Year: 2138

Suzuki Satoru sighed through his nose as he clicked the send button and sat back in his seat. Staring at his recently sent email. He shook his head in disappointment. What was he expecting? He would be lucky to get a response. He closed his eyes as he took in the ambiance of the coffee shop he was sitting in.

It was two weeks until the closing of the DMMORPG game which he had played religiously for the past 12 years.

YGGDRASIL. A virtual-reality game that allowed a near-infinite amount of character customization. Many players formed guilds to compete with each other in guild wars and events. And of all the guilds, Ainz Ooal Gown was notorious for being at the very top. And it just so happened to be that guild that he was a part of.

But now, almost all the guild members had become busy with their real lives and quit playing. And the few that remained he had not heard from or seen online in months.

This wasn’t a problem unique to Ainz Ooal Gown, either. Over the past two years or so, the game’s player base had been steadily declining. Due to its age, YGGDRASIL was becoming increasingly outdated. Many players speculated about a YGGDRASIL II in production, but nothing was confirmed. But one way or another, the developers had announced last month that the game’s live service and servers would be shutting down. 

But Suzuki hoped at least one of his fellow guild members would respond to his email. If he could spend the final day of YGGDRASIL with even one of his comrades, it would be worth it.

What he didn’t respect was the near-instant response he got.

“Woah! Hey man, you still play YGGDRASIL!?”

Suzuki nearly jumped out of his seat. That did not come from his laptop. Turning to look over his shoulder to where the voice came from, and lowering the screen of his laptop in a vain attempt to hide what he was doing, he looked for the source of the noise.

A friendly man with dark hair, tanned skin, and a foreign complexion had just spoken to him. He had pulled out his smartphone and was holding it out to Suzuki. His web page was opened to a popular YGGDRASIL forum.

“Ah… y-yeah…” Suzuki responded nervously. He was never great at interacting with people. 

“Yo, that’s so cool! Join my guild, man! What’s your tag?”

“H-Huh!?” Suzuki began to sweat. Was this guy serious? Join his guild with only two weeks left of live service? It was absurd.

“No thanks… I’m in a guild already.” Suzuki replied in a low mumble. But it didn’t seem to faze the other man at all.

“Ahh, that’s a shame. Then, send me your tag, I’ll friend you and we can do some quests together!”

“O-Okay…” Suzuki figured there was no harm in doing some casual questing up until the server shut down. “It’s just Momonga. Spelled how it’s pronounced.” He tells him. “Do you need my discriminator?”

“Mmm, let’s see…” the man was typing away at his phone, then shakes his head. “Nope! I think I found you! Is this your profile?” He turned his screen to confirm.

“Oh… yeah…” Suzuki mumbled a confirmation. But talking to people about YGGDRASIL wasn’t so bad.

“Sweet! Friended! Let’s play together when we get home! I’ll be free pretty much every night at 8 pm up until the server shutdown. You should meet up with me sometime.”

Suzuki blinks and finally allowed his confused and anxious expression to break into an optimistic one. “Mm, yeah! Will do. See you tonight!”

As the man left the coffee shop, Suzuki watched him thoughtfully. Completely oblivious to the fact that the man happened to notice something else as he was walking out the door. “Oh wow… he’s part of Ainz Ooal Gown…?”

<X>

“Hey, you didn’t tell me you were the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown!” The man said with a chuckle, as he playfully punched the chest of the other avatar in front of him. His avatar greatly resembled his real life self, only much more attractive, muscular, and with an imposing set of white armor.

Suzuki, or Momonga as he was known in-game, waved his hand nonchalantly. His avatar was very different from his real-life appearance. He had chosen a monster avatar, specifically an Overlord, at type of high-level undead magic caster which resembled a skeleton. “Oh, don’t worry about it. You didn’t tell me that you were the guild master of Slane,” he pointed out.

“Mm, true. Hey, did anyone ever get past that eighth floor? That thing was punishing.” 

