Overlord of Biblical proportions

Overlord of High School (14)

After saying his goodbye to the trio, of which his sort-of-son was now involuntarily a member, Momonga walked out of Kuoh Academy. He walked in a great arc, to bypass the two girls he had previously met, whose response to his previously demonstrated inhuman abilities he could not think of. Putting that thought aside for the moment, he walked slowly through the streets of the city, looking around thoughtfully while occasionally raising his eyes to the sky. Looking up at the sun of this world setting, he periodically stopped whenever he saw a hedge, birds flying by, cats lying lazily on rooftops, or even just dogs in collars being walked by their owner.

It was only now that he could peacefully appreciate the various things that he missed, things that are beyond him in the future he had left behind.

Yesterday, Momonga was unable to, arriving at the academy by car and leaving it the same way, he had no time to appreciate his surroundings then. And according to Miki's many protests, he had broken a lot of traffic rules in the process. Fortunately, no one had made an issue out of it, though Momonga's suspect that it's by design.

Momonga's main assumption at the moment was that Rias or Serafall had somehow influenced the powers that be in this town. If they were not the powers that be already – Demons doing demonic things have to break a law or two, right?

Anyway, today, having met Serafall and dealt with his rapidly declining social reputation, at least hopefully, Momonga could afford to waste time walking home a bit slower, enjoying his surroundings.

In his past world, Momonga spent most of his time at home or at work, and each time in between either in YGGDRASIL or walking as fast as possible as to not get himself radiation poisoning. Even if he had the time to waste, what would he enjoy seeing? Run down streets, old half-destroyed houses due to lack of repair and constant acid rain, and a roadway completely flooded with gray and black, asphalt, concrete and the occasional poisonous neon light. Those were the things that could be made out from behind the visor of the plastic mask protecting his face and respiratory organs.

That Earth's air was completely unbreathable, ash, poisonous gases and radioactive particles could easily make their way into the human body. All of it leading to diseases in a matter of weeks, maybe even days if the person themselves were unfortunate. Momonga had heard that some rich people could afford a modified breathing system that could work as a respirator.

But, it was such an expensive thing that those who possessed it, from Momonga's perspective, were practically gods that he might see only in news stories.

Any greenery or living creatures existed so far away from Momonga that he only encountered them on the rare occasions when he went to any of the arcologies or was allowed on the doorstep of a rich person's house. And even these rich people could not afford to see the Sun again, it being completely obscured by a multi-kilometer layer of dust and ash in the sky.

In other words, the view that Momonga now enjoyed in this world was better than anything he had seen before... other than in his beloved game, that is.

In YGGDRASIL, of course, Momonga could see whole forests and rivers and the Sun and other fantastic landscapes, like floating continents or asteroids in space. But it all existed only in the game, and with the limitations of sensation in place, Momonga would never mistake something like that for reality. The same thing he saw now was real, his senses told him so.

Momonga stopped several times, touching the budding green leaves of the slowly growing spring trees, looking at the animals and birds quietly existing among humans and not arousing their interest, smiling inwardly a little. All the little things that were irreplaceable treasures in the future, in the palms of his hands. 'Friends... You would love it here. Blue Planet, what you always dreamed of – right here.'