"You know what," Hiroshi said, 'this is absolutely delicious."
Hiroshi and Suzuki were in the conference room of the 41 Supreme Beings. The Guardians had not been allowed and there was no one save the two of them present, with the temporary exception of Solution.
The reason for that was because Hiroshi had mentioned he was feeling hungry, and the moment that Solution had heard this she had ran off to find the Homunculi maids and whipped something up for Hiroshi.
Unfortunately... some of the initial things she had brought around included such things as crushed cockroaches (a delicacy that Entoma swore was a real treat) which Hiroshi did not want to eat for obvious reasons, and it was after he had specified that he would like something like juice to drink, some fruits maybe, and a sandwich that they complied with that he actually started eating.
"This stuff is great," Hiroshi added. Fresh fruits and vegetables were things he had only rarely tasted in real life, and he didn't think that the ones outside could even compare to those within Nazarick. Same went for the juice. There had been no taste function in Yggdrasil, so this was all new to him. "Tell whoever made this that they did a wonderful job!"
"Thank you so much, Herohero-sama!" Solution ecstatically exclaimed. Her smile widened, and is it became wider, the one on Hiroshi's face started to disappear. That smile was way too large for a human to possibly make and it made her face look mutated and warped. "I do not deserve such words of encouragement, however!"
Hiroshi tried his best to put on his smile again regardless of this event.
By this point, Soultion Epsilon's face was so contorted she barely resembled a human. But then again, to her, this was probably how she should look like.
"No, no, you've done well. And as for the Homunculi who made this meal, please convey my thanks to them too."
"Of course! They shall be rolling on the floors in delight to know that their food was enjoyed by one such as you, their creator!" Solution exclaimed. "Do you need anything else, Herohero-sama, or you, Momonga-sama?"
Hiroshi looked at the amount of food on the conference table- it was enough to feed him for three days. "No, no, you've done enough."
"And I do not require food," Momonga added. "Thank you Solution, but there is a matter that the two of us must discuss in private."
"Understood, Momonga-sama," Solution said and bowed deeply and left.
Once she was gone and the doors were closed, Momonga sighed.
"Satoru-san, this food is amazing. Are you sure you don't want any?" Hiroshi asked.
"No, Hitora-san. I can't eat in this form," Momonga said.
"Oh right," Hiroshi said and then felt guilty for enjoying his breakfast in front of someone who couldn't eat.
"Well, this does give me a sense of deja vu," Momong said.
They were sitting at their usual seats, in other words, in the same way that had sat only a few hours ago in-game.
"Yeah," Hiroshi said. "But I didn't get cool powers like you did!"
Momonga would've raised an eyebrow if he had one. "Ah... to be fair I do not know whether this body is a blessing or a curse. I can't eat or drink at all."
"Oh," Hiroshi said and realized that if he had turned into his slime form, he too would've been considerably pissed despite the advantages it would've had.
Probably, no one in the guild would've liked to turn into their avatar forms- with the exception of perhaps Ulbert who would've been ecstatic at it. Or maybe not, even his Chuunibyou mind had some limitations.
"And to cap it all off," Momonga said. "I don't even have that anymore!"
Hiroshi winced as he knew what the 'that' was that Momonga wanted to say. A body of bones would be missing one such 'bone' so to say.
He was about to make a joke that Suzuki had probably not made much use of it anyway, but he reconsidered given that it would probably be a rather mean thing to say given this was not a video game and was affecting things in real life.
"So this happened right at midnight?" Hiroshi asked.
"Yes," Momonga replied. "The guild came to life, and suddenly I was here. And to top it all off- my actual human body is dead."
"That's rather creepy," Hiroshi remarked.
"It was," Momonga said though he strangely enough no longer felt bothered by it as much as he felt he should have.
"So what now?" Hiroshi asked as he reached for a strawberry.
"That's the thing," Momonga said. "I'm not sure what to do next. I don't even know where we are in the real world."
"Hmm..." Hiroshi muttered. Once he had finished his strawberry, he said, "I guess the next thing is to ask the game devs what happened?"