Momonga chuckled. “Well, a couple of times. But only because they were invited. Akemi is in your guild, right? Has she never told you she’s related to one of our guild members? She’s come over to visit a couple of times.”

“Um, she’s mentioned only that her sister played too. I had no idea she was part of Ainz Ooal Gown.”

“Hey, before we head out, could you sign my journal, man? The others will never believe this.” He chuckled.

“Others?”

“Yeah, the other guilds! Slane is in the eight-guild alliance! That’s how I got everyone together for that invasion of your guild.” He laughs, but then shook his head “Ah, sorry about that, by the way.”

“Umu, no hard feelings. It’s just part of the game in the end.” He shrugged. “Here, let me see.” He held his hand out as the other man passed his journal over. Momonga flipped to a random empty page towards the back and added his guild signature, before handing it back. “How’s that?”

The man chuckled and nodded. “Pretty good! Hey, I don’t think we were properly introduced! I go by Alah Alaf in-game. But since you know me in real life, you can also call me Hassan.”

“Well then, feel free to call me Momonga or Suzuki.” The overlord replied. “But, Hassan is a rather unusual name, isn’t it? Are you a foreigner?”

“Ah, kind of. I was born in Japan but my mother is Arabic.” He replied. “Alah Alaf means ‘god bless’”

Momonga nodded thoughtfully. “I see. Well, either way, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Hassan.”

“And you, Suzuki.” He stashed his journal in his inventory, before turning to look at the message board standing next to them. “Now, which of these quests catch your eye? I’m only level 90 though, so perhaps something a little easier?”

Momonga chuckled. “Alright, I’ll try not to make it too hard for you.” He replies, leaning in to look at the message board.

<X>

Momonga blinked in surprise, his eyes widening as he read the words on the screen in front of him.

“I’ll be on if I have time that day. But we should meet up in person before then! I’ll try and talk to some of the other guild members!”

That’s all the message said. It was from one of his guildmates. She was a close friend of his, and she went by Bukubukuchagama in-game, but he was one of the few who knew that her name in real life was Akari.

He hadn’t expected such a positive response from anyone. His hands shaking, he took a breath and typed out a response.

“That sounds great. When would work best for you?”

Clicking send, he sighed as he sat back in his chair. For some reason, the thought of seeing his guildmates in real life terrified him. But if he could connect with his friends, it wouldn’t matter if YGGDRASIL was shutting down. Here, Akari was extending her hand to him for a prolonged friendship, so why shouldn’t he take it? He owed it to himself to try.

He turned to stand up, not expecting to get another response for a while. He walked over to his kitchen and pulled a bottle of sake out from the cabinet. He might have time for a quick drink before he started his games.

As he sat down, however, he heard a ping from his laptop. Leaning over the table to get a look, to his surprise, he would see a new email notification, from Akari. She had already sent him a response. He blinks, taken aback by the timely reply, and set his bottle aside. He may need his wits about him if he was going to engage in a back-and-forth with her.

Clicking the little bubble at the corner of his screen to open the email, he began to read.

Attached was a date and address, and the message read:

“It’s at my place. I already asked my brother and Shiori. They both said they’d do it. Looking forward to seeing you again, Momo!”

Suzuki’s heart was racing. He couldn’t remember what Shiori went by in-game, but considering it was a girl’s name it could only be one of the other two female guild members. As for her brother, Suzuki knew him well as Peroroncino. Peroroncino was probably his closest friend in the guild, which was partly why he was so close to Akari as well. He also knew that his real name was Itsuki, thanks to the fact that the three of them had hung out a couple of times before now.

“Yeah, I’ll see you this weekend.” 

Suzuki tapped out a quick response, before shutting his laptop down and closing the top. He let out a sigh to calm himself as he looked over at the bottle of sake resting on the table.

He would probably need that tonight.

