Hello there, I'm your average Overlord reader, the reason I decided to write fanfiction is because the long waits between Volumes made me restless, so if I wasn't going to get new Overlord stories anytime soon, then I might as well write one myself.

The Prologue was originally going to be just one Chapter, but to my surprise I ended up writing more than I expected, so I had to split it into 2 parts, less I make the first Chapter way to long.

I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I'm enjoying to write it, see you in the Afterword.

Chapter 1: Prologue (First Half)

He logged in, a bit earlier than they agreed, but it was the last day so he wanted to enjoy YGGDRASIL one last time the most he could. He reached the place he and his friends agreed to meet and found one them already waiting for him.

"Yo, you're the first one to come, I'm glad you showed up."

In front of him was a Demon resembling a bipedal lizard with dark red scales, a large snake tail, yellow reptilian eyes, 4 curved horns on his head, and wearing a pitch black robe with blood red symbols adorning it. The figure also sported a ring in each of his 8 fingers, a necklace which carried a strange-looking symbol, and was holding a wooden staff covered with a pattern of leaves and a goat skull that had gems in the eye sockets on top of it. Goat skull aside, the staff looked surprisingly divine, and the scene of a fiendish lizard holding it was bizarre to say the least.

"Oi, you've been waiting here a long time? Sorry I didn't arrived sooner, I had some things to take care of, and didn't wanted to have them at the back in my mind today."

"Don't sweat it mate, I know you're busy. In fact, I half expected you to come last!"

His friend, who went by the username Meitro, was an Heteromorph Player of the Demonic Race that maxed out the Racial Levels all the way to [Evil Lord], the final Class in the traditional Demon line. His Racial traits and Skills combined with his Summoner Job Classes allowed him to bring forth and command the most fiendish creatures from the Abyss. He does have some mastery over Spells of course, since any Magic Caster worth their salt is capable of at least fighting on their own to some degree, but the bulk of his build is centered on the summoning and buffing of high-level Demons.

"Well, today is special after all, not everyday a game you love so much is gonna be shut down forever, so I took care of my business as fast as I could. I do hope the others can arrive."

"I'm certain they will, YGGDRASIL meant a lot for each of us, none of us would sit out this day for anything in the world."

The 2 continued to converse about random and mundane topics until one of their companions joined them some minutes later.

"Meitro, Asmodel, you're early!"

A young-looking man with fair skin, silver gray hair and golden eyes joined them. He was sporting a thin white leather armor with two sheathed katanas, one on his right hip, and the other on his back. The armor itself was adorned with golden minimalistic pictures of Dragons and Quilins, quite fitting for a Player that took pride in his Kensei build.

"So good to see you could come Teinu, now we just wait for Anchelo and Ragnar so we can start our final adventure..."

"Uh? Is that sadness in your tone? Don't be down Asmodel, this IS our final adventure together, so shouldn't we all enjoy it with a smile?"

His face couldn't have possibly shown his sorrow, face expression was beyond the current technological capabilities, yet, his friend could instantly tell he was sad. A true testament of the time they've all spent together.

"Yes, yes! You're correct, I shouldn't be brooding today. I'm sorry."

"Why you apologize? I'm a bit sad too, and I'm sure Teinu here is as well, but that's why all 5 of us will spend this last day together, so we can make the final day of YGGDRASIL a good memory worth remembering!"

The Human Player simply nodded to Meitro's words, and Asmodel once again felt glad to have such good friends with him on this final day. And at that moment.

"What's this, Asmodel brodding again? Stop acting like an emo teen dude, you're an adult."

"You're our leader, man, act like it, we can't be the ones straightening you up all the time."

2 more Players descended to the scene from the skies with their natural flight abilities.

One of them was an Angel. More accurately, it resembled an Angel, but wasn't exactly one. Anchelo was a Half-Celestial, a half Angel, half Human Race that wasn't as abstract-looking as pure Angels are. He sports 2 wings on his back, and is covered in a full plate silver armor with emerald stripes adorning it and small shields embedded in both forearms, and as a Cleric his main weapon is an elemental mace of ivory. His wings are similar to peacock feathers, and behind his armor he has blueish skin, pale white hair, and his eyes have golden sclera, green irises and grey pupils.

The other one was a massive bipedal rhinoceros beetle. Like, 3 meters massive. On each hip he sported a massive onyx axe, but such oversized blades were his only visible equipment besides a stone necklace with the shape of a Behemoth hanging from his neck and a metal belt wrapped around his waist. His exoskeleton carapace was covered in several magical tattoos that were imbued with bestial power, such mystic patterns were fitting to Barbarians since they drew power from primordial rage rather than refined skill and technique.

Also, while they could technically wear heavy armor without issues, many Barbarians like Ragnar saw their specially high natural defense as more reliable, since their buffing Skills enhanced it even more, and such gear also dwindled their speed, so another reason to avoid large pieces of armament covering their bodies.

"It seems you too can tell I'm depressed, guess there's no point in trying to hide it."

"How are we not gonna know? We've been a small Clan for nearly a year now, and small groups are always more united than bigger ones after all."

Anchelo was right, Asmodel felt a greater sense of comradery with the 4 Players in front of him than he ever felt with the Players of the Guild he was part of during the golden years of the game. Not saying that he doesn't considers his former Guildmates as his friends, is just that he never knew them as well as he knew his current friends, and vice-versa.

"Okay then, I promise to stop bringing down the mood, we have a final raid after all, we should make it count."

"Now we're talking!"

"Yes, since today is the final day, mobs should be deactivated as well as environmental hazards, so we can save Spells, Skills and consumables for whatever Boss awaits us in that damned castle."

What Anchelo was talking about was a large castle in the center of the Ice Town located in the realm of Niflheim. Each realm in YGGDRASIL had a single base that, when conquered by a Guild, will give the Players 3,000 Levels for NPC creation. However, all 9 of those bases were already conquered years ago by Guilds of great power, the castle in the Ice Town wasn't such place.

It was hardly noteworthy in the large scheme of things, the NPC that inhabited the town itself weren't even aggressive mobs, mostly Ice Sprites that served as merchants for miscellaneous Items, some Witch Hags that sold Potions and Poisons, Blacksmith Ice Trolls that sold weapons and armor, and Ice Dragonoid Soldiers that acted as policemen, alongside other Monsters doing other random jobs in the town. Only those soldiers were combat-oriented mobs, but only attacked when a Player attached first.

For beginners, it really was a vibrant town with lots of interesting stuff, assuming the Players either belonged to a Race immune to low temperatures or were properly equipped with Ice-immunity, but it was, at the end, a beginners' place. The Items, substances and gear the town sold ranged from Low-class to Top-class, and the Dragonoid Soldiers were merely Level 55 Monsters, it didn't hold a candle to the Frozen City located deeper in the realm of Niflheim, a place accessible only through a terrible blizzard so large that dwarfed mountains.

So, what made the castle located at the center of such unimpressive town a place worth spending the last day in YGGDRASIL? So unimpressive was the place that nobody attempted to conquer the Crystal Castle located at the center of the Ice Town, Players assumed that such a low-level place would have a low-level Boss, and whatever rewards they won, they would pale in comparison to the rewards of conquering higher-level places, like the aftermentioned Frozen City. No self-respecting Guild would waste time and resources in a low-level place like that, and for 12 years that place remained untouched.

That is, until these 5 Players attempted to conquer it for themselves, believing it to be so simple an affair that even an incomplete Party could do it. They were wrong. What from afar seemed like simple decorative statues for the Crystal Castle where actually Level 80 Prismatic Golems that attacked anyone who got near the castle, but the problem wasn't the Level 80 Prismatic Golems themselves, it was that everytime they successfully defeated one, some strange energy emanating from the castle would instantly fix it, and the battle of attrition would continue forever until they could figure out what was going on.

