Harbingers of Change

Chapter 7

The first line of defense. The guardian of the first three floors of Nazarick. Shalltear Bloodfallen took immense pride in performing the duties entrusted to her. With a practiced pace, she walked along the usual patrol route. Unlike before, two of her vampire brides accompanied her. It was a last-second decision to be better prepared in the event of an attack.

The pale beauty dressed in a high neck, dark, victorian dress contrasted with the two taller women dressed in low-cut dresses. Her mid-teen youthful look, enticing, red eyes and slim body were the perfection her creator sought. The brides were just an afterthought for her creator, who did not bother with details as all of them shared the same dark hair tone, red eyes with dark gray scleras instead of the usual eye whites and white low-cut dresses.

The Guardian Overseer had given the order to increase the Great Tomb’s defenses to maximum and Shalltear was prepared to retreat to the upper floors by Lord Momonga’s order.

She had no problems dying as she had many times before, but the thought of the Supreme Overlord being concerned about her survival and well-being filled her icy heart with warmth.

Once upon a time she had a creator who spent time with her each day. He dressed her up, set up things for her to do. She would pose and dance, be her creator’s little pride and joy.

But then one day he didn’t come. And the day after that. She did her duty tirelessly, but her creator didn’t come back. The only one that visited her from time to time was Lord Momonga. His mere presence was exhilarating. Not only was he the absolute ruler of the tomb, but his magnificent skeletal form made her knees go weak.

Every time her beloved ruler visited, he would pat her head. The memory alone made her undead body heat up and slow her pace down.

‘No, the job comes first.’ The young vampire reminded herself harshly. She will have time to recall the scene in vivid detail during her free time.

“Is something wrong mistress Shalltear?” One bride asked, concerned.

“No, don’t bother me without reason.” She barked back and moved on with the patrol. The third floor was finished and it was time to walk up to the second floor.

The area guardians sent in their reports according to the assigned intervals, but, for now, there was nothing out of order. Still, with reason to worry about imminent danger being present, everyone had to be on their highest alert.

Her thoughts today were somewhat distracting. Yesterday’s patrol was much easier for some reason and then there also was the question of why she took two of her brides on patrol out of her own initiative. Something was different, but her creator was not there to make changes.

{ Lady Shalltear, the pop monsters reported hearing a voice at the entrance of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. } One of her wards from the first floor of the great tomb reported.

{ What voice? }

{ Just a voice, should I send fodder squads? }

{ I will go investigate myself! }

Just a voice!? Why do all her subordinates have to be so useless?! Her pace quickened and her graceful steps turned into angry stomping, with her two brides quickly following their mistress. The stairs up to the first floor were just around the corner, if there were invaders there she would make the Supreme One proud and crush them.

Just as the last few steps passed, a presence invaded her mind.

< Target Shalltear Bloodfallen detected. Starting adaptation. >

Her limbs didn’t respond. No matter how hard Shalltear tried to move, her body remained unmoving as a statue, with a strange voice in her head going on about some sort of adaptation .

< Unknown magical power base configured to magicule reserves. >

< Ability Blood Brenzy rebuilt to Unique Skill - Blood Frenzy. >

This voice, this presence, was forcefully changing her. She tries to scream, to no avail.

< Spell Rise Kin and ability Summon Household rebuilt to Unique Skill - Household. >

Fear and desperation blossomed inside her undead heart. She was the first line of defense and couldn’t even scream to warn others! Both of the vampire brides just walked in front of her, asking in panicked voices.

“Lady Shalltear, we heard the voice. What should we do?”

‘Just run and warn others. Just go!’ However her silent pleas could not reach her subordinates.

“Lady Shalltear!” They realized their mistress was not moving at all and looked around, unsure what to do as the cold robotic voice went on in Shalltear’s head, converting her abilities and passive effects to something called skills and re-listing her magical spells, but not using the usual tier listing.

{ Albedo, Lord Momonga. I can not move, the voice is holding me. Please prepare the defenses. I am sorry I failed. }

A moment later, Lord Momonga appeared in front of her and then froze on the spot before his outstretched hand could grab her.

‘NO! NO! NO! NO! I trapped him. NO!’ The young vampire raged inside her own head. Her beloved ruler tried to save her and got trapped himself. Her unmoving eyes couldn’t even push out the tears. 

Just as suddenly as it started, it ends with.

< Configuration complete. Target, Shalltear Bloodfallen, adjusted to the world. >

A scream finally escaped her lips, “NOO” as tears started streaming down her pale, rage twisted face as she looked at the unmoving figure of Lord Momonga.

‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›

There was finally time to make a list of things that needed to be tested and confirmed and Momonga was doing just that, sitting in his office. He still hadn’t talked with Buku, but Peros confirmed she had calmed down and was resting in her quarters.

How could he even start to apologize for the current situation? If not for the invite Akari would be safely back on earth. Unlike Suzuki, both Itsuki and Akari had more successful lives and even some reasons to wish to be back on earth. Even with all the pollution and poverty.

He himself would have preferred to remain human, but the new undead form had its own benefits. There was no need to sleep and any kind of panic attack just stopped immediately. There were downsides as well, but all of them were something he didn’t already have on earth. Of course, it would have been nice to eat the tasty-looking cupcakes that sat at his table.

If he didn’t know better, it would have been easy to assume that pastries were left as a cruel joke, but the overly zealous homunculus maids just didn’t realize that he, as a skeletal being, couldn’t eat. At least until a way to work around his new body deficiencies could be found.

