Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Kill… Kill… Kill…"

Three gigantic building-like robots arose from the sea, their 'arms' were gigantic bucket wheel excavators repurposed for combat, with steam rising from the pipes installed on the top of the bodies of these artificial monstrosities as the glowing red eye-lights of the machines' steelheads glared with malevolence at the two small humanoid lifeforms on top of one of their destroyed brethren, getting ever closer to them as they took small yet massive steps towards the two.

The taller of the two figures was a woman with white hair styled into a short bob cut, her eyes were hidden from view by a black blindfold, with a beauty mark below the left side of her lips. She wore a high-slit turtleneck dress made of fine quality with gloves of a contrasting white connected to her dress, with black crow-like feathers attached in-between the black of the dress and the white of the gloves, with intricate symbol-like embroidery on both the hem of her skirt and on the lace-covered fabric of the chest area. With the final touches of her brown thigh-high garter stockings with black lining underneath her thigh-high black leather boots that were equipped with heels.

The other figure was younger in appearance, akin to an adolescent teenage boy. He had short, snow-white hair that is neatly styled and a blindfold covering his eyes, similar to the woman besides him. His outfit consists of a trench coat with the same symbol-like embroidery on the hem, with large cuffs fastened with belts. He also has a pair of shorts, and knee-high socks, and a pair of combat boots also fastened with belts like the cuffs, all dyed black in the same leathery texture as the other figure besides him, along with a black choker around his neck with a square with an X attached to it, with the final touches of black gloves, and a fanny pack on his back.

Yet, despite the doll-like appearance of these figures, it's both clear that not only were they in combat, but were not human at all, at least internally. For the young boy was missing both an arm and a leg, but instead of blood, muscles or blood spewing out, steel wires and cords were exposed, with a lead-like coloured material that seemed to separate the skin of these robotic machines and the inner workings of his body being exposed on his abdomen from where he was seemingly slashed across.

The two had black boxes that seemed to glow from crevices here and there on their surfaces, as if they were pulsing with life.

"Requesting… destruction of enemy hostiles via black-box reaction."

The smaller of the two figures uttered seemingly to no one, waiting for a response of some kind, which came after a few seconds from a female voice that seemed to have spoken via a radio or some other long ranged communication system.

"Request accepted."

The boy smiled for a moment as he held his black box towards the woman, a small smile was on his face as he looked at her through the blindfold.

"2B… It was an honor to fight with you. Truly."

The woman seemed to have been taken aback for a second before she recollected herself and nodded, responding to the young man.

"The honor was mine, 9S."

After their final words were exchanged, the woman, now know to be 2B, touched 9S's black box with hers, encasing the two and the three large hostile machines in a red-hot explosion that took out all of them.

…Or at least that should've happened.

Suddenly, the middle three building-like machines stopped mid step as if it lost whatever that was powering it, before it began twitching for a moment as its eyes changed from a dangerous red, to a calm emerald.

And just as sudden as its eye colour change was, the machine brandished its weaponized limbs and struck the machine on its left, tearing off its excavator arm and piercing its former ally's body, before removing its limb from the machine in the same way, tearing off the head in the same mechanic fashion.

The sudden actions of one of the gigantic machines, halted the two humanoid robots from touching their black boxes together, surprise filing their faces as they saw the now steam covered monstrous entity gazing at the other machine on its right, who immediately began to slowly swing its arm to kill the treacherous machine.

The emerald eyed monster took a step back in the nick of time, escaping the red eyed one's attack. A few rockets were fired from its back and aimed at the torso of the hostile machine, damaging it as it was forced to one knee from the damage. Yet, before it could try to stand up and attempt to attack the rogue once again, it swung its arm in a vertical direction before striking the head of the red–eyed machine and tearing it off from the rest of the body like a guillotine blade of old, finally killing the last of its equally gigantic brethren.

An uncomfortable silence permeated the place as the machine watched the last of the two fall to the sea floor once again, while the two humanoid robots gazed with utter shock at the turncoat.

Suddenly, the machine turned towards 2B and 9S, which quickly dawned on the two how uncomfortably close the turncoat was, and if it were to swing its arm or fire rockets from its back like it did before to kill its own brethren, they wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it in time.

9S quickly looked at 2B as he remembered that they can use their black boxes to take it down, which seemed to also have been a thought crossing 2B's mind, but before the two could touch their black boxes together, a voice, a young female monotone one at that, spoke up from the gigantic machine.

"Uwaaah… cute."

2B and 9S had a double take at suddenly being called cute by their unexpected savior, yet before the two could even say anything in regards to this ridiculous situation, the lights of the building-like machine's eyes dimmed to black as its arms hanged limply on its sides, aking to a toy that lost power.

None spoke up for a good while, the mouths of 2B and 9S opening and closing like koi fish as they tried to formulate a response to this ridiculous situation they found themselves in.
After all, in which world should they ever expect to fight for their lives, prepare for a kamikaze suicide attack, being instead saved by an enemy turned rogue, get called cute by said rogue, before it powers off and leaves them with more questions than answers.

"Pod, run a diagnostics scan on me and 9S, check for any signs of visual or auditory sensory deterioration."

"Affirmative."

The small floating robot besides 2B hovered towards her and 9S as it ran a scanning procedure on the two, who were barely reacting to his actions, before the tiny robot answered once again.

"Scanning complete. With the exception of physical damage incurred by the fight against the first Goliath-class machine, both the visual and auditory sensory functions are running on near optimal efficiency."

2B only nodded absentmindedly to her small companion as 9S took the opportunity to speak to summon through the comms.

"Operator, are you there?"

The voice on the other side of the line was silent for a moment before a female voice spoke up, the same degree of shock that was filling both 2B and 9S seems to have been also within her.

"...Loud and clear, 9S. With all the Goliath-class machines annihilated, the mission is complete… Prepare for evac, two flying units will arrive at your location to transport you back to the Bunker…"

"Alright."

As the line was cut off, 2B and 9S could only stare with curiosity and shock at the still pristine form of the last of the Goliath-class machines who saved them, though whether it was intentional or not was something the two were not prepared to dwell on for now.

After all, for the first time since the beginning of Project YorHa, a machine assisted an android and went rogue against its fellows. An uncomfortable and shocking revelation for any who have bore witness to this event.

Yet, amidst all this, 2B having faced this new factor amidst the ongoing war, could only think of one thing.

'Will we… finally be able to break this cycle?'

"Hmm… So androids and machines? Fascinating…"

A humanoid figure clad in dark purple academic gown hummed in thought as he looked into the distance.

The being had a deathly white skin tone that one would expect of a corpse, he had pale white hair that reached to his back, and scarlet red eyes that were almost like blood. The figure could be considered a normal human, if one were to ignore these unusual features. Yet the man's right upper limb is what would ensure none would think of him as normal.

The entirety of his right arm didn't have nary a piece of flesh or skin on his body. Being completely skeletal in nature instead, yet even then, it didn't seem as one that would belong to a human as the finger phalanges were extremely sharp, as if they were claws, and the total amount of bones was also unusual as well. It was almost as if the limb was magical in nature due to how different it was to the other regular hand of the being

Though that should've been assumed to begin with, with how the limb seems to move fluently even without any muscles or nerves on it.

"Yes Lord Ainz, when I hacked into the sentient building machine - Engels was its name according to the machine network - I found out that this is a war between the androids on behalf of humanity who currently live on the moon and the machines led by the alien invaders of earth."

The one who answered in a monotone voice was a young woman kneeling in front of the pale robed figure. She had a maid attire that seemed to be mixed with camouflage accessories and metal armor pieces, and wore an eye patch over one of her emerald coloured eyes, while her red-gold straight hair reached to below her hips.

The one known as Ainz hummed in though as he scratched his chin with his skeletal hand, mulling over the info he was given.

'Humans Vs Aliens? This feels like the set up of one of those 21st century games, especially with how the aliens don't even have a specific species name, even among their creations… Even so, humans living on the moon now? That does explain why this world seems to be overrun with vegetation and animals. Though for all this to have grown, how much time has passed exactly? If I were to take a gamble and say that this is my world, the capability of traveling to the moon, and most importantly, making living habitats on its surface, and the state of the world as it is, would mean that I at least jumped a few centuries to the future, a millenia or two perhaps. Hmm…'

Ainz stopped scratching his chin as he looked at the kneeling figure once more. "Shizu, what is today's date?"

"Today's date is March 10th of the year 11,945." The girl replied simply, unaware of the shock the answer gave to her master, who's {Emotional Suppression} skill was working on overdrive to calm him down.

'Did she say 11,945?! Wasn't it just the year 2138?! That's like… 9,807 years into the future! What the hell is going on?!'

Ainz, even with his skill working on overdrive to compensate for his emotional turmoil, bit the inside of cheek as frowned deeply, tapping with his left hand's index finger the bones of his right hand with a sense of panic.

'Aside from the fact that this means that everyone I ever knew died a long time ago, why was I transported here? And in my in-game avatar at that, with CZ Delta. Does that mean that other players were transported as well? And even NPCs? What about hostile ones? Raid Bosses even?! Or even World Enem-!?'

"Lord Ainz?" The skeletal limbed undead flinched as he looked up from his thoughts as she called out to him. Shizu has a small frown of her own as she tilted her head, indicating even the monotone girl's concern and worry for her undead master.

Ainz blinked for a moment before sighing, the {Emotional Suppression} finally kicking in and doing its job as Ainz's cold dead heart calmed down, the man coughing for a moment using his right skeletal hand before looking at Shizu with a cool calmness.

"Apologies, I was simply lost in thought. Now then, I have a task for you."

The girl straightened her back as she continued kneeling, her head down as she waited patiently.

"Shizu, regarding these two androids who you saved, have you been able to find out anything regarding them?"

The Pleiades battlemaid spoke up instantly in response. "Yes Lord Ainz, the female android is known as 2B while the young male is known as 9S. According to the machines' knowledge of her, the androids belonging to a particular group called YoRHa are given names according to their model and type. The one known as 2B in particular is Model No.2 Type B, which stands for Battler, a type of androids specialising in close and long range combat. While the one known as 9S is Model No.9 Type S, which stands for Scanner, a type of android specialising in reconnaissance with additional sensor capabilities and comprehensive hacking suite. The two seemed to be sent on a mission with other androids who perished beforehand to destroy an Engels machine lifeform while unaware of the presence of three more in the abandoned factory."

Ainz hummed approvingly of Shizu's answer as he asked once more after a few seconds. "Were you able to hack into them like you did with the Engels machine."

Though it didn't appear on her face or her tone superficially, Ainz was able to sense her disappointment as she answered. "My deepest apologies, Lord Ainz, I abandoned the machine I hacked into following the destruction of the other two Engels according to your instructions in case I am attacked in turn by the machines or the androids in retaliation."

The undead sighed for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't apologise Shizu, You were simply following my orders as you said. And besides, you are right, with how easy you were able to hack into one of their Goliath-class machines, then they could've done the same to you, regardless of your level upgrade. Still, do you know where those two androids might have gone off to afterwards?"

Shizu nodded her head as she responded again. "The Bunker, which according to the information gained, is an orbital satellite base that serves as the headquarters of the YoRHa androids."

Ainz nodded as he hummed in thought, mulling over all that Shizu informed him about.

'Hmm, aside from all this, I'm honestly worried with how much the machines seem to know so much about the androids, particularly those YoRHa ones and the inner workings of their organization, and this wasn't even the surface of it! All the information Shizu gave was only what she was able to extract before she left their network in those few minutes, I wonder what would've happened if she stayed for longer?' Yet before this line of thinking could continue, Ainz stopped himself. '…No, that's a dangerous thought, those machines proved to be a considerable threat just by how much they were able to pull the rug from under those androids' feet when they surprised them with the existence of three more of those Engels. For all I know, they could've hurt or do worse to her if she stayed on that Engels machine for long…'

Ainz sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'I should find some device or something either from my inventory or from this place to help me hack into these things instead of relying completely on Shizu, she's the only member of Nazarick with me, the only part of my and my friends' legacy have left, I can't expose her to pointless danger.'

The undead exhaled an exhausted sigh as he scratched the hair on the top of his head, consternation clouding his face for a moment before his skill brought him back to peak mental tranquility as he looked at Shizu.

