Note: This fan-fiction will contain elements of the Manga, Anime, and Light Novels. It is recommended that the readers have already read the prologue for Overlord, which contains information about Satoru's real world. Having done so will likely make certain sections of this story easier to understand. This is also the first time I've written a fictional story since 10th grade. (Please be gentle ;_;)

I would also like to thank Erdrick117 for letting me use and modify the following guide for separating dialogue, thoughts, and etc.

*Sounds*

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

"Special Voice"

Special Item Name

[Spoken Spell/Skill/Ability]

{Silent Spell/Skill/Ability}

Prologue: Harbinger and Herald

The glowing orb lay at the center of an unlit room, casting a soft light on the granite table where it sat upon. Its dull radiance was barely bright enough to illuminate the square of folded silk that separated it from the cold, polished stone.

A creak echoed as the door suddenly opened, flooding the room with glaring light. As shadows retreated behind furniture, the messy nature of the chamber was revealed. Piles of thick tomes relating to many different subject areas occupied most of the floor space while loose papers sprawled between the stacks. Sheets near the door fluttered for a brief moment as stale air interchanged with fresh air from the hallway.

A young woman entered the room, dressed in ceremonial clothing in preparation for the ritual. While considered ceremonial by the state, her garments consisted of little more than silk lingerie, mismatched stockings, and an over-sized black hat that looked like it had once belonged to a wise old wizard. Nonetheless, these items were considered to be holy and very valuable; more so than anyone who had ever or will ever receive the honor of wearing them.

The woman walked into the room and shut the door behind her, letting darkness once again creep throughout the chamber.

*Snap*

With the click of her fingers and the silent utterance of a single word, magic candles placed throughout the room ignite. Fueled by internal mana crystals, the candles' blue flames once again drive away the ephemeral blackness. The girl relaxed as she briefly basked in the gentle glow, warming her pale skin and the two thick braids of blue hair that extended below her knees.

"Mmh, the room is even messier than I remembered," She said in a tired voice. "Haaah," She sighed. "They should really try to clean this up."

Carefully making her way to the table at the center, the lady stepped over the each of the piles, making sure to not disturb the papers on the floor. When she had finally reached the table, she pulled back the lone chair and sat down, inclining towards the luminescent orb. This orb, considered to be one of the most valuable artifacts in the world, was once thought to be used by the gods themselves to divine information known only as Daeva-Lupar Opdeits. However, when wielded by a mere mortal such as herself, it would only to show the future. The orb was fickle. It required powerful users and granted visions both important and mundane, sometimes showing an imminent catastrophe while, at other times, revealing the losing hand of some unknown peasant betting his wife's dowry away in an unremarkable tavern.

The lady leaned her face towards the orb, mesmerized by the swirling clouds within it. The feeble light from the orb revealed the details of her beautiful face, blemished only by the dark bags under her sleep deprived eyes.

She drew her hands around the orb and prepared the sacred ritual with a prayer to the gods, asking them to grant strength to the unworthy wielder of this divine item.

The orb glowed slightly brighter.

"Waaah..."

Delighted by the encouraging sign, she began the ritual that could only be attempted once per month by only the greatest of clairvoyants.

As she pours her magical energy into the orb, her surroundings start to recede into a black abyss, as if a sphere of absolute darkness slowly shrank towards her. Only a moment had passed and the woman was left only with the glowing orb. Another brief moment later, the orb, too, faded into nothingness, leaving her alone in the lightless void.

'It has begun.'

The blackness lasted for but a minute, then it too faded, revealing a dream-like environment around the woman. The sky was dark, but it was speckled with glimmering sparks.

It was a city bright with yellow and orange lights, but the details of the buildings were limited to vague silhouettes. People, who were nothing more than unfocused shadows to her, hurried towards a general direction, likely gathering for some midnight gala. The vision was uncharacteristically blurry.

"What?" A confused remark escaped the lady's lips as she slowly walked around the dynamic scene.

To her knowledge, cloudy visions only occurred when the user of the artifact was either unworthy, weak from fatigue or the event displayed is of utmost significance. The vibrant night culture of a city, while exciting, was nowhere near any level of importance to trigger what is meant for a world ending disaster.

"Perhaps I'm just too tired. My sleeping habits haven't been getting any better. Mmmh... I guess this failure is a sign for me to fix my sched-eek!"

The lady squeaked as a wave of icy dread suddenly flooded her senses. It was as if the artifact itself heard her inaccurate judgement and decided to correct her.

Her breath became short and she started to shake uncontrollably. The acrid smell of smoke and blood stung the woman's nose while a cacophony of muffled screams filled the air around her.

The lights were not lights.

The city was burning.

People were fleeing.

At the edge of her vision, she saw several large shadowy figures yelling and dragging a smaller one, seemingly against its will.

An abduction.

Panicked now, she raced to piece together the scene. The pieces to the puzzle were small and incomplete, but that is what a clairvoyant must work with to divine important information. As her mind scrambled to lock together some form of understanding, a single idea latched onto her thoughts.

"N-no. How could this happen?" She exclaimed as fear overcame her senses. In her mind's eye, it was her capital city that burned and someone of great significance to the country, captured. If the Holy City itself fell, the rest of humanity will fall along with it.

More screams. Some shadows interweave and press against each other as they attempt to flee while others run towards the larger entities, dropping to the ground in seconds never to move again.

Before she could formulate any more thoughts into potential explanations, the scene suddenly grew quiet. The fires faded along with the shadows and the silhouettes. The feeling of trepidation went away and was replaced with a thin veil of respite.

Once again, she is surrounded by pitch blackness.

"Hmg!"

As quickly as the feeling went away, it came back just as fast and twice as strong. The woman dropped to her knees and covered her mouth as nausea, along with adrenaline, coursed through her body. She lowered her head in anticipation of the vomit that never came.

