Overlord Gaiden Prologue

The girl ran.
女孩跑了。
Barefoot and clad only in a thin ceremonial robe, the girl ran.
赤脚，只穿着薄礼仪长袍，女孩跑了。
The shattered tiles and masonry did not slow her down. Despite their sharp edges, they could not even begin to nick her now-impervious skin. Perhaps if they were blades of enchanted silver… but not as the mundane debris that they were.
破碎的瓷砖和砖石并没有让她慢下来。 尽管他们锋利的边缘，他们甚至不能开始尼克她现在坚韧不透的皮肤。 也许，如果他们是被施了魔法的银刃...但不是作为世俗的碎片，他们是。
Even if they had managed to cut her, they would not have drawn blood from a body that no longer bled. And of course, she would not even have registered pain in her mind.
即使他们成功地砍了她，他们也不会从一个不再流血的身体中吸血。 当然，她甚至不会在她的脑海中记录痛苦。
Mere physical pain was nothing compared to what she felt now.
单纯的身体疼痛是什么相比，她现在觉得。
It should have worked, it should have worked, she thought. And indeed, there was no reason why it should not have. The ritual had been perfectly planned, she had taken what she thought were adequate safety measures, and she had felt the power surging through her.
它应该工作，它应该工作，她想。 事实上，没有理由为什么它不应该有。 仪式是完全计划的，她采取了她认为是适当的安全措施，并且她感受了力量涌动通过她。
The ritual spell should have worked. She was sure of it.
仪式咒语应该有效 她很确定
And yet, she was running barefoot through a ruined palace, one that had been filled with anticipation less than two hours ago.
然而，她赤脚跑过一个被破坏的宫殿，一个已经充满了期待不到两个小时前。
She did not even notice that she could see with perfect clarity indoor with all the lights out.
她甚至没有注意到，即使所有的灯都熄灭，她也可以在没有月亮的夜晚看到室内的完美清晰。

***

She reached the throne room. The damage was not so severe here, so close to the casting chamber, but it was empty. No, that was the wrong word to use.
她到达了王座的房间，但它是空的。 不，这是错误的词使用。
The lavishly decorated chamber was never empty. It was watched around the clock by four knights of the palace guard, outfitted in the best equipment money could buy.
装饰华丽的房间从来不是空的。 它是由四骑士看守的宫殿，装备在最好的装备钱可以买到全天候观看。
Right now, all four of them lay on the ground, completely still.
现在，他们四个躺在地上，完全静止。
In other words, just like the people in the room she had just left.
换句话说，就像她刚刚离开的房间里的人一样。
“H-hello?” she called out, holding onto a faint glimmer of hope that she would get a reply.
"喂？"她喊道，抱着一丝微弱的希望，她会得到一个答复。
The silence dashed those hopes like spun glass.
寂静使那些希望像玻璃一样破灭。
The despair which took its place was like a cold, clammy cloak of darkness settling down on her. It was only made worse when she opened the knights’ visors and saw their blank, dead eyes, staring out into nothing.
绝望就像一个寒冷的、湿漉漉的黑暗笼罩在她身上。只有当她打开骑士的面罩，看到他们的空白，死的眼睛，凝视着什么，才会变得更糟。
She had known these men almost since birth; they had smiled warmly to her when they met her in the corridors, she had seen them rise through the ranks as she grew up.
她认识这些人；他们在早上见到她时，对她微笑着，她看到她们长大后，在队伍中崛起。
They might not have been family, but they were almost as close as her own kin.
他们可能不是家人，但他们几乎和她的亲人一样亲密。
And now they were dead.
现在他们死了
The girl wanted to cry, but the tears would not come. Still, she was so distraught that she did not find that fact strange.
女孩想哭，但眼泪不会来。 尽管如此，她是如此心烦意乱，她没有发现这一事实奇怪。