<X>

Suzuki adjusted his facemask as he stared up at the apartment complex that housed his two friends, Akari and Itsuki. But there was something different about the rest of the guild. At least two other members had promised to come, and even though he was comfortable calling them friends, meeting them for the first time in the real world made him nervous. Anyone would be anxious about a real-life meet-up with people they had met online, but in Suzuki’s case, it was even worse. He wasn’t great with women at the best of times, and at this point, he had not spoken to a woman face-to-face for nearly a year. It was kind of embarrassing, actually. Even if she was supposed to be his good friend, the thought of holding a conversation with Akari made him sweat.

These thoughts were what was running through his head when suddenly the door to the building lobby flew open.

“Hey, man! You’re finally here!? Come and get your ass upstairs, everyone’s waiting for you!” The man who had spoken let out a playful chuckle as he clapped a hand on Suzuki’s shoulder.

“Itsuki…?” He asks, taking in the man’s appearance. He was surprisingly chipper. Itsuki was a pretty plain-looking Japanese guy. Clean-shaven, short, dark hair, no dark eyes, and light skin. His distinguishing characteristic would be the sly grin that seemed permanently plastered across his face. In light of his sister’s medical problems, Suzuki would have expected a more somber attitude.

“Come on, I’ll show you upstairs. I’m pretty sure you’re our last guest, so you can make the grand entrance as our guild leader!” He laughed, as he lead the other man upstairs.

Opening the apartment door, Itsuki would step inside, followed closely by Suzuki. “Everyone, our leader is here!” Itsuki shouted with a boisterous and overdramatic flourish. 

Sitting in the room were five other people. Three of them were women, and the other two were men. Suzuki turned to Itsuki and frowned. “Sorry… can you introduce me…?”

The other man laughed and nodded. “Of course! Akari, come introduce our leader to everyone!” He said, pointing to the woman who seemed to struggle to her feet as she walked over. “Hey, Momo! Glad to finally see you in person again! It’s been too long, hasn’t it?” She grins, her soft dimples appearing on her cheeks as she happily took his hand and sat him down on the couch beside her. “Okay, now we should introduce you to everyone properly!” 

Pointing over to one of the other women, she begins introducing everyone. “That’s Shiori. Also known as Ankoro.” She gestured to a woman with long brown hair, a soft, youthful face, soft amber eyes, and dark glasses that struggled to stay on her small nose which only seemed to emphasize the nervous atmosphere about her.

Akari then pointed at a woman with short hair, piercing eyes, and a much different, far more mature vibe about her. “Maiko. Or Yamaiko.” The woman offered a slight wave as she was introduced.

Gesturing to a man with messy black hair, and a solemn expression, Akari spoke up once more. “That’s Flatfoot, his name is Shouta.” 

She finally pointed to the last man in the room, a tall, thin, brown-haired man with narrow eyes but a casual expression. He spoke up before Akari could introduce him. “Yo! Name’s Daichi. I go by Talisman in YGGDRASIL.” He grins, shooting Suzuki a wave. 

“Oh? I’m surprised you’re here… you were a pretty casual player, weren’t you?” Suzuki asks, tilting his head.

“Yeah, he was, but I know him well so I invited him.” Akari jumped in, turning to look at Suzuki. “So, how about a drink, leader?” She smirks.

“Oh… um, Akari, please, you don’t have to call me that. I’m not the leader here…” Suzuki looked away shamefully.

“Yes, I do! The guild might be closed until YGGDRASIL II, but you’re still our leader!” She grins, slapping a hand on his shoulder playfully.

Suzuki groans and lets out a sigh. “Fine… yeah, a drink sounds good.” 

“I got it. You shouldn’t be moving around too much, sis.” Itsuki replied, walking over to the kitchen and getting out a bottle. He set it down on the table before them along with seven small glasses. “Who else wants some?” He asked as he began to pour drinks for everyone.

Suzuki looked over at Akari and frowned. “Seriously? It hasn’t gotten any better?” he asked, his voice in a low whisper. He knew Akari was steadily growing weaker. He didn’t know what was wrong with her, but he knew she was convinced she didn’t have much longer, and he couldn’t confidently argue that either. Ever since he had known her, her body had slowly been giving out on her. She was becoming more dependent on her brother to take care of her as well, from what he heard, and her energy levels were steadily decreasing.