"Shizu, I have an order for you." The maid lowered her head to the floor of the rooftop they were on as she waited for him to continue.

"I want you to keep tabs on this YoRHa organization, and in particular the two known as 2B and 9S, along with any identified leaders within the organization. While this is a top priority, under no circumstances are you to expose yourself to harmful or lethal consequences, and if you find yourself in a risky situation, escape will be your bigger priority, understood?"

"Yes, lord Ainz." The Pleiades said in her usual monotone voice, yet there was a hint of determination in her posture as she responded.

"Good. Until then, I'll have you accompanied by an Eternal Death and a Clockwork Aberration for extra protection, leave them behind if need be to escape out of any dangerous situation. That would be all for now, should any news come up on either of our sides, we'll inform each other."

CZ Delta nodded as she stood up and gave a swift stiff salute before beginning to walk to another side of the building to continue the maintenance of her guns, leaving Ainz with his thoughts alone once more.

The overlord sighed as he sat down on the ledge and looked upwards at the starry sky above him and the moon hovering lofty in that cosmic wonder.

'The moon, eh? …Can't believe that it took a literal interplanetary war between humanity and an alien race for those greedy bastards to finally start developing proper habitats for people to live outside of earth. Did a World War 4 happen too in the meanwhile?' Ainz chuckled mirthlessly as he imagined the same event that screwed humanity into the calamitous world that he knew so well happening again but with greater force than before.

'Still, I wonder what exactly happened throughout this time, I doubt it was just an lien invasion that occured in these nearly ten thousand years, something else must have happened.' Ainz hummed as he leaned on the ledge and look down from the rooftop at a few machine lifeforms moving around aimlessly.

'Well, with how slow things are for the moment, surely I would have time to figure this all out on my own pace, right?'

"That is all, Commander."

The android 2B fell quiet as she the her end of her report to the 'commander', a blonde woman in an elaborately decorated high-slit white dress with the same symbol-like embroidery, possibly hinting at the insignia of the organization 2B and the 'commander' belong to.

"Thank you, 2B. I assume that the two of you are aware that you aren't to share this information publicly, yes?" The commander asked as she folded her arms, awaiting the responses of the two androids, which arrived in the form of solemn nods.

"Good, until then, this information will be sent to the Council of Humanity so that we may be able to plan our next steps, in the meanwhile, you two will be sent to the main camp of the resistance to help our allies over there, along with dealing with some operations on earth while you're at it. Dismissed."

The two saluted the commander before riding the short elevator to the upper platform, leaving the command base as they went towards the terminal.

"Hey, 2B. Do you have any guesses on that weird machine that saved us? I mean, it saved us from those two other Goliath-class machines." 9S asked the taller android as they walked through the Bunker's main halls, the only source of noise to be heard for the two being the glistening blanket of stars outside of the sterile white base and the clink clank noises of 2B's heels and 9S's boots.

The woman hummed for a moment as she mulled over the question. Even when she thinks about it again, she doesn't remember at any moment of time a machine helping an android or vice versa, so to be faced with such a situation, brought both a sense of shock and hope to her. And yet, when she thought about the situation over and over again, it grew weirder each time in her opinion.

"I don't know." 2B began. "Even if it saved us. It still went offline the moment afterwards, so there's a chance someone else hacked into it before destroying the machine from inside."

9S pursed his lips as he picked up on her line of thought. "Do you think that it was another android that saved us then? And if it was, then who could it be? I tried searching the data bank with the voice we heard back then, but there was no match… I don't think there's any android yet that we haven't kept a log of in our server, so maybe it was another machine hacking into that Goliath? No wait, that wouldn't make much sense, hm…"

The Scanner spoke out loud to himself regarding his theories about the last mission, the Battler android leaving the young boy to his own devices until they reached the Flight Units in the Terminal.

"In any case, 9S, like the commander said, don't discuss or reveal anything about this to anyone. This includes both the Resistance members and our fellow YoRHa androids."

The young man sighed for a moment before nodding his head, hopping dejectedly into his own shit and following after 2B who already was flew out of the base.

Well, at the very least, surely things couldn't get weirder than they already did.

…Right?

Chapter Text

23:52:08

23:52:09

“Alright, that's about it, I guess.”

A white-haired, scarlet-eyed human in purple robes spoke to himself as he exited the city gates of a medieval theme.

‘Let’s see, I got the commemorative fireworks, tons of useful items for cheap, and even two World Items! Having the chance to clear the black market like this should honestly be considered cheating! Hahahahaha… hahaha… haha…’ 

‘...Haaaah, if only Yggdrasil wasn't about to end today…’

Despite this person's inner thoughts, his expression never changed even a bit from its calm and collected appearance. Though this was not due to any proficient poker face or the likes, but rather…

‘I should head back to Nazarick now before the disguise is over, I'd rather not spend the last in the game getting chased by the city's humanoid guards.’

Because this was a video game, a very realistic virtual reality video game.

YGGDRASIL, a DMMO-RPG that once took the world by storm due to its amazing achievements in the field of gaming using the advanced deep dive system, became its coffin in the end, as more and more games caught up and surpassed it. Making the once before leading game in the industry an obsolete piece whose plug will be pulled due to a very low player count and an even staggeringly low monthly revenue count.

‘There’s only eight minutes left, I hope it's not too late to do this.’

The white-haired player, Momonga, stepped through the [Gate] spell he casted when he crossed the virtual city’s no-teleportation zone.

As Momonga crossed to the other side, he was greeted with the sight of his beloved guildbase, Nazarick, along with a certain figure in a maid costume awaiting him.

“Good, Shizu’s here, this will save me the trouble of getting her from the tenth floor.”

The man breathed a sigh of relief IRL before motioning with his hand towards the NPC as he began to walk towards a clearing near the guild’s grounds.

“Follow.”

The NPC obeyed the player as she followed behind the guildmaster, who kept taking glances above at the hazy night sky of Helheim as he traveled to a nearby elevated hill.

‘I’m going to miss all this. I just wish that at least one of my friends was here to see it with me.’

He sighed despondently before stopping, making quick work of placing a large firework launcher and setting up for the final launch.

“Let me just assign her here… And… there! Since she's an Automaton, using high-tech launchers like these to edit the firework displays should be something she's good at… If the guides are correct at least, bastards usually just spew false information unless you pay them.”

The undead took a step back as a digital countdown of twenty seconds appeared on his UI as Shizu moved towards the launcher, her hands hovering over them as electricity began appearing, connecting her palms and fingertips to the in-game digital screen of the device.

‘All seems good so far. And my disguise’s time is about to end too. Hopefully it will deter anybody from attacking since it hides my username and Shizu never appeared on the public forums like the Floor Guardians.’

23:59:11

00:00:19

23:59:12

00:00:18

23:59:13

00:00:17

‘Soon… It will all be over,’ Suzuki Satoru thought dejectedly as he saw the time slowly ticking towards the inevitable shutdown of the biggest part of his life happening before his eyes. In less than a minute, YGGDRASIL, the game that took his life by a storm for over 12 years, and showed him a whole new world, gave him the family he could never have, and memories he could never make IRL, would disappear forever.

And yet…

*Whoosh!*

*Crackle!*

*Whoosh!*

*Crackle!*

Watching the launched fireworks, he could confidently say paying for these in-game customisations of the fireworks was well worth the price.

Screenshots taken from the heyday of the guild and the game, were reimagined into fireworks displays.

The day that Nine's Own Goal became a full-fledged guild.

The celebratory photo that was taken after conquering Nazarick.

The 1500 invasion.

The first time they defeated the World Devourer.

The casual photos of them goofing around in-game.

Suzuki Satoru was crying bittersweet tears as he looked at them once more, now for whomever left in the world of Helheim to see as well.

He was alone, with the company of only an NPC, a relic and a part of their legacy. Thus at the same time, he wasn't alone.

‘I heard that some people make wishes during the New Year fireworks. It's neither the time nor the place, but I'll give it a try.’

The disguised undead closed his eyes as he brought his skeletal and flesh-coated hands together, the feeling in them numbed due to the laws put in place over virtual reality.

23:59:50

23:59:51

He wanted to wish that Yggdrasil would never end, but hearing the ticking of the clock made him understand how impossible it would be.

23:59:52

23:59:53

He could wish for the continuation of Ainz Ooal Gown, but he knew in the end, that it was for naught, even if Yggdrasil doesn't shutdown today, Ainz Ooal Gown only exists now because of his daily efforts to pay the expenses of the guild. It has long since died before the game ever truly did.

23:59:54

23:59:55

But there was one thing that he could wish for that wasn't bound by such logical constraints, something far more far-fetched, but to him was much more precious.

‘I wish…’

23:59:56

23:59:57

‘That all of my friends are safe and sound, that they are all happy…’

23:59:58

‘And for our adventures, whether alone or together, will continue forever.’

23:59:59

00:00:00

And his wish was granted.

Momonga opened his eyes quickly as he felt the wind caressing his face, his eyes widened as he was met with a fairly surreal sight.

He was standing on top of a building reminiscent of one of those old 21st Century skyscrapers. The jarring difference that separated it from the old photos was that it was debilitated, and as he looked down, he was met with the sight of gigantic plant-life reminiscent of what he would see in druidic dwellings in YGGDRASIL intertwined with the old building.

‘What in the world…’

As the Player set his sights forwards, he realized it wasn't just the building he was on, but rather, it was the entire place.

He was in what seems like a centuries old abandoned city, with nature and civilization merging in the most abnormal of ways.

In an instant, he shielded his eyes by instinct as the sun came into view, its bright rays hurt him for a moment, or rather, they should've.

‘Ah, of course it doesn't hurt, in the game they simulated the brightness of the actual sun so nobody would try and stare at it for long, the shitty devs even went as far as putting a blindness debuff for the idiotic few who refused to heed the warning.’

The man sighed for a moment before a realization hit him.

“Wait… why is my mouth moving!? I'm still in disguise, my mouth shouldn't be simulated at all! I need to call the GMs!”

The man attempted to do so, yet like the previous event, also proved both unexpected and shocking.

“It's not working. What in the world is going on?!”

“Lord Momonga?”

The Player froze for a moment as he heard a feminine voice behind him. He slowly turned towards the source and was met with the figure of CZ2128 Delta, who was standing next to the familiar firework launcher she was operating just a few minutes ago.

“Shizu?”

“Yes, my lord?” He was startled as she responded to him, making the man's mind run a thousand kilometres per second.

‘She’s speaking?! The NPCs made by Players shouldn't be speaking, or make facial expressions either! What is-’

Unexpectedly, his tempestuous mind halted for a moment, clarity and calm replacing his previous embroiled state.

‘...Is this the effect of {Emotional Suppression}? The skill didn't have any actual use in the game before aside from being just a visual design for an Undead’s natural immunity to any mental afflictions and manipulation.’

The man placed his fleshy hand on his chin as he began scratching mindlessly.

‘Could it be… am I in the game? No, rather, am I perhaps in another world with stuff from Yggdrasil with me? That seems like the most plausible thing… No wait, there's something I must test first, if it works, then I really am in another world.’

“Shizu, could you come here?”

The Automaton stood up and moved towards the man after placing the firework launcher into her inventory - a move that surprised Momonga -, her hands joined in front of her as she made her way towards him with a. Monotone face, reminiscent of the one she always had back in YGGDRASIL.

‘She’s responding to verbal commands that she definitely was scripted to follow. Alright, one last test, I hope she doesn't attack me…’

“Shizu.” Momonga knelt slightly so he could match her eye level, his height still the same despite not being in his original undead form.

“I am going to… touch your chest for a moment, is that alright with you?”

…

Silence permeated the place as the monotone girl didn't even blink at his request, staring at him almost endlessly.

‘...YOU FUCKING BLEW IT NOOB! WHO THE HELL TELLS A WOMAN HE'S GOING TO TOUCH HER BOOBS?! ARE YOU CRAZY OR JUST STU-?!’

“Shall I remove my clothes as well, lord Momonga?” The undead was startled out of his mind as he heard her words, before shaking his head quickly to stop her from undressing.

“No! Uh, I mean, khm, no, of course not. I simply want to test something, no need to go that far.”

The Automaton nodded before stepping closer towards him, giving him the opportunity he wanted.

‘Alright, here goes nothing, I need to do this quickly or I might get branded as the biggest pervert in the world.’

