Chapter Text
You felt lucky that today was your day off from your nightshift job. It meant that you had collapsed on your bed the moment you got home this morning, but at least when you woke up you wouldn't miss out on the last few hours of YGGDRASIL. Although most of the friends you had met there were long gone, it was one of your many flaws that you struggled to let go of lingering attachments.
You rubbed at your eyes. What was the time? You crawled off your small bed, the decaying floor beneath your feet creaking under your light body. You noted dully that you were still in your work uniform but shrugged it off. You hobbled over to your desk and sat on your swivel chair. The chair was unstable, and you had to make sure that you didn't lean back too far, but it had been like that since you scavenged it, so you didn't take notice.
You opened your laptop to check the time.
11:30pm
Fuck.
You spun your chair around, catching yourself on the desk when the chair nearly toppled and grabbed your second-hand Dive Gear, putting it on your head and launching YGGDRASIL. Entering your login details at this point had become second nature. You spawned on the Ninth Floor of your guild's base, Nazarick. This floor had been designed to resemble the modern world the most out of all ten floors and was supposed to be the last meeting place for all of your fellow guild members.
Only it was empty.
That... That wasn't right. You were certain that Momonga, your guild leader, had sent out emails to everyone. You began to search between the rooms as fast as your very slow avatar would allow.
Damn your min-maxing obsession!
You were relieved when you saw Momonga and Hero-Hero in the conference room. You felt silly for panicking. Of course, they'd be here.
Just as you were about to call out to say hello, with the push of a holographic button, Hero-Hero logged out.
"Oh..."
He mustn't have seen you.
Momonga turned around to face you. Not for the first time, you felt frustrated that Avatars didn't portray emotions as he stared at you.
"I almost thought you wouldn't show." He said.
You looked down.
"It wasn't intentional... I fell asleep."
Momonga only continued to stare.
The truth was, you and Momonga had never really gotten along well. There was just something about the two of you that brushed each other wrong. While you didn't fight like Ulbert and Touch Me had, you both definitely had that quality of unsettled air between you.
Something you found odd, because Ulbert and Touch Me in many ways were two sides of the same coin, just different ends of the edginess spectrum. Both dramatic, both heavily into role play, both badass, and both your dearest friends.
Even if you and Ulbert fought like cat and dog at first... You had never expected to meet a fan of your hobby, but YGGDRASIL was a weird place that made anything possible.
"I am going to the tenth floor," Momonga said. You weren't sure if it was an invitation to join him or not, but you had no intention of accepting even if it was.
"I'm going to tour the floors, see the NPCs one last time."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. You ended it by teleporting to the third floor.
You blinked as you adjusted to the darkness of the crypt. The first through third floors were in a way designed to be a test for enemy players, and as such were all the same. Only once one surpassed them were they able to see the true creative genius of the members of Ainz Ooal Gown.
It was dark. Like really dark. Only those with dark vision or true vision would be able to properly see on this floor. One of your two racial classes, Automaton, had dark vision, so you had no difficulty seeing.
You used this sight to scan the area for a specific NPC. Disregarding all the ghouls, ghosts and skeletons, your eyes landed on a certain vampire.
Shalltear Bloodfallen. The first-floor guardian that an invader would encounter. She was set to guard the first through third floors and as such had the most battle experience of all the NPCs in Nazarick. NPCs were different to players though and didn't level up through battles but rather a guild levelling system. Even still, she definitely had one of the best builds out of all the floor guardians, even if her aesthetic design was a little... questionable.
"Thanks for holding down the fort!" You waved before moving on to the next floor. The servers would shut down in 15 minutes and you couldn't waste time talking to NPCs, even if you had spent more time in their company than any of your guildmates.
Because you had a night shift job, you had been able to spend hours in YGGDRASIL that no one else could. This had landed you with the task of watching over the guild in those hours, and you had been very bored. Luckily for you, your guildmates had creative minds, so in this time you had kept yourself entertained by reading the settings and backgrounds of all the NPCs. You probably knew more NPC trivia than anyone else in the guild.
The fourth floor was a giant lake with a giant golem. Your second and more prevalent racial class was a clockwork golem, but the difference between the two types of golems left no resemblance. Gargantua was a rather simple design of a mountainous form of rocks with a dripping red face, while you had a detailed design of moving cogs and magical machinery. Gargantua was one of the few NPCs that didn't have a proper backstory, so you had always imagined him to be the mindless kind of golem, not that it mattered.