Akari nervously shook her head, before looking up at him. “Suzuki... I didn’t want you to worry about me… Can we please just… try to forget about it tonight?”

Suzuki sighed and slowly nodded. “Okay… Okay. Fine.”

“That aside…” she grinned and glanced over at Shiori. “Shiori here is still single… what do you think of her?” Akari smirked.

Suzuki sighed, rolling his eyes. Akari had always been trying to set him up with one girl or another. But he would never follow up with any of the girls he set her up with. 

“Suzuki! Are you ever gonna get a girlfriend? Get married? You’re almost 30 already!” She nagged.

“A few more years…” he muttered, but Akari wasn’t having it.

“Exactly! Just how long do you plan to keep procrastinating?” Akari glared, nodding at the currently distracted woman, who was currently in deep conversation with Maiko.

Suzuki grumbled a response and sighed. “Akari… I just don’t know, okay…? Maybe I’m not good for a girlfriend.”

The woman rested a hand on his shoulder and sighed. “Listen. I know you don’t really want that. If that was true, you wouldn’t get so nervous around women. But what I don’t know is why you keep pushing them away.”

The man fell silent and looked away. Just then, Itsuki slapped them both on the shoulders and chuckled. “Hey, you two! What are you whispering about? We’re gonna play a drinking game, wanna join in?”

Akari blinked and snickered at her brother’s extremely insensitive timing as he swept the atmosphere aside. She glanced up at him and smirked. “Yeah, I’ll join. You’re going down, shithead.”

“What about you, my guy?” Itsuki glanced over at Suzuki, who let himself relax on the sofa as he took a deep breath. 

“Sure. Why not?”

<X>

Momonga sighed as he stared at the clock in the top corner of his UI. Sitting upon the throne of kings, the powerful artifact that served as the core of the entire tomb of Nazarick, he stared into space absentmindedly. Once again, he had waited for anyone to show up. And once again, he had waited in vain.

It was nearly midnight. He should head to sleep. He had an important presentation to make tomorrow at work, and it would be bad if he missed it. Momonga’s finger hovered over the logout button, but before he could press it, a notification popped up onscreen.

<Tabula Smaragdina has logged on>

…maybe a few more minutes couldn’t hurt.

He quickly closed the logout menu, and stood up from his throne as he teleported to the conference room. As a guild master, Momonga had the privilege of knowing exactly when and where another guild member logged on. And each guild member possessed a Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown, which was a magic item that allowed the user to instantly teleport anywhere within the guild base of Nazarick. However, because this item did not discriminate between members and enemies, it was important to not let it fall into the wrong hands, as an enemy player could easily use one to teleport past the base’s defenses in an instant.

As Momonga appeared in the conference room, he quickly spotted across the large circular table an imposing figure. With a grey mask, pale skin, and several tentacles, the avatar of Tabula Smaragdina looked as horrifying as the monster from some lovecraftian horror story. And indeed, that was the intention created in choosing the Brain Eater, a monster race that utilized powerful magic. Tabula was a bit of an eccentric and was extremely into the occult. Not only that, but he was a bit of a chunnibyu. Not that Momonga could really judge either of those things, he could probably be considered a bit of a chunnibyu himself.

“Momonga! So you’re here! That’s a relief, I was hoping you would be. I wanted to speak with you.” The Brain Eater spoke up immediately upon spotting the skeletal Overlord. 

“Oh? Of course, it’s good to see you again, Tabula. What can I help you with?” Momonga followed Tabula as he wandered out of the conference room and down the hallway.

“I fear our end approaches, my friend. An ever-ticking clock, our souls soon reach the precipice of oblivion. Yet I am convinced this ending shall become a new beginning once more.” Tabula spoke, his words low and ominous. Momonga had gotten used to Tabula’s overdramatic manner of speaking, so he didn’t bother bringing it up, but he would be lying if he said he entirely understood what his friend was saying.

