PARADISE LOST

Disclaimer: I do not own Overlord or Sword Art Online (SAO henceforth)

~ Undisclosed location ~

Aurorialis Nocturne, set to be released in the year 2039 after completing its beta test, was a VRMMO game published by Blackblade Studios, a subsidiary of RECT. Set in a fantasy world sprinkled with early industrial era elements it is, as was the majority of its kind, marketed to the public with an emphasis not on what one could play as (though it did have a fairly diverse selection of races) but rather on choices and how it would personally affect one's character, through the "Karma Aura" system.

The "Karma Aura" system was actually not an innovation, but a new take of an existing concept. Before, where a player's status and, in some games, their allegiance was indicated by color on their avatar or a symbol beside their stats. However, in AN Online it was not just the indicator that changed but also the character's appearance. Those who did things deemed "evil" such as player killing or PK in non-combat zones or after an unaccepted challenge earned negative karma whereas those who did "good" acts would receive positive karma and so forth.

The system, in fact, by design, devoted a large chunk of its memory on what the programmer deemed to be acceptable behavior and any acts done by the player were automatically logged. Using this as a basis, slowly but surely, the system would alter the player's appearance. No matter what equipment they wore, the total Karma they possessed would determine the appearance, subject to a limited form of customization, of course. For instance, those with a high amount of "good" karma would radiate an almost divine look. Their armor or weapons would become white, gleam and other associated traits of justice. On the other hand, those who committed acts of evil would emit a dark aura, their equipment darkening and becoming more pointed.

Despite this so called forced change on their avatar, players were still free to customize their appearance, limited only by the Karma appearance feature. Players had the option to purchase a different look for their avatar of course (otherwise everyone would look the same) but their actions would always leave a tell tale sign on their appearance such as dark and red colored weapons and so on. What the system really forced players to do was broadcast their deeds to the world via their avatar in some way.

One of the reasons for this was a feature of the game: revive penalty. The more times a player "died" in the game the longer it would take before they revived aside from the usual penalties. It was the intent of the programmer that this feature would discourage unbecoming behavior and encourage player friendliness based on the golden rule, if one experienced the discomfort of not being able to play for a long time then he or she should be able to sympathize with others and refrain from doing the same. Thus, players would flock towards the "radiant" players since they would, at the very least, not harm them in any way and that the Karma indicator was the only thing they could not change. On the other hand, other players would shun the "dark" characters as they were clearly trouble within the game. Staying neutral was all but impossible as acts would immediately be recorded once a person started.

While the game had other features such as the collective ability of players to alter the landscape, the Karma System was currently its most dominating feature. What was not known to the beta testers, however, was the fact that roughly a third of the players therein were either "Orange" or "Red" Players.

After the resolution of the SAO incident almost fifteen years ago, the authorities were at a loss on how to deal with these so called "oranges" and "reds". True, the system was indeed fatal as Kayaba Akihiro claimed and perpetrators were properly imprisoned for "killing" other players due to electronic evidence since it still fell in the legal definition of murder but there was a problem with a certain group.

Some weren't recorded or witnessed to have killed anyone but their status clearly indicated it as such.

Unable to prove that they committed the murders the prosecution instead relied on the technical wordings of the law and used the color status as circumstantial evidence. They argued that these players (never mind some weren't of the age of majority) were a danger to society and should at least be under house arrest or under probation. The High Court accepted the argument and passed down its decision setting the one and only precedent of this type of case in the world.

The result was that most of these young players were placed under house arrest. The decision also had other repercussions such as the termination of employment of some of the older ones in order to protect the name of the company or the ostracizing of players from friends.

A few years had passed and the programmer for AN Online approached these players and offered them the opportunity to beta test the game. In exchange, those with the "orange" status would have their records wiped clean while those in the "red" would receive a reduction in their sentence. The programmer had, by chance, a friend in the legal profession who discovered an obscure provision in the laws that could potentially release the SAO players. He had kept this part to himself as he secretly wanted their actions, their feelings, to be as genuine as possible when they played the game and see if they had actually reformed during these years. He certainly did. After all he wasn't completely innocent himself.

Well, that and the potential backlash of the deal.

"Nine individuals huh?" Kirito rubbed his tired eyes as he glanced at the screen. The Beta test was nearing its end but these guys...

He picked up his phone.

"I need to wrap some things up with the game. I'll be home soon."

~ ANO, Night Phase ~

"Hurry it up Ri," Vronn complained, "We can't get to the ambush point at this rate."