After their initial assault failed they teleported away and analyzed the situation. It was guarded by 7 different Golems, each a different color of the rainbow, and separated by an equal distance in a circular formation around the castle. It had 4 gates, one for each cardinal direction, but they always remained closed. They reached the conclusion that the gates would only open after the 7 Golems are defeated, and defeating them was relatively easy for 5 Level 100 Players, but the issue was that strange energy that fixed the Golems.

The strangest thing was that such energy only fixed the Golems after they were destroyed, not while they were near destruction, nor while they were chipping away the Golem's HP. They tried again, this time 4 went to destroy the Golems and 1 remained behind with magic binoculars that also recorded what the Player saw. After their second assault it became clear, after a Golem was destroyed, the castle absorbed energy from the other 6 Golems to rebuild the destroyed one. Only way to even get inside the Crystal Castle was to simultaneously destroy all 7 Prismatic Golems.

It was then and there that the 5 Players realized that they would never conquer that seemingly low-level dungeon. Not only were they short of 2 more Players, but if the gate guards were this level, what would be waiting for them inside? Granted, defeating the 7 Golems could be doable. Meitro was a specialized Summoner, with an EXP consuming Skill, he could call forth 3 Level 100 Monsters that could fight alongside the other 4 to help them destroy all Golems at the same time. While there was a 20 Level disparity, Golems like that were no joke, since the substance that the construct was made of mattered more than the Level of the Golem itself. A Level 80 Adamantite Golem was FAR stronger and sturdier than a Level 100 Wood Golem.

Those Golems were made of the Prismatic Ores, the highest grade metals in the whole game, the stuff Divine-class gear was made of. For a Level 100 Player, defeating a Level 80 Prismatic Golem by their lonesome was challenging, but possible, as long as they had Divine-class gear, good PvP skill and were willing to spend all their MP and Skills, and there laid the problem, those Golems guarded the door, just the friggin door! What would be waiting for them inside? Nobody in their sane mind would spend everything in just the opening mobs.

As expected, it took a real Clan of 20 or so Players to conquer the Crystal Castle, it seems there always is more to it than meets the eye in YGGDRASIL, had anyone know all this beforehand a young Clan would've conquered the castle time ago, for sure. Or at least, a Guild would've used it as an outpost of sorts. But, the 5 already knew at the time that such was the final year of the game, the greatest Guilds were either disbanded and dissolved, or reduced to a mere fraction of what they were, even the likes of Trinity, World Searcher and 2chan Alliance were reduced to nothing, that's why the 5 regressed to solo Players before coming across each other and forming their tiny Clan in the first place.

They lost all hope of ever conquering the place, that is, until it was announced that the final day of YGGDRASIL would have deactivated mobs everywhere. Even if they couldn't get the satisfaction of beating those accursed Golems, or anything in the castle, at the very least they wanted to know what potential riches would've waited the Players that conquered it. Also, the devs were specific about mobs, they said nothing about Bosses, so the Boss of the Crystal Castle may as well be active, so they were prepared for a big fight. After all, 80% of a dungeon's difficulty was the Boss, so if they could at least somehow defeat whoever was the leader of the Crystal Castle, they would say that the final day of YGGDRASIL was a very good day.

12:02:10

"We're here, Ice Town. Brings back memories."

"I wish we could stay, induce in nostalgia a bit."

"We can't? The game ends at 00:00:00, it's still...12:02:15, we have 12 hours to do what we want."

"We don't know how long our little raid will last. No mobs and hazards, yes, but we don't know what type of Boss is there, worst case scenario it ends in a Party Kill, and we would have to try again with weaker gear!"

"Oof, that would suck. At least can we scout out whatever is there, and prepare an appropriate strategy? Meitro, you can Summon Thief-type Demons right? I don't think it would hurt to be cautious, I don't want our final adventure to end in disaster."