You glanced over the scene, taking in one last final memory of the place before moving on.
The next and fifth floor was much more familiar to you. An icy wonderland or a winter wasteland depending on your opinion, this floor was designed to be inhabitable to those that didn't have cold resistance. You were proudly the best tank in Ainz Ooal Gown, so you had many.
The NPC on this floor was a large insectoid with four arms, and probably the one you felt most familiar with. Cocytus had a high damage build that worked well with your high defence build. In the event of invasion, the protocol for you was to go to the fifth floor and keep the enemies’ attention while Cocytus cut them down.
"Thanks for the good times. It's been an honour fighting alongside you."
You said the words that felt most fitting. Cocytus may not be alive, but you had spent so much time with him, it felt wrong to not say anything.
The next floor was the jungle and the colosseum, but more importantly the most adorable two NPCs in Nazarick. You were more aware than most that kids could be little gremlins, but you also had a strong soft spot for them having seen them at their most vulnerable. Consequences of being an orphanage brat.
You knelt to be eye-level with them.
"Bye-bye sweeties. I really don't want to go, I promise. It wasn't your fault I swear."
The last words had left your mouth without thing and stirred something in you that made you sick to your core. Memories of untold grief and loneliness began to surface in your mind, and you left the floor immediately to avoid thinking about them.
The next floor was a hellscape. Literally. Designed by the guild's resident edge lord who you loved so much; the seventh floor was a monument to a fallen pantheon. Ruins of temples and rivers of lava. If you couldn't survive the fifth floor without cold resistance, you couldn't survive the seventh without heat resistance. You had both.
The floor guardian on this floor had a special place in your heart. If it weren't for Demiurge, you and Ulbert would have never become friends. It was a long story; one you needn't go into now. As such, Demiurge was basically a symbol of your friendship with Ulbert.
Looking at him made reality dawn on you.
YGGDRASIL's servers were shutting down forever, and you would never see Ulbert again.
"I don’t want to go, but they’re not giving me a choice."
Yet still, the words 'good-bye' couldn't leave your mouth. Not to Demiurge... not to Ulbert.
The heavy feeling in your chest made you change your mind about where you were going next. With five minutes left, you went to the treasury.
The treasury. Home of Momonga's own NPC, but more importantly to you, the statues of your former guild members.
Your jaw behind the dive gear trembled at the sight of them.
"It's not fair." You said under your breath. Were they not your friends? Why had they abandoned you? Why was it always you that was left behind? Had you done something wrong? What had you done wrong? Why won't anyone ever tell you?
They had left you... you and Momonga behind. If they were still here, maybe you both wouldn't be alone in the very end.
If they were still here, maybe you would both get along better!
You were angry. You were sad. You were heartbroken.
You had not even noticed when the clock on the GUI disappeared.
"Meine Dame! If I dare ask, are you alright?" Words from an unfamiliar voice startled you out of your moping. You turned your head to see Pandora’s Actor leaning over to look at your face.
You had to hold in a yelp as you jumped back in surprise.
Did... did the NPC just talk? Feelings of panic and untold countless questions became seemingly filtered in your mind. You felt... weird... Like your mind was not your own. It was acting differently.
Almost like a machine.
And like a machine that had taken in your questions as inputs, it spat out answers.
- Yes, the NPC did just talk. That was not your imagination.
- The expressive stance that the NPC used is not within YGGDRASIL's animations.
- You now can feel your face and body unlike before.
- Also, your GUI is missing.
- Final Conclusion: This is no longer a game.
And just as your brain spat out those answers, you just... accepted them without question or panic.
- Extra conclusion: You are now thinking like an Automaton
Thanks, brain.
"Pandora's Actor?" You asked. Even if you had, against your will, accepted that you were no longer in a game, you had to confirm whether or not this was actually Pandora's Actor and not just a lookalike.
“Ja, Meine Dame! You are correct, it is I, the one charged with guarding the grand treasury of the supreme beings, Pandora’s Actor!” He said melodically and striking a bizarre pose.
So, at least you know for sure that they are claiming to be Pandora's Actor. His behaviour unsettled you. You had lived in dangerous neighbourhoods and erratic behaviours like this had been a sign of erratic mindsets. Those kinds of people were usually dangerous, and your childhood self would have done your best to avoid him as much as possible.
Fortunately, you weren't your childhood self. You had the self-control to remain calm and try and maintain a front of confidence. Doing anything else would reveal weakness which a dangerous person could take advantage of.
