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It had been about ten months since Lord Momonga and the newly elevated Lady Albedo had returned to Nazarick. In that time, many developments were made, most importantly the laying of the groundwork for their invasion. After a quick trip to his old apartment (and robbing a few tech stores in the dead of night), they had put together a functional computer lab within the Great Tomb, capable of interacting with the Global Network back on Earth (a feat that had taken months of sleepless nights and hard work to accomplish).

Much to the surprise of the resident Players, it seemed that the NPCs seemed to be unnaturally good with computers, which was eventually chalked up to the fact that they were originally just programs under Guild control. This surprising technical expertise had helped solve many of their issues when technology started acting up and had proved crucial in their attempts to fuse it with Tier Magic.

After the several months of setup were finished, then the next part of the first stage would begin: filming and editing a video outlining their instructions to the downtrodden members of the lower class. Once that had been finished, the video was put up on a private website, hosted on Nazarick’s new servers and set to play automatically when loaded.

The final piece of this puzzle was, of course, a separate system that would detect when the instructions were followed. Linked to that was an enchantment that would automatically open a portal in their vicinity leading into one of the finished colonies, though with some logic put in place to prevent anyone with hostile intentions from triggering it.

Put together, all of this hard work had led to a system that could allow lower-class refugees to escape from the megacorps’ tyranny and into one of Nazarick’s colonies. Now all that awaited was a very simple Message, containing the net address of their new site. Ancient One had spent a few days researching how to send a Message to an entire socioeconomic class of people, and had finally delivered the reformulated spell for use, which he called Message Species. It was only a fifth-tier spell, so almost all of Nazarick was capable of casting it easily, as well as many of the more powerful mortals.

The time for the message to be sent was not now, however. Preparations were still being made to fully prepare for the actual invasion, and they were not yet ready to proceed, even though they had been on a full war footing since they had marched on the Holy City.

But the invasion was not all that had been happening in Nazarick. Though it was certainly a priority, life still happened, as both Antilene and, four months later, Albedo gave birth to healthy baby boys. Antilene’s son was named Eli and Albedo’s son named Vladimir, although their mothers called both of them such names as ‘my little godling’ or ‘Mama’s little prince’. Their fathers, naturally, were almost unbearably proud, though watching them interact with their little boys was heartwarming. Already, they had proven themselves to have great physical and magical strength, as Eli had shattered a stone pillar during a tantrum and Vlad had already started using magic, though he was not so focused to actually get anything concrete yet, only manifesting energy bolts thus far.

Princess Renner and Climb had quickly volunteered themselves for the first round of babysitting, to the fury of both Shalltear and Cocytus, both of whom were mad at being skipped over. It seemed, however, that the young couple’s passion was only inflamed by the presence of little ones, as their frequent disappearances (whenever they weren’t either babysitting, training or on some mission) clearly illustrated. Renner had shown up some days, clearly incapable of walking straight and having difficulty thinking for about a half hour, while Climb looked exhausted, but extremely proud of himself. Other days, Climb slept in while his lover engaged in her work for the Sorcerer Kingdom. On those days, she seemed so vivacious and full of energy that it was pretty obvious she had worn him out rather than the other way around. Most days, though, they were pretty normal, focusing on work besides some minor flirting.

The World Items that had been recovered from the Dragon Emperor’s lair had proven to be mostly of little use, save for two dozen or so diamonds in the rough. These twenty-seven artifacts had proven themselves to be powerful and of great use, even though some had unfortunate side effects rendering them unusable. Take, for example, the Ring of Immortality. It anchored one’s soul to the mortal plane and gave them an indestructible physical form while it was worn, but this was negated by the fact that that form was one of unmoving stone. The fact that it made the wielder into an immovable statue was a deal-breaker for using the original, but Amanohitotsu was determined to use at least some of the materials acquired from the slain World Enemies to craft more reasonable variations of them.

He had already succeeded with some, as his replica of the Ring of Immortality was more a Ring of Invulnerability. You could temporarily freeze your body into a stone indestructible by even Super-tier magic, choosing to return to normal at some point within the next five minutes and having a five-minute cooldown afterwards. And his replications of some of the Twenty, which disappeared after use, managed to eliminate that little issue while only slightly lessening their power.

Nazarick was growing stronger by the day, and soon the appointed day would come. Soon the Revolution would begin, and the Old World would be born anew, through cleansing fire and apocalyptic might. All remnants of the megacorps would be erased, replaced by a new government bound by magic to serve the will of the people. The Sorcerer Kingdom and their allies would be the vanguard, the leaders of this new movement, turning this earthly hell into true Paradise.

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The concept of ‘cleansing Armageddon’ was an idea that had always been in the back of Ulbert’s mind, from the time he was a young child, having just lost both of his parents to a tragic accident caused by corporate negligence. Filled with thoughts of vengeance, he had stumbled upon the concept and found it quite fitting, though he had never had a way to implement it. In essence, the idea was that when the filth of the world grew to blot out all that was right, that filth would need to be cleaned away, as well as all that it had corrupted.

Ulbert sympathized with the idea, seeing that the megacorps were merely the manifestation of human evils allowed to grow too far, too powerful for peaceful change to take place. At this point the government was little more than an extension of the various megacorps, used to serve their ends. The police, by and large, served to protect their interests, save for the few noble souls who actually tried to help others, such as his old rival, Touch Me.

Since his return to the Great Tomb, he had been a crucial part of Momonga’s Sorcerer Kingdom. And when his friend had proposed the invasion, he had been one of the first to get involved, offering up his own opinions and working tirelessly to achieve this goal. This was, after all, far more than even the new normal that he did for the Guild and the Kingdom. This was for all those who were taken advantage of and abused by the system, as well as a way for him to ensure this would never happen again.

