11: Prepare for war.
As the Overlord and his crew prepared to sail off to conquer another island, they received a call on their transponder snail.
"Hello."
"Overlord, it's Earl. Our spies in the military have informed us that the world government's about to launch a major offensive against you. They got plans to take back Metallica and Overlord Island."
"They do know about the giant death ray, don't they?"
"Yeah, and apparently they figured out a way around it."
"Alright, I'm heading back. Has Metallica been cleared out yet?"
"It's been stripped of everything of any value or use, right down to the nails in the buildings. Only a few people are left in there."
"Perfect. We'll discuss the details we I arrive."
The Overlord hung up and changed his plans. Shalulia Island would have to wait. There was a war he had to get to.
"We'll have to leave the ship here. Everyone get to the portal and return to Overlord Island."
Soon they were back on Overlord Island, getting all kinds of details from spies. Plenty of pirate groups and even the Overlord himself had spies within the Marines. Many of which were drafted into service, given almost no pay, and treated like dirt. And when they stood up for themselves after being pushed too far, fights broke out and things got broken, then they took the blame. Even though most of the destruction was a result of the sheer stupidity of the guys running the place. (Seriously, if the cannons can be set off with a slight jolt, and they're stored in the base where the only things they can hit are the buildings and things within the base, then what kind of moron decides to keep them loaded?) Then instead of discharging them, or something like that, the guys in charge sentenced them to work for 20-60 years without pay or any chance of promotion, all while claiming they were going easy on them and doing them a favour. At that point they had no reason not to turn traitor and sell out to pirates.
The Marines had a plan to put an end to the Overlord and reclaim what he had conquered. Step one was to send warships and devil fruit users to Metallica, and then some other islands the Overlord controlled. They would come in force and destroy everything in their path. This would cause the Overlord to take action and send his forces in to retaliate. Step two was while his forces were distracted, they'd send an army to Overlord Island. There would be thousands of them, if not tens of thousands, almost none of which would be devil fruit users, coming in hundreds of small boats. They'd only send in large ships to draw the laser away from the boats. They would invade the island from as many directions as they could, slaughter everyone in their path, then they'd storm and take control of the tower, turning the Overlord's giant laser against him. Step three was the finishing blow, which consisted of high-ranking marines in huge ships, hunting down and wiping out the survivors.
Step one could just be ignored. Step three would only be an issue if the marines were successful with step two. Step two on the other hand, was going to be a nightmare. They had made a well thought out invasion that could get them past everything they were aware of that the Overlord could throw at them. It was going to be an all-out war. No matter the preparations, it would be a nightmare for both sides. And yet Spider was pretty happy about it. He was almost giddy about going into battle against so many opponents.
"Alright, we'd better get started. Yukari, call back all the minions and pirates from Metallica, then have them destroy the portal. Veronica, round up the minion mounts, we'll need all of them. I'll upgrade the minion barracks to help them get ready. Then we'll all get the island ready for war. We don't know yet if they'll wildly charge in from all directions as soon as they set foot on land, or if they'll group up to strengthen their forces before charging in. Both strategies have their advantages, so we'll have to be ready for both."
When the minions were turned into mamono, they became sexy, perverted girls who were eager to fuck anyone who was on the side of their master. So when Yukari went to Metallica and found the minions fucking the local pirates, she wasn't fazed. What came as a shock, was finding out some of them had become such sex addicts that they weren't willing to stop fucking long enough to do their duty or save their lives.
When she called her master about it, he decided to make a deal. For their loyal services, he would let any minion leave him if she truly desired it, but only if the men they went with paid his price of at least 20 life force and a reasonably high amount of treasure for each minion. A price that the men were happy enough to pay.
At first Yukari wasn't sure about that decision, as it meant they'd be selling off their loyal minions. But they were only selling the ones who wanted to leave, and twenty fresh minions and a pile of treasure could a lot more than one minion who couldn't keep her mind out of the gutter and on the task at hand. So it did make sense.
