consumable materials, which would mean they would be able to use them more on fights.

Which may be necessary to get the World items, if their prisoners actually knew of any.

With that in mind, he had come to perform a few tests. Harry had readily agreed when he asked —although somewhat distractedly, since Harry was busy planning on what to do with Pandora — so Momonga told the NPCs not to use this room for the day.

But now he couldn’t decide…. how should he begin the test?

On second thought, did he even need to decide that? What would happen if he just settled for thinking: I wish to understand how this room works?

It sounded lazy, even to his own ears, but in the end Momonga decided to try that first. What was the worst that could happen? The handle wouldn’t turn, and he would be denied access, at most.

Placing a skeletal hand on the handle, he was surprised to hear the soft ‘click’ that signaled his request had been accepted, and tentatively opened the door.

At first glance, there was nothing of note in the room. There wasn’t any kind of furniture, decorations, or ornaments. The only thing that stood out in the bare room was a portrait hanging on the wall that was furthest away from the entrance. Momonga went in, walking carefully towards the — snoring? —portrait, blinking repeatedly at it.

The man in the painting —was it really moving? — looked remarkably like Harry.

“Hi there.”

Momonga immediately took a step back. Fuck, the painting even sounded like Harry.

“… um, Harry?”

“…Yeah?”

“Oh fuck, I’m so sorry! Did I trap you in a painting? I just wanted to— shit, shit, how did—”

“Pfft, of course he’s not trapped in a bloody painting!” the portrait exclaimed amusedly, at the same time it made a calming motion with his hands, “do you even— woops, now that I think of it, probably not. Ok, long story short, I am the ‘Harry’ he was when the painting was done, that is to say, when Harry was 28 years old. I have his memories, likes and dislikes, and generally just what used to be his manner of thinking, but I’m not him. Does that make sense?”

Like hell it does!

“Y-you— um, where did you even come from? There was nothing in Yggdrasil like… a moving painting.” Was this one of those things Harry did when everyone else logged out of the game?

“Yggdrasil? Um, no, I am part of his original world. I’m normally stored inside a bag, hanging around his neck, have you seen it?”

Momonga recalled the pea-sized bag, that was obviously larger in the inside than on the outside, not for the first time wondering just how many things traveled inside that thing.

“Yeah. But if you’re— why are you here then?”

The portrait shrugged, staring at the simple, otherwise bare room with mild interest, “No idea, no one is supposed to be able to take me out but him. What is this place— ohh wait, I recognize those symbols! Nice, is this a Room of Requirement? How neat! All the worlds need one, if you ask me.”

What symbols? The walls and ceiling are bare.

“What symb— wait a minute… so you know how this room works?”

“Like the back of my hand.”

“Oh.”

Well, at least that explained why the portrait was here. He didn’t know what to do now though, how odd would it be to ask explanations from a painting? A… somehow, past-Harry?

Actually, perhaps that was just what he needed. Perhaps he could get some answers from him, about things that his friend was more reluctant to speak about.

“How old is Harry? Currently, I mean,” Momonga settled for his first question. Harry always refused to answer that one.

The portrait looked around, as if to make sure the room was empty, before grinning conspiratorially and leaning forward. Momonga subconsciously mimicked the action so his face was quite close to the painting.

“Older than 28.”

Fuck, this was Harry alright.

Whatever doubt Momonga may have had was washed away as he groaned, the portrait chuckling at him.

“You have his terrible sense of humor.”

“I’d like to think it’s not that bad. Honestly though, I don’t really know his current age… hm, scratch that, I don’t know many things at all. I have the memories, knowledge, and personality he had when I was painted, which I admit was too long ago. He updates me from time to time, narrating stories, experiences, and lessons learned, but it's not the same as actually living through those, you know?”

The portrait shrugged apologetically at him, and Momonga frowned in thought — or would have, if his face moved at all.

“But then— wait, do you even know who I am?”

Had the portrait been speaking so carelessly with someone he didn’t know? That wasn’t something Harry would do. This wasn’t normal.

“Oh yeah, Momonga, right? Harry’s last update was about Yggdrasil, he had joined a small group with an odd name… Nine’s Own Goal, I believe? You’re part of it, I’m sure.”

A part of Momonga relaxed, knowing this portrait wouldn’t just speak with anybody, but was saddened at the thought that it would only recognize the original members of the small clan.

Quickly deciding to mend that, he dived in an explanation of the Guild with 42 members, Ainz Ooal Gown, feeling happy to be the one explaining something for once. The portrait seemed genuinely interested, so it wasn’t long before Momonga got lost in past memories, talking about his friends that may as well have been his family, and gradually going over to the NPCs and their transition to this new world.

He didn’t realize how much time had passed, lost in his reverie, so he practically jumped when the door opened with a creak.

“Everything ok here? I’ve been trying to [Message] you for the last— holly shit! Why are you here?!”

The real Harry had stopped mid-step, looking accusingly at the portrait, who grinned in response.

“The room stole me, obviously. You know, I tried to brush off the summon, but in the end I couldn’t resist. Don’t fault me though, I was simply framed.”

Harry groaned, covering his eyes in apparent shame before tentatively turning to look at Momonga.

“I’m so sorry, that was the phase when I thought puns where funny.”

“They are!” The portrait seemed affronted, but the real Harry just gave him an unimpressed look. Momonga nodded sympathetically.

“Right,” Harry rolled his eyes, before turning to face Momonga again, “what exactly did you ask for, that brought that guy here? He really isn’t supposed to leave my bag, you know?”

“Well, I don’t really remember the wording, but I literally just asked to know more about the room.”

Harry raised his eyebrows in disbelief, humming while looking around the room, seemingly searching for something.

“So, the runes overpowered the protective wards I have on my bag? That doesn’t sound right… unless it considers— ugh, I basically stole from myself? The bag is protected to respond only to me, but I was the one to make the runes in this room, so it’s still my magical signature… damn, I will have to correct that.”

“What an idiotic mistake, you clearly weren’t in the right frame of mind.”

Momonga laughed at the disgruntled face Harry made, still feeling in high spirits. It was nice, talking about his Guild to someone was the best way to make his good humor surface, it seemed. He rather liked portrait-Harry in that regard.

“Hey 3D me, can I stay? Sleeping in a bag is kind of boring, if you ask me,” the portrait pleaded, even going so far as to clap his palms together pleadingly. Harry muttered something that sounded remarkably like “drama queen,” but nodded all the same.

“I guess… you could stay here for a while. The NPCs could use someone to talk to, from time to time, when Momonga and I aren’t here. Just don’t say anything stupid.”

“Anything stupid,” was the immediate response, the portrait smirking cheekily at Harry.

“Pfft, now I remember why you always stay in the bag,” Harry rolled his eyes good-naturedly, before turning around to leave the room, “Ah, wait, I still haven’t—hm, although it’s not like it’s ready yet. Agh, whatever, Momonga, can you meet me at your office? Give me a call once you’re done speaking with the portrait, yeah?”

Not ready yet…? Was Harry preparing something about his tests with Pandora?

Momonga nodded, mildly wondering if he should go with Harry to his office instead of staying, before deciding that the portrait was more interesting. Perhaps the portrait could help him understand better… at least until whatever Harry was planning was ready.

“Let me know once it’s ready, I’ll go directly with the ring.”

“Will do. And you, stop it with the puns!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It must have been a sketch of your imagination.”

Harry groaned one last time and closed the door indignantly with a loud thud.

“…You never used puns with me,” Momonga said lightly, thinking back on the time they had spent speaking.

“I just do it to annoy him, I grew out of that phase shortly after it started. There are only so many puns for painting, after all,” the portrait grinned unapologetically, and Momonga laughed at the confession.

Yeah, he liked portrait-Harry alright.

But in the end, he didn’t have much time to speak with it, not enough to ask any important questions at least, so he settled for just asking about how the portrait itself was made.

It was interesting to say the least. It seemed Harry’s world had a custom, where most wizards and witches would pose for a portrait before they reached the thirties, and the image would be imbedded with a copy of memories — how was that even possible? — up to that point of their life.

There was also more complicated magic involved, something about the way of thinking, something about the similarities with ghosts, something about adding new memories after the portrait’s completion, but all of that went over his head as the portrait explained using terminology he knew nothing about. A common mistake real-Harry made regularly, actually. It was the reason Momonga never could quite get his head around—

“Time’s up! All’s good to go, so stop gossiping and come to the office,” Harry’s voice resounded, which was odd since he hadn’t listened to the tingling sound of [Message]. Momonga sighed, mildly nervous about whatever Harry had prepared, before pushing it to the back of his mind.

No sense worrying about something he didn’t even know yet.

With that thought, he bid farewell to the portrait and left the room, taking a minute to straighten his robes before activating the ring of Ainz Ooal Gown to appear directly in his office.

Harry was sitting down in one of the office’s chairs, arms crossed in an odd show of reluctance. He stopped talking with Albedo to give Momonga a sheepish look — this couldn’t be good — while the Guardian Overseer bowed in greeting from her place at Harry’s side, a similar reluctant smile on her face.

…where was Pandora? This was about him, wasn’t it?

 “I apologize if I made you wait. Are we waiting for… someone else?” he asked as he approached the pair, not sure if Pandora was to join them or not.

“Nah, we were just waiting for you,” Harry answered simply, making a hand motion to invite him to sit down.

This really couldn’t be good.

Slowly, Momonga sat down on the offered seat, looking at Harry and Albedo questioningly.

“…what is it?”

“It’s nothing bad, no need to sound so worried,” Harry said lightly with a dismissive gesture, “I just wanted you to know that— er, well, you know the NPCs worry when we’re out of Nazarick, yes?”

This really, really couldn’t be good.

“…Yeah?”

“Well, I was thinking, part of it must be because they’ve never seen us in a real fight, so they don’t know the extent of our skills. That’s one of the reasons I’ll be engaging with Rubedo in a small spar, get a little flashy!” Harry playfully made finger guns at him, obviously trying to lighten up the words.

Momonga opened his mouth to reply, but Harry didn’t give him the chance and immediately continued, “We’ve taken precautions of course. The coliseum has been warded heavily so no attacks accidently get out, there’s massive surveillance around it so the NPCs can watch from their respective floors without having to get crowded in the 6^th floor, and Rubedo and I will be using [Translocation Damage] to avoid any real injuries. The first to run out of MP loses.”

Harry had hurried the explanation as if it were a band-aid, the faster it was removed the better.

Momonga stared silently at his friend. There was no way the worry of the NPCs was the only motivation for such an event, even more so when they were waiting for Jarvis to finish the interrogation regarding the World items.

And Rubedo, of all people? Seriously? Touch-Me wouldn’t win against her, even using his full World-Champion equipment, so what was Harry even thinking?

Silently counting on his head to calm down, he took a deep breath before asking “… you said there were several reasons?”

Harry’s smile became more genuine as he nodded, “the tests I ran with Pandora have something to do with this too. It’s the reason I’m the one sparring, and not you.”

Well, he could have started with that!

“What did you discover?” Momonga asked with more interest, arms uncrossing as he adopted a more relaxed posture.

He listened attentively as Harry described the different short tests done in the Treasury, the conclusion he had arrived at, and the reason he had decided on a spar to ‘train’ Pandora on his possibly-new skillset. It seemed he had created a temporary link with the doppelganger, so Pandora would be able to listen Harry’s spell-incantations as he fought.

It made sense, to kill two birds with one stone. This way, Harry would be ‘teaching’ Pandora, and the NPCs would feel more reassured.  Momonga couldn’t help but feel anticipation about the encounter too, wondering what kind of non-Yggdrassil magic his friend was going to use.

He still didn’t understand why Rubedo was chosen as sparring partner; but figured he may as well just let it pass. Witnessing a match would be better and faster than asking portrait-Harry on his friend’s skills, certainly.

“Very well, and the arena is ready?”

“Yeah, we got everything running before calling you, so you could take your time with your own test. Albedo here was great, I honestly didn’t think it would be ready so soon!” Harry added, patting the guardian’s arm gratefully. Albedo seemed to be positively gleaming at the praise.

“I live to serve!”

Harry seemed torn at that answer, but in the end simply hummed, and repeated, “you’re really something else. Thank you, Albedo. Now then, shall we?”

Momonga nodded silently, happy this morning had been so productive.

— Rubedo —

She balanced her whole weight on the balls of her feet, swaying lightly as she waited for Harry and her sister to arrive.  Bored, she started to hum a random tune, looking around distractedly for the tenth time.

They were taking too long.

Placing her scythe on her shoulder, she wondered if this really was ok. Albedo-nee had coordinated the magic involved, so the whole dungeon could see this spar, but… was the effort really worth it? The fight probably wouldn’t last long anyways.

Harry was at obvious disadvantage, since the high-tier spells used a lot of MP, but there was nothing else he could do to cause ‘damage’ against her high defense stats. As if that wasn’t enough, Rubedo’s proficiency was at close-range physical attacks, so there was no way Harry could let this fight fall under her area of expertise.

He would run out of MP in nothing but a few minutes, surely.

“Hey kiddo! Sorry it took so long.”

“Harry!” she exclaimed excitedly, mildly surprised at his sudden appearance. She felt the silent agitation of the NPCs sitting on the coliseum, when they heard her address him without a title, but she pointedly ignored them.

Rubedo couldn’t understand why the others added a “-sama” with him. She remembered, even if only in glimpses, that Tabula-sama had called him that once, and that it made Harry groan and feel ill. She didn’t want him to feel bad, so she had tried to tell this secret to her sisters, but they had only smiled and rubbed her head affectionally.

So what if no one believed her? She knew what she had seen, and Harry always smiled gratefully at her, so removing the title was surely ok!

“Spar starts at Albedo’s signal. You ready little one?”

“Yeah!”

“Remember, come at me with everything you’ve got—”

“Nah-ah!” Rubedo interrupted him, giggling when Harry made a face at her.

“Pfft, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Harry exclaimed with mock offense, his right arm summoning a wand from thin air, as his whole posture tensed.

Similarly, she took her scythe with both hands, lowering her posture to boost her speed on her first attack. He won’t know what hit him!

A loud clank! signaled the start of the mock tournament, and Rubedo rushed forward as if a spring had been suddenly released.

The idea was to fulfill Harry’s condition — that at least 30% of the MP lost should be caused by taking hits — on the first part of the battle. After that, they could play tag until he naturally ran out of MP, and then—

“Too predictable,” Harry scolded her, his tone oddly serious, as she felt something hit her side— coming right from her blind spot.

There was no pain, the [Translocation Damage] ensured that, but based on the way her MP points drastically reduced, whatever he had done was strong.

“What—”

“Focus. Don’t dwell on what’s already happened.”

Harry was suddenly in front of her again, but this time she had enough time to react and block—

And block.

And block.

Harry was not supposed to be good at close-range combat, so why was she forced to play at defense?

“I’m basically your co-creator kid. I know you well enough to predict what you will do,” Harry explained as if reading her thoughts, still attacking without pause, “on the other hand, you don’t know a thing about what I can or can’t do.”

There was a pause as Harry fired a particularly strong spell that she blocked with her scythe, her feet now grounded on the spot due to the impact.

“Do you still believe you have the luxury of not giving your best?”

Another loud hit made her lower her head, a soft sob escaping her trembling lips.

As expected, the sound made Harry pause in his attack, which gave her the opening she needed.

Watching as his face morphed from concern to one that could only be described as ‘you little shit’ she couldn’t help but giggle, as she landed a direct slash at his abdomen.

It was strong enough to send him flying to the opposite side of the battlefield, her scythe now shinning with dark, misty energy. Since he had received a direct hit, the “curse” her scythe inflicted could now be activated whenever she chose to.

“Ugh, can’t believe I fell for— woah!”

She missed the second hit by nothing but a hair, as Harry barely managed to move on time. He tried to move away, place some distance between them, but she chased right after him. Now the one forced to a defensive stance was him!

But even then, her scythe couldn’t land another hit.

Quickly getting tired of having her attacks blocked, she decided to active her time-limited skill [Premonition]. She was now able to see the most-probable immediate future, which allowed her to correct the direction of her blade in time to land an attack.

Two, three, she got as far as four consecutive hits before Harry disappeared with a loud Crack!, her scythe impaling the ground where he had used to be.

“Void Seer,” Harry’s voice resounded from somewhere at her left, but by the time she moved he had disappeared again with a Crack!

…her sight was different now. She couldn’t use her skill anymore?

She hadn’t even known there was something that could cancel it. Unbeknown to her, that wasn’t Yggdrassil magic, but one Harry’s world had developed to counter the Demiguise’s precognitive sight.

“Fiendfyre.” The voice now came from somewhere above, so she raised her head just in time to see a serpent made of fire suddenly approaching, mouth open wide as if ready to swallow her whole.

…what was Harry doing?

It was impossible for someone to be completely immune to something. Even if an NPC, like Demiurge for example, was equipped to be highly resistant to fire, if the magic surpassed a certain limit, it would still cause him damage.

Similarly, it was impossible for someone to be immune to all elemental attacks. One could only specialize in developing resistance against two, at most, and that was already taking into account the defense equipment.

… or well, she should say it was almost impossible.

A side effect of the material she was crafted with, of the World item Tabula-sama had used, was that Rubedo was immune to any and all elemental attacks, no matter their strength. She should be able to stand unaffected even against a super-tier elemental attack, and there was no way Harry didn’t know that.

So what was his plan?

Curiosity picked, she stood still and decided to receive it.

The flames licked warmly at her skin like a tender embrace, confirming that, indeed, it couldn’t cause any damage. What was the point of—

“Change of heart.”

Too hot! too hot! her mind uselessly supplied as she kicked the ground, escaping from the serpent of fire that had, somehow, become unbearably hot. A quick check on her MP points also revealed that it had caused major damage, even if she hadn’t sensed it as pain.

How? Why? Her body was made with a World item that protected her, the only way to surpass it would be with another World item, but she couldn’t see any equipped on Harry—

“Focus on the present Rubedo,” Harry admonished her again as he fired a curse that knocked the air out of her lungs, the impact forcing her to fall back.

A multitude of spells fell like rain, some dodged, others blocked, and a few impacting heavily on her body, all the while she tried to either avoid or dispel the fire serpent that was still going after her, but without much success.

At some point, the ground got covered with electricity, and she was forced to fly around and avoid touching it.

At some point, the gravity around her increased, and her movements grew heavy. It seemed she had been cursed, because the invisible weight followed her regardless of how much she moved around the battlefield.

At some point, Harry had created a golem using nothing but the arena’s ground, the earth-based creature had joined the fire serpent on its efforts to catch her.

Harry seemed to be focusing on elemental attacks, as if to mock her newfound vulnerability.

 She couldn’t hear Harry’s murmurs since the distance was too wide, but she supposed those were simply the incantations of the spells he was using—

Ugh!

Her vision got a little blurry, so she blinked rapidly to dispel it, trying to focus on —

To focus on…

Something was odd, Harry’s aura was… odd. Dangerous, more so than usual, she could notice it had a certain weight to it. Had it always been like that? It was different. Why?

The Supreme Beings had always felt special — superior — all NPCs could feel that, but this… what was this?

She could feel something deep in her core snap. Like a flipped switch, her whole strategy shifted, her mind now regarding Harry as a true threat, someone on even ground with her in terms of skills.

He had told her not to hold back, so this should be ok.

Harry’s next spell was interrupted as black, smoking chains trapped him; the serpent made of fire— Fiendfyre? — finally dissipating with a dying hiss, the golem collapsing with a loud thud, the electricity covering the floor fading away.

Her scythe’s curse.

Landing a single hit on the enemy was enough for her to win most battles, because the scythe’s dark energy could completely paralyze her foes. It was like a version of [Time stop] but one that could not be interrupted, no matter what. The curse got stronger the more hits she landed with her scythe, and she had managed to get quite a few in the beginning of their spar.

Harry would be frozen until he received another attack.

…He had said not to hold back.

Throwing any remaining doubts out of her mind, she gritted her teeth and prepared her strongest attack, intent on finishing their fight.