Right now, he and the rest of the royal court were gathered in the Assembly Hall. That had been constructed once the Guild had fully returned, as with all the Guild and the Guardians, it could get quite crowded in the other meeting rooms. Currently, they were reviewing the legal code they had set up for the colonies, to discuss potential improvements and patches for the few weak points that had arisen in their new military base. One proposal, involvied making the strength of the oath bindings more potent in correlation with authority. Public officials would have just enough free will to make decisions their way so long as that free will does not conflict with either the law or the common good. And when they try to push beyond, they are forced to adhere to the law and to the good of the people.

Other major focuses were highlighted, such as maintaining a healthy balance of socialism and capitalism to allow people to survive and thrive regardless of income or making sure that everyone had equal access to quality education. The latter idea was quickly put in as a core part of the current drafts of their future constitution, emphasizing investment in education. Unlike other countries, they did not need to worry about military spending or security. For most purposes, they were capable of summoning creatures to take care of that.

But that conversation brought about a new question: how to manage their security in future. After all, within a few generations, Tier Magic would become ubiquitous, and the unruly would be able to do severe damage, especially those of Player blood. The Death Knights currently commanded by the Sorcerer Kingdom would one day become obsolete as more average citizens become skilled mages capable of subjugating them and using them against the new government.

Surprisingly, Ancient One had an answer ready for them. Using Oath of Binding, every citizen that was of age would swear a minor oath affirming their belief in the system. Then those who swore oaths of office would be empowered in all ways, improving their faculties to aid them in service to the people. Lawmakers would grow wiser and more intelligent, police officers would become more competent and bureaucrats more efficient, all through the public’s belief in the system. This empowerment would depend on the belief of the people, but their oath would be constant. In this way, no matter how badly they lost the public’s trust, they would nonetheless be made to serve faithfully in their roles. As regards security forces, this empowerment naturally applied also to creatures summoned by officers of the law, increasing their durability, strength, resilience, agility, etc.

Naturally, this solution required specific sigils and a certain ritual to anchor. Every seat of political and legal power would need to become a locus of mystical power, with all the necessary preparations to keep it functional. But once put into action, this would easily solve the problem.

Ulbert went to sleep that night knowing that the plans were now fully finished. He may be in his own paradise, but it was his duty to bring it to Earth. He owed it to his parents’ memory to honor them by making the world a better place.

Touch Me was just as ardent about making sure their system of governance was foolproof. He had been working to atone for the role he had played as what amounted to essentially just an enforcer for the corporate overlords of their world, when he had only wanted to keep others safe. While he had taken down legit criminals, such as child traffickers, drug dealers and serial killers, a part of him still felt ashamed of how he had essentially been one of countless attack dogs for the executives, who were rumored to do the same crap (and worse) behind closed doors. He had always felt this way about his job, but until Momonga had offered him this opportunity, he had had no choice and no chance of pulling it off without endangering his wife and child. Now, though, things were different, and he could finally live up to his promise. He would be a protector of the innocent, against the endless evils of this world. This, he swore on his honor as a cop, a husband and a proud father.

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CZ Delta was in her element, as maintaining the integrity of Nazarick’s new computer servers was second nature to her. Of all the NPCs, she was one of the most skillful when it came to computers, though all were quite talented. This was a natural result of her mechanical nature, and one of the reasons that the Sorcerer King had personally chosen her to maintain the servers. The other being that her only equal in skill was Rubedo, who would be urgently needed on the battlefield as part of the invasion force.

After Nazarick’s small network was connected to Earth’s global meta-network, a truly alarming amount of spyware and malware had flowed in, obviously attempting to exert control over their systems. But one of the consequences of their upgrading of the equipment with magic had made the antivirus and antimalware programs hyper effective. At this point, actual infection of their systems would require someone to actually willingly infect the system, and only an enemy would try to do so. Of course, the defenses of the Great Tomb were legendary for a good reason, although they had been substantially improved around the server rooms to prevent precisely this from happening. Most of the time she spent in the server room was actually dedicated to improving the efficiency of the connections and creating new safe connections to the global meta-network.

Of course, there were other things she had to take care of. As one of the Pleiades, she would be remiss if she didn’t complete her other duties in keeping the Great Tomb clean, particularly when her masters were once more among them. But there was more, as Lord Ainz had advocated that even the non-combatant members of NPCs begin training to improve their skills. Where only a week ago she had been at level 46, she now stood at about level 65.

This was but one example of Nazarick’s improvements, as the Sorcerer King had focused greatly these past few weeks on raising the average level of the NPCs and had succeeded in raising it from about level 60 to near level 80. His reasoning had lit a fire under the less powerful NPCs, as none of them wished to fail their masters during such a crucial time and worked to better themselves to prevent that reality from coming true.

It filled her with pride to know that she was entrusted with such a crucial role in the initial stages of the plan, and she had taken to her task with the usual fervor that all the NPCs had for their creators’ commands. Despite the various attempts to take down the website and the server simply for being outside of megacorp control, Nazarick weathered the assault magnificently. Fortunately, any information that would tip their hand was not yet on the website, so their intentions were not yet known.

But there was another little surprise she had planned, a fantastic addition to the plan that Lord Ulbert had approved of and publicly commended her for. She had created a little software package to purge the meta-network of all the malware and spyware the enemy was using to monitor their underlings, preventing them from seeing their escape. This software package would be distributed from Nazarick’s network, replicate endlessly and execute continuously to ensure that their efforts to reestablish control were frustrated as the assault was launched. Effectively, she would be removing their eyes and ears while simultaneously crippling their automated defenses. They would have to resort to more traditional means of warfare to get things done, something that Nazarick was far ahead of them at.

The three actual mothers from the Great Tomb were actually organized together, as Vlad, Eli and Bukubukuchamaga’s son Freyr were occupied playing together. Albedo, Antilene and Bukubukuchagama were busy commiserating the difficulties of raising children, particularly such powerful and willful little ones.