After upgrading the minion barracks as much as possible, Overlord Spider met up with his people. An odd mixture of monster girls, pirates, fishmen, civilians, and people he enslaved. He warned them of what was coming and gave them orders on how to prepare for it. While the civilians and many of the pirates were scared and wanted to flee, the monster girls were pretty happy about the men headed their way, and the fishmen were eager to get back at the marines for all the suffering they've caused.
Seeing that his non-human forces were noticeably braver than the rest, he decided to motivate the human forces. He mocked them and pointed out how they were being outdone by the monsters.
It worked as they became infuriated and vowed not to be outdone by inhuman freaks.
Veronica was busy getting all the minion mounts. There was an abundance of wolves for the Browns, certainly no shortage of spiders for the Greens, and plenty of salamanders for the Reds. But the Yellows, Oranges and Blues were without mounts.
Rather than leaving them like that she decided to look up what kind of mounts they used so she could track some down. The Overlord had notes on the minion types that included what kind of mounts they had. To her surprise the Oranges and Blues never had mounts and his idea to change that was to alter some creatures to turn them into mounts. Which wouldn't be an option this close to an invasion.
The Yellows were also without mounts, but the Overlord had already designed mechanical mounts for them to use. These mounts would have to be built, but it looked like she might be able to make a bunch in time for the war. But she'd need help to build them. Or rather, she'd need to get someone else to build them for her in exchange for showing them her tits. Fortunately with everyone around there it wouldn't be a problem. Especially as it meant they could do their part for the war without going into battle.
Meanwhile the Overlord was making battle plans with his allies.
"I think this one should be our main battle plan, because if it works, it'll mean an easy, sure-fire victory. And these four shall be used as backup plans in case they find some way to thwart it. The other islands can use these ones in case they attack there. But we won't be using these ones," Overlord Spider said as he combed through the various battle plans.
The battle plans were mostly taken from history books, with one or two changes that incorporated their current devil fruit users into them, but there also were a bunch of entirely new ones.
Meanwhile everyone who was going into battle was doing some training under the best fighters the Overlord's kingdom had to offer. Which happened to be various kinds of monster girls. They trained the men as best they could, but time was far too short to turn them into skilled warriors and the majority of them would have to rely mainly on their natural skills.
Things continued like that for a while and everyone did their part. Erza was busier than she'd ever been. Not only were her powers needed to find out everything the world government was planning for their invasion, the Overlord had taken over enough newspaper offices to start his own newspaper that could be distributed worldwide, and her powers were needed to investigate the possible stories.
Rather than making another newspaper that was nothing more than lies and propaganda, Overlord Spider wanted it to be completely honest. He wanted it to expose all the secrets and lies of the world government, and let the people know exactly what was going on. And he wasn't going to hide or deny the crimes he committed either. If word got out that his paper told the truth while the government controlled paper told only what they wanted, then his paper would become the one people trusted and they'd lose public support. But in order to ensure the stories were honest, they'd need to use her powers to investigate each and every last one of them to uncover all the details. And that meant endless hours of using her powers to investigate almost everything on the planet.
They decided to start with the more recent and important events, and then work their way back while including anything new that pops up. They'd also skip over the stories that the other newspapers were sufficiently truthful with.
Overlord Spider had to be fully prepared, and that meant knowing who they were sending after him. With everything else going on in the world, the odds of them sending fleet admiral Sen Goku was slim. However the odds of them sending an Admiral was pretty good. And the odds of them sending a few vice admirals was fairly high. Sending in a number of captains and other high-ranking individuals was standard. And an army of well-trained soldiers was guarantied. They had three admirals. One was made of lava, one was made of ice, and one was made of light. None of them could set foot on the island without losing their powers, but they could still attack from their ships or target his other islands. The one made of light could fly around at impossible speeds, blasting people with his powers. And that made him a threat. The ice guy was also a problem, as he could take out his sea-going forces and give their devil fruit users a place to fight on by freezing the ocean. But the lava guy wasn't going to be that big a problem. All they had to do was keep out of range of his attacks and sink his ship. His powers could make him unstoppable in a fair fight, but if they can be rendered almost useless via simple tactics then they won't do much good for him. As for the rest, