NOVEL NEXT Side chapter: Alt End, one shot (86)
Side chapter: Alt End
The nuclear hellfire burned her as she tumbled through the air. Visha held tightly in her arms. The older woman wasn’t breathing. The pain, the fire, and the radiation had proved too much for her.
Tanya, however, wasn’t so lucky. She could feel it, death rearing his head to her. It was hard to not give in. At least, for anyone but her. The hate for that supposed god keeping her going. The mana flowing through her purged the radiation from her body and blood.
Though, she could tell, she was a corpse in all but name. Her body was scorched beyond all recognition. The golden hair that she was famous for had been burned away. Her skin that was still somehow soft, was now burnt and cracked.
The only thing that remained the same was her eyes, a deep blue that held power within. As she plummeted to the earth and to certain doom, she wondered what that was all about.
How Being X was seemingly burnt be something that had been brought forward along with the atom bomb. Though, it didn’t matter now, she was going to die on impact. She wondered how it would feel this time, probably the same, as she would imagine.
There she fell, and fell, and fell with Visha’s corpse in her arms. The ground could be seen now. The burnt husk of the capital of the Empire greeted her. The shallow, yet wide crater spoke volumes of how powerful this bomb had been. She judged it to be bigger than the two dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, back in her old earth.
‘Oh, there’s the Earth,’ she spoke in her mind as her body hit the earth, splattering into a dry paste.
…
“Woah,” a voice in Japanese spoke, “you two went all out on these two, huh?” the voice continued.
Tanya couldn’t see, but she could hear them. People, from what she gained. They seemed to be huddling around her. They, for lack of a better term, felt powerful.
There were three. All of them in front of her. There was a fourth, but she felt, yes Tanya could feel that it was a she, was like her. much less powerful, much less commanding. It was then that she opened her eyes, and panicked.
Tanya, a human person with a human mind, could see in a 360-degree radius around herself. Though, for some odd reason, she could display panic on her face. Then again, she might not want to. For the people in front of her, well they didn’t look like people.
One was skeletal, another took the form of some sort of bipedal octopus, the last was a four-winged bird man. She couldn’t make it up if she tried. She also noticed that she could focus her attention and sight on one section of her sight.
Though, this made her eyesight much more focused and precise. That wasn’t all. She could see someone behind her. This person was the very same person who she felt on par with, on the same level with.
Tanya didn’t know how to feel about this gut feeling going through her. They were emotions, instincts. She could tell. However, at the same time she could really reason out what was going on here. So, she focused on the conversation.
“I know,” said the skeleton that felt more than he was, “I felt a bit conflicted when you asked to make the models for these two. As I started to mold them, though, they came alive in my mind. It was almost like they were there, in front of me, and I was merely copying them onto screen,” he spoke in a tone that the other two seemed shocked and a little entertained by.
One word struck Tanya though; and it was the use of the word screen. He said he copied them onto the screen. What does that mean for her? What does that mean for her life. She could tell, this was real, at least for her.
Her body felt more powerful than she did in her last life by a long shot. She felt parts of her body that were there that weren’t there in her last life. Though, she felt constrained. She felt as though she couldn’t move. As if she were bound. She didn’t like it of course, but she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t even meant to be able to think.
Those suspicions were proven correct by the next sentence.
“I mean, we need NPCs that can move across multiple floors, we needed them even before the big raid, and we need some after much more so,” the octopus said.
“Yeah Tabula, we need more manpower if we want to stop a raid like that from happening again,” the bird man said, “I mean, even after all of that and we pushed them back I’m still nervous. After all, not everyone’s characters are all online most of the time.”
NPCs, Raids, floors, characters. This was starting to sound like an MMO. A massively multiplayer online game. A shiver went up her spine at the thought of it. sure, she had been chucked into WW1, but what would this be like.
She could feel it, the order to not move. The order to stop and stand where she was. It was natural. It felt like something she was born with, like hair or a pair of hands. She didn’t like it at all.
