There was something off about the scenery around them. Satoru distinctly remembered falling asleep in his and Akari's bed, half-dressed and bundled in blankets. Now, he stood on a grassy trail winding through a lush green forest, devoid of any blankets whatsoever. He was puzzled by the sudden change but began to notice the details around him as his senses slowly returned, the surprise sharpening his mind. The air, first and foremost, was crisp and clean, a stark contrast to the poisonous atmosphere he was accustomed to. Each breath filled his lungs with the refreshing scent of pine and wildflowers, incomparable to the filtered air through his masks and suits. The forest was alive with the sound of rustling leaves and distant bird calls, adding to the surreal quality of his new surroundings, sounds he had heard only in media like Yggdrasil.
"Is this a dream?" A muffled female voice beside him asked.
Satoru turned to see his wife standing beside him, her eyes wide with wonder and shock. She was dressed in a short summer dress that danced in the soft breeze, one she had only worn once on a date. Glancing down, he noticed that he was clad in white pants and a partly buttoned white shirt that felt light and comfortable against his skin, purchased for appearances whenever he went out to represent Akari as her secretary.
"I think so. Seems like a very pleasant dream," Satoru replied, taking in the impossibly vivid scenery. Every detail was so clear, it felt surreal, to feel and see and hear and smell all of this.
"Wait, dream characters aren't supposed to acknowledge it's a dream!" Akari animatedly protested, growing increasingly confused.
"I don't think I'm a dream character. I vividly remember going to sleep next to you," He retorted, now wondering if this Akari wasn't a figment of his imagination dreamt up by his mind.
"Holy hell. We're having a shared dream! And a lucid one at that!" She waved her hands frantically, taking sharp breaths. "Be calm, you don't want to fuck this up and end the dream," she declared animatedly, trying to calm her frantic self.
Satoru smiled and grabbed her hand. "You'll be fine. Let's see where this goes."
"You're right, this road looks like it wants us to follow it," She commented, her agitation melting away at his touch.
Akari locked fingers with her husband walking with newfound grace. Her dream body shared none of her real-life ailments, free from the chronic aches and pains that once plagued her, leaving her feeling light, strong, and no longer feeling the effects of a once weak body, meaning she felt more aware of their new surroundings. She tilted her head back, her eyes tracing the contours of the sky above. It was brilliant, cloudless blue, unmarred and unobscured by the smog and haze of her world, vividly ingrained in her mind. Perhaps they had arrived in paradise?
The scenery became clearer with every step they took, revealing its pristine perspective. The sun shone brightly above them, casting a warm, golden light all around. Around them, the forest seemed alive in a way that was both unfamiliar and alien, yet strangely not hostile. The trees whispered through their rustling leaves, and the ground beneath pulsed with an energy they couldn't comprehend. Shadows danced in the corner of their vision, and the air buzzed with a strange, electric vitality that kept both of them on their toes.
The vibrant colors around them shimmered with a surreal intensity, each leaf and blade of grass practically glowing with life. The sounds of nature graced their ears with the gained sharpness, impossible to experience in the waking world even with the best of readily accessible technologies. The gentle wind swayed the trees with such a calming effect that for a moment she thought they had entered heaven.
"I didn't know something so wonderful could exist. It's so much better than the parks in Tokyo. Hell, they wouldn't even compare," She commented, squeezing his hand once more. The land was, by all metrics, perfect.
Satoru nodded, "It's almost too perfect, I wonder why both of us are here. This cannot be just a nice dream," he added as his ears perked to the sounds of birds chirping melodiously from the branches, their songs a harmonious symphony with the rustling leaves. Satoru was once again the voice of suspicion of the two, being the man of logic and reason he was.
Akari frowned slightly, he was right. Most of her dreams were the reflection of her daily life struggles, being muffled, gray, and uninspiring. She never had a dream this lucid before, especially not with her husband tagging along. At most they were nightmares, culminations of her fears of being abandoned for who she was, as a person and the struggles she faced as a voice actor. Who knew how long they would have this experience? What was the purpose of this? How did this happen? Why did this happen?