"Yes, I think I can spare some low-level Summons to see beforehand what awaits us, we do have 12 hours after all, plenty of time to make a plan."

And so the 5 friends discussed the details of their final adventure while walking through the frozen streets of Ice Town in the cold and foggy realm of Niflheim. They really meant all mobs, even the non-aggressive merchants were frozen, as if the cold of their home world finally caught up to them, it was kinda sad, seeing this former hub of NPC activity like this. The 5 settled in a public plaza of the town, not so far from the center where the castle was, but it was still quite far away, the place had "Town" in the name, but it was actually quite large, about the size of a small city, still nothing compared with the Frozen City of course.

They spoke of many things besides their raid strategy, real life issues, best memories of the past, plans for the future, if the rumors of YGGDRASIL II were real or not was a very hot topic among them. Before they knew it, 2 hours passed, and now they only had 10 hours left before the servers closed. The leader of the mini-Clan, Asmodel, stood up and addressed his comrades.

"Okay then, we seem to have a concise plan: first we approach the Crystal Castle to verify that the Golems are inactive, and if we can enter the castle with the Golems in that state. If we can, we send some scouting Summons to verify if some dungeon hazards are still active or not. Meitro will summon some, but Anchelo and I will also send Summons to help with the reconnaissance. If the coast is clear, we move forward all the way to the Boss. If possible, we will send scouting Summons to the Boss chamber to at least verify some of its abilities."

Anchelo spoke next.

"If it turns out that it's one of those chambers that only allows Players and seals itself until the Boss is defeated, then we will have to gear ourselves up and make a leap of faith. Anything can be there, those shitty devs might have as well added a very powerful Fire Boss in that Ice-themed dungeon. No, I'm almost certain they did."

Teinu scoffed at it.

"Well, what if the shitty devs actually expected us to expect that, and added an Ice Boss? Or something totally random and unrelated to this realm."

Ragnar added his thoughts.

"In any case, non-elemental gear may be the safe bet for you 3. If it turns out that you do have equipment that is effective against whatever Boss is there, Meitro and I will give you time to re-equip."

Ragnar could say that because he was a Barbarian whose only weaponry were massive non-elemental axes, he never has to waste time pondering what gear may be more effective for what, since all he has to do is destroy whatever is thrown at him with brute force. Normally, re-equipping in the middle of a heated battle is impossible, but the reason he's so confident in his ability of distracting the Boss away from them is because they can also count on their Summoner.

Meitro, like Ragnar, never pondered with gear, he is the opposite of a brute force frontliner, he is a Summoner who sends high-level Monsters to fight on his stead, and all of his gear is invested in the strengthening of his Summons, and very specific Summons too, so while traditional Summoners also have specific gear for enhancing specific Monsters, Meitro calls forth Demons, and only Demons, thus investing gear in anything else is a total waste to him.

Meitro gave a small nod and said his mind.

"Count on us, if you do need to re-equip, Ragnar and my Summons will give you the time you need."

"It's settled then! When are we ready to go? We have...around 10 hours left."

Said Asmodel in a very cheery tone. The depressed man that will see his friends for the last time is gone, in his stead was a determined and quite excited Player that is ready to have the best final raid with his best friends

15:02:41

Just to be sure, Meitro sent a Summon to scout the Golems themselves, as they expected, they were deactivated, but the doors remained closed. If it turns out the doors wouldn't open even on the last day, then they came here for nothing. In that case, perhaps they could try to wake the Golems, and destroy them for good as their last adventure together? That worry was unnecessary, since the doors of the Crystal Castle opined for them when they got close enough, seems there's little difference between a permanently deactivated Golem and a destroyed one.