A group of players surrounded a paralyzed player on the ground. He was the last of his party that had unwittingly stumbled upon their aggressors while the latter was on their way to their true objective.

The group, nine in total, consisted of a wide variety of races and jobs that the game had to offer.

None of them were human.

AN Online's setting was set between the period of modernization and the dark ages. Only in the game's universe, magic was the dominant technology and science was dabbled at to solve things that was too impractical or expensive for magic. Due to the setting various creatures of lore still roamed the lands and it showed as such here.

In response to her companion's complaint, the female player brought her scythe down and decapitated the downed player. His avatar's "blood", really just red particles for the game's rating system, sprayed out for a moment before finally vanishing.

The female player inhaled. It was just an act though, they couldn't really breathe in-game. The truth was, her character was buffed by the attack on the enemy player slightly and glowed briefly to show that. This was because it was a passive skill of the Vampire race. While predatory non-human characters such as Werewolves and Vampires had a large number of passive traits in a fight, there was a subtle but significant difference on how each race would approach a battle.

It was useless now though. The player was the last of his unlucky party and the effect would wear off by the time they would get to the real ambush point they had planned for the night.

"I see everyone's having fun tonight," Came a disappointed voice.

The group looked up to see Kirito hovering in mid-air above them.

He was dressed in a more mature version of his Avatar from his ALO days, minus the elfin ears.

There was no sign of a weapon on him.

"Didn't you say to have fun when we first logged in?" Kiros asked. In his Werewolf Avatar, he seemed the largest of the group. His weapon, Hastati's bane, was as tall as he was and was strapped to his back.

"When I said that I was secretly hoping that you'd show me that you guys had changed," Kirito said, "Now look at you, all red players. Don't you have any shame?"

"What good is a game if we can't do what we want?" Growled another. He was a Troll, vaguely reptilian in origin and looked like a humanoid alligator.

"Doing the right thing," Kirito began, as if lecturing a child, "can get you where you want to be as much as doing this." He gestured to the place where the victimized party was before.

"I've been following the fight," He continued, "And those players will need to a few hours of waiting time before they can log back in. I designed this game to encourage friendly behavior among players, but you guys deliberately went the other way."

The black haired programmer sighed as he descended onto the ground.

"At this rate the courts will never grant you any clean records."

The group bristled at the declaration.

"What the hell are you saying?!" Yelled one in indignation, "You said if we beta test this game we'd get clean records!"

"You think I can just make them release you?" Kirito snorted, "The families of those who died in SAO want your asses in jail, not just house arrest. So when they heard of the deal I tried to make, they protested. Now, we reached an agreement. The deal was, if you guys show you reformed in this game via the karma system they'd drop the protest but if not..."

He let the last part hang. There was no need to spell it out.

The group directed a hateful glare at him.

"We didn't kill those guys!" Vronn protested, "They can't prove anything. We shouldn't even be under arrest in the first place!"

"But the SAO system shows you did kill someone during that time," Kirito countered, "Despite the fact that Kayaba announced in the square at day one."

"Bullshit!" roared the Troll, "That asshole trapped us in there, rigged our helmets to kill our real bodies, and we get blamed?!"

The programmer's words clearly snapped something within the group because they moved to attack Kirito. In response, he held out a hand as if ward them off.

And they froze in place.

The reason why he did not have a weapon on him was that as GM, none of his actions were restricted in the slightest in the game. He could tap the ground and it would erupt as if a high level destructive spell was cast or he could move at blazing speeds. He could even masquerade as a player and have the maximum amount of stats. After tweaking the system of course. In other words if it could be done in the game, he could do so freely.

"Maybe there was an excuse back then," the programmer said evenly, "But such a situation does not exist here."

The nine struggled to move but only succeeded in trembling moderately. Under this condition, they were as puppets held aloft by the puppeteer.

"Would you have acted differently if told of the condition?" Kirito continued, "Maybe, but we'll never know now. The deal with the authorities was made even before-"

"BASTARD!"

Kirito's eyes widened with surprise when a black and red scythe rushed toward his face. Years of instinct allowed him to dodge the attack by moving backwards and then again when another strike was launched.

"YOU WERE THERE TOO!" She raged, swing her weapon savagely, "I was there when we subjugated Laughing Coffin! You're NOT innocent either!"

"She was there too?" Kirito asked himself, surprised. Then again, he didn't really mingle with the subjugation force despite knowing that some of them could be killed in the endeavor.

"FUCKING HYPOCRITE!" Another attack came.

"How did she-?" He wondered as he evaded, suddenly remembering he was invincible in the game which calmed him down.

