Chapter four

Vladamire, wearing his black segmented armor lounged aristocratically on a ruby encrusted steel throne, observing the women that sat around him with softly glowing red eyes.

The members of Blue Rose sat awkwardly around a large circular table that had been etched with a number of disturbing and bloody carvings involving a step by step impalement.

They sat in the main hall of the castle that Vladamire had brought them too after their initial greeting on the ebony bridge outside. The walk had been short and uneventful and they had entered the forbidding castle and sat at the table in the main hall of the castle.

The tense and awkward silence was broken when Vladamire sighed in exasperation.

"Look, do you have any immediate or important question? If not you need to head down to the workshops which are on the next level."

Evileye pointed at Vladamire imperiously.

"What the hell are you, Arcturia, and your master? Nothing I have ever heard of can do the things that you all have done and claim to do."

Vladamire bared his teeth briefly in response to the sheer impertinence of the question.

"First, I am under orders to order some of the more general questions if you have them, I am also under orders from my master to make sure you and your compatriots make it to the 3rd and final level in a timely and safe fashion, so do not mistake my courtesy for kindness, am I understood?"

The members of Blue Rose nodded as Gargaaran forced Evileys hand down from her seat next to the diminutive vampire. Vladamire eyed cloaked and masked vampire before continuing.

"To answer your questions, Arctuia is a Frost Faerie, she rules the Arctic wastes which is first level of three. Arcturia besides being a Frost Faerie which possess nigh unparalleled resistance and control to ice, frost, and cold, she is also a compelled artificially created being."

At the doubtful looks Vladamire just shrugged in resignation.

"My master created everything that you have seen so far, both the scenery and everything that populates it, he also took a lot of time designing his administrators and assistants. We are each designed to the exact specifications of our master.

Vladamire stretched languidly as he continued.

"To answer your other questions, I am a primordial vampire, to explain the title loosely, it means that I am one of the first true vampires in existence and am several hundreds of thousands of years old. And as I get older I get stronger, at this point I believe that most likely only my master could defeat me in single combat."

Evileye was mentally freaking out under her mask, the idea that this vampire was hundreds of thousands of years old was terrifying, Vampires grew in power proportionally to their age and Evileye herself was considered one of the most powerful examples of the vampire race due to her age and spell casting expertise. Yet she was a fraction of the age of the being in front of her.

"To answer the final part of your question, my master instructed me to give you some basic details. In short, he is the closest thing that your pathetic existences will ever encounter to complete and utter omnipotence, he can manipulate time and space at will. On the first level, the cabin Arcturia lives in contains the entrance to this level, and it is mobile. It can be in any spot in the entirety of the first floor, which is also the largest of the three floors. Do you remember the impaled bodies on my floor?"

The adventures nodded.

"If my master desired, he could have released them from their stakes, in which case you would have been facing thousands of zombies, skeletons, and even low level vampires. These defense are only the most basic, it is not a understatement to say that my master controls every aspect of each floor, and that if you offend him in anyway, you will be erased."

Vladamire rose from where he sat as spoke with passion burning in his voice.

"My master is ageless and eternal, he is the hermit god of crafting, he creates worlds of fantasy and horror at whim. He creates weapons of unequaled strength and beauty, he brings masterpieces that will endure through eternities into life and existence with ease."

A black door materialized behind Vladamire who pointed at it the imposing creation that seemed to absorb the low light in the room.

"He is the first of his kind and an ageless being that is as close to a god as any are likely to ever encounter, and this," Here Vladamire gestured grandly at the imposing ebony door. "Is your doorway to his personal domain."

Smiling brightly but with a hidden edge, Vladamire looked at the stalwart members of Blue Rose as they stared at him in fascination, and a little bit of fear.

"Any other burning question?"

And Vladamires fist abruptly burst into a black flame as he pointed with his other arm towards the door that opened to reveal a normal hallway.

When the members of Blue Rose looked like they were about to protest, Vladamire gestured with his hand that wasn't on fire and hissed.

"Blood attraction."

The members of Blue Rose abruptly were thrown at Vladamire by an invisible force, towards where he stood infant of the door.

Vladamire bowed as they hurtled above him and into the hallway.

Vladamire turned as the doors began closing and bowed again.

"I thank you for your prompt reactions. My master awaits you in his forges. You will be escorted by Mary. Do try not to die."

And the doors shut, bringing Blue Rose one step closer into the personal domain of a god.

Elsewhere on the third floor

In a room dominated by flickering shadow, a hulking figure made up of brown clay spheres, and almost 13 feet high, with a glass sphere holding a single flickering flame embedded into its chest stoked the fires of a smelter. As a doorway opened spilling light into the room, the giant figure stood and turned to observe the figures that entered, he thought with a joy that wasn't reflected upon his stone face,

at last…

Authors Note

YaY! Done with another chapter, sort of slow and not terribly interesting for me to write, but it should be very interesting with the interactions between Mary and the all female groups of adventurers, alas. Golem Ignacio shan't have the equipment to exploit it.

Soon we will start touching the main Overlord story line, but its gonna be with a ten foot pole because I enjoy my own stories, not so much the swapping of characters, I want to make my own events, my own characters,

Mine own trials and tribulations. Good words those.

Anyhow. R&R if you would with comments, questions, IDEAS. Anything you want really as long as its constructive.