"How do we get to them though?" Momonga asked.
"You can't use the GM Call feature?" Hiroshi asked.
"No," Momonga said.
"So can you like see an interface in your head like in Yggdrasil?" Hiroshi wondered.
"No, I can't," Momonga said. "But I just somehow know how much mana I have and what spells I have and what they do."
"Oh," Hiroshi said. "So maybe we should just wait around here for now? Things should clear up by themselves eventually."
"Uh, we may have some problems on doing that," Momonga said. "Namely that everything we wrote about the NPCs apparently came true."
"Oh," Hiroshi said. He then remembered what he had written as Solution's description. He clutched his head. "Oh no!"
Why had their guild chosen to roleplay as villains? Oh right, it was because it had seemed fun at the time and they didn't know that this was going to happen. Otherwise they might've been more choosey with what they made.
For example, they might've went ahead and made every single NPC an adorable waifu- come to think of it that was what the Pleiades were but they kind of lacked the mindset that an ideal waifu would have.
As such, probably only Touch Me had the right idea with making an NPC, and maybe perhaps Warrior Takemikazuchi.
"And not just that," Momonga said. "Thing is everything Ulbert wrote also came true."
Hiroshi remembered only about half of what Ulbert had designed into the game and that was still more than enough to make him clutch his head in despair again.
Momonga also clutched his head.
"Oh no!" they both said in unison.
Most of the NPCs, if they were as strong as they were in Yggdrasil, were walking nuclear weapons who could indefinitely replenish their arsenals. If they turned against them, both of them were sure that even with humanity's advanced technology they would be wiped extinct rather quickly.
"So what do we do now?" Hiroshi asked.
"I was thinking of gathering everyone else together," Momonga said. "Maybe, together, we could get the NPCs to calm down."
"Aren't they completely loyal?" Hiroshi asked.
"I don't know," Momonga said. "They should be- but they're walking around like real people. It's possible they could turn on us... and if they found out we were all really human...'
Hiroshi gulped. "But they seemed rather nice to me."
"At least Solution was," Momonga said. "Aura tried to whip you."
"Oh yeah," Hiroshi said. "I wonder what they must all be doing and thinking right now..."
Meanwhile, the Guardians were also having an (unofficial) meeting amongst themselves.
"So. The. Supreme. Ones. May. Be. Returning. This. Is. Wonderful. News." Coccytus said.
"Indeed," Demiurge said. "If all of the Supreme Beings were to come together, no one would be happier than I!" His face then darkened. "But we must be careful not to displease them."
"Indeed, we won't," Shalltear said. "And I can't wait to see Perroronccino-sama in the flesh!" She fidgeted and blushed, clutching her skirt. "I hope he'll hug me and call me 'Daddy's little girl!' And maybe, if I've displeased him in some way, he'll give me a spanking!"
Albedo normally would've made fun of the fact that Shalltear seemed to have a massive Electra complex but she was too worried at this point to do so. "But why is Herohero-sama a human?"
"I thought it might be a trick," Aura mused. She looked quite depressed for some reason. "But if Momonga-sama says its true, it means that it is true!"
"Hmm..." Demiurge said. "Perhaps it is the result of an enemy spell? Herohero-sama also looked sick."
Sebas's face darkened. "If that is true, we must make it our mission to slaughter whoever dared do something like that to a Supreme Being."
Albedo was kind of relieved that Herohero-sama was a weak human though- it meant that it would be unlikely that he could overpower Momonga-sama.
But that begged the question as to what the other human body Momonga-sama had talked about was for. Had Herohero-sama's plan been to turn into a human? Did all the Supreme Beings intend to turn into humans? Or were they turning into humans for some purpose, such as a grand ritual?
"Oi, Shorty, what's wrong?" Shalltear asked.
Aura clutched her head. "While I was guarding Momonga-sama, I turned my whip against Herohero-sama because I thought he was just a human! I didn't know who it was, but I still attacked a Supreme Being!"