The scene inside the castle was one to behold, the place inside was actually larger than what it seemed outside, like the 10th Tier Spell [Create Fortress], the temperature inside was warmer than outside too, and it was fully adorned with art pieces like chandeliers, Dragon-shaped statues, and even some furniture, all made of colorful crystal. It was quite beautiful, made the 5 Players temporary forget that they were on a raid mission, but the amazement died down in a bit and they proceeded with their plan.

"[Summon Demon 6th Tier]"

What Meitro called forth was a Shadow Eyeball Fiend, a Level 40 Thief-type Monster that had nice evasion and invisibility Skills.

"[Demon Slave Sight]"

That Spell allows Meitro to see what the Fiend could see, and then ordered it to move forward.

Next was Anchelo, he used [Summon Angel 6th Tier] to call forth a Virtue Oracle, this Level 42 Angel had a telescopic eyesight, could see through solid objects and low-level invisibility, as well as cast some 6th Tier Spells. He then used the holy counterpart of Meitro's sight-sharing Spell, [Linked Soul], to see what the Virtue could see.

Asmodel Summoned a Level 40 Monster as well, and used a sight-sharing Spell too.

After some minutes the 3 Magic Casters confirmed that all the mobs and dungeon hazards were off, and even found the way to the Boss chamber as well which was in the 15th Floor, the highest one. They had over 9 hours till the servers shutdown so there was no hurry in their pace, they occasionally stopped to appreciate some crystal scenery, or to see some of the frozen mobs that would've attacked them had they successfully defeated the Prismatic Golems and entered the castle in the past.

15:25:17

"Okay, enough sightseeing then? We ready now for this?"

Anchelo was eager to go. He wasn't someone who didn't appreciated the beautiful sceneries of the game, he was simply a no-nonsense person that went to the point, he knew perfectly well that his friends could stare at the crystal art pieces and frozen Monsters all they wanted after they took care of the Boss, and he was starting to lose his cool. His friends knew him very well, so they understood their Half-Celestial mate was growing impatient, so they stopped what they were doing and the 5 went straight to the Boss chamber.

It was as they expected, at the highest peak of the Crystal Castle there was a teleportation circle that only allowed Players to reach the Boss, they couldn't send a Summon to verify what type of Boss expected them, or if the Boss was even active in the first place.

But they were ready, Ragnar was stacking physical buffs on himself and activated some of his magical tattoos while holding his twin onyx axes [Modi and Magni].

Meitro readied his trusty staff, [Witness of Treachery], and used one of his limited daily use Skills to bring forth a Level 95 Abysmal King, a Commander-type Monster that gave huge stat boosts to any other Demon called forth by its Summoner, the boost was even bigger if the Summoner had Negative Karma, Meitro enjoyed to call this Monster before using his favorite 10th Tier Spell, [Armageddon - Evil], the stat boost granted by the Abysmal King combined with his own Summoner buffs provided by both his Racial and Job Classes, as well as his gear, created a truly monstrous combination.

Teinu unsheated both katanas, [Raijin and Fūjin], which started to vibrate with electrical fire, and activated some buffing Skills too.

Anchelo took out his pure white mace [Metatron], both it and the full plate armor begun to give off a faint glow. And lastly, their leader.

Asmodel, the Redeemed Battle Mage.

They were 3 subtypes of the Mystic Warrior hybrid archetype, there were the Spellblades, who were Warriors first and Arcane Mages second, Battle Mages like Asmodel, who were Arcane Mages first and Warriors second, and then Eldritch Knights, who were the perfect balance between Arcane Magic and weapons. Mystic Warriors were quite common in YGGDRASIL, what made Asmodel uncommon however was his Race.

Redeemed were almost unheard of, despite the considerable amount of Demon Players, not many were willing to acquire that Racial Class, since unlocking the [Redeemed] Class had very specific and hard to fulfill requisites. First, you need to have at least 30 Racial Levels in Demon Classes, and 50 Job Levels in any Classes, for a minimum total of Level 80. That is simple enough, however, you also need to have maxed out Positive Karma, something very difficult to do if you belong to the Demon Race. The Race change Item known as Heaven's Feather was necessary too, but those steps were still easy in comparison to the fourth and final requisite, carry out an Ascension Ceremony "powered" by 5 Angel Players of similar or higher Level.

