Fanfic / Something Wicked This Way Comes

—Remnant is all yours.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is a Crossover between Maruyama-sensei's Overlord light novel series and Rooster Teeth's RWBY.

Set one year before Ruby Rose is accepted into Beacon Academy, rather than arrive in the New World, Momonga and the Great Tomb of Nazarick are transported to the world of Remnant. With only a meager handful of people who are capable of performing magic, the appearance of the Overlord undead and his guild chock full of monsters puts the whole world on edge.

What exactly does Momonga's presence mean for Remnant, especially when he becomes involved in the war that is going on from behind the scenes?

The fanfic can be read here, here, and here.

Something Wicked This Way Comes contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Volume 1: EPILOGUE reveals that Tyrian was this. When Salem went to recruit him, all it took to convince him was to her form and power. After that, he proclaimed her to be a goddess and has sworn his loyalty since.
  • Roy Al Lint, the leader of Team RYAL, falls for Shizu the moment he meets her, unaware that she is a heteromorphic.
• Acceptable Breaks from Canon: The fanfic's version of Coco and Velvet's backstories were made well before RWBY: After the Fall was released.
• Age Lift: Arslan Altan, Reese Chloris and May Zedong become first-year students at Beacon Academy for varying reasons, a year before Ruby is accepted into Beacon.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: The Wild Hunt Grimm in Queen Safra's castle wields a flamberge bearing Salem's emblem, capable of cutting through Aura. It proves its capabilities by slicing off Lester's arm while his Semblance was active and by beheading Yee.
• Benevolent Boss: Momonga is pretty much a Universally Beloved Leader for all denizens of Nazarick. There is not a single NPC that doesn't hold this man on a pedestal.
• Break the Haughty: Momonga did this to Raven by not only demonstrating his power, but also killing off the entire Branwen Tribe in a single rout. The experience of not only losing, in spite of the fact that she had the Spring Maiden's powers, but also witnessing the death of her family, has turned her into a Broken Bird.
• Broken Bird: You remember what happened to Brain Unglaus after he ran into Shalltear? Well, Raven continues that tradition after she nearly gets killed and watches her tribe get wiped out in a single second. By the time Qrow finds her, she's become a Death Seeker that's been Drowning My Sorrows at a bar in Vacuo.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Momonga initially wanted to kill the Branwen Tribe until he saw Raven use Remnant's style of magic. When he discovers that she has immunity to ailments and instant death, he orders Nazarick to capture her for further study.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • With the possible exception of Salem, pretty much everyone in Remnant stands no chance against Momonga. In all honesty, this story should have been called Curb-Stomp Battle the Fanfiction.
  • Team RY_L's fight with the Wild Hunt Grimm goes this way. Its even worse when its revealed the Grimm was toying with them as it could move much faster than it did when it fought them.
• Cuteness Proximity: Remember Shizu's habit of putting a 1-yen sticker on anything she likes?
  CZ Delta: (stares at Velvet's ears) ...Soft.
• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Raven and Qrow's lives before they went to Beacon. When Raven was old enough to walk and talk, her parents started her training and told her to fight her brother. When she refused, they would beat her. As far as the Branwen Tribe was concerned, weakness had no place in the world and had to be killed off. When she was ten, her mother forced her to take part in a raid, which also led to her first kill. Qrow didn't have much luck with his family either, as when they were 14 and wanted to go to a Huntsman Academy to learn how to fight more effectively, he killed his father in a duel. Raven killed her mother for unspecified reasons sometime afterwards.
  • Cinder Fall's story is also mentioned. Before being found by Salem, Cinder was living in a "cesspool of filth, muck and decay." Everyone around her considered her worthless and weak and constantly abused her. When Salem found her, she offered her a chance to be in their place and oppress others, just as her abusers did.
• Darker and Edgier: It's a Crossover with OVERLORD. What were you expecting it to be, sunshine and rainbows?
• Distant Prologue: Momonga's arrival in Remnant takes place a year before the events of RWBY. As such, Velvet, who is a second-year in the show, is just arriving at Beacon to take part in Initiation.