He cautiously reached out to the girl's chest with his skeletal hand, touching it with a finger, then another, before fully placing his hand on it.

A few painfully awkward seconds have passed before the man retracted his hand with the type of speed that defies human comprehension, and if he was capable of it, his face would’ve been as red as a tomato from embarrassment.

‘I at least can confirm we're truly not in YGGDRASIL, or I would've been kicked out of the game by now before having a warning thrown at my face.’

Suddenly, he felt a touch on his left cheek, and looking up, he saw Shizu’s hand on it, before something was stuck to him. And caressing the object with his hand, made him realize it was one of those one-yen stickers that Garnet, Shizu’s creator, gave her the ability to create.

“Uwaah. Cute.”

The monotone delivery of her proclamation made the undead player look at her with confusion for a moment before he coughed into his fist.

“Er. Thank you, Shizu. And apologies for what I did, I needed to test… something.”

The maid nodded before stepping back as Momonga stood back to his full height.

“Alright, from what it seems, we are in a new world, one that doesn't belong to YGGDRASIL or to any other that I know of. We need to get our bearings in this place and find out where we are. The fact that we're standing on top of man-made architecture like this indicates that there has to be some form of civilization, or at least remnants of it.”

Shizu nodded as she looked at her master. “Shall I conduct a full reconnaissance of the area, my lord?”

Momonga shook his head before replying. “No need for now. We have to locate a temporary base of operations before carrying out anything, staying out here regardless of the height of the building is dangerous, especially if anyone hostile were to spot us.”

The maid bowed in recognition of her master's words as he turned to look over the edge of the building. “Hmm, seeking shelter in one of these buildings for a moment should do fine, since using spells like [Green Secret House] or [Create Fortress] would only invite unneeded attention from possible enemies.”

The man nodded to himself as he cast [Mass Fly], making both him and the Automaton maid float in the air.

“Ah, right, I should dispel this disguise, it should've been over by now anyway, and I doubt I'll need it since it shouldn't impact my actual abilities any longer. [Dispel].”

…

“Uhh… [Dispel]!”

…

“Lord Momonga?”

“...Yes, Shizu?”

“I think you are stuck in that form for now.”

“I can see that!”

It's been a few days since their ‘forced teleportation’ to this world. With the undead caster and his maid using one of the buildings at the edge of the abandoned city for a temporary base of operations.

The first thing the two noted down about this place was the lack of any sentient biological lifeforms, the closest there is are robotic creatures that Momonga could only describe as ‘old bucketheads’.

‘They really are like that, except for the heavy layers of rust on some of them. I think the closest thing we had to them were those old machine soldiers used at the beginning of World War 3, they were eventually abandoned near the end of the war when moderate EMP waves could stop them from functioning long enough for someone to destroy them… I wonder how long they could last against these ones here?’

Momonga was currently sitting on the edge of one of the rooftops with Shizu currently standing behind him, the two were under the influence of the caster's [Perfect Unknowable] spell, rendering them invisible from any third party that might spot them.

“Shizu, aside from these mindlessly roaming machines and the occasional wild animal, are you sure you there wasn't anything else?” The guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown asked the maid as he folded his arms, his eyes tracking a foolish robot that got too close for comfort to a moose and ended up flying tens of feet in the air, before falling and crumpling to the ground unceremoniously, with the horned spawn of nature gently leaving the grounds as if nothing happened.

“Negative, my lord. While I could sometimes spot distant sounds of fighting, with indications that these old machines may be involved, they were outside of the area of reconnaissance I was checking.”

Momonga hummed to himself as he thought about what he was told. Fighting could either mean these robots were attempting to fight the animals, which mostly ended either with the robot turned to scraps unless it's one of those bigger ones that Momonga could say could take a boat in a fight.

Or that there was a third party other than the machines and the animals fighting against the former group.

‘They could either be humans, or whatever other race would've inhabited these cities in the past… or something else entirely.’

He would be lying if he were to say he was not worried, chances are these could be hostile forces, and while Momonga could confidently say Shizu and himself could take these tiny robots in a fight easily without breaking a sweat, metaphorically, it doesn't account for the fact they might face something hundreds of leagues worse than what they are seeing now.

‘If this was YGGDRASIL, it definitely would've happened. I remember that party of noobs complaining about the level scaling in some of the beginner areas when they got KO’d by a level 80 Raid Boss in a beginner dungeon. Unfortunately for them, nobody came to their defense and the most they got were words of encouragement and ‘Git gud noobs’.’

The man stood up as he prepared to leave, motioning for Shizu as he prepared to cast a [Gate] spell towards their home base. But before he could, a loud scream, one he could only describe as belonging to that of a 21st Century AI voice mimicking a child or a young teenager, echoed across the abandoned city district.

“Heeeelp! Heeeelp! Somebody help meeee!”

Momonga was startled as he looked towards the source, it was one of those robots, the same ones that he would often see mindlessly roaming the abandoned plains, and it was now getting chased by an angry boar while being very vocal about its situation.

“Somebody heeeeelp!!!”

The man furrowed his eyebrows as he gazed at the scene, the comically short tiny machine being chased by an exceptionally large boar was a sight to behold, especially with how it could nearly outrun the outraged animal with its tiny feet, yet it also involved feelings of pity for the poor artificial creature.

‘I should probably help it, if at least to find out what is going on, and especially why it can talk compared to the rest of these wild robots.’

“Shizu,” the maid’s singular cross-haired eye bowed as her master called out to her. “I'm going to go help the little machine, while I'm sure the boar would pose no threat whatsoever, prepare for combat in case the robot turns out to be hostile or leading us to a trap. Chances may be slim but never zero.”

“Yes, lord Momonga.” The maid within the span of a second took her holstered rifle from her hips as she prepared to shoot at a moment's notice, with Momonga having cast the [Mass Fly] spell on himself and his maid.

“Somebody heeeeelp!” The tiny machine screamed as the boar got closer and closer to its victim, the artificial lifeform attempting to swerve around the debilitated buildings and constructs to try and lose his would-be destroyer, to no avail.

“Somebody heeeeelp!”

If he had tear ducts, the tiny machine would've cried, the possibility of death when all he wanted was to bring a few flowers to his ‘mother’ never occurred to him, yet here he was, about to be turned to scraps and no one will know his fate in the end.

“I don't want to dieeee!”

And as if responding to his earnest plea, the boar suddenly squealed with agony before rolling and tumbling as it fell to the ground.

The tiny life-form scurried away from the boar as it tumbled to the ground, keeping his distance as he watched it from afar with bated breath.

“Are you alright?”

The machine squeaked for a moment as he heard a voice from behind him, turning his entire body towards the source as he raised his arms in a futile attempt at mimicking a fighting stance.

What stood in front of him were definitely androids, as neither were machine-like in his eyes and neither were they animals like his previous chaser.

The shorter of the pair was a girl with straight red-gold hair, and a singular emerald eye with a target-mark on the pupil. She was dressed in a peculiar attire he had never seen before, and had in her hands a weapon he could guess to be one of those rifles, similar to what some of the androids he once saw used.

The other being besides her was also just as peculiar, if not more, and was extremely tall at that. He was dressed in peculiar black robes with gold and violet edges. He had white hair and scary blood red eyes, and reminded the tiny machine of some of the other androids he once saw before. Though what was more peculiar about him was his right upper limb.

It was skeletal, white like the bones of the animals he saw before who started looking funny after they stopped moving for a long time, except it was way cleaner and scarier, with shiny rings on the very sharp bony fingers that looked like they could tear into his metal skin with ease.

“W-who are you?!” The machine tried to sound threatening to the two, yet his constant quivering and jittering made it quite the failure of an attempt.

“Be not afraid.” The taller one spoke up. “We saw you getting chased by the animal and decided to intervene. Are you alright?”

The smallest of the three looked at the man with shock. He wasn't young as the other kids and knows that androids would never choose to help a machine willingly.

Here there was one that did exactly that.

“Uh. Y-yeah, I'm f-fine,” the machine stammered as he put his arms down. “And thank you, Mr and Ms Androids. Thank you for saving me.”

The machine didn't mean anything deep behind his words of gratitude, after all, his mother told him to always say thank you to whomever helps him. Yet to the pair, it divulged to them new information.

‘Androids? Not humans? I see.’ Momonga thought to himself, silently thanking the machine for the new information he gave to him accidentally.

He gave a gentle smile as he spoke to the tiny machine. “You're welcome. Though I must say, I'm curious as to why you were getting chased by that boar. It's not very common for someone to earn a wild beast's ire to the point that it chases them around for this long.”

If the machine could blush, he would've, he spoke with a bit of hesitation as he scratched the back of his head. “I… wanted to get some flowers for Mama. But I guess I ended up intruding on the boar’s home and he got pretty angry about that.”

Momonga wanted to blink in shock as he heard that response from the machine. ‘‘Mama’? Like an actual mother? But isn't he a machine? How could he have a mother? Does he mean his creator? Or am I missing something here?’

Thankfully, he didn't show his confusion outwardly as he nodded with a seemingly sympathetic look on his face. “I see, then would you like for us to escort you to safety for now?”

The machine was silent for a moment as he heard Momonga’s question, fidgeting with his finger-like appendages before muttering softly, more to himself than to his saviors. “But I'm not supposed to bring anyone to the village…”

The information reached Momonga's ears however, contrary to what the machine would've desired.

‘A village? So there is more than just this one machine and his ‘mama’. Good, that means there are others whom we could communicate with, not mention those androids he was mistaking us for. Though from what it looks like, that village is supposed to be secret, at least from the androids since he mistook us for them… I've got an idea.’

“Well, how about this, we can get you to a location you are familiar with and you can make your way home from there, what do you say?”

It was like a heaven-sent offer for the tiny machine, who upon hearing the Mage's words, nodded expressively. “Yeah! That's ok! Thanks a lot Mr Android! …Uh wait, I haven't actually gotten your names. My name is Leo, what's yours?”

Momonga was silent for a moment as he thought about it, before answering the machine with a more confident and regal tone than before. “I am Ainz Ooal Gown. And this here is Shizu Delta. It's a pleasure to meet you, Leo.”

The group of three could be seen strolling through the abandoned city streets, with the machine lifeform, Leo, guiding the two ‘androids’ as he would regale them with some of the adventures he would go on.

“And get this, there was a super big metal bird that was sleeping on top of the building! It didn't seem like it was a machine or an android though, and it was still sleeping even when one of those flying guys got close to it. It was still pretty amazing though!”

Ainz would occasionally hum or nod his head, asking questions of his own disguised as interest in his tales. Which only motivated the machine to tell him more and more.

{‘Lord Mo- Ainz. I have a question.’} Shizu used the [Message] spell as she contacted her lord in secret, feigning interest in Leo’s tale of the the male and female moose who were ‘fighting’ each other.

{‘What is it, Shizu?’}

{‘If you do not mind me asking, my lord, why did you change your name?’}

Ainz didn't reply immediately to the Automaton, his response only arriving a few seconds later. {‘It is because the name of Ainz Ooal Gown is much more known than Momonga, and if we are to have any hopes of finding others from Yggdrasil like us, or even some of my fellow guild members, using the name of Ainz Ooal Gown would garner much attention.’}

{‘I see, thank you for answering, lord Ainz.}

{‘Do you perhaps have any reservations about it, Shizu?’}

The maid shook her head as she answered, her voice was monotone as usual, though with a hint of confidence in it. {‘No, lord Ainz, if anything, you are the most deserving of the name, since you stayed with us for so long in comparison to the rest of the Supreme Beings.’}

Ainz hummed to himself as he listened to her words. He doesn't yet understand why she refers to him and the rest of the guild members as such, but if it means she's loyal to him even outside of YGGDRASIL, then all's fine.

“Alright, we're here, Mister!” The machine turned towards the two as he looked at Ainz. “Thanks again for getting me here, sorry you can't visit me and my mama.”

Ainz dismissed the boy's apology with his hand. “It's no problem, I know that these must be quite tumultuous times for both machines and androids, and any contact right now would only lead to more problems than it is now.”

“‘Tu-mul-to-us?’” Leo slowled drawled out the unfamiliar word before shaking his spherical head. “Still, thanks a lot Mister Ainz, and you two Miss Shizu, you two were super duper cool in keeping all those beasties away with just being there!”

