Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – End of One Story

Yggdrasil, the game which for the last decade has basically taken over my life outside of work is finally coming to an end. To be frank, it was inevitable really. Game was far past its peak, and while it probably could’ve kept going for a few more years but… Well it probably deserves to go while it still has some popularity rather than for it to fade into obscurity and die in the dark. To an extent, the guild me and my comrades have spent so long building up, Ainz Ooal Gown reflected this, long gone were the days of the guild’s peak, now we were lucky to have a few active members. I can’t blame them, however, one of the requirements was to be a functioning member of society, so to ask them to prioritize the game over their life would be unrealistic. I only hoped more people could show up for the end.

 

Eventually a notification appeared on my screen and a familiar blue ball of slime waved at me with its small stubby slime hand from the other end of the table. It would appear as if I would not be alone for the Guild’s end. “Ah Rimuru, I’m glad to see you, you haven’t been on for a few weeks.”

 

Rimuru transformed into his human appearance, his slime form allowed him more flexibility in movement, however it seemed he preferred his human-like appearance for obvious reasons. He leaned against the chair, the long, blue hair of his avatar pushed against its back, “Yeah sorry, got a bit backed up with work, I only barely managed to squeeze in enough time to be on for the last hour or so.”

 

“It’s not common for you to be so busy, usually you’re the more lenient of us all in terms of scheduling. Still, I’m glad you came at all today, you just missed Herohero, he was on for a short bit but he left not too long ago.”

 

Rimuru tilted his head and sat up more, stretching though he didn’t quite need to, “Yeah, really unlucky honestly, sorry I didn’t give you a heads up. Sucks that I missed Herohero though, it’s been a few years since I’ve spoken to him.”

 

I shook my head, “It’s fine, he wasn’t on for too long anyways, he’s probably been too busy to come on much over the last few years, I can hardly blame him. I’m glad you’ve remained active, however, it would've been a lot more boring if I was the only one maintaining Nazarick this whole time.” Rimuru was just about the only one who would be consistent with his schedule, about as consistent as I was anyways. We weren’t always on at the same time, but we met frequently enough. Others came and went, some coming on only once every few weeks or months and others coming on for a few days or weeks of activity before fading away again.

 

Rimuru shrugged, now leaning slightly forwards in his seat at the large round table “I don’t have much else to do when I don’t have work, so it’s the least I can do. I enjoyed it regardless, most of my friends are those I made from work and just about all of them are busy whenever I’m not. I’d say we did a pretty good job at maintaining Nazarick though, we’re just lucky we haven’t had any more large raids, not sure if we’d have the manpower to rebuild after it.”

 

“That certainly would’ve been a hassle, but it seems most of the largest guilds which could’ve rivaled us have similarly faded into the same loop of inactivity we found ourselves in.” Having gotten an idea, I stood up, “We have about another hour till it ends, why don’t we look around at what we’ve accomplished, It was over a decade of our lives after all.”

 

Rimuru smiled, bouncing out of his chair like the slime he was, even if he wasn’t in slime form, and nodded, “I don’t see why we shouldn’t, no point in wasting our time sitting in one room when we have an entire tomb to go back and explore.”

 

The two of us began to walk through the floors of Nazarick, reminiscing about memories of the Guild and the grand quests we had gone on with our old comrades. It filled me with a sense of dread, a reminder that all of this, all that us and our comrades had worked for, all the memories we had made, would be erased from history, left only in the minds of those who remember it. Yet at the same time, I felt happy, in an almost nostalgic kind of way, I had accepted this inevitability about a year ago when Yggdrasil gradually began to slow in popularity, however never had I accepted it in this way. Perhaps it was the fact that it was about to end that made me feel this way, or maybe it was finally getting the time to talk about my memories of it with one of the friends who had been here actively for years.

 

All of those feelings were dwarfed by the joy of the moment, the laughter we shared thinking about moments from the past decade of playing this game, a lot of them were at Rimuru’s expense considering I was the guild leader, primarily the time he lost a bet and had to make his, already fairly feminine looking avatar put on a bunny suit. Supposedly he still has it in his inventory, but he refuses to check.

 

Eventually the topic came to some of the many NPCs we had made together as a guild. I had made one but I’d… rather not talk about him. Rimuru however made two of probably the strongest in the guild. One of them was effectively the creation of a World Item, one of the, if not the only True Dragon NPC. True Dragons being the strongest form of dragons in which unless highly prepared, a single max level player would struggle (and likely fail) to take it down. Personally I doubt I’d be able to take it alone, maybe with Rimuru so long as he was able to keep it at bay while I cast spells, but even still those types of Dragons are strong. Rimuru named him ‘Veldora Tempest’ similar to his own character ‘Rimuru Tempest’ and he was placed as the guardian to the secret entrance to the Treasury in a labyrinth of a cave system hidden within Level 6.