The reason not even the strongest Supreme Being, Touch Me-sama, could rival against her, was because her ultimate attack was very, very unfair.

“Broken,” she had heard Tabula-sama said once when talking about it, voice full of pride, and the memory of that moment was enough to make her grin with delight.

“Merlin,” Harry muttered wide-eyed, probably realizing what she intended to do, so she smiled apologetically.

“It will be over soon,” she said comfortingly, knowing that the most merciful way to finish a battle was to grant the enemy a swift death—

No, no, this was Harry. Not death, just…. no MP remaining. That was the point of this exercise, right? No MP left.

“Oh sweet Merlin.”

And this should be enough to get rid of his remaining MP, even if it was still mostly full.

“I’ll give you a get-well hug later?”

“Hah! Certainly appreciated sweetie,” Harry said with a resigned sigh, body relaxing in apparent defeat even if his gaze never left her wings.

Her bright, usually white wings made of rays of light, had turned a very dark, polluted red. They had also grown so much they were covering the entire battlefield, as if to embrace it.

A red blanket of death.

She had the capacity to cover a whole floor of Nazarick, so restricting the enemy wasn’t really necessary — she didn’t even need to know their location, or how many there were, honestly — but had chosen to use the one-time curse of her scythe as precaution.

She didn’t like it when Harry admonished her, and he had said not to underestimate him…. and that she could fight at full force.

So this was ok, right?

She sighed, letting the energy travel freely through her wings, their color changing until they turned black, with purple patterns adorning them.

The side effect of her World item — immunity to elemental attacks — was… convenient, but certainly not its main effect.

No, its true strength relied on this. She was dangerous because she could surpass Victim’s strongest Martyr skill, without having to sacrifice herself in the process.

“…I must admit, I didn’t expect it so soon,” Harry said amiably, as if he wasn’t about to get completely vaporized by her ultimate skill, “I thought I’d have to, you know, get my point across that I’m a deserving, challenging foe.”

“I didn’t know elemental attacks could harm me until today,” Rubedo replied honestly, her gaze completely focused on Harry’s calmed expression, “and you attacked at close range, even though that’s my forte. And you kept up with me.”

And you still look too relaxed for a beaten enemy, her mind supplied anxiously.

“Hmn, I supposed I did.”

“You can’t do anything against this. It’s over.”

Whether she was saying that to convince him, or herself, she wasn’t sure.

There was something… wrong with this. Her instincts were telling her to active it, to finish him off before it was too late, even though she knew she needed a little bit more time to fully charge her wings.

…what was she missing?

 “I can’t, eh? You know, you’re really smart, Rubedo,” Harry said with something akin to pride, which made her feel a weird mix of joy and confusion, “had I fought anyone else, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have taken me seriously this soon into the battle.”

Something was wrong. His magic, his aura… was odd.

“But you realized. Even if subconsciously, you noticed.”

Why did she feel like she wasn’t going to succeed?

“Do you see me like Jald does?”

Who was Jald?

“Do you see me as a Raid Boss?”

…Raid Boss?

Something in her mind finally clicked, puzzle finally sorted. So that’s what was different—

Tap.

Sometime in the future, Rubedo would look back at this moment, repeatedly, still trying — and failing — to understand what had happened.

In one moment, her wings fully charged, and the entire battlefield was instantly demolished.

The wards ensured that the coliseum itself remained untouched — and shouldn’t that had been the first signal that Harry’s magic was something else? — but no precautions had been taken to protect the ground itself.

Her attack had been so focused, on such a small area, that it didn’t only destroy the battlefield. She had gotten through, creating a hole that led deeper into Nazarick, the 7^th floor now visible. The river of lava was now flowing into the crater she had accidentally created, no doubt damaging the structure of the floor itself.

I’ll have to apologize to Demiurge, was the last thought that crossed her mind before the battlefield got covered again, this time by a white light instead of the pure darkness her wings had previously created.

“Karma.” Harry’s voice reached her from… somewhere. She didn’t even have enough time to pinpoint his location before the white light blinded her.

It must have been mirror magic; the kind that doubled the damage of the last attack issued. There was no other explanation for how she had lost so soundly, so fast.

In a sense… she had guessed it right. The match had really been over in nothing but a few minutes.

— Harry —

That would have been a very nasty blow, had Harry not known to prepare for it.

He cringed at the sight of the — now even more damaged — 7^th floor, mentally admonishing himself for not warding the ground. His idea had been to interrupt Rubedo’s attack when she inevitably tried to use it — and he would have done as much if he had sensed any NPCs under him — but in the end, he had decided this would be a flashier, if albeit fast, ending to their spar.

But damn, the damage was extensive. The second wave of energy had almost gotten through the 7^th floor too, probably stopping just a hair’s away of reaching the 8^th. He was thankful the NPCs were gathered on the opposite side of the floor, to watch the spar on one of the mirror-like TVs Albedo had helped him set, otherwise someone could have gotten hurt.

…He probably should apologize to Demiurge though. And take care of the reparations himself, so Nazarick didn’t repair itself using the money gathered on the Treasury. Momonga would kill him if that happened—

“Harry?” Rubedo muttered softly, incredulous eyes blinking up at him. Her wings were flashing in and out of existence, her MP points completely depleted.

He was carrying her like usual, both of them floating in the middle of the coliseum since there was no ground to stand on. It was as if he had just picked her up and this was just another day visiting the 8^th floor.

“That’s me. How are you, kiddo?”

“What… was that?”

“That was me,” Harry repeated, softly chuckling at her disbelieving expression, “I warned you, didn’t I? Told you I conquered a dungeon on my own. That I can go alone against a whole Guild and still manage to be the last one standing.”

“…Ah. Those were not… stories?”

“Nope, just a hard-to-swallow truth. Can you fly on your own?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Ok, I’ll let you go for a bit, yes? I need to repair that,” Harry explained, pointedly looking at the disaster their spar had caused.

“Oki-doki,” Rubedo replied a little more naturally, seemingly starting to assimilate that, yes, the spar had ended just like that.

“Awesome. Gimme a sec.”

He lowered his position a bit, flying closer to the 7^th floor so he could pay attention to the small details he was going to be repairing, and let his magic do the rest.

Focus, focus— fuck. Can’t remember how that pillar is supposed to stand. Was it really crooked like that, originally? Um…Demiurge would speak up if I missed something, right? Right.

Work mostly done on the 7^th floor, he rose higher and repeated the process, slowly repairing the ground of the 6^th floor that had been completely disintegrated. That was good in a sense though, since there had been no debris left to fall to the floor below.

Once the repairs were finished, Harry landed on the newly regenerated ground, making a hand motion for Rubedo to come down as well. Instead of landing though, Rubedo flew with open arms at him, and Harry was happy to note she wasn’t treating him any differently now. He had been worried she would become cautious around him.

And just like that, with Nazarick’s “strongest entity” in his arms, Harry finally glanced up and grinned at the place where the camera-like spell had been placed.

Sonorus.

“Now that our friendly spar is over, I’d like to have a word before we reach the end of this transmission, so please listen carefully,” Harry started, knowing that Albedo’s magic would be reaching her limit soon enough. It was better not to waste time.

“I… my power level can be compared to one of a Raid Boss,” he stated as firmly and directly as he could, “most of you are not aware of this, but before I joined this Guild, before I joined Ainz Ooal Gown, I used to regularly fight and win against other Guilds. Fighting alone, against groups that usually went from twelve and up to thirty Level-100 beings, I could still defeat them repeatedly. Even more, I could defeat them so many times I reduced several of them from Level 100 to Level 10 or below.”

Harry paused, letting his message sink through before continuing with, “Even among those of my level, I can handle my ground well enough. For those that are aware of Jald, of the dungeon Momonga and I visited yesterday, I want you to know that I single-handedly defeated them on a single round. The respect they feel towards me comes partially from that, because they know just how strong I can be.”

He intelligently chose to neglect the fact that he had completely used up his MP reserves, was very hurt in the process, and had ended up in a coma-like state for several days right after, to be able to somewhat recover.

“So please, and I really mean this, please don’t worry or act rashly in a dangerous situation. Whatever danger fate decides to throw at us, please trust me when I say I can handle it. I’m strong enough to protect myself, and those I care for.”

Momonga was going to be mad at him, considering this speech was about Harry’s own Raid Boss strength, instead of them both as “Supreme Beings”.

Then again, the bastard still owned him for not being honest with the NPCs regarding the whole adventuring plan, so Harry didn’t feel too guilty. It was implicit Momonga could take care of himself too, right? No biggie.

“If any of you are concerned— if any of you are worried about anything; about your fellow peers, about your respective floor, about items, about Nazarick itself, about your functions, about Momonga or myself. About anything,” Harry said seriously, trying really hard to get his message across, “the door’s always open, ok? We can sort it out together.”

Harry paused, interpreting the silence of the coliseum as contemplative, and smiled sincerely one last time.

“That’s all. Thanks for your hard work, I’ll see ya’ around,” Harry finished with a wink and a two-fingered salute, before disappearing from the arena with a purposely loud Crack!

And appearing on the VIP room of the coliseum, seemingly giving poor Momonga a bloody heart attack.

“Fucking hell!”

“Don’t swear in front of a child. Rubedo, you’re not allowed to say that.”

Rubedo huffed with a disappointed sound, inflating her cheeks adorably.

“Albedo, can you cut the transmission?”

“I’ve already done so, Harry-sama,” Albedo confirmed while extending her arms, so Harry complied and stepped closer, to give her little sister back.

“You’re the best! Thanks Albedo. How was the show?”

“Interesting. Very… eye-opening.” It was said as sweetly as usual, Albedo’s perpetual smile still firmly on place, which made Harry raise an eyebrow.

“Is that so? Hmn… do you think it will prevent others from worrying when we go out of the Tomb?” Harry asked before quickly adding, “be honest, please.”

Only Albedo and Momonga had been on the VIP room, so they had enough privacy for the Guardian Overseer to be truthful, right?

“It’s… not worry, per se. I can’t speak for everyone, but you…” Not worried? He had never seen Albedo look so concerned before.

