Nazarick In The Real World
Prologue
Place: The Real World, Year 2138
Time: Minutes Before Momonga Gets Isekai'd
Momonga had been sad when he thought about how Yggdrasil was ending, but truth be told, there were many people far sadder than he was.
Once such person was a man who was staying by his father's bedside. His father had been injured in a work related accident, though the company had refused to pay the appropriate compensation for this. As such, with the insurance company backing out too, the man could do nothing but watch his old man as he suffered greatly. Even if his father lived, he would be disabled for the rest of his life.
The man's father gave the man a weak smile, and as always, told him to place his faith in the Almighty.
The man sighed as he glanced at the cross held in his hand. In the year 2138 most organized forms of religion had long since died out, but there were still millions who clung to their old faith. His family had been part of such a group, but as the man considered his life up till now he couldn't help but doubt the existence of such a being.
And then the clock struck midnight
When it did that, a huge wall of white enveloped the world. The wall of white seemed to have no physical form, and it travelled through buildings, through caves, through the ocean, through any structure at all effortless. It covered the entire world within the matter of a few minutes.
The man, naturally, was dazed at such an occurrence, and examined himself.
It didn't seem as if anything had happened to his body, thankfully.
While his body was intact though, he had a new sensation in his mind. It was as if he had downloaded a library of novels directly into his brain- something he had considered himself to be too poor to ever be able to accomplish.
But this new information was not information on science or technology, but of a new way of understanding the world
Yes, somehow, magic was real. And he could use it. He even knew what spells he could use- thirty in total. And there were also 'tiers' of magic- he understood this immediately. He could use magic up to the third tier.
Furthermore, instinctively, he knew what each of them could do.
The man glanced at the cross in his hand and felt his faith stir up yet again as he turned his gaze to his father.
"Heavy Recover," the man said.
Miles away, an man taking a long walk home up a mountainside was shocked when he saw the endless wall of light crash into him, but it had done him no harm.
He glanced upwards and saw that he was still at least an hour away from his destination. He grasped his knees- he should not have had osteoarthritis at this age, but work had taken its tool on his body. He had been forced to live here, on the fringes of society due to lack of money. His house was located on a very high hill, and there was no easy road to go up there. Normally he would have to walk all the way up there.
But, as he racked his brains, he found a very easy solution to this problem.
"Fly," the man said, not fully comprehending what was happening as his body took to the air.
Several hundred miles away, in an apartment building, a single mother was busy doing the dishes. She was so engrossed in her work that she hadn't even noticed the wall of light when midnight struck.
She was interrupted from her task only when she heard her daughter's voice. "Mommy! Mommy! Look at my new fwiend!"
"Oh honey, you should be asleep right now. You have school tomorrow," she answered back without even looking up. She had no time to hear about whatever imaginary friend her daughter had made this time around- especially given how much work there was to be done.
But then, she noticed a distinctive growl.
She turned around and then immediately doubled-back as she saw her daughter holding hands with what looked like a demon.
The creature smiled at her. It was an ugly, deformed, red lump of meat with glittering yellow eyes.
"I'm going to call him Mister Numnums and we're going to be bestest fwiends in the whole wide world," her daughter said. "Isn't that wight Mister Numnums?"
Her mother had no idea what to say. She couldn't even find the strength to scream.
"Your wish is my command, O Summoner," the creature answered her daughter with a fiendish smile.
Chapter 1: The Guildmaster Part One
Place: Outside The Great Tomb Of Nazarick
Time: The Present
"Hmm," Demiurge gruntled in disgust.
Momonga felt the same way. His skeletal body was not affected by the air, most likely because Undead were immune to poisoning.
But, while not affected by it, he did know immediately that it was heavily polluted. His lungs would start burning if he still had them.
'Radiation is just spicy air.' He did not remember which one of his guild members had said that, but it had come to his mind unbidden. He was sure whoever had said it had been joking, but strangely enough it described how Momonga felt in his new body about the radiation and pollution around him.
The two of them couldn't even see the stars above them- so thick was the smog covering the atmosphere that even after several minutes of flying upwards they still had not managed to clear it and gaze at the stars above.
