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Delightfully Divine (Overlord CYOA) Chapter 2
🕑 Added 2023-05-13 09:53:43 +0000 UTC-x-
CHAPTER 2
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Holy City of Camelot, Kaze Plains, The New World, Overlord
-Gazef Stronoff-
Gazef Stronoff rode like towards the Kaze Plains with a thoughtful expression on his face. He and his troops had been hunting down the Imperial Knights that were slaughtering the villages lining the border. His hands tightened on the reigns at the reminder of cruel truth that he was unable to even find the threat that had destroyed so many families. But then again, all wasn't lost.
Thankfully, he had arrived at Carne village in time, or rather, the enemy was simply too distracted by the apocalyptic explosion at their backs to continue whatever vile task they had set for themselves. Admittedly, his own company were late themselves, only having arrived at the village by nightfall. But then again, the lightshow from yesterday had left everyone dazed and terrified.
They had all seen the spiralling lance of light descending in the distance, along with the second sun that lit up the world and shook the earth shortly after. Even so far away from the impact site, the destruction left in its wake continued to rock the countryside. A majority of their horses got spooked and ran away in a stampede. Thankfully, no-one was killed, even if a few of his men got injured from the rush. The worst of it was a broken arm, but they managed to address it quickly enough that the arm might be saved. If everything went well, Gazef could take his men to a healer as soon as the entire ordeal was over and done with. In the end, they could only recover around half of the horses, forcing his company to cross the rest of the distance on foot.
Thankfully, the village was intact... in a manner of speaking. The earthquake had hit the small village quite hard, collapsing a lot of the houses and injuring a lot of the residents. As such, Gazef had left half his men to guard the village and assist them in their efforts to rebuild while he took the rest out to patrol the nearby area.
He really wanted to investigate whatever that lance actually was, but the fact was that he simply lacked the manpower to do so. He couldn't risk splitting up his company lest they be caught off guard by the Imperial Knights in an ambush. Thankfully, he had another option available to him thanks to a rather... unique opportunity.
He stared at the mysterious magic caster and his female bodyguard that had arrived at the village earlier today in search of clues about the lance, and more oddly, about where they actually were. Apparently, he was a powerful magic caster from a faraway land that had gotten lost when they were surprised by the explosion. The fact that the two had arrived at the village via a flight spell, something that was only possible for skilled casters of the third tier and above, gave credence to that claim. Especially since he had never heard of such a powerful pair before, when such people would be worth a platinum rank adventurer at the very least - he should have at least heard rumours about such a pair wandering around if they were from the Kingdom itself, or even the neighbouring territories. The caster, Ainz Ooal Gown, was clad in an impressive robe of astonishing quality - to a point where he couldn't even tell what the material was made of. The bodyguard was in black full plate armor of similar quality with an unique helmet and carried a battle-axe.
They were currently offering healing services in exchange for information, something Gazef was immensely thankful for.
"Gazef-dono" Gazef's eyes snapped up at the mention of his name and with a jolt, noticed that lord Gown was standing right in front of him. "I'm done here. I will be moving on now." he said.
Gazef bowed deeply at the man, why seemed taken aback at the abrupt gesture."I couldn't thank you enough for your assistance, Lord Gown. Both for your healing as well as for listening to my request. I am deeply ashamed for asking you to perform a task that I was meant to oversee personally."
Ainz Ooal Gown quickly shook his hand in denial. "Raise your head, Gazef-dono, its only natural to stay informed of things that may threaten your country. I don't mind telling you if I find anything suspicious." Gazef did notice that he didn't promise anything, which was understandable really, but the Gazef had the impression that the man had an idea of what to expect.
"That's all I can ask." He nodded.
"Very well then. Let's go, Albedo." And with that, the man twisted around in a smooth, elegant motion of flowing robes, and took to the sky, his companion following him shortly after.
"Vice captain." He called.
"Yes, sir?"
"Send a letter to the capital telling them about the situation, and request some more reinforcements and aid for the villages. Hopefully they will be more amicable to the idea after yesterday's spectacle."
"And what about the Holy Judgement, sir?"
"Is that what the villagers are calling it?"
"Some of our men too. I admit, the name feels oddly fitting, in a way."