Continuing to dodge out of instinct, Kirito pondered if this was remnants of the old SAO and ALO system he included in the game. If so this was a bug to be removed.

The female player, Kirito noted she was of the High Vampire race, continued to attack despite that he had evaded all of her previous attacks. Though the Avatar System did not allow it, there was obviously murder in her eyes; her attacks were executed fluidly, indicating hours of practice.

In the game, there was no hit-box. This meant that, aside from all basic attacks having to be aimed manually, it was a pre-requisite that said attacks actually hit their target as well. This, combined with the limb-damage system, meant that combat was much more dynamic than most VRMMO games.

Kirito pondered on how he could make the system better. Despite attacks that would incapacitate lower or equal level players, he could think of such thoughts. Such was his state of invulnerability in the game. At least, that was how things were supposed to be.

One of the player's strikes missed his body. However, rather than transitioning into another attack she instead reversed the strike so that the small blade behind the weapon's main body grazed Kirito's cheek.

He leapt further back this time to examine the damage. It registered. This was indicated by a red gash on his face. Kirito looked at the player and saw she glowing a bright crimson, almost pinkish in color. It must have been some variant of a stat drain passive skill. Since Kirito's stats were off the charts as GM, the small percentage she received as a buff must have been immense.

Intriguing.

The High Vampire hefted her scythe and leapt forward, her speed much closer to Kirito's now because of the buff. Her blade screamed towards the programmer's neck before she was blown away.

"Dinner's getting cold," said a sweet voice.

Everyone turned to see a blue haired fairy standing relatively close to Kirito, a white and gold rapier thrust out before him.

"Uh, sorry Asuna," Kirito mumbled apologetically, "I was just wrapping things up here."

"Good," She said as she turned towards the player who struggled to rise. The basic attack of a GM had all but reduced a level capped, melee-type player's HP to zero.

"I'll just take out the trash then."

"No! Leave it!" Kirito said, realizing Asuna must have been eavesdropping. Did she suspect he was cheating on her or something?

"I've said what I wanted to say."

"Oh, and one more thing." Kirito addressed the group as a whole, "I already have enough data to begin the Alpha stage. This means I'm shutting down the Beta server."

A message from the GM appeared in every player's mailbox. Once opened, it contained the declaration Kirito had announced to the group along with a timer to the remaining hours the game had left.

Four days.

"Enjoy it while it lasts."

The two former ALO players disappeared without any fanfare and suddenly everyone was able to move again.

"Bastard," Vronn spat as he tested his movement, "At least you hurt his ego."

"Looks like its back to driving delivery trucks." Someone in the group muttered sadly.

"Hey! I wanna see what people's reactions are to having their accounts wiped!" Kaku, a Deep Naga, exclaimed. Despite his avatar's fearsome appearance he had an easygoing voice.

"Hmph!" Vronn snorted, "They're probably clapping each other on their backs right now, congratulating each other for a thankless job."

"Yeah, probably gonna hold a sappy goodbye in-game picnic or something." Kiros mocked.

Upon hearing this a malicious thought entered Vronn's mind.

"Why don't we join them?" He said, adding an evil smile, "Instead ambushing a party, why not everyone who's gathered for a little picnic and dressed for the occasion?"

He was referring to how players would divest themselves of their high level gear when attending a social gathering. Usually there were guards, but there was a possibility this event would be held outside due to the "momentous" nature of it.

The party would take advantage of it by rampaging through them until either side was wiped out. It would be the largest ambush in the game's history. Even if the game were to end such an event would be branded in the players' memories forever.

The battle would be legendary!

A chorus of affirmations rang out among the group as they realized the implications of their actions. All except from one. The High Vampire player stood quietly amongst the group.

"Well GM-killer?" Kiros asked, "You in?"

"I'm in."

~ Yggdrasil, Great Tomb of Nazarick ~

"The relic of the past huh?" Momonga thought sadly.

It was the final day of the game he and his friends had played for years, but only three logged on in response to the emails he had shamelessly sent.

None had stayed.

"Haaah, I guess this is it..." He sighed as he watched the countdown timer near the end.

23:59:54

"Ugh, I'm gonna have to wake up early tomorrow..."

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

...

00:00:00

00:00:01

00:00:02

00:00:03...

"What the-?" Momonga blinked.

"Did they push back the server shutdown?" The veteran player wondered.

He tapped the air in front of him to open up his console and was greeted with- nothing

Surprised, he tried again and once more the console failed to materialize. Next he tried to call the GM but the call would not connect.

