Hello to anyone who reads the AN! Sorry for the late chapter but please review anyway!
Rise of the Lord
She sat alone at the head of the table, her black eyes gazing over maps of troop positions and bandit locations. She looked deadly yet beautiful with long red hair that flowed freely down her back, her body covered in plate armour sculpted for a woman with beautiful designs of roses. The look on her face however, screamed strictness and promised pain if you angered her in any way. The sword and shield next to her were equally beautiful and deadly, the blade was a steel two sided longsword and engraved with roses and thorns that seemed to curl around it like vines. The shield was a heater shield with a dark red rose acting as a coat of arms.
This woman of twenty three was Erza Scarlet, a celebrated general of Margos. To her people she was a guardian angel, defending them from darkness and casting a bright light for their future. To her enemies though she was the Bloody Rose, her appearance and the skill of her sword made her an object of fear to anyone who opposed her. There were even stories of whole Empire legions surrendering or retreating in fear because they heard she and her special Knights of the Rose were in battle.
She was a brilliant governor and commander, having been at the forefront of Margos's economic development before the Empire invasion. Her personality though made anyone she commanded wary of her wrath, she expected all of her subjects to obey her without protest and question, often her hard-line attitude and strict rules and regimes pushed her soldiers to breaking point. She does however have a great sense of justice which is one of the reasons the people love her.
Currently though she was agitated, to the west further inland one of her spies had reported that the bandit activity there had been halted due to unforeseen circumstances. She demanded to be told everything and the spy with the information was too slow for he liking. Suddenly the door to her study was opened by one of Knights of the Rose. On his head was a steel Corinthian helmet engraved with roses and vines and plate armour also engraved with roses and vines adorned his body. On his side was a steel longsword of good quality and his shield was strapped to his back.
"There is a messenger here to see you ma'am" With that he bowed his head and let in a exhausted looking woman.
Erza looked at her with barely hidden annoyance "Speak quickly!" She barked.
The woman straightened her posture before speaking "Ma'am the bandits that controlled Basin, Woodrough and Hardrock have all been killed"
Erza leaned forward in her seat "That is...unexpected, tell me more"
She took a breath "A strange looking man named Dairn and his odd pets have claimed lordship over Basing and Hardrock after killing all the bandit forces in the area along with Gareth, the bandit leader. He seems to have ambushed the camps controlling Basin and Hardrock during night-time and crushed a force of one hundred in the forest of Woodrough, also during night time. I checked the site of battle and he seemed to have used stakes planted on the ground, the bandits didnt see them and thus were reduced in number before engaging Dairn. The corpse of Gareth was among the dead"
Erza contemplated this odd situation. She had a potential ally she could make use of or the man might be just another bandit exploiting her people. "There is another thing ma'am" The messenger interrupted her thoughts "Dairn has offered to free the prisoners Theron bought from the area and in exchange he wants lordship over Woodrough"
"Why is he doing this though?" Erza asked
"I do not know ma'am, he just came out of no-where and killed the bandits. The people seem to see him as a hero and he has yet to do a thing to discourage that"
Erza sighed and rubber her tired eyes, she had yet to sleep and it was the middle of the night. "He wants to kill Theron then, I want to eliminate that bandit leader myself so send a message to him saying i have heard of his activities and would like to talk to him. Do not reveal yourself"
The woman bowed and left quickly leaving Erza to think about this new occurrence.
The private chambers of the Netherworld tower was now fully repaired and had a bed, something that pleased Dairn quite a lot. Where there was once crumbling walls were now beautifully polished black stone and there were even small statues of minions wearing full battle gear dotted around. All in all it looked completely different from the crumbling wreck it once was. The overlord had now begun construction on an armoury because of all the raided equipment being gathered the forge was not going to be enough to store all the weapons and other war items.
