"Adversity introduces a man to himself." - Albert Einstein
————
The Asterran straightened his posture and declared once more:
"The Imperial Capital, Asterra. The very planet we stand upon, it has been transported."
Alfred, his direct servant, one of the Asterrans Aman had personally designed to oversee imperial affairs, spoke.
For the first time he had witnessed everything he created moved with life, he should have been overjoyed by this, but yet his words didn't quite register to him.
"…Wait. You mean only the whole planet?"
"Yes, my liege. Only the whole imperial planet. These are the sensor results that detected this unprecedented anomaly."
"..."
Aman shifted uncomfortably on his throne, nearly stammering as the weight of the news threatened to drag him down.
But before he was able to express more complaints, he saw the still kneeling Alfred on his knees, with his head bowed, suddenly asked.
"Could this be the work of the Children?"
"No. Don't jump to conclusions, Alfred."
"However, my liege, "
"Alfred. Do not let something like this shake you."
Seeing his master remain composed, Alfred forced himself to calm down.
"…Please excuse my outburst, my liege."
The empire had fallen into a state of panic. Memories of the dark era resurfaced, and even Alfted, who had lived through those times, felt an old, primal fear clawing at his core. He couldn't bear the thought of history repeating itself.
And yet, due to his own failure to detect any traces of the chaos, they had been thrown into this disaster.
However, there's also the possibility that the failure to detect the presence of any chaos also meant that this catastrophe was not their doing. That should have been a relief, but instead, it only deepened his unease.
How? How did this happen? What force could move the entire sacred capital out of Imperial space and into an unknown region?
How did we not see it coming?
Without a usage of Turan's Gate? Anyone else who can do that is the Chaos-Borns and no one else?
But we did not detect a single sliver of chaos!
Reports flooded in, detailing the extent of their situation. Alfred found himself struggling to believe what he was hearing.
Many questions have taken root in his mind.
Yet, as he looked at his liege, a sense of reassurance took hold.
Perhaps my liege knows the cause… or at least, the reason behind this event.
Aman noticed the way his advisor looked at him, and for the first time in a long while, he felt nervous about what to say.
"First, we should investigate nearby celestial bodies,"
"If only the Capital was transported, that must mean the Turan's gate is not together with us, then we must consider gathering resources from nearby systems. We need to restart the disabled infrastructure as soon as possible."
"Understood, my liege."
"Also… activate the beacon. We must reestablish contact with the empire."
Though Aman had anticipated this possibility, he hadn't fully prepared for it.
He ignored this certain possibility and his mistake is he is fully aware of this certain possibility yet didn't make an action.
He had ignored the chance that the empire might not fully transfer with him, that his ambition to bring his handmade intergalactic empire into the new world could result in something incomplete.
He hoped he's just being paranoid, but being paranoid isn't his thing at all.
After all, how could he have predicted this?
He didn't extensively research the reason behind the transfer of Overlord back in his previous world, so how could he know, and how could he not make this mistake.
The Guild of Ainz Ooal Gown completely transferred to the new world. Then why is the empire incomplete?
His mistake was clear.
His ambition was too big.
He had poured everything into creating a custom-made intergalactic empire and bringing it into this new world.
He imagined possibilities on how the empire would likely appear in the new world.
For example, there is the most favorable outcome of spawning the entire Asrameda galaxy, which contains the empire.
However, doing so would most likely result in a catastrophe caused by two galaxies colliding, bringing disaster to the new world.
Not that he cares, about the new world he only cares about the empire. He has already prepared countermeasures for this particular scenario.
But, of all the possible scenarios, theirs is the most unfavorable.
But right now, instead of a silly thought, he was more worried, how does the transfer even work?
If he could have known that before, he could have made proper preparation.
He was so busy he didn't have a chance to think about it.
He knows there's something wrong with his thinking.
A part of him had always favored that outcome. Because how could he not?
He spent millions of dollars on the developers and he had bled for it, quite literally, his enemies had given him more than enough "warnings" about his reckless spending on games, "not to spend so much money on freaking games".
It reached the point where his personal expenditures had reached absurd heights. He had hired multiple gaming companies to assist his original team, ensuring every detail was crafted to perfection. This way he's also helping multiple people by paying them the right price for their work.
After all, he requires all of that for his empire, which includes a galaxy of over 500 billion conquered stars and a planetary system populated by completely unique individual inhabitants, each with rich histories, deep lore, and intricate flavor text.
Imagine the workload.
The sheer workload of monitoring each update had nearly driven him to insanity. He had pulled countless all-nighters, while the developers thought that he was secretly funding the new Yggdrasil 2 with an entirely new concept and dimension.
And why wouldn't they?
He was a shareholder in the company that had developed Yggdrasil.
The rumors had even been leaked to the public, and in the end, he had used them to his advantage, turning the speculation into leverage that stopped his enemies as they thought he was making money, so why not invest into it.
Sponsorships and investors had followed, pushing the project even further.
But now…
Now, all of it has vanished.
Of all those affected, no one could be more bitter than him.
Now seeing all that hard work disappear like a bubble, he could be said to be the most bitter of them all.
"I need a full report on all our arsenal, what was transported with us and what was lost due to the displacement."
"Understood, my liege."
Aman knew the nature of this transfer all too well.
While he had no idea what's the reason behind the transfer, he understood one thing.
It was a predetermined future where every holder of World Items was destined to be transported along with their possessions.
Then why is it only the planet he was on was transferred? He had made sure to implant throughout the empire his name so it'd be his possession.
Even Momonga was just the guild leader of Ainz Ooal Gown himself.
However, he couldn't not tell them that to them, could he? That he himself doesn't know the nature of this transfer, else they might become suspicious of him.