Basically, a Level 80 Demon had to be a goodie-two-shoes and be buds with 5 Angels of at least Level 80. From the get go sounds like unnecessary trouble, if you want to play as a Holy Race, why not be an Angel from the beginning? Why go to all the hassle of becoming a Pseudo-Angel? Redeemed looked a bit like Angels yes, but they weren't. Half-Celestials like Anchelo were closer to real Angels than Redeemed like Asmodel were, and the same could be said of the Redeemed's antithesis, the Fallen, almost no Angel Player wanted to build up their Negative Karma all the way to -500, nor associate themselves with Demon Players of similar Level, so both the [Redeemed] and [Fallen] Racial Classes were rare in YGGDRASIL.

But Asmodel wasn't like most Players, with 2 pairs of pale gray feathered wings on his back, bronze skin, pupil-less orange eyes with sapphire blue sclera, a third vertical eye in his forehead, raven black hair, and what seems like scars of ripped out horns on his forehead. Above his head there was a smoky white halo, the skin around his eyes had slightly bulging veins, and if you could see behind his equipment you would see that most parts of his body, basically the arms, legs, neck and torso had burn marks with the shape of chains, a mark of the repent of his sins (or so the fluff said). The later was an important visual aspect of the Redeemed, so Players couldn't get rid of the chain marks no matter how much they tried to customize.

Avatar aside, his gear is what you would expect from a Mystic Warrior that is more magic inclined, he was covered from neck to toe with loose black clothes, and on top had an amethyst-colored chest plate with a diamond-shaped opal in the center, his forearms and legs were also covered with similar armor, and also had an opal-colored magic belt with a red cape attached. Normal capes usually hang from the neck and shoulders to cover the whole back, but Asmodel has 4 wings that would get in the way of a cape, so instead he has a small red cape with white flower drawings etched on it that hangs from his waist to cover the back of his lower body. The after mentioned scars of ripped out horns were partially eclipsed by a golden thin diadem adorned with small jewels that was custom made to not cover his third eye.

Like his fellow Magic Caster Meitro, Asmodel also has all his full fingers stacked with rings, 9 of those were the ones a typical Level 100 Mage would have, but 1 of those was instead a ring that enhanced his physical abilities and Warrior Skills. Normally, rings are Mage gear, and while Battle Mages are indeed Magic Casters first and Warriors second, Asmodel still felt bad for neglecting the few Warrior Skills he had while making his equipment, and since he also felt that the ability to wear armour thanks to his hybrid Job Classes wasn't good enough, he custom made a ring to supplement Warrior abilities. He then took out his favorite weapon, [Tolkien], named after his favorite fantasy writer, this ebony staff had ruby-colored marks adorning it, and a pure white oval diamond floating on its tip.

Each of the 5 used to belong to a top-tier Guild before their slow dissolvings, thus even though they were reduced to solo Players for a while before forming their little Clan, all 5 were fully stacked with Divine-class gear. They needed every advantage they could get in front of this unknown Boss, and today was the final day, so no one was going to pull back any punches, they will fight this battle like there's no tomorrow (because there really isn't for the game), Cash-Shop Items, EXP consuming Skills, even overloading their weapons to the point of destruction, nothing will be excluded, they will end their final team battle with a bang!

"You ready? Let's go!"

The 5 jumped into the circle and were teleported into the Boss chamber. Nobody among them was expecting what they saw.

And here ends the first half, if you want to know what happens next then you can check the second half right away.

I wanna thank you for reading all the way here, I know Player OCs aren't that welcome in the Overlord community, so I'm doing my best to write them in the most believable and non-forced way.