The hesitant pause managed to gather the attention of everyone in the room, Momonga and Rubedo also completely focused on what she had to say. After a small moment, Albedo took a deep breath as if trying to gather the courage, before letting out a quick, “you’re too self-sufficient.”

What?

“Eh?” Momonga and Harry muttered at the same time, sharing a quick look before focusing on Albedo again.

The Guardian overseer huffed softly through her nose, wings flapping anxiously a couple of times before she lowered her gaze to the floor, seemingly unable to meet anyone’s gaze.

“We are here to serve you. You shouldn’t feel the need to do anything, because that’s our purpose. The reason we exist is so you can have a carefree, happy life—”

“You already do that,” Harry interrupted, raising both palms in a calming motion even though Albedo wasn’t looking at him, “we’re happy to have everyone here with us, and can leave the Tomb without worries because we know you guys are taking care of everything on our behalf.”

“That’s not— that’s…. not...”

“Why? Let me ask you something, and I need complete honesty here, yes? Please?” Harry waited until Albedo raised her head and nodded, “Ok. Do you think we should leave the world exploration to you guys?”

“Yes.”

“Nazarick’s safety?”

“Yes.”

“Alliances with the outside world?”

“Not needed, but we can do that if you so wish.”

“Patrolling of the floors?”

“Our responsibility.”

“Then what is our responsibility, as Supreme Beings?”

“Stay here… and lead?” Albedo seemed to hesitate on her answer for the first time.

“And if we do, and something goes south, it’s our responsibility to correct it, yes?”

“No, you don’t have to— we can, we wouldn’t let anything go wrong—”

“Albedo,” Momonga spoke for the first time, seemingly catching up on what Harry wanted to say, “you’re all— I mean, all of you, the Guild creations, my friend’s legacy… you’re all great, you are just the way you were always meant to be, but you’re not perfect.”

“We’re not perfect either,” Harry added, pointing to Momonga and himself, “something is bound to go wrong sooner or later, and that’s not anybody’s fault. As a Guild, all we have to do is trust each other and work together to solve whatever comes up, don’t you think?”

Albedo didn’t seem to fully agree, but nodded all the same.

“Come on, life would be boring without it’s up and downs. It’s ok for it to be imperfect, that’s just how it’s meant to be! All we expect, is for you guys to do your best, and be imperfect with us,” Harry added, placing an arm over Albedo’s shoulders in a sideway hug.

“Running risks is inevitable too. If we do nothing, if we remain safe but static, then the world outside will sooner or later catch up with us, which could pose a threat. Adventuring outside is also necessary,” Momonga added with a pensive voice, looking at the ceiling as if it held the answers to the universe.

“Yeah, that too. Don’t worry, once Momonga and I have a better grasp of what’s outside, we will start sending you guardians off in missions too, or allowing you to accompany one of us, whatever’s needed at the time. It’s just a matter of time, really.”

That seemed to be somewhat effective, judging by the way Albedo relaxed her shoulders, which made Harry inwardly grin.

He had suspected the NPCs worries were also heavily influenced on their perceived usefulness, so the prospect of adventuring out, doing missions, should put their mind more at ease.  

“Of course, I apologize for my rude behavior—”

“It wasn’t rude Albedo.”

“Thanks for being honest with us.”

They both reassured almost at the same time. This continued for some minutes, as they tried to address the root cause of the worries the NPCs shared, and although it didn’t seem to achieve much, Harry knew this was just one of the first steps. The beginning of a new point of view for the NPCs in Nazarick.

After all was said and done on that front, Harry politely requested a minute alone with the Overlord, so they apparated — using their own means — into Momonga’s dinner room.

“So, what did you think of the match?” Harry asked as soon as he sat down, munching on one of the cookies that rested on a plate at the table.

“That— the whole thing was so, so broken!” Momonga let out exasperatedly, throwing his arms up in the air as if demanding an explanation to the heavens.

“You mean Rubedo, or me?”

“BOTH!”

After that, Momonga started off a rant on how many things he had noticed, how many had gone over his head — and Harry tried his best to explain those — and why the whole thing was unfair, but awesome.

Well, he didn’t say the last word exactly, but Harry understood it from the excited way the Overlord was using to ramble. It was almost as if they were back on Yggdrasil’s best days, when the Guild still had all of its members.

“This is so— it’s just, if Pandora can learn half of those things— just think about the possibilities!”

Yeah, Momonga seemed excited on the new discovery. This had been the right thing to do.

Harry stayed chatting for quite some time — until all the food of the table was gone, to be specific — before bidding farewell to his friend, claiming he needed to go back to his room for a moment.

All in all, everything had gone better than expected.

Satisfied by the turn of events, Harry walked back to his room for a quick rest. He didn’t need to sleep, but damn he wanted to, considering the magic he had consumed during the match made him feel tired. Resting should be the fastest — and without side effects — way to recover energy.

Throwing a lazy Tempus at thin air, he halted for a moment upon noticing the late hour, before reassuming his walk with a worried hum.

It was already afternoon.

Harry frowned with concern. This wasn’t normal, Jarvis usually wouldn’t take so long with a simple interrogation, so what could be keeping him?

Turning around a corner — he had finally reached the hallway that led to his room — Harry stopped in his tracks with a chocked gasp.

Once, twice— no, still there, no matter how many times he blinked.

 Harry stared disbelievingly at the man in front of him.

Emerald eyes stared back at him tiredly, as the man played lightly with the gold chain around his neck — clearly showing it off to him — before entering Harry’s own room, the door closing with a resounding thud.

Fuck, fuckity, fuck.

What would make him use the bloody time-turner?

Chapter Text

Chapter 16 A Matter of Time

The Windflower Scripture specialized in information gathering and espionage, done remotely from a high-secured section of the main Astronomy Tower, inside the Theocracy’s capital. It was different from the Clearwater Scripture, that specialized in foreign infiltration and intelligence gathering at close-range, directly from the source.

The Windflower Scripture had been appointed to surveil remotely the mission of the Holocaust and Black Scriptures. They were using spells of the highest caliber, 5^th tier, and it had served them well during most of their travel.

But the moment both scriptures entered that cave in the Katze plains, their surveillance was forcefully stopped. No spell worked anymore, no matter how many variations they tried to use. In the end, they didn’t have much option but to request permission to use one of the artifacts left behind by their Gods.

The legendary mirror of Erised.

It was capable of going through all known anti-detection spells, and it had never failed them in the past, no matter the distance or magic involved. This item was specialized in performing remote surveillance over a specific being, so they were quick to assign the Captain of the Black Scripture as the target.

It was thus, understandable, that when the artifact failed to conjure the image, the Wildflower scripture panicked. The mirror was showing the Katze plains, so they had a good view of the deserted land and the cave-like entrance that protruded from the ground, but they were unable to follow the scripture’s progress in their mission. All they could do now was wait for them to exit the cave.

And if they didn’t… well, they would need to gather the Cardinals, so they could determine what would be done.  Most likely, Zesshi would be mobilized.

A whole hour passed without nothing of importance showing in the mirror. As the second came through, they were starting to prepare to ring the alarm when something showed in the plains.

A small group of five, mounted in all kind of creatures, had arrived at the plains. Two young elves, an armored warrior, an undead, and a magic caster. The new arrivals stood still for a short while, seemingly discussing among themselves, before the magic caster separated from the group.

The Wildflower scripture watched in awe as a salamander came out of the cave, obviously following the caster’s orders.

A magic caster could only control monsters that were weaker than themselves, that much was common knowledge. Maybe if several casters reunited and made a magical ritual, concentrating numerous spells from numerous people, or if they had powerful magical tools available, the result may differ, but that situation was unlikely.

Expressed simply, this magic caster was stronger than the creature he had summoned. Stronger than the legendary beast, the god-like reptile that had fascinated their ancestors so much as to leave behind stories, folklore, songs and works of art all revolving around the creature.

A Fire Salamander.

Rumors of its existence circulated around, but no one had ever witnessed such a living creature before. The Wildflower Scripture considered themselves lucky to be able to witness such a scene.

The fire salamander was, if their tales were correct, almost as strong as the Captain of the Black Scripture, one of the strongest in the Theocracy.

“Zoom in, I can’t see his features… what kind of magic caster is he?”

“I’m trying, it’s not like this came with instructions.”

The reason they preferred to rely on magic instead of the mirror of Erised, even when the powerful artifact was a legacy from their Gods, was that nobody knew how to properly use it. It was difficult, no matter how many different things they tried, the results were always unpredictable and impossible to reproduce.

“There!”

The image had finally, somehow, focused on the group that was now going towards the entrance of the cave. They could now see that the elves were related, since they resembled each other. They could see that the warrior was actually female, that the undead wasn’t a simple skeleton but something much, much sinister, and that the male magic caster—

…that the male— impossible.

“Is this… this—”

“No, no, it can’t be. He can’t— but— perhaps an illusion of sorts?”

“If it is, then it’s highly disrespectful. To mimic such appearance…”

“But if it isn’t, then what does it mean?”

Everyone fell silent, not knowing how to reply. They watched incredulously as the group disappeared inside the cave, the mirror now focused on the entrance, still unable to get in for some reason.

“Call the Cardinals. This is— can we focus the surveillance on… that man?”

“I’m trying, but the mirror is not cooperating. Let me just—”

“No! What did you do?! Go back! Go back!”

“I’m trying! This thing doesn’t—”

“What is this place? Where are the plains?”

“Come here and do it yourself, if you think you can do it better than me!”

The image shifted randomly, so they were stuck watching grass, then the sky, then it switched so they were watching some sort of forest—

“There! Stop!”

They had returned to the plains. Not wanting to risk another misfunction, they refused to try again to switch targets, so the mirror remained targeting on the Captain of the Black Scripture.

For the first hour, they waited anxiously for any kind of movement. When nothing happened, they sent two people to gather as many books from their churches as they could; while some others tried to create a picture, drawing the appearances of the members of the group they had seen.

It was only after the night had arrived that the group excited the cave, with two members of the Black Scripture held unconscious and carried bridal-style by each elf.

The Wildflower Scripture immediately started to discuss among themselves. What had happened to the other members of the Scriptures? Was this a rescue? A kidnapping? Were they allies or enemies?

