«Warning: Time-Space Rupture Detected. Attempting Resist»

«Failed»

«Reattempting»

«Failed»

«Event Horizon has been surpassed, further attempts futile»

«Notice: Imprisonment Detected»

«Analyzing Skill ‘Dimensional-Imprisonment’»

«Successful»

«Possible Solution Found - Analysis of Skill ‘Multiversal Manipulation’ Necessary»

«Successful»

«Direct Connection to skill found, initiating Temporary Override»

«Successful»

«Commencing Operation…»

<><><><><><><>

A quartet of four sit together in a booth, all visiting a restaurant for lunch. Had someone asked any of the four just a while ago if they would ever be in such a situation, all of them would’ve called anyone who said that insane and two may have brought bodily harm to said person out of annoyance, or would’ve had someone do it on their behalf.

Among those at the booth was a little girl of European descent dressed in a military uniform, two fairly normal looking Japanese men in their late teens, one wearing a tracksuit while the other was dressed in more fantasy attire, and the one who stood out the most, a towering skeleton who was personally surprised he could even fit into the booth, though he needed a row entirely to himself.

Despite the obvious differences in their appearance, and the less immediately obvious differences in their personalities, the four had one thing in common: they were all Japanese. More so, they had all been reincarnated, transferred, or summoned to another world much unlike their own. It was because of this that they tended to get along decently well, each being one of the de-facto leaders of the group, they also functioned as the de facto representatives of them as well.

As they sat and waited on their food, with everyone except the giant skeleton having ordered, the fantasy-looking man, named Kazuma, looked upon the rifle on the child’s back with interest, “So they finally let you carry that thing around, huh?”

The little girl, named Tanya, nodded, “Still not allowed to use it in most cases, but during special events, after school activities, or the occasional attack from the Mobile Fortress Destroyer, I’m allowed to use it to some degree.”

“I’m surprised you were able to convince them, honestly.” Subaru, the other man who still retained his Japanese appearance said.

“Well when you have people who can possibly kill all of us in a second, it's fair to argue that a rifle, even one enhanced by magic, isn’t going to do shit to our classmates.” Tanya responded, her gaze falling upon Ainz, the towering undead skeleton of the Overlord race.

“Why are you staring at me, Tanya?” Ainz asked.

“You know why.”

Ainz forced out a sigh, “Whatever the case, I believe it is good that more of our classmates can defend themselves. With the last attack of the Mobile Fortress Destroyer during the school play, and even more so our sudden transfer to that other world for a brief time showed that we cannot afford to have any of our comrades be unprepared for any sudden emergencies. After all, we never know when we may be dragged back into a world like before.”

As Ainz concluded his statement a giant black swirling vortex appeared above their booth, the three immediately recognized it as identical to the same portal that had just sent them into a mess about a month prior.

As Ainz simply stared at it in awe of his bad luck, already knowing there wasn’t any spell he could use to escape it, he heard Kazuma slam his hand on the table shouting “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING YOU BAG OF BOoooo-”

Kazuma trailed off as he and the others were sucked into the vortex before it quickly vanished in the next second.

Ainz looked up to see a stone room lined with numerous golems, big and small. The larger ones towered several stories high and were, as he previously confirmed, the same as the ones from Yggdrasil. The others, though smaller, seemed to have aspects of Yggdrasil data in them, but were partially the work of someone from Kazuma’s world apparently.

At the center of the room was a large staircase which led up to a cracked wall with a glowing blue orb right in the center. Last he had been here, the room had a giant hole in the side of it, but since then it was now gone and the golems used were since replaced.

Ainz looked up at the orb and sighed, ‘I’m getting some serious deja vu right now… Are we in the same world as before? Or is it perhaps a parallel one? This room was definitely destroyed last I was here but it's possible they fixed it. What’s that blue orb though? When I was here before that was black and it sealed away the overpowered golem that was our key home… Why’s it blue now?’

As he looked further he noticed the cracks on the wall glowing a faint purple color, many of the golems having similar cracks which glowed similarly. The glow wasn’t too bright, and seemed to indicate that all of it was off, for now at least, but there was definitely something off, and Ainz was too curious to simply walk away. But first, there were other issues.

Ainz turned around to see his three other classmates also there, most having fallen on the floor but now quickly stood up to reassess themselves.

