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Delightfully Divine (Overlord CYOA) Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2023-05-14 21:41:00 +0000 UTC-x-
CHAPTER 3
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The Holy City of Camelot, Kaze Plains
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Many things came to mind as Cassandra looked closely at the dark mage and his warrior friend. For one, the dark knight seemed to defer to her companion for all things and seemed to treat him as her boss - no, her god and savior, for all intents and purposes.
The man, meanwhile, seemed uncomfortable with the dynamic but played into it both to appease her and out of habit. He seemed to accustomed to being a leader, but it was obvious that he was put off by the degree by which his companion was worshiping the ground he walked on. Hm... he was oddly humble, endearing almost, despite his appearance - he had quite the drip; his towering stature adorned with magical artifacts of immense power, including many that registered as divine constructs to her senses. The only thing that stood out, was the stupid mask he wore, which didn't seem to be anything special - at least compared to the rest of his gear. The same went for his armored companion. As for the person himself, it was difficult to pick at his mannerisms because of how little his body gave away - a perk of being undead she supposed, but she could make do. But then again, she was accustomed to deciphering the intents of inhuman beings.
Wait, what? When did she - ah! Merlin. A brief image of an beautiful, pale haired man cloaked in white and swirling flower petals flashed in her mind, and things clicked. It was a carryover from Artoria's experience dealing with the half-incubus.
Back to the undead mage, he also used some sort of magic - an analysis spell of sorts, but Cassandra wasn't sure what he actually got from it. It was understandable why he would do it. After all, she herself was curious about the mage herself, and she for one wouldn't have hesitated to do it if it wasn't about as subtle as a thermonuclear warhead in a fireworks show.
Cassandra was fairly sure that a stove wasn't supposed to explode with the force of a bomb. But then again, she probably shouldn't have tried to create one using fairy letters, but what was she to do when spawning it with Rhongomyniad was not an option? She refused to eat an uncooked meal, but now, a potential mushroom soup had turned into ash. Maybe she should try to make a-
'Wait, focus Cassandra, now is not the time to get distracted.'
She continued to inspect her guests, just as they did the same. Curiously, both their gazes seemed to simply slide over and overlook the Hogyoku like it didn't exist. It seemed as if her desire to hide its existence could manifest in subtle ways as well, but she had no way to consistently test such a thing.
"Greetings, great necromancer." She began, leaning into her buried habits as 'Artoria' to address her guests. "I welcome you to the Holy City of Camelot. I am the dragon goddess Cassandra Pendragon, the lord of storms and the EndsFairy OfLand TheOf WorldAlbion." Cassandra welcomed, but inwardly, she frowned, more than a bit concerned. She hadn't intended to introduce herself that way, and she didn't understand why, but the mere idea of introducing herself with a false identity felt antithetical to her very existence. But why would it - ah. Understanding dawned on her once more.
It was due to the power granted to her by The Ever Distant Utopia - She had thought that the pointed 'elf ears' were merely cosmetic, but no. It was an indicator of her metamorphosis into an honorary Nature Spirit -or fairy- of sorts. It made sense, in a way. There were few things in the world that were ever as simple as you wanted them to be - you don't just get 'permission' from Gaia to craft divine constructs from the inner sea of the planet - there was far more to it than that. Things that relate to the fae are always like that.
But she herself wasn't truly a fae creature either. And normally, it would have only stayed that way. But the issue was that upon ingesting the Chakra fruit, her connection to nature and the world had become magnified, and suddenly, that 'rank' wasn't 'honorary' anymore. Which meant that while her powers as a fairy and her authority over nature and the world had increased, she had also inherited the weaknesses that came with it. Cold iron, for one and a host of other things - most of which might be negated by the fact that she was a fucking dragon, but her name? There was no getting around that one.
