The trip to Vanaheim was quick, but the orbit around the world dragged on and on as Ainz, the Brightness Dragon Lord, and the Dragon God went into the tremendous details involved in the gifts and wishes to be bestowed on Ainz. This pleased the Dragon God immensely, as he appreciated a well thought out plan. He especially liked that Ainz' wishes, tempered by the Brightness Dragon Lords suggestions and advice were unintentionally very complementary to the gifts he intended to give.

Eventually they went directly from the ship to the 10thFloor Throne Room of the Vanaheim version of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. "Greetings, Lord Momonga", said Albedo. With shock, Ainz realized that this was not his wife, Empress Albedo, but a version of her as when she had first gained awareness. So he had to know. There was no warmth or loving recognition from her. "Albedo," he asked, "How do you feel about me?"

"You are Lord Momonga, the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown, my lord, and I offer my unreserved loyalty to you and the other Supreme Beings", she replied.

Ainz suddenly realized that this was a version of Albedo that had not been modified by him, yet was still aware, awake, intelligent and able to learn. But before he could think anything else, he realized that Albedo was either unaware of, or was ignoring the dragons if not the entourage with him. And then she dropped the bomb, by saying, "Message: My Lord, the other Supreme Beings await your presence at the 9th Floor Round Table."

Ainz was not actually aware that he had given his assent, but Albedo then contacted Aureole Omega to create a gate transfer to take them all to the 9th Floor. When the doors to the Round Table opened, Ainz was floored by seeing the entire table filled with his guild mates. Only one chair, his, was empty. "Momonga, you're late!", yelled out Touch Me. Before he could even react, "10,000 years late!", shouted Ulbert. Then they all rose in a laughing, standing ovation. Ainz was speechless and in awe.

Touch Me took to the floor to explain that while they had only been recently resurrected, how in the process they were given innumerable answers: what had happened to them, their world, and what had happened to Momonga in his world since then. "And, how your actions are responsible for our living again, in this glorious place, and in this magnificent time."

Ulbert interjected at that point, feeling a need to urgently apologize, that in their time nobody thought to tell you the code you needed to say to Albedo to shut down our ultimate weapons, and all of the other destructive processes, since we knew that the game was ending soon, so it wouldn't matter. Of course we had no idea that they would become a real menace in a different world in the far future. So once again, our apologies, Momonga. Or I suppose, we should call you Ainz.

We remembered something Peroroncino said he had heard in one of his h-games, of a really stupid and lewd pick up line, and thought it was hilarious that you would have to say it to Albedo to deactivate the weapons, since you were always so morally upright. Then he told it to Ainz, who was indeed mortified that he would still have to say that to her. To the Empress. His wife. And then he thought in horror, and asked, what about all the other iterations of Albedo? Will I have to tell this to every one of them?

Well, said Ulbert, "I guess you had better play it safe", before grinning an evil grin that only a heteromorphic goat monster might grin. Ainz then felt an uncomfortable few seconds pass, before Touch Me asserted that Ainz only had to do this once, to "his" Albedo. The rest are safe.

In any event, the reason we never invoked these weapons was because we learned that the world was literally coming to an end within days, the irrevocable end of life on Earth, so why wreak vengeance? None of us suspected that you never watched the news, that you didn't know, and we figured you just wanted to die while in the game. At that point, HeroHero and a few others volunteered that they didn't know, either, and that they with vast numbers of other people were doing their normal stupid and mindless things when the world ended.

So why bother with revenge?, Ulbert continued. We didn't know about the scheme of these villains to transfer thousands of people just from their families to the New World, using the stolen magic stored in the magic capacitors secretly wired to the YGGDRASIL computers, that even its own game devs didn't know about. So they weren't content with destroying their own world, they wanted to conquer and destroy another one. And yes, there was still more than a little bitterness in his voice. Had they done that before the shutdown was announced, it would have likely killed everyone in the game in the process, and they didn't care at all.