That last question was almost sacrilegious. After all, if that magic caster wasn’t faking his appearance, if he was really…

“They’re— what is that?!”

The man had created a rift mid-air, the purple fissure swirling with unknown magic. It opened wider when the group approached it, and the Scripture watched as they disappeared in it as if that was some sort of doorway.

A moment later, the plains were empty.

“Follow!”

“What do you think I’m attempting to do?!”

“Move aside, let me try!”

“By all means, you git!”

They discussed among themselves, trying and failing to find them again. Not even with the target set on the Captain — that had been carried away by the female elf — did the mirror manage to conjure any image. They cursed, admitting defeat only after wasting a couple of hours in trying to get the mirror to work, before leaving to reunite with the gathered Cardinals.

There were a lot of things they needed to discuss.

— Harry —

Deciding it was better safe than sorry, Harry walked towards his room and knocked twice on it.

“Fuck off,” his own voice grumbled back at him, words blurred together.

“Mad-eye used to say something. What was it?” Harry pressed, wand in hand just in case things turned ugly.

“Ugh, something about vigilance. Leave me alone already,” his own voice replied back, which made Harry relax and nod approvingly.

When double-checking that he was, indeed, seeing another version of himself, Harry always inquired about something that he only partially remembered. It was trickier that way for the impostors to answer correctly.

That still didn’t help him understand why the time-turner was necessary though.

“At least give me a hint or something?”

“Fuck off.”

“Come on, throw me a bone here,” Harry pressed again, only for a loud yawn to answer his query.

“Hey—"

“Ugh… Jarvis. Memories today. Jald’s an asshole,” the voice complained with an exhausted sigh, which made Harry wince empathetically. 

Damn, his future didn’t look promising.

“Ok, thanks. Put on a quarantine so you’re not bothered, I just finished my match with Rubedo after all,” Harry reminded the other, tapping the door lightly with his wand.

There was a grateful mumble, before the runes of the door shifted and glowed an angry red. Warning. It was programmed to give out a message, that Harry was in the middle of a delicate experiment and could not be disturbed, so entering or communicating was going to be impossible.

Basically, no one would be able to enter, and the room was sound-proofed until the quarantine got deactivated once more, so Harry didn’t have to worry about anyone encountering his future-self on accident.

Nodding in satisfaction, Harry turned on his heel and sent a [Message] to Jarvis.

“…Sir?”

“Hi there. Where are you?”

“Where— I’m still in the fifth floor Sir. As ordered…?”

“Just double-checking bud,” Harry said calmly, activating his ring to go to the 5^th floor, [Message] still active, “just wanted to ask— oh, there you are.”

Standing at the entrance of the prison, the Zerg nodded politely at him as the [Message] dissipated. Harry quickly walked over the snow towards the prison, patting his NPC on the shoulder once he caught up with him.

“How’s everything going?”

“I was just about to start the interrogation Sir,” Jarvis answered with a confused expression, which made Harry freeze for a moment.

Just about to start? What had he done all day then?!

“I know that,” he lied swiftly, summoning his wand while motioning for the zerg to bend down a little.

“I… don’t understand what you’re referring to, then?” Jarvis looked befuddled but lowered his head obediently.

“Sorry, sorry, now that I think of it— we’re pressed for time, so it’s better if I just take a look at it myself. Can you think of what happened this morning, please?” Harry asked lightly while transfiguring an empty flask.

Jarvis paused, looked at him weird for a long moment, before slowly nodding his consent.

Placing the tip of the wand on Jarvis’ temple, Harry took a rather long, shinning memory and placed it on the flask, the swirling liquid almost filling it completely.

“Woah, those sure are a lot of details. You’ve got a good memory Jarvis,” Harry praised sincerely. For memories regarding a single day, a normal person wouldn’t take more than half of the flask.

“I take note of everything important Sir,” Jarvis agreed, looking curiously at the now-filled flask, “what exactly is that?”

“Your memories from today. I need to see things from your perspective,” Harry said honestly, surprised when he got an understanding nod from the zerg.

“Of course. Let me know if you need anything else on regards of it,” Jarvis said confidently, in a tone that suggested he felt proud of something. Huh.

“Will do, thanks! Now go, time’s a wastin’,” Harry all but shooed, which made Jarvis smile sincerely before bowing in farewell.

Now standing alone in the entrance of the prison, Harry dwelled lightly on where to go before settling for the 4^th floor. There was nothing but golems there, after all, so the chances of being disturbed mid-way were unlikely.

Calmly, as if he had all the time in the world, Harry walked towards the lake and sat at the edge of it, looking at the flask indecisively.

Usually, a pensieve would be recommended, but he didn’t want to take much time on surveying the memory. Placing it directly on his head would cause a minor headache, but was faster, and he could always just get rid of it with occlumency once everything was said and done.

With that in mind, Harry took the memory and placed it on his own temple, the record-like vision immediately overwhelming his senses.

“—to interrogate the prisoners, as you and Sir Momonga have instructed. Is something wrong Sir?”

“I wouldn’t say wrong…  I just— this is something that can’t wait. Knowing him, Momonga will want to take action as soon as we get the information out of them, but we can’t keep delaying — you understand what will happen if we do, right? I’m not overthinking it, am I?”

“…I think you’re right Sir. The longer it takes, the harder it will be.”

“Exactly! So please do me this favor, yes? You’re efficient, it probably won’t take longer than—”

“Ah, but if Sir Momonga inquires—”

“Oh, I know, I know. Don’t worry, I’ve got something planned for today— let’s just say the whole dungeon will be too busy to notice your slight delay.”

“…should I worry?”

“Of course not! I’ll just have a friendly spar, that’s all. Just to get everyone in tune of what I can do, since no one seems to want to believe me. Doing a solo-conquer of a dungeon seems to be too much for them to grasp.”

“Can’t imagine why, Sir.”

“Yeah, me neither. I’m obviously awesome like that.”

The Jarvis on the memory chuckled. Deciding it was going too slow, Harry mentally sped it up to later in the morning, so he could see what— oh, oh, OH!

So he had sent Jarvis to do that!

But it didn’t make any sense. Between that short-mission, and the interrogation of the prisoners, obviously the latter was much more important. Unless…

Unless the mission was just a distraction, and Harry had simply wanted Jarvis to leave the 5^th floor for later.

Understanding what had happened — kind of, most likely? very probably? — meh, there were no wrong answers where time-travel was concerned. He had already done what he was about to do, after all.

Still, it was better to be prepared, so he apparated at the Treasury to get a hold on his world item, quickly placing it in the bag around his neck, before accio-ing two items from the same bag.

The time turner, and the invisibility cloak.

He covered himself with the cloak first. It was bothersome — which was the reason he almost never used it — but some of Nazarick denizens could see through [Perfect Invisibility], so he didn’t have another option. The cloak was the only thing that could deceive all of them without fail.

After all, if one could hide away from Death, then there was no chance for anyone to bypass the cloak’s power.

Making sure he was fully covered, he added charms for silence and to mask his scent, waving his wand over himself until he was satisfied. Finally, placing the time-turner around his neck, he chose to stay in the Treasury as he turned it a few times, enough to get back to the morning.

Walking past his morning-self and Pandora — who seemed to be about to begin the tests — he silently apparated to the 5^th floor once more, swiftly taking off his cloak just before he called for Jarvis.

“Oh, it’s you Sir!” Jarvis somehow managed to sound both, relieved and panicked, “I just finished the preliminary interrogation—”

What.

“You did?”

“Yes, and it doesn’t— I’m not sure—”

“Calm down, hey—”

“—if it would be wise to share this with Sir Momonga,” Jarvis hurriedly finished, giving him a pleading look.

Bloody hell, this was unexpected. What was he supposed to do now?

“I… see. Ok, follow me.”

“Yes Sir.”

They were alone, and he was confident no one had eavesdropped, but it would be safer to have this conversation in a more secluded room just in case. With that in mind, Harry led his NPC to one of the rooms that were deeper in the prison, locking the door and placing all kind of privacy wards around it.

He hadn’t seen any of this in Jarvis’ memories… which meant that he was going to obliviate the zerg very proficiently, once this conversation was over.

Fuck.

“Ok, first things first. How are you feeling?”

“Sir,” Jarvis snapped at him with an expression that seemed to scream ‘that doesn’t matter’ but Harry didn’t agree.

“That bad, eh? Come here, I’ll help you calm down.”

“…yes Sir,” Jarvis agreed after a short pause, his gaze softening a little. Deep inside, the zerg was probably grateful.

Once his NPC was at an appropriate distance, Harry made a stop motion and summoned his elder wand, using the spell the healers in his world had created to calm down patients.

“There you go. Better?”

“Yes Sir, thank you.”

“Happy to help,” Harry said sincerely, waving his wand to transfigure the chairs already in the room into comfier, single sofas, “sit down, let’s hear your report.”

“Understood. As you may be aware, the male human is immune to my infection, since the zerglings can only infect those of level 60 and lower, so I had to make do with the old lady that accompanied him. If you require specific information from the male, I’m afraid we will have to use a less… polite method of interrogation.”

Torture? No thanks.

“Not really, I can just use Legilimency on the guy, if it’s really needed. It would take some time though, so let’s just start with what you’ve gathered from the lady, yes?” Harry contradicted softly, smiling when he noticed Jarvis had relaxed his wings a little.

“Of course. The lady, she is called Kaire, and is the oldest member of the Black Scripture. The human male is the Captain of the same Scripture, and something known as ‘God-kin’, the general term used to associate those who are descendants of the Six Great Gods: the beings that founded the Theocracy six hundred years ago.”

“Gods?”

He listened with rapt attention as Jarvis described, that with the genes of the Six Great Gods coursing in their veins, God-kins were viewed as one of the most powerful individuals in this New World. It seemed to be a common belief, that the God-kins' potency wasn’t restricted by the confines of human limit, as they were leagues above their level.

The Captain seemed to be considered as an “awakened” God-kin, which would explain how he got to reach level 70 in a world were a being of level 35 was considered to be a strong threat.

“But if that’s true— how come the Empire made us fight against a Level 35 Death Knight?”

