Wayward Journeys.

Had several ideas come into my mind after reading several other fics. Trying to write them down now.

Overlord Light Novel series, manga series and anime series do not belong to me.

[Spells]

"Speech"

"Chat/Message"

"Various pop-up widows or texts"

The Prologue.

We all know how these tales start: World on the edge of its end, Guild on its last legs, Players on the last shreds of their enthusiasm. Yet this time, that enthusiasm and loyalty to the game and the guild were shared by more than one player…

"You know, for what it's worth, despite all the arguments we had, the guild had a really good run"

A lone figure could be seen in the middle of the throne room of Great Tomb of Nazarick. One of the last active members of the Ainz Ooal Gown: Momonga, greatest undead mage with the appearance of a Skeleton and the Guild Master, who was currently using [Message] spell, an in-game version of private messages to communicate with his two last comrades: Ulbert Alain Odle known as Demon of Great Disaster, with the appearance of goat-like demon and Touch Me, the World Champion.

"Yeah, I only wish more would show up for the last day…" Momonga lamented.

The atmosphere shared between the three people in the private chat could best be described as bittersweet, yet content with the guild still staying at the top of the ranking, despite majority of its members not showing up for quite a while. It was trough the effort of these players that the guild base upkeep was still payed and treasury kept being restocked and even extended from various events and activities one could perform without large party, where they could cover the numbers with the sheer skill, levels and equipment.

Even now, right before the end of the YGGDRASIL these three were performing the raids and item collections, especially now that they had nothing to lose.

"Okay, I've spotted these guys, they are definitely planning to raid Nazarick" Sent Ulbert.

Unfortunately, they were not the only ones ready to risk everything on the last day to have some fun. After the remnants of Ainz Ooal Gown harassed several smaller guilds, they brought all the new loot back into the Tomb. However, almost every medium-to-high level Player knew who Ainz Ooal Gown were and where their base is meant to be located. So, now Momonga, Ulbert and Touch-Me were preparing to mount the defense of the higher Floors of the Tomb.

"Alright, hurry back here Momonga-san, we better counterattack them before they could assemble and buff themselves" Sent Touch Me. While the Ainz Ooal Gown had the ability to just wait out the raid within the impenetrable defenses of the Tomb, they were also a prideful guild. They have been PK-ing for years and were almost in equal standing as the antagonists of the game as the official last boss in many Players' minds. They would not back off now, since the end was nigh.

Still, it didn't mean they would approach the coming battle by stupidly waiting for the enemy to utilize their numerical advantage. Instead, the Three have planned to disrupt the attack by eliminating the smaller enemy groups with the lightning fast raids where their comparable numbers and AOG superiority of equipment and skill would prove victorious.

And so, while Touch Me and Ulbert were observing the enemy, Momonga was slowly bringing out some of the Guild's best equipment for the defenders to utilize. Normally he would be reluctant to just callously take the Items which were meant to be shared among the Guild, but Touch Me and Ulbert were confident their missing members would be glad if their combined resources could be used in the Guild's final Blaze of Glory.

"So, guys, I've brought everything I could stuff into my inventory" Momonga said when he approached his friends.

"Good, hopefully this would be enough to pull the Punitto Moe Maneuver" answered Ulbert turning away from his scrying spells.

They were decked out in all Divine Item gear and were packing every Cash Item they could think of for this battle.

"It's roughly one hour, twenty minutes till the servers Shut Down." A mere blink on a normal day within the game, but it could be terrifyingly long when your plan is to stall for time while actively engaging hostile players.

"They will move soon, we should start too."

Ulbert and Touch Me were capable of insane DPS when they put their minds into it. Momonga while being also level 100 Player, had an RP build that was not meant to be efficient or used for high-tier PVP. But he had a full set of Divine gear and could be considered a dangerous Wild Card.

They have approached a group of players who they knew were approximately in lvl 60-70 range under the effects of [Scroll of Perfect Unknowable]. They were not shying the use of consumables for this battle as they had an entire warehouse of those in the Tomb.