First Dairn made a solid platform linking the base of the armoury to the main tower, then he manipulated the magical rock to form rough walls for the sides, back and the roof. With his part done he ordered the construction crew minions to fix up the armoury and move all the weapons that were scavenged to the room, the construction would take at the most two days to finish.
Harlond had come back after finding a route to the capital city and fortunately the location of Theron's base as well whilst Erza's main base had yet to be found. Dairn was impatient to get to Theron but Gnarl urged the overlord to find information about Theron's base first, reluctantly he ordered both Harlond and Dash to infiltrate Theron's base and try and find a place to open up a gate as well as the number of forces stationed there. Verge, who went back to the tower before the forest battle, was given command of all the bandit slaves and ordered to search the country for any tower objects or anything of value.
Currently Dairn was on a stable platform throwing fireballs at random directions to get some anxiety out of him, he really could not wait to get his family back. Unfortunately, for Quaver anyway, a stray fireball hit the jester and sent him screaming and rolling on the ground trying to put the hot flames out. The nearby minion guards subtly tried to hide behind anything that would protect them from their masters blind rage.
"You must calm down sire, your aggression should be focused on the enemy" Gnarl tried to reason with Dairn from behind one of the walls.
An audible "boom" was his reply as another fireball was hurled randomly. "That bastard has my mother and sister Gnarl!" He stared shouting "I want to kill him! To mutilate him! To cut him open and cook his insides! I want him to feel PAIN!" Another loud boom. "I will slaughter them all! Every single person that touched them I will cut to pieces, their hands, their feet, their arms, their legs! I will carve my name into their faces with a fork!" Everything went silent as the overlord ended his spew of anger, though Gnarl did like all of what was said.
Coming out of his cover the minion master took a look at the overlord, and stopped in his tracks. Dairn was breathing hard, salivating with fury but there was more. His black and red eyes were absolutely glowing with animalistic rage, far more than any other time before. A shadow seemed to hang over him in the shape of of a dragon head, then the shadow opened it's mouth and Dairn ROARED. This was no normal roar of an angered human, this was something far far more deadlier.
Dairn seemed to have calmed down after that, but his eyes were still emitting a dull glow. What was that? He thought, for a moment he let his mind and body be overwhelmed by his rage and.....he remembered nothing about it. It was as if it didn't happen at all. He looked at Gnarl who had his mouth hanging "What happened?"
Gnarl didnt answer straight away so Dairn asked him again. "We...Well, you were throwing around fireballs and generally venting out some rage" The minion master neglected to mention the dragon shadow in fear of it returning, Gnarl had somewhat of a hunch as to why it appeared but it was just a hunch. Dairn looked at him as if he knew there was something more but let it pass.
Both walked back into the central throne room of the tower just in time to witness the arrival of May, the girl looked a bit better than before, wearing a plain white dress and hair now neat and flowing to her shoulders. Some bruising was gone and Dairn could see bandages over the cuts. Though her appearance changed, her nervousness didnt, apparent by the way she held her head down and nibbled on her fingers.
"Uhmm...Well, sir, uhm uhm, well a..a messenger was sent out to lady Erza right after you left yesterday and...and a reply came back" She stuttered out.
"What does she want?" Dairn asked
"She..she wants to meet you sir"
Dairn nodded, he needed to get out to forget his family troubles for now. Stepping on to the platform he grabbed hold of a shaking May and activated the gate to Woodrough. Arriving at the village he saw four armour clad soldiers on horseback with another riderless horse. They spotted him and trotted over.
"Sir Dairn, the lady Erza demands your presence quickly. We are here to escort you to her" One soldier said.
"Sire, it is best not to summon any minions until you get there. They may be hardy but they cannot keep up with horses" Gnarl said.
"Very well" Dairn replied
The ride towards the coastal base was not exactly comfortable for Dairn. The overlord having no experience with horses before needed several tries before he could even get on the horse and stay on, though he did try and look as dignified as possible when riding, tried being the key word. It was like going on on of the moving platforms in the netherworld, Dairn held on to the saddle as hard as he could while straightening his back and looking dignified, his thighs also stuck themselves to the saddle in an almost painful manner.