Aura was busy corralling the boys, keeping them engaged in fun games to keep them out of trouble. She had mentioned how similar this was to her skills as a Beast Tamer, to the amusement of all three mothers. Aura was enjoying getting to let loose a little and be a little silly in a way that was not often possible. She adored her little brother, and the other little godlings. She wondered what they would grow up to be like. Aura knew that though some things might be the same between parent and child, not everything would be the same. What would Vlad have in common with Lord Ainz, and what would he have in common with Albedo? That mystery intrigued her as she watched over the boys.

The three mothers smiled, seeing Aura so focused on taking care of their little darlings, Bukubukuchagama feeling no small amount of pride in her daughter. All of them naturally had quite a lot to talk about, from questions about child rearing to stories from Peroroncino’s childhood and discussion of the recent policy changes and their effects on the world at large. Albedo had mentioned that Vlad had actually started to show signs of being a powerful spellcaster one day, though he was only really able to use raw energy thus far rather than real spells. They shuddered at the thought of what awaited them when their adorable darlings got older, particularly when they got strong enough to really cause some mischief.

Ainz Ooal Gown, the Sorcerer King, was known as a somewhat stern but nonetheless generous man. The persona he had cultivated was a perfect image of ‘tough but fair’. By contrast, Momonga was a very kind and loving man, slow to anger (and rarely getting the chance to feel anger for longer than a few moments) but quick to forgive. It was easy to forget that they were the same person, especially as he cuddled his infant son. But they were, in truth, the same person in different situations. His deep love for others had been the cause of his fury before, and doubtless would again.

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After a few hours of getting the hang of Message Species, Ainz Ooal Gown had deemed his proficiency with the new spell sufficient for their plans going forward. Thus, the following day, he had asked his friends and allies whether the time had come. Mare and Blue Planet’s colonies were fully complete, with furnishings and amenities fit for a king in every room. The military outpost occupied by Transferred Players, now officially known as Militia Company Alpha, was awaiting more Players to join up. CZ Delta had spent much of her time making their networks more resilient against the demand for access from the majority of the human race, as they were likely to unintentionally commit a DDoS attack against the site in eagerness. The Theocracy’s rebuilding had gone well to the point that their armies, largely comprised of Paladins, had been almost entirely sent forth as knights errant to do good throughout the land just as in Earth’s ancient (by their modern standards) history.

There were no objections from any of the Allied leaders, and it was agreed that the following day would see the first stage of the invasion: the evacuation of the workers from under the claws of the wealthy. It would likely take only about a minute on the Earth side, but to Nazarick, it would be closer to a week. This was one of the unique aspects of the portal spell found in the Grimoire which had been weaponized to its full extent here. Specifically, its ability to open portals to link separate points in space and time, which essentially meant that the passing of time in one world was meaningless in the other. This ability was crucial to their plans, as it allowed them to always have more time to prepare and plan, ensuring they would maintain the advantage.

CZ Delta was also given explicit permission to launch her little software package, which was effectively a powerful computer virus given its wide-ranging general devastation. This part of the plan reminded many of the first cyberwarfare campaigns, including the army of the Russian Federation over a century ago, famed for its skillful use of cyberattacks. Now Nazarick would incorporate this form of warfare into their strategy, as hindering their enemy’s operations was a crucial part of war.

The next day would be remembered in history for millennia to come, as the megacorps’ day of reckoning. So they swore, as the court of the noble Sorcerer Kingdom.

That day had come at last. Everyone had awoken before dawn, anxious to begin their plan. As the sun rose over the horizon, Ainz tore open a portal back to Earth and cast Boost Magic Tenth: Message Species, implanting the URL of the website into the minds of all those being oppressed. The portal was necessary because even he could not cast spells across worlds. As it was, he had to up the tier heavily to be able to go global with the message. As the portal closed, Ainz sat down on the throne, and said, “Now, my friends, the time has come for you to attend to your duties. Let us make this day one to remember.” The Guardians bowed their heads and began to teleport out, preparing to aid the human refugees in getting used to their new homes, while their masters and the Pleiades (sans CZ Delta) guarded the Great Tomb.

Speaking of Delta, she was busy uploading copies of her little helpers all over the global network, ensuring they would never be destroyed by creating many origin points for them to spread from, especially within the corporations’ ‘private’ networks. Fortunately, she was very much aware of the layout of the YGGDRASIL developers’ network from Lord Ulbert’s earlier hacking and was able to replace the files deleted back then with fakes strewn with malware. Taking remote control of their systems, she used them to gain access to more corporate networks, taking advantage of the corrupt trusting each other too much. She was able to format believable-sounding emails laden with invisible malware, in accordance with a principle she had learned of from Earth, known as social engineering. Using their biases against them, she tricked them into believing that she was one of them, and in their corrupt ignorance, they allowed her to take control.

She began to use her enslaved networks to speed up her infection of the global meta-network, focusing on spreading her little parasites into the most important of places including – aha! The stock market and several major corporations were now completely at the mercy of Nazarick! That would certainly come in handy in later stages of the invasion, but for now, she was more focused on hampering their movements.

As the clock chimed seven, she stepped away from her computer, intent on continuing to maintain and upgrade the system while her little toys continued their work.

Nigredo, naturally, was helping the humans acclimatize to their new surroundings, particularly the little ones. Though she still preferred taking care of children, she knew that all of the humans here and elsewhere in her masters’ kingdom were in need of care. To her, all of them were like children, comparatively powerless and in need of both protection and love. She had been all too happy to help the refugees settle in, not least because her father had personally assigned her to take charge of overseeing the colonies until the invasion of the Earth was complete. Though she was sad knowing they would only be under her supervision for a short time (knowing the strength of the Sorcerer Kingdom), she was happy that they would be able to live in a better place even once they left her loving care. Nigredo thanked Lord Ainz for giving her the power to hide her true face, as it would have made her task very difficult in her true form. She almost cried at the thought of how they would have reacted, then refocused, as there were children needing tending to.