*Clank*

The sound of heavy metal hitting the stone floor echoed through the empty void.

*Clank*

It was the sound of footsteps, very heavy footsteps.

*Clank*

The crushing pressure she felt increased with every step. It was coming closer.

*Clank*

Heavy sabatons and greaves of dark metal pierced the shroud, entering the woman's lowered field of view.

*Clank*

The entire figure emerged, blurred but with discernible details. The painful pressure had become unbearable. With great effort, she lifted her head to behold a massive being, larger than any man, clad in terrifyingly brutal armor. It wore heavy black pauldrons, decorated with skulls. A great helmet crowned with a wreath of metal thorns covered its face.

It was staring straight at her.

She slowly crawled backwards.

Its piercing red eyes followed.

'Impossible. This cant happen. It can't hurt me. This isn't real. An illusion can't see me! It can't!' Panicked thoughts cycled through her mind as the entity's burning eyes stared into her soul, judging, evaluating, and filled with an unmistakable hatred.

*Clank*

It took another step forward.

"N-no! S-stop! PLEASE!"

In her desperate fear, in her childish hope, she closed her eyes and prayed, begged, and pleaded for it to go away.

The crushing pressure disappeared. She opened her eyes. The entity, the demon, was gone along with the aura of dread that surrounded it.

However, the scene changed once again. She was sitting in the middle of a large grassy field under a cloudy sky. A cool zephyr blew past her as she stood up to observe her surroundings. Her breath slowly calmed as she noticed two shadowy armies on either side of her, ready for engagement. Both armies were of significant size but the one to her left was undoubtedly larger.

'This looks very much like the typical yearly war between the Kingdom and the Empire but...'

Something was wrong. The grassy plains under her feet were green and filled with life. It was untouched by battle unlike the Katze Plains. Since it would be a ridiculously disadvantageous choice for both belligerents to change their traditional battleground...

'These armies belonged to neither the Kingdom nor the Empire. But then who-'

The sound of a war horn interrupted her thoughts and prompted the larger army to move. The army split up into several groups. The ones on the sides outpaced the main central body of the army, moving to flank and surround the smaller army.

'Cavalry, no doubt.'

The central body paced a slower advance but headed directly for the smaller army. The smaller army held its ground.

The girl shivered. 'Was it always this cold?' She thought. 'No, it suddenly became much colder but that isn't imp-'

*Crack*

A loud crack reverberated above her head. As she looked straight up, she found the source of this sound.

The sky itself had fractured. The smaller army started its advance. As the distance between the opposing forces became shrank, the tear in the sky grew only larger and larger. When the distance between the armies had been almost entirely closed, the sky shattered like glass. Shards of cloud fell and evaporated into mist before they could hit the ground and the chasm which had once been the sky glowed a bright orange hue.

The larger army's advance faltered. The smaller one's did not.

The sickening feeling returned, though it was not nearly as overpowering as before. As if on cue, creatures emerged from the tear. These things were not angels however. No. They definitely were not angels. No angel could ever exude such a vile presence, one that tainted the very air around it. The creatures, covered in bony carapace, leaped from the chasm, crossing into the land of the living.

The advance of the larger army halted. The smaller one quickened its pace. The demons were enveloped in a deep crimson flame as they descended towards the large army, more akin to projectiles from siege weapons than hippogriph knights.

As the opposing forces met, the demons smashed into the larger army, creating chaos as metal, flesh, and bone were crushed alike. These hellish living weapons, after being used as projectiles, stood up in the craters they created and began annihilating the army from within. Immune to the polished shield walls and perfect spear formations, they began slashing and tearing apart the soldiers with their claws. Panicked screams once again filled the air as the larger army crumbled.

The Demon Gods had been destroyed long ago, but the scene in front of her was a testament to how wrong she and the whole world had been.

Her voice was silent. Her mind was silent. The slaughter shook her to the core, firmly embedding the image that another demonic incursion will cross into this world.

More demons rained from the sky as if they were being expelled by the heavens. One of them was headed straight towards the woman, who had been precariously close to the battle. As she tried to move away to avoid the creature, she realized that her body could not move. Her terror refused to allow it.

As the room-sized projectile hurtled towards her, even if it was just an illusion created by the artifact, she was resigned to her death as utter despair enveloped her.

She closed her eyes and awaited the end that never came.

The woman opens her eyes to find herself back in the chamber, back within the real and reassuring confines of the messy room.

The candles were burnt out and she was soaked in cold sweat. The temperature now was undoubtedly lower than when the ritual had started. As her mind finally registered the fact that she was indeed alive, she once again felt her racing heart beat and the urge to vomit. She barely held it in.

As she slowly collected her thoughts, trying desperately to piece together a possible timeline of event, she knew what she must do.

The lady abruptly stood up from the table and hurriedly tried to exit the room, knocking over piles of tomes and flicking paper into the air. She stumbled and tripped with nearly every step as she made her clumsy retreat. The door opened and closed quickly, disturbing the shadows for only a brief moment. The room returned to its natural state of silence and darkness, only a bit messier than it had previously been.

As she ran though the stone hallway with an unsteady gait, she willed herself to become the herald of this prophesy, to warn the Cardinals of the Harbinger of the Apocalypse. It was her duty as the Thousand Mile Astrologer, mightiest clairvoyant and user of information magics within the Black Scripture, to warn the Slane Theocracy of this impending peril.

The Demon Gods have returned.

Afterword:

Thank you for reading the prologue of my Overlord fanfiction! I hope this had increased your interest for the rest of this story. I apologize for the lack of dialogue during the prologue and I am trying my hardest to make this story interesting. I will try to get updates out as soon as I can but since uni is starting soon, there very well may be lengthy waits between chapters.