"I guess we'll find out once we reach the end of this road," She replied.
The trail twisted through the forest scenery for quite a while, the tranquility of their surroundings lulling them into a quiet yearning to stay here, for eternity, if need be. The lush greenery and the occasional butterflies, with their enchanted wings, created a truly magical atmosphere, in stark contrast with the polluted and gray, harsh world of reality.
As they walked down the last loop of the trail, hand in hand, they eventually reached a small clearing showered with the light of the bright midday sun. In the center, a girl with messy blood-red hair sat cross-legged on a tree stump, engrossed in what appeared to be manga. Her round face was impossibly symmetrical, her button nose twitching as her large purple eyes shifted from panel to panel. If Satoru had to guess, he would pin the girl as caucasian, no more than 15 years of age. There was something otherworldly about this girl despite the contemporary casual clothing she wore, being far too good for what their imaginations could produce.
The baggy, light blue jeans hung loosely on her thin frame, and the tight, red t-shirt was decorated with a silhouette of some skeletal, predatory creature. Akari and Satoru exchanged curious glances, both sensing that this girl held the key to understanding their dreamlike situation. They approached her cautiously, the former slightly behind the latter.
"Heya! You're finally here." She looked up from her reading material and greeted them with a cheerful smile.
"Who are you?" Akari asked, her voice tinged with wariness.
"Oh, I am Artemel, your diligent benefactor of sorts." The girl replied as the manga faded away from her hands, in a way that reminded them of items disappearing into a storage dimension in an MMORPG. It was both bewildering and fascinating to witness something to just un-materialize itself.
"Benefactor?" Satoru eyed the girl with suspicion, his gaze narrowing.
"A lot of good things have happened in your lives recently, haven't they?" Artemel continued, her voice melodious and slightly teasing. She phased into a standing position in front of them, slightly startling them with the quick movement. Her height barely reached Akari's, who was of average height for a Japanese woman, and was slightly shorter than Satoru.
"And you did that? Who are you exactly? I don't see fox tails on you so you're not a kitsune," Akari commented with a poker face, her voice laden with skepticism. She may not have been a strong believer in religions, but she knew a decent amount of Shinto and Japanese folklore given that much of her work involved voicing them. The red-haired girl's appearance, as well as the name Artemel, didn't ring any bells, but her demeanor gave off the mischievousness of the fox spirits she had read about.
Artemel chuckled softly, her lips curling into a playful smirk. "I'm not a kitsune. I'm something… a bit different, besides, that's your shtick. With all the pluggable tails," she teased, sticking out her pink, glossy tongue curled at the tip in a lewd manner.
"How the hell do you know that? Do you spy on us all the time, you perv?!" Akari screamed in embarrassment, her face turned crimson.
"Pot calling the kettle black." Artemel shook her finger right in Akari's face. "Your benefactor, remember? I know everything about the life of you two."
"But why are we here then?" Satoru inquired in hopes of defusing the brewing tension between his wife and this mysterious girl. Knowing the stubbornness of his wife he could only hope Artemel wasn't her match in this regard.
"I am getting to that point. So… Earth is boring. Like, really boring," Artemel rolled her beautiful eyes, which shimmered in the rays of the overhead sun. "Even if I made you filthy rich, there aren't that many interesting things for you to do. How about I give you an interesting choice?"
"What choice? You don't imply this is-" Akari's eyes widened as she trailed off. She couldn't help but compare the current predicament to countless scenes from isekai media where protagonists met a deity who sent them to a different world on an important mission, usually to defeat a great evil of some sort, or perhaps said entity had made a mistake that broke the world's rules and thus had to make up in some way.
"Bingo, this is exactly what you think." Artemel twirled around, the entire scene following her in a blur.
