Overlord: Blue Citadel Alternate

Jack continued to resurface all along the road to Carne Village. He looked relentlessly. Turning over rocks, inspecting abandoned wagons and even bothering to flip the local Tob Bears like common tables. There were two possible paths, but he followed the most recently used one that looked like it had tracks from earlier this day.

The closer he got to the frontier, the less foot traffic there was. It as clear that no one really wanted to go out here unless there was for some reason, profit or a new life waiting for them.

So far he could see that there had only been one way traffic since they left. There seemed to be no trouble as well, as there were no monster attacks and so on. He covered half of the journey to the village before coming to a stop.

His eyes rested in the direction of where he had last spotted the powerful Vampire Guardian that belonged to Momonga. It was rather annoying how close that they could have been to the fighting.

That was when his eyes rested upon a staff laying several meters away from the main path, laying in the grass. "Huh?" Any normal person would've thought it was just a shaven stick and dismissed it.

Yet as he walked over towards that side of the road, he could smell dried blood mixed with mud.

As he stepped into the grass, his foot rested on the hilt of a heavily damaged mace. It was covered in vines and various other forms of accelerated vegetation. He frowned deeply at this as he recognized the weapon too. His eyes moved to the arrow in the trunk of a tree and a short sword sticking out from under a bush.

For the next few seconds he felt abnormally heavy and cold. He walked forward slowly, but not out of caution, as he would enter the Great Forest of Tob. He followed the overwhelming scent of blood and narrowed his eyes on his path.

He could see a boot stuck in a puddle of mud, half sunken in. There was a yellow strip along the neck of the brown leather boot, and as he pulled it out of the mud, there was also a strip over the toes.

It matched the description of Nina's boots. Yet there was only one boot here. His eyes looked over the area around him and raised a brow.

His fingers tightened around the boot as he squat there, staring at the mud. He could smell blood up ahead and a faint sound he didn't want to acknowledge. As he stood, he continued his walk through the forested realm. As he was approaching the sound, the heaviness which had caught up to him was closing in even more around his c.h.e.s.t.

Coming to a stop after passing a tree thick trunk, his head turned and he rested his sights on a group of beastmen. His eyes taking on the shape of a heavily mutilated Dyne. There was nothing left below his ribcage. His eyes moved to the other destroyed figures that sewn a partially dug mass grave.

Crawling along the ground, Jack could see a individual pulling their body along the grass and root infested grounds of the forest, towards a pouch that was resting on its side. Their legs missing below the knee, hidden beneath a crimson stained cape.

It was Ninya, whimpering and crying, partially in shock. He saw the trial she left behind.

The Beastmen looked up, one of them eating what was left of her foot. "Hmm!? Kill that human before he ca--!" The monstrous humanoid was stopped in mid-command, his head exploded from a bolt of magic energy, coating his cohort in his gray matter.

Jack however was walking after Ninya, watching her as he could just make out her whispering his name. Calling for him. He stepped on her cape, knelt down and pulled her back as he brought her into his arms, cradling her with the back of her head against his shoulder.

She was still reaching out for the pouch, she had already gone blind from the pain and blood loss.

"Puny human, how dare you?!" One of the remaining beastmen had gotten up behind him and raised his massive furry clawed hand and brought it down. HIs claws broke the immediate moment they made contact with his head. "What!?"

With a whip of his hand, the Beastman was instantly bisected.

"J...J..." Ninya turned her head as her hands now dangled at her sides. She'd press the side of her face into the familiar feeling of his torso. "Jjjjj..."

"I'll heal you..." Jack muttered quietly as she was losing the ability to form words, his hand wiping away the tears which stained her face.

「Heal」

A green glowing shape appeared in the form of her legs before fading into that of normal skin and bone. She was healed of her mortal injury.

There wasn't much of her friends left for a resurrection without the spending of more resources. Though at least there were corpses. The only problem was, they hadn't listened to him before about regaining their strength before going out again. Instead they had taken a mission and on the way back, they were killed.

There was only the sound of a heartbeat in his arms. Her eyes were closed and shallow silent breaths escaped from her lungs.

Glancing up from the unconscious adventurer he was holding dearly, his eyes rested upon the Dryad peering out from a behind that of a large tree. With a solemn bow of his head, he dr.a.p.ed Ninya's legs over one arm while keeping the other arm wrapped around her shoulders so that her head was against his c.h.e.s.t. Using the hand of the arm beneath her legs, he plucked her things off the ground and put them in his item box before turning to leave the Forest.

Pinison, a small female Dryad watched as the humanoid male was walking away with the female in his arms. Her fingers touched her cheek softly, before her sight caught hold of all the carnage that was left behind. The torn bodies which will soon enough become fertilizer and food for the trees and wild animals.

