“So this is it, the last day, the last hour, and now the last few minutes…” Peroroncino sighed with heartbreak and rubbed his hand over the cheek of his creation. “It’s such a disappointment that Momonga had to work late and couldn’t make his own last reunion… and that nobody else but HeroHero showed up either. But… I will spend our last minutes with the creation I put the most into, my precious, my lovely, my perfect Shalltear.” The birdman stroked the cheek that he wrote the ‘silk soft’ flavor text for, and yet he felt nothing. It was like marble to the touch.
There was no sense of it as a physical thing other than if it were a statue. Her blood red eyes and little charming, dainty smile, everything about the True Vampire, one of the strongest guardians, was at odds with her inner nature. ‘If only Yggdrasil allowed dirty stuff on the last day at least!’ He cursed and flapped his wings, the trait wasn’t naturally part of his character settings, but was part of a mod he’d added that would respond to his heart rate and let him know when he was getting agitated.
He crouched down and ran his hands over her waist, such a little thing, ‘One of the three sacred treasures.’ He thought, and turned an eye to the timer that was slowly counting down, his time with her was running out.
The counter was down to the last minute. He straightened up. “So, Shalltear, my little Angel of the Night,” Peroroncino said with a regretful sigh. It was a comfort to talk to her as if she were real, as if she were the girlfriend he always wanted, who else could he speak to this way? His wings drooped as he went on, “I wish I could have taken your virginity… and lost my own to you, but in Yggdrasil, the prudish shittydevs get in the way. Still though, since we’re down to the last minute and there are no raiders to worry about, I can at least look you over as close to au naturale as I can. Just like the day I created you.”
He swallowed, and felt nothing. Then opened her inventory and took all the clothing out of her ‘worn’ inventory box and moved it into storage. It blinked out of being as if it never were, and now she was shown wearing only bra and panties.
Just for the hell of it, he tried to remove those as well as the counter reached thirty seconds. A large red X appeared in his vision, and a buzz of denial rang in his ears after several attempts.
“Damn it! It was worth a shot.” Peroroncino murmured under his breath, “But I can at least still touch, sort of, what are they going to do, kick me off?” He grumbled and put his long curled fingers over her groin, he pressed, nothing gave, the flavor text had the panties as cotton, but it was like cold stone… still, Peroroncino could pretend. And so pretend, he did. He closed his eyes as the seconds ticked by.
His NPC creation didn’t move throughout, she only stood there smiling the same smile she always did.
He darted a wayward eye to the countdown timer. Nine seconds.
‘Can I get off that fast? Time trial jerk off!’ Peroroncino laughed at himself for even trying, it was impossible, and yet rubbed her body faster, he tried himself as well, but… ‘Like goddamn marble! In the only time in the world a hard one of those, that would be a bad thing!’
Five seconds.
Three seconds.
One second.
Then the timer was gone, and he felt the flesh of his own body, and beneath his touch, he felt his creation’s flesh give to the pressure of his fingers.
“If my creator wants me, nothing could be the greater honor!” Shalltear shouted with glee, “How can I serve you?! Anything! Anything at all! Should I just stand here and let you touch me or…?” On and on, Shalltear went, and Peroroncino could only freeze in shock.
‘The timer is gone, the NPC is talking, moving on her own, and I can… ohhhh… ohhh! You dirty, dirty boys! I see what you’ve done now, one of you hentai heroes on the dev team hacked the game in the last hour as a little reward for… well probably himself, but I benefit so… who cares! Woohoo!” The realization came to Peroroncino in the span of a few breaths, and though his avatar couldn’t grin due to the beak, he was smiling on the inside.
“Yes, Shalltear, however many times, yes.” Peroroncino said, then recalling her ability to summon her household, he added, “Summon your Vampire Brides too.”
“At once, my maker!” Shalltear replied and with a wave of her hand, pale, red eyed, black haired vampire women appeared behind her. “Attend to the supreme being… if he is not happy, we have no other reason to exist!”
Shalltear’s declaration was proven absolutely true, hour after hour, minute through minute, Peroroncino indulged himself in every single debauchery he could think of with his devoted Shalltear and her brides. Then he grew curious, and began to summon maids. The libido of the birdman player was unleashed beyond any and all reason, and when he tired, he turned to an old joke.
‘If stamina potions were real, they’d be sold more in sex shops than in gyms.’
There wasn’t a maid not left panting, there wasn’t an inch of Shalltear’s room that wasn’t touched with some kind of ‘fluid.’
However, after a long enough period of time, stamina potions or no, his curiosity got the better of him. He relaxed on the bed, Shalltear was panting, curled up between his open thighs, and her vampire brides lay with their heads on his arms and kept their bright red eyes focused up on his face waiting for any hint that he wanted anything from them. He stretched out langoriously and sighed contentedly… till he began to wonder how long it was going to last, and realized how long it had been.