***

As she continued on to the royal bedchamber, she went over the facts in her head once more.
当她继续到皇家寝室，她去了在她的头的事实再一次。
Less than a year ago, the mighty beings colloquially known as the Demon Gods had appeared out of nowhere, and they had immediately begun ravaging the lands of men. City after city was crushed and those nations which had not already been destroyed by the Eight Greed Kings and the demihuman invasions which followed were wiped out by the roving hordes of lesser demons which had spontaneously appeared in their masters’ wake or which had been drawn out of hiding by the presence of a powerful being to follow.
不到一年前，强大的众生通俗地称为妖神已经出现了从哪儿冒出来，他们已经立即开始肆虐的人的土地。 城后市被粉碎和那些尚未被摧毁的国家的八个贪婪的国王和随后的半人马的入侵被消灭的漫游成群的较小的恶魔自发地出现在他们的主人的唤醒
Several nations attempted to attack the Demon Gods head on. They were crushed for their trouble by the overwhelming power and numbers of their enemies. In fact, ill-advised attacks only made them weaker, by squandering heroes and valuable treasures in piecemeal assaults against impossible odds.
几个国家试图攻击恶魔神的头。 他们被压倒性的力量和敌人的数量压碎了他们的麻烦。 事实上，不明智的攻击只使他们变得更弱，通过浪费英雄和宝贵的宝藏来打击不可能的可能性。
The futility of a direct confrontation led the nations of the world to seek out alternatives. Some of them walled themselves up in fortified cities, but those only drew the attention of the Demon Gods, who cracked the thick walls like eggshells and feasted in the terrified people within. Others chose to flee out of the path of the invasion, but quite often their only escape route ran through the demihuman nations, which was effectively suicide for most refugees.
直接对抗的徒劳导致世界各国寻求替代品。 他们中的一些人围在坚固的城市里，但那些人只吸引了恶魔神灵的注意，他们打破了像鸡蛋壳一样的厚墙，在惊恐的人们中尽情享用。 其他人选择逃离入侵的路径，但往往他们唯一的逃生路线，通过半人的国家，这是有效地自杀，大多数难民跑。
Desperation forced mankind to take creative measures to survive. There was a race that learned to tame Wyverns and lived on high crystal pillars above the ground and its teeming hordes of demons. Others fled underground, and became something… other than human. Still others vanished into the forests, sailed across the lakes, and generally fled from the Demon Gods.
绝望迫使人类采取创造性的措施来生存。 有一个种族，学会驯服双足飞龙，住在地上的高水晶柱和恶魔的拥挤成群。 其他人逃离了地下，成为了一些东西......除了人类以外。 还有一些人消失在森林里，航行在湖面上，一般从恶魔神灵逃离。
The Mage Kingdom of Anmar, however, had chosen a solution which played to their strengths. They had recovered a tome of ancient lore, said to contain a spell capable of allowing its caster to do anything. Although the arcane runes were difficult to understand, the promise it contained was enough for them to try and decode the ritual needed to cast the spell.
然而，安玛尔法师王国选择了一个解决方案，发挥了他们的优势。 他们已经找到了一本古老的书卷，据说里面有一个咒语能够让施法者做任何事情。 虽然神秘的符文很难理解，但它包含的承诺足以让他们尝试和解码施放咒语所需的仪式。
The ritual required nearly a hundred magic casters capable of 3rd-tier spells; a feat few nations could match. They would channel their power through a central caster, who would then be able to use the gathered energy to “do anything they wished”, according to the tome.
这项仪式需要近百个魔法施法者，能够施展三阶法术；很少有国家能够匹敌。 根据tome的说法，他们将通过一个中央施法者来引导他们的力量，他们将能够使用聚集的能量来"做任何他们想要的"。
With the preparations for the ritual finished, all that was left was the central caster, who had just reached her father’s bedroom.
随着仪式的准备工作的完成，剩下的一切是中央施法者，谁刚刚到达她父亲的卧室。