“I know, that’s why I wanted to make a good and speedy allrounder NPC that could get from floor to floor easy. But something was missing. So, I made another one and that fixed the itch that I gave me,” Tabula explained.
“I know what you mean man,” the bird explained but then continued, “or like, in a superficial way. My sister has had that same feeling before and complained about it,” he said.
The skeleton nodded his skull. A hand on his chin as he seemingly contemplated something deep. He then looked back to Tabula and asked a question.
“What kind of person is she supposed to be though? I know you like Gap Moe but making all of your characters that gets kind of repetitive, you know?” he said with a slightly complaining tone.
“I know, but nonetheless I have made her fall into that category. She is supposed to be an angel of the highest plain but hates her duty. So, she left and found a female demoness and the two of them fell in love. That’s about it. She loves duty, just not divine duty,” he explained her supposed personality.
That was close, though. At least, she could recognize herself in that description. Angel though, that was a bit of a stretch. She wasn’t really that far gone, she hadn’t been corrupted that much by the Type 95.
She then decided to focus on the new her. After all, she had a feeling that she would be here for a while. It was then that she realized just how different she was. Her mind decided that it was the best time to tell her all the things that she had ignored when she had first awakened to this life.
Four arms, six wings, that was how many limbs she had. Other than the two legs she had; she was completely inhuman. Or at least, that’s how she would look objectively at herself.
She didn’t know what any of this new information would mean for her new life. After all, she didn’t expect to be made an NPC from a video game she hadn’t ever played before. If she was a NPC from a game like WoW, then she might know what she was getting herself into.
She stopped her internal panic masked as logical thought and focused on what was being said around her. Name, that was the word that had caught her attention.
“I think I shall name her, Tanyaell Citrinitas; and her demoness lover that shall never leave her side, Viktoriya,” Tabula said, and Tanya drew a blank.
‘What?’ her mind came up with.
…
Visha followed Tanya through the halls of the 9th floor of the tomb. Tanya herself was following their master, Momonga. It had been years since she opened her eyes, and they were more numerous than what she had remembered from her past life.
In this new life, she had heard much and done little. She was apparently something called an, NPC. From what she heard, that meant Non-player-character. When she had first opened her eyes and was met with a new would around, she thought it was a dream.
After all, what kind of life was this supposed to be? Life as an unliving thing? From what little details she snatched in the early years of her life here, she learned that she was in some kind of simulation land. A land known to the players of it as Yggdrasil.
She was also shocked to learn that Tanya was here as well as herself. She didn’t know if this Tanya and her Tanya were one and the same, but she hoped they were. After all, it was strange feeling what she felt for Tanyaell.
The strange and artificial emotions that plagued her mind weren’t all unwelcome, per say. It was just that, it felt strange for her. She was fairly certain that the other NPCs weren’t alive like her and Tanya.
At least, she was certain that they weren't alive like her. They didn’t really, “talk,” to each other like her and Tanya did. The two of them were the only NPCs that could move from floor to floor. All the way to the 5th to the 9th.
Whenever it was just the two of them, they would activate voice lines to each other. Things like, “Hello, what do you need of me?” and “Good Moring, My liege.” It was nice.
There were also the thoughts of love that kept bubbling up in her mind. The man that had made her in this life, Visha couldn’t really think of him as her father, had made her the lover of Tanya or at least had the intention to do so. Visha didn’t really mind though.
Sure, in their last life Tanya was a minor, but in this life, they were the same age. It also didn’t hurt that her more human parts looked rather nice. While she did have six wings, four arms, and a ring that orbited around her temples and brows, her legs and chest simply looked nice.
Visha didn’t know if that was the artificial emotions talking, or her rather unorthodox feelings on women.
“Hah, no one came. Not even Touch-san,” their new master of several years sighed, “you know, he really liked you two. At least, he seemed to like the design of you two; especially you, Viktoriya,” he said, stopping and turning back to the two of them.