‘If this is a hack… or a last minute mod, it should have been caught by now. I should have been auto-removed. Or at least sent a warning. And what about the server shutdown? Even if it were a last minute thing, it doesn’t take long for word to filter around even for a game on its last legs like Yggdrasil. So why am I still here?’ Peroroncino wondered just as the buxom Lupusregina walked into the room. She was clearly walking funny, but the smile painted on her face and… various stains, said she didn’t mind. In her hands she held a tray.
On that tray was a chalice of bejeweled gold, and in that chalice sat juice he requested several minutes earlier.
While he reached for it, Peroroncino tried to mentally activate the ‘GM Call’ function. Nothing happened. No connection, no… nothing. His brow furrowed, though he couldn’t frown, he felt a certain dismay. ‘The GM Call is an emergency function with triple backup support allowing members to contact authorities or have a remote shutdown of their access if their headset malfunctions. It would be a serious breach of the law if that were allowed to go down.’
The chalice, he noted, had real weight to it, nothing for his level one hundred body, but still ‘weight’ and so had the maids, Shalltear, everything. He opened his beak and poured the liquid over his tongue. His beak wasn’t ideal for this kind of thing, and some dripped out the sides, only to be immediately cleaned by the hungry vampire brides’ tongues.
For once however, what he noticed was not their attention, the explosion of flavor was beyond his wildest comprehension. ‘So this is what juice is supposed to taste like?!’ He thought with awe, briefly forgetting the GM Call failure.
But when the cup was drained and put back onto the tray, a growing sense of concern began to replace his libido.
He tried the GM Call function again, and again, and again. Nothing.
“Message…” He muttered, and tried to think of a name, any name... but everyone he knew was long gone from the game.
He cancelled the spell. “Logout.” Nothing happened.
“Disconnect.” Nothing happened.
“Emergency shutdown.” Nothing happened.
“Lupusregina.” Peroroncino said, and her bright yellow eyes turned to him.
“Master?” She asked, suddenly snapping her feet together at a position of attention.
“Have the area around Nazarick inspected, then report back to me at once.” He ordered.
“Yes, master. Should I summon Lady Albedo as well?” Lupusregina asked, and the vision of the succubus designed by Tabula came immediately to his memory.
‘Right, I’d forgotten that one…’ Peroroncino thought, confining the licking of his lips as he tried to recall the flavor text his friend added. ‘Right, he made her a slut…’
For a moment he almost said ‘Hell yes!’ but then thought the better of it, suspicion and caution outweighed his desires, at least for the moment.
“No, though I might need her later, so have her stand by in my private quarters.” Peroroncino commanded.
“At once, master.” Lupusregina bobbed at the knees and withdrew.
His growing concerns about his situation had briefly overtaken his libido to the point where all he did was lie there on the rich black and red sheets of his creation, and wait.
It felt like forever, and the passage of minutes only increased his concerns.
Finally, Lupusregina returned.
“Master, Lord Sebas and a number of others have scouted the area; we are no longer in the swamp of Yggdrasil. There are no cities, spawn points, roaming monsters, all of Nazarick is here but… even the stars aren’t ours. Master… this is not our world.” Lupusregina’s eyes were full of wonder and awe as she beheld the god that had saved them all from the end of the world of Yggdrasil.
“I knew you’d save us, master. I knew it.” Shalltear said with lazy happiness and rested her head on his thigh, looking up at him with absolute devotion in her shining red eyes.
“Ahem, well… obviously I didn’t want my creation, or the creations of my friends to be destroyed, but…” Peroroncino shook his head, then cut off the truth he was about to speak, “I couldn’t know if it would work, but I had to chance it. Still, this isn’t the result I was expecting, a whole other world…? We need, I need, to know more.” He turned his eyes back to Lupusregina, “Have some suitable clothing brought to me… not the naughty sort!” He clarified at the end, “I need to address the tomb, we need to conceal it while we study the world around us. We were powerful in Yggdrasil, but who knows how powerful we are here? We might be weak compared to the weakest beings of this place.”
“How wise, master…” Shalltear said and wiped some of him from off her cheek with the back of her hand, only to lick it away from the skin a moment later.
“Right… wise.” He muttered, ‘If we’re strong, then I can have my own personal Xanadu here! Beautiful maids! My Shalltear! A paradise of the sort I’ve always dreamed of! We need to know if we’re strong or not, of course, but if we are…? Then I can play, and play, and play… right here, for just as long as I wish!’
The heady thought of his reality eclipsing even his wildest fantasies left the birdman feeling light headed.