"Well, we'll find out if its holy or not soon enough, eh?"
"You trust him, Captain?"
"Oddly enough, I like the man. We'll wait for news from Lord Gown, but we'll arrange for someone to scout the area and verify things anyways."
"I see. are you going on a patrol then?"
"Why yes, yes I am. I trust you to secure the village while I'm away."
"Of course, sir!" And with that, Gazeff climbed onto his mount spurred his horse forward, a small smile on his face.
-Cassandra-
Artoria woke up to a splitting headache. She clutched her head. "No - I'm Cassandra." she reminded herself.
The confused woman blinked away the sleep in her eyes and the memories of yesterday's events came rushing back into her head. "I must have fallen asleep while I was testing things out." She sighed. "And its good to know that Artoria's memories still ARE there, even if its buried pretty deep." It was to be expected, since she had technically started off as a Servant - wait, did that make her a pseudo-servant? Well, it would explain how she could fight so effectively with Artoria's skill-set, even if she couldn't sense the mind of the actual heroic spirit within her.
She had been working on a project, trying and failing to see if she could replicate modern appliances with the Lance's outer shell. “I Didn’t even realise I fell asleep.” she mumbled again, yawning. The results weren't promising, to be honest, and it was monotonous as all hell. The only reason she could recreate the castle so accurately, was because it's blueprint was engraved into her mind and into the Spear with perfect clarity. Technically, she could make something, but the amount of effort required to scrounge up the inner workings of something as simple as an electronic fridge from memory alone, and then calibrating the echo of a Divine Pillair of Light into taking its form was simply not worth it.
"Oh well, that's a bust."
A pair of golden eyes gazed out the window and scanned the soft curves and rises of the skyline. But then her eyes focused on the land itself, and they widened in surprise. There were flowers everywhere, as far and wide as the eye can see. And she could see quite the distance, so it was really saying something. Both within the castle grounds, and in the flatland outside, pink flowers bloomed on every scrap of soil she could find. Large apple trees and a variety of other fruiting trees dotted the landscape. The entire land had changed overnight.
What...what happened here? the scene reminded her of ...Avalon.
Comprehension finally dawned on her as she realised what happened. She was testing her newfound ability to control nature... The Everdistant Utopia, which from its description sounded like some sort of derivative ability of the Fae. She had suspected that it was what gave her elf-ears, but she wasn't sure. Whatever the case, it had apparently run amok when she had fallen asleep while it was still activated.
Cassandra sighed.
Though, she could appreciate the view so she wasn't complaining. And it was functional too! It was easier for her to sense and take control of the nature chakra within its range because of a result of her control over nat-
"Oh? What's this? Visitors?"
She could sense two people slowly walking through the winding pathway that led to her castle. One seemed to fit the dark mage archetype, with a dark, ornate robe with massive skeletal pauldrons decorated with glowing red orbs, while the woman fit the 'dark knight' stereotype to a T. But despite their intimidating appearance, the absurd amount of cautiousness they showed towards every raised rock and stream - to the point of skittishness - was downright hilarious. But despite everything, there was something... off about them. Something about their appearance set off the alarm bells in her head, and told her to be cautious of the. Especially the mage. But for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why.
"Ugh they're important aren't they - You see, past me? This is why you don't get rid of meta-knowledge, because it'll find a way to come back and bite you in the arse eventually." She sighed. "And its not just that. he somehow feels... off to my senses. It's as if I can't register him in my mind as a living... being." She closed her eyes and gripped her head. "He's undead, isn't he? And wasn't the anime called overlord? I remember a skeleton on the cover, but that's about it. So is he the protagonist? The final boss? This is all so confusing." She groaned. "And I'm not sure if this is a game of thrones situation either, where the story is about bunch of factions going to town with each other rather than a centralised main character. it's better to just treat him as a normal visitor then? Yes, that's the best way to go about things. Its not as if I know enough about him to do otherwise, so fretting about things I can't control is useless. Ah, and he must be wary because of the all the divinity around. He's an undead, so its understandable. I should address that then." She decided.