"What's happening?!" He rose in a panic, "Where's my console? Why can't I contact the GM?"

"Momonga-sama, is something wrong?"

Momonga looked down in surprise. Who said that? Wasn't Albedo and all other NPC's head bowed down a few moments ago? Now, all of their eyes were trained on him.

"Momonga-sama, is something the matter?"

Momonga's brain ground to a halt due to the sheer impossibility of the event. It was impossible because the game simply did not have that sort of feature even after twelve years' worth of updates. At least, not to this degree.

The line spoken came from Albedo.

~ AN Online, Four days later, Walkiria ~

"Well, that was a thing." Kaku sighed.

The plan they had formulated had worked beyond their wildest dreams.

During the last few hours of the game those players who cared enough had gathered to hold a festivity. Just as the nine had expected they were dressed in non-combat gear that, while it still had some special effects, were mostly just for show. During the last two days, a majority of the players had behaved recklessly, doing things that they would have never done such as selling their prized gear or simply strolling into places where they had never dared to venture before for fear of the re-spawn penalty.

Then the announcement for the event came.

As players trickled in and began to mingle, those in the group of nine with the skill [Sneak] or its other permutations had labored to set traps that would inflict status ailments of varying degrees. As reckless as the other players, the group spared no expense for the endeavor whether it be on materials or upgrades. What did it matter anyway since the game was about to end?

Once the gathering had reached its peak and the countdown timer appeared in the sky everyone had looked up to watch. No one had even bothered to scan the area for anything cloaked. Why would they?

Then, minutes just before the time reached zero, the ambush began. The traps were detonated and a large majority of players were affected. Those that weren't were quickly hit by AOE de-buff skills from the group's magic players. Then the melee players charged in, attacking indiscriminately.

The stat de-buffs, combined with the lack of proper equipment resulted in a large number of casualties initially. Some players were not so foolish as to discard all of their equipment and quickly donned them, but it was too late. They were already hit by the status effects.

Nevertheless once the chaos and initial shock had subsided, all the players present turned to confront their aggressors. The gathering did not really consist of all the players of the game. Others had logged out, seeing no point in staying. Others still, decided to hold their own much more private event. All in all, it was safe to say that the group was up to roughly seven against one. Only two of those in average was armed.

Still the numbers was a leverage in itself and the group was slowly but surely cut down. Just as wolves could not normally hunt large prey alone and relied on numbers to bring down said opponents so too were ANO's PKers brought down in a similar fashion.

It wasn't enough.

HP and other base stats meant nothing if not backed up by the proper equipment. There was also the issue of status ailments inflicted on most of them. The group systematically cut through them until there were only four of the original nine left.

"Yeah, we still have a couple of minutes." Another surviving member snorted.

Walkiria hefted her scythe onto her shoulders by habit, saying nothing as she was kore concerned on what she was going to do once she "woke up".

"I vote for twiddling our thumbs!," Kaka said cheerfully. As he said that, the Naga's barbed tail twitched.

An idea shot through the group. They were not really an official group in the game. They were not even friends, in game or in real life. They simply remembered each other's names and sent messages for routine hunts. Rather, it was just that they had spent enough time to know each other well enough to reach a common path when making decisions.

They slowly looked at each other, and saw that the survivors had reached the same conclusion. Hands tightened on their weapons as old grudges, petty arguments and even simple dislike resurfaced in their minds, all of which were swept aside due to expediency of the moment...but not forgotten.

The four slowly faced each other and readied themselves. Preparatory skills and spells activated and items were consumed.

It would be a real fight now.

~ Great Tomb of Nazarick, Guild Master's Office ~

Slow clapping could be heard as the view from the Magic Mirror had finally changed.

"Congratulations Momonga-sama!" Sebas exclaimed in his dignified elderly voice.

"Thank you," Momonga said as he turned to face Sebas, "And sorry to make you do this with me."

"What are you saying Momonga-sama? It is my duty as Butler of Nazarick to serve beside you."

Momonga made an "Umu" sound. Over the past few days he had begun to feel tired over everyone speaking to him with honorifics and the sense of responsibility that came along with it almost made him run to his room and hide there. Still, he was slowly getting used to it. This, and his experience as a salaryman, allowed him to quickly adapt to the leadership role though as being in a workplace meant that everyone's jobs were clearly delineated including that of the boss.

Putting aside these thoughts, he turned his skeletal face to the mirror. Much like a certain comrade of his in the past, he had hit the jackpot after the first (accidental) try.