As they made it to the edge of the forest, he stood there beside the path that either went in the direction of Carne Village or I the direction of Re-Estize's Fortress City.

So when he turned his head to look in the direction of Carne Village, there was Momon and Nabe who in the moment they noticed them, came to a halt. They could see the blood stained cloak, the torn clothes, the b.a.r.e feet that looked good as new… As if they had just been regenerated by a high tier healing spell.

"Jack?" Momon took a step forward, a hand faintly reaching out towards the fellow player sympathetically, as Jack took a step back and turned on his heel to walk away.

「Greater Teleportation」

Appearing above the Fortress City of E-Rantel, he cast the spell 「Fly」, allowing them to hover far above the population center. The cool breeze on his face as the wind whipped around his jacket and her bloodied cape.

Jack could only smile down at her, watch her as she seemed to take a piece of his jacket between the tips of her lips. It kind of reminded him of a turtle munching on lettuce at the end of its beak.

Turning his head away, he glanced off into the distance towards the direction of the Slane Theocracy, the Demi-Human Exclave and the City-State Alliance.

He was enjoying the view, blocking out the scene he had taken in only moments before. Dyne, Lukrut and Peter were gone. Jack took in a deep shaky breath, before closing his eyes.

Jack's eyes fluttered open as he felt a soothing, pale, cool hand on his cheek. The smell of salty tears, the sound of snot being sniffled back in and the chattering of teeth from a quivering jaw. His head eased into the hand as his sight drifted onto her face.

She surely looked completely wrecked emotionally. She had seen her friends die and in the end when she was on the brink of death once again, he appeared. Ninya finally breathed out a cry, followed by a wail. Her fingernails grazed his face before falling into her l.a.p, griping at the air.

Jack wanted to leave the Re-Estize Kingdom for a while, to get her away from it. All of it.

Would she want to get away from here? His eyes drifted down to her as she was in his arms. Her wailing had died down and she was just giving that dead stare off in the distance. Like the look one makes when they don't really feel a care about anything. Broken.

"I… I don't want to remember them..."

Jack frowned hearing her say this. It's one thing to want to forget the fact her friends had been murdered, eaten and mutilated. But to completely forget they existed? Even using Control Amnesia on her, that would make a great toll on who she was.

"Not like that… They disabled us, tore pieces of us off and made us watch as they ate our..." she swallowed hard as she was about to upchuck.

Bringing her hand up to her neck, she pulled the silver ranked dog tags from her mantle and dropped it. Watching as it sparkled in the sun once it was out of immediate view. The metal piece would land directly in front of one of the main gates.

Jack understood now what she was saying. She didn't want to remember what had happened. She rather know that they died, but not how. She didn't want to remember the gruesomeness of it all.

"My life has been put in your hands… Twice now..." Ninya spoke with an empty tone to her voice, reflecting how she felt. "So..." She leaned back into his forearm and bicep, letting the wind play with her short hair. "It's up to you I suppose… Right?"

"Raise your children to be kind, not successful." He'd utter as he looked to the side, away from her. Watching as a flock of white birds fluttered on by, giving them awkward glances like they didn't belong. "Even if your life is practically mine, does it really give me the right to choose for you?"

"...The Right to choose..."

"You have two people to live for," Jack smiled quietly as he cradled her close to himself.

Her blue eyes looked up at him as he looked down at her. "I must be so small to you..."

He fixated on her as she began to gaze off to some far off place.

She turned her head to look over at him. "If... If you knew what you would've gotten yourself into, would you still have went through that door?"

Jack knew what she wanted him to say. She wanted him to say that he would, or at least that is what he thought she wanted him to say. All he could do was smile at her however, "It's hard to abandon someone once you've embedded yourself into them, isn't it?"

Smiling awkwardly up at him, "I think I would have rather died in that room with my friends..." Ninya took an alarm clock shaped rock that had been in her mantle, out into the open. It was the size of her palm and it was set at a certain time.

The time in which he had woken up in front of the shop.

"Where did you get that… What is that?"

"He said it wouldn't effect your storage or your memories, so you'll be fine..."

"My status…?" Jack tried to maneuver to grab it from her hands, yet she refused to part with the item. "Who said this? Ninya, let go of it! I'll change your memories! Just give it to me!"

Click. The clock began to glow the moment the button on the side was pressed.

"Let me die… Let me die with my friends..."

"Who gave it to you..."

A ringing developed in his ears as he watched her mouth move before she leaned up and kissed him.

Suddenly everything went black, everything felt cold. The warmth on his lips was gone.