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Albedo was satisfied at how effectively her fellow Guardians had been in helping the humans from Earth acclimatize to their temporary new living situation. As a loyal servant of the Supreme Beings, and the wife of their King, she found their devotion to be heartwarming. Even though she knew their loyalties well, it still made her heart overflow with joy to see it manifest so blatantly as they carried out her lord husband’s decree. She had questioned everyone on the first shift of the welcoming party as they returned, intent on bringing an analysis of their efforts to her beloved so that he would know of Nazarick’s successes.

The overwhelming positivity that the Guardians had received from the humans boded well for their plans, as it showed that the masses were behind them all the way. As she entered the Throne Room to give her report, her darling Momonga silently asked her to sit at his side, conjuring an ornate throne at his right side and gesturing to it. She nodded and made her way over to her beloved, sitting at his right hand as his loyal lieutenant turned wife and Queen. As she sat, Ainz spoke up. “Now that we are all present. I believe that we are ready to begin. CZ Delta, if you would please give your technical report?”

Even as the robotic member of the Pleiades gave her report, Ainz and Albedo were conferring telepathically, splitting their focus between their subordinate and their conversation. This ability that their wedding vows now afforded them had proven to make their absences more bearable, as they were always a free Message away. The enchantment of the spell into their rings had even made it not have an MP cost or distance limit.

From CZ Delta’s report, all of the machines used for the invasion plan were functioning at full capacity, especially her antimalware virus package. Functionally, Nazarick had cut off the megacorps’ stranglehold over, and illegal monitoring of, the global internet, and effectively achieved the same for themselves. The fact that their enemies were no longer able to directly control or monitor their citizens’ activities was a boon, as it prevented them from realizing the invasion that anything major was wrong.

Fortunately, she had additional plans, including distracting them by claiming her own viral package to merely be a powerful cyberweapon developed by one of the megacorps which had gone rogue. They would naturally try to get ‘their’ weapon back under control to reestablish their power base, which would distract them more than long enough to prepare for the actual invasion itself. Now that the evacuation was completed, they would no longer have the luxury of time advantage.

Albedo herself gave her own report soon after, saying that everyone seemed to be settling into the colonies quite well and no troublemakers had shown up yet, though that was based only on the testimony of the first shift of caretakers. Their existing preparations had been more than enough to sustain the population for at least a full year, ignoring Nazarick’s other resources, which could effortlessly up that number by several orders of magnitude.

Once she had finished, Touch Me and Ulbert began a discussion of their specific strategy regarding the next stage of the invasion, pointing out that they would need a staging ground to direct forces from, a secondary base of operations. Blue Planet suggested that he could create a base of operations for the invasion force if given time and a location. It was quickly agreed that only a single military base on Earth was needed, given how many individuals in Nazarick had access to flight and/or long-range teleportation. The question of where was heavily debated, as geographic and environmental factors had to be taken into consideration, as well as existing populations of life-forms.

After about half an hour, it was agreed that the base would be on a floating island in Antarctica, as close to the South Pole as could be managed. Blue Planet left the throne room soon after to prepare for his little excursion, while his comrades continued to talk in the meeting room.

Mare was disgusted by what he was seeing, as the stench of pollution and chemical waste hit his nose strongly. The water, only two feet below him, was disgustingly murky, and there was no land (nor anything that looked like land) anywhere around. Those who had been taken along with Lord Blue Planet were under a Mass Fly spell and were horrified at the state of this place. From his briefing, they knew that this spot had once been the center of a massive continent covered in permafrost and inhabited by adorable tundra creatures.

At their master’s command, together they unleashed their mightiest onslaught of Druidry, creating as much solid stone as they could to at least create a platform to work from. After a minute, they were satisfied enough to land down on it before continuing their work. Some continued to expand the size of their new island, while others focused on purifying the water and air around them. Mare was overseeing those two groups, while Lord Blue Planet was supervising the construction of the Nazarick military base here.

After an hour of solid work, the island was now the size of the Eighth Floor of the Great Tomb, while the outpost’s shell was marked out and ready for full construction. Some of the others had already set up a base camp for the construction team, and with everyone on break, they took over the job of maintaining the existing work. Once the break finished up, Lord Blue Planet gathered some of the more skilled artisans to carve runes around the back archway, which had already been completed. Upon completion, Lords Ainz and Ulbert appeared by portal and began the complex process of turning the archway into a permanent portal between this base and the Decoy Nazarick, with Ancient One busy doing the other half of the process there.

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Suzuki Satoru had been very familiar with the state of his planet. The fact that going outside necessitated a gas mask, and that anything more than cheap food and water was prohibitively expensive, was something that he had grown up with. His knowledge that there had once been a seventh continent, at the southmost point of the world, was something he had known fleetingly, but seeing what was left in its wake was… disturbing.

Standing here, he could not help but feel a reflection of the constant abuses and cruelties that the various corporations had put humanity through for their own sake. He saw, all around, remnants of detritus that could be from centuries ago. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it had once been known back in the twenty-first century, had become known unofficially as the Great Southern Landfill by his time, with even the news using the term on the few occasions it was ever mentioned.

Looking around, he found inside himself a still greater resolve to repair this world, that his species had mistreated for centuries and only halfheartedly tried to fix. Ainz Ooal Gown had been a Guild for those who had been made to feel ‘other’ and ‘wrong’ to find community (and take revenge), to find solace from the cruelty they faced, and turn that pain into strength. They had banded together out of spite against the hatred towards Heteromorphic players, and now they were together again to tackle another evil, one they knew all too well.