"Aura!" Demiurge screeched harshly before he calmed down. "Well, it can't be helped. You'll just have to beg them for forgiveness."
All of the other Guardians also looked at Aura with reproachful eyes, but thankfully even Shalltear had enough tact not to say anything. Aura was already close to tears and Mare was trying to cheer her up, but he wasn't very good at it and he just sort of awkwardly patted her on the head.
"Yeah, I'll wait outside of the meeting room for them!" Aura said.
Albedo wondered what they were talking about right now. Momonga-sama had forbidden any of them from listening in by any means, but she had a raging desire to try and do so despite her orders. However, no matter how uncomfortable it made her, she decided to avoid doing something like that for now.
"That brings me to my next point," Demiurge said. "Given that Herohero-sama is a human, we can only assume that the dead human body we saw earlier was also that of a Supreme Being given how Momonga-sama kept it with such reverence."
There were sounds of shock and disbelief, but as the others thought about it they couldn't deny that there was sense to Demiurge's words.
Albedo chose not to mention the fact that Pandora's Actor had thought that the body belonged to Momonga-sama, since that very well made no sense given that Momonga-sama was in his magnificent skeletal form currently. As it was, Pandora's Actor was currently still in the treasury.
"S-so why are the Supreme Beings humans then?" Mare asked Demiurge.
He probably hoped that as the smartest of all the NPCs within Nazarick could come with an answer that the rest of them couldn't.
"It is shameful to say, but for now my information is not sufficient for me to come to a conclusion," Demiurge said. "But, given the available facts, one can only conclude that some of the Supreme Beings have transformed into lesser life forms, most likely by an outside force!"
"An. Outside. Force?" Coccytus asked.
"Indeed," Demiurge said. "They would not choose human forms willingly, so that is the only other conclusion we can logically reach. Given these circumstances, it is important that we declare a moratorium on hunting and harming humans."
"Huh? No more hunting humans?" Shalltear asked, as if this was an unbelievable restriction.
"We might end up harming more Supreme Beings like that, as Aura did," Albedo said. "We must not repeat her mistake."
"Uh... right," Aura said with her head hanging low.
"I don't get one thing though, Shorty," Shalltear said and clapped Aura on the shoulder. "How come you couldn't tell Herohero-sama was a Supreme Being?"
Oh right, Albedo realized. Shalltear hadn't been in the throne room when Herohero-sama had come back.
"He didn't have the aura of a Supreme Being like Momonga-sama did," Aura muttered.
The Floor Guardians, and any NPC of Nazarick for that matter could instantly recognize the Supreme Beings regardless of the form they chose. As such, someone like Pandora's Actor could never pretend to be Momonga-sama or any other Supreme Being. However, Herohero-sama in his human form seemed to lack this.
"Umu, are we even sure that he is a Supreme Being then?" Shalltear asked.
"If Momonga-sama and Solution both confirmed his identity, well, there can be no doubt then," Demiurge said. He frowned. "I do believe that that's how our conversation started out."
Sebas had a feeling Demiurge was quickly going to attack Shalltear on her lack of intellect, so he interjected, "Rather than thinking of theories here, would it not be better to simply approach Momonga-sama and request an explanation?"
There were some murmurs of approval.
However, Demiurge couldn't agree with Sebas's idea.
He turned towards Sebas. There was something about the butler's eyes that instantly irritated Demiurge for some reason. "I am afraid that such a suggestion is rather foolish."
There was a chorus of 'Ehs?' from the others.
"Is this simply a matter of your pride, Demiurge?" Sebas asked. "It certainly is no problem to admit that you cannot solve a problem and ask for help."
"That is not it," Demiurge growled. "I know that no matter how much I think, I can never even begin to equal the intellect of one such as Momonga-sama. The problem is that it is unacceptable that we cannot even grasp a fundamental idea of what the Supreme Being's plan is!"
Demiurge and Sebas glared at each other, though Sebas had far less intensity and emotion.
The butler was honestly surprised by how Demiurge was reacting. The other faces around them seemed to mirror Sebas's confusion.