Momonga could barely see Demiurge for that matter even though the latter was only a few meters away. His Undead vision let him see through darkness, but not through smoke unfortunately.
"Shall we leave, Momonga-sama?" Demiurge asked. "There does not appear to be anything of value in this strange land. It is corrupted beyond salvation and I see nothing of value here."
The place where Nazarick had appeared was a barren wasteland. There was a lake nearby but the water was so filthy it looked like motor oil. There were no other settlements nearby, nor any greenery.
It's just like the real world, Momonga thought as the possibility came to him that he might have been transported to the real world. If so...
Momonga removed his black armor. He couldn't cast spells while wearing the thing.
If this was the real world, it would be easy enough to check that fact out. Greater Teleportation normally had a list of locations one had to register, but it worked differently now and would let him teleport anywhere he had been before.
In that case, can I go back to my room?
Momonga's skeletal body had never been there, but he, as a human, had been. It was worth trying.
Without consulting Demiurge, Momonga cast the spell.
"Greater Teleportation!"
Instantly, he found himself back in a familiar place.
His non-existent heart skipped a beat. This was his apartment- it was exactly the way he had left it.
Granted, it was far too small for him given how larger his Overlord body was compared to the body of a human- he had to hunch up and even then his head scraped the roof above him.
And then he saw it.
He saw himself. He saw Suzuki Satoru, still plugged into his Dive gear.
It made no sense. If he was here, how was he also over there?
Momonga realized that something was very off as he saw that the Dive equipment had been turned off. As he approached his own body a sinking feeling engulfed him.
It was so strange to see one's own body laid out before oneself, and to peer at it through eyes that were not one's own.
Momonga touched his human body with a skeletal finger and was shocked to find that his body- his human body, did not respond to that touch.
He had not registered it till now, but he realized had not heard a heartbeat even with his enhanced hearing or seen Suzuki's chest rise even with his enhanced vision. The room was dark, but that meant nothing to Momonga.
Momonga gripped Suzuki's wrist. Unlike as he had with Albedo before in the Great Tomb of Nazarick, he felt no pulse.
A wave of anguish and confusion drenched him. What was this? He was dead!? Well, technically in this body he was dead of course... but why was his own corpse right there before him!?
Momonga felt his feelings immediately suppressed. With his panic settled down a little bit, he turned to the computer on his desk. He could not use the Dive gear given it was far too small for him, and for that matter this computer's keyboard was far too small for his giant hands. However, he still could at the very least find a way to use it.
He booted it up and entered his password. Indeed, it was his usual password- so this was not some form of elaborate illusion or trickery.
He checked the date- it was the day after Yggdrasil was being shut down, and the time was just a few hours after midnight.
Have I really been transported back home?
He turned around to glance at the corpse-
No! What am I thinking! That's not just some corpse- that's MY human body!
He thought about this and planned his next move.
He could not go out into a human city looking like this- and he was very glad that the Great Tomb of Nazarick had not been found by other humans. Granted, that was probably because they were in a wasteland somewhere.
His next move should be to try and hide them from human eyes as long as he possibly could.
He then remembered- Demiurge! He had given Demiurge no explanation as to where he was going and why.
Chastising himself, he grabbed Suzuki Satoru's body and cast Greater Teleportation again.
He found himself back in the sky and cast the Fly spell in order to remain afloat.
"Demiurge?" he called into the smog but got no response.
He descended towards the ground, figuring that no matter what happened, Demiurge would end up coming back to Nazarick.
He had barely cleared the smog when a voice screamed at him. "MY LIEGE! MOMONGA-SAMA, WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE DID YOU GO? WHY DID YOU ABANDON-"
Demiurge took a few seconds to take the situation into consideration as he descended. He looked very misshapen and worried, a stark contrast from his usual self.
"Relax, Demiurge," Momonga said soothingly. "I remembered something important I had to do, so I had to go elsewhere."
Demiurge calmed down quite a few notches before noticing the corpse in Momonga's hands. "Ah, did that insect do something to displease you?"
Momonga squirmed. That was his own body they were talking about! Still though, he couldn't fault Demiurge as Demiurge did not know.