Reaching out with his Staff, he summoned forth two Primal Elementals, one each of Water and Earth to assist with the expansion of the island, ordering them to serve Mare and Blue Planet. That was all he had planned to do regarding the island, but… he could always do more, and he doubted that he would need Super-Tier Magic anytime soon. The Sorcerer King began to cast, and all on the island stopped what they were doing, eager to see what he was doing.

After about a minute, a pulse of powerful magic rushed out from him, with the ground changing as the wave of power crashed over it. But it was not simply the ground that changed as Creation’s power washed over it. The water purified itself and dried away, turning into solid ground up to about five miles away in every direction. Clearly, he had used Widen Magic on this casting, which had given them a massive head-start to their expansion. The Sorcerer King said, “That should get your coastline sorted out for a good while. I hope to see you again soon, my friend,” and departed through the newly established portal.

Blue Planet evidently had the same thoughts as his old friend, as he had ordered the shoreline expansion crew to join the outpost construction team, eager to finish their base as prelude to the invasion. Mare’s group, though much smaller, had continued with their work, purifying the water around them and removing the plastics from the water, to be processed into useful materials (hopefully). The job was disgusting, and he was sure he wouldn’t be able to survive such vileness if Lord Blue Planet hadn’t thought to cast Aspect of Elemental on them, giving them immunity to all known poisons and diseases. However, he had continued, out of both loyalty to Nazarick and a deep desire to clean up this planet and restore its true beauty.

Later on, when he had been bringing the seventh load of garbage to the camp for processing, he had been more than a little surprised to see Lord Amanomahitotsu, the master of blacksmithing and craftsmanship. After a few moments of conversation, it quickly became clear that he was there to do the actual processing, turning the loads of putrid garbage he and his team had collected into potentially useful material.

Now that he had finally managed to gather almost all of the refuse from the water, he had been put back on construction duty, working as Lord Blue Planet’s direct subordinate in supervising the builders. It was a role he had occupied quite a lot in the past year, having led the construction of some of the colonies currently occupied by the humans of this world. Not to mention the military outpost occupied by Militia Company Alpha.

Under their shared supervision, the construction went quite quickly, roughly a week from the activation of the portal to the completion of the outer shell. From there, it had taken about two weeks to furnish all of the necessary rooms with all the necessary equipment, with the addition of some decorations. The War Room, with the surveillance and battlefield oversight equipment, had been a priority. Barracks for living soldiers and Mortuaries for the undead servants of the Sorcerer King himself had been built and fully outfitted for efficient deployment. Surrounding the central citadel were several layers of potent defenses, including a potent shield against free travel, preventing anyone not part of the invasion force from entering or exiting a five-mile radius of the base without direct authorization from the base commander.

CZ Delta had even come over and moved some of Nazarick’s computers over into the base, allowing them to increase its effectiveness several times over. The electronic systems she had been able to fit into the base certainly made things easier, as Nazarick’s access to the global internet was made far easier through actually having servers on both sides of the portal.  

Her best work, though, was something entirely different. Using basic radio transmitters connected to the system, she had created five-point-five-mile radius wireless connection capable of instantly connecting to any device within range and transmitting some of her viral code. Effectively, before any electronic device got within five miles of the base, it would be under Nazarick control. And the shield prevented anyone from trying a tech-free approach from getting any closer, so the base was adequately defended. Within about a week, they would be ready for war.

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The atmosphere in the IT department of Neuro VR, developers of such massive hits as YGGDRASIL, was, to say the very least, extremely chaotic. They, along with the IT staff from all of the major corporations, were currently dealing with a major virus that had taken control of the global meta-network. The interface gear that was commonly used by even the public was so thoroughly affected that it was entirely unusable. On top of that, the Corporation for Public Surveillance, which monitored the activities of potential criminals, was reporting that all of their monitoring software had been completely purged from the net by this virus. Many of the more important companies that effectively ran the world were similarly affected in varying ways.

Compounding this issue, there was a record low in employee attendance, as 80% of Japan’s workforce had completely gone off the grid. It was unfortunate timing they were not able to be traced due to the purge of monitoring software, and the fact that they were not answering their messages was extremely irritating. Those dealing with the current issue were the few who had been on the graveyard shift, and they were getting dangerously close to an overtime wage. Those on the ground had their phones blowing up with messages from higher-ups, demanding that they find the truant employees and put them back to work.

By sunrise at 7:30, the IT staff were on heavy overtime, and the workforce problem became more apparent. According to the more traditional means of surveillance, such as public cameras, there had been a sharp decrease in the number of people walking the streets. Those visible were almost entirely management staff, HR representatives, and employees from Legal. All of those lower down on the food chain were nowhere in sight.

The police were sent out on a sweep of the streets to confirm this, and then the secret police were sent to force the lower-ranking employees to come to work. What they had discovered was startling – not only had they disappeared off the grid, but they had completely disappeared without a trace. Only through their records did they have any knowledge that the apartments once had residents, as they now appeared entirely empty, devoid of any sign of human life. Upon discovering this, the executives in Japan began reaching out to other countries, only to hear the same problem was happening there.

Overnight, 80 percent of the global workforce had completely disappeared, and if that couldn’t possibly be considered bad news, then the following discovery certainly was! Not only were those in the workforce largely gone, but most of those too young, too old or too frail to work had similarly disappeared. All those outside the workforce who weren’t related to upper-level staff in one or more of the major corporations had vanished off the face of the Earth, with no trace!

Naturally, this situation could not go on for any amount of time, as the fatal flaw of their society and its skinny pyramid shape was that, without the base, they would collapse. The various world governments had decided to convene, sending as ‘diplomatic guests’ the CEOs of the major corporations from their nation. Even now, the fiction that the government was anything more than a puppet of the collective corporations was maintained, as each government still sent an official Ambassador to “help smooth over foreign relations”. All this despite the fact that most of the work would be done by the executives, and they were entirely unnecessary. But it was protocol among the elite of this world, established to keep the proletariat as much in the dark as possible. The privilege of education was another of these controls they had placed to keep them as uninformed and docile as possible, limiting any real education to those with means to afford it.