So much so that he felt he needed to walk it off. When Lupusregina and Solution entered bearing clothing items to dress him in, he rose from the bed, albeit with some slowness and reluctance, and opened his feather coated arms to allow them to do their work.
Their choice for him was a flowing dark cloak that shimmered in varying colors depending on how the light hit it, and rather than pants, around his waist a long wide strip of cloth dyed a deep shade of red that hung down as far as his knees. He tried to recall where he’d gotten it, but couldn’t. ‘Still, it must be mine, all my clothing allows me to whip out my dong in an instant.’ A tiny bit of him felt a little embarrassment at that, but not enough to matter.
He pointed at the pair of maids. “Follow. Follow.” He said, then pointed at Shalltear, “Wait.”
He’d uttered all three abrupt ‘game commands’ without realizing that they were unnecessarily clipped. ‘So, another world, and these are definitely living, no need for the usual commands.’ Regardless, he didn’t correct himself. ‘I should at least try to appear as authoritative as they think I am.’ He said to himself and left the room.
His meandering had no real aim, and by chance it led him to the room with the mirror of remote viewing.
This… this he knew how to use quite well, ‘Though I never perfected using it to peep, stupid devs… I did get to look down a lot of female armor tops.’ He chuckled at the thought and quickly honed in on an occupied location closest to his position.
A village… and it was on fire.
Knights were holding up their swords as if they’d won a great victory, while around them were the bodies of men, women, and children, some of their fellows were dragging corpses by hands or feet to throw into a growing conflagration in what had been the village center. Peroroncino winced at that. ‘What a shame.’ He thought, and zoomed out.
“Oh, well would you look at that?” He said out loud, and quickly zoomed in on a young blonde woman bleeding from a dozen wounds. A little auburn haired girl was running away on tiny legs that had no hope of bearing her to safety, even with the forest close by. ‘She’ll die in there, if the forests here are anything like what real forests were supposed to be like.’ Peroroncino thought, but it was obvious she wasn’t going to get even that far. The knights in steel armor were only toying with the one trying to protect her.
Tears were all over the blonde young woman’s clothing, blood dripped off her hands, down her face, a hole torn through her cheek connected to her lips, giving her a grotesque look that mocked what might have once been a pretty face.
“We do need to test ourselves, I suppose.” Peroroncino said. [Gate] “Follow.” He ordered, looking over his shoulder at his attending maids.
They bobbed at the knees with their heads bowed, and followed him as the shimmering gate of darkness opened in front of them.
‘I just have to live a little longer!’ Enri screamed the words in her mind as the sword severed her left hand, but no words came when she screamed out of her ruined mouth. ‘Just a little longer, then Nemu will reach the forest… she’ll be safe there!’ Enri knew she was lying to herself, Nemu would likely die there, the reason she would be safe from the knights was because they wouldn’t want to run into monsters to chase a girl who would just be killed by monsters instead of themselves.
But it was hope. The only hope the village girl had when the mailed fist struck her face and shattered her nose. A spray of blood came out of Enri’s nostrils as she fell and landed on her back. She tilted her head, arching it so that she could see the direction Nemu was running, she felt her legs being kicked open. ‘I guess this was inevitable. I hit him, it’s not enough to just kill me…’ Still, she felt disconnected from that understanding, all she had was regret. ‘My little Nemu will die… my father’s last request, to save her… and I let him, and her, down.’ Enri cursed her weakness, closed her eyes to wait for humiliation to be piled atop her pain, and then… nothing happened.
‘They should have started by now?’ She understood, and her eyes flew open. With her head still arched backward, she saw why. A… birdman, was standing not thirty yards away, and holding a bow that Enri could only describe as looking ‘Like something out of a legend.’ Pure white, it glowed with power, and nocked against the drawn string, was an arrow that pulsed with blackness, with red lightning crackling throughout the darkness, like flames licking against the night sky.
Behind the birdman, stood two women in, of all things, maid outfits, a beautiful dark skinned woman with flaming red hair was holding Nemu up and pointing to where Enri lay and saying, ‘something’ to the the little auburn haired girl who was clinging and sobbing and crying into the red haired maid’s breast.
‘What did she say?’ A rational part of Enri’s mind asked. She marveled that through it all, part of her reason stayed intact, but that marvel was surpassed a moment later.
The birdman loosed the arrow, and the knights ceased to be, for a moment the whole world seemed to turn dark as night to Enri’s eyes, and when she could see again, the knights, their swords, their armor, everything about them was simply ‘gone’.
Enri however, could not move. Her body would no longer rise on its own. The birdman was approaching, and his attendants with him. “That was pathetic, they got sucked into a pathetic sixth tier dimensional prison? If they’re the norm here, I might as well be a god.” He said under his breath.