Demiurge backed up a pace. It was unsightly for one to reveal their true emotions.
The meat of the matter was the fact that Demiurge had never been happier than when the guild had been at its peak and the Supreme Beings ruled over them.
When they had begun to peter out and their numbers dwindled, although Demiurge had never been able to protest at the time, it had broken him deeply.
He was certain that the reason that they had all left was because they found his performance- and that of the other NPCs to be inadequate.
As such, to go ahead and such blatantly profess that they had no idea what the Supreme Beings wanted or had in mind would be admitting how incompetent they all were.
What if the Supreme Beings were angered by a display such as that? What if they abandoned the NPCs because of something stupid the others said? Momonga-sama had been kind enough to remain behind even years after the others had left, but if they messed up, even he might abandon the tomb.
I will not let you down this time, Ulbert-sama. If you are out there in this world somewhere, I will make you proud of me, your creation.
Meanwhile, in a parallel world, Platinum Dragon Lord had been sleeping calmly when he noticed a sudden change in the environment.
Is that a... sea breeze?
There was something definitely wrong here. For one, he was supposed to be in a flying city overlooking a desert, and two, the sea breeze that reached him smelled extremely tainted. Almost as if it was poisoned.
On the lookout for assassins; he raised his head and looked around.
His scales itched as they had not in a thousand years.
There was something very wrong- he could feel it in his heart.
With great reluctance, he left his seat upon the unbelievably massive horde of gold and treasure which he had gathered, and for the first time in a long while, thought about wandering outside. But, his natural reluctance to be parted with treasure coupled with the realization that this could be a trap stopped him.
Instead, he activated the armor by his side and used it to venture out.
Could those who had been summoned by the Dragon Emperor, his father, those from Yggdrasil who polluted this world came to attack him? If so, he would most likely have no recourse but to flee if they were great in numbers.
The suit of armor flew out and once it reached outside, Platinum Dragon Lord saw that the ocean of sand beneath him had been replaced by an ocean of water. The great city that had once lay beneath him was gone, and the sky itself was covered by a thick layer of smoke that obscured the stars and even the light of the moon.
There were no signs of any attackers, but even from here, he could tell that the air and water was very filthy. There also seemed to be a strange sort of poison permeating the world itself.
Platinum Dragon Lord had been to many locations over his long lifespan but none of them even remotely resembled the scenery before him. His first guess was that this was some sort of weather or terrain altering magic, but even as he looked far into the distance he saw that the environment was unchanged. This was no magic that he knew of- if it was magic it might be of the kind that only those creatures from Yggdrasil could use.
Either that, or he had been teleported somewhere very far from his home.
Thousands of miles away from his residence, a group of people had also found themselves on a dark road. The road had been well maintained at one point, but after World War 3 the land had been abandoned and the road had fallen into disrepair. However, the group of people still wouldn't have recognized what the road was made of even when it had been intact.
One of them was a woman wearing a long white dress made to accentuate the wearer's curves. It was also quite revealing- in her home country of the Slane Theocracy any woman who wore such an outfit would have been openly ridiculed as a harlot- though in this world a woman wearing such an outfit would not draw more than a single glance from passerby.
However, in her case, people may have looked far more than twice. The woman was clearly very old- perhaps pushing eighty- and a garment such as this one did not suit her in the slightest. Nonetheless she wore the national treasure- Downfall of Castle and Country without complaint. It was a great honor to do so.
"What just happened?" one of her comrades asked.
"We appear to have triggered some sort of teleportation trap," another one answered.
The Black Scripture had been on a field mission when a huge wall of light had suddenly washed over them.
"I count all of us here," their Captain muttered. He was an androgynous seeming man in his late teens, but the others would obey his authority without question. "I do not see any enemies around us however."
As the air moved into and out of his lungs he began coughing. It was filthy and some of his comrades began casting divine spells to ward off poison.
The sky itself was blighted in a thick layer of smoke, and there was no hope of relying on the constellations to lead them home as the stars were invisible. The moon as well could not be seen.