Aman knew that admitting he didn't know the nature for their displacement would be dangerous. In the lore, the empire was built on his absolute rule.
In their flavor text, they have fought horrors of the universe, where a soldier may perish within a ratio of fifty percent. Fifty percent you'll endure the corruption, fifty percent you'll be corrupted and mutate, before you could even land a gaze on the enemies.
And that's before the emperor Aman arrived and saved them. In other words, he, who is just impersonating this avatar. In essence he's not really the emperor of the empire.
To his people, he was the only emperor, he was the foundation of their civilization, the one who led them through countless wars and crises.
His knowledge was seen as limitless, his decisions unquestionable.
If he admitted his ignorance, it would shake those zealots' beliefs.
Doubt would spread among his subjects. If even their emperor didn't understand what had happened, how serious was this situation?
Could this be an enemy they couldn't see, something even he hadn't prepared for?
But that's impossible! We're talking about the all-powerful emperor, there's nothing that he would not expect.
So how serious is their situation?
The worse his subjects can do would lead themselves to fear and disorder.
Some might start searching for an enemy that wasn't there, wasting time and resources.
Others might see it as weakness, if their ruler didn't have all the answers, could they truly rely on him? That kind of thinking could turn into hesitation, and hesitation could break the empire from within.
No, he couldn't allow that. He needed to project absolute confidence, guiding their fear into action instead of panic.
Just like Momonga did, he had to appear all-knowing, even when he was just as confused as they were.
If they believed he had anticipated this, they would remain confident. And if they remained strong, then the empire would survive and he would survive.
Although he was confident in the flavor text he had commissioned, he knew one thing for certain, his people held absolute loyalty toward him but with the transfer, growth was inevitable.
When his subordinates became real, the limitations imposed on them as NPCs would vanish. Freed from those shackles, they would finally have room to grow, whether in strength or personality.
He had remembered reading theories about the guild members of Ainz Ooal Gown, speculations that they might betray him or, worse, that they had already done so without realizing it. But those were just theories, nothing more. At least, that was what he told himself.
And he could only hope reality wouldn't prove him wrong.
He recalled a crucial detail about his subordinates.
Beyond their unwavering fanaticism, they were soldiers, veterans who had fought valiantly for countless millennia. They were also diplomats, pacifists who once promoted unity. But against enemies they can be considered to be one thing.
Xenociders.
And these bunch of xenocide freaks, suffer from PTSD. :3
Unlike the Astartes who did not know fear, his men knew it.
Although not like the usual PTSD, where they lose control. The fear was a driving force for them to protect the people of the empire. No matter what happened, even if they truly died as long as the empire lived. It is but a great honor to die for it.
○●○●
Back in the previous world, before all of this became reality, Aman, his previous self, had once sat in a meeting with his game development team, discussing the philosophical lore behind the empire's soldiers.
It was the Director who had brought up the issue.
"We shouldn't make them like the Astartes or those Imperium of Man warriors."
The statement made him a bit irk cuz who wouldn't want a willful bulwark of war and does not know fear as your soldiers. But seeing the thinking face of the director, he decided to hear him out at least.
"Go on."
"You see, Boss. Fearless warriors are great on paper, but in practice? They lose something human. They become too predictable. Too reckless."
"So, what do you suggest?"
"Let's make them know fear. In a way that drives them. Fear can be a weakness, sure, but it can also be a weapon. If they fear losing the empire, losing their people, they'll fight harder than anyone who simply follows orders without emotion. How's that?"
That got him thinking. What he said makes sense but he's not making a dramatic episode of soldiers, what he wants is security.
This guy hasn't seen the ultramarines yet, what is he talking about?
Then he remembered all those anime he watched back in his world. How sometimes people with too much "will" will trump in the end, so it's not bad to consider the words.
"A fear-driven army… not one that cowers, but one that refuses to fall because their fear fuels them."
"Exactly! You got it boss! Hey, write that down, that line is good!"
The Director grinned and pointed at the writer taking notes. He knew the boss was the type to think the same way as him.
"Imagine it, an enemy sees one of the Asterran soldiers bleeding out, missing an arm, losing too much blood. Normally, that soldier should be done for, right? But instead, he fights harder. He knows fear, and he fears certain death, but he pushes through it. And just when the enemy thinks they've finally put him down, BOOM! Self-destruct. He takes them with him, showing them what real resolve looks like."
"Ahhh, like that meme hundred years ago, the soldier fighting an alien, half his body missing, but still swinging until the very end. Then he goes like "We're made in the image of God. We're born to inherit the stars."
Indomitable will.
"Exactly boss! I'm surprised you know it so well!"
"Well…"
(He had spent most of his past life scrolling through his phone, after all.)
"It'd be even greater if our first idea wasn't androids that don't bleed but humans, "
"No. Don't even continue that thought." Aman cut him off immediately.
"I'm sick of humans. We're not changing it." Aman said.
"If humans were so great, we'd have solved the pollution crisis. There's no corruption, and wars wouldn't still be happening. The world wouldn't be full of people with scarred faces."
"Nah, I'm done with humans."
"Boss is right, Director. In the first place, if we change it to humans at this point all the drafts we have already made will be lost, that's troublesome."
"Exactly! If we make them human, it's not gonna feel alien anymore. That was the whole point, right?"
"Director, that's not good."
The other employees nodded in agreement. Radical opinions about humanity weren't rare these days. With death, crime, and corruption clinging to everyday life, it was easy to be disillusioned.
And so, it was decided.
The empire's forces would not be fearless, but instead, they would embrace fear as their greatest motivator.
Unlike mindless warriors who charged forward without hesitation, his soldiers would fight not because they lacked fear, but because they understood its weight.