Viktoriya had only seen herself in the mirror once. What she had seen back then had frightened her somewhat, and if she could jump out of her own skin, she would have.
Three scorpion tails came from her backside, three purple eyes on her face, a mouth lined with sharp needle-like teeth, and brown hair that twirled lazily in the air. She also had five small, pokey horns that came from her forehead.
She thought she was supposed to be some kind of chimera demon. But other than that, she only really had her levels that she could see to describe herself with.
Tanya stopped and emoted at him with a slightly questioning pose.
“Do you have use of us, my Liege?” she spoke in that strangely Tanya-like voice that she had; and put a hand to her chest and leaned forward.
“No, it’s nothing,” he said and continued to walk, mumbling to himself about talking to NPCs and how he was going crazy.
They continued down the hall, her master sometimes stopping when an NPC passed by and simply looking through their information slot. It was truly strange to her that someone could live like he did. Made her think about how he lived his life when off of Yggdrasil. He seemed like such a sad man, when he would complain while managing the tombs finances that it had for some reason.
As they made their way to the throne room, they found themselves in front of the battle maids. Her master of several years then decided to bring them along with them for the last five minutes of the walk to the throne room.
Visha didn’t know how to feel about the supposed battle maids. In her mind, she knew that they were simply there to stop any invaders that got this far, and she knew that they were more of a measure to slow down any enemies rather than kill.
However, there was also the fact that most of them were cute girls. It made her think that the players of the guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, simply wanted to design and make some cute girls.
…
As they neared the doors, Visha looked at Tanya, and she could tell Tanya was looking at her as well. This world was ending. That much they knew. They didn’t know what would happen to them after the incident, but they did know that they weren’t alone for it.
The two doors opened, one was designed with the visage of an angel, the other a demon. The angel was supposed to be Tanya, and the demon Visha. The doors had used to be decorated with a different pair of mythical beings, but the designer for the doors had changed them.
The group entered the throne room to find it rather empty. The only thing pervading the space was Tanya’s older sister in this life, the throne of kings, and the 41 flags of the players of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown.
Momonga walked forward, and up to the throne. He raised his hand for the NPCs to stop, and only then did Tanya and Visha stop walking. The others of course, didn’t. As the noise of them still walking behind him was heard. He looked back to see Tanya and Visha standing by the throne’s left side, the other’s still walking up the steps.
“Ah, what was that command again?” he asked himself, ignoring the strange actions of the first two, for they did stuff such as this all the time.
“Stand down,” he commanded, and the Pleiades battle maids as well as their leader stopped following him and stood off to the right side of the throne.
As Momonga sat down on the throne, he looked up to all the banners show casing the different embalms of the different players of the guild. He pointed to each and every single one and listed off their names.
“Touch me, Ulbert Aline Odle, Bukubukuchagama, and finally me,” he pointed to the last one, then spoke in a solemn voice, “God dammit! They all left! None of them are here! None of them came!” he huffed.
He then sighed and looked to his right side to the NPC that stood there with a perfect, yet fake smile on her face. Visha could tell, she could tell that the NPC underneath that smile was mad. She was mad at the people that weren’t there.
“Now, let’s get my mind off of that,” he said, turning to Albedo, “let’s see what your bio is like, shall we?” he said.
As he brought up the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, an item that he had held since he walked out of the meeting hall when no one came, it glowed and a wall of text appeared. Visha could swear that Tanya was reading it, but she herself couldn’t read it.
Then, he read the last line out loud.
“She is also a slut, heh!?” he screamed and shouted at the same time, “that is just a disservice to the NPC man! It’s not even Gap Moe!” he continued, “she’s a succubus. It would make more sense if she was a virgin!” he shouted once more.
He then brought up the staff again and deleted the line. Then he put a finger to his chin and thought out loud once more.
“Hm, what shall I do now?” he then chuckled as he put a hand to his mouth, “Lets put, “she is also in love with Momonga,” he typed down.