“Where are we? These look like the golems from before, does that mean we’re back there?” Subaru asked.

“Possibly, this looks just like it did when we came here last, but it's a bit… different.” Kazuma replied.

“A lot less rubble too.” Tanya commented.

“I’m more interested to see what’s in that.” Ainz pointed a finger towards the faintly glowing blue orb at the front and center. The group nodded along and followed him as he walked up the stairs. Where there was once a pedestal for the ‘key’ to be inserted was now a blank platform, nothing of the sort left behind.

The three looked up at the orb as Ainz reached up his hand to inspect it. He stopped however as he heard his classmates preparing their weapons. Looking down Ainz saw a collection of rocks slowly forming together into a golem, eyes suddenly turning red as it seemed to power on. 

Before anyone could decide how to react, the Golem began to speak in an angelic yet robotic voice, “Aggression is unnecessary. I am the Ultimate Skill Raphael, Lord of Wisdom. On behalf of my user, Rimuru Tempest, I request your aid.”

Ainz looked down at the golem with an aura of intimidation and power, once more calling upon his experience as the Sorcerer King and Guild Master of Ainz Ooal Gown to create an intimidating presence, “Alright then, speak. We’re listening.”

<><><><><><><>

“Good, everyone’s here, the Major should be arriving later, I believe she had plans for lunch with some of our classmates.” A man said, folding his arms as the others around him, all dressed in identical uniforms gathered and readied their gear. The man spoke with a firm German accent, one held by all of the men in uniform, aside from the single woman in the group, whose accent was more a mixture of Germanic and Russian elements.

The man, Weiss, was the second in command of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. In their last world, they had the Empire’s ace unit, a feat they were well proud of. Their numerous raids behind enemy lines, and the now multiple times their leader has led them to attack an enemy capital has led to them having earned much respect from their allies and fear from their foes in their own world.

In this world, however, none of that applied. There was no fighting to be done, no wars to win, and they weren’t even the strongest among their classmates. Without their gear, one would have argued that they were among the weakest. Through the Major’s negotiating skills, they had been allowed to carry around their rifles for once, meaning they could, for the first time since they got here, have a proper training.

While they weren’t at war here, they never knew when they may be hurled into a dangerous situation or perhaps even be sent back to their world. If they were returned to their original world, they didn’t want to be left rusty from spending so much time in this school world. As such, the Major, Tanya, had organized this training to occur weekly so that they can both stay in shape, with special emphasis placed on Viktoria’s eating habits, as well as maintain and even improve their skills.

While all of them generally agreed this was for the best, this didn’t stop some like Grantz to be terrified of the training to come, with Major Tanya Degurechaff having a tendency to make training a living hell for anyone who endured it. Anyone who survived came out as an elite, but that didn’t make it an enjoyable experience.

“So are we going to wait for Tanya before we start? I’m not sure if she’d rather us wait for her or start on our own.” Viktoria, the only other girl in the battalion besides the Major, asked.

“We wouldn’t want to upset the major on the first training.” Neumann commented.

“Yeah, she’d probably get Ainz’s help to make training even worse if we did that.” Koenig, also known by a certain goddess as ‘horse-face man’ responded as he readied his mage gear.

“Don’t give her ideas!” Viktoria pleaded, flailing her arms around.

Suddenly a large black vortex appeared above all of them, prompting all of them to look up in shock and confusion.

“Is that?” Neumann asked.

“Yep.” Weiss replied.

Koenig picked up his rifle and finished putting on his mage gear and looked up at the vortex, “Alright then, I’m ready.”

“Here we go again!” Grantz said as he shrugged, the entire group then being whisked away in the next instant, all of them having stopped being surprised at anything that happened in this world.

As the group opened their eyes again, they found themselves in the middle of a familiar desert. Just a month prior they had been hurled here against their will, though then they were pretty much with the entire group. Now it seems they were all on their own. It was unclear whether their other classmates were here or not, but now with their mage equipment and their rifles, they were much better prepared in case of an attack.

“We’re back here again? Good thing we stopped the rampaging golems last time, if we had to fight those again I don’t think we’d do that well without the others.” Neumann commented, looking around curiously.

