An Incubus

-Ainz Ooal Gown Throne Room, 10 minutes before server shutdown-

In a grand, ominous chamber a lone player leads a procession of 7 NPCs towards a throne with an eighth NPC stationed beside it.

The PC is tall with regal features; broad shoulders from which a pair of mighty leathery black wings rest like a dark lord’s cape, a toned and chiseled chest that is barred under a black and gold robe and a plethora of magic rings of the highest quality adorn his fingers and pointed ears.

Collapsing into the seat with a resigned sigh he passes a hand through his shoulder-length black hair and the pair of golden lightning shaped horns that jut out from his hairline and over the top of his head. Had the game’s mechanics allowed it his avatar would be frowning but all he can do is stare with up at the ceiling with his striking golden eyes while his handsome face remained frozen in its charming default half-smile.

In his right hand was a staff. It was golden with two shafts that twisted chaotically to connect to a cradle adorned with seven golden serpent heads facing outwards. Each snake held a different colored gem in its jaw, radiating great and sinister power. The Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, their guild weapon, wieldable only by the current Guild Master, it was composed of multiple Divine-class items, with power comparable to even the peerless World items which granted powers truly befitting of a (virtual) god.

His name is Satoru Suzuki, a dedicated YGGDRASIL player with a character known as Momonga, who, you likely already deduced, is the guild master of Ainz Ooal Gown. What was left of it, at any rate…

Between reaching the peak of what YGGDRASIL had to offer, less and less players to troll mercilessly and real world issues and events, the once mighty guild had become a mere shadow of its former glory with players dissolving their accounts one by one.

Only Herohero, the worryingly overworked programmer and maid-enthusiast, had actually made the effort of logging in at the request of his guild leader on this most sombre of day. Even then he had only stayed long enough to briefly catch up with his old friend for a few minutes before signing out for the final time, not even having the energy to see things through to the end.

“Stop it!” Satoru berated himself with a firm shake of his head, “Thinking about it won't change anything!”

for something to occupy his time he looked at the woman standing beside him at the throne. With lustrous black hair, fair velvety skin and a tasteful hourglass figure; she was a radiant beauty that would make many models seem plain by comparison. Her soft, dreamy smile, combined with her pure white dress, opera gloves and golden web-shaped necklace, made her appear as a tender, loving angel. Even her demonic features did more to encourage such heavenly imagery than disavow it; golden eyes like pools of pure sunlight, obsidian wings on her lower back adorned with feathers as soft and downy as clouds, and bone-white horns that resembled something more akin to a halo or wreath than the features of a beast.

Opening her settings revealed a short novel’s worth of information, everything from programmed commands to combat algorithms for commanding The Great Tomb’s defenses, even a modest autobiography.

‘Come to think of it, the settings-maniac Tabula was the one who created her and her sisters.’ he remembered, scrolling through lines of code and text.

“She is also a… total nymphomaniac.” the last line read. “Ha! It makes sense since she’s a succubus, but that's just like Tabula to make an NPC whose face doesn't at all match the character!”

As amusing as it was though, it felt somewhat uninspired. She was a succubus who happened to look like an angel. As their highest ranked NPC, she should be more... involved than that.

“I’d normally need a tool to change her settings but since I have this…” he mused, activating the guild’s signature weapon and summoning a holographic keyboard to the right of Albedo’s settings.

“Let’ see. How about: She is madly in love with Momonga, and wishes to be the head-wife in charge of his harem. In addition to overseeing the other floor guardians, she sees recruiting and training her co-wives and concubines to be a privileged responsibility for maintaining The Great Tomb of Nazarick.”

Satisfied, Satoru closed the menus to see that-

-absolutely nothing had changed...

‘It’s not like changing her “backstory” or “personality” would actually do anything. I could edit her appearance or stats but I like her as she is

*written by Lawless