Suddenly, she was sitting in a red leather chair, perched in the midst of a dimly lit, run-down apartment. The flickering lights cast eerie shadows on the cracked walls and peeling paint around them, and Artemel's attire had transformed. She was now dressed in a tight leather outfit adorned with an open leather coat. Her once tousled hair was now slicked back, framed by small round sunglasses perched playfully on her nose. She extended her arms towards them, holding two azure blue pills in her right palm and two crimson-red ones in her left.
"Is this a reference to something?" Akari asked, bemused by the bizarre gesture, the whole scene was too weird not to ask such a question and this entity seemed to be highly engaged and familiar to Earth's media.
"No idea. I might have seen this somewhere." Satoru replied nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders, as his gaze shifted from Artamel to Akari.
"Don't ruin this for me!" Artemel grumbled with a pout that contrasted with the intensity of her strong gaze.
"Sorry, carry on." Satoru apologized, unsure about what they were supposed to do in this strange scenario.
"You have a choice. If you take the blue pills: the story ends, you'll wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want." Artemel explained, her voice carrying a weight of gravity despite her playful demeanor, as she paused dramatically, her eyes glinting with an otherworldly sparkle peering above the small round sunglasses perched on her nose. "You take the red ones: I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
"What exactly are we picking? We aren't some naive fifteen-year-old twats who'd fall for this," Akari remarked, peering down at the girl with a disappointed look.
"Aaaaand you just had to spoil the fun," Artemel retorted with resignation. "Fine… the blue ones means you return to your old, mundane life, but if you pick red ones, I can whisk you away to a fantasy world to do all the great things your little selves can muster," Artemel continued flatly, her eyes glaring up at the pair.
"What are you getting out of this? For all we know, we could be signing up to terrible fates?" Satoru added skeptically, his eyes narrowing as he considered the implication. He wasn't convinced picking the red pills was a good idea. If a deal was too good to be true, it usually was. There was no such thing as a free lunch.
"Why am I even trying? I knew it would end up like this! If you want details, I'll give them. If you return to your lives, all that awaits you is, living to about sixty before your bodies give out and die, given your lame and horrible conditions as mortals. Your souls will likely drift apart forever, never to be united again after death. What I'm freaking offering you is the power to shape your flippin' fates!" Artamel's voice rose sharply, punctuating her frustration.
"I've been leading you two on for months to understand the idea of being isekai'd, manipulating dozens of people to plant just the right concepts, and now all I get is two paranoid geezers who need to be sold on the idea of leaving behind that junkyard of an Earth for a more glorious fate! Now pick or I'll get mad, and you don't want me mad!" Artemel ranted, her eyes blazing.
"Who are you calling a geezer, squirt?" Akari shot back, her temper flaring.
"Squirt? I am older than all of your reincarnations combined! It's not me who is a fossil at thirty!" Artemel retorted as she glared back.
"That's it!" Akari raised her fist, ready for a confrontation.
"Bring it!" Artemel jumped to her feet, equally ready to have a fist-fight.
Satoru, knowing this won't end well, intervened, grabbing Akari and roaring. "Both of you, stop acting like children!"
"Sorry!" both girls responded in unison, their voices echoing with surprise.
"Wait, why am I apologizing? I'm the one in charge here!" Artemel scratched her head, then took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure. "Pick now!" she demanded, her tone striving for authority.
"Relax. We just wanted more information," Akari sighed, turning to Satoru with a mischievous smile. "We wanted this."
"That we did." Satoru picked up the red pills, handing one to Akari and tossing the other in his mouth as she took it.
His wife followed his lead and swallowed the pill as well, "Huh, why do I taste… what is this?"
"Those are cherry candies. Here, take the blue ones too; they're blueberry-flavored." Artemel returned to a cheerful demeanor as the scene reverted to the lush forest. Her appearance morphed back to the casual attire.
"Wait, if those are just candies then why did you-?" Akari started, her confusion evident.
"So you accept the choice you made. I already knew what you would choose, so let's start the transformation!" Artemel's voice was filled with excitement as she prepared to reveal the next stage of their journey, much to the couple's concerns.