Oh no! He suddenly realized. What was he going to tell the floor guardians about what had happened to them? Would they accept an explanation such as 'This is my original human form?'
"We have work to do, more on this later," Momonga said as he descended and saw the Mare was busy at work creating hills.
Now that he thought about it, this was a bad idea. This sort of activity might alert them to any humans in the surrounding area. But, he couldn't exactly cancel an order like that.
Urgh, what should he do next?
He descended and Mare spotted him. Momonga saw Albedo approach from nearby.
Both of them bowed their heads deeply and then looked at what Momonga was holding.
"Eh? M-Momonga-sama, why are you holding that human like that?" Mare asked.
"Indeed," Albedo said. "The hands of a Supreme One such as yourself should not be sullied with carrying a maggot like this."
Please stop talking about me like that!
But instead of saying that, Momonga instead turned to Demiurge. "Ah, Demiurge- I have a question. I am not very familiar with human anatomy, but I believe that this, ah, human has been dead for at most a few hours?"
Demiurge looked quizzically at Momonga before inspecting the corpse. "Indeed, Momonga-sama, I believe four to five hours is at maximum the timespan during which his life was taken."
"Can you ascertain the cause of death?" Ainz asked. "I need to know it for- experimental purposes."
Demiurge grinned broadly. "Ah, yes, experimental purposes. As expected of one such as yourself, Momonga-sama. If you will hand over the corpse to me, I will try to inspect what might have caused its death."
Something about the way that Demiruge smiled rubbed Momonga the wrong way and he swore to not let his own dead body out of his sight. "Ah, I see no need for that right now."
"I will be retiring to my room for a while," Momonga then added. He turned towards Mare. "Mare, please cease with building these hills."
"H-have I upset you in some way, Momonga-sama? Did I n-not do it properly?" Mare said with widened eyes. He was already bowing apologetically.
"No, nothing like that," Momonga said. "It's just that I have reconsidered the plan."
Momonga wanted to scream in frustration. He just wanted to be left alone for a while- why was that so difficult?
"I will be spending some time in my own room," Momonga barked as Albedo opened her mouth. "I do not wish to be disturbed. Keep all of Nazarick's activities to a minimum, and try not to attract any unwanted attention. Send no one outside- but alert me if we are noticed by outside forces or if it appears an army is gathering towards our location."
"Yes, Momonga-sama!" came the replies from three different mouths.
Momonga returned to his chambers- his chambers within the Great Tomb, that is, and laid down Suzuki Satoru's human body gently onto the bed.
Now with some peace and quiet, he thought about how to proceed.
As he racked his brains, he remembered something. The others! The other guild members- it was possible that they had been transformed just like he had been. For all he knew, all of humanity might have been transformed.
Given that information, what should he try to do? It would make sense to visit them. He could probably start with Herohero, whom he had met just minutes before the game had shut down.
Momonga teleproted to and from his old apartment and brought back everything that was not nailed down.
Granted, his Dive gear would not work without a power outlet, but his computer could last a few hours without one with its internal battery. However, this also meant that he would not have Internet access in the Great Tomb, so Momonga was forced to go back to his old apartment to check up stuff online anyway.
But first, he inspected his own human body first. He felt a little embarassed at having to strip himself down- granted, it was his own body, but it still felt weird and... not right somehow.
He saw no signs of injury upon himself, and as he looked at his own head, he saw no burn marks. His human body seemed perfectly unharmed, aside from the fact that he was dead.
He thought about using resurrection magic and what might happen with it if he tried- but he decided that experimenting on himself was far too risky an undertaking to take a chance with.
Momonga then went back to his apartment and started looking up Herohero's address. Once he found it, he entered the coordinates into Google Maps, and saw where Herohero's apartment was. Once he had a good image of the place, he knew he could teleport there with ease.
Momonga realized he had to do two things.
First, he needed to gather his old guild mates.
Second, he needed to keep the NPCs from doing something that would cause them to be detected. He shuddered as he considered the fact that a satellite could be hovering over their location at the moment.
As such, he used Message to tell Albedo to gather the important floor guardians in the throne room.
He wouldn't give them the whole story, just as much as they needed to know for now.
Then he would head outside. Preferably alone...