Pandora’s Actor, do you know who I am?” Your voice was a steady monotone, something that you were not expecting. You remembered in the lore of YGGDRASIL that Automatons could be hard to read but had never put much thought to it. You were suddenly aware that you were lacking all facial expressions.
"Why of course, meine dame! You are our supreme being Svalinn-sama!" Pandora’s Actor took your mechanical hand and kissed it. You gently took your hand back and repressed a shudder.
In Japanese culture, it was already a big no-no to touch others without permission. More so for you, someone who had grown up surrounded by pickpockets and more dangerous folks.
You stopped that line of thought and carefully considered his response. 'Supreme Being'. That could be to describe a deity, right? If this is not a video game, but the history of Nazarick remained the same, would that be how the NPCs saw you and your guild members? Beings that could create life?
You had never made your own NPC, preferring to conserve your creative energy for your other hobby, so you had never 'created life', but still you were called a 'Supreme Being'. Was it by association? Or was there more to it? Would asking more questions draw suspicion.
{Em- Svalinn? Are you here?} You heard Momonga’s voice ring inside your head. You realized he was using [Message].
{Hello?} You replied.
{Thank God you're still here.} The words were something that you never thought you'd hear from Momonga. Not about you. You save your comment for later. When the two of you had figured everything out. {Are the NPCs acting, ah, strange to you?}
{If by 'strange' you mean a lot more lively than usual, I would have to say absolutely.}
{Same here.} He replied, before you heard a mental sigh, {I've sent Sebas on a mission to check the perimeter.}
{I... see...} It was probably a good call, just because things didn't seem too different from inside the base didn't mean that would be the same outside. You were honestly more surprised that Sebas could leave Nazarick at all. Originally, the only NPCs that could leave a guild base were temporary summons or the creations of artificers, that which Sebas was neither.
{I plan on testing my abilities on the sixth floor, we don't exactly know what is going on and I'd like to know my build is still intact before any potential NPC uprisings. You should probably do the same.}
{On it.} You took the excuse to leave the room and get away from Pandora's Actor and run with it. You sent a small wave of farewell his way before activating your guild ring and teleporting to the fifth floor.
You were mildly surprised to feel a slight chill upon your arrival, but you didn't feel any discomfort.
{On the bright side, I'm pretty sure my cold resistances are still working. That or the fifth floor isn't anywhere near as cold as we intended.}
{Ah... I was kind of hoping we'd test our skills together...} Momonga genuinely seemed disappointed, and you felt a pang of regret in your chest.
However... {Sorry Momo, but I kinda always wanted to spar against Cocytus.}
{Isn't that extremely dangerous?} Momonga sounded panicked. {If your defence stats aren't the same, he could outright cut you in two!}
You mentally hummed in acknowledgement. Cocytus had nearly unparalleled Phys attack stats among the NPCs. If you weren't the only player in all of YGGDRASIL that had collected all 17 defence based geasses, as a tank you wouldn't have lasted a minute against him.
Fighting against Cocytus while you were so unsure of your stats was definitely risking your life. Unfortunately, you were already here, and the was no way you would back down after already telling Momonga your plans.
{I'm doing this, and you can't stop me.} You replied stubbornly.
You heard the familiar tired groan that Momonga made when you did something outrageously stupid. You felt a wave of pride as you relished it. You had to take joy in the few signs that he still cared.
{Just make it back to the sixth floor for the meeting.}
{Meeting?} What was Momo doing?
{Don't worry, Cocytus will know about it.} Momonga said before abruptly ending the message. You blinked in surprise before shaking your head.
You had an insectoid to find.
Turns out, finding Cocytus wasn't hard in the slightest. In fact, he appeared to be waiting for you at the front of his residence, the Snowball Earth. How he knew you were on his floor? You weren't exactly sure, but you had a suspicion that some lower-level NPC had seen you and ran ahead.
"Cocytus. Welcomes. Lady. Svalinn. To. The. Fifth. Floor." The insectoid says before making a deep bow.
You pause a moment before you speak. While Cocytus had never been truly alive before, you had spent too much time with him to speak formally with him. But he had spoken formally to you. If you spoke casually would that be seen as disrespectful? But were you not his 'superior' in this situation?
The moment you were flooded by questions your mind started to act on its own again, just like it had before. This time, the information it gave you was thus:
- Cocytus was treating you like a superior officer.
- As Cocytus job was to guard this floor, this could be considered a work environment.