“Tabula, I’m afraid I don’t understand, what do you mean by that? It sounds like you’re saying we’re going to die soon.” Momonga displayed a nervous emote. Since facial expressions were beyond the scope of the game’s programming, it allowed players to utilize a selection of emotes to express emotions. This was especially convenient for players who played monster races that wouldn’t normally be able to express facial emotions anyways.

His friend shook his head. “No, no, do not think of it as death. We are but the playthings of higher powers; our lives are cut short, yet our story shall continue ever after. Of this I am certain.”

Momonga still didn’t get it, and so decided to shrug off his friend's eccentricities. “I see. Then what will you have us do?” He asks.

“I believe it prudent that one person remains here, in the guild, at the moment of the end. Yet I carry the responsibility of my simple life. Though I believe strongly in this upcoming change in our collective fates, I cannot be certain what it entails, and so my labor of responsibility takes precedence. Therefore I am begging you, my friend, to remain here until the very end.” Tabula rambled on in an extremely overdramatic manner once again, but fortunately this time Momonga could at least vaguely pick up what he was putting down.

“You’re saying you want me to be online until the moment of the server shutdown? That’s no problem, I had intended to do so anyway. But I’m disappointed to hear you won’t be joining me.” Momonga noted with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Ah, fear not, my old friend. We shall meet again soon when our fates collide once more. The evil god will force us into permanent companionship in due time. Though exactly how or what that will entail… I have no idea.” He admitted, seemingly a little ashamed of his ignorance on the matter despite Momonga clearly being three steps behind him, in this case, both metaphorically and quite literally. “Regardless, I wish to change a few things about my NPCs, only minor details, of course, but I wish to prepare them more readily for the fate that awaits them.”

Momonga glanced over at his friend in concern. “Tabula, what do you mean ‘the fate that awaits them’? Once the servers shut down, they will be deleted, just like every other piece of code stored on the server.” He reminded him.

But the brain eater only hummed in confirmation. “Yes, it’s true. Their code will be deleted, but I believe it will be interpreted and used by another. Well, perhaps that is a bit of an assumption. But from the information I am given, I know their path of fate extends further than the end of YGGDRASIL,” he explained. Stopping at the Throne of Kings, in the throne room, Momonga realized that one of his NPCs was standing beside the throne.

“Albedo,” Tabula spoke up, just in case Momonga had forgotten her name, but it was unnecessary. Momonga had long since memorized the names of all the NPCs and screenshotted their character sheets. He would feel awful if his friends’ hard work went to waste, so he was eager to preserve it in some form at least.

“One of three NPCs I have created. Would you be surprised, my friend, if I told you that she was not the pure maiden she appears to be? Behind those charming eyes lies a woman who is confident in swaying men.” He grins, opening up her character sheet. Momonga watched Tabula scroll all the way down through the backstory, which was very long. Upon reaching the end, he showed his friend one single line.

“Needless to say, she is a slut.”

Momonga blinked as he reread the lines a couple of times. Even with Tabula’s Oscar-worthy performance of an introduction, Momonga still found the line somewhat shocking to read. “Um… Tabula, I don’t know if that’s…” 

“Oh, it’s fine!” He grins, closing the window. “In fact, it’s my favorite part! You wouldn’t expect someone like her to get around, would you?” He grins. “But no, I didn’t come to change that. I came to take this from her.” He opened the NPC’s inventory and removed an item that resembled a staff with a floating orb at the end.

“Ginnungagap? Why did you give that to her?”

“Oh, well, I thought it would be funny, actually. And it fit her lore. I assumed you’d put it back eventually. But you never noticed, so I realized I should do it myself before she went off.”

“Oh… I’m still a little shaken by the slut part. Are you sure that’s okay for a lady?”

Tabula made a tongue-clicking noise and shook his head. “She is not a lady, Momonga. Get it? It’s gap moe. She is everything I’d ever want from her and more. So don’t try and mess with her settings behind my back, either. Okay?”