“We have our rifles now, so I trust we can probably handle ourselves better if anything happens. I trust you all vaguely remember where the village is?” Weiss asked, turning to the battalion, if one could even call the group of five there a battalion, and began to put on his mage equipment.

The battalion responded with a series of nods and confirmations as one by one they began to hover over the ground.

“Good, then form up, be prepared in case something else happens here, even if it's unlikely. The Major would give it to us if we weren’t prepared for a fight either way.”

“You got that right.” Neumann said.

“We’re heading towards the village where Pantagruel and the others reside. Perhaps they can help us return or at least explain what’s happened.” Weiss said as the others got into a winged formation behind him.

“Yes, Sir!” The others replied as they launched off, flying towards the village at accelerating speeds. The village was a good distance away, however with the speeds at which they could fly it took them only a few minutes to actually arrive there. 

“Nearing the village now, prepare to descend.” Weiss communicated to the others.

“Uuuh, Weiss… You might want to look at that.” Viktoria commented, picking up some slight speed to catch up to Weiss as she pointed down toward the edge of the village.

“Halt!” Weiss raised his hand as the battalion stopped their movement. He looked down at the village and saw clearly what Viktoria was referring to.

Towards the opposite end of the village to the church approached a towering golem, much like the ones they had fought without much success last time they came here. The main difference was that this golem looked damaged, massive cracks covering its body with craters and dents of varying sizes where it had taken obvious hits. From each of the cracks an ominous purple glow emanated, the same glow came out of the Golem’s eyes as it slowly walked closer and closer to the village.

While not immediately obvious, it only took the mages a few seconds to realize what was happening: The village was under attack.

<><><><><><><>

Megumin, the Crimson Demon Archwizard, peeped her head over the side of the couch, looking down towards the (supposed) Goddess lazing about on it. Her crimson red eyes looked down at the lazy blue-haired Goddess Aqua and shouted, “Aqua! Get up! I want to cast explosion!”

Aqua rolled over onto her side, trying her best to ignore the crazy Crimson Demon.

Megumin, however, was having none of it, reaching down and beginning to shake Aqua, “Hey! Get up! I need someone to carry me back after I cast it!”

“No! Go find someone else! I was just getting comfortable.” Aqua retorted.

Before the two could start fighting, a blonde crusader in heavy armor entered the room, looking down at the carnage seemingly about to unfold with only a slight bit of lust, “What’s going on here?”

Megumin stood up straight and pointed at the crusader, “Darkness! You get the honor of taking me to go cast explosion magic!”

Darkness seemed confused, but simply shrugged, “I suppose I could. The gym club got postponed since apparently most of the members are having some training with the rest of the people from their world.” Darkness pouted, “I wanted to join but they wouldn’t let me come…”

“You saw what their leader did to Kazuma, that woman’s insane. I told her I was a goddess and she yelled at me!” Aqua shouted, still not moving from the couch, however.

“Isn’t that the normal response people probably have when you try to pretend to be a goddess? I’m surprised you haven’t gotten in more trouble for it already.” Darkness responded, much to Aqua’s annoyance.

Aqua shouted, “I AM a goddess!”

Aqua was now pouting as the other two decided to ignore her persistent ramblings about supposedly being a Goddess. “Anyways Megumin I can take you to cast explosion, what do you normally cast it on now that there’s no castle? Will you cast it on a building? Some open field? The ocean? Ooh! I know! Cast it on me! I can take it!” Darkness now had a full lust in her voice, showing her obvious lustful desire to be blasted by the strongest spell in their world. This world they found themselves in had been a wet dream for her, but nobody rarely ever seemed to have a desire to brutally abuse her, much to her annoyance.

As they were about to head out, a black vortex appeared above their heads. Megumin looked up in shock, Darkness looked up in lust, and Aqua looked up in anger and annoyance more than anything. Regardless of their reactions, before they knew it they found themselves back into the world they had escaped a month prior.

“Cmon! I finally got a day where I could lay down and be lazy and this happens?! I bet Kazuma did this! Kazuma! Kazuma!” Aqua stood up and began to shout, more pissed off than any of the other two girls at being suddenly brought here, though she was more upset that it interrupted her laziness.

