A Theory on Godhood: An Overlord Story

Chapter 20: Whispers in the Dark

Once their group had left the barn, a distant ringing could be heard, like the cattle bells that hung off the necks of the dead cows.

"My goodness, it's about time for dinner! I must've lost track of time," Pops said, pointing towards the sun. It was noticeably lower in the sky, signaling the transition from afternoon to early evening.

Coup De Grace's stomach rumbled, as did the stomachs of his other friends. Ordinarily, he wouldn't be hungry until much later, but he felt more drained than usual. Perhaps it was all the walking around and pondering on the implications of the day that was the cause.

"Miss Ankoro, if you don't mind my request, would you be willing to show my workers the runes you showed me earlier? I'm sure they'd be amazed to know what you do," the elderly man asked.

"Uh, yeah! Hell, I'll even share some stories I got," Ankoro said with glee, "man, I can practically recite the Prose Edda off the top of my head. There's so many stories."

She rubbed her hands together with excitement, which made Coup De Grace roll his eyes. Nonetheless, he still had a ghost of a smile on his face. He never could help but appreciate Ankoro's dedication to her hobbies.

Now his smile shifted to a frown, as he recalled her past and the type of life that entailed. It was hard to imagine someone like her being so easy-going and friendly with almost complete strangers.

On the other hand, he could just as easily imagine that fanged smile drenched in blood, her claws caked with viscera, and her fur damp from exertion as she tore others to shreds.

From an outside view, one would've never known the sort of sadism that Ankoro was capable of, hidden beneath a carefully nurtured facade of excitement and kindness. In recent years, during the guild's break from Yggdrasil, it was likely her new personality had taken over the majority of her old one.

The NPCs she crafted, Eclair Ecleir Eicler and Pestonya Shortcake Wanko, thankfully hadn't inherited anything even remotely resembling her old self, which the androsphinx found curious.

Alas, the hidden sadism was more a result of the type of upbringing Ankoro was subjected to. A life lived on the edge constantly and with more conflict than Coup De Grace would ever care for very well would make anyone a monster, temporary or permanent.

She was very secretive about that portion of her life, but over time he'd slowly coaxed the details of her past life out of her, and what she had to do to get herself and her brother, Mekongawa, out of it.

Hard to believe that Mekongawa was actually the tamer of the two, despite his theatrics and larger-than-life personality. They complemented each other well, Coup De Grace thought.

By the time they arrived at the cafeteria, many of the workers were just getting in themselves. Those who already saw the guildmates and their pleiade looked on in wonder, while those out of the loop did a double take and froze in place, their mouths gaping and pointing at them.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you it was rude to point at someone?" Coup De Grace snipped, letting his friends go first so that he wouldn't hinder them with him tucking his wings to fit through the door.

The men quickly shut their mouths, looking ashamed and apologizing to him as he passed. The atmosphere in the room was lively already, but it reached critical levels when his friends and him walked in.

Many called out, making requests for the heteromorphs to sit with them, to regale them with stories of Grover and the sort of person he was as a student of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"We can make room!" One group promised, "It's not every day you get to meet more forest gods!"

Forest gods?