As he exited the wall of text, he giggled to himself once more and spoke softly to himself.
“Man, I’m such a dork,” he said and leaned back while sighing, “It was blast though. All those hours, day spent together. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
He spoke, the light in his eyes blinking shut, yet the world didn’t end. Then she felt it. A shift, her breathing in her chest was felt, the smells she couldn’t smell before; and the power and authority that her master emitted was more potent.
“Something’s happened,” spoke Tanya, her voice being more clear now, more organic.
Momonga raised his head and opened his eyes, staring hard at Tanya. In response, she shifted from one foot to another. Momonga was seemingly at a loss for words. So was Visha, as that wasn’t a line of dialogue that Tanya should even be able to say.
“You dare speak out of turn sister!” Albedo yelled, and Tanya looked at her with a quirked-up brow.
“You have as well, Albedo,” Tanya spoke plainly, and Visha chuckled at the response.
However, the snarl on the other woman’s face made her mood drop somewhat. The snarl was rather frightening, but the look of utter blankness that Tanya was giving her simply made Visha’s mood heighten even more so.
Just as Albedo was about to speak out to Tanya, Momonga spoke.
“Shush, everyone, I need to think,” he said with a worried hand to his forehead, that response shut everyone up.
“Something has changed,” he spoke, “the GM call isn’t working, and the message spell won’t connect to anyone I call,” he said worryingly.
“My Lord, I am sorry, but I do not know of this, “GM call,” you speak of,” she said, “Please punish me!” she finished with a distressingly loud plea to punish her.
“Albedo, I’m not going to punish you for something you don’t understand,” her master said then pointed to the leader of the battle maids, “Sebas, go outside the great tomb and scout out around a perimeter of about one Kilometer to try and see if there is anything of note,” he ordered, and the butler obeyed.
Then he pointed to the battle maids and ordered them to do another task.
“Pleiades, go to the first floor and aid in any defenses that we might need put up. If any foes come and attack, try and take them here while not killing them,” he said, and the battle maids bowed their heads and went to work.
Finally, turning to Tanya, and by extension, Visha. He told them to fly up and above the first floor and try and see anything in the sky that might seem out of place.
“Oh, course my liege,” Tanya spoke and saluted.
…
She then turned around and walked out of the throne room, with Visha in tow. Visha peered at Tanya as they walked. The angel herself looking at the demoness with slight curiosity.
As they neared the top floor after about 15 minutes of silence, they flew into the air. Tanya did so with her wings, and Visha used the, “Fly,” spell she had been taught when she was made in this life.
They then breached the cloud cover and took it all in. Visha ignoring the sky around them after and looking at Tanya with slight shyness.
“Tanya, is that you? It’s just that we’ve never actually spoken. I was absolutely sure that it was you. But I still can’t be certain even after all these years of being locked up like that,” Visha said while looking at her, eyes slightly watery, so if that is you,” she gulped, “please say so…”
“Visha,” Tanya spoke, “I don’t know what to think. I love the fact that you’re here with me during all this,” she said with emotion, spreading two of her arms wide, “But at the same time, it must have been torture. I don’t think they meant for the two of us to be like how we were,” she said with sadness.
“I know,” Visha tearfully said, “I was just wondering what we do now. After all, we aren’t bound to this tomb anymore. But at the same time, I don’t want to leave. After all, we know nothing about this world. The world outside of the tomb is supposed to be a swamp, and yet it is all of this…”
As she said that, she gestured to the world around them. The two looked around themselves. The ground was flat, the skies were clear. Tanya floated closer to the other woman. Visha noticed this, but didn’t say anything.
“Visha,” Tanya spoke in a husky whisper, “I want to know how you feel with these artificial feeling put into us,” she spoke gently and gingerly; she then sucked in a breath and glanced down, the sight of all of her eyes looking at the ground while they were so close together was comical, and Visha giggled.