And for all their villainy, none of these fools even cared enough about the game to know that it was scheduled for shut down just ahead of the execution of their scheme. And you were the last person in Nazarick, when all that magic imbued data, and you, were snapped back to the New World, also spewing magic and a handful of other players hither and yon to many worlds, even through time, and blowing out the YGGDRASIL magic capacitors. So you lived, but the villains and their families, and we and our families, and everyone else on Earth then died. "Of greed and stupidity", he concluded, before slumping into his chair with a scowl.

And while no one there seemed to be aware of the presence of dragons in human form standing behind him, the Dragon God whispered to Ainz, that "these people, your friends, and their families are my first gift to you." Ainz' initial reaction was one of confusion, as he had been contemplating something like this as a wish, not expecting it as a gift, though as a gift it had been designed much better and more comprehensively than what he could have asked for.

He had been somewhat surprised a while before, in talking with the Brightness Dragon Lord, when he mused that were he able, he would make each of his guild mates kings, each in their own Nazarick and in a world they could design to their taste. But the Dragon Lord assured him this was well within the powers of the Dragon God. "And he'll throw in a whole complement of conscious NPCs as well. If they want kingdoms and lands full of living beings, of every kind, they are for the asking. They will be as real as those in your world are to you."

Well, technically you would be asking for all of this on behalf of your friends, not directly, he added.

Oh, and be sure to let your friends know they can personally race change. Though it's probably good that they go from avatar form to human form and back until they get used to it and try other races. I felt a little guilty taking you from skeleton to incubus race the first time. It looked quite painful."

Well yes, it had hurt like hell, thought Ainz, before remembering the profound upside that had happened right after for the next few days, which took away a lot of the sting, as it were.

"Oh, and before you even ask, those the Dragon God resurrects are automatically given limited immortality, like you. If killed, they lossless respawn. So guilt free," said the Dragon Lord. Ainz grumbled under his breath something about, Oh, so now you tell me!

And while you're thinking about it, you remember all the other Guild Bases in Vanaheim? Each of them has a full complement of resurrected players and NPCs of those guilds as well, so it will be a good idea to figure them into your calculations. They know you as the big boss, so won't fight you if you want to move them around. You can transfer them hither and yon as you so desire. I would recommend keeping this Nazarick as a place to hold group meetings to keep in touch, strategize and relax with your friends, however. Otherwise, Vanaheim remains as it was, the hidden world of the Old Gods, protected by magic, a place all of those from your world return to, finding a new life if they no longer enjoy their circumstances.

Ainz figured that his guild mates and the other players could design worlds and dungeons from easy to brain-wrenching-insane degree of difficulty. He almost shuddered when he thought of what the the evil based world built by Ulbert, or the horror movie based world that would be created by Tabula Smaragdina would be like. Definitely only for high level mature players guilds with a strong psyche and stomach. When he later visited them, he felt the whole planets were like mass attack dungeons filled with incredible monsters. Brutal and grotesque. An almost unconquerable prize for the best players ever. Then his thoughts trailed away about what kind of team he would have to assemble to beat them, and what the heck prize would somebody win for beating it?

Bukubukuchagama, on the other hand, with the new adoring iterations of young Aura and Mare in tow, admitted to Ainz that she was tired of being a slime, and was wondering if she would make a good Elf Queen, which he thought was a splendid idea, making her Queen of Alfheim and All Elves, Queen "Kazeumi Kumi", her favorite stage name. But before she race changed, Ainz insisted that she and HeroHero had to check out the slime palace on planet Momonga, where they both still had cult followings.

Oh, and importantly, to let him know ahead of time before introducing Aura and Mare to other elves, before explaining there probably wasn't an elf outside of Alfheim that wouldn't lose their marbles on seeing the return of their great Queen and King. She thought that their being Queen and King of the Elf Kingdom was cute, imagining them as the children there were now. Ainz refrained from telling her, knowing of the elf hordes that idolized them as great leaders.

The most touching of the player meetings began with Ainz providing Touch Me one of Sebas Tian's suits prior to his race change to his human form. As expected, he looked just like a slightly older version of Sebas. In another room, Ainz had arranged for the resurrected and older adventurer Ninya and the resurrected and now dragonoid young Tuareninya Veyron, the late beloved wife of Momonga's Sebas Tian, in her human form. The two sisters had an extended and teary reunion.

