His dark plated feet clanked against the ground. Pale eyes of gold, emotionless, but not his heart. Looking around, the hooded New Worlder observed lethargically at the result of ants challenging giants, and their god.
At least, someone who appeared to be an Incarnation of Death… To this world.
The New God ambled through the outcome of a brief, but eventful war between the powerful Sorcerer Kingdom, and the already falling kingdom of Re-Estize.
The outcome was an inevitable conclusion.
Ruined buildings that will only be weathered away by time, and dust. Sickening solitude, where there was once noise and life, with only the creaking of the nefarious undead loudly echoing about. There wasn't anywhere the man would look that there wouldn't be bodies desecrating the streets.
Men, women, and children.
All snuffed away, by the whims of a man inside a skeleton whose method of giving a message was genocide.
Although now that he had found the reason why. The New Worlder couldn't bring himself to feel sorry for the nobleman's faith, for it was all his fault.
'If there was anything ever good about this, is that, all the corrupt nobles are now rotting in hell.' He thought, giving a dry laugh.
But still, his eyes showed sadness, even though he refuses to cry. For he had cried long enough. Days, weeks, months… Years.
For a hollow Nation… And the snakes the resided in it. Not to mention the worst slimiest of them all.
….
She was in the field of flowers, crouching as she dutifully pruned her floras while he watched over her. Her compassionate hard work, love and care given to the inanimate objects, which only doubled when such emotions were given to the people.
His face felt hot, when she hummed turning to him with that innocent smile on her face.
" #$%"
…..
Eyes widened momentarily, as a wave of disgust washed over him. Dark fiery rage that surpassed the one he felt for the undead lord, overtook his soul.
"Renner…" He growled, with a wave of mana pulsing out of him.
The rubbles around him floated up in accordance to his turbulent emotion. What had already been teetering detonated within two hundred diameters still carrying enough power to give a brief shake to the entire kingdom!
Sighing as the commotion died down. He knew with that, his presence is no more hidden. 'Not like I want to hide anyway. The time for waiting is over."
[Ping. Ping. Ping!]
"No, I will do this." The being, clad in the metals of Uru, Nth, and jet black replied firmly. The floating golden orbed wheel behind him slowly whirled, giving an almighty thrum.
Around him, three boxes that held connection to the Source of all things. Spun in orbit by his torso, while radiating a sense of peace.
"Even though I hated him, despised him, loathed him, abhorred him, reviled him with all my heart, and with all of my very being. I saw the possibility, the good he could bring to this world… That he has already brought to the world."
The recollected images flashed through his eyes. He had watched and observed silently, the workings of Nazarick since the very instant they landed into his world, or as they call it, 'The New World.'
From the saving of Carne village from Slane Theocracy's incursion. Defeating both Clementine and Khajit Dale Badantel which ultimately prevented the destruction of E-Rantel to a Death Spiral. Annexing the Eight Fingers, which was one of the most powerful criminal organizations, and many others.
While it had been done with self-serving intentions. He still decided to wait his hands and see. Maybe there was hope for him yet… But no, the King of the Sorcerer Kingdom was still the same.
Filled with monsters all around.
From the invasion of the Lizard men, to the attack on the Capital by Demiurge who had been playing Demon Lord. From the workers down to the massacre at Katze Plains. The ruthless genocide of the Quagoas, to the war escalation in the Roble Holy Kingdom…
"The world, Ainz Ooal Gown builds is quite magnificent. A world where there is no starvation, where people wake up with a sense of purpose, and with the knowledge that their struggles would be dutifully rewarded. A world without any form of racial discrimination… But he could have done it in a better way. As one who holds a power that eclipses his own by miles, I know this to be true."
Multiple loud stomps could be heard, while the air gained a putrid scent. It was the stench of Death.