"I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore," the Captain remarked.
This was a well known phrase within the Slane Theocracy as the gods had left it as a line in one of their books, though nobody could tell what 'Kansas' was or why it was important- with some speculating it was the original home of the Six Gods.
"Be on your guards," the Captain said.
"I can see a shoreline," someone pointed out.
The Slane Theocracy was a completely landlocked country, so that would definitely mean they were quite a ways from home.
Even further away from them, a band of soldiers had appeared when the light enveloped the world.
Chief amongst them was one covered in red adamantite plate armor and holding a bright green sword in hand. The sword, Razor Edge, was one which had been forged with Wild Magic and was one of the great treasures of his country.
"What is this?" Gazef Stronoff wondered. He had been ordered to relinquish this set of national treasures, which he had to do only because of that snake Marquis Raevan, but why were they here right now?
Had they been teleported elsewhere? Was this a trap? His first concern was his panoply of equipment. He could not allow such powerful national treasures to fall into enemy hands.
Immediately though, he began coughing violently. Several of his Warrior Troop began coughing as well. The air stank, but Gazef could not find the source of anyone who had done such a thing.
Before they could react though, a strange looking creature began moving towards them. They all tensed up before a voice hit them.
"Identify yourselves!"
Trying to do his best not to inhale too much of the foul air, Gazef spoke up. "We are the Warrior Troop under the command of His Majesty of the Re-Estize Kingdom."
The strange creature suddenly opened up and out of the top came a humanoid figure. The 'creature' was clearly some form of carriage and Gazef could now see something resembling wheels at its base.
The creature was most probably a human though it was dressed in what appeared to be some strange looking armor.
"You all are currently trespassing on the lands belonging to the Beijing Prefecture of the People's Republic of China!" the strange human said. "What is your business here? Where are your papers?"
Gazef had not heard of such a country.
How far had they been transported, and what did these people want with him? Were they the ones who had transported him and his warrior band to this place? Or did they not know about it?
That said, this man had asked for papers, and Gazef took out the scroll from the Kingdom detailing his orders to return the four treasures of the Kingdom back for safekeeping given that the nobles had declared that he could no longer wield them.
He handed the scroll to the man who scanned through it.
"What the hell kind of language is this!?"
Moments before the wall of light had enveloped the Earth, a man who took the alias of Ulbert Alain Odle in Yggdrasil was arguing with another person.
The two of them could be said to be the two evils in this world.
Hachiman Hikigaya was his actual name.
The other person opposing him was not a Yggdrasil player, as such he was actually a reporter. Or a propagandist to put into more accurate terms.
As their argument reached its peak though, a wave of light washed over them.
It did nothing to them, and Hachiman blinked as he realized he was unharmed. The light had done nothing to him.
But he blinked again as he realized there was something on the floor in front of him.
He could not believe his eyes.
It was an item that he had long since sought after back in Yggdrasil- the world item which could summon numberless demons to the world!
Of course, he did know that this was real life.
So was this some sort of prop a cosplayer used? If so, it matched its description perfectly.
Ignoring the other man whom he was arguing with just a moment before, he picked up the item and immediately knew what it was called and what it did.
The item was called Emblem of the Baphomet Lord.
Hachiman laughed. This was it- it was truly a world item!
A person diametrically opposed to Ulbert Alain Odle in ideology within the guild would be Touch Me, whose name in real life was Hayato Hayama.
Currently though he was almost as pissed off as Hachiman had been earlier.
There were several reasons for such.
For one, it was five in the morning and yet every single officer all over Japan had been woken up to enforce the new curfew.
The police were not very used to working hard in the year 2138. Their positions were those of privilege, and no one really cared what happened to ninety percent of citizens anyway. Given that fact, having to get up at five in the morning to do actual work was exasperating to almost everyone.
On top of that was the nature of said work.
The entire city had been put under quarantine, and they were expected to enforce it. They had been forced to wear very awkward hazmat suits as they were told that the virus in question was very contagious and so they were wandering around in very uncomfortable gear.