“The Slane Theocracy is very tightlipped on the subject, even among their own people, only those at the highest positions have an inkling of this. From what I gathered, they are the only nation that has these… God-kins, so the surrounding human nations make do with their common folk and heroes, which is normally enough to survive. There is a huge difference in what they consider as strong for this reason.”

“Huh… then, what do they do when something over level 35 appears then? Let the other nations die?”

“No, the Slane Theocracy seems to be focused on salvaging and preserving the human race as a whole. They provide support from the shadows, but only to the surrounding human regions, and only so long it doesn’t impact negatively their own nation.”

 “I guess that makes sense… so we’re probably the strongest in the surrounding regions— well, us and Jald’s dungeon, I guess. I understand why Jald was so relaxed at the prospect of invaders then,” Harry mentioned in understanding, before frowning confusedly, “but if that’s the case, why didn’t they attempt anything sooner? Jald’s been here for some years now.”

“Since the creatures only roamed at the Katze plains, and the death count wasn’t that high, it was decided that their intervention wasn’t necessary. The Theocracy only helps the surrounding nations when it comes to a major threat, like the complete extinction of a main city, for example.”

“Huh. But then, why send a party to Jald’s dungeon? Nothing major has happened—"

“The issue is… that— that was my fault. When the zerglings were discovered, it seems they were not recognized as such. The Scriptures believed them to be infernal spirits, that the dungeon on the Katze plains was attacking the Theocracy directly.”

Oh.

Well, Harry could see the similarities between both species. It was understandable, if they didn’t know the zergs existed, that the Theocracy would associate them with the infernal spirits.

“How were they discovered, to begin with?” Harry asked next, leaning forward in his seat so the elbows were over his knees, one hand supporting his chin.

This conversation was enlightening and all, but he still couldn’t understand why Jarvis thought it was better not to involve Momonga.

Jarvis sighed deeply, hesitating for this first time since this conversation started.

“…Jarvis?”

“I… this is— it’s actually related to a major discovery,” Jarvis started, wings fidgeting uneasily behind his back, “Sir, the reason the zerglings were discovered is because the Theocracy has multiple powerful artifacts, a legacy left behind by their Gods. One of them is a pair of round glasses, that can see through disguise and illusion alike. Since this was a permanent infection, they were basically zerglings hiding beneath human skin, which is deemed as a disguise, so they were discovered.”

Jarvis rushed it out, as if saying everything in the same breath would make it somehow easier.

“…that doesn’t explain why Momonga shouldn’t be informed? What—”

“Sir,” Jarvis interrupted, sounding terribly troubled. He paused, hesitant, before reluctantly continuing, “it was… you who gave most of these artifacts to them.”

…what?

Harry stared incredulously at Jarvis, waiting for the other shoe to drop, thinking that, perhaps, this was just some sort of elaborated prank. Perhaps Momonga had recruited Jarvis and was just pulling his leg, perhaps—

But the zerg remained quiet, just looking at him almost apologetically.

That— that didn’t make any sense. It just didn’t.

No, actually…. There was a way. It was unlikely, but—

“Fucking, fuck.”

“…Sir?”

“It— ugh, it’s impossible. The probability, it’s so small it’s — I mean, truly, what are the odds?” Harry muttered to himself, still disbelieving. He turned his gaze down, looking at the floor as if it held all the answers; his right hand now supporting his forehead.

“Sir… can you please explain from the beginning?” Jarvis asked softly, cautiously. Damn, he probably looked agitated as fuck, if his own NPC felt the need to thread carefully.

Harry let out a self-mocking laugh, passing a hand through his hair as he took a deep breath to calm down.

He still couldn’t tear his gaze away from the floor though.

 “It’s ridiculous, you know? So very ridiculous. I don’t get to choose my destination, when I…  jump to another world. The odds at arriving back, to one where I was already— to one where I had already lived before. It’s so, so small it’s laughable.”

Harry chuckled in disbelief, before taking a deep breath and finally managing to rise his head again.

Poor Jarvis looked really confused.

“Jump…. Worlds?”

“Yes. I can’t— I’m in no state to explain this to you right now; but believe me when I say…. this is not the first, nor will it be the last world I live in. Sometimes I jump before the world reaches its natural apocalypse, so six hundred years ago… I must have…”

“…lived in the Theocracy?”

“…I guess? Fuck. So that... that happened. Oh, bloody hell, Jarvis?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Please tell me I’m not— not some kind of famous hero?”

Jarvis’ wings fidgeted before he smiled thinly, “You’re not a famous hero Sir.”

“Oh Merlin, it’s worse, isn’t it?”

“You’re considered one of the Six Great Gods, Sir. My apologies.”

Harry cursed colorfully, hiding his face with his hands as if that would save him from his misery.

“How come the Light Scripture didn’t know of any of this?!”

“The Theocracy is divided among regions, one for each Greater God, and the Scriptures are not different. The Light Scripture knew of… the existence of the Gods from the other regions, but it wasn’t detailed enough for me to tie it back to you, Sir. It seems the Black Scripture has you as their main God though.” 

Harry cursed again, still hiding his face behind his palms.

That explained why that item, True Answer, had had such odd conditions of use.

It wasn’t a World item created by the devs. It was just one of the items he himself had created and left behind.

But then— oh fuck, oh fuck, how many of those where in their possession then?!

“Jarvis, do you have any idea of how many… items they have? That I made?”

Silence.

“…Jarvis?”

“Sir with all due respect,” the NPC said after a while, expression almost pained, “perhaps it’s not about the quantity, but the quality of them?”

“… what do you mean?”

 “From what I gathered about their… religion, their legends, it seems that… that these Greater Gods, and the artifacts they left behind, are the main reason the human race has survived until today, in the first place.”

Fucking damn it.

“…then, the items are strong enough to—”

“Ensure their survival, from the moment of your disappearance and to this day. Six hundred years.”

Shit.

“…well, a Death Knight is considered a threat, so perhaps it’s not that bad,” Harry replied after a while, slowly standing up from his seat, “better start meditating then.”

“Meditating?” Jarvis repeated, standing up from his seat as well.

“Yeah. I can’t— um, have all of my memories on the conscious side all the time, so whenever I jump, I keep most of my past memories in the subconscious. I need to meditate to bring them back,” Harry explained, passing a hand through his hair before releasing a long sigh.

“Understood Sir. What do you need to meditate? Do you require my assistance?” Jarvis asked eagerly, probably wanting this to be done as soon as possible.

Aaaaand triple fuck.

“Shit, I need my portrait. Which is currently with Momonga on the bloody room of requirement!”

“Would you like me to retrieve—?”

“No, that’s not it. That guy was still there when I— no, moving the portrait is not the answer.”

Think, think, think! There are no wrong answers where time-travel is concerned, he had already done what he was about to do.

So, if he couldn’t retrieve past memories from his portrait, then what had he done? What was he about to do?

Something that would leave him tired but relatively unhurt, judging by the state of his future self.

Something about Jald being an asshole?

…Ah.

“Ok, I think I know what to do now. Thanks for explaining this to me, Jarvis.”

“Then, are we going to—”

“No, Momonga needs to know, just… not right now. Which is why I will erase your memories and send you off in another mission to postpone this. Ok? We just need to gain time, at least until nightfall.”

“…Another mission?”

“A short one, should just occupy some hours. I need to erase your memory before explaining it, though. Are you ready?”

Jarvis looked concerned, but nodded his consent all the same. Harry was pleased to see that, if anything, his NPC trusted his judgement enough to confide him something of this magnitude.

“Thank you bud, I really mean it. Obliviate.”

After that the talk went by just as he knew it would, as he had seen on Jarvis’ memory. Ignoring the strong sense of deja-vu, he bid farewell to his NPC, and waited a few moments before hiding under the invisibility cloak once more, renewing the silencing and scent-masking spells around him.

Good. Now, the next step.

“[Message] Hey Jald, what’s up?”

“… you literally just left.”

“Aaand I know you missed me already, so here I am. Well, not physically, but you understand—“

“Yes, well, as lovely as hearing your voice is, spare me the pleasantries and just get to the point.”

“Pfft. I will, but not because you asked me to,” Harry added in a tone of voice he knew would make the demon roll his multiple eyes. He almost wished he could see his gigantic friend, just for that. “So… I just wanted to give you a fair warning, remember yesterday’s invaders? Well, it seems they… um, have some of the artifacts I’ve made, and that’s the reason they could trespass the wards and everything—“

“Please tell me that when you say ‘they’ you’re talking about that specific group, and not their human nation.”

“...I could, but I’d be lying, Jald.”

“I hate you so fucking much,” the demon exhaled exasperatedly, “I don’t even want to know how that happened.”

“That’s good, because I’m still investigating that. Just— uh, don’t leave the dungeon, yeah?”

“I never do.”

“Just be patient and— wait, seriously? Never?”

“…I already explained the reason my dungeon exists. I won’t do it again just because you’re a moron.”

“I don’t mean it like that, you lazy ass. I just find it hard to believe— in all these years, you seriously didn’t? Not even once? How did your dungeon survive before Clementine arrived?”

“Well, since nothing could trespass the wards, my subordinates would go out and forcefully drag them inside—“

“Woah there Satan—“

“— most of the time inside someone’s mouth. It didn’t really matter in which condition they arrived, so long they were still alive—“

“I said woah there,” Harry repeated more forcefully, not wanting to imagine people being half-swallowed or worse, “as nice as hearing your voice is, spare me the details.”

Jald chuckled as Harry used his own words against him, and thankfully interrupted the unwanted, detailed explanation.

“Was that all?”

“Not really. I… I know you don’t feel comfortable sharing this, since you always avoided the question back then, but I really, really need to know how you gather information without leaving your dungeon.”

A short pause.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? Then it must be none of your business.”

“Jald, you have your entire life to be a jerk. Would it kill you to take today off?”

The demon hummed, as if genuinely contemplating the question.

“Ugh, don’t answer that. Jald, please? I need to know about this world, I… I fear for our safety.”

“Harry. What. Did. You. Do?”