• The Dreaded: Aside from the Elder Grimm, a book on Grimm classifications speaks of a fourth type of Grimm which is thought to be a mere myth. Ozpin has good reasons for keeping it that way, as the Wild Hunt Grimm are Grimm that have been roaming the Earth since when the Brother Gods inhabited Remnant.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Salem makes an appearance in Volume 1: EPILOGUE, taking notice of recent events involving Momonga's arrival in Remnant.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Chapter 2 has one of the bandits raiding Shiroyuki mentioning selling the children of a man they had just killed earlier. His friend promptly calls him suicidal, as Raven had made it explicitly clear that "slaves and bed warmers" are not allowed. Someone in the tribe apparently found out the hard way.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Like in the light novels, most of Nazarick's denizens do not have very many positive things to say about humans. The only ones that subvert this trope are Sebas, Yuri Alpha and Shizu, something that Momonga is aware of, hence why he gave Sebas and Shizu roles that involved them interacting with humans without the risk of raising unneeded hostility.
  • The Faunus also jump on the bandwagon. While the White Fang are most likely a given for hating humans, other Faunus discriminate against Faunus who have human parents. Velvet herself is a good example, as she was bullied by humans and other Faunus because her father was a human.
  • Roy Al Lint despises Faunus and honestly thinks they should be thrown back inside cages, just as they were back in the dark ages.
• Foregone Conclusion: The prologue chapter has Raven tell Qrow that Momonga slaughtered the entire Branwen Tribe. The chapters that follow detail Momonga's beginnings in Remnant, but when he defends Shiroyuki village from the Branwen Tribe, readers already know about the bloodbath waiting to happen.
• Half-Human Hybrid: While her actual parentage is unknown in the show, Velvet in Something Wicked is a "half-breed." Her father was a human who worked for a newspaper while her mother is a Faunus and retired Huntress.
• Heroic Lineage: Downplayed, but Velvet's mother was a Huntress. At some point after Velvet was born, she retired and opened up a cafe.
• How Would You Like to Die?: Momonga delivers an ultimatum to the Branwen Tribe bandits in Chapter 3.
  Momonga: I don't like repeating myself, so I'll say this once. As of this moment, you lot have two choices: to submit to me or resist. Submit to me and I'll spare half of you so that you may return to your owner. Resist, and only one of you will live to speak of what has transpired here. Obey, or die. Which will you choose?
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The events of RWBYs Volume 6 revelations are casually dropped in Volume 1: Chapter 3 and EPILOGUE. The latter is most prominent because it touches on Salem's backstory and the beginnings of Remnant.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: One of the major reasons why Team STRQ had disbanded was because Raven had left Summer to die due to some unknown circumstances. Though she had accepted what she had done, it's clear that the death of her friend still weights heavily on her mind.
• I Work Alone: Deconstructed. Students that do pass Initiation, but aren't placed on a team are called Solos. A Solo is generally treated as either a badass that doesn't need a team, a weakling that would be dead weight or got in by pure luck alone. They're also exempted from activities like being able to participate in team matches in combat class and can't go on missions unless they accompany another team, who generally tend to push them away because the presence of a fifth member would be difficult to incorporate into their already established teamwork. They also can't participate in the Vytal Festival, which In-Universe is described as being the worst kind of shame. A Solo can join a team that has a vacancy, but this usually happens during their second year at Beacon. In short, being a lone wolf at Beacon has more disadvantages in the long run. Subverted at the end of Volume 2 where Shizu, alongside three new students—May Zedong, Arslan Altan and Reese Chloris—become Team MARS.
• Laughing Mad: This is what Raven is reduced to after Momonga kills off the rest of her tribe. After she escapes and realizes that despite everything she's done, from training at a Huntsman Academy to turning her back on her family and allowing her best friend to die, she's still weak. The revelation and recent events all have her breaking down and laughing in the rain like a madman.
• Meaningful Rename: The end of Volume 1 has Momonga cast aside his old name and assume the name of his guild, Ainz Ooal Gown, just like in the light novels.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Dust, or at least unrefined Dust. In Volume 2: PROLOGUE Momonga learns through [Appraise Item] that the unrefined Dust Demiurge brings him, in terms of destructive power, can rival a fourth-tier magic spell. Momonga is ecstatic to learn this and even orders Demiurge to mine as much as he can of the stuff. The "mundane" part comes from the fact that Dust is widely used in Remnant for fuel and weaponry.