“Visha, I care for you. Not like the type of care that these artificial feelings are, but before. I liked you. I don’t know how else to say this. I don’t know what to think about these feelings. All I know is that I think that this is a good time to tell you about them,” Tanya spoke softly.
Visha blushed at this, not knowing what to say to that. She then looked at Tanya’s cheeks, a light blush was present. Visha smiled at that.
“Tanya, I’ll show you now how I would tell the person I love about my feelings,” Visha said, and Tanya looked at her with a quizzical brow raise.
Visha leaned in close, and locked lips with the startled Tanya, the angel leaning in close after she realized how good Visha’s kiss tasted.
One of Tanya’s hands reached around the other woman’s waist. Pulling in the slightly shocked demoness. It was one thing to be kissed, and to initiate the kiss. It was another to find themselves dominated when they were the one who made the first move.
Visha soon arched her back into it, Tanya leading the war of the tongues in their mouths. The mood was soon ended when they got a call in the form of a, “message,” spell.
“Yes, My liege?” Tanya Answered.
“I want you to come down to the Colosseum on the 6th floor. Report there. Most of the other floor guardians will be there,” he ordered.
“Of course, my liege. I’ll be there as soon as I can,”
she responded, and he hung up the call.She turned to Visha and repeated the new orders that the two of them had been given. Visha herself was somewhat saddened by the news that they had to stop now, the artificial emotions put into them when they were made in this life stacking up on already existing care and love.
“Maybe we can get some alone time in our room later?” Tanya asked with slight nervousness, not because of the romance aspect, but because of the fact that she didn’t know how to approach the leader of the tomb.
…
Tanya walked through the entryway to the Colosseum. To her, it seemed like everyone of note was there. The guardian of the 7th floor, Demiurge. The twin guardians of the 6th floor, Aura and Mare. As well as the guardians of the 5th and first-through-third floor. The guardian of the 5th was Cocytus, and the guardian of the first three was Shalltear.
Tanya had never actually met Shalltear before, or at least seen her as she couldn’t actually reach that floor before. Tanya also didn’t know how to talk to these people outside of the information her bio had.
She knew that she was supposed to call Momonga “My Liege,” and that she was duty bound to him for one reason or another. She also knew that Albedo, Rubedo, and Negredo were supposed to be her sisters.
Momonga was also there, wielding the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, she reckoned. It was so strange, to be able to tell that the name was simply German mixed up and such. She didn’t know if Momonga spoke it, though.
As she looked across the others, she noticed that they had lined up in a line and were kneeling at him. Tanya herself, along with Visha, lined up as well and kneeled. Sebas also joined in at the same time.
Tanya smiled at her timeliness. In all honesty, she didn’t know how they would react to her not acting in the same way she did. After all, they all seemed to have an urgent zealousness to their actions and underlying stature.
The others seemed to have been waiting for the perfect moment for this, as they all spoke. Tanya, not knowing about this, panicked at first, but then copied their words. She wouldn’t be caught lacking, after all.
“To you, our undying lord, we swear our loyalty from henceforth and forever more! For this, we swear!” Albedo spoke.
“This we swear!” the rest, as well as Tanya and Visha vowed.
Momonga nodded his head, as he swept his arms wide, a blackness that Tanya and Visha could have sworn have been turned on by accident, enveloped him.
“Very well then, I will accept your vow of loyalty everyone! Everyone raise your heads as well,” he spoke with power, and Tanya could almost hear how strained his voice was, not used to commanding tones and words as it was.
Everyone raised there heads, not that Tanya needed to do so, she could see him just fine with her ring of eyes. Visha though, couldn’t see him, at least not until she raise her head.
“Now,” he pointed his staff to Sebas and Tanya in rapid succession, “Report on what is happening on the outside,” he commanded, and Tanya had to hand it to him, he was adjusting on the fly rather well.
“Of course, my lord,” Sebas started, as he was pointed to first, “the land that surrounds The Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick appears to be simple flatland. The grass is rather normal, the animals quite ordinary, and the forest that is just outside of the flatland is plain. There is nothing else to report,” Sebas said with a rather curt politeness.