His gaze returned to the first point on the list. It read, ‘Test spells and abilities’. The arena meant for duels on the sixth floor would be the perfect spot for that and he could even use the opportunity to casually speak with Aura and Mare, the guardians of the sixth floor. If his theory was correct, the elven twins would remember the invasion or at least parts of it.

His own inadequacies crept up a bit. If only he was a smarter man and could analyze all the philosophical and metaphysical implications his current situation raised. How suddenly has digital data become alive? How does his own skeletal body function? There were so many things he did not know how to even begin to answer.

A sudden desperate message from Shalltear interrupted his silent contemplation. She was in danger, unable to escape. A cold and calculating leader would leave the guardian to her fate and prepare to guard the upper levels and that was what his cold undead side wanted to do.

But that was Pero’s creation there. His best friend’s pride and joy was in danger. To sacrifice a ‘child’ of his friend was not something Suzuki was ready to do. A split-second decision was made as he rapidly applied all the buffs and shields he could and teleported to Shalltear’s location by using the Ring of Ainz Ooal Gown.

The petite vampire girl was in front of him now with her pop monster subordinates by her sides, with fearful expressions. He reached out to grab Shalltear and tried to teleport away and then he heard it.

< Target Suzuki… clarification Target Momonga detected. Starting adaptation. >

His body froze with his hand outstretched. This was stupid. All it took was a moment of emotional weakness and now he was trapped as well.

The recent memory of the same voice came back and, with nothing else remaining, the Overlord prepared for what’s about to come again.

< Passive Ability Aura of Despair rebuilt to Unique Skill - Despair. >

Then it went through a long list of his death and undead-related spells and abilities finally saying.

< Rebuilt into Unique Skill - Lord of Death. >

There was this underlying understanding of how these skills worked but beyond vague ideas and the inability to move, the process itself was robotic, almost mundane as if listening to his manager explaining how the department was getting reorganized on some bullshit whim from upper management.

< Dark Wisdom rebuilt into Unique skill - Dark Sage. >

The mild curiosity that gave a vague understanding until now suddenly opened up like a flood gate, filling his mind with unthinkable amounts of information. The moment he wanted to know more about each of the already created skills, it loaded his mind with full detail, as if he just opened a file on a computer and uploaded it into his mind.

What he now knew was an entity called ‘The Voice of the World’ was transforming him to be compatible with the world he is now in and that every single soul arriving goes through the same process, but because of an extreme amount of data stored in his gaming avatar that was used as a base; the temporary paralysis is used to stabilize the process and he will be free once it ends.

Not even a few seconds after his transformation started, Shalltear suddenly let out a scream and hugged his unmoving body, bawling her eyes out, apologizing for her mistake. Remembering that she sent a message from her unmoving state, he realized he could send a message to her.

{ Calm down Shalltear. I am fine. My paralysis is temporary, just as yours was It’s just this world rebuilding us for compatibility. }

“Lord Momonga! I am so sorry for failing you.” The young vampire whimpered while looking up, still clutching his unmoving body.

{ Be at ease. This is not your fault. I will regain my movement soon enough. }

Shalltear looked up again, seemingly snapping out of her grief, and dropped on one knee in front of him, waiting for his changes to end.

The Voice of the World just continued listing every single spell he had and how many magicules were needed for base casting. Once it got to time-oriented ones, another exclamation happens.

< Unique Skill - Time Stop acquired. >

and all the creation-based skills are sorted in another Skill moments later.

< Unique Skill - Creation acquired. >

Knowing that all his passive abilities and spells were accounted for, his paralysis should have ended at any moment. However, there was one more adjustment even his new Dark Sage didn’t account for.

< Unknown object found. Analyzing World Level Item, Godslayer. Rebuilding Godslayer into Ultimate skill - Godslayer. >

Momonga could feel the red orb inside his ribcage become a part of him. After a moment of wondering what this meant, an explanation popped up in his mind. World items were something that should not exist and the only way for them to not break reality was to become an ultimate skill and attach them to a soul that was strong enough.

With that came the understanding that the entire tomb will be adjusted to this new world and once it reached the Throne of Kings, he should sit on it to let Nazarick attach itself to the soul that was guiding it and so it will not cause some fundamental problems in reality itself.

It was more of a hunch, but it seemed that the rest of the world items would attach themselves to Nazarick and wait for its leader to assign them to someone.

With the newfound understanding came a wave of relief. Everything will be fine and now his priority was to reassure others of the incoming change and urge them to just accept it.

Lastly, his guild staff disappeared from his hand and there was one last announcement.

< Rebuilding the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown into a Unique Skill - Master of Ainz Ooal Gown. >

His body was free. Momonga posed in the way he practiced, trying to look like he was in control, and said,

“Rise Shalltear.”

The young vampire girl stood up, turned her gaze towards the floor in shame and said with a whimper,

“Lord Momonga, I am so sorry for my mistake.”

“You did not make a mistake and you tried to warn others, but I couldn’t abandon you.”

Out of habit, his hand reached out, patting Shalltear’s head. Her breathing suddenly became very rapid and she lightly shook.

“Shalltear, is something wrong?” he asked, worried.

“N-no… ugh… I… am… fine. T-thank you Lord Momonga.”

After exhaling all the oxygen her lungs didn’t need, she looked up, smiling and still breathing heavily, with a light red tint on her pale face.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I am feeling great.”

Unsure what that was all about, he said,

“You can resume your duties and a good job.”

Shalltear bowed and resumed her patrol route. Her walk was uneven, but maybe it was just the side effect of her new abilities and perhaps her body still needed a few moments of adjustment.

Edited by Edgy.