But for now, the various IT departments from corporations around the world were working to counteract the powerful malware that was ravaging the global network.

The Sorcerer Kingdom was, naturally, monitoring the situation. Lord Ainz had been watching the vain efforts of the technical experts as they attempted to fend off the masterwork of Nazarick’s own techie, CZ Delta. Fortunately, their focus on this crisis was enough to keep their attention away from Antarctica, where Blue Planet and Mare’s crews were still busy constructing Outpost Beta in anticipation of the coming invasion. The fact that the entire global network was down was preventing them from realizing that anything was happening at the South Pole, as the satellites surrounding the planet were completely under Nazarick’s control. The Sorcerer King had opted to spare the satellites, as the tactical benefits of being able to monitor troop deployments planetwide were enormous. Not to mention the fact that they would be a good foothold in possibly extending their territory beyond the Earth.

That last fact was something he had only thought of idly before. He knew, of course, that humanity had left their planet many times and even landed on the moon a few times, but he had never truly thought of it before. The idea had been intriguing enough to rope in Ancient One to draw up some preliminary plans, but he personally decided to focus on other things for now. After all, he would first need to make sure the Earth itself was ready to become part of his glorious kingdom.

Ancient One, naturally had been excited at the idea. Had Blue Planet been there also, he would have immediately joined in, given his adoration of natural beauty and the skies. But he was busy on Antarctica. Thinking critically, he decided that Nazarick’s first venture into the heavens would likely revolve around Momonga himself using Fly and some heat protection magic to ascend in his undead form. But eventually, they would need to construct a magi-tech equivalent of a rocket. After drawing up the preliminary plans, he set them down and focused back on his primary task of long-range weapons development.

Chapter Text

Ainz Ooal Gown had received the report about all the retrieved World Items about an hour ago. The result of that report had led to his presence here in the Amphitheatre for testing purposes, because arguably the most powerful of all known World Items had been a part of that haul. He knew the item well from personal experience but had never expected it to ever be in his hands. Taking off Shooting Star, he continued to stare down at the legendary marvel in his palm: the apex of wish magic, Ouroboros.

This ring was the most pre-eminent of wish magic back in the game, far surpassing the Super-Tier spell Wish Upon A Star or the similarly legendary World Item Five Elements Overcoming, which allowed for changes to the game’s magic system. The Guild of Ainz Ooal Gown had had conflicts with an enemy guild over mining rights, who used the World Item to block off all access to everyone except them for a month, by which time it had been picked clean. If it held such power, then it would doubtless be an immense asset to them. Not to mention that he still felt slightly sore over the incident, even if they were now vassals of the Sorcerer Kingdom.

His major focus was, naturally, whether or not the original function of it being a request to the developers was intact or not. True, the power systems had evolved, and the mechanics of some spells had changed as a result of Transference. But the possibility that the YGGDRASIL team would have to approve each wish was a possibility. And even if it wasn’t, it was entirely possible that a higher power might have to approve the wishes. Neither possibility was one that was favorable to Nazarick, but there was a chance that since the New World and the powers originally from YGGDRASIL were no longer under the control of the devs, that the wish approval mechanism would have fallen away.

As he pocketed Shooting Star, he prepared to put on Ouroboros, thinking of what wish would be perfect for this situation. Phrasing would be important to prevent a backfire, especially if it was being interpreted by a wish-granting entity, whether that would be the devs or an unknown higher power. Once he had his ideal test wish in mind, he flared his aura and reached for the power within the ring. He felt a presence within the ring questioning him about his intent, what its orders were. That specific phrasing implied that the ring itself was the power granting the wish, which confirmed that there was no other entity to interpret or approve wishes. Smiling, he intoned, “Bring all World Items not owned by my Kingdom to my feet. This is the will of your master!”

Feeling a pulse of energy from the ring and a vague sense of agreement, he saw in a flash of light, that about a hundred and fifty World Items had appeared before him. Looking down at his hand, he saw that Ouroboros had not disappeared, despite being one of the Twenty. Likely, it would have disappeared outside of his kingdom, making it eligible to be brought to him. Now that his suspicions were disproven, he felt ready to make a second wish. “For all of the Twenty World Items, remove the scattering aspect.” Feeling another wave of approval, he saw the ring flash gold and remain on his hand. Taking it off of his hand, he replaced it with Shooting Star. Gesturing to his Death Knight servitors, he ordered them to carry the gathered World Items down to the Treasury, creating a Gate to aid their passage.

Knowing that Pandora’s Actor would be a trustworthy Guardian for the new World Items, he decided to go down and inform his son of his new charges. The ensuing conversation was… very embarrassing for him, as his child would not stop praising him in German. He resolved that he would actually take care of this little issue, which had somehow eluded him for quite a while. Reaching out, he cast a familiar spell on his Guild Master’s Staff and extended the staff towards his son.

Momonga almost threw up seeing the actual words of his child’s bio, disgusted with himself for how edgy it all was. He knew he was nowhere near Ulbert, but still. Pandora’s Actor’s cunning and love of playacting would not need modification, as those were some of his good traits. In fact, few of his core personality traits needed to be changed. His enthusiasm was a good thing; the issue was in how that was expressed. The same was true of his playful nature. His military outfit was exchanged for a ruffled shirt with a black vest and long black pants, suggesting his talents for acting. His face, already masklike, was perfect for the appearance of theatrical pursuits.

When he was done altering his son’s appearance and personality, he was quite a bit different from his more Nazi-like past. Now, he looked like an experienced thespian and veteran of the theatre, though he only knew that look from the period pieces focusing on theatre productions.