Names carried weight, and true names, to a fairy, were of the utmost significance. It was the core of their being, the literal definition of their existence and a fairy without a name would decay into moss. There was a reason why fiction popularized the idea that you could control others with their true names - and with the fae, that was a very real threat- though there were a lot of conditions to that sort of thing. Not that she was afraid of such things anyways; if she really wanted to, she could use 'Self-Modification' to suppress or reduce her fae nature and reallocate the 'resources' freed up to something else - like for example, her divinity or her dragon transformation or something. There were limitations to that too, of course but it wasn't immediately relevant; she didn't want to get rid of it anytime soon - the eldritch crafting methods of Gaia's nature spirits were far too powerful to overlook.
As it was, Ainz and Albedo seemed to have completely missed the significance of what they were just told - which thankfully meant that they hadn't interacted with other fae beings before. But she knew immediately that it was obviously going to be a problem if she ever found herself in a place where that was the case. She would need to come up with a title to address herself instead, and hopefully, the two wouldn't spread that around before she could limit the information. She wasn't sure how her CYOA defenses tied into it either but it was better not to test such things.
And while she could give herself a title, truly assuming a false identity, a second persona, was a very, very bad move. If that happened, her current existence would be overwritten by the second one until she eventually managed to shed it - or if it was bad enough, she would be forced to live with it her entire life, as with the case of Morgan, where she existed both as Vivian - the lady of the lake and the one who had relinquished Excalibur to king Arthur, and as Morgan Le Fey - the witch that brought ruin to Camelot. And while the situation wasn't exactly the same or as intrinsic, it had a lot of parallels.
The dark knight bristled upon hearing her declaration, and the mage looked a bit skeptical as well. Ah, it did sound pretentious, didn't it? But neither of them said anything about it. The man was even polite enough to ignore it and introduce themselves. His name was apparently 'Ainz Ooal Gown' - which rang as 'partially true' to her fairy eyes- which confused her, while his companion's name was Albedo.
"Pendragon was it? Are you by any chance, related to King Arthur?" he asked.
Cassandra was surprised. "Yes, in fact I am. Technically, I am she, but in truth, it would be more accurate to say that I am a gestalt existence comprised of multiple things. Though, I am surprised that the legend of King Arthur is already known to this world" she answered.
"This world?" He seemed skeptical of the first part like expected, but curiously, Ainz seemed especially interested in the latter one.
"Ah yes, I am not truly of this world. I was caught up in the tail end of some sort of summoning ritual - something to do with sacrificial soul magic, though I can't make heads or tails of the specifics." And it was true, too. The entity that had dropped her here used some some sort of preexisting mechanism to insert her here, as her experiments yesterday had revealed.
Ainz Ooal Gown leaned forward, extremely interested at the idea and his companion, Albedo, also seemed to be invested in the conversation despite her reservations. "Oh?"
"Like I said, I'm not sure of the specifics. The only reason I caught wind of it at all, was because I am familiar with an object that has similar properties, and because it had been recently activated and left traces all over the place. Especially within detectable range due to my recent entry and all that. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anything usable because my rather... explosive reaction to some of the undead. The menaces surprised me upon arrival and my retaliation swept away most of the evidence." Cassandra explained. She also refused to acknowledge the fact that it was actually because a spoopy skeleton dragon scared the fuck out of her because it looked like a giant spider from the distance.
"I used the artifact in question to look into it and got some interesting tidbits though. The spell essentially creates a dimensional refraction phenomena of sorts, connecting to a distant, dying world, or a possibility of it? The kaleidoscope confuses me at the best of times. But anyway, the connection isn't that... safe exactly, or well made. In fact, I'd say it's downright hazardous since... things are bleeding over from the other side for a long time now. I'm not an expert at this particular field - in fact, I'm an amateur and the fact that I even noticed it just goes to show you the sheer scale of it." She explained.
It was almost like an infinitely more wasteful attempt at replicating the Kaleidoscope using soul magic. 'I mean, if you already have heaven's feel or a holy grail at your disposal, why the fuck would you go so far to break your own reality?' she wondered. It just didn't make sense - well greed really didn't need to but she digressed. Zelretch's Jeweled Sword was practically a vibrator with how much it was shaking from the resonance it received in the area she had landed in this world. But what she sensed with her divinity... Cassandra could only shudder at the thought of how many souls the caster needed to sacrifice to achieve... That. 'And here I thought mages in Fate were assholes'.