“I don’t think Kazuma’s here. I don’t think any of our classmates are, at least they aren’t near us. Are we back in that other world or is it a new one?” Megumin asked as the three began to look around despite Aqua’s pouting.

“Look, Megumin, isn’t that the bridge you destroyed last time we were here?” Darkness pointed to the ruins of a bridge, while it had been crudely repaired, it was obvious that the central portions were built with bits of stone. 

“Great, we’re back here again…” Aqua continued to talk as a shadow began to loom over her, “Let me guess, we’re about to be attacked by another golem.”

Aqua looked at Darkness and Megumin to see the former looking up in lust and the latter also looking up in lust but for a more explosive reason. Aqua turned her head up as she noticed the shadow over her, looking up herself to see a Golem with glowing purple eyes looming above her, posed to strike.

<><><><><><><>

“Puck, when did Subaru say he was going to get here? We should be starting that study group for the test next week soon.” Asked a silver-haired half elf named Emilia. While in her last world her visual traits earned her much fear from the general public due to her resemblance to the Witch of Envy, here that was a thing of the past, and it brought her much happiness that nobody saw her as just the ‘silver haired half elf’.

Nevertheless, her happiness was another matter from studying. While the education didn’t seem to actually give too much, she wanted to maintain good grades regardless. As the Class President, it was ultimately her duty to set an example, and she was sure Ainz and Albedo as vice president would as well.

“I believe he mentioned having lunch with some of our classmates, he shouldn’t be too long, I doubt he’ll be late.” Puck, Emilia’s cat-like spirit which floated above her head responded.

“I hope so.” Emilia looked around the library where everyone else from her world that was in Class 2 was currently reading. They had all gotten here a bit early, though Beatrice had been there for hours already, having spent most of her time in the new world in the library, much like she had before, though now she spent a lot more time with Subaru as Emilia had noticed. Nevertheless she was in the library again today, likely told to go ahead without Subaru as he went to get lunch.

Emilia was still confused about this world as a whole, and while her sponsor Roswall seemed to know more, at the same time he also didn’t seem to know it all. Nevertheless she knew there was a lot he wasn’t telling them, however she decided to trust him and go along with it for now.

Before Emilia could take out a book to read in order to pass the time everyone in the library looked up to see a black vortex sucking them all in as they had been a month prior. None could even muster a response before they all found themselves back in the desert that was the other world.

“Looks like we’re back here again, I suppose.” Beatrice said as she looked around at the environment much like everyone else.

“Where’s Subaru?” Rem asked, trying to look around desperately for any signs of anyone else, or more specifically Subaru.

“We’ll find him if we follow the sounds of failure.” Ram muttered.

“Guys look! Dogs!” Emilia said with excitement.

“I don’t think those are normal dogs, Lia.” Puck responded.

As the dogs approached, it was as puck said, rather than fur and fluff, their bodies were made of stone and rocks. Their eyes glowed a deep purple, and the cracks between the various stones that made up their body glowed a similar color.

As the pack of golem wolves surrounded the group, the leader made its presence known. Now standing front and center was a larger wolf with the rocks around its neck being of a lighter color, seemingly forming a mane. On its head were two pillars of stone, seemingly resembling unicorn horns. The pack seemed to gather more and more members from the surrounding hills and forest, all coming out of hiding to surround them, revealing their true numbers at easily over several dozen.

The wolf golems all began to make a deep growl, though it sounded far more monstrous than what a wolf would’ve otherwise sounded like. As the wolves growled, each of them grabbed their weapons, prepared to fight themselves out of the encirclement made by wolves. As the wolves seemed to prepare themselves, there was only one option left: Fight.

<><><><><><><>

A succubus angrily tapped her foot on the ground, folding her arms as she looked up at the clock on the wall with anger. The succubus was among the pinnacle of beauty, though she had remained a virgin all of her life to save herself for the one she loved. Now, at least in her mind, her relationship with him was in jeopardy.

“May I ask what has you so troubled, Lady Albedo?” The demon sitting across from Albedo, Demiurge, politely asked.

“Lord Ainz went out with that little girl and those two annoying human boys for lunch.” Albedo replied.

“I fail to see the issue.”

“It's that girl! She’s clearly fallen for Lord Ainz! I bet those boys have fallen for him too! Lord Ainz’s charms transcend gender!”