“Father, thank you. I feel better already.” Momonga was stunned at his son acknowledging the changes but was interrupted by his son’s continuation. “I have been feeling quite off for a while. You may have made me to look and act that way long ago, and I was happy with it then, but when I saw how discomforted you were by it, I wanted to change into something more my style, something more aligned with my true self. And this was precisely what I needed.”

Now he understood. Sebas’ observations of Aura and Mare acting out of character had led to the thought that all of the NPCs mimicked the personalities of their creators even underneath the actual personality programming put into place. Mare acted shy, but it was (mostly) an obfuscation. His true personality reflected his mother, and if the theory held, then Pandora’s Actor would be similar to Momonga, despite the programming. Which was already something he knew to be true, given their tendency toward melodramatic speeches and creating a spectacle. As his own personality changed and he started feeling uncomfortable with his creation’s personality and attire, so too did his creation start feeling the same way about himself.

“I understand, my son. But why did you not voice these concerns earlier? You know I would have moved the heavens themselves to help you.”

The NPC smiled ruefully, and replied, “I did not want to distract you from your work during such a crucial time. I feared that if I did, I might draw your attention away from some critical flaw in our plan and all would be for nothing.”

When the conversation ended, about ten minutes later, father and son embraced.

Chapter Text

Shalltear was, surprisingly, not in the Great Tomb helping to prepare for her part in the Invasion. She was actually in E-Rantel, at a teahouse with her good friend, Evileye, also known as the powerful vampire Landfall. The two of them had met at the wedding of Antilene and her father, Lord Peroroncino, and they had become fast friends. Their meetings had helped Nazarick and the Blue Roses to grow closer together, despite their unfortunate conflict during the Demonic Disturbance. The Sorcerer King may have personally apologized and sent luxurious gifts as a token of his contrition, but their relationship had still been quite uneasy despite this. Evileye and Lord Ainz’s collaboration, and Rigrit Bers Carau joining the fight against the Dragon Emperor were both examples of the effect that their close friendship had borne.

One thing that both women had commiserated over was their past crushes on the Sorcerer King himself, or his adventuring persona, Momon of Darkness. Shalltear had almost entirely gotten over her desire for the Guild Master, and Evileye was slowly coming to accept that her relationship with the undead was only going to be a friendship at most. They were both very glad for him when he married Lady Albedo, and gladly partook in the wedding ceremony. Still, a small part of them longed for the powerful undead, a part that diminished with every passing day, but a part of them nonetheless.

One thing that the two of them had discussed at length was their respective sexual orientation. Shalltear was a demiromantic pansexual, caring for her womanly needs with her Vampire Brides as needed, but not actively seeking a romantic partner. Evileye was a romantic bisexual, who had once scorned those seeking a more powerful partner before being confronted with compelling evidence to the contrary, in the form of the disguised Sorcerer King. They had had many conversations regarding their ideal partners, but that was an infrequent subject of discussion. More often than not, they would discuss the past, distant or recent.

Keno had mentioned, of course, that she had been born the Princess of the Kingdom of Inveria, a nation that had been turned into undead by the Elder Coffin Dragon Lord, and she was the only survivor of any type, if becoming a vampire was survival. She and she alone had remained in control of herself, the only intelligent undead around save for the Dragon Lord. Her Talent had allowed her to copy the spell and absorb the sacrificed souls. Lord Ainz’s aid had allowed her full use of the Talent again, preventing her from meeting the same fate as her countrymen, but it was little comfort. She was trapped in a twelve-year-old’s body, though her mind was far older.

Shalltear could relate to that, as her creator’s design had stuck her as an undead with few natural assets, something that she was highly sensitive about. Her constant arguments with Aura had almost always at some point turned towards their relative chest size, and the Elf would naturally reply that she wasn’t in an undead body and thus wasn’t stuck that way forever. Lady Bukubukuchagama had helped her deal with her insecurities (incidentally embarrassing Sebas in the process), but it still stung that she was stuck in this underdeveloped body for all eternity.

Shalltear had brought up the possibility that since the undead dragon who had cast the spell was dead, now something could potentially be done about it. Evileye was hopeful that that was possible, given the sheer power that the Sorcerer King and his court were wielding so casually. But she was not able to shake a lingering sense of doubt that remained in her unbeating heart, saying that the spell couldn’t be undone. She wanted to see her parents again, but it was unlikely that it would come to pass before the invasion, if at all.

Momonga had, naturally, begun to research the very moment that Shalltear brought up the possibility. A civilization of naturally skilled mages, even comparably weak, was a boon to their plans. Nothing would be in the Library regarding this topic, given that it revolved entirely around Wild Magic, which was something that came to be after the end of YGGDRASIL, and thus was something they only had knowledge of through Draudillon Oriculus, as well as Tsaindorcus Vaision and his compatriots.

The Grimoire said little regarding the matter, other than the facts of the event in question, which only restated the possibility that Shalltear had thought of. Cure Elim Los Malvar was certainly dead, so now his spell should logically have ceased its effect, and it could be countered. However, that was only half the battle; knowing how to counteract the spell was the major difficulty. The only upside to his death was that the spell would not be fighting against their efforts.

Hopefully, he had the right idea as to how to fix this little problem. It would cost him nothing to restore this little one’s kingdom, and the benefits he and his would receive in gratitude would be a nice little boost. Not to mention, it was simply a good thing to do, especially for such a kind-hearted person as Evileye. Putting on Ouroboros, he quietly whispered out his wish.

Evileye had been brought to her old kingdom by Shalltear, the two of them hoping to find some remnant of her old home to remind her to keep hoping. When the golden aura of light had appeared, both of them had been confused. And the confusion intensified when the light faded, seeing that the ruins they had been traversing not seconds before had been replaced by a perfect replica of the capital of her kingdom, the place in which Keno was born.