"I see" Ainz said after thinking over her words. "It sounds like you are familiar with the concept."
Cassandra shrugged. "There can only ever be one man who can wield the Magic of the Kaleidoscope back on Earth, and I am not him. I do however, own one of his trinkets and it makes for fun research material." she explained, and Ainz froze momentarily - she wasn't sure of that though, because of how little he already moved.
"Earth was it? how different is it from this world?" Ainz asked, an odd tone to his voice.
"You believe me?"
"I would assume that a being of your power wouldn't need to construct such elaborate, unbelievable lies for no reason." The way he said it was smooth... too smooth. He reminded her of a used car salesman for some reason.
She wondered how to break it to him that magic simply wasn't a thing there. Then again, it was a bad idea to imply that she was new to the whole thing, that was just asking for people to try stupid shit believing that they could get one over her due to her inexperience. But she also DID need a reliable way to explain away her issues with 'rediscovering' her magic in the first place. In the end, she settled with explaining a technical truth. After all, bombarding unsuspecting listeners to Fate lore was always a reliable way to mindfuck them and prevent them from asking the hard questions.
"Fair enough. To put it simply, it was a world where the 'age of gods' had well and truly ended, and 'Mystery' - the local term for the laws that governed the supernatural, by the way, was in decline. Humans dominated the world. The rest simply... left. I think there were around six billion humans last I checked." She said, and she swore Ainz mumbled 'only that much?', but it may just have been in her head, Albedo on the other hand, looked absolutely stumped.
"Why would that be the case?' Ainz asked, looking stumped.
"An extra-terrestrial entity invaded the planet somewhere around fourteen thousand years ago and killed most of the local gods and caused a whole mess. It has steadily been in decline ever since, and after Gilgamesh, the first hero of humanity, fucked them over, things just never recovered in their favor. Earth, the planet itself was a living entity you see, and it had a collective consciousness. Humans eventually grew to a point where their sheer numbers overwrote the world with their own logic -physics they called it, and drove all the phantasmal creatures into the reverse side of the world."
"...Aliens?" Ainz looked like he just had an epiphany. That, or an existential crisis. She wasn't really sure. "But you said that they could still use magic. And the fact that you are familiar with the place implies that you were still there despite the fact."
"There were ways around the suppression of course, the humans called the deteriorated art magecraft, and jealously guarded the secret of its existence so that awareness of it doesn't deteriorate what 'mystery' that remained. To the point where they left no witnesses."
"Figures." He mumbled. "But that doesn't make any sense though, wouldn't awareness of it make it stronger? Unless of course..."
"... Mystery just kept deteriorating as science progressed regardless of outside factors. It was just the way of the world back there, and awareness of it would just 'dilute' it through exposure. It wouldn't be a 'mystery' anymore, now would it?" A nice pun, but she wasn't sure about that, but eh. "Last I checked, magecraft still worked fine in 2004 as well." Which was when Fate-stay night took place.
"Is that when you left the planet?"
"You could say that I left around... nineteen years later?"
Ainz looked just about ready to give up on life... which might be a bad thing since he was an undead.
He might just turn into a genocidal maniac.
"You don't have to worry about such a thing happening here though, I have already confirmed that this world does not work on similar rules."
"I-I see" he said. "That reminds me, you claimed to have cast the spell from last night?"
"It's more of a weapon, actually but yes. The area was infested with mindless undead, and I required a secure base of operations for myself. I just solved two problems at once."
"As I expected." Wait, what? "Do you dislike the undead?" He asked.
Cassandra looked confused, but she waved her hand nonetheless. "Not particularly. They were just being mindless, hyper-aggressive pests, and I was just conveniently also in need of a large stretch of unoccupied land." And that's the reason, yes siree, no spoopy spider-dragon skellies involved. Nope.