The mirror, specifically designed to find players, had done its job as it revealed a person walking in a forest. This person, however, was clearly not human. Not if her scythe-like wings were any indicator. She wore equipment that was utterly unfamiliar to Momonga and his inner collector felt the urge to ask her questions about it when they would meet.

"Let's see..." He gestured and the image zoomed out so he now had an aerial view.

Momonga wanted to see if there was a place where they could meet properly as he wished to avoid unnecessary confrontation. A sudden appearance might interpreted as an ambush. Ainz Ooal Gown was a guild notorious for PKing after all. Besides, it was not yet ruled out that said person might not even be a player. Highly unlikely but still probable.

"A village? This seems to be the right type of place." He said, as he zoomed in.

Reconnaissance was a basic skill in Yggdrasil after all, and doubly so for a PKer. It was only natural that Momonga would put his hard earned skills to use.

"Are they holding a festival?" The player-turned Lich wondered.

"No, I believe not." Sebas said with disgust in his voice.

Momonga zoomed in to see knights in armor attacking what appeared to be just ordinary villagers. It wasn't even a battle. It was a massacre. Every swing of the sword saw it return with blood and the townspeople could mount no significant resistance against the armored men.

Momonga once more felt unease but it wasn't because of the killing in front of him. As a member of society he should have felt disgusted or at least outraged at the sight before him but it felt like Momonga was watching a nature documentary where insects devoured their prey. It appears his theory that his mental state was slowly becoming that of a Lich was correct after all.

"What should we do?" Sebas asked him, his voice clearly eager for any action to help the villagers.

"Nothing, they have no strategic value to Nazarick." Momonga swiftly answered. There was little to no benefit in helping. It was also quite possible that humans of this world could be as strong as Level 100 players.

"Understood." Sebas replied in a sad tone.

As he said this he briefly saw the image of Touch Me, his first friend in Yggdrasil, over Sebas' form. Touch Me had saved him when he was just about to be killed by players hunting heteromorphic players. If he had died back then he had resolved to quit the game out of frustration.

"If the road is harsh, it is only natural to help!"

"Touch-san, I will repay the favor." Momonga thought as the memory receded.

"However, that village with its people will be a suitable backdrop to meet that player," Momonga declared as he stood up, "Plus I will have to test my powers in this world eventually anyway."

Secretly, he also hoped that by showing the player that Ainz Ooal Gown wasn't really composed of bad people it would lessen chances of open confrontation and maybe even forge useful alliances for Nazarick.

"Sebas I'll be going ahead. Raise the alert level of Nazarick and tell Albedo to meet up with me fully armed."

Sebas acknowledged his orders enthusiastically while Momonga pulled out the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"[Gate]"

Author's note:

Another story from me! Well, truthfully this one's been sitting in the back for a while. Its a bit of an experiment to get me to write more OP sequences since I tend to be quite reserved in fight scenes in all of my stories.

As the title suggests, this is an SAO/Overlord crossover but I'll only be using some SAO concepts and while the rest will primarily be Overlord. In short, SAO will only be a springboard and nothing else so apologies to those of you expecting Kirito to show up past this point.

The issue presented here was something I've been wondering ever since the conclusion of season 1 of SAO. Not what happened to the main characters, but rather to other people who have been trapped in a virtual nightmare for over a year. They must have needed some psychological and physical therapy after all that. Then we come to the orange and red players. How did society deal with them afterwards? The SAO incident was pretty public so I imagine the events were pretty hard to cover up. The events here are how I'd imagine it would have been dealt, that is to say the fear and bias against one labeled by their status color. Unlike the bias in Yggdrasil Online, which was superficial and petty, the SAO one has some reasoning behind it.

And obviously the MC is one of those players. Care to guess what her status color was in SAO?

As to how she was able to break out of a system command lock by the programmer well... SAO has never played the cold, hard numbers (stats!) game in direct contrast to Overlord firmly entrenching its mechanics on the game's rules. As was stated here, it was a quirky remnant of the system. In that regard, SAO might as well have been just a generic fantasy adventure if that was the case. However, I will admit that the premise, while not original, was very compelling at first.

And now for some trivia:

This chapter was originally titled "The Birth of Evil" as seen from the viewpoint of the New World inhabitants, but was changed to its current title to better reflect the situations of Momonga and the ANO character.

Well, since the Plavsky Effect got two updates in a row, I think I'll work on a Grimgar/Persona update. It'll also give me time to iron out this story's outline up to "The Bloody Valkyrie" Arc. Hopefully.

Until next time.