Momonga blinks and shakes his head, laughing nervously. “Hey, no need to get all accusatory… I would never do something like that…!” He promised. “That aside, did you want to visit your other two creations?”

Tabula nodded. “Ah, I see. So you did know about them after all. Rubedo and Nigredo. Yes, there are a few things I wish to change about them. But first…” he held out the staff he had taken from Albedo. “You should have this, leader. A world item shouldn’t be carried for long by anyone except you, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Especially with whatever is coming. It could be dangerous.”

Momonga nodded and took the staff, deciding not to question Tabula’s strange hunches and instead going along with it. And he was right, Gunningagap was one of about 200 game-breaking items called World Items. Some could even rewrite the very fabric of how the game was played. So needless to say, Tabula was right about that. Even though there was only a week left, better safe than sorry. Ainz Ooal Gown possessed eleven such items, and Momonga’s collector’s instinct couldn’t let him risk losing even one.

“Ready? Let’s visit Nigredo first.” Tabula suggested, his voice pulling Momonga from his thoughts before he used his ring and disappeared in a flash of light.

Momonga immediately did the same, appearing in an icy wasteland, Tabula was already making his way toward a solitary living space. He opened the door and stepped inside, and Momonga quickly slipped in after him as he looked around.

Suddenly a horrible screeching sound rang out, and the two players sighed, as a grating voice rang out. “Where are my childrennnnn!?!?”

Tabula held out a porcelain doll, right as a woman with long dark hair, a black dress, and a skinless face rushed toward them with a pair of gigantic scissors.

Upon seeing the doll, however, she stopped her rampage, took it, and retreated back into the room, suddenly becoming docile.

“I came to change that,” Tabula explained as if Momonga had not just witnessed the incredibly bizarre display. “Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s neat, but… it’s pretty inconvenient to have to go through that routine every time someone enters her room. Both for her, and the visitor.” He stepped forward and opened the NPC’s character sheet. “Let’s see… delete all of this…” he mumbled, as he removed the programming and lore pieces. “Hmm, with that bit gone in her lore, there’s a lot of empty space… any idea what we could fill it with?”

Momonga thinks. “I dunno, what about making her a maternal figure?” He suggested, but Tabula shook his head. “Already done. Hmmm… maybe something related to you? Since you’re the guild leader… hey Momonga, is it okay if I put that she takes after you?”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?” Momonga tilted his head. “Well, I suppose it’s fine either way, she’s your NPC.”

Tabula nodded and quickly wrote the new information in the window. 

“She greatly admires Momonga and takes after him in many of her personality traits.”

Momonga nodded. “Well, I suppose there’s no issue with that. What about Rubedo?” He asked, looking over at Tabula as the other player closed the window.

“Let’s go now.” He agreed, before the pair once again teleported, appearing in what seemed to be a pyramid-shaped Egyptian temple in a vast, hostile wasteland. As they stepped inside, the door closed behind them, and they both glanced around the dark room. 

Sitting upon a dias in the center of the room was a statue, one reminiscent of an angel. Tabula stepped toward the Angel and opened up the status window. 

“I have two things I want to add here, Momonga. First, is that she is loyal to only you above all others, including the other guild members as well as myself. Is that okay?”

Momonga shrugged. “Again, I see no issue with that. She’s your NPC.”

Tabula nodded as he typed the information into the statue’s profile. “Second, even though she is inert now and will remain so until she receives her activation code, I’d like to add one more condition for her to activate. If your HP drops below 10%, I would like for her to activate and teleport to your location. Is that alright as well?”

Momonga once again shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fine. I don’t see myself engaging in any dangerous battles before the end of the game. It would just be for lore reasons right?”

Tabula nodded as he typed it in. “Well, yeah. And to give her a bit of a mission, that she can fulfill. A goal, you might say. To protect you. She’s my gift to you, and she will care about you as much as her hardened heart allows.”

Momonga waved his hand and chuckled. “Oh gosh, are you really adding all that? That’s kind of embarrassing…!” He admitted, looking away bashfully.