The Automaton walked towards Leo before she knelt down to reach his eye level. And just as suddenly as her actions were to him, he felt her stick something to the back of his hand.

“Cute.”

The action confused the young machine, both by her deadpan statement and the weird silver circular thing she stuck to his hand with the number ‘1’ written on it.

He then heard the taller android chuckle, a faint smile on his face as he spoke. “Seems like you earned Shizu's seal of recognition.”

The machine muttered a long ‘Oooh’ as he nodded in slight understanding. “I see, thank you, Miss Shizu!”

The girl nodded as she stood back up to her full height before moving to Ainz's side once again. “I suppose this is goodbye for now, little Leo.”

Leo nodded sadly to Ainz's statement, before responding to him, in equal child-like fashion like before. “Hopefully, Uncle Pascal will allow you two to come to the village in the future. And then you could meet my Mama and Papa!”

Ainz gave the boy a smile as he waved the tiny machine goodbye, with Leo leaving the pair with a spring in his step.

“Hmm, what do you think of all this so far, Shizu?”

The man asked the girl besides him as Leo disappeared from view.

“Small machine variant. He's more cognizant than the ones before, but he's like a child, in both attitude and mind. Cute.”

The undead hummed as he mulled over her words, he agreed with her, the child was much more expressive and social compared to the rest of his brethren, yet, like a child, was also quite expressive and naive at times. To the point he felt bad at probing him for information the artificial lifeform shouldn't be revealing according to his parents and this ‘Uncle Pascal’.

“Even so, he's quite the anomaly compared to the rest of the machines in the city we've met so far, I do wonder what makes him and his village so different…”

“If I may, lord Ainz? I have a suggestion.”

The undead nodded, allowing her to continue. “When I got close to the machines in the city ruins, I could feel a ‘connection’ or a ‘network’ binding them together. Leo didn't give me the feeling he was on it though. It could perhaps be because of this”

The information came as a shock to Ainz, who scratched his chin as he fell into deep thought. “This is quite the… revelation. A network would suggest a supposed intelligence in its members or at least some form of coherence in their actions, neither of which were shown here. Umu, Shizu, how sure are you of this information?”

“95%. Even when I followed a member of the machines who strayed far, he still gave off the feeling he was on a network. Leo never did, even when close to other machines. I was only able to confirm this today.”

Ainz furrowed his eyebrows as he contemplated the information. “I see, then, how sure are you that you could infiltrate this network of theirs?”

This time, Shizu took a few seconds longer than usual to respond, and when she did, it wasn't one Ainz was hoping to hear.

“38.96%. The network felt like a tightly woven web, if detected, the possibility of reverse infiltration and takeover is high.”

The mage sighed before falling silent, his mind racing with possibilities.

‘Sacrificing Shizu to infiltrate an unknown network is something I plan to absolutely avoid, both for objective and personal reasons. At the same time, this could be our ticket into figuring out who exactly these machines are and what is going on here, hmm…’ 

‘...I have an idea.’

Ainz opened his {Inventory} before putting his hand inside, and pulling out a peculiar item from it.

It resembled a heart of sorts, at least a silhouette of one. Whereas one would expect blood vessels and flesh, there were gears, circuits, and plenty of wirings, and just like a real heart, the white construct was beating every so often, the ticking of a clock could be heard with each beat.

“Lord Ainz… Is that…?”

For the first time ever, Shizu's expression became something more than her usual deadpan one, it was filled to the brim with shock and awe, expressed thoroughly in her visible eye and wide open mouth.

Ainz nodded with seriousness as he extended his hand with the heart on it. “Indeed, this is one of the world items I got recently from the black market in Midgard. The World Item, called ‘Heart of the Deus Mechanicus’.”

And as Ainz walked towards the maid and placed the precious item worth the entire world, literally, he gave her the order.

“Use it.”

Chapter Text

‘Heart of the Deus Mechanicus ’, it roughly translates to ‘Heart of the Machine God’ .

It's a consumable-type World Item that can be generated, like its relative, the Caloric Stone , albeit with different methods.

It was among the lesser known and even less popular of the World Items of YGGDRASIL, due to its niche uses that made difficult for the majority of the Player base to utilise.

The Caloric Stone , for instance, which is a World Item generated from stockpiling massive amounts of prismatic ores, minerals of the highest value in YGGDRASIL, in one place over a period of time, fulfilling the conditions for its creation in exchange for consuming all stockpiled ores.

And while the cost is often far too great, the rewards reaped would be just as great, as the Caloric Stone could be utilised to craft many weapons, armour and golem cores, that are much greater than many well known Divine-Grade items. And could also be utilised to improve players with golem classes, improving their builds and granting them rare classes or great boosts to their natural stats.

Just like the Caloric Stone , the Heart of the Deus Mechanicus could also be utilised to improve Automaton-class players or NPCs or be used in the creation of their cores.

Unfortunately, that's where the difficulty spike in getting the Heart comes into play.

While the Caloric Stone could be produced through the consumption of prismatic ores, an expensive yet much simpler endeavour…

To get the Heart , you need to defeat the World Enemy of the same name, the Deus Mechanicus .

To many, it was a pointless and fruitless endeavour, even detrimental at one point. This is because even though the World Item in and of itself could at least provide an immunity to the effects of other World Items, over ninety five of all the Yggdrasil players and eighty percent of all the NPCs that it could be used in the creation of, or go upgrade, will have little to no use of it.

Even the Caloric Stone could offset the detriment of being usable only to upgrade or create golem cores by being usable in the creation of weapons and armour usable by any race.

And considering how extremely difficult it was to defeat the Mad Machine God to begin with, requiring ridiculously overly complicated conditions that are needed to be fulfilled to damage it, let alone defeat it, the Heart was considered as one of the least desirable World Items in YGGDRASIL. Especially since while many won't ever choose to face the World Enemy personally to get it, they would much rather ambush the victors for it, putting a target on the backs of any who choose to fight the Mad Machine God for it.

‘It was a good thing that Garnet could use it immediately back then.’ Ainz mused to himself as he folded his arms in front of him. ‘If he couldn't, the ambush party that was waiting for us would've wiped out our surviving members, especially since we suffered many casualties and Touch Me and Ulbert weren't there to help.’

The undead sighed fondly as he reminisced on those exhausting yet irreplaceable moments. ‘I guess it's fate that Garnet's personal creation became the second person affiliated with Ainz Ooal Gown to use the Heart , right after the guy himself.’

And just like her creator, Shizu was currently enveloped in a sphere of light as the World Item was doing its work.

A nifty, yet sometimes useless, thing about the Heart of Deus Mechanicus , was that when improving an Automaton being, the upgrade would be personalised, and two uses of it would rarely be the same unless the two are exact clones of each other.

Which means, either the upgrade would be a huge boon to the Automaton, like a huge increased chance in dealing Critical Damage to an enemy, or something unfairly disappointing, like a mere cosmetic change in the design of the Automaton, which could also be irreversible.

‘Thankfully, when Garnet used it, he got improvements in his automaton summoning skills as well as greater analyzation efficiency, making him one of the greatest Automaton players yet because of how lucky he was to get those upgrades. Haha, I can still remember him ranting about how if he could bring the latter improvement to his job IRL, he would've been able to overthrow the CEO of his company and reign as the king of programmers.’ The former human thought mirthfully, the scene of his suit-wearing, monocled-using robotic friend clenching his fist as he spoke passionate provocative words that would've landed him as a target by the megacorporations if said outside the game. ‘I just hope that Shizu doesn't end up with a useless change, the last thing I need is wasting a consumable World Item without being able to get it back.’

And by coincidence, the spherical light orb that enveloped Shizu dimmed more and more, as the familiar silhouette of his automaton maid became more and more visible.

When the light finally disappeared, Shizu looked at him, before bowing her head reverentially, her expression as unchanging as before, with her appearance harbouring little to no difference than before her consumption of the World Item.

“How are you feeling, Shizu? Any issues?” The Undead asked first, while he was curious about what improvements the maid got, it would be pointless if she suffered deep harm because of it.

“None, lord Ainz. I am currently operating within the safe parameters,” the maid answered as she looked up at him once again, her hands joined in front of her in a perfect maid like posture.

Ainz nodded, pleased with her answer, before asking her another question, one that he was dying to know.

“Well then, what exactly did the World Item grant you? Any special improvements to be noted?”

The maid fell silent for a moment, still staring at Ainz, which worried the undead for a good moment. It was only alleviated as Shizu spoke once more.

“Analysis complete. There are three significant changes to my being. The first of which is an increase in my level from 46 to level 75. With significant improvements in my HP, Physical Defense, Agility, and Special Ability. And negligible ones in other areas.”

Silence ensued after Shizu's answer, as the undead was shocked beyond comparison at what he heard. ‘This is great… No, this is amazing! That's almost a 30 level increase! Thank God, I thought she would've ended up with something useless as time went by…’

Ainz nodded approvingly of Shizu's answer as a small pleased smile adorned his face. “That’s excellent, Shizu, now then, what's the change?”

For some reason, Ainz could suddenly sense a change in Shizu's mood. While the Automaton didn't outwardly show it, her attitude became more depressed all of a sudden. “What's wrong? Did something happen?”

The maid answered him almost immediately, her expression unchanged. “I have lost all the levels in my Maid and Housekeeper job classes.”

“...”

Ainz blinked at what she said, he expected for her to say something along the lines of losing all her guns, or even her collection of one-yen stickers (even though she could make more). But this?

‘...Ahhh, perhaps she's upset because she's a Pleiades? The Pleiades were never made to be like the Homunculi Maids, so they were just added to them in the spirit of roleplay. Guess she doesn't see it that way.’

The man cleared his throat as he placed a hand on the Automaton's head, kneeling in front of her to look her in the eye.

He mimicked a saddened expression on his face as well to match Shizu's, and spoke to her with a similar tone. “I see… that is quite unfortunate, however do not fret too much about it, the changes given by the World Item are not quite randomised, and considering the situation we find ourselves in, perhaps it may be a miracle in disguise.”

The maid, with no maid classes, nodded, her mood alleviated as her shoulders stopped drooping slightly. “Thank you, lord Ainz.”

The man hummed as he ruffled her hair slightly before standing up to his full height again. “Now then, what was the last change you experienced, Shizu? I presume your lost classes were replaced with others?”

The girl didn't waste time in answering him as she began speaking. “Affirmative. Aside from lost classes, I gained improvements in both remaining classes and newer ones.”

With Ainz's nod of approval, she continued her explanation. “The new racial classes are progressions of my original Automaton class, with new levels in the stages called Machina Nexus, and Autarch Core.”

Ainz rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he mulled over her words. ‘‘Machina Nexus’ and ‘Autarch Core’...Should I presume that these classes are specialised and not just general improvements?”

Shizu nodded as she continued. “Affirmative. The classes grant me the ability to form a network of summoning or controlled machines, with me as the head of the network. My new job classes also provide improvements upon this newly created network with minor enhancements to my remaining job classes.”

As the last word from the automaton maid was uttered, Ainz sighed internally. ‘Honestly… I can't complain. I mean, yeah it would've been better if she got more buffs to her classes related to long-range combat or assassinations, but this is way better than the alternative of her only ending up with more maid related classes or something like Cook… Now that I think about it, could I eat in this form? …I'll think about it later.’

“That is good. Well, while I would prefer to ask more, it's best that we get a move on. We need to head back to our base of operations for now. We've spent far too much time here, and who knows who may be spying on us.”

The maid gave a short bow of recognition of her master's order as he opened a [Gate], her eyes then were suddenly lit with a realisation.

“Lord Ainz, what about the machine village we escorted Leo to? Shouldn't I go and spy on them for information?”

The Overlord gave a short chuckle as he shook his head. “No need, before he left, I placed one of my Death Assassins in his shadow. By now, he should be gathering some information about that village from within.”

“I see, apologies for the foolish question, lord Ainz.”

Ainz shook his head with a smile. “There's no need to apologise, Shizu, in fact I'm quite pleased that you are thinking so far ahead. Now then, let's go back.”

And with that, the pair of YGGDRASIL natives left the entrance of the village, the [Gate] spell closing in after them.

“Mama! Papa!” A small machine ran towards a pair of large machines, one of whom had a suit painted on its armour plates, and the other had a bowtie plastered to its head.