There were various theories of course regarding what this virus was. Many people believed it to be a bioweapon by some neighboring country. Others believed that the virus itself was a lie and this was done just as a cover up. There was talk of a massive wall of light that had hit the world around midnight inexplicably and of strange creatures resembling UFOs flying around.
Of course, Hayato thought the former explanation was far more likely.
There were talks that this might even lead to World War 4 happening. Some of the officers had remarked that if World War 4 started, it should be called '2 World 2 War' for some reason.
Hayato thought there was some sort of reference there which he was missing out on. In completely unrelated news, The Fast & The Furious: 69 was going to be released in American theaters, though Hayato really did not care for American cinema.
It was probably a good thing that Internet access had been revoked- and not just because it would have no doubt been flooded with World War 4 memes. The forums would have been buzzing about the curfew, but it surprised Hayato that even officers such as himself could not access the web.
It was also very good that news on what they were doing was not spreading anywhere.
Already, they had been ordered to shoot civilians. A good number of them had simply been outside at the wrong time and were now stuck in awkward places such as subway stations and the like where there was no food and so they had tried to leave to try and at least be stuck somewhere else, but neither were they given any supplies nor any mercy and those who left had been gunned down mercilessly.
The utter horror of what they were doing numbed Hayato's heart. He had long come to the realization that the world of justice he wanted to serve was one that could only exist in fantasy and had no place in the real world, but this was outright murder. Ignoring those in trouble was one thing, but actively killing your own citizens was another. This was something that had never happened before.
He heard gunfire yet again off in the distance during his patrol.
A number of people had also been arrested- and he assumed they had been taken in for allegedly being bioterrorists, if this really was a biological weapon.
But therein lay another problem. They had been carried away in heavily armored trucks normally only used for transporting explosives. Many of the people being arrested seemed like normal civilians. Why were they warranting such strong security?
He was lost in his thoughts and wasn't paying much attention as to where he was going.
He rounded a corner and turned into an alleyway and did a double-take.
There was a girl right there. She couldn't have been more than seven, and was dressed in strange clothing. It was very fancy, but it looked very out of place. She didn't even have a mask on or anything that would protect her from the ever-present smog.
The girl whimpered.
Hayato raised his gun. Technically he was supposed to shoot all loiterers who did not have valid permits to go outside now, regardless of circumstance. An hour had passed since curfew had been declared, and those were the rules.
But this was still a girl. Almost the same age as his daughter.
A daughter that he was supposed to have seen today after quite a long time- if not for the fact that there was this stupid quarantine!
And that was the last and most important reason that he was so pissed off today. His wife had suspected him of having an affair, and well, she had been slightly correct. Hayato had been seeing another woman, but it had simply been a couple of private meetings. He had no idea how word on that had leaked out, but after that, his wife had taken their daughter away and filed for divorce.
The past few years had been agonizing over court dates and lawyer fees as he tried to settle the matter. Eventually, the courts had ruled that Hayato could see his daughter again- and yet on this day this bloody quarantine had started!
"Why are you here? Where are your parents?" he asked.
"I-I don't know!" she said. She appeared to be on the verge of tears. "I was outside, and I got separated from my guards..."
Guards? Was she the daughter of a VIP? If so, why wasn't she wearing anything to protect her from the atmosphere? Her lungs would fail within two months if she wandered outside like this, and it would be far worse for her because finding a pediatric lung transplant would be much more difficult than finding one for an adult.
Hayato shuddered- there were lots of horror stories regarding trafficking of human organs, but he had not been assigned a unit which looked into that thankfully.
Hayato certainly wasn't going to shoot her- the only alternative was to arrest her, but he had a feeling that that might not fly with the others. He grit his teeth and looked around- there was no one else around.
"Alright then, everything's going to be alright," Hayato said and turned to call in for a car.
Once Hayato was out of earshot, the little girl frowned and began cursing like a sailor under her breath. How had she gotten into this situation?