Then human Touch Me entered the meeting lounge with his human wife and children, at the same time as the sisters came in, and he was open jawed because the beautiful Tuareninya looked almost identical to his wife at a younger age. And then Momonga's Sebas Tian entered the room to discover his late wife alive. And this version of Sebas unashamedly cried and sobbed while hugging her, and continued to do so even after she offered him a handkerchief to dry his tears of joy. "And now, my husband, I am like you, so we can finally have the children we wanted all those years." Touch Me's wife and Ninya were crying as well, though his human children looked somewhat clueless, so Ainz figured his work here was done as he quietly took his leave.

After Ainz made his first wish, in retrospect, he wondered if he had been steered into this wish decision, or if it was so obvious that he couldn't but help reach it. But it was one hell of a wish.

"To create a Galactic Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game called YGGDRASIL II."

Both the Brightness Dragon Lord and the Dragon God were fascinated like they had never been before. The idea was to turn much of his empire into physical-virtual reality entertainment for innumerable alien players. Much like the original game, it was focused on exploration and discovery to learn its secrets, with a strong emphasis on customization.

The technology to accomplish all of this in real time, over vast distances of space, required even the Dragon God to subcontract much of it. Interfaces for millions of different intelligent species, plugged in to planetoid nodes scattered throughout known space, leading to planet sized computers connected in parallel and all leading to YGGDRASIL II, in the Momon star system.

All of it to give real time, roughly similar experiences to billions of intelligent beings at the same time. Once their interface was activated, they would feel like they were physically present in an immense tutorial, in their real body, with a guide of their own species to take them through the steps to register, create their avatar, the general rules of game play, the formation of clans and guilds, and many other things; then to offer them third person simulations of game play, exploration, conflict that may or may not be voluntary, what would happen if they were killed, and had to respawn, etc. And then, as with the original game, to unceremoniously put them in a world of their choice, with a strong recommendation for a beginner level world for those with levels under 10.

Behind the scenes, things were far more chaotic. Thousands of empires wanted in on the deal, especially as dev contributors to submit their own adventures, awe inspiring discoveries, amazing monsters and NPC designs, as well as technological, magical and monetary prizes. There was a "land rush" for unclaimed star systems in "frontier" areas outside the perimeter of the Empire's space for all kinds of reasons. Some of these empires were strong enough to move unused star systems vast distances through the frontier there just for the purpose.

The normally staid diplomats of the Obarodono were beside themselves with the deluge of requests for official involvement with the project, creating a strong conflict of interest, as their leaders also wanted to be deeply involved. It was about then they realized they had made a tremendous blunder by giving away their "obsolete" Research Master Archive and its treasure trove of planetary data to Ainz without a second thought. Data that could be entered into the real-virtual computer planets, vastly expanding the scale of the game. Way beyond the capability of Ainz' empire, other empires provided armies of tech support and admins that could deal with that ridiculous amount of data and reasonably quickly.

They could also handle the technology for software upgrades, language support, magic support, filters, skins and overlays, user tech support, and lots and lots of instructional materials.

Many Obarodono were now as familiar with the diplomatic enclave on the island of Underside that had been the diplomatic compound where they first met the Overlord-Emperor of Momonga, as they were with their own homes. It was a very busy place, though at times some of them had to remind themselves that commerce can be diplomacy, too, even though it seemed like they were employees of YGGDRASIL II. Ainz saved a lot of time by utilizing their diplomatic services to approach the guilds on Vanaheim, and appreciated how rapidly they were able to give those players useful information and a multitude of choices.

Staying at their guild base on Vanaheim was a lesser choice when offered their own guild world with a new, custom built guild base, a world they could tailor make either as an independent world in the empire, or part of YGGDRASIL II. As gamers, with many versed in history, and military history, they made many legendary worlds, letting their imaginations run free.

The Kitty Kingdom guild created a feline based world that many aliens found fascinating. An empire where all intelligent beings were felines. Great interest especially from those empires evolved from felines rather than other species, as to how convergent evolution created so many felines with very different genes.