Suddenly, the Sorcerer King himself manifested, smiling warmly as he explained what had happened. She could not speak or even think about what she was hearing. She only had room for tears, as all around her, people she had thought lost forever returned to life, thanks to him.

Chapter Text

Ultimately, restoring the long-fallen nation of Inveria was barely an inconvenience for the Sorcerer Kingdom. The benefits of having an entire kingdom of solely spellcasters, even if only capable of the third tier of magic and below, were immense. Besides, it was a fitting gift to Evileye, restoring the nation she had born as the princess of. As part of that restoration, she was to be installed as the new monarch of the Reborn Kingdom of Inveria, with her mother and father serving as personal advisors. The Blue Roses had naturally joined their friend to help in the reconstruction, serving as Evileye’s eyes and ears.

As expected, the return of the nation of Inveria under the rule of Evileye, who was already a stalwart ally of Nazarick, led inevitably to them swearing themselves as vassals to the Sorcerer Kingdom. The amount of kingdoms and nations that had sworn themselves in service to the Sorcerer Kingdom, either as allies or as vassals, was getting ridiculous. By this point, functionally all of the known kingdoms of the New World were under Nazarick’s banner.

But this outcome was one of the best that they could hope for, an outcome with minimal-ish casualties. And those casualties were even now being undone, with powerful magics being wrought to increase the power of vitality and life in the lands picked clean by the power of the Great Tomb. Even without that magic, the age-old phenomenon of post-war conceptions reared its head, as the nations who had taken the harshest beatings saw the greatest number of newborns in the past few months. The powerful magic suffusing the earth had only bolstered the existing trends, ensuring that every new subject of the Sorcerer Kingdom was born healthy and strong.

Nigredo, naturally, had been released from her shift watching over the human refugees to oversee medical care for the large influx of children. Those were her standing orders, and she had cried in joy upon hearing her new orders. Kneeling, she had then crawled forward onto the dais to kiss his feet in homage to him for his greatness. The display had been broadly referred to as ‘a bit much’ by Albedo, while Ainz was somewhere between vomiting and feeling honored at her reverence towards him.

In more pleasant and less disgusting news, the executives of the megacorps had tried to reassert control over the net several times that day. Operative phrase being ‘tried’. CZ Delta’s handiwork was far too effective for them to have a chance. They appeared completely unaware of either the construction at the South Pole or the New World’s existence, which boded well for the invasion.

The combination of missing population and severe technical issues had proven to be an effective distraction, to the point that that Blue Planet estimated that they would only need about three more days to complete initial construction, and the full building would be fully operational within a week. Mare’s group was not having as much luck, as the fact that the entire planet was so heavily polluted made the job of cleaning the water and air surrounding Outpost Beta functionally impossible to complete before the invasion.

Military organization for ‘The Day’, when the actual invasion would begin, was already complete. Battle plans were fully fleshed out with every possible contingency explored and accounted for. Troops were being slowly mobilized and prepared to ship out to the new Outpost, waiting on standby for the signal. When the time came, the corrupt corporations would be taken down with relative ease through superior firepower and numbers, and then the healing of this blighted world would begin. Creation, even with Widen Magic, would not cover much of the planet. His earlier use at the South Pole had only managed a maximum radius of five miles, which was orders of magnitude less than what was needed to truly restore the Earth’s old beauty.

It was mostly for this reason that he had focused on training mages to use Super-Tier Magic. He had tried to enchant a Widened Creation, or even just the base version of the spell into a Scroll or Sealing Crystal. Though he had had some success, the quality of crystal required to seal the enhanced Super-Tier Spell was far too rare to be able to cover even a third of the area of effect he planned. The Earth was simply too large to allow Sealing Crystals to contribute any real amount to the effort. This was one of the major reasons that he had been using the powers of the Grimoire to help Renner and Fluder learn to use Super-Tier Magic, as even an entire Guild of level 100 spellcasters would not be enough to pull this off, and most of Nazarick were not spellcasters in any real sense.

Naturally, he ventured to Outpost Beta every few days, asking either Mare or Blue Planet for assistance. Assuming that Creation would benefit from druidic buffs, he experimented with it as much as he could, analyzing each experiment while he waited until the cooldown was over. He did find that some of them did affect his casting of Creation, allowing him to expand the effective radius, among other things. A day after its completion, Outpost Beta had a permanently perfect environment free of all the nasty pollutants, reaching all the way up past the clouds.

Now that the Outpost was entirely ready for use, the Sorcerer King made notes regarding the necessary buffs for the terraforming plan, and made a royal decree, giving the workers at the new Outpost a week off for their diligent work. The rest of the world continued on, slowly preparing for ‘The Day’ as it drew ever nearer. Antilene, Renner, Fluder and Keno all sent companies of soldiers to assist in the invasion, and they were assigned to one of the barracks in the new outpost, on standby until he gave the signal.

Nazarick’s own forces were already mostly there; his own undead occupied the mortuary that had been constructed as their own barracks, while the Floor Guardians and the Pleiades would serve as leaders of the actual assault. This was a very different move than usual for the Sorcerer King. Thus far, the Pleiades had always remained in the Great Tomb during a major military event, unless it was them alone leaving the Tomb. Someone had always been left in charge of defending Nazarick from invaders, but the standing armies of the Sorcerer Kingdom were deemed to be more than enough to deter even the more powerful subjects of their dominion. Not to mention the actual defenses of the Tomb’s lower levels, and the Area Guardians spread throughout each floor.

The argument in favor of bringing the Pleiades was very persuasive, and no suitable reason could be found to rebut. Thus, it was decided that on ‘The Day’, the Pleiades would accompany the Floor Guardians and the Supreme Beings, as they retook the Earth in the name of the people.