“Don’t worry about it, Momo. You deserve it, after all you’ve done for this guild.” Tabula said, resting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It's thanks to you that this place is not a disaster.”

“Well… of course… it’s the duty of the guild leader to ensure that the members can come back at any time.” Momonga replied humbly.

“Perhaps. But even still, you must have put in a lot of effort and sacrificed a lot. Thank you, my friend.” He replied, lowering his tentacled hand from the Overlord’s shoulder and turning. “Now, come. I wish to catch up with you before I retire for the night.” He sent a cheerful emote as he left the room.

Momonga sighed, grinning to himself under his visor, though his avatar didn’t show it. He truly missed these days, fooling around with his friends. It was a shame they had to come to an end.

<X>

“I still can’t believe you were unofficially part of Ainz Ooal Gown and just never told us.” Alah shook his head dismissively at the woman sitting beside him. 

“Look, if I had told you, you would have treated me differently!” She huffs, sending a pouting emote and glancing over at Momonga for support.

Her avatar was a tall, blonde elf woman with an attractive physique, olive skin, green eyes, and high cheekbones which made her piercing gaze all the more intimidating. There was generally a cool calculating behind her eyes, but right now it was hard to imagine that with the way she was acting, even if her avatar’s expression remained unchanged.

Momonga sighed and shook his head. “Give her a break, I doubt she kept it a secret on purpose.” He assured the other man. 

“Fine, fine… But still, you owe me one Akemi. You held out until now to tell me about this place.” He glanced around the room. They were sitting in one of the lounges in the 9th floor of Nazarick. Momonga had chosen to invite them both as visitors, figuring it couldn’t hurt, what with the game a few days from its end. Plus, now he had the trump card that was Rubedo, should they attempt to betray him, but he honestly didn’t think that they would. For one, he considered them both friends at this point. And with the end of the game only a few days away, all three of them recognized that clinging to petty grudges was only a waste of time. But there was a much more important reason why he was confident they wouldn’t betray him.

Akemi was technically an honorary member of Ainz Ooal Gown. Being the younger sister of Yamaiko, she would have even been offered official membership, but because she had chosen an elf avatar, and because Ainz Ooal Gown had a rule stating that all members must be of a monster race, she was not invited. This didn’t seem to bother her too much, though, as she was able to find a guild for herself just fine.

Akemi sighed. “That’s true… I kinda wish I could have joined. Not that Slane is bad, but, well, you know. This place is just so freakin’ cool…” She sighed wistfully and admired the room around them. An action that filled Momonga with pride, seeing two other players so in awe of the Nazarick that he and his friends had created together.

“Well, I do think you would have made a good guild member, Akemi. It might be meaningless now, but if you guys would like to form an official guild alliance, it might be a fun thing to do.” Momonga offered.

The two other players glanced at each other briefly, something wordless passing between them. After a moment, they both nodded.

“Ahh, sure, why not.” Alah nods. He opens a UI panel and quickly taps a few buttons. After only a moment, Momonga received a pop-up window of his own.

<Slane wishes to create a guild alliance>

Confirming the pop-up, Momonga was notified that the game now considered them allies. Though the odds of them ever fighting side-by-side in a guild war within the three days left in the game were slim, it was still a nice thing to be able to appreciate. Ainz Ooal Gown had always been on its own, but now, it had technically joined its first guild alliance.

“By the way, did you ever get to Level 100, Alah?” Momonga asked, looking up after he had accepted the request.

“Ah, unfortunately not. Too much EXP to level up once you get this high. I only managed to level up once since we last spoke, and I’ve been grinding every free second I got. Probably gonna end the game just below level 100, unfortunately.” he chuckled, shrugging nonchalantly. “Still, I’ll probably be grinding up until the end. I wanna see how far I can get,” he smirked.

Akemi nodded in agreement. “Yeah, me too. Though I’m level 97 right now, I still don’t think I’ll make it all the way to 100. I think Surshana is though, right? He’s the only one in our guild…” She glanced back over at Alah for confirmation.