***

She knocked, but there was no reply. As fear built in her heart, the girl pushed the door, which opened without resistance.
她敲门，但没有回答。 由于恐惧内置在她的心脏，女孩推门，打开无阻力。
The room she saw beyond was furnished lavishly, its decorations fit for a king. Then again, it was appropriate, because this was a king’s room, after all.
她所看到的那间房是华丽的家具，它的装饰适合一个国王。 再说，这是适当的，因为这是一个国王的房间，毕竟。
But the girl did not care about the fact that the room was almost intact, because just then the clouds shifted, and the moonlight shone down on her worst fear.
但女孩不关心的事实，房间几乎完好无损，因为就在这时，云层转移，和月光照耀着她最可怕的恐惧。
Her father, the Mage-King of Anmar, lay still on the floor of his room. She did not need to look at his unmoving chest to know that he was dead.
她的父亲，安玛尔的法师之王，躺在他的房间的地板上。 她不需要看着他的胸口知道他已经死了。
He had fallen so that his outstretched arm pointed toward the balcony, and there was a look of horror on his face.
他摔倒了，胳膊伸出来，向阳台指着，脸上露出了恐怖的表情。
Part of the girl wanted to run away immediately. She did not want to know what he had seen. However, a morbid curiosity impelled her onward. She had an idea of what was going on, and soon she was filled with an irresistible urge to see what had happened.
女孩的一部分想立即逃跑。 她不想知道他看到了什么。 然而，一个病态的好奇心驱使她。 她有一个想法是怎么回事，很快，她充满了一种不可抗拒的冲动，看看发生了什么事。
Slowly, step by step, she inched toward the balcony, and what she saw drove her to her knees.
慢慢地，一步一步地，她坐在阳台上，她看到的东西把她推到膝盖上。
The city of Anmar was a magical metropolis. All its citizens knew minor magic - 0-tier spells, in the language of this world, and the way the city was lit up by their light spells at night had given it the name of “Sparkling City” by tourists.
安玛尔市是一个神奇的大都市。 所有的公民都知道小魔法-0级法术，在这个世界的语言，和城市被照亮了他们的光法术在夜间的方式给了它的"波光粼粼的城市"的名称由游客。
Yet, there was no sign of light, and with it life. As far as the eye could see, the streets were dark.
然而，没有光的迹象，并与它的生活。 至于眼睛可以看到，街道是黑暗的。
They had never been this dark before, not since the founding of the city.
他们以前从未如此黑暗，自从城市建立以来没有。
And then, as she put two and two together, everything suddenly clicked in her mind.
然后，当她把两个和两个在一起，一切都在她的脑海里突然点击。

***

The runes on the tome’s cover had read “The Book of the Dead”. Ominous, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and so they had tried to decipher its contents. Even their best language- deciphering spells could only say that it was about a spell that would synchronize the energies of an entire nation to allow the central caster to realize his wishes.
书的封面上的符文读了《亡者之书》。 不祥的，但绝望的时代要求绝望的措施，所以他们试图破译其内容。 即使是他们最好的语言破译法术只能说，这是一个咒语，将同步整个国家的能量，让中央施法者实现他的愿望。
But now, looking at the dead city before her, the girl realised how wrong they had been.
但现在，看着在她面前的死城，女孩意识到他们是如何错了。
For starters, the word “synchronize” was wrong. The word in question was “gathering”. It would gather the power of a nation.
对于初学者来说，"同步"一词是错误的。 这个词的问题是"聚会"。 它会聚集一个国家的力量。
They had assumed “energies” was referring to mana, but in truth it was more like “essential energies” - namely, those of life.
他们认为"能量"是指法力，但实际上它更像是"基本能量"-即生命的能量。
But the spell’s effects had been accurate. They would allow the caster to realize his wishes. After all, by turning him into one of the immortal undead, they would have all the time they needed to realize any wish they had… eventually.
但咒语的效果是准确的 他们将允许施法者实现他的愿望。 毕竟，通过把他变成一个不朽的亡灵，他们将所有的时间，他们需要实现任何希望，他们有......最终。
Still, despite the terrible misunderstanding of the ritual and its effects, the [Death Spiral] spell had even accomplished its purpose of protecting the Mage-Kingdom of Anmar from the wrath of the Demon Gods.
然而，尽管对仪式及其效果的可怕误解，[死亡螺旋]法术甚至完成了保护法师王国的目的，免受恶魔之神的愤怒。
What was dead could never die, after all.
死了的东西终究不会死
And as that realization hit her, Keeno Fasrith Inberun wailed her despair into the cold, unfeeling night.
当这种认识打动了她时，基诺法斯里斯因被轮把她的绝望放在了寒冷，无情的夜晚。