Clash was opened by Ulbert's AOE fire magic that managed to hit the entire enemy party with Splash Damage. Seconds later Touch Me was charging the Mage of the group while Momonga Summoned several Death Knights to cover him and the Devil. Poor bastards were stuck between the hammer and the anvil. Each of remaining the Ainz Ooal Gown members could lose only to few lvl 100 players in a pitched fight like that, these small fries had little chance. A first victory, among many coming battles. They still had 1 hour, 17 minutes and several more vulnerable targets to go.

"Very well, we are waiting" Han$, the leader of what was left of the small Clan called Special Squadron was conversing with the other Clan leaders over the private chat. Unlike that famous massive raid on Nazarick that happened in the past, this one was a spontaneous gathering of several Clans and Guilds in reaction to the activities of Ainz Ooal Gown all over the Helheim and Vanaheimr. The result was, they were not well organized and while some arrived to the outskirts of Nazarick within minutes of the Crusade being called, others were still only making way to the Tomb.

"Let's see how these heteromorphs deal with a hundred of pro PVP players." He had a good feeling about their chances.

"Ehm…Han$..." one of his Clan members called out to him "Han$, I've just noticed something"

"These Ainz Ooal Gown are All cowards…" Han$ said while looking into the darkness.

"Have you looked at our raid chat recently?"

"Our chat?"

"The group picture of our raid chat, have you looked at it?"

"What?" What the hell was he talking about? "No… A bit?"

"It has skulls on it"

"?"

"Have you noticed that our chat actually has a picture of skulls on it?"

When he did think about, it was a weird thing to put on the chat emblem.

"I don't… really…"

"Han$, are we the baddies?"

When Han$ tried to answer that, his vision was suddenly engulfed in black flame. A warrior in Silver looking armor leapt out from the darkness and skewered the group's ranger while several Death Knights started fighting the healer of the team. Han$ was losing HP really fast and tried to disengage. Last thing he heard was [Grasp Heart]. His vision darkened and red letters were that said "YOU DIED" were hanging right in front of his eyes.

They made short work of the low-level groups around the Tomb. It seems that Punitto Moe Maneuver was still a successful tactic when dealing with disunited masses of the enemies. Better off, their intelligence spells showed that there were other group fights happening all over the place. It looked like several heteromorph Clans and Guilds have decided to interfere into the raid as volunteer defenders or as a third side in the last big PVP battle that would happen in the Game, ever. Good, more confusion and defenders to stand between the enemy and Nazarick.

For an hour there were more sporadic clashes and skirmishes between various clans and guilds all around the Nazarick. Mercenaries were hired, NPCs were summoned, people would die and come back for more fight until they lost much of their gear and combat prowess until they would rage-quit from game. There was probably not a single neutral Mob still standing for hundreds of miles around the Nazarick as attacks and spells flying all around them would trigger them to join the fray and die.

Soon the divide between groups on the outskirts of the Tomb shifted and now people were there just because they knew someone else was. The place was littered with Player corpses since many just left the game without resurrecting or waited for any friendly healers to come and raise them.

Momonga utilized this well, for he was using the Player corpses and his skill [Dark Wisdom] to learn new spells. Most of the thing he picked up he chose just because it would theoretically complement the spells he already had or because they fit his theme of necromancer and master of magic.

"Momonga-san where are you, there is a free-for-all showdown between several people happening in the forest, I need your assistance to disrupt it" Touch-san sent into the group chat.

"There is also some interesting movement happening around the swamps to the north, some traders, merchants and a bunch of low-level scum have made a small camp right at the edge of the battle, I propose we pay them… eh how do you call it?" Ulbert also stated talking.

"A vis~"

"A beating, right! Let's pay them a beating!"

Ulbert was likely making the alternative just to counter Touch Me's proposal.

They all separated after one of the larger clashes, Ulbert chasing some poor terrified healer angel and Sebas fighting a glorious duel with some neutral blade master Player. Momonga meanwhile decided to look for more corpses to utilize.

As he was about to head off to the areas he hadn't checked before, he was hit with some sort of chain entangling skill.

"GUYS I'm being killed here, help!" Momonga said while instantly blinking few meters to his right.