The noise kept closing distance, but his gait never lost momentum. Some yards away from him, a triple floor building exploded as the enemies came into view. Some had a horse like structure made of bones lit on a sickly yellow flames, accompanied by giant humanoids with a peeled dried diseased skin dressed in run down armors plus dirty rags, sporting dark swords and shields.
Growls and neighs that brought a sense of hopelessness mixed with desperation came out of the charging Soul Eaters, Death Warriors and Knights. The sudden chill in the air foretold the arrival of the Frost Virgins, while lithe approaching footsteps informed him of the Hanzos who dashed towards him without their usual modus operandi.
"Hmm… As expected they seem to have caught on that I'm here." He noted. It wasn't that much of a surprise if one also considers the luggage he was currently holding.
His eyes travelled down even as crimson blood dripped the earth, dripping from what had been left of his décolletage.
"Don't blame me, young one." He said quite unapologetically. "Blame Ainz Ooal Gown for giving you that particular message. This is just me evening the odds. Still..."
Widen Magic. Boost Magic- God's Eye.
Yellow eyes gained magical circles as he gained a more game like view of the Kingdom.
"To think that he actually sends all of the monsters in the city, without any Guardian… Am I supposed to take that as a sign of praise, or a fucking insult?"
Sighing beneath his hoods, he gave a voiceless whisper as a Death Warrior sword approached him.
Silent Magic. Widen Magic. Quartet Maximize Magic- Binding-Chains.
White magic circles lit up, decorating the entire E-Rantel landmass with a dim glow. While each and every summoned Monsters in the capital were all bound by the chains that sprang from them.
"To think I once saw you all as unbeatable monsters." He remarked deridingly to the chained up Death Knight. With the power put into these conjured restraints, nothing less than a Level 85 could break through it.
He could have taken care of all the summons with nothing more than a love tap. But, his hands or rather one of his hand was literally full. He also didn't want to waste any effort with the riffraff.
There are bigger fishes to fry.
"One less, actually." He corrected himself, as he observed his luggage once more. Oh, the look on the Overlord's face when he sees this would give him the kick.
'Then, my revenge truly begins.'
[Ping. Ping. Ping!]
"You're right. I'm dandling around." He asserted to the floating cubes that chimed once again. "Come-on! I've been waiting for this moment for over seventy three plus four years. Finally I can smell it."
Giving a loud sniff, he gave a deluxe smile, "It's superb."
One of the boxes gave a loud chime before returning back to their rotatory posts.
"Ok, mom!" He drawled, rolling his eyes. Switching over to his bound captives, he sniffed. "Like mom just said. Wasting time really isn't for me. I know they are actually watching."
The Limit Breaker looked up to the sky grinning for the first time at the encompassing magic formation that covered the capital bearing the symbol of a red dark slit eye in the middle.
It had actually begun ever since he did that. With his Levels and stats, not even a Tenth Tier Divination Spell would have been enough to watch him. In fact, owning to one particular trait, he should have been undecipherable.
But using that particular authority, he negated his trait to put on a show.
Let them feel fear for the first time.
Increase Magic. Maximize Magic. Widen Magic. Stack Double- Imbue Attribute Type: Holy -
"To all who dwells in Nazarick, and cohorts within. I suggest you vacate this area at least. Cause you really don't want to get caught up in this."
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Scorch Wave.
Cape darker than night that gave a star like effect at its edges billowed. His free Nth plated armored hand twitched as it heated, gaining a fiery blaze. A moment later, a ball of fire appeared above him erupting. It rushed forward in a shockwave, liquefying everything in its part with a heat reaching over 100025 Celsius, while staining the world with a blinding flash.
With a loud roaring blast, it pulsed forward leveling the landscape. Finally the flames died down, nothing of Re-Estize remained. Only molten lava. As for the undead… Not an atom of them lingered due to the power of the spell, and its holy effects.
"It isn't that often, that I allow myself to cut loose to this extent." He commented over the scenery while continuing on. His feet passing through the hot sludge without any form of discomfort to his person.