"You don't have to worry about anything. So long as you do not attack me with the intent to harm, you will receive no condemnation from me, and you will be able to leave unharmed. You have my word."
Ainz seemed taken aback from the declaration. "So you did notice."
She nodded. "More like an absence of such. I am capable of detecting all life within my domain, and since you are still moving despite my senses telling me that you are dead..."
"I see." Ainz nodded, before removing his mask, revealing an immaculate, bleached white skull. "Then I suppose I should introduce myself properly. I am Ainz Ooal Gown, the supreme Overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazerick, and I welcome you to this world, Cassandra-san."
Wait, was that a japanese honorific? No, it might just be her omniglot ability acting up because of oddities in the local language. It might also be contaminated with her expectations of being isekai'd into an anime - even if she couldn't remember the specifics of it.
He also seemed to be good at grandstanding, even if he seemed uncomfortable with it. But one look at Albedo, who was eating it all up had her understand why. She knew all too well, the importance of conducting herself regally, as the embodiment of perfection, as her - no, Artoria's memories could attest.
"A Great Tomb you say? Hm, from the sounds of it, I assume you are a lich of considerable power then. Why would you - ah the undead. I apologize if my attack yesterday caused problems for you, I do not wish to cause hostilities between us unduly."
Ainz waved it away. "No, your attack simply drew my attention, we are not responsible for the undead in the local region." She noticed that he had specified the area. So that meant that he DID involve himself with the classic necromancer shenanigans. She needed to keep an eye out for that.
"Oh I see -"
Albedo suddenly let out a roar of rage and leveled the large battle-axe at her. "How dare you refer to the lord Ainz as a mere Lich?! How dare you address him so casually, even after being informed of his true identity? He is an Overlord! A supreme being who sits at the pinnacle of existence that no mere lich could ever hope to become! I will not tolerate your continued disrespect and insults towards my beloved Master any longer. Trampling over his generosity and patience so many times is a sin I cannot forgive!"
Cassandra's eyes widened at the woman's abrupt hostility and stepped back, startled. She quickly reached out with her arm, and summoned her spear to her in a wieldable form.
And with a flash of light, Rhongomyniad materialized in her hand.
Albedo's rant halted as she spotted her lance, and stopped in her tracks almost instantly. "... a World Item?"
A skeletal hand suddenly grasped the agitated woman's shoulder. "That's enough, Albedo." Ainz chastised tensely, before turning to her. "I apologize for my subordinate's actions. I hope can still work together despite this." He asked, bowing briefly.
Cassandra could genuinely tell that Ainz wasn't happy with Albedo's actions, but then again, considering that they seemed to be from some sort of ancient death cult that had Ainz (most likely unwillingly or unintentionally) sit as their idol of worship, it sort of made sense in a way. She should have expected this from a deranged fanatic. Cassandra decided to throw him a bone.
"I... accept your apology. I apologize on my behalf as well if I have offended you. I am unaware of your practices, but liches are simply a general category that refers to a death mage with a skeletal appearance and a phylactery. It was in no way intended as an insult."
He nodded. "Thank you. In any case, I feel that we have overstayed our welcome. Let's part ways and cool our heads."
She nodded. "Very well."
"And lord Ainz, while we might not be friends yet, I am amenable to trade between us, so long as you respect my neutrality."
'Oh? What do you offer?"
"Artifacts and natural resources, mainly."
He nodded. "We can discuss this at length at a later time. I need to assure the rest of my subordinates that I am well. I will send an envoy at a later time. Goodbye, Cassandra-dono."
"Farewell, lord Ainz."
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A/N: btw, can someone please correct me if my use of honorifics is incorrect? And while I did pick up some japanese due to exposure, it isn't saying much when said exposure was anime and manga - so yeah, the intricacies of it all are beyond me. If it bothers you, just say it and I'll fix it.
On another note, what do you think about the chapter? I feel... unsatisfied with this chapter a little bit. Thankfully, there's more stuff happening in the next one.