Once they arrived Dairn nearly fell off the horse in his eagerness to get off it. The horse was also as eager, shaking and a little thrashing around to get it'd useless rider off. The coastal village they were in carried the refreshing sea breeze, the houses were built inland to avoid the rising tides but the buildings closer to the water were built on stilt-like platforms. There were fishing boats both old and broken and new dotted about the shore along with fishing nets bot small and large. Some were being repaired by the women, children and men who weren't out fishing for whatever reason. There were also boats further out to sea but were still visible.
It was a great hub of activity, something Dairn was unused to as the other villages he saw back inland were not as busy or active. It was peaceful here, the people could freely travel along the coast in relative safety with Erza's men patrolling the roads, though there was the occasional bandit most were afraid to go near.
There was a large building where smoke seemed to be flowing out, Dairn assumed it was where they smoked the fish. There were more soldiers here as well, men clad in armour wielding swords, axes and pikes, Erza's heavy infantry. A couple of archers and some crossbow men were stationed on the walls looking out for danger. There were also men clad in light studded leather armour wielding a mace and a round wooden shield, the light infantry. Finally there were a few men on horseback, the heavy cavalry. To Dairn it seemed like Erza's main body was here but in reality it was just a small fraction, about three hundred men altogether.
The overlord was escorted to an out of the way house in the village, it was barely noticeable and no one would assume it was used as a command post. Once inside the house Dairn was asked if he could hand over his weapons for repairs as a show of courtesy, more likely it was to disarm him. Having no choice he complied anyway.
The inside was well lit with the windows shining light through, there was a long central table with benches on the sides. At the head of the table was Erza herself. Dairn felt a little apprehension at meeting her, he had been warned by the guards earlier that her temper was as red as her hair. She was dressed in steel armour like the ones the heavy infantry had but hers was crafted for a woman and was engraved with roses and vines. Erz'as sword and shield were on the table in front of her, the same rose designs as her armour on both.
"Ah, you are early. Good" She looked pleased "I have heard about your recent exploits with the bandits, I must say I am surprised and a tad impressed. Crushing a force of a hundred by yourself though does seem a little far-fetched, you must of had some help?"
Dairn nodded "My pets are intelligent creatures, very resilient as well"
"Interesting, you must tell me about them later. For now though I must know, why?"
Dairn looked puzzled "Why what ma'am?"
She leaned forward, her face becoming entirely serious "Why do you kill and risk being killed? Why did you liberate the villages?"
Dairn was silent, unable to answer her or even himself "Why did I save them?"
The silence didnt last long as Erza's impatience shined through "Well? I asked you a question"
"I....I do not know ma'am" He replied a little shakily
"What? What do you mean 'you don't know'"
"I just...felt like I had to"
This seemed to put Erza's mood in the positive, judging by her faint smile. "Well, that is a good enough reason for now. Though i must make sure my people are happy under your...rule"
"I assure you ma'am, they are very happy. I have not done anything harmful to them"
She smirked "Oh I am sure, however they are still my people and I must check on them myself" She rose up off her seat and taking her weapons with her, led Dairn out to the stables where the horses were tethered. She was given a magnificent stallion, a large chestnut warhorse that seemed to dwarf the humans around it. Erza mounted up in one swing, showing grace even when she was encumbered by her armour.
Dairn however was given the same horse and had taken several tries again to get on. Along with four other soldiers, ones wearing armour similar to Erza's, they made their way to the villages.
Not so late this time but still late, sorry.
Since 5000 words for every chapter seems to be too much for me in my lazy glory I have decided to limit the chapters to 2500, I apologize for any inconvenience caused. This should not deter you though from reviewing so...click the green-ish button and tell me what you think.