• Noodle Incident: The specifics behind the reason why Arslan and Reese's team disbanded in Haven. The only context we're given is that the other two members, one of them being the team leader, were apparently people Arslan and Reese were "destined to hate" and things got so bad it required Leonardo to personally step in, expel the two students, and transfer Arslan and Reese to Beacon.
• Original Character: They are present in the story, but the author is aware that OCs are generally divisive and states that the only worth they serve in the story is to help build the world of Something Wicked and are either eventually disappear after having fulfilled their purpose like Shiroyuki village, which is confirmed to no longer have a role, or serve as stepping stones for Momonga's overall goals.
• Patricide: Both Raven and Qrow killed their own parents. Qrow had killed his father in a duel in order to prevent the two from going to Beacon, thinking that they would become weak and should stay with the Tribe. Raven killed her own mother for unspecificed reasons sometime later.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After seeing her tribe get slaughtered with ease, Raven decides to book it like a bat out of hell. She manages to pull it off by attempting to attack Momonga with her Maiden abilities. While Momonga could easily deflect it, Albedo had intercepted the attack — giving Raven the opportunity to escape.
  • After witnessing Lester get his arm cut off and Yee being beheaded by the Wild Hint Grimm, Roy leaves them for dead while he saves his own life. Unfortunately for him, Aura takes him away to be used for experiments regarding Aura.
• Self-Made Orphan: Downplayed. The Branwen Twins did kill their parents, but they were still raised by the Tribe.
• Shout-Out: In Volume 2: Chapter 1 when discussing the application of Dust being infused into clothing, the narrative mentions Simin Megistus, who graduated from Beacon recently.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Shizu pulls this off when she meets Velvet. She catches her when she's about to fall due to the Bulkhead being in strong winds and leaves without her noticing when its time for everyone to gather their belongings. It was also during this time that Shizu stuck 1-yen sticker on Velvet's ears.
• Summon Magic: Aside from the monsters summoned by Ainz, Demiurge believes that the Grimm function as summoned familiars due to them dissipating after being killed and lacking any major organs like a brain.
• Take a Third Option: Raven did this to the Branwen Tribe upon her return. Due to infighting, there were two groups in the Tribe: one wanted to take over the Tribe and the other wanted to keep to the course. Raven's response was to kill the current leader and take over the Tribe herself.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Volume 2: PROLOGUE implies that Raven has joined back with Ozpin's inner circle, though she makes it clear that she's only doing this to stay alive.
  • Three-fourths of Team RYAL seem to get along with each other and work well. The one that doesn't is their leader Roy.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: There were a hundred different ways Momonga could have killed the Branwen Tribe, each more gruesome than the last. Using The Goal of All Life is Death, on the other hand, is just up to eleven. In fact, the only reason he even used it was to see if Raven's apparent immunity applied to a skill that could bypass immunity to instant death.
  • This was later revised, as many pointed out that [The Goal of All Life is Death], while powerful, has a cooldown that lasts for days, making Momonga's usage of it simply to test if Raven had total immunity to even as something as powerful as that very unlikely. Instead, Momonga opts to use [Despair Aura V], which kills the Branwen Tribe in one shot and utterly decimates the ecosystem around him. The overkill part is lampshaded by Momonga himself, who realizes he should have used a weaker variant of the skill due to said damage to his surroundings.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Due to poor decision making, the Branwen Tribe was on the decline, which eventually led to infighting, one group wanting to take over the Tribe and lead it in a better direction and the other group wanting to stay the course. Both Raven and Qrow realized that the tribe would tear itself apart at this rate, hence why they chose to attend Beacon and get stronger so they could better defend the Tribe, implying that they sided with the former. Of course, when Raven returned, she decided it would be better if she took control of the Tribe.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: There are more than a few OCs in the story that garner some interest, such as Kyle Blut — a former thief from Atlas who chose to pursue a quiet life in Mistral. But since this is an Overlord crossover, most of them either end up deader than dead or undergo a Fate Worse than Death. This is partially done out of the author wanting to subvert the trope of original characters being given some major focus and instead make them Momonga's stepping stones in his path or just side characters who will occasionally get screentime.