Many players chose to physically move to and colonize New Earth. After meeting the superior humans of planet Momonga, physically, intellectually and emotionally evolved, few opted to stay there. Some even decided to live by themselves or in small groups on one of the lush preserve planets and enjoy nature they had never experienced, at least for a few centuries. In this case, they were given continents away from those used to protect the primatives transplanted there from the Island of Papura to protect them.

The solace of the Obarodono was that YGGDRASIL II seemed to be pumping new vitality into the known galaxy. As in addition to the practical limits of administration, there was also the problem that once an empire was "fenced in" on all sides, it tended to lose its desire to grow, evolve, and discover new things, slowly decaying from the inside. Regaining its sense of adventure, discovery, and innovation revitalized them in many ways. After experiencing exploration in the game, some of the empires decided to once again explore frontier space, just out of renewed curiosity. The World Searcher guild became the mascots for this, as their enthusiasm for exploration and discovery was infectious, and having one on board ship could inspire other explorers to go many times further than they would have otherwise.

It wasn't long before problems, or rather opportunities, developed. Increasing demands for safe children's alternative worlds resulted in spinoff local game worlds run under the YGGDRASIL II umbrella but under local control in other empires territories. Ridiculously lucrative, Ainz was still more than happy to not have the headache of tending to other creature's offspring. It also paid off for poorer empires that had a gift for nuturing young.

Beta testing in YGGDRASIL II proved beyond any doubt that a rating system was essential. They tried very hard to limit the leveling system to 5000, across around 500 worlds, because just two levels above a player's rating was almost certain game death. But players were insatiable about leveling and achievement.

The Gachapon Cash Item Store could take weeks to peruse, and soon had a small scandal of an investigation of players using it to launder cash from criminal enterprises, which instead turned out to be professional shoppers buying for players too busy playing to shop. Ainz still remembered spending too much on cash items, so tried to influence things to keep prices low. Not easy when some players were wealthy enough to buy out particular items just so they would have a monopoly on them.

And empires needed to set species based player time limits to prevent players from IRL injuring themselves by not tending to their physical needs.

Very soon, it became obvious that players who were invested in too much violence, bloodshed, warfare and PK'ing, needed a timeout-burnout so that when they were killed, they would instead respawn in Einherjer on Asgard. Where, under the watchful if sadistic gaze of Shalltear Bloodfallen's Einherjer, they would have to brutally kill and be killed, over and over again, without leveling up or gaining or losing anything else, until they had gotten it out of their system, so could return to normal game play in a less aggressive manner.

Of course, with so many beings entering the game worlds of the Empire, there were times when even parts of the real-virtual worlds seemed overcrowded. Yet the Obarodono had a simple solution, of engineering a purely virtual version of YGGDRASIL II in the world of dreams. This meant that poorer beings who were stretched to afford real-virtual game play could get it for free, several weeks worth for just a few minutes of real time. The biggest downside was that instead of being in the first person, you would sometimes be in the third person mode, and at a lower what could be called resolution. Plus remembering what you had done took a lot of discipline. Discreetly, Ainz used some of the huge profits from the game to both subsidize the dream engineers and to provide tight security by dream casters against any monsters wanting to feed on visitors. The dream version also served as a great test bed for expansion packs, skins and other game mods.

Many years before, he and Albedo had discretely visited the world of dreams incognito, as their celebrity status there required it, and were able to meet a more civil dream monster who knew some of Albedo's relatives. As ferocious as they were, Ainz found them to be rather personable. Albedo seemed to be a little embarrassed, but then boldly announced that Ainz was her husband. Their gaze at Ainz was about to become serious, for marrying one of "theirs" without permission, so without delay he showed them his true form.

"Wait... You're that Ainz? Ainz Ooal Gown? The Overlord-Emperor Ainz Ooal Gown? Wow!"