- Superior officers are not required to speak respectfully.
- Conclusion: You may speak casually but avoid slang.
You felt a little less satisfied by this response, but your brain had already accepted the information and as such you moved on.
"Hey, battle partner, how are you?" Following your brain's advice, you avoided using the usual nickname of 'battle buddy' that at first came to mind. Only after you were sure that you were completely safe you would dare risk such a thing. People could be touchy with nicknames. You might have been stabbed once with a pencil for a poorly chosen nickname. It could have been a fork. You were six so you couldn't remember. The point being was that ever since that incident, you were much more careful.
'Battle partner' was stiff but was more respectful.
"I. Am. Doing. Well. My. Lady. I. Thank. You. For. Asking." Cocytus replied, "How. Are. You. My. Lady?" As he asked, he lowered himself, so you didn't need to look up at him. You were one of the tallest members of the guild, your avatar being 205cm tall, but Cocytus was taller still by being 250cm tall with the top of your head barely reaching his shoulders."
"Good. Something has come up and I'd like to ask," You began before taking a breath. This wasn't asking for help. This wasn't asking for help. "Would you like to spar?"
Sparing had always been an option between players but had never been implemented for between players and NPCs. You and your guildmates had always been able to theorise how fights would go, but this would be the first time you had a real chance to find out.
Cocytus was silent for a moment, and you began to wonder if you had done something wrong.
However, before you could ask, Cocytus answered.
"My. Lady. It. Would. Be. My. Honour."
And so, you found yourselves a battlefield.
Luckily the frozen wasteland was mostly, well... wasteland. There was plenty of empty space for you to use.
You noticed a few lower-level NPCs had begun to gather around to watch you. You stared at them uncomfortably. Although no emotion had shown on your face since YGGDRASIl had stopped being a game, you felt a small wave of anxiety over being watched while you fought.
Somehow, who knows how, Cocytus caught onto this and turned around. His mandibles clicked and one of his four arms gestured away, and instantly, the NPCs scattered away.
Cocytus turned back to face you, and you nodded in thanks. He nodded in return. You donned your Divine class armour, the Thorns of Retribution, alongside its accompanying shield. It was a sparkling white and covers in spikes. In the few areas that wear without said spikes, like the helm and your joints, artwork of thorny roses could be seen. Cocytus equipped three of his swords.
You allowed yourself to be relieved when you saw that he hadn't equipped the God Slaying Emperor Blade. You had faced that blade when sparring Cocytus' creator, Warrior Takemikazuchi, and it had not been a pleasant experience for you.
The two of you finally ready, the fight began.
Cocytus charged with three raised blades, which you took on effortlessly. Shield raised, they were all deflected, not leaving a scratch on you. Cocytus skidded backwards as the effect of your armour went off.
Thorns of Retribution was a divine set armour for a reason. It had the word 'thorns' in the name for a reason too. All attacks that landed on the armour or the player wearing it would be reflected in the form of holy damage. The attacks didn't have to damage the player wearing the armour, and the damage was doubled in the cases of melee attacks.
This, unfortunately, was the only way you could deal any meaningful amount of damage in the game.
Still, you could try.
"[Sacred Flame]" You cast the low-level spell and felt your mana drop. Cocytus burst into flames. He activated his cold aura, and the flames died down.
Cocytus charged at you again, and once more to the same effect. You didn't bother trying to cast a spell again.
The blades he currently had equipped were generic, and as such had no special effects. That alone didn't seem enough to get past the combined defence of your stats and armour. You started to feel a little bored as the battle became repetitive, and suddenly, the atmosphere around Cocytus shifted.
Cocytus unequipped his three blades before equipping the blade that haunted the nightmares of countless former players. The God Slaying Emperor Blade. The sharpest blade in YGGDRASIL, completely capable of cutting through all armour and defence.
Your heart rate picked up as you suddenly became tense. The real battle began now. You couldn't afford to not give this battle your full attention anymore.
Cocytus charged and raised his blade. You raised your shield.
But the blade never landed. Cocytus halted. He bowed apologetically before turning around slightly. He made a few outraged gestures in what resembled a silent phone call. Then you realized that he was being contacted via [Message].
"My. Deepest. Apologies. Lady. Svalinn." Cocytus bowed deeply once again after the [Message] ended. "Albedo. Just. Called. Lord. Momonga. Has. Summoned. The. Guardians. To. The. Sixth. Floor."
So that was the meeting that Momo was talking about.