“Leo!” The bowtie-wearing machine called ‘Mama’ ran towards the smaller lifeform, hugging him with her large arms. “You're okay! What were you thinking, disappearing like that, do you know how worried me and your papa were?!”

Leo slumped slightly as he looked downwards. “I'm sorry, Mama… I just wanted to get you more of those flowers you love…”

At that moment, the other large machine, ‘Papa’ placed his hand on the smaller machine's spherical head as he kneeled to look his ‘son’ in the eyes. “We know you mean well, son, but remember to tell us next time so one of us can come with you.”

Leo nodded, sniffling noises arising from him even though he had no tear ducts. “I'm sorry, Papa.”

“The machine hugged both him and Mama before looking at his son. “It's ok, but Leo, how did you come back so quickly? I was about to go and find you.”

Suddenly, as if possessed by something, the machine jumped as he spoke with clear excitement in his voice. “Oh yeah! Two kind androids helped me get back! They saved me from a boar and got me here!”

“Androids?!” Papa and Mama spoke in unison, their voices filled with shock. “Are you sure about that, son? You remember that androids see us as enemies, right? You don't think they could've been tricking you?”

Leo shook his head at his Mama’s question, before showing her the back of his hand, which Shizu placed the one-yen sticker on. “No! Miss Shizu and Mister Ainz were super nice! And Miss Shizu even gave me this because she said I was ‘cute’!”

Papa gently took his son's hand and observed the sticker for a moment, a flash of awe appearing in his eyes as he looked at his ‘wife’. “Dear, it's a sticker. It's one of the many inventions the humans made!”

At her ‘husband’s’ explanation, Mama kneeled beside him as she looked at Leo's metal hand, with the boy in question getting both quite nervous and curious at the attention his parents were giving him, especially when Papa mentioned the ancient human race. 

“You're right…” Mama muttered with awe. “Androids would never give up anything their creators made to others, let alone to a machine. But if they did…”

The implied explanation was left unsaid, but was one Papa seemed to agree with as he grasped his son's hand more firmly. “We need to tell Pascal about this. This could be a sign of better times ahead. I'll go find him and tell him.”

Mama nodded, her eyes shining a bit brightly than before as she stood up, watching as Papa hurried away, leaving the pair alone as he disappeared around the great tree that supported most of the Machine Village.

“Uhh, Mama? Am I in trouble? Should I have given it to Miss Shizu back?” Leo asked nervously.

The mother machine chuckled as she patted her son’s head. “No, Leo. You're not in trouble for that. If anything, you bringing this here might help a lot of people.”

“Really?!”

“You're still gonna get grounded for sneaking out of the village.”

“Aww…”

“Shizu?”

“Yes, lord Ainz?”

“Am I perhaps mistaken, or has the sun never set or even moved since we were transported here?”

Upon hearing her master's query, the automaton moved towards the window he was looking out from as she gazed at the bright yellow star.

“You are correct my lord, it hasn't moved a single degree despite more than 16 hours having passed since our transportation.”

The undead gave a small ‘huh’ as he continued staring at the large celestial body in the sky. While it might've damaged his retinas, fortunately, he's an undead, thus it would have little to no effect on him.

‘I was honestly hoping I could finally see the stars here. But I guess it's a pipe-dream for now… Maybe I can go to space and see them there? It's not as if I need oxygen to breathe in space anymore.’

Ainz nodded to himself, seemingly pleased with his latest plan, when all of a sudden, multiple streaks of light flew across the sky in his peripheral vision.

“Shooting stars? Seen now of all times?” He whispered to himself as he saw a group of six streaks of light moving fast around the sky.

“No, lord Ainz,” Shizu answered him, her hands in front of her, her visible eye looking at the six streaks of light without squinting or blinking. “These are machines of sorts, similar to the powered suits of YGGDRASIL.”

Ainz blinked at this revelation, his mind running at a full marathon as he chewed over her response. ‘Seriously? This is worrying, if these really might be the powered suits of YGGDRASIL, then it might be someone else like us who got transported to this world…’

Ainz squinted as he looked at them with scrutiny, almost seeing hints of black against the blue sky. ‘No, she's definitely right. Hmm, how troublesome, I would prefer to not engage with anyone right now until we are assured of our power in this world, for all I know, being level 100 is very common for the stronger beings here in this world. Could at least explain why this planet seems so abandoned. Still, it's better to take the initiative, if they really are hostile, then we might end up as sitting ducks here.’

“Shizu,” Ainz spoke with authority, which made the maid somehow straighten her already faultless posture. “Prepare to move, we'll be tailing these powered suit users from afar. Make sure to utilise as many of your abilities as you can so we don't end up being seen.”

The maid nodded, instantly materialising her futuristic rifle and holstering it. Her eyes glowed a bit brighter, a tell tale sign of her using her natural abilities.

And with that, the Automaton and the Undead mage, having casted [Perfect Unknowable] and [Mass Fly] on himself and his maid, began following the group, never too far, yet never too near.

Name: CZ2128 Delta

Epithet:  

• Sneak & Charge Maid
• Shizu
• Hyperion Overmind (New)

Job: Battle Maid

Residence: Abandoned City Temporary Camp

Alignment: Neutral Good

Sense of Justice: +100

Total Level: 75

Racial Level: 

Automaton (Level 15)

Machina Nexus (Level 10)

Autarch Core (Level 5)

Job Level:  

Gunner (Level 10)

Sniper (Level 5)

Assassin (Level 10)

Stalker (Level 5)

Puppet Lord (Level 5)

Neural Integrator (Level 5)

Tactical Overseer (Level 5)

Approximate Status:

HP: 60

MP: 21

PHY.ATK: 70

PHY.DEF: 50

AGILITY: 70

MAG.ATK: 9

MAG.DEF: 44

RESISTANCE: 35

SPECIAL ABILITY: 72

Chapter Text

‘This is… bad.’ Ainz winced as another of the powered suit pilots was shot by a laser beam, the scream of pain belonging to the poor victim cut short by the near instant destruction delivered by the attack.

The Guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown and his maid were currently tailing the group of pilots at a high speed while under the influence of the [Perfect Unknowable] spell. While it was because he didn't want the two of them to get found out, now, it's so they don't end up under the line of fire like their targets.

{“Lord Ainz. Multiple machines are currently closing in on the targets.”} Shizu informed the undead using the [Message] spell, the telepathic message instantly reaching the overlord as he looked at the machines of similar design to the friendly one they encountered a while back. 

Except these ones were outfitted with flight devices of sorts, and large firearms that seem to launch slow moving spherical energy pulses of two differing colours at the powered suit pilots.  Which they either attempted to dodge, fire at to cancel them out, or rotate a full circle to attack them with blades outfitted at the back of the mech units.

‘Hmm, the spheres seem easy to dodge at first, but as each machine launches multiple at the same time together with one another, it becomes difficult to maneuver with incurring damage… These guys, they're professionals it seems, soldiers perhaps?’

Alas, before Ainz could dwell on it more, of the three remaining mech suit pilots, the unique white one was shot down- exploding to smithereens with its pilot - before one of the remaining two’s units turned the same white colour as the now deceased unit, taking the lead like its colour’s predecessor, before the last two unknown users had their suits, that previously only resembled tiny aircrafts, transformed into mech suits with four limbs as they engaged once more with the attacking machines.

{“Shizu.”} Ainz spoke telepathically to the Automaton. {“It seems that the white colour is reserved to the higher ranks of whatever organization these powered suit pilots belong to. We will follow that one for now, be prepared.”}

And just as he said that, the last remaining black mech suit was annihilated, before the surviving pilot sped up once again towards the factory-like structure in the distance, with the Overlord and Automaton in tow.

Ainz hummed as he saw the white suit defeat one of the flying machine units, which this time, was much more complex than its tinier compatriots, having not only pod and pulse rifle installed, but four more pods connected to it as the central unit of the structures each was outfitted with more firearms, giving a grand total of five.

‘Curious, it seems to me there's got to be a greater intelligence behind these machines, outfitting something so simple yet so complex on units like these, perhaps they're also the cause behind the network?’ The undead hummed as the pilot turned its white mech suit back into the aircraft mode.

Unfortunately, he couldn't dwell on his theories for longer as they reached a point in the metal tunnel where automatic doors began closing in front of them, as if to keep them outside.

As the suit user began speeding up to not get shut out of the building, Ainz and Shizu began tailing her at even greater speed to ensure they are not detected if they crash with the doors.

‘Ah, dammit, the last one is about to close!’ Ainz clicked his tongue as the door at the end was about to shut them out, though thankfully it didn't get caught up either by his maid or the target, courtesy of [Perfect Unknowable] cutting off all sound.

As the trio almost reached the last gate, which had only enough space to allow for smaller sized folks, the white mech suit user suddenly began speeding up at maximum velocity, and figuring out what the they intended to do, Ainz cast a spell to ensure he and Shizu are given ample time to make their way first.

‘[Silent Magic: Time Stop!]’

And just as instantly, the world lost its colour, the door was stuck in place, and so was the mech suit pilot, the flames from their thrusters frozen in time, appearing like beautiful grey statues.

{‘Come, Shizu.’} Ainz spoke, his speed decreasing as he made his way in front of the pilot, who was merely a finger away from the small opening of the doorway.

His loyal maid was immediately behind him, following behind the undead with her guard up, when she was about to cross the door as well, her eyes suddenly scrutinized the user of the suit for a moment before speaking to Ainz using [Message] .

{‘Lord Ainz. The suit user, I can now confirm that she is not a human, or any humanoid race known in YGGDRASIL. She resembles a humanoid automaton in appearance. Theory: She's one of the androids that are in opposition of the machines.’} 

The undead blinked for a moment before nodding, an expression of clarity on his face as he digested the latest piece of information. ‘This does align then with what Leo said, that androids and machines are not on good terms with one another. But what I saw wasn't mere disagreements or disputes, but an outright fight with the goal of destroying the other side. This isn't a mere skirmish, but something much more grave.’

The man, though he didn't show it outwardly, wanted to cringe at his latest deduction. ‘I just hope we aren't getting involved in some war of sorts now.’

As the two of them got far away enough from the door, they found themselves in an arena of sorts. With numerous machines, littering the floor below. Some of them resemble Leo, except with their eyes brightly shining red, unlike his passive green. And some were a meter or so taller than their smaller counterparts, with bulkier arms, legs, and torso.

{‘Shizu, be on your guard. Our ‘friend’ there may end up in a fight with these machines down below. Prepare your rifle in case she requires our help.’}

The Automaton nodded as she summoned her silver futuristic rifle, the weapon glowing with ethereal magic emanating off of it as Shizu began surveying the whole area with complete scrutiny.

‘I'd prefer if we didn't intervene like before, but since this android is the last of the group, we need her alive for now.’

As the two of them were prepared, Ainz then dispelled the temporal spell, allowing for the world to gain back its colours.

And as soon as that happened, the suit exploded into fragments as it was only halfway through the open mass of the metal doors, causing an explosion of numerous broken and dented metal sheets and destroyed artillery which fell to the floor along with remnants of the destroyed metal doors.

And out of the mass of destruction, a figure clad in a black dress emerged, swirling in the air before landing on the ground without so much as a tumble.

‘So this is the android. Huh, she's quite beautiful.’ Ainz noted to himself with a hint of nonchalance as he also eyed the flying familiar of hers, who looked like a large cuboid with tiny metal arms. Her mature appearance reminded him a bit of Albedo, who his friend Tabula Smaragdina designed meticulously, though it piqued his curiosity if the android was similar in any other regards. ‘Hmm, since the machines seem to have fathers and mothers, could the androids have them too, or did they just have creators?’

He unfortunately couldn't dwell on such thoughts any longer as the android began fighting with the machines, curiously, while he expected her to use firearms or the likes like both Shizu and the flying machines she previously, the white-haired android was using a pair of white large katanas; with one being larger than the other akin to an uchigatana to a wakizashi.

And contrary to his previous worries, the android was quite proficient in her elimination of the machines, disposing of them one after the other with her swords. And to those out of her reach, her robotic familiar would attack from long range using what seemed to be energy bullets of sorts.

‘How curious,’ he thought. ‘Whenever she switches between the two swords, the one she doesn't use is being kept afloat behind her back using those strange circles… Is this also the result of technologies present in this world, or its own form of magic?’