Satoru felt strange, the feeling wasn't bad, just weird, as if he was gently getting electrocuted, but there was no pain whatsoever. His heart stopped when he saw his wife melt into a puddle of red goo, glistening and gelatinous. He reached out, only to find his hands had become skeletal, devoid of all human flesh.
"Wha…" He gasped, feeling his lungs shut down, but instead of suffocation, a wave of calmness washed over him instead.
"What in the ever-living fuck is this!?" Akari let out an echoey scream from her jelly form, surprised.
"Relax. Just the first step of the process. I needed to turn you into Momonga and Bukubukuchagama first." Artemel brushed off her panic nonchalantly while pressing buttons on a translucent, floating UI panel.
"Relax!? You turned me into a pile of slime and my husband into a skeleton! Are you mental!?" Akari, now evidently Buku, lunged at the girl but froze mid-air.
"Explain!" Satoru demanded. His new form had grown to the impressive height of two meters, fully becoming his game avatar, clad in a midnight black robe adorned with an intricate golden embroidery. His skeletal frame was stark white, gleaming like polished ivory, his ribcage exposed showing not only the pristine white bones but an ominous red orb glowing within. A dark halo-like object glimmered right behind his head, and a pair of tiny dark red flames emanated from deep within his empty eye sockets, adding to his fearsome presence. His hands, though bony, moved with a fluid grace of a fully fit man, each finger tipped with sharp, claw-like appendages. Ten rings now adored his fingers, nine new ones joining his wedding ring, which had somehow survived this … conversion. His wife had reverted to her game avatar; it was an odd-looking pink flesh. A formless red slime with shining orbs floating within her gelatinous mass, her appearance seemed quite grotesque.
"Calm down you two, give me a few minutes and you'll both be happy, it's a promise." Artemel gave them a reassuring smile.
"How? You turned us into… this!" Akari's voice trembled, growing increasingly agitated, her gelatinous form quivering.
"Five minutes. And if you don't like it, I will turn you back into humans, just keep calm, deal?" Artemel replied with a disarming smile.
"Let's see where this goes," Satoru agreed as he walked up to his wife and placed his skeletal hand gently on top of her highest point in a reassuring gesture. It was safe to assume he wouldn't be able to harm the entity that was playing with them like disposable toys, and neither would his wife. They were at her complete mercy and whims, possibly more given her previous statements of having supposedly been responsible for their changes back in reality. If she could do it there and here, there was no reason to not expect her to be able to do it once she finished whatever she was doing.
"Good. Now let's see. First, race changes… I know!" Artemel's eyes sparkled with excitement, "I will call your race Supreme Beings."
"What does it mean?" Satoru inquired, his interest piqued. This term surely indicated that he and Akari would be quite strong, and was akin to the jargon Yggrasil's NPCs sometimes used. She had already drawn on the game for their avatars, he could begin to see the patterns forming.
"In short, I'll give you both all sorts of neat abilities, the main ability being the ability to use any force and even generate them if you have enough magical reserves. You'll love it."
"What do you mean by generating force?" Akari, now more accepting as Buku, inquired, her voice echoing eerily.
"There are a lot of natural forces in the reality I'm sending you to, such as light, void, death, order, disorder - that sort of thing. All magic is related to these forces. You two will be able to use them at your leisure with almost no consequences with my modifications. Mind you, there'll be some, so at least learn about what you're using, but even they'll be tapered downwards. Additionally, your mana pools will transform your natural energies into these forces for your use. Of course, I'll adjust your base stats so you two can have fun without fearing shadows in the night," Artemel explained with a mischievous grin. The words hung in the air, and Satoru felt a surge of anticipation. Artemel's promise of unimaginable power and adventure shook him to his core. The allure of such abilities, the idea of becoming supreme beings in a fantastical realm, was too tantalizing to dismiss.
