A/N: I received reviews where they don't like how Negi "easily" defeated Fate's group. I leave it to your own imagination for now until the World Peace Festival arc ends of how Negi beat Fate.
From the journal of Koyomi, Ministra Magi of Fate Averruncus. Day unknown. Month unknown
It has been a full day since our arrival on this world, and we're fortunate to have found a safe haven. Fate-sama has become the 'Overlord' of a so-called 'Tower of Evil' along with minions. The minions in question are all small, brown, resemble the goblins of our world and wear loincloths along with clubs. Hardly the troops worthy of our organization. They are all led by a much older minion called Gnarl, who seems to know what he's doing.
Yesterday, he accepted us as his new masters and granted Fate-sama the title of 'Overlord' along with placing his troops at our command. Though the Tower could be better accommodated for. It's in ruins, having been stripped bare of any magical items, and then smashed into pieces. It's a miracle that the Tower is still standing. Fate-sama managed to return with at least one magic artefact from the Tower's arsenal: the Tower Heart. I'm sitting right in front of it as I write this entry. (A good drawing of the Heart input here)
From what I gather from studying the Heart, and what Gnarl told me when we brought it down to the Spawning Pit in the bottom floor of the Tower, the Heart is the source of magic energy that powers the items of the Tower, along with the Tower. It's filling me with energy right now, due to the proximity I have with the orb. It also seems to allow us to return to the Tower whenever we wish and provide access to its resources, according to Gnarl. If what he says is true, then it should have more than enough energy to send us home again.
Today, though, we are all going to that village Fate-sama spotted yesterday. Gnarl said that the village name was Spree. Not very innovative name givers, peasants are. It kind of sounds like Bree from Lord of the Rings. It seems that people here don't have a good naming sense, or it's just a coincidence.
"Koyomi. What are you doing down here?" Tamaki, the slightly tanned girl with horns came down the stairs from the main hall. Koyomi shut the book she found with empty pages and tucked it under her cloak.
"Tamaki. How come you're here?" she asks her colleague. Most would just take them for being close friends. And they have been, ever since their 'battle' with Racan of the Thousand Blades.
"Fate-sama sent me down here to fetch you so we could go to the village. What were you doing here anyway?"
"I was studying the Heart. Quite an amazing thing, really. It should, according to my research, have more than enough energy to send us home. Or maybe even sustain a portal between worlds. That's just in the theory." Koyomi said. They both take a look at the vast orb glowing bright blue, surrounded by floating rocks of various sizes. Must be the power of the Heart.
"Come on. It's time to go, Koyomi." Tamaki said heading for the stairs. Koyomi followed soon afterwards.
"Unfortunately, I am not the evil entity that I once was, Sire." Gnarl said apologizing as the others were getting ready to step through the gate. "I cannot take the feel of green grass under my feet and birdsong in my ears. In fact I think I need to find a dark corner and something to pummel."
"So what are you going to do then, Gnarl?" Tsukuyomi asked the small elder creature. For some reason, she had somehow started to like this thing.
"I shall stay here, Tsukuyomi. The Heart will allow me to speak directly to you, and see and hear what you do."
"Well then, let's go then." Fate said and was the first to step through the pool. The girls were soon to follow after their master.
In the open landscape before them, the girls were somehow thrilled to see a beautiful area for a change. The Tower does give a good view point, but all you see are vast plains from there. Every now and then, seeing trees affected everyone positively.
"Didn't Gnarl say he could speak telepathically to-"
"Testing, testing. One two- is this thing working? It's a bit grubby…" They then hear someone blowing into what they believed to be a microphone. It sounded at least like one.
"Can you hear me, Master?!" Gnarl's voice echoed loudly in their heads, quite loud for them. "Oh, there you are. I can now see you on the portal reflection."
"We can hear you very good, Gnarl. What can you tell us?" Fate asked.
"Now, Sire. The creatures 'round here are rather frisky, so they will have undoubtedly repopulated the area. But for now, head for that peasant village, Spree! Revolting name, really."
Fate reached out for the Brown pit and it literally spat out the Minions until they were fifteen. Most were dressed in rags for now and for the love of the gods of this world, pants too. Few also were armed with small hatchets and two sported a curved rusty blade that was still able to cut. Well, beats clubs any day, one would guess.