Ainz hummed as the woman disposed of the last of the machines, tearing it in half as it exploded. However, just as she lowered her weapon, the entire building shook violently, loud noises erupting from the other side of the large arena.

{‘Shizu, we'll fly higher for now.’} Ainz sent the automaton a [Message] spell as she nodded, her weapon still in her hands as the two of them got ever farther farther from the floor, the entire arena now appearing within their sites easily as the opposite walls crumbled like paper.

Ainz's eyes widened with shock as the perpetrator behind the attack, a massive rotating buzzsaw made up with numerous giant excavation buckets.

The giant excavation device didn't hesitate as it began attacking the android using a powerful vertical strike, which she thankfully dodged at the last moment before attacking the bucket wheels with everything she got.

This process continued for several more moments, with the giant enemy performing multiple vertical and horizontal attacks to try and destroy the android, who dodged, jumped, and evaded them with grace.

{‘Shizu.’} Ainz spoked shortly, the maid perking up upon hearing her name. {‘Could this large machine, be one of the machines, or just an old piece of technology from this factory?’}

Shizu stared at him for a moment before extending her arm as multiple arcane circles of white and blue, that seemed to resemble the cogs of machines more than regular magic circles, rotated in front of her hand.

As they dissipated, she bowed her head slightly as she presented her findings to her master. {‘No, Lord Ainz. It is in fact one of the machines, of those that are connected to the unknown network at that.’}

Ainz hummed for a moment as he mulled over this newly found fact. ‘If there are machines of that design and appearance, then there are much more than that, maybe there's aquatic and winged variants too.’

The possibility brought forth a kind of childish curiosity lost within him, perhaps there'll be robot sharks, or even robotic knights. 

Yet at the same time, it worried him, after all, there may even be machine dragons or things on the same level as the World Enemies as well. And worse yet, he still doesn't understand what is the purpose of this network of theirs, and what dangerous possibilities it presents.

‘I just hope that fighting one doesn't mean that the network would suddenly cause all the machines in the network to start hunting for us. That would be as bad as the heteromorph bounty hunting system in YGGDRASIL.’

‘Actually, I haven't yet used that spell on them yet, have I? Now's as good a time as any I suppose. [Discern Enemy] .’

As the spell took effect, the information

In the meanwhile, the android woman has nearly defeated the giant excavation buzzsaw machine, the last of its bucket wheels was removed by the swordswoman’s robotic assistant.

Alas, contrary to her expectations, and to her surprise, the machine pulled back for one final attack, the main head rotating extremely fast as it aimed at destroying the remnants of the arena.

As she readied her sword and prepared to strike again, a series of explosions caused by multiple missiles firing to the side of the massive machine occured, the giant didn't have a chance to defend itself before it collapsed, disassembled right then and there.

The female android sidestepped as the machine’s bucket-less wheel rolled towards her, before collapsing as it got rebounded off of the wall with a massive thud.

Soon, a flying unit, likely the perpetrator behind the machine's ‘death’, came into view in its mech suit form.

Ainz's curiosity peaked as he looked at the pilot of the mech suit. He was an adolescent boy, with a blindfold over his eyes like the android woman and his own similitude version of her clothes that share the same symbolisms, hinted that the two belonged to the same organization, whatever it may be.

“Better make sure he's actually dead next time. That was dangerous, Ma’am.”

As the woman stepped closer, dusting her clothes off, the young android spoke up again. “You're 2B, right? My name is 9S, I'm here to provide support.”

“Copy that.” The woman, 2B, responded professionally, showing none of the familiarity or warmth that 9S greeted her with.

‘Is he an intern of sorts?’ Ainz pondered curiously. ‘She kinda resembles those seniors who would treat their kouhais without much warmth since they wouldn't gain anything from teaching them the ropes, aside from being forced to get held back from leaving work early.’

And despite the Undead's curiosity, 9S didn't seem unfazed by 2B’s coldness and professionalism. “So… was that big ol’ buzzsaw the Goliath you came here to take out?”

The woman answered curtly as she shook her head. “No, just another defensive system.”

“Oh, well, uh, guess we have to find the target then, huh? I've got a flight unit, so I'll take a look around the perimeter.” 9S responded, his voice betraying a hint of shock at the realization that the giant machine wasn't the instead target, before flexing the arm of his mech suit ( ‘Or flight suit, as they call it,’ Ainz thought) as he prepared to fly above again.

“Alright, I'll work my way inside from the ground.” As 2B answered, 9S began to fly high in the air as the woman went towards the sole remaining operational bridge towards the heart of the factory.

{‘Shizu. Go and follow this 9S, report to me whenever you can about whatever happens on his end. I'll keep track of that 2B android.’} Ainz ordered Shizu through their telepathic channel of the [Message] spell as he prepared to tail the blindfolded woman.

{‘Lord Ainz, please reconsider, you require protection.’} The undead suddenly halted as he felt the maid’s gloves hand on his robes, her voice betraying none of her emotions, while her visible eye hinted at worry for him.

‘Huh… Never had someone care for my safety before, at least aside from my friends from Ainz Ooal Gown and my mom when she was still alive.’

The undead, after this realization, brought his hand to her head, patting her gently with his skeletal hand as he tried to assuage her worries.

{‘Don’t worry. I will be careful and won't take much risks, should there be anything that might threaten my life, I'll evacuate immediately. But until then, you should hurry up and catch up to the boy in that ‘flight suit’ as he called it, do not take any unnecessary risks and retreat if something beyond your capabilities comes up.’}

Shizu was hesitant at first, visible by her slightly shaking hand before letting go of him, bowing her head in recognition of his orders for her as she holstered her rifle on her hip once more and took off towards the male android's location.

With her out of sight, Ainz went up high in the sky above the factory, and with a simple cast, a large ornate mirror was created right in front of him, showcasing the blindfolded android slashing another group of enemies.

Shizu… wasn't impressed, to say the least.

Not impressed at all.

‘The enemy machine units are taking turns to try and shoot down their target in waves, instead of focusing all their firepower to destroy him immediately. This is pointless.’

The flying rusted units, who she can consider as cute despite their hostility to her target of surveillance, were making it quite easy for their foe to dispose of them.

‘If they were soldiers of Nazarick, lord Demiurge would've turned them to scrap because of their wastefulness.’

Still, despite how disappointingly boring watching the fights between the android and the machines, one thing perked her interest.

Hacking.

Every so often, she could sense the adolescent-looking android as he would hack into one of the machines and cause them to self-destruct, destroying themselves and others of their kind in one fell swoop.

‘Hmm, I should try.’ The automaton thought to herself as she looked at the incoming drove of machines, while it would be easier to just dispose of them using her rifle, or her new abilities that she gained through lord Ainz granting her the chance to use the World Item, she wants to tests how it feels to hack into the machines of this world.

And just like that, while her target was distracted and wouldn't notice her actions, her eye shifted hue for a split second as the process began.

Instantly, the YGGDRASIL automaton found herself in a basic shaped room of multiple shades of grey. With a large grey ball inside this space with her.

Suddenly, the ball began moving as it shot smaller spheres of orange and dark blue towards her, which she was able to dodge easily.

‘This must be the machine’s core. I should destroy it.’ It didn't take long for Shizu to acclimate in this new environment as she unholstered her rifle, which turned into simple shapes resembling the outline of the forearm and fired.

The bullets tore through the spherical ammunition of the enemy before connecting with the core, tearing a hole into it as it disappeared into the ether. And with that Shizu could feel the machine falling under her full control.

“Uwaah.” Shizu gave an unenthusiastic gasp of shock as she felt everything that the machine had to offer. From information on the network it was on, to the machine itself and some of its allies.

Yet, even so, she could feel an invisible force, weak as it may be, attempting to invade this space in response to her actions, and while the automaton would've liked to test it out, Ainz's orders were clear in her mind, and instead focused on the machine under her control for now.

‘I can't access much from this one, it's not important enough on the network's totem pole.’ Shizu blinked with a hint of disappointment in her eyes as that realization came to be.

‘Guess I'll need to search for more machines later for lord Ainz. Though… maybe I can use one of my new skills here?’

While the machine wasn't noteworthy in both appearance and strength, it served as a perfect test dummy for Shizu, who was eager to test out the effectiveness of the abilities granted to her by her master.

And thus, Shizu raised her hand, multiple circles resembling gears appearing from it as she cast one of her new skills on the mindbroken machine.

“ {Databank Absorption} .”

‘So if that 9S wasn't lying, there were humans here… ’ Ainz thought pensively to himself as the automated voice recording of a woman declaring the end of a daytime shift kept repeating on the loudspeakers. The voice echoing across the entirety of the factory without pause, looping for quite a while.

‘What exactly happened here? Did some robotic invasion happen and AI annihilated the human race or something? Were these androids and machines the cause.’ He thought to himself with heavy concern, seeing the android woman dispose of another group of machines before making her way towards another circular room.

‘Haaah… I'll think about that later, for now. I should just keep a record of what is happening.’

He folded his arms as the mirror shifted and showed 2B walking outside, talking on the comms with 9S as a flock of birds was flying nearby.

“What is that Goliath machine they're looking for exactly? And how big is it exactly that the biggest buzzsaw was just considered as part of the security detail of the factory?” His lips were pursed as he kept mulling over it, as the woman in the mirror was busy walking towards the large bridge.

Suddenly, two of the large buzzsaw machines that 2B fought in the beginning began to immediately move towards her on the massive conveyor belts on each side of the bridge. The woman had no time to escape as the machines destroyed the two sides of the bridge’s section she was on, stranding her on it.

“There's definitely intelligence behind these machines, this was without the shadow of a doubt a trap they've been laying out for her.” Ainz softly muttered to himself as he watched her dodge and attack the two large buzzsaw machines on her own.

‘Hmm… now that I think about it… [Widen Magic: Discern Enemy] .’

The disguised Overlord expected for the giant enemies to have high levels, but to his surprise, they barely reached-

‘Level 28… Seriously? These giants are only just level 28? I mean, I suppose it makes sense they rely on easily destroyed buckets to dish out damage and only rely on brute force, but that's a bit disappointing, isn't it? At least this 2B woman is a bit higher than that, being level 40 isn't so bad, especially since it doesn't seem like she has any noteworthy skills to speak of aside from being extremely proficient in combat, though it seems that the high level differences in this world don't mean a fight will be easy or difficult… I wonder how she would have fared against Shizu before and now after her upgrade?’

The skeletal armed mage suddenly felt a ping as his spell reacted to even more entities, giving him estimates on these mysterious strangers’ levels as well.

‘Level 70?! Wait, where?!’ If he was still alive, his neck would've broken from the whiplash as he looked behind him and below, only to find nothing more than the factory and the building from which the buzzsaw machines were lying around, and the sea floor beneath him…

‘Wait a minute…’

His eyes widened with shock as the realization hit him like a freight truck. ‘The entire building… is a machine? And the ones below are the same??’

It didn't take long for the still invisible Overlord to take to the skies even farther, giving him ample view of both the fight and the camouflaged machines.

‘Seriously, I almost got a heart attack! …If I still had a beating heart that is… Thankfully it doesn't seem like they're going to reawaken anytime soon, which is good considering that the android 2B still hasn't finished off those two, who are barely level 28.’

‘Hmm, let’s help her for a moment.’ Ainz thought to himself as he began to silently cast a spell on the two excavation machines turned hostile enemies.

‘[Silent Twin Magic: Clockstop].’

As soon as he finished casting the spell, the two giants halted moving as they fell to the sides of the collapsed bridge 2B was on, who didn't hesitate to continue her attacks on the machines, seemingly oblivious to the source of the machines’ sudden movement issues.

‘Hmm, [Clockstop] is supposed to be only viable against automatons or other artificial lifeforms, since it disabled their inner workings momentarily… At least now I know for sure now that my spells aimed at targeting automatons and the like are still viable against the machines… Wonder what would happen if I used it against an android too?’ The undead pondered on the intrusive thoughts as he looked at the blindfolded woman, his skeletal fingers cracking with a curiosity unavailable in his left fleshy one.

‘...Nah, I'll find someone else to test it on. Would be a bit problematic if she dies now.’