“Ah, yeah. He’s the only one in our guild. How many besides you are level 100 in your guild, Momonga?” He asked, glancing back over at the Overlord.

“Oh! I know!” Akemi raised her hand with a smug emote. “It’s all of them, right? All 41 members are level 100.”

As Momonga nodded, Alah let out a sigh of resignation. “Hah, no wonder we could never defeat you guys. How’d you do it? You guys are crazy strong, is it even possible to beat this damn tomb?”

Momonga shrugged his shoulders once again and spoke up. “Nobody has done it before. It’s quite possible that it is… completely impossible. Punitto Moe, Lucifer, and Peroroncino put in a lot of work to make sure of that.” He replied.

Akemi nodded. “Mmm, I’ve always wondered if I could improve on it.” She mused thoughtfully.

“Wait, you have!?” Alah looked over at her, doing a double-take. “But, they were our enemy!”

Akemi laughed. “Oh come on! My sister was part of their guild, y’know! They weren’t really my enemy!”

“So that’s why you didn’t participate in the raid! You said you were sick!!” Alah retorted in an angry tone.

Akemi giggles and waves her hands in front of her defensively. “Oh, well, technically that wasn’t a lie…! It was just… really convenient!” She sent a smug emote, causing Alah to throw his hands up and slump into the chair. 

“That’s it. We had a traitor from the start!” he shook his head, Momonga watching the two of them bicker. It truly reminded him of his own guildmates. Why couldn’t those days have lasted forever…?

<X>

Momonga sighed as he sat back in his throne. Well, to call it his throne would ordinarily be quite arrogant, but at this point, it might as well be. The Throne of Kings upon which he sat served as the Throne for the head of the guild, and though that was technically him, it was more of a formality. Ainz Ooal Gown had always run itself democratically, and a popular vote was usually the way they decided how best to move forward. As Guild Leader, his job was simply to maintain order.

But now, his guild had functionally shrunk to one member, that being him alone. And of the other three, they hadn’t joined in months. Tabula's appearance a few days ago, and HeroHero’s appearance a few hours ago were a couple of pleasant surprises that he hadn’t expected to see. But apart from that, it had been at least two months since the last guild member had logged on. And with only a few minutes left before the game’s shutdown, Momonga was functionally the sole remaining member.

Glancing over at Albedo, he briefly wondered about her settings. ‘Needless to say, she is a slut. Tabula-san, you always did like gap moe’

He buried his face in his hand, sighing as he shook his head. For a brief moment, he considered just changing it. Normally only the creator of an NPC could edit them, but as the guild leader, he could use the guild staff to change them as well. However, he quickly pushed the thought aside. Doing so would be an abuse of his position, and he shouldn’t sink to that level even if the game was ending in a few short minutes. Besides, if Tabula ever found out, he would be livid.

Momonga couldn’t help but wonder why he had the urge to change it. There were two minutes left in the game. Any change at this point would, by definition, be more effort than it was worth. And in any other circumstance, he wouldn’t have. It’s not like he had felt tempted to change it over the course of the past week since Tabula had shown it to him. So why now, of all times?

The overlord sat back in his chair. He would need to go to sleep as soon as the servers kicked him out of the game. He had to wake up at 4:00 am the next morning for work. Which meant he’d only be getting around 4 hours of sleep tonight. Not great, but he was used to it.

Still, as the seconds ticked by, Momonga closed his eyes. It was usually pretty disorienting to be forcefully kicked out of a Dive headset. Sometimes it could result in headaches if one wasn’t careful. So it wasn’t usually recommended, but Suzuki was anything if not stubborn. But he was still not willing to feel sick from the sudden disconnect of stimuli to his brain so he let his eyes close shut in the seconds before the game ended.

There were about ten seconds left. His clock told him it was 12:59:50 and counting.

His thoughts returned to his times in the game as guild leader, as the clock ticked down ever more.

The clock now read 12:59:55

It was fun, he thought to himself. He would miss those times.

12:59:57

It truly was fun.

12:59:58

12:59:59 

00:00:00