"For a 10th Tier Spell. The Sutur Class really deserves its praise as an AoE Destroyer Class."
Finally the world shall know, there is another god in play.
In looking towards where the palace is. The man saw a shimmering barrier, hovering over it while sporting large cracks on its surface.
"Yeah, don't you run from me, Ainz Ooal Gown. I'm coming for you… For all of you."
Gate.
A purplish portal appeared before him, taking a deep breathe. He casted Fly ascending into the magical doorway and vanished.
…
When he exited from the Gatestill hovering in the air , his heartbeat quickened at the gathering that was awaited him at the other side.
'They are here. All of them. It's just like that day.'
Just some yards away, seated on a throne of ruins while surrounded by his most loyal aids. The cores of Nazarick…
'No.' He shook his head, 'Mistakes born from innocuous ignorance.'
Hiding what he held behind his cape, his yellow eyes blazed with a raging fire as the Overlord curtly asked.
"To whom, does the Supreme One owes the pleasure of meeting."
'Even though, I've directly meet him physically in this timeline for a number of times. While indirectly for others. He still unnerves me.'
For who wouldn't be unnerved. Even though he knew that Ainz Ooal Gown wasn't a true personification of Death, rather a Player who just won the lottery to a low Level world.
He was still an undead two meters tall. Dressed in lavish luxurious robes of purplish-black streamlined with gold, with rings of power on his skeletal fingers, and an orb in his mid-section. Blood like glows in his eye sockets that gained its own fire and a projection of power.
As the man closed his eyes, the memory supplied itself like it was only an hour ago. The screams, the pain, that low feeling of hopelessness. The oppressing powerlessness as everything he once knew was taken away.
Once, he held the Razor Edge against the Undead King. Seeking to at least die with honor like Sir Gazzef and Sir Brain Unglaus, but he was nothing more than an insect to him. No, maybe even less than that. The reality of the world, he left while struggling just to eat once every two days hit him once more with a spamming smack.
' You are weak. You have no special power. This isn't some fantasy where your rage will activate a hidden power to slay me. But I am the only thing fair in this world. Death.'
'He was right about everything. Life isn't black and white. Just like how I saw it before, not all Monsters are evil just like how not all Humans are good… But...'
Now fully regarding the Sorcerer King, he replied frivolously. "Who am I? Straight to the most difficult questions, eh."
But even the densest could sense the mockery behind the stranger's reply.
A loud crack could be heard immediately, while all the Guardians present spotted dark looks. None was as incensed as the beauty in the dark Divine grade armor.
"How… How." She murmured. Shaking, as her normally calm countenance, had been shaken to the point of near madness. Her left feet dug into the earth at her enraged stomp dug the earth.
"How dare you plebian disregard the question of the Supreme One?!" To all who recognized her, knew she was going berserk. Not like she was alone in that sentiment.
"What. Disrespect!" Cocytus rumbled, exhaling icy fumes. "To. Dare. Behave. In. Such. An. Uncouth. Manner. Before. Aniz-sama. Death. Is. The. Least. You. Deserve."
An Item Box opened beside the Sword Saint, and the God Slaying Emperor Blade came out, crackling to life in one of his hands.
Demiurge without any smile, intoned with his Racial magic. "Prostrate yourself. "
The air pulsed with Compulsion Magic, but in the face of all that. The man replied with a lopsided maniacal grin. Raising one of his hand in a taunting beckon.
"Really, is that the best you can do Arch-Devil? Did you really think some puny Charm spell could affect me?"
'It would seem not.' Demiurge thought, while staying his hand. After all, Ainz-sama instructed them not to do anything.
Gritting her teeth, the True Vampire dressed in blood red armor growled. Spuit Lance gripped tightly. Her eyes glowed ruby, as an oppressive aura erupted around her.