Akari and Satoru exchanged a glance, "Does it mean we can use abilities we had in Yggdrasil?" Satoru asked. With Akari too worked up to approach the situation logically, it fell upon him to acquire as much information as he could. He was better negotiating with a script of prepared questions and counterpoints, not freestyle like this, but Akari clearly was still too worked up to think clearly.
"Yes, and then some. I'll also lock away some more broken feats I added, so you have some time to adjust. Now then, the main skill you both are going to love. It's called visage and it lets you pick any form you like. Go on! Try it." Artemel waved over Akari, releasing her from stasis.
"Any form?" Akari questioned cautiously.
"More or less. Try imagining how you want to look and go for it." She encouraged the pair with a playful nod.
Akari didn't need to be told twice. Her gelatinous form shot up, assuming a humanoid form, and within a blink of an eye, she had remade herself into her ideal form, alluring to possibly every man who saw her. Her face, now perfectly symmetrical, boasted large sea-blue eyes, almost like anime. Her lips were full and luscious. Her black hair cascaded down in a long, silky waterfall. Every imperfection had been smoothed away, leaving behind a vision of ethereal beauty almost too perfect to be real.
Since her avatar didn't wear any armor or clothing, her body was now on full display, from top to bottom. Instead of her original slender physique, she now had a curvy and athletic form, with a full hourglass figure enviable of most models. She also made her breasts a few sizes larger as well, enhancing her grand allure even further. Satoru watched the transformation in awe. The change was mesmerizing, a seamless blend of magic and imagination that invited him to take her then and there.
"How do I look?" Akari asked, twirling around for her husband's enjoyment, her voice now seemingly more joyful and lighter. "I hope you like it. See now? They're styled like an arrow pointing down," she added, with a teasing smile.
Satoru let out an incomprehensible sound, the dark red flames in his socketless eye holes flaring in astonishment as his mouth - now just a singular jaw bone with teeth - remained agape, hanging comically downward.
"I think you've crashed him," Artemel laughed.
"Just the reaction I wanted." Akari giggled, her laughter melodic echoing like chimes in the wind, a stark contrast from the former eerie echo she once had, let alone her original human voice back on Earth. "Though I need some clothes. I wouldn't want to show up in the new world literally butt-naked. I am a taken woman, after all," she added, her voice laden with a symphony of delight.
"We'll get there. You'll get your inventories full of all sorts of goodies. Hey, big guy, it's your turn," Artemel called.
"Huh?" Satoru blinked, snapping out of his reverie, the vividness of his wife's chosen visage too much, even for his now undead form. Seeing her enhanced beauty was like discovering colors existed after being color blind, if not better.
"Try your visage form; just a warning for you two, visage neither changes your fundamental properties nor gives you particular traits, but only alters your appearance." Artemel urged on.
"Sure…" Satoru remembered his human look and shrank down to his previous size, causing him to notice a sigh.
"Sato… can you go back to that height? I love you and you look great, but you can spoil me a bit as well and go beyond." Akari placed arms behind her back and leaned forward, her eyes wide with puppy-like innocence, only bolstered by her new eyes.
"Let me help you a bit." Artemel winked and snapped her fingers. Satoru instantly grew back to the impressive height of two meters, his form widening as well, but this was a mere shadow of the true changes simultaneously occurring. His human muscles bulged, becoming extremely pronounced, his face broadened, especially his jaw, which now appeared practically chiseled from granite, and his eyes gained a stormy gray color that seemed to hold ancient wisdom deep within. His skin was like polished marble, white enough to give even the richest of dermatologists a run for their money. This new form screamed strength and power. He stood there, towering and imposing, the embodiment of a warrior king. Ironic, since he had been a mage in Yggdrasil.
"He… he… abs… " Akari's eyes sparkled with a mixture of admiration and lust. Her supple tongue slipped out as she drooled at the sight of her husband's chiseled chest.
"Hehe, just like a teenage girl." Artemel laughed at Akari's reaction.