As 2B was busy attacking the machines, suddenly fire burst out of their bases as they began to move, or rather, forced to move on the conveyor belts towards a certain building in the distance.

“So those were its arms. I wonder if the rest of its body is the combination of more machines as well.” Ainz muttered to himself in awe and curiosity as the secret of the building was revealed to him and the woman below, with the giant machine's ‘head’ appearing from within the large construct, its eyes glowing an eerie red.

The machine didn't waste any time in moving towards 2B, missiles firing from its back at her location, which was she barely able to escape by a hair's breadth.

Her robotic familiar was firing yellowish white bullets at the machine's head. With 2B would attack the battered upper limbs from her previous assault each time they swung in her direction.

‘She’s not gonna get very far like that.’ He winced as the machine finished firing a laser from its head before diving beneath the waters, only to destroy part of the bridge the android was standing on, forcing her to run and avoid being caught up by the attack.

‘Should I get involved again? It would blow my cover though if that happens…’

Fortunately, it seemed that it was unnecessary, as a familiar mech unit flew rapidly fast towards their location with his maid in tow, the former firing multiple missiles of its own at the hostile machine.

{‘Shizu. How were things on your end?’} Ainz asked the automaton maid as she hovered near him, her head bowed as she reported.

{‘Lord Ainz, no major discovery found, factory was devoid of any of the targets that the androids were following. However, I have been able to test one of my newly gained skills and now have a rudimentary understanding of the hacking methodologies of this world.’} Shizu reported to the man with professionalism, her hand in front of her and head still bowed.

Ainz blinked in faint surprise as a pleased smile appeared on his face. {‘I see, that is amazing news then. You can inform me later about what your findings, for now, we should observe.’}

It didn't take long for the situation to turn on its head. The young android in the flying suit attempted to defend his comrade, only to end up being seated away by the buzzsaw and landing on top of the giant monstrosity, with an arm and a leg missing, revealing the wirings and artificial platings beneath his ‘skin’.

If Ainz still had his full emotional spectrum, he might've felt pity for the poor boy and assisted him, alas, all that he could think of, all that he was capable of at this very instance, were cold calculations and ruthless pragmatism.

‘It’s a shame. They will die right here it seems.’ He thought to himself as the taller android, 2B, finally defeated the giant machine, at the cost of the flying suit that she took from the now wounded 9S, who's own robotic familiar was defending him from the ensuing waves of machines attempting to prey on his temporary moment of weakness and destroy him.

Only for three more of those steel and metal monstrosities, all in near pristine condition, arising from the seafloor to complete the mission of their now destroyed brethren.

‘I don't have anything to gain from helping those two. At least with that small machine, I was able to glean proper information on this world, but here, I only tailed them to find out about their mission and capabilities.’

He saw as 9S gave 2B a small smile, a small black box in his hand as he motioned for her to do the same, the woman bringing hers out from her chest.

‘...That should be how I do this, still...’ Seeing the two exchange what seemed to be final farewells, it reminded him of bitter memories. Of his friends who left YGGDRASIL one by one, of his mother who passed away right in front of him while he was just a child.

Living or nonliving, human, undead, or android. He's seeing a repeat of those memories right in front of him.

‘No… if I have the chance to make sure it doesn't happen again, I'll do it. I can't ever look any of them in the eye again if I let tragedies like this happen.’

Ainz was not naive, he understood the sheer brutality and cruelty of both the world and humanity, having experienced it since he was an elementary school student, forced to work in an environment that would be a crime against humanity all on its own. There's no such thing as a fairytale-like happy ending for all beings in existence.

And yet…

{‘Shizu, you said you now have a basic understanding of how to hack into these things, right?} The automaton nodded with confidence to her master's query.

It's his duty as someone who lives in the present to work to make sure the past wrongs never happen again.

{‘Shizu. Infiltrate one of these machines and help dispose of the other two. And if you can, dig up any and all information from them, but prioritise your safety above that and retreat before you're caught by the machines on the network.’}

And he'll be damned if he doesn't do anything to show for it in this world when he has the power to change what happens in front of him.

“The one who cries over the past, without ever working for the present, is not practical. Crying would not help him.”

- H.H Pope Shenouda III

Chapter Text

The City Ruins:-

“Would you look at that?” A humanoid being hummed from atop a ruined building, his eyes cast on a large rusted machine with a scar on its face, three smaller machines surrounding the larger one like children accompanying their father, or older brother.

“The small ones, cute. The big one is cute too.” A girl with an eyepatch and adorned in maid clothes spoke, her eye tracing the four as the large leader-like machine of the group was watering a patch of white flowers.

“Umu, I suppose they are.” The man, Ainz nodded, seeing the large machine grant the watering can to the small trio, who celebrated by raising it up in the air and dancing.

“Shizu, how is your assignment going so far?” The man asked his maid, while never taking his eyes off of the rambunctious group of machines.

“Nothing to report since last time, lord Ainz. The two YorHa units, 2B and 9S, have not been sighted since their departure to the YorHa Bunker. However, there have been cases of other affiliated androids in the ruined city, mostly on what seemed to be reconnaissance or machine extermination missions.”

The man gave a hum of approval, a silent atmosphere permeating the rooftop as Ainz was left thinking.

“And what about yourself? How is your progress with your new skills? Have you gotten used to them so far?”

The maid shook her head, her head bowed slightly as she responded. “None, lord Ainz. I've gained an understanding of the utilities, advantages and disadvantages of my new abilities, and can serve you with more efficiency than before.”

The man nodded, evidently pleased by her response. His gaze locked on the group of machines below, his eyes focusing on them, or more specifically their eyes.

‘Yellow. Not the usual red. I suppose this means they are also no longer part of that machine network…’

To say that Ainz was merely fascinated by this would be an understatement, his desire to understand what exactly makes these machines tick is great, especially in regards to that network of theirs.

‘From what we know now, the machines were made as instruments of war by those aliens. But even still, why exactly did some of them leave the network? …Or rather, how did they leave it to begin with?’

The man sighed softly under his breath as he spoke up again. “Shizu, you said before that your new skill set allows you to make your own ‘network’ of sorts, similar to the machines, yes? Did you test it out yet?”

The maid shook her head, her voice monotone as she spoke. “I apologize, lord Ainz, I have yet to test it out on the field.”

The man hummed thoughtfully as a grin blossomed on his face. “That's quite fine,” he said. “If anything, I suppose this is a chance to do just that, come along, Shizu.”

And with that, the Overlord hovered towards the group of machines down below, the Pleiades maid in tow.

“Big brother. Look.” One of the trio of smaller machines dragged the larger one towards a patch of flowers.

The large machine stared at one in particular, its leaves were shrinking and decaying, and the white lustrous petals were wilting.

“Flower. Lunar Tear. Dying.” The machine said slowly, scooping up the plant with the soil its roots were in, staring at it unblinkingly without moving.

Yet, all of a sudden, a shadow, not the machine's own, cascaded over them, the large machine looked up to see two figures in the sky slowly floating towards.

And they looked very much like the androids.

The group of three huddled behind the large machine, who only looked up curiously as they slowly touched the ground, the flower still in his metal hands.

“Be at ease, we're not here to attack you.” The taller of the two, reaching almost the same height as the large machine, put his hands in the air to show he was unarmed.

The machine still didn't speak up, his eyes tracking the man while looking down at the flower in his hands.

Ainz looked at the flower and saw its deteriorated state, it seemed to almost be on the verge of death, one metaphorical foot in the grave.

‘Huh, guess these machines are actually looking after the plants, and not just watering them mindlessly.’ Ainz hummed as he walked slowly towards the large machines with the smaller three putting their hands in the air, as if they were prepared to fight him.

The man hovered his hand gently over the flower, green light shining as small magical circles began to form.

‘I’m not a full-fledged healer or druid. Thankfully, I at least got some spells after using [Dark Wisdom] on some players way back when during my time in YGGDRASIL.’

‘[Silent Magic: Gaia’s Blessing].’

As soon as he cast the spell, the flower began glowing brightly for a moment. Its petals, once small and without luster, were now healthy and bright, and its leaves, once decaying and blackened, were now a healthy green.

The large machine looked at the once-wilting flower in his hands, a faint awe for what had happened in front of him could be felt from his bodily posture, something that the three other machines showed much more vibrantly.

“Flower. Healthy. Again.” The large metal lifeform stated with wonder and shock, as if he didn't expect for this to happen.

“Yes. Though you should learn to look out for them,” Ainz said. “After all, flowers are still living things, and could suffer from diseases, malnutrition, infections, and much much more. I would not be here to do this again and again.”

This seemed to get a reaction from the machine after he replanted the rejuvenated flower, who stared at him with confusion, eminent from its posture. “Not. Again? …Why?”

The undead responded candidly. “Simple, you and us are strangers, there is no benefit in helping a stranger, especially if we become adversaries in the future.”

The machine's eyes dimmed for a second, akin to blinking, as he stared at Ainz, who's facial expressions betrayed none of the Undead's thoughts and emotions. “Then… How. To. Be. Not. Stranger?” He asked him, a curious tone encompassing the machine's near monotone voice.

At this, Ainz smiled as he extended his hand. “You become my subordinates.”

The three machines behind the larger one stared at the man before looking at each other for answers.

“Subordinates?”

“What's subordinates?”

“Subordinates are assistants, right?”

“So we help like before on the network?”

“Android network?”

As the last of the trio's innocent questions to another, all the machines looked at Ainz and the strangely dressed android behind him, a hunger for information in their bright eyes.

Ainz shook his head as he motioned for Shizu, who took a few steps forward and bowed slightly as a greeting. “Not on any known android network, but rather, with her.”

“You?” The machine asked inquisitively, taking in the weird appearance of the other android.

Now that he thinks about it, he never saw either of them before, they don't belong to that Android Resistance or those YorHa dolls, do they?

“CZ2128 Delta. Or just Shizu. A pleasure to meet you.” The maid bowed her head slightly, something which the four machines copied awkwardly.

“Pleasure. To. Meet. You.”

“...”

The maid stayed silent for a moment as she stared at each of them, which worried the machines who looked at one another nervously.

“Ah!”

“Huh?!”

“Eh?”

“Hm?”

Suddenly, CZ was right in front of them, having stuck some objects on each of them in various locations; whether it be their hands, torsos, or their spherical heads.

“Uwah. Cute.”

The machines felt flustered for some reason, an emotion foreign to them, as they stared at her and at the stranger tiny object stuck to their metal casings, and the shiny number ‘1’ on each of them.

“Well then…” Ainz clapped his hands to get everyone's attention, which he did successfully. “I take it you all are interested?”

The group of extraterrestrial artificial lifeforms looked at one another for a moment, exchanging a silent conversation with each other before looking at the undead and nodded.

“We. Accept.”

The undead gave a short chuckle as he looked at Shizu, who nodded as her visible eye glowed brightly for a moment.

‘[Integration].’

And just as quick as Shizu’s previous movements were, what happened exceeded the machines’ computational abilities.

Exabytes of pure data surged through their systems in mere attoseconds, an overwhelming tide of knowledge and refinement beyond anything they had ever been allowed the chance to process while they were in the Machine Network.

New combat functionalities unfolded within them, harmonizing with their previous abilities to adapt that was granted to them by their alien creators. Recalibrating every mode of movement, optimizing each and every one of their old attack patterns, they became even more deadlier than they had ever been before.

Enhanced sensory perception allowed them to register the faintest tremors in the air, the subtlest shifts in temperature, the imperceptible fluctuations in electromagnetic fields, the slightest motion of the flowers’ petals against the winds. All without sacrificing even the most negligible fragments of efficiency.

Unfamiliar knowledge poured into their neural matrices, filling gaps in their understanding of tactics, strategy, and warfare. They saw beyond what they had learned on their own, like a teacher divulging torrents of wisdom unto their students, the Automaton, gave them the hard earned experiences that were granted to her by her own Creator.

A deeper connection wove itself into their core, binding them to one another and to their ever-evolving Deus Mechanicus.

Autonomous adaptation became instinctual, their systems recalibrating with every passing second, adapting and evolving to be better fits to their new Network.

It was… euphoric, to say the least. Whereas their evolutionary abilities were previously stunted, courtesy of all the wisdom and experiences of their old network being used to create better, stronger, and more advanced machines, now, they could feel the metaphorical shackles of stagnation being broken.