 

The second NPC Rimuru made he actually didn’t have a full part in, in particular he really had no say in her outfit, though he did have a say in her personality. She was basically made in contrast to the NPC Sebas. Sebas is a Dragonoid race which focuses solely on the advantages to physical strength granted by the race, whereas Rimuru’s Dragonoid NPC Milim Nava focuses primarily on the sheer magical power gained from it. This makes Milim easily the strongest in terms of offensive AOE attacks.

 

Eventually we made our way back to the entrance to the throne room where numerous NPCs dressed in maid outfits lined the wall leading to the throne room door. I opened up the interface to examine them and nodded, “Ah yes, the Pleiades, shame they never got a chance to be used, considering nobody ever made it this far.”

 

Rimuru shook his head and shrugged, beginning to walk past them towards the Throne Room entrance, “Personally I wouldn’t quite call that a ‘shame’ so much as a ‘fortune’. Now that you mention it, did anyone ever fight Veldora? You didn’t quite need to make it to the very end to find him, though I suppose the cave system was probably hard to navigate…”

 

“Even if they did make it to Veldora, considering how many monsters you packed in those caves I doubt they’d be in proper enough strength to take him head on. Though it would’ve been interesting to see him in full action.”

 

Rimuru pouted, crossing his arms and shouting “Yeah, I fought tooth and nail to get the World Class item that let me create him, I was hoping he’d curb-stomp at least one invading party!”

 

“You didn’t even go that deep in the cave with the intent of finding the World Item, you just happened to find it.”

 

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“So what? Still would’ve been cool to see the look on their eyes when they faced off against a Boss level monster.”

 

“I’m sure that would’ve been quite the show.” I gave a light laugh as I finally lowered the UI and looked over at the battle maids agan, “Hmm, I suppose I should move them one more time, for old time’s sake, it's the least I can do.” I turned to walk and spoke the command; “Follow me.” With that the NPCs began to follow behind me, Rimuru walking slightly behind and to my right as we entered through the large creaking metal gates.

 

As we approached the throne itself I caught eye of another NPC, Albedo, the leader of the Floor Guardians and effectively the true last line of defense for the Throne Room. Eventually as I approached the throne I stopped and turned to the NPCs, “The command was ‘Stand by,’ right?” With that the NPCs bowed and moved to the side of the throne room, remaining in line as they stood firm.

 

I sat on the throne a moment later, Rimuru not seeming to mind as he himself went into slime form as if to fit on the armrest of the throne. I looked over at Albedo and silently muttered “Hmm… What were her settings again?”

 

Rimuru looked over with a slight tilt in his slime form, “I’m not sure personally, but knowing her creator, it's bound to be extensive.”

 

I opened the settings and began to scroll, “Ah yes, definitely the work of Tabula-san.” I kept scrolling until I reached the end. “Huh? What's this? A bitch?” I sighed, Rimuru let out a small ‘pfft’ noise in amusement as I gazed over.

 

He waved a slime numb at me, “It’s nothing, it's just how you said it. I’m not sure what you expected from Tabula-san.”

 

I nodded and looked back, “He always did love his contradiction of looks and character, but this is just too terrible…” I thought for a moment before looking at the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown that I had grabbed back when we initially left the throne room, “You know, with this I don’t need a tool to change her settings so I can… hmm…” I began to delete the line regarding her status as a ‘bitch.’

 

Rimuru squished down slightly, “What are you doing Momonga..?”

 

“I’m sure nobody will mind if I mess around with her settings, it is the last day after all, right?”

 

Rimuru seemed confused but did the slime equivalent of a shrug, “I suppose not but what are you planning on putting there?”

 

I thought for a moment before giving a slight chuckle and beginning to type “...She is deeply in love with Momonga.”

 

Rimuru seemed to find it funny as he himself gave a hearty chuckle at it before speaking again, “You better hope she doesn’t find out.”

 

I waved my skeletal hand at Rimuru, “It’s fine, it’s only gonna be there for the next few minutes… Now then…” I look over at the NPCs again after dismissing the UI, “Bow down.” With that command all the NPCs get on one knee with their hands over their chest in a bow as I lean back on the throne.

 

I began to look up at the banners lining the walls of the Throne room, each one representing a different member of the guild, naming each one, starting with my own banner, mimicking a skeletal face, and ending with Rimuru’s, which was more or less just an oval with two lines to represent his slime self. I looked up again, letting out another sigh, “It was fun, my friend.”

 

Rimuru nodded, “Indeed it was.”

 

For the first time since I had heard of Yggdrasil’s upcoming shutdown I felt satisfied with it all. I cannot thank Rimuru enough for being here with me as it ended, he is a close friend I hope to remember for the rest of my days, just like every other member of this guild. These days I shall never forget, and to an extent, I’m happy to see it off with one of my friends. Perhaps if I had been alone I may not have felt this way but it matters not, despite how much I long for it to continue, for this Guild to remain, and for Nazarick to live through the ages as a testament to our friendship, no story lasts forever. Every story has an end.

 

But this one does not end here.