Momonga saw how someone instantly used ability [Furious Charge] and rushed towards him. The moment he closed in, he used [Master Cleave] and struck out with his sword.

Only to hit nothing.

[Grasp Heart]

The moment enemy Warrior heard the spell he raised his shield to block it, but this type of magic dealt debuffs and damage even if resisted partially. Still the way he reacted was almost if some sort of sixth sense told him where the attack would come from. It came from above.

Human Warrior glanced up. Momonga was hanging from the tree with one hand and used the other to hurl the spell.

"Clever" the Player praised. Then, he shot up towards the branch.

The power of [The Heroic Leap] slammed him right into Momonga and two of them fell back to the floor. While the Warrior seemed like a swordsman build, he had many various warrior abilities besides that and had decent physical form as well as some knowledge of martial arts IRL. So instead of trying to stand up and slash at the Overlord, he simply lashed out with a kick while lying on the ground with his back.

That sent the Momonga right into the opposite part of the small clearing they fought in. Now, the enemy realized his error. While he prepared to use [Furious Charge], Momonga struck out again: "That hurt, [Napalm]".

The pillar of flame engulfed the Human, dealing damage and most importantly, blocking his eyesight. When he leaped out of the flame, he noticed that Momonga was chanting another spell

"[Chain Dragon Lighting]" The dragon-looking lighting rushed towards the Human and snaked its way around his shield, which he used to parry spells, before electrocuting the warrior. Damage from the hits was quite tolerable, but unexpectedly high, from non-arcane focused mage.

He rushed again, but instead of using [Furious Charge] that did no damage by itself, he used [Shield Charge] which had less range but dealt some damage and a knockback effect. Before Momonga could [Blink] again, he was hit with the shield and slammed back into the tree. The warrior used their positions to press Momonga into the wall, while also hitting him with the hilt of the sword right into forehead. While it was almost useless normally, being hit with the pommel counted as bludgeon damage.

"[Storm Cloak]" suddenly, Overlords body was engulfed in small lightings, which lashed out around him. Due to physical contact between him and the shield, Warrior started receiving quite a deal of damage, but the worst part was [Shock] effect that made it harder for him to do anything.

Still, it left Momonga being locked between the shield and the tree. So, he had to get out of this position - "[Arcane Blast]" - this spell did not have too much firepower, especially compared to some magics that Ulbert knew, but it had a huge knockback power.

While the Warrior was flying back. Momonga used a cash item to cast [Greater Lethal] on himself, replenishing his own HP. Now was the time to counterattack.

Momonga glanced at the warrior. It seems his opponent was in his lower 70–s or higher 60-s and had really poor gear. No wonder he barely dealt the level cap, Divine Item clad Overlord any damage while being in the melee range so long. Now, it was time to instill fear of Ainz Ooal Gown into the bastard. He Summoned a Death Knight, one of the two last ones for his current day limit.

Death Knight charged, Warrior did so too. Momonga glanced at the clock, it was 23:58 a last duel in the game, he could hear some phrases from Touch Me and Ulbert in the group chat but his beating heart and PVP mindset blocked it out, he would just chat up with them when it is over.

Two minutes… time to go all out.

He cast [Maximize Magic: Time Stop] this should overwhelm whatever pathetic time stop countermeasures the human has. Then Momonga did a [Delay Magic] curse combo that would put [Slowed Down], [Blinded], [Exhausted] and [Bleeding Out] debuffs the poor sap. Then he started chanting.

The moment the Time Stop ended, the warrior slammed into the Death Knight and performed a [Twohanded Cleave] and [Vicious Kick] combo. However, the Death Knight still has one last HP that he used to bash the warrior with the shield and start slashing. Then warrior was hit with an array of curses. He could barely operate the character with so many debuffs. However, he could see his remaining HP being chipped away by the summon. Then he suddenly saw [Burning] debuff add to the long list he already had. Then his HP plummeted to 0. [YOU DIED].

Momonga has won, he felt like a god in moments like these. He hastily used [Dark Wisdom] on the corpse and seen some another small spell being added to his list. But when he tried to open the menu, it didn't. In fact, the whole UI was gone. In fact, swamp was gone too. Where is he?