Being fawned over by dream monster fans is just like being fawned over by other fans. But from that point there probably wasn't a good enough disguise for either of them to return to the world of dreams. Yet female dream monsters thereafter had romantic fantasies about the half-dream monster succubus girl who married a handsome Overlord-Emperor, and lived happily ever after.

The regular operations of YGGDRASIL II, mostly delegated to those far more capable at such things, still consumed so much of Ainz' time that he started to neglect the important things, such as alone time with Albedo. And then, with great surprise, the light dawned that he had never gotten around to disarming her.

It had been a long time since he had felt genuine fear from her, if he said or did something that might have turned her against him. But in this case, he was rendering a bomb safe. What if the password was incorrect, ill remembered, or he said a word wrong? Could he stop Albedo and her sisters from traveling to Helheim short of destroying it or them?

He couldn't help but imagine how if rendered safe, then substantially improved with major league dungeons, obstacles and traps, Helheim might be turned into an 'A' list adventure world. Maybe create, for his own entertainment as well as publicity, an exaggerated version of The Great Tomb of Nazarick there, with a multitude of floors, that was way beyond impossible to beat. An inspirational showpiece and work of art, that designers could tour with safe passes, so they wouldn't be hurt even if half scared to death.

In any event, Ainz decided to gamble that disarming the weapons would be straightforward. Meeting Albedo in a blast resistant corridor in the Nazarick on Momonga, he spoke the code phrase that would render all the weapons safe. For a few seconds she stared off into the distance, before saying, in a strange mechanical voice: Ragnarok deactivated. Then she returned to normal, blushed and said to Ainz that she was hoping he might ask her that some day, and her answer was yes. And then she began pulling him towards the bedchamber. Okay, I was not expecting this, he said to himself.

Some time later, when the day was winding down and the sun was setting, the Dragon God made an appearance, and seemed to be in an excitable mood. "Ainz! There is something happening that I've never seen before. It's amazing, you have to see it!"

He pointed out at the twilight horizon and said, look in that direction. Then he made some hand gestures, and Ainz saw an immense tree, a real, living tree, reaching up into the sky, its height reaching to infinity. He could see the roots at its base, its immense trunk, branches and leaves.

"This is the tree Yggdrasil, in the peak of health. As it looks to those that can see it. But look at the leaves closer. Tell me, what do you see?" Ainz pondered that and gazed more attentively.

"Flowers?"

"Exactly!", said the Dragon God. "Never before has the tree Yggdrasil had flowers! Never before has it been so healthy that it has blossomed. More importantly, every feature of the tree is reflected in reality. Each feature creates reality. So what are all those flowers creating right now?"

"I don't know," replied Ainz. "What are they creating?"

"I have no idea", said the Dragon God.

Ainz gazed in wonder at the tree Yggdrasil, before saying almost absentmindedly, "But don't flowers attract bees?" He felt silly for saying that.

Suddenly the Dragon God became serious, and even frowned. Without even looking at Ainz, he said, "Please excuse me. There is something very important I have to do. Give my apologies to the Brightness Dragon Lord, but I will be away for some time." And with that, he was gone.

The Brightness Dragon Lord was initially dumbfounded, speculating that the only thing that could possibly demand the Dragon God's attention was that he had to meet with his peers over something of vital importance. Only after Ainz had told him the story did he express surprise.

"You mean, he actually allowed you to see the tree Yggdrasil?", truly shocked. "He has never let me see it!" Yes, Ainz replied. And when I stand on that place at twilight, I can still see it with great clarity. It is amazing." The Dragon Lord was taken aback. Even seeing the tree briefly was a once in a lifetime gift for such beings as him. To be allowed to gaze on it at will was unheard of.

But then he came to his senses, before saying "bees?" Well, if the flowers need to be fertilized, then they would create seeds, but if they are blossoms, they will produce fruit. Something like bees would be needed to cross pollinate with other trees. I know of no galactic entity that would perform such a function. Then he paused, and a look of dread crossed his face, and he said, unless those flowers would attract Navagraha, the world eater. This would explain why the Dragon God left so hurredly.