"Shalltear, calm yourself." Ainz Ooal Gown said, lifting his hand in a reprimanding manner. "Do not let yourself fall into the adversary's tempo."
Blushing at her blunder, Shalltear demurely replied. "Yes, Ainz-sama." She retreated back, not before sending a death glare to the strange man.
'When all this is over. I swear on my position as the Guardian of Nazarick's Floors, you will be begging for a Death you wouldn't receive.' The Valkyrie simmering promised.
The man guffawed at the scenery, shoulders quaking while lips were still set with a smile. "Hmm~ adversary, huh. Ainz Ooal Gown, or shall I say Momonga. Are you my enemy?"
That got all of them to move. The Overlord stood up from the ruined throne an Item Box at the ready. If it were possible, his eye sockets narrowed.
"So you are a Player. I have long been expecting that I haven't been alone in this world. But now you have proven my suspicions. As for enmity, that depends on the conducts of the parties involved. Yours at this moment gives me no choice but to declare so, unless proven otherwise."
The man stood still for some seconds, before nodding his head. "I understand. Then we are enemies. But before we begin our introduction, tell me."
The eyes beneath the hood, looked around.
"Why is it that you have been casting True Death and Grasp Heart on me since the beginning, even though I just came to talk?"
The man could see it, feel it, clashing fruitlessly against his Grand-Passive Mana Nullification Barrier. The stench of those spells. The Undead Necromancer ever since the beginning had been casting spells upon spells on him.
How deviously sneaky.
To be honest, while the man expected such kind of behavior, to have it actively done on himself was quite… Jarring.
The Overlord gave a short cough. While the lithe Vampire snorted with vitriol.
"Of course, Ainz-sama deemed it fit to test your apparent claim. Which remains yet to be seen, worm."
Ainz nodded grandly, "Too many times, I've been hoping against hope to meet with one of my kind. But all I have been met with was disappointment. Finally, I've meet you. One of the goals of spreading the name of Nazarick to the world, accomplished."
""Ah~ Ainz-sama!""
The succubus, Albedo and Shalltear cried in admiration. While Demiurge pushed his glass back smugly.
Contemptuously clapping, the man shook his head chanting dryly. "Well-done, Aniz Ooal Gown. Wow~ I'm impressed. But allow me correct you on one little thing. I am not just a Player."
Seeing that they all held bemused looks, the man felt it was time to begin.
"On an off case. Where do you think he is now? The Dark-Elf, Mare. After all, that is the reason you all decided to meet me, isn't it?"
The schadenfreude he felt at that moment, when he saw the Elf, Aura bristle was truly aphrodisiac.
"Really, you think I wouldn't know? The thing is I know all about you, Momonga. About the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The 41 Supreme Beings. I know who you really are behind that scary Avatar. Where you originally came from. I also know how. You. Think."
"And that is why I will destroy you. Starting with this!"
With a flourish, the man presented what he held on the other hand. Inhumane fanged teeth widened in a grin as he revealed his bloody baggage.
"M-M-Mare!"
"Hahahahahah!" Wild ravenous laughter came out from the man, at the Elf's cry. Truly for what he held warranted that.
The bloody head of Mare Bello Fiore with neck roughly torn away from his body.
"This is unbelievable! Really, really good. So the slaughterer can actually cry! This is gold! Pure gold!" The man bellowed hysterically, over the cries of anguish.
Shalltear couldn't take it anymore. Her feet dug, deep into the earth as the Vampire rocket off, leaving an air vacuum. Her Spuit Lance upstretched to brochette, while screaming bloody murder.
"You'll pay for that!"
But it was all for naught. Bouncing backwards, Shalltear gritted as she struck the transparent enclose that surrounded the man. It was an unspoken authority that she wasn't on his level.
"Break. Damn you! Damn you! What is this?!"
The Valkyrie as a Floor Guardian was an Lv 100, the highest possible Level in YGGDRASIL. In addition to that as a creation of the Supreme Ones, it was a fact that she is an apex of her species. Those who dared to cross blades with her can attest to that.