“Firstly, ouch. Your lack of faith wounds me deeply—“

“This is your fault somehow. Whenever something goes to hell—“

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m the living embodiment of ‘it could be worse’,” Harry interrupted Jald’s no-doubt justified rant, “I’m still investigating how bad it is on my end, and I’ll give you the details of what I manage to find, but before that I’d like to— I just… don’t want things to go to hell, as you eloquently said.”

Another pause, this time longer, before he heard the demon release a tired sigh.

“I fail to understand how I became friends with such an illiterate goddamn elbow—”

“Huh, I didn’t know it was possible to make an elbow sound insulting.”

“—but it’s too late for take-backs now, so drag your sorry existence back to my dungeon.”

“…can’t you explain me via [Message]?”

“Harry, my friend,” Jald said in a patronizingly sweet voice, “you’re as bright as a black hole and twice as dense. You won’t understand a thing unless you do it yourself.”

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Harry thought sarcastically, before throwing a silent Tempus and deciding that, yeah, he should have enough time to come and go.

“Since you’re helping me out, I’ll overlook the insults. Thanks Jald, I’ll apparate directly to your chamber.”

“Then do so already, I don’t have all day,” Jald scoffed, but with no real bite behind his words. Harry could probably make him wait for hours, postpone his visit until nightfall, and the demon would still receive him with nothing but a ‘you’re late’ for his troubles.

Jald was a good friend.

“I can practically hear you overthinking. Stop being an idiot and— oh, sorry, shouldn’t ask for the impossible, right?”

Jald was also an insufferable asshole.

Mentally preparing himself to be insulted during the full duration of his visit, Harry snickered while he removed the invisibility cloak, placing it in his bag once more.

After that, he turned on his heel, silently disappearing from the 5^th floor’s prison.

— Jaldabaoth —

How can someone so small be so troublesome? The demon thought after Harry appeared at his Raid Boss chamber, the righteous prick admonishing him for something and the other.

“I mean, I’m sure it’s a struggle, but surely you can manage a couple of sentences without insulting me in some way?”

“I’m not insulting you; I’m describing you,” Jald clarified with a smirk, which made Harry snort while making a rude hand gesture.

Not everyone could get his humor, so the last few years had been very boring. It was good to have Harry back, even if he would never say so out loud.

“Man, I missed you.”

Harry, apparently, didn’t have the same qualms.

“Who wouldn’t?” he replied smoothly, starting to walk away from his main chamber. Harry followed slightly behind, so he tried not to move his tails too much, lest he accidently slap his much smaller friend.

“Humble, as always. So, about the thing—”

“We’re walking towards it.”

“…huh. So, it’s a room—”

On second thought, perhaps he could just smack Harry on the head and make him forget he ever asked about this. It would save him the trouble.

“—or maybe some kind of— woah! Careful with the tails!”

“My bad.” Well, it had been worth a try.

“You don’t sound sorry.”

“I didn’t say I was.”

They bantered back and forth as they crossed through the main tunnels of his dungeon, some of his subjects approaching Harry with welcoming sounds.

“You’ve grown so much!” Harry cooed at a one of his kitsunes, which moved all nine tails happily like some sort of overgrown dog.

“Don’t spoil them. It took me ages to stop them from rubbing themselves against my ankles—”

“You don’t allow it?! What kind of heartless monster are you!”

Figures Harry would be offended by that.

“Look, I don’t tell you how to treat your subjects, and I expect you to return the favor—”

“Don’t listen to him, buddy. You’re a good boy, such a good boy! You can go and bite off his tails if he doesn’t let you around his ankles.”

The kitsune looked up and gave him a predatory look. The traitor.

“I thought you were in a hurry,” Jald reminded Harry, nudging him lightly to get his point across. They were almost there, damn it.

“Oh, right. Sorry buddy, gotta go,” Harry said sadly, rubbing under the kitsune’s chin one last time before he stood up and finally started to walk again, “so, where exactly are we going?”

“Are you incapable of just— walking in silence?”

“Yep. Thanks for asking. So, are we there yet?”

“Yes.”

“Because— wait, really?”

“Yes,” he repeated, because apparently, Harry’s single remaining brain cell hadn’t understood him the first time, “this one is it. Come on, open the door.”

Harry looked at the door with surprise, as if only just noticing its existence.

Jald crossed one pair of arms over his chest, watching as Harry moved to touch the simple door. If Harry couldn’t enter then he couldn’t use it, and no amount of bitching would change that—

Thud.

The door shivered, as if torn between opening and remaining closed, but in the end it didn’t budge.

“I can’t?”

“Then you can’t.”

“Jald,” Harry said in his no-nonsense voice, which probably was supposed to be intimidating. He stared right back at him, unimpressed.

“I don’t control this. If you can’t enter, then you can’t use the same method I do for knowing things. Simple as that.”

“Sorry? I didn’t get that; I don’t speak bullshit.”

“I’m not lying.”

Harry stared, silently defying, before sighing tiredly.

“Then I just have to find a way to enter,” Harry said stubbornly, and seemed to really believe that was possible. Bless his little delusional heart.

“Be my guest,” Jald replied amusedly, sitting down because this was obviously going to take a long while.

He watched as Harry tried his thief-oriented spells to unlock the door, then tried and failed to unhinge it from its frame, then the destructive spells that didn’t even leave a scratch— and a multitude of things that he hadn’t even thought possible, but were still unable to open the door.

Jald, naturally, just laughed and teased him after each failed attempt.

“Do you honestly think this is a good idea?”

“Fucking door— ah, nope.”

“Good. I’d be concerned if you did.”

“Runes. Runes should work.”

They didn’t. Obviously.

“Wards. Triggered wards should work.”

Same result.

Jald was about to mutter a particularly snarky remark — to tease his friend yet again — but in the end didn’t get the chance to do so.

What happened next, Jald couldn’t even describe. He just didn’t have enough words in his vocabulary that could highlight the pure, raw, idiocy of Harry’s next attempt.

From a pea-sized bag hanging around his neck, Harry took out a familiar item. The World item he had gained after defeating him, after conquering this very dungeon, all those years ago—

And without a single pause, without any hesitation whatsoever, pointed it at the door and fired… some kind of highly destructive magic.

Jald felt the whole dungeon shake, as if under the effect of a reality-tearing earthquake, and mentally cursed Harry to hell and back. The demon was pretty sure that the only reason his lair hadn’t sustained damage was due to Harry’s own protective wards.

Jald was also sure that the only reason he himself hadn’t been accidentally injured, was because the unbreakable oath prevented them from harming each other.

“The hell is wrong with you!” he snarled amidst of the trembling, but Harry didn’t seem to even register the words.

“Fucking dammit!” the imbecile exclaimed, upon noticing the door was still very much closed and unaffected.

The attack finally halted, Harry lowering the weapon hastily, as if it was too heavy for him to continue to lift it. He was panting, covered in sweat, exhaustion oozing from him.

It was… a pitiful sight.

Jald felt his righteous anger recede somewhat, sighing deeply a couple of times to let go of it completely.

His dungeon hadn’t been harmed, no one was hurt, nothing had happened.

He repeated this small mantra to himself until he was calm enough to act normally again.

Harry had been trying and failing for hours now, so if anything, at least Jald could admit he was a persistent idiot. He looked abnormally tired though… he must have done something magically-draining before coming to visit him. Had his stats been full, he wouldn’t look so —

“Ugh... I’ll just— I’m going to aggressively ignore it until it goes away,” Harry said breathlessly, palms over his knees in a defeated posture.

“That should definitely work,” Jald replied sarcastically, resting his chin over one of his bent knees, “or you could, you know, give up.”

“I’m— hah, I’m surprised you haven’t tried to stop me,” Harry admitted weakly, grudgingly picking the world item from the floor and placing it within his bag again.

“I know better than to try,” he scoffed, multiple eyes narrowed at his friend.

If Harry tried something so destructive again, however… he would have no choice but to.

Harry wheezed some more, grumbled some curses under his breath, and then suddenly raised his head at an alarming speed. Jald could swear he had heard his neck snap painfully.

“I have a solution.”

He said it with such certainty, Jald felt concerned for his sanity.

“Thank goodness…?”

“It involves you.”

“Absolutely not—"

“No, no, hear me out! The door works with you—”

“You can’t just tail behind me, Harry. The door will close on your face.” Probably breaking your nose in the process, and at this point that would be more sad than funny.

“If I did normally, yes, but with my cloak— just… just let me try? Please?”

The day Harry realized he could pull off the kicked-puppy eyes, the world would be doomed. It didn’t help matters that he looked so exhausted it was downright pitiful.

“Whatever,” he shrugged, slowly standing up, “but this is the last attempt. If it doesn’t work, then that’s it, and I don’t want to hear you bitching about it.”

“First, I don’t bitch about anything, ever. And second, it’s going to work, so don’t… hah, don’t sweat it.”

Yeah, right.

Jald rolled his eyes, already picturing Harry’s broken nose, but complied and went to open the goddamn door. He turned his head to look back at his annoying friend—

But he wasn’t there anymore.

…huh.

It wasn’t like Harry to just leave like that, so Jald was probably just unable to perceive him. Internally shrugging, he stepped into the room, the door closing behind him with an unassuming clicking sound—

“I KNEW IT!” Harry’s victorious yell came from somewhere at his left, which startled him so much his first reaction was to attack the source of the sound.

Oops.

“Ouch! But I’m here!” Not to be deterred, Harry appeared from underneath the rubble— one hand grasping a silky-looking cloak— grinning wolfishly. He still looked a heartbeat away from collapsing due to fatigue, but the accidental attack seemed to have woken him up a little.

“You fucking moron,” Jald said with a similar grin, proud of his gremlin of a friend, even if he couldn’t understand how exactly he had fooled the door.

“Hah! That was fun,” Harry said breathlessly, as he pulled free from the remaining debris and dusted himself off, “I told you it would work. So, what now?”

What now, indeed.

“Usually, a… voice, updates me on the on goings of the outside. Big events, you know? Like the Zerg’s invasion on Nephilim. Stuff like that.”

“Huh. So you don’t do anything special once inside?”

“Not really.”

They paused for a moment, expectantly waiting for the silence to be interrupted by the voice, but nothing of the sort happened.