-Ainz Ooal Gown-
Ainz walked through the flower fields, and despite every reason he had to be cautious, he couldn't help but be enthralled by the sight. Back on Earth, seeing a single, authentic flower in the wild was a miracle in of itself, and while YGGDRASIL had its own fair share of breath-taking scenery, seeing, feeling, smelling and generally just immersing himself into the beauty of nature had a special place in his heart that nothing else could compare. It just reminded him of how much their world had lost to pollution and industrialisation. Seeing this only hardened his resolve to not let things devolve to the point they did on Earth. By 2138, the Earth might as well have been dead.
"Blue Planet would have loved to see all this." He said longingly, before sighing. Albedo stared at him surprise, before seemingly thinking on it and coming to a descision on her own. Ainz groaned internally. 'Great, what possible conclusion did she come to now? I hope she doesn't start anything. What am I thinking, OF COURSE she is going to start something' But even as he finished his internal rant, his voice remained silent.
Eventually, Ainz noticed that he had finally arrived at the gates of the castle.
It was a grand thing, really, a breath-taking visage of white walls and blue decorations. It was large, even compared to some of the larger castles and guild bases he had seen back in YGGDRASIL. In fact, it reminded him of some of the cities he had seen in Alfheim, despite the aesthetic choices he could see present here.
A voice suddenly resounded all around them, and they instantly raised their guards. Ainz forced himself to remain still, even as he discreetly buffed himself. "Greetings, Visitors, to the holy city of Camelot. So long as you hold no ill will towards me, you shall pass and leave unharmed." it said.
And with those words, Ainz instantly knew that there was something odd about the castle. He had talked with the Village chief and Gazef extensively about geography and the neighbouring countries, and such a blatant reference to a legend from Earth had never come up before. Which meant that there was something distinctly odd about this city, which should have been obvious considering that it appeared out of thin air overnight, much like his own Guid base had. Was this another Guild's base? Perhaps. But such a massive, elaborate player built structure should have had at least some degree of fame or notoriety if that was the case.
Whatever the case, this person had a confirmed connection to Earth, and by extension, YGGDRASIL, so he would proceed carefully.
"Pay attention to the battlements and check for any traps. Be careful, Albedo." He warned before slowly moving forwards. Thankfully, his worst fears were unfounded as he passed through the massive gates unharmed and he slowly relaxed his grip on the Guild ring on his finger, but not completely.
It was a bit eerie, walking through the beautiful, but empty streets of such a massive place. It was odd, not having seen a single guard or even a servant. The only source of activity at all, were their own movements and the sounds of their footfalls as they made a beeline towards the massive Tower at the centre.
On entering the hall, Ainz eyed the room critically. He couldn't help but form parallels with the hall and the tenth floor in his own guild base. But then again, there were only so many logical ways you could arrange a throne room. And then his eyes moved towards the figure on the throne itself.
If he hadn't already been desensitized by Albedo and all the other beautiful NPCs is Nazerick, he might have been stunned by her beauty. But as it was, he could focus and pick apart her more interesting features rather quickly. He stared at her horns, her eyes, and her pointed ears and quickly came to the conclusion that she wasn't of a humanoid race. Was she a demi-human then, or a heteromorph? Her appearance reminded him of some of the character templates he had seen for Dragonoids, to be honest. But he couldn't be sure.
Her armor was ornate, and looked to be of very high quality, and when he cast a quick [Silent Magic:Appraise Magic Item] on it, his mind stuttered. "A divine tier item? and what's with these bullshit stats? 90% damage reduction, are you kidding me?" His emotional suppression kicked in just as quickly and he managed to hide his reaction. Unfortunately, it was the only item of significance she had on display, so he had no idea if she had anything else in reserve. But it was enough to tell him that he should be cautious with his approach. He stood away from her at an optimal distance for pvp, so that he may escape or counter-attack should she prove hostile. And finally, he checked her MP as a precaution, and was nearly blinded by the sudden influx of mana. 'So many zeroes...Is she a boss or something?' If she was, that meant while her attacks were more limited, the amount of hits she could tank and the damage output she could dish out was dramatically increase.
But whatever the case, it seemed as if she wasn't planning on starting anything... Yet.
Now, all he had to do was keep Albedo under control, and everything should go fine, right?
...Right?-x-
A/N: Oh Momonga you sweet summer child... In other words, The Great tomb of Nazerick comes knocking! As neighbours, of course of course...