And it was all because of her… No, him.

“I see that you all have acclimated fairly well for now.” Ainz drew attention to himself as he stepped forwards, the group of machines, their once-yellow eyes now a shining emerald, reflecting the ones belonging to the Core of their new Network.

“Ah, I forgot, I haven't introduced myself yet.” Ainz cleared his throat as he adopted a professional pose, one that he has honed through years of working as a salaryman, filled with poise and elegance. “I am-”

“Ainz. Ooal. Gown.”

“...Eh?” Ainz muttered with eyes wide open with surprise, as his skill, {Emotional Suppression}, entered the stage once again to offset the deep shock delivered to the Overlord by the large machine.

“Head. Of. The. Great. Fourty. One. Master. Of. The. Ancient. Tomb. Friend. And. Lord. Of. The. Crystalline. Professor. Garnet. And. The. Master. Of. The. Pleiades. Maid. CZ2128. Delta.”

‘...Eeeehhhhhh?!?!’ If the light effects produced by Ainz's skill were visible to everybody. The man would be likened more and more to a brightly lit Christmas tree than an undead Overlord, his mind racing at a hundred miles per hour at the amount of personal information the machine has on him.

“H-how did you-?”

“The. Autarch. Informed. Us.” The machine pointed to Shizu as he called her by that new title. Who, despite her deadpan face, had a very noticeable hint of pride in her expression, as if she had performed a great achievement, worthy of all the praise in the stars.

Ainz stared at the seemingly oblivious maid, who didn't notice his, clearly not positive, reaction to her deed.

‘I need to speak with her later to not just divulge such information to anyone else later, at least no more than this. The last thing I need in a futuristic Earth thousands of years into the future is for information to come out that I was from YGGDRASIL, if information from the 22nd Century still exists to begin with…’

As his handy racial skill finally did the last of its rounds, Ainz sighed as he shot the Automaton a quick disapproving look, one she didn't seem to notice, as he looked at the four machines.

“Well, I suppose an introduction for me is not needed. However, you all haven't given us your names yet as well.”

And this moment, the large scarred machine stepped forward, with the trio of smaller ones mimicking him.

“Designation. PLAO8.”

“Designation: TIL55.”

“Designation: MTU96!”

“Designation: GXO37…”

An indiscernible expression washed over his face, as he gazed at the four unblinking machines in front of him.

‘...No way in hell would I be able to remember all these codes.’

The man coughed as he tried to conceal his impolite thoughts, a faux thoughtful expression on his face as he looked at the four.

“Well met then. However, how would you all like new names? To commemorate this occasion?”

“...com..memo…rate?”

“What's that?”

Two of the small machines, TIL55 and MTU96, spoke up, confusion filling their voices at the new word.

Thankfully, Shizu was quick to respond. “Commemorate; to mark or celebrate an event or person, by performing something. Lord Ainz, is asking if you all want new names to celebrate your induction into his service.”

The tiny machines let out a wave of ‘Oooohs’ at the Automaton's explanation, admiration for the two of them could be felt from the trio as they gazed at the heteromorphic duo, eliciting a wave of awkwardness to wash over Ainz.

“I. Accept. A. New. Name.” Thankfully, PLAO8 was the first to speak, his voice carrying an uncharacteristic hint of happiness at the prospect as he looked at Ainz, with the machines nodding in jubilant agreement with the larger machine.

“Us too! Us too! Us too!”

Ainz felt a wave of relief surge through him, mostly for himself at having the opportunity to grant them new names, and to not be forced to try and memorize the machines' former designations.

“Well then. Starting with you… PLAO8, your new name should be-!”

*Thump!*

*Thump!*

*Thump!*

All of a sudden, the ground began shaking as a heavy wave of footsteps flooded the area, the flowers swishing gently as a faint gust of wind washed over them.

“Hmm?” Ainz looked over the horizon to see what was happening; from in-between a pair of collapsed buildings, a large swarm of machines were marching towards them, their eyes crimson red as they walked in unison.

“Kill. Kill. Kill.”

The machine uttered as one, their voices devoid of any emotion as they marched towards them, or rather, somewhere else in the city.

The undead clicked his tongue as he began gently flying in the air using the [Fly] spell.

“Shizu, come with me. You four, get to a safe location nearby until Shizu calls out to you.”

The trio of machines nodded as Shizu began flying in the air. Yet only one, didn't budge yet.

“What. About. The. Flowers?” PLAO8 asked, a hint of fear for the gentle non-sentient creatures as the footsteps of the machine army became louder.

Ainz looked at the machine with a confused expression for a moment, before a sigh escaped his lips.

“We cannot do anything about them all for now. Take as many flowers as you can for now in your hands and plant them somewhere else far away from the march of the other machines.”

PLAO8 stared at Ainz for a moment before nodding, his emerald eye lights flashing brightly for a moment with determination as he scooped up as many flowers in his hands, the smaller trio mimicking him in the process, before the group rushed away from the place, leaving Ainz and Shizu with the machine army.

“Lord Ainz, should we dispose of them?” Shizu unholstered her rifle as she prepared to fire at the incoming hostiles, yet Ainz raised his hand as he stopped her.

“No, not yet at least. These ones are marching here with a purpose, and I doubt it has to do with the flowers or us taking control of a few machines unaffiliated with them any more.”

Shizu nodded as she stared at the massive horde, who moved with hostile intent and bloody determination.

“Come, let's go, Shizu, we're going to follow them for now and find out where they are going.” The Overlord spoke resolutely as he began flying upwards towards the roofs of the buildings, away from the sights of the hostile machines as they continued their tireless march.

“Damn it! It's not working!” A man spoke disgruntled as he kept furiously pressing the button of the detonator in his hand, yet to no avail.

The swarm of machines was getting ever closer, and their only chance of destroying them by annihilating the bridge was no moot.

“Tch.”

A woman wearing a green hooded cloak clicked her tongue, before drawing her rifle and running towards the bridge, aiming at the explosives set on the sides of the structure.

“Leader, no! You won't be able to do it!” The man with the goggles shouted, with the rest of the group trying to dissuade the woman as they began to gather the wounded to retreat from the machine horde.

‘Come on… just one opportunity…’ The woman muttered to herself as the machines were creeping in ever closer, and with it, her aim is becoming as unsteady as her breath.

“Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Ki-!”

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

All of a sudden, thunderous gunshots echoed throughout the valley, with multiple machines down with holes riddling their heads and bodies, falling to their deaths across the bridge or had their bodies crushed metal foot  mercilessly by their comrades, who continued without stopping.

While it wasn't enough to even halt the machines’s march, it did bring a moment of pause and surprise to the androids, and especially their leader.

Yet, it didn't end there, as something even more strange happened.

A large lighting strike appeared, coiling around the group of machines threateningly.

‘What in the… am I hallucinating? Is that… a dragon made from lightning?’ The leader of the androids muttered to herself as she saw that menacing anomaly begin tearing through the machines, obliterating dozens of them with a single strike.

And soon, more and more of these ‘lightning dragons’ appeared, each destroying their own portion of the horde with ruthless efficiency, explosions erupting from the machines as the strikes and the ever continuous hail of bullets caused them to explode in arrays of brilliantly coloured sparks and flames.

“What… in the world is going on?” One of the androids muttered slowly, unable to comprehend what is going on.

‘Did these YorHa androids do this? Perhaps… the Council of Humanity?’ The Android Leader thought to herself as she saw something beyond what any resistance member could achieve, and worse, they don't even know who are their mysterious saviours.

“[Gravity Maelstrom].” All of a sudden, a deep baritone voice was heard by the androids, and as soon as it spoke, the machines were carried through the air, their limbs flailing as they continued their attempts at reaching for the androids.

*Bang! Crush! Crunch!*

And just as quickly, like a black hole devouring all that exists, the machines were drawn inwards, getting crushed into one another as a giant metal sphere made from their corpses began to form in the air.

*KABOOM!!!*

As the last of the machines joined its dead comrades, the sphere of metal debris exploded high in the air, sending shrapnel everywhere in the air, allowing an ominous kind of silence to fill the area as the horde was practically annihilated within a quick few moments.

“...Leader! Look up!” One of the androids suddenly shouted pointing her finger upwards at something in the sky, causing the rest to look up at whatever caught the woman's attention.

Two figure, of very differing heights, were hovering up in the air above them, their silence was deathly chilling for the android group who were stared at by the group

Soon, the two strangers gently flew down towards the group, resulting in the group of androids to aim their weapons with shaking hands at the group.

“Who… who are you?!” The android leader shouted as she got closer to her group once more, her rifle still tightly gripped in the hands as she prepared to fire at the slightest sign of hostility.

The taller of the pair, taller than all the android in the area in fact, spoke up as he raised his hand, one that seemed very much inhuman to the androids. “Greetings. We mean you no harm. We simply saw you all were in a pinch trouble and chose to lend a helping hand.”

It wasn't quick, but the androids’ guards lowered a bit as the man raised both hands, while the woman accompanying him lowered her silver rifle-weapon.

“You are the leader for this group, I assume? I am Ainz Ooal Gown, you may call me Ainz. And this here is Shizu.”

The man introduced himself as he extended a hand for the hooded woman, who was startled a bit by his sudden action.

She gingerly shook his hand with her own, her words laced with caution as she spoke. “I'm Lily, leader of the Resistance units here in the City… Thanks for the assist, sir.”

“It's no issue, helping others in trouble is simply the right thing to do.” Ainz smiled magnanimously as he looked at the group of remaining androids in hiding, or rather, at their injured.

“Hmm, seems like we weren't quick enough.”

Lily blinked as she turned to look at where he was gazing at, seeing her injured fellows tended to by the two medics.

“It's not much of an issue, we can patch them up as soon as we head back to the camp. Would've preferred the supplies to be used for future emergencies, but it's fine either way.”

Ainz however was quick to wave her decision away. “There's no need for that. Shizu? If you could.”

The maid bowed to her master before moving towards the injured. Most gave her a wide berth hole still clutching their weapons, the two red-haired androids eyeing her every move with both suspicion and curiosity.

The maid raised her hand as she aimed her palm at the injured androids, white magic circles in the form of a multitude of gears began rotating as Shizu began to work her magic, literally.

As the cold light enveloped the injured, their wounds, no matter how mild or severe, began to regenerate; scratches began to disappear, artificial blood stopped flowing as wounds began to close, as circuits were repaired.

In a few moments, all the injured were in perfect condition. Their bodies allowing them to fully wake up hale and healthy the next second, with nothing to prove they were ever injured aside from their torn clothes and the first-aid done on them, which the resistance androids began to slowly remove them in wonder.

The rest of the company were looking at the scene with wonder and awe, whistling in amazement at Shizu's great capabilities, something that the resistance leader Lily shared in common with.

“Your friend here might be competent, I must say. What would've taken a few days worth of repairs and recuperation was done in a few seconds.”

Ainz chuckled as nodded in agreement. “That is quite true, Shizu is quite great at what she does. Though…” The man looked at her seriously. “I must ask, what happened for such a large swarm of machines to go to such great lengths to attack you all?”

Lily was silent for a moment, a bitter expression on her face as Ainz's question ran through her mind. “I don't know, to be quite honest. We haven't seen any machine in a while since the beginning of this expedition, though if I were to guess as to why, that was probably the reason. They caught us off guard as soon as we thought everything was going fine.”

She clicked her tongue as a sardonic smile settled on her face. “Give us a bit of hope before taking it all away. Seems like our dear mindless enemies are getting more sadistic by the day.”

Ainz was silent for a while as he thought about her words, the information she gave, no matter how miniscule it might have been, was useful.

‘Mindless? I never expected for the machines to be described as such. Though then again, the only ones I've ever had amicable interactions with were those who cut themselves off from that machine network… Perhaps in exchange for having no individual autonomy or personality they are granted the powers that come with being part of that system of theirs? …Food for thought.’

The man blinked as a pair of familiar mech suits, one that he now knows belongs to the so-called YoRHa organization, entered his peripheral vision, the shadows growing bigger, evident of their descent to their location.

“Seems like we got company.”

Lily blinked as she looked upwards at where Ainz was gazing, and contrary to the man's expectations, considering the supposed affiliation between the androids due to their shared enmity of the machines, her gaze was filled with disbelief and shock.

“...Number 2?"