Not to mention that there was tentatively nothing her life sucking lance could strike. Lord Ainz himself had praised her as one of the strongest Floor Guardians. But as she struck at the octagonal barrier that safeguarded the laughing heathen that murdered Mare, it shocked her to the core that her lance couldn't even break through.
'Even if he possess the World Champion Class. That shouldn't mean anything as I too am a Level 100 with special Classes. I should still be able to get pass some stupid Nullification Barrier. Or is it… No, I refuse to think that.'
Shaking her head, while bead of tears came out from her eyes. Shalltear kept on striking against the barrier with wind buffeting force.
"Shalltear, Shalltear." The man tutted. "Is something wrong with your ear, or what? Just look at the others."
He gestured at the Guardians who all had dark looks, with Aura now appearing catatonic with Ainz holding her.
"Er, forget that." He amended, shaking his head. "You know what? I'll take a page out of Demiurge's book. Every Guardian, prostrate yourselves."
The air charged with mana, and by the time the Floor Guardians could collect themselves. Their bodies went against their will, smashing against the earth.
"Wha-What?! My body!" Albedo gritted. This wasn't possible, not to a lowly spell. Nonetheless, even with her whole will-power being mustered, she couldn't move an inch. It was like she was being pressed by a mountain.
"Now, where had I last seen this?" The man artificially wondered. Stepping on the body of the bloody Valkyrie, towards his arch-nemesis.
"Surely you all haven't forgotten, have you? No I stand corrected once again. It is only natural you would have forgotten."
The Overlord had apparently been silent long enough.
"If it is war you seek. Then war you shall get. As of this moment know that, you are against the entire might of Nazarick. And, Nazarick. Knows no defeat." The Undead Skeleton said with eyes blazing.
Both Players moved floating towards the other, till they were just some feet away. It must have appeared comical, a man sized being before a big undead. But they both knew it wasn't so.
Ainz knew that as well, for he could sense it. 'This man, his presence… Is the strongest, I have ever felt even back in YGGDRASIL. I can't even tell who is the stronger one, him or Touch-Me! Hell, it's like I'm before a World Boss!'
He was angry, filled with enough raged that his mana raged tempestuously to dare parade the murder of one of his children before him, not even the most tortious death would be enough. Nevertheless the Undead Necromancer knew this had to be played coolly.
Thankfully his undead trait helped with that.
'First Shalltear, now Mare. Dammit! I grew too complaisant, thinking something like this wouldn't happen again!'
Outwardly, the Overlord calmly continued, "Still I must ask. Who. Are. You? I deserve to know at least that much."
That question physically shook the man, "Who-Who… Am I." Looking at the head on his hand, the man tossed it to Aura who crawled towards it while her tears began anew.
"I am someone, who lost everything because of you. But someone who gained much thanks to you. My world view, shattered till there was nothing left. While I could only scream helplessly." He gave a self-deriding scoff,
"Even the one who I placed my absolute trust, turned out to be nothing more than a poisonous snake. I had been betrayed by my own beliefs all thanks to my stupidity, my foolhardiness to see reality for what it is. That is why I thank you, Ainz Ooal Gown. Power really is the only thing that matters in this world."
Like a bolt of lightning, the nature of the enemy became crystal clear. Ainz couldn't believe it. "You! You're…!"
"Yes." The man raised his hands forward. "I am the result of the ants trampled beneath Nazaricks goals. A ghost from the future! To the world, I am revered as Zarathos! The avenging spirit of the oppressed, the Omnissiah, leader of the Dragons, and Almighty one! But once, I had a different name. A weak name."
Pulling down his hood, revealed a familiar face hardened by ages pass, while holding a turbulent power. His pupils duplicated into nine parts, while as he grinned confirming the Overlord fears.
"Climb."