The outside

After leaving the mausoleum, Momonga was greeted by a beautiful sight. The surface area of the Great Tomb of Nazarick was two hundred meters square, protected by six meter thick walls, with an entrance and an exit at the front and back.

The Tomb's grass was trimmed short and felt refreshing. On the other hand, the Tomb's trees had leafy branches that shrouded much of the grounds in shade, and the extensive shadows gave the place a gloomy air. There were also alabaster tombstones scattered about.

The juxtaposition of the neat grass and the messy tombstones was quite incongruous. In addition, there were exquisite carvings of angels and goddesses all over the place, each of which was easily a work of art, but the chaotic tomb design was frustrating, to say the least.

Apart from the large central mausoleum, there were four smaller mausoleums in the north, south, east, and west, each defended by statues of armored warriors, each six meters tall.

The central mausoleum was the gateway to the Great Tomb of Nazarick, and it was from this place that Momonga had emerged into the outside world.

Momonga stood at the top of the stairs and quietly surveyed the landscape before him.

The Great Tomb of Nazarick had originally been located in the icy world of Helheim, which was perpetually shrouded in darkness. The atmosphere was grim and dark, and the sky was constantly overcast. Yet, what he saw now was vastly different from that.

He was looking at a beautiful night sky.

Momonga looked to the heavens and he could not help but sigh. He shook his head, as though unable to believe his eyes.

"Amazing… to think they could include such detail in a virtual world… the air here is so fresh that it must never have been polluted. People born in this world wouldn't need artificial lungs to breathe…"

He had never seen such a clear night sky in his life.

Momonga wanted to cast a spell, but he was hampered by his armor. There was a certain mage class that allowed for the casting of spells in armor, but Momonga did not have that class. As a result, his full plate armor kept him from using magic. Even armor created by magic would not allow its wearer to cast spells while wearing it. Currently, there were only five spells he could use in his armored state, but sadly, the flight magic Momonga wanted to use was not part of them.

Momonga reached his hand into his pocket dimension and withdrew an item. It was a necklace with a pendant shaped like a bird's wing.

He put on the necklace and focused on it. The power buried within the necklace took effect.

"「Fly」."

Freed from the shackles of gravity, Momonga floated lightly into the sky. He rose upward in a straight line, gaining speed as he did.

Although Demiurge was frantically trying to catch up, Momonga paid him no heed and ascended steadily. Before he knew it, he was several hundred meters in the air.

Only then did Momonga's body slow down. He forcefully cast aside his helmet, and said nothing — no, as he looked down at this world, he could not say anything.

The blue-white light of the moon and stars chased away the darkness of the land. The grasslands, ruffled by a gentle wind, seemed to be glowing. The countless stars and the moon gave off their own radiance as well, shining brilliantly against the light coming from the earth.

Momonga could not help but sigh:

"This is beautiful… no, beautiful would not begin to describe this… what would Blue Planet-san say if he were here?"

What would he do if he saw this world whose air, land, and water had not been polluted?

Momonga recalled his comrade from the past, the man who had showed up for the guild's offline meetings, whose stony face had broken into a delicate smile when he was praised as a romantic — that gentle man who loved the night sky.

No, he loved nature, which had been polluted and almost completely destroyed. He played YGGDRASIL because he appreciated those scenes which no longer existed in reality. He had built the Sixth Floor with his sweat, blood, and tears. Its night sky was his personal design, and it was a reproduction of the idealized world in his heart.

That man who loved nature was always particularly excited when the topic came up. Some might even call it an obsession.

How excited would he be if he could see this world? How passionately would he declaim its glories in his baritone voice?

Momonga suddenly realized that he missed his old friend very dearly. Hoping to hear him expounding his wide knowledge again, he looked to the side.

There was nobody there. There could not be anybody there.

The somewhat hurt Momonga heard the flapping of wings, and the transformed Demiurge appeared before him.

This was Demiurge's half-demon form, with a pair of large black leathery wings growing from his back and the face of a frog.