He explained that the first tree Yggdrasil was immature, and its leaves representing the nine worlds were attacked by Navagraha, that consumed all life on some of those worlds. Vanaheim was protected by its magical cloak, Midgard survived, as did Alfheim, but only after a brutal, no holds barred fight against the Navagraha, with horrific casualties. The other worlds were either stripped of life or were terribly damaged in the fight.

"If it is returning, this entire region of space will be facing a galactic war. It won't be soon, but when it comes, every being, kingdom, empire, federation and beyond will have to throw every bit of their fight against it. By your leave, I must get the message out to all the other dragons in Yggdrasil." He then departed, leaving Ainz feeling very alone.

Later, in conference with Albedo, Demiurge, Cocytus, Shalltear, the top commanding Admirals of his space fleet, and many other seats of power, solely to compose the presentation to the guilds and others to explain the situation, Ainz recieved a message from the Nazarick admissions facilities director that a large group of very different looking, high ranking Obarodono were enroute to his meeting area. Already authorized entry to Nazarick under most circumstances, this was very unusual for Obarodono, who took polite ease and grace and never seemed rushed or hurried. At least they were courteous enough to knock before entering.

Into the conference room strode Obarodono half again taller than was typical, very muscular and exuding power, wearing military uniforms instead of diplomatic gear and led by a female that looked like the most exaggerated demon Ainz had ever seen. Ainz caught a glimpse of Demiurge trembling, while staring at her, but not out of fear.

"Overlord-Emperor Ainz," she said in a booming voice, "What the hell are you doing?" Every person in the room froze at the affront.

"Every empire and federation that occupy frontier borders in our collective sector of space are panicked because immense ships of a wide variety of unknown types have parked outside our border on all sides and are attempting to communicate. None of them speak any known language and must be from far removed parts of the galaxy. Their intent appears to be peaceful, but when the Obarodono feel it necessary to activate our military command, even we are shaken up by the possibility of unthinkable disaster.

"Though our linguists are killing themselves to establish communications, the only two things in common that they are all saying is "Navagraha" and "Ainz Ooal Gown!" "So again, What the hell are you doing?"

He replied by saying that the Navagraha are a powerful enemy that menace all of us.

It took him a long time to calm her down, which was not helped by her having no knowledge of the Navagraha, the Dragon God or others like him. The best guess for Ainz to make was that many beings in the galaxy hated the Navagraha, and were more than willing to immediately contribute incredibe weapons and forces to join with us in fighting them, for once being able to predict their attack before it came.

So let your diplomats talk to them, once communications are established. The more we know of the enemy before they arrive, the better we will be able to fight them. As communications started coming in to the great female Obarodono, that seemed to confirm what Ainz had said, she relaxed somewhat, but still requested some accommodations in Nazarick for herself and her staff until a clearer picture emerged, which he offered.

As the meeting started to break up, with preliminary orders going out, Demiurge approached Ainz and asked him how extensive planning would need to be before this great conflict. Perhaps with some amount of mischief, Ainz replied that it could be tomorrow, or in a hundred thousand years, so it would all have to become part of my "100,000 year plan." Their was some mischief in his voice.

The glint in Demiurge's eyes was such that Ainz quickly dropped the other shoe, by asking him to act as the escort to the great female Obarodono. "Their females find you very attractive, and judging by how you reacted when meeting this superior female, you likely feel the same. Maybe offer to take her on a tour of the 7th floor, if she's amenable."

Late at night, enjoying some quiet time next to Albedo, his Albedo, Ainz pondered the communiques from his future self. Very cautious about endangering time, his messages were oblique, even though he clearly wanted to warn himself in the past. His technique was to use a combination of ancient quotations intersperced with poetic quatrains, to answer two basic questions, of what needed to be done, and when it should be done. One of the most fitting quotations was by Sun Tzu.

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

With this he resolved to gather and understand every bit of information about the enemy Navagraha, be it one great thing, several things, or a multitude, then to gather together every tool imaginable to beat it, and to train every being willing and able to fight, with YGGDRASIL II, to their peak performance.

Everything we have ever done. Every type of training. Every battle fought has led to this, thought Ainz, even if it does take a hundred thousand years.