"You can grate cheese on those… Hey, don't laugh at me! You just pushed him from nine to fifteen out of ten!" Akari pointed her finger at the girl, her voice laced with a mix of awe and indignation.
"Fine, fine. Now, let's add the items, some trinkets, a bit of books, and… a few world items, aaand ~ done." Artemel rubbed her hands together, a satisfied grin spreading across her porcelain-like face. "So, here's the deal: I am dropping you in a another world called Azeroth, and you can do whatever you want - build empires, kill kings and queens, and have fun. But let's start low, ok? Maybe travel a bit first to learn about the world. Oh, and pick simpler gear. I put plenty of options in your inventories for you to choose from. Sato, I also put the guild staff in your inventory, and now one last thing, I picked new names for you." Artemel spoke fast without pausing for breath, if at all she needed to.
"Names?" Satoru questioned, his curiosity piqued once more.
"Yeah, sooo~, you will be Ainz Ooal Gown and Akari is now Buku Ooal Gown."
"Um, not that I don't like the idea, but why?" Akari inquired while tilting her in confusion, the strands of her hair swaying gently in the light breeze.
"Those sound cooler than Suzuki Satoru and Suzuki Akari," She chimed with mischief, her giggles tinkling like wind chimes.
"Fair enough. I like the ring of it. Buku and Ainz, we can be monsters just like in the old times, this time for real." Akari smirked as she pulled out a set of underwear and a simple leather set with plates covering the vitals. The ease with which she accessed her inventory was almost second nature, it felt as natural as breathing, even easier than it had been in-game. She also picked a buckler shield and a steel longsword, simple in appearance but Ainz knew otherwise based on his memorized stats. The leather armor hugged her form perfectly, highlighting her perfect athletic build. The plates gleamed dully, ready to deflect any blows her way. The steel longsword felt perfectly balanced in her hands, as if she had been wielding it for decades.
"We have those forms now, so it fits. From now on, I will be known as Ainz Ooal Gown," Ainz agreed. He too was changing his clothing to a simpler purple robe with a hood and wielding a wooden staff for a weapon.
"And I will be your beloved wife, Buku Ooal Gown." She giggled, her excitement palpable.
"Then we are almost done. Here is the map of the region. Good luck and have fun. I expect to be entertained, so I may drop by one day to say hi!" Artemel replied, pushing a scroll into Ainz's hands. Ainz examined the scroll, feeling its weight and texture, the parchment surprisingly smooth under his fingers.
"Thank you," he sighed, his deep voice resonating with a newfound sense of purpose.
"Wait. What about Itsuki?" Buku questioned. She and Ainz would be completely gone from her brother's life without any warning after all, along with all of their former deadlines and responsibilities.
"Tell you what, I'll show him your adventures in his dreams. He'll get the short version of your transformation tonight and I'll make sure he inherits your money." Artemel nodded, her voice reassuring.
"But he'll still be on Earth…" Buku looked up at Ainz in a silent plea and received an immediate nod of agreement from Buku, both able to communicate without words in this matter. "What do we have to do to be transported with us? And perhaps his girlfriend too if he doesn't want to come on his own."
"Bring him as well…" Artemel tapped her nose with her index finger. "Nope, not at the moment. Will kill the vibe you know."
"Is there nothing we can do to bring him with us?" Ainz inquired, seeing how deflated Buku became after the rejection.
"Hmm, that's actually… Yes, that will do! I'll leave clues for you both to learn interdimensional summoning magic. If you find all the pieces, you'll be able to summon him as Pero."
"It's better than nothing," Buku sighed. "Please tell Itsuki I love him and we will find a way to bring him over."
"Don't worry I will and who knows, it might happen sooner than you think. Now go and have fun." Artemel waved her hand and everything went dark.
Editing by NabeisWaifu and aidan_lo.
Proofreading by IAMTHEPLOKOKIOPO, Ainz-sama, miraculous-trash, fvvck, and aidan_lo.
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