“The skies are clear and dark. It appears to be night outside right now. There is a single, slightly bluish moon; and it is marked with deep craters all over its surface. There is no floating land that I could spot, there were no nocturnal animals, and the clouds are rather sparce, if a bit on the larger side,” Tanya explained with a blank face.
She had heard that there was floating land back in Yggdrasil from passing conversation from the members of the guild. She assumed it would be strange if she didn’t mention that there wasn’t any floating land in the air if everyone else knew.
Momonga nodded his head, thinking it all over. Tanya could swear she heard gears turning in the salary worker turned undead overlord’s head.
“Since we are obviously in a new world, or at least in an area of Yggdrasil I do not know of, then that means that we do not know of the current power scaling of the area we are in. that also implies that we may be the weakest entities out here,” spoke absentmindedly, “so, if we wish to gather information, we must conceal ourselves so we stay hidden so as to not alert anyone to powerful to our presence,” he said, then looked up.
“Does anyone have any ideas on how we can hide the tomb. After all, to anyone that knows of this location and area, we must certainly look quite curious simply appearing here; all alone,” he said.
Mare raised his hand, and Momonga pointed to it and inclined his head for him to speak.
“I could hide the walls with earth and mud… Make it look like we’re a hill or something to that effect… I could also create a lot of dummy hills around the area to make it look less inconspicuous,” the crossdresser spoke, and Tanya smiled at the young boy for coming up with such a smart idea.
Apparently, Albedo thought otherwise. She snarled, something she was doing a lot more of in recent times. Tanya frowned at that reaction to an honest question. Of course, it was an honest question in her mind. It wasn’t really an honest question in the minds of the truly genius of the tomb.
“You would sully the walls of the tomb that our supreme beings built!?” she basically screamed at the poor stuttering boy.
Before anyone else could get a word in, Tanya looked at her sister with a deeply, utterly unamused look on her face. She spoke in a tone that broke no argument, and simply stated a fact. Tanya, as the head of security for the tomb, or at least that was the title she was given, decided to stop this petty little train of thought and put the words and security of Momonga and the tomb as a whole first.
One might think that this counted as her talking back to a superior, but it did not in fact. Tanyaell Citrinitas, wasn’t a guardian, so Albedo did not in fact oversee her. A fact that Tanya seemed to like in some gremlin part of her mind.
“Albedo, stop yelling obscenities at Mare. My liege just asked us all a simple question, and Mare has just answered that question. The security of the tomb is at stake, so I ask that you put aside your pride and stop yelling at him,” she said, and Albedo looked stupefied.
“Well said, Tanyaell, well said,” Momonga spoke, earning a surprised gasp from Albedo and most of the other guardians.
“I was simply asking you all a question of how to best defend the tomb in uncertain times. Mare has supplied an answer. Now, after this meeting is done, I will have Mare, Tanyaell and her right-hand woman go outside and complete this task,” he said, turning to her.
“Tanyaell, you and Viktoriya will protect him from any threats that arise, do I make myself clear?” he intoned, and Tanya felt her spine shiver in slight fear.
“Of course, My liege,” she spoke, lowering her head to try and hide her slight fear.
The power rolling off of him was intoxicating. It was as if she was about to die yet again, this time not to any of Being X’s machinations, but to the sheer aura of Momonga.
Then it was gone in a flash. A weight that Tanya didn’t know that was on her shoulders was lifted. Her mind was a whirlwind in an instant. What did she feel just then? She hadn’t felt real fear in a very long time. Her mind didn’t really know what to think, after all, Being X from what she knew was dead. She couldn’t just blame all of her gripes and pain on him anymore.
Or was it the magic effect of the guild weapon?
Her self-deprecating thoughts came to a sudden halt when Momonga spoke once more.
“So, I have another question for all of you,” he said while standing up and spreading his arms, “what do you all think of me?!”
…
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