When they approached the village, they found it under attack. The moat was helping the defenders a great deal, but the attackers had ladders long enough to go over the moat and onto the ramparts. The attack force was a large one in numbers, though not so big in mass. They were mostly the same size as the Minions, though a few of them were even as large the walls themselves! The defending villagers have the moat to thank that the big ones can't do a thing on their side. The small attackers were also a bit fat, probably having eaten a large quantity of food as well. They were not used to battle tactics, so they employed the big ones to do the dirty work for them. At least, that was what the spectators thought.
"Should we help the village, Fate-han?" Tsukuyomi asked her employer, now the future ruler of the lands, who was overlooking the battle. The shorties' tactic was a classical one; by attacking from the front, they hope to batter the defenders down, though the moat complicated things. The walls were the key to batter down the people. By attacking every now and again, they hoped to mentally exhaust the villagers until a point when the villagers would open the gate and assault them, and according to theory, that's where the giants(1) come in. Their job is to defeat the village's main force and allow entrance for the short fighters to plunder the village.
They must have tried this tactic before, if the villagers were using bows to fire on the giants. Though they were lousy shots, Fate had to admit; these people put up a good fight. Though it would only be a matter of time. "What do you think, Gnarl?" Fate asked his advisor.
"I forgot to tell you yesterday, Sire. Killing innocents, and I use the term loosely, will increase your own powers on this world. However, this is rarely suitable for a long-term evil plan. That requires people, living people. Gratitude comes with its own rewards, you know."
"So if we drive off the attackers from the village, we'll be received with gratitude?" Shiori asked the telepathic creature. For some reason, the idea of slaughtering innocents sounded like a good idea to her.
"Correct, milady."
"Then we'll aid the village then." Fate said, somehow thrilled to be in action again. He gestured with his hand. "Shirabe."
Shirabe, the horned girl who had a dangerous artefact, called it out. Her fiddle was not your average music instrument. It could produce sound waves strong enough to cut through rock and destroy mountains. Slicing through some large blobs of flesh was almost too easy. Upon seeing their heavier troops being turned to meat heaps, the shorter troops turn their attention towards the opposite direction, only to be hit by flames, rocks and beams of light that turned them to stone.
"Now then, little people" Fate started, with his little army of Minions and Ministra and Tsukuyomi with her blades at the ready with his word on hold. "We can do this the easy, or there's always the really easy way for us to settle this."
It didn't take long for the small guys to figure out the difference between the easy way and the really easy way. They all ran off, those who could still walk. The rest of them were the unlucky ones that were hit.
Once they had stepped into the area of carnage, the villagers raised their voices into a sense of danger. Two guards stood ready to confront them. That is, if you were stupid enough to call them guards. Both of them didn't have any armour, they had pitchforks instead of bows, not to mention that both of them had just seen the intruders drive off an army of monsters and neglected to note that the newcomers were a lot stronger.
"More Halflings! Get ready, everyone! Here we go again!" A bald one with a large pimple on his nose shouted. The other one had a large nose and had a hat whilst carrying a pitchfork.
"Hang on! Those aren't Halflings. Look at the one with white hair!"
"Hmm… Could be two Halflings standing on top of each other and the one on top bleached his hair! Yeah… I bet that's it! I don't trust those sneaky little wussnames!"
Upon hearing that, a vein popped on Homura, Koyomi and Tamaki's heads. "Well, if he is a Halfling, then what are we, then!?" Koyomi shouted at the front guard who mistook Fate for being two Halflings standing on top of each other, actually.
The front guard took a look at her, then at the rest of the girls, and then took a moment to think. "Elf/Halfling crossbreeds?" All the girls slammed against the ground. The other guard left a comment. "Those little buggers will bonk anything, won't they?"
"WE'RE NOT CROSSBREEDS OF ANY KIND, YOU STUPID PEASANTS!"
"AND WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT HALFLINGS!"
The two guards look at each other first, then down at Fate's party. The one with the hat spoke up. "Alright."
"Alright?" Fate echoed his word.
"If you lot aren't Halflings, then go free our men from the camps down the road. Then we'll let you in."
Koyomi, Tamaki and Fate together made a feint sweatdrop. There simply is no pleasing people, is there?
"If you are Halflings, stay right there so I can get my aim straight!"
"Let's go everyone." Fate spoke up again, and turned towards the camps' directions. The Minions and the girls followed soon.
"Hey, you're serious?! Wait! You don't know what's over there!" One of the guards shouted after them as they left the area of destruction.
"That never stopped Fate-han before, guys! We'll get your men back." Tsukuyomi shouted back at them.
1 Actually they are trolls.
A/N: I was hoping to make this longer, but couldn't get any further. The camp is up next chapter.