Enri didn’t understand most of what he said, save for the last part. ‘I am a god…’ She repeated what she believed he’d said, and laying there as she did, seeing her sister saved and her oppressors slain, she was prepared to believe it at that moment.
“Lupusregina, heal that one, and then both you and Solution go test yourselves out against the knights. I want to talk with these two.” Peroroncino commanded, and Enri marveled as she looked up at the trio.
The red haired woman Enri understood to be ‘Lupusregina’ stood at Enri’s head, held a hand out, and the peasant girl felt her injuries begin to vanish.
“Don’t even think of looking up my skirt, pervert girl.” Lupusregina laughed, and despite the lingering, but rapidly fading pain, Enri could not help but blush.
A moment later, it was done.
“Do we need any of the others to question, master?” Solution asked, licking her lips with hunger and a hope that the answer was no.
“Just one. The rest, you can have for yourselves.” Peroroncino said with passive indifference.
“Yay!” The two maids jumped for joy and then bounded off toward the village after Lupusregina set Nemu down.
Enri was slowly starting to rise, she rolled over to all fours, then put her head down in the grass. “Thank you for saving us, sir.” She said with the deepest and most sincere humility.
“You’re welcome,” Peroroncino said, “But… you aren’t exactly saved. I take it your village was fairly isolated?”
Enri’s blood ran cold, “Yes, sir.” She answered.
“And if you’re homeless, have no money, and no food, you won’t last long, or live well even if you manage to avoid death?” Peroroncino asked further.
Enri swallowed, “I can’t ask for more from you…” She said, her ears pricking up at the sounds of screaming knights and laughing maids. “But you’re right, sir.”
“For what it is worth, I’d have come sooner if I knew your people were in danger, but… there’s no use pretending otherwise, your village is dead. You two are the last survivors.” Peroroncino said with absolute knowledge. His maxed out senses told him that much without a doubt.
He put his clawed hand down over the little auburn haired girl’s head when she started sobbing. “Momma… papa… what’re we gonna doooo… what’re we gonna doooo…”
Enri rose up enough, to her knees, to draw her sister into an embrace. “I’ll think of something, I’ll find some way to make a living, we’ll find a new home.”
“You say that,” Peroroncino pointed out, “but from where I’m standing, it sounds like you don’t really have much hope for it… so how about this,” he stopped and let their attention focus on him, ‘I saved them, but it’s probably best if I not have people wandering around who know anything, and wiping their minds is just… is that kindness or cruelty at this point?’ He wasn’t sure, but it was an easy enough option to do later if things didn’t work out with his offer, “why don’t you return to my home. You’ll work as maids, for me. You’ll be safe there, under my protection, none of the powerful beings who serve me will even consider hurting you.”
Deliverance. It happened to peasants not six times a century outside of a bard’s tale, not by Enri’s reckoning. But now here it was, twice to her in an hour. “You… will you need… more from me?” She asked, biting her lower lip, she immediately cursed the question. The birdman wasn’t even human, but even if he did want ‘more’ what difference did it make? She’d be dead or worse in a week, and her sister wouldn’t fare any better.
“No, I doubt it. I have plenty of servants for that.” Peroroncino shrugged off the question, “So, will you go with me, or would you prefer to take your chances?”
He held out his clawed hand, “Come with me if you want to not die.” He said just as Lupusregina and Solution came into view again.
They approached to see the little blonde woman holding what they assumed was her child, and taking their master’s hand before rising to her feet.
“No survivors?” Peroroncino asked, cocking his head to one side when he saw the pair were alone.
Solution giggled, reached into her chest with one hand, and pulled out a man who immediately began to howl and scream. “One, master. I thought this would be the easiest way to store him. I’m devouring him very, very slowly though, so he will stay alive to be healed and questioned by Neuronist.”
Peroroncino tried to place the name she’d uttered, but couldn’t offhand. “Fine, these two are coming with us, when we get back, I’ll inform the rest of Nazarick of our guests. Have them given quarters, clothing, and…” He pointed to Lupusregina, “You’ll take charge of showing them around, and escort them until they’re comfortable in our halls.”
“Master.” The pair of maids acknowledged with a bowing of their heads. Solution pushed the agonized man back into her chest just as Peroroncino opened the gate again.
“Follow.” He said when he looked down at Enri and Nemu, and then stepped through the gate.
Enri clutched her sister a little tighter against her chest, and obeyed. ‘What kind of life waits on the other side, I don’t know, but… at least he gave us a choice, and that’s more than the knights were going to give us. We’ll just make the best of it.’ She thought, and stepped through the gate with the maids following right behind her.
Didn’t pero quit Yggdrasil
Hence the title 'What IF'
@roberthbutlerwriter Good point lol