“Perhaps it feels you, intruder,” Jald snapped at Harry playfully, one of his tails nudging his back as if to shoo him off the room. It served as testimony of how tired Harry was, the fact that his friend actually tumbled over and fell to his knees.

“Or this room isn’t supposed to have two people in here. Get out, jackass,” Harry countered, slowly standing up and grabbing the end of one of his tails, as he pulled him towards the door.

He was about to be forcefully dragged out of the room — Harry was physically strong, despite his size, and he wasn’t resisting — when the familiar voice finally spoke.

“Yggdrasil update patch notes, as of this week, include —”

“Holly fuck!”

“There it is— ouch!”

“Shut up, let me listen!”

“—relocation of the chaldean villages. Also, the new starter zone, Sanguine, is now open to anyone that manages to find it. Good luck players! And don’t forget that the special Christmas event, Kryzerok, is coming soon. For those that remain connected on the festivity, a big surprise is coming! Thanks to everybody for the continued support. We would like to remind everybody to stay safe, keep social distancing where possible and wash your hands.”

There was a clicking sound, which meant the message was finished.

“What the hell was that!”

“It’s different from the voice that announced the end of the worlds— of Yggdrasil, but the messages sound similar enough.”

“So those are the devs?!”

“…what’s a dev?”

“That is— that— no. No, never mind, ignore I said that, but holly damn— have they announced anything relevant since you arrived on this world?” Harry asked expectantly, exhaustion momentarily forgotten, “something that you got to witness? Any big events?”

Jald had only come to this room two times since his arrival. He didn’t feel the need to visit often, having a hutch that most of the announcements would be irrelevant for him.

“Hmm… well, on my first day here, I heard them say something around the lines of ‘there’s a surprise at the Katze plains! Are you up to the challenge?’ but—”

“What!”

“—nothing really happened after that.”

He hadn’t even known that was the name of the plains surrounding his dungeon until one year had passed. Or two. He honestly couldn’t recall.

“And no players came? Are you kidding me?”

“The first proper invasion my dungeon had was Clementine. And then the one yesterday. That’s it,” Jald reminded him, choosing to leave out the ‘invasions’ that had been done unwillingly. Harry probably wouldn’t appreciate a description of the hellhounds dragging people into the dungeon, a trail of blood marking the ground for several days after—

“But the devs gave a message to the players! Some should have come!”

There it was again. What the hell was ‘devs’?

“None did.”

“Bloody hell. I need to— would you mind if Momonga comes here? He could probably make more sense of the announcements. How often—?”

“I don’t know how often; I only come here when I feel I need to. And no, you can’t bring the Overlord.”

“…ah, um, why…why not?”

Jald blinked, giving him his best deadpan look. He couldn’t be serious.

“Harry, this is no place for players—”

“The announcements are literally aimed to them!”

“—to visit, this part of the dungeon is hidden away from invaders. The only reason I brought you here, is because you’re a Raid Boss like me,” he continued, ignoring Harry’s words. It was obvious the voice spoke of big events to the players, but this place was his own, in his dungeon.

The players probably had other ways of hearing them. Ones meant for them.

“Come on, Jald!”

“No,” he repeated firmly, picking up his friend by the back of his robes, as if Harry were some sort of hissing cat, “and I won’t change my mind about it, so drop it.”

Getting out of the room, he let go of Harry without preamble as soon as the door locked behind him. His friend landed on his feet, only stumbling a little, and glared up at him.

“Actually, I’m not taking you there again either,” Jald stated after a short pause. Something in the back of his mind, his instincts, told him that he wasn’t supposed to. That he shouldn’t have.

“…Ah, I take it back. Forget about Momonga, I can rely whatever the devs say to him—”

“No,” Jald snapped forcefully, “this was… wrong. The door didn’t open for you, this room is not meant to be used by you.”

He felt like he had broken some sort of unspoken rule.

One that was important.

“But—”

“Drop it, Harry. I’m not helping you get in there again, so cry me a river,” Jald hissed at last, turning around and walking back to his Raid Boss chamber. He didn’t look back again, too angered for that — if at Harry or at himself, he wasn’t sure — but still felt the need to add, “and leave my dungeon already.”

Heavy silence descended upon them. Jald managed it to ignore it until he was at the very end of the hallway; one step away before he would be completely out of Harry’s field of vision.

“…and go back and rest, you look like shit,” Jald muttered despite everything, glancing back with worry at the exhausted figure shakily standing behind him.

He heard Harry mumble some sort of soft-spoken apology, before a snapping Crack! resounded on the now empty hallway.

— Harry —

Collapsing on the bed as soon as he entered his room, he answered his past-self questions with little more than a grumble, his mind already at the edge of unconsciousness.

“Ugh… Jarvis. Memories today. Jald’s an asshole,” Harry complained with an exhausted sigh, the memory of the demon still fresh in his mind.

Then again, that had been his fault. He shouldn’t have insisted so much, he should have been grateful the demon was willing to share the room’s existence in the first place.

He had fucked up. He needed to go apologize once Jald had calmed down.

 “—put on a quarantine…”

Ah, right. A quarantine.

Activating the defensive runes with a flick of his wand, he sighed contently as he was finally blessed with pure, sweet silence. Nothing against his past-self, but he was way too tired to do shit right now.

Wait, he should deactivate the silencing property. What if something happened?

Doing so with a lazy wave of his wand, Harry finally closed his eyes, sleep greeting him immediately after.

He didn’t know for how long he rested, mind turning on and off at random intervals, traces of conversations floating around his memory. He wasn’t sure whether he dreamed those or not.

“—it’s not opening—”

“—must be a dangerous experiment—”

“I don’t have access to Sir’s room when is like this either—”

He didn’t really wake up until the insistent knocking got too loud to be ignored.

“Fuck off…”

“Finally! Harry, open the door—”

No way in hell. Waking up sounded so exhausting— existing too, for that matter.

“—and is— Harry? Are you even listening?”

He was too old and tired for this. Surely the world could go on without him, just for a little more…. just a few more minutes.

“—arry, it’s been three hours already—”

Waking up was so, so last year. Out of trend, if you asked him.

…three hours?

Sitting up abruptly, he groaned as his vision blurred, hands going to his head as if that was enough to keep the room from spinning.

“Wha— Momonga?” Harry asked a little surprised, voice a little raspy from disuse.

“Yes! Open the door, please!?”

“Wait, wait,” Harry sat down at the edge of the bed, but the moment he tried to stand up his legs went fuck you mid-way.

“…what was that?”

“I said wait, goddammit,” Harry grumbled from his position on the floor, waiting for the dizziness to pass yet again. Fucking shit he felt awful.

“Harry—”

“If you don’t want this to explode get the hell away from here! I’ll be— fucking shit, I’ll be out when I can!”

Not bothering to wait for a reply, he placed silencing wards on the room. Whatever it was, it could wait a little more.

“Charming.”

Bloody hell!

“Fuck off Death,” Harry groaned without looking back at the entity, not wanting to admit the sudden arrival had scared the shit out of him.

“Can’t do, not this time,” came the ominous answer, now coming from the mattress’ direction.  Harry sighed and turned his head to look at his oldest friend, eyebrows raising with mild-surprise upon noticing the appearance it had chosen.

A white cat? Really?

“What is it then? I can’t do much in my current condition,” Harry said sincerely, leaning his head on the bed tiredly. He would rather crawl back to it, but doubted his legs were ready to support his weight yet.

“No, nothing like that.  I just came to warn you, something major will happen soon.”

Harry’s gaze sharpened, but after a long pause he scoffed in annoyance. Of course, Death wasn’t willing to elaborate further on its own accord.

“And?” Harry prompted with a glare, which wasn’t very effective from his position on the floor, but at least he was trying.

“You’re not allowed to interfere.”

Fuck.

“…why?”

“They’ve been involved in the ritual, so there’s no escaping paying the price now.”

Ah, so it was one of those.

“How many lives?”

“It starts with the city of E-rantel, there are only a few exceptions.”

Such a close location. He needed to divert Momonga’s attention away from it then— at least until everything had already passed.

“I see… and once the ritual is completed?”

“You’re free to execute your judgement on them.”

Harry could almost hear the smirk on Death’s voice, so he nodded dutifully in understanding. Whoever was behind this, they seemed to be on the blacklist, so whatever rule they were going to break, it was probably an unforgivable one.

“Any hint on them?”

“I don’t concern myself with mortal matters,” Death answered simply, before humming lightly, “however… I believe I heard the word ‘Zuranon’.”

Zuranon?

Harry remembered reading about them in one of Jarvis’ reports from the infected people. It was a death cult of sorts, a group of evil sorcerers specializing in necromancy. Due to their previous convictions for attacking cities using undead monsters— and the catastrophe that resulted in the destruction of a small city some twenty years ago — they were regarded as serious offenders by all human nations.

Zuranon was also rumored to have a morbid fascination with death, so it was no wonder they had managed to get themselves in the entity’s blacklist.

“I can work with that,” Harry confirmed, moving his legs experimentally and finally, if albeit slowly, standing up, “anything else?”

When no response was given, Harry turned to glare at his now empty bed. At least bid farewell before leaving. How rude.

Harry looked around his empty room and sighed. He honestly wanted nothing more than to crawl back to bed, but if he had really been indisposed for several hours already, there was no doubt in his mind that Jarvis had already “finished the interrogation”, which was probably the reason Momonga was so insistent.

Ugh. He wished he had been conscious enough to listen what Momonga was rambling about. Better get ready, then.

Decision taken, he summoned a small dozen of vials from his bag, emptying them in nothing but a couple minutes. Energy, health, magic replenishment, something for the sore muscles, the dizziness, the mind-splitting headache.

Drinking so many at the same time was going to have heavy repercussions later— or would have, if he didn’t still have his world item at hand.

Taking a hold of it, he negated the negative side effect the potions would have on his system, letting out a relieved sigh when his body finally felt normal enough to move freely.

Well, time to face the music.

Taking an actual step, he grimaced at the feeling of his dirty clothes sliding over his skin.

…actually, perhaps after a bath. He needed a quick rinse, at the very least.