“While I agree that Lord Ainz’s beauty is above anything us mere Guardians could ever hope to achieve, let alone any lower humans, I would hardly say it's anything to get worked up over.”

Shalltear, a young-looking vampire sitting to Albedo’s right chimed in, “I told you before, Lord Ainz probably has no interest in people like them. Us guardians are far superior to any lowly human, it's far more likely he would take one of us as a wife then any of them.”

Albedo seemed to finally calm down, “Of course, I suppose you’re right, and by ‘us’ you mean, me of course. I’m the obvious choice for his head wife.”

“Watch your tongue, bitch.”

“What did you say, lamprey?!”

“SILENCE! LORD AINZ TOLD US NOT TO FIGHT WITH OUR CLASSMATES. THAT INCLUDES OTHER FLOOR GUARDIANS.” The large, four-armed insectoid warrior Cocytus mentioned.

Demiurge adjusted his glasses before adding onto Cocytus’ statement, “Yes, you’d make quite the mess of the cafeteria if you two started having the wife argument again.”

“Yes, I apologize. As Overseer of the Floor Guardians, I should be setting an example by following Lord Ainz’s rules. Now then, what shall we be ordering for lunch?” Albedo responded.

Demiurge fixed his glasses once more as a breeze seemed to be running through the cafeteria, “I’d reckon we will not be ordering lunch today, on account of the giant portal that’s returned.”

The Floor Guardians of Nazarick all looked up to see a vortex beginning to lift them out of their seats and into it.

After just a second they found themselves back into a familiar desert where they had been a month prior. Looking to his left, Demiurge noticed a giant hole in the ground and a door with Nazarick’s symbol placed next to it. “I see… It appears that we’re in the world we were in before. This is where Megumin hit the golems with explosion magic. That being the case, I reckon we should head to the village. If any of our classmates, or Lord Ainz is here, they will likely be heading towards there as well.”

“Makes sense, lets go.” Albedo replied.

“Ooh what's that?!” Aura, one of the two young half-elf twins pointed at the distance, looking in awe at the creature approaching them.

“IT LOOKS LIKE A GOLEM, BUT I CAN'T SAY I RECOGNIZE ANY GOLEMS LOOKING LIKE THAT.” Cocytus said as the others turned to look at what they were seeing as well.

The golem approaching towered high, sitting at a size comparable to the siege golems they fought a month before. However its shape was different, the rocks and stones seemed to take a humanoid and muscular shape, however its head appeared to be one of a pig with large tusks and a helmet with large horns sticking out the side.

“I-It kind of looks like an Orc I think.” Mare, the other elf twin commented.

“Did the Golems change? Whatever the case it looks aggressive, it's best we prepare to test how strong they are. Combat may draw the attention of our classmates or Lord Ainz. If they’re too strong, prepare a gate spell.” Demiurge said, turning to Shalltear as he ordered her to be ready with a gate.

“IT LOOKS LIKE ITS COMMANDING AN ARMY.” Cocytus commented.

As the golem approached, an army of much smaller, but still fairly large creatures followed. Each seemed to be similar in orc-like appearance to the large one, with only a few exceptions standing out as larger than the rest, though these exceptions were still only about half the size of the main golem.

“Mare, focus on taking out the army, we’ll focus on the big one.” Demiurge said.

“A-Alright…” Mare replied.

Albedo stepped forwards, equipping her armor and axe, “If everyone’s ready, let's show these rocks the might of Nazarick!”

<><><><><><><>

Quick note before ending the chapter, for one this series will eventually get more into the normal ‘school life’ part of Isekai Quartet, but I felt like doing a big plot thing at the start to introduce Rimuru more smoothly than just “He shows up at the school. Wow”.

On a second note, apologies for the frequent scene changes, I wanted to showcase the start of every group’s transfer, future chapters will be more limited in scene changes. (probably, its Isekai Quartet its gonna have some scene changes)

Also sorry if I don’t get the Re:Zero Characters quite right, they’re my weaker suit, I’ll probably re-watch Re:Zero later. Also future ending notes won’t be as long as this chapter’s

For the sake of simplicity, I’ve made a discord in case anyone wants to discuss things. I’ll also be pinging people whenever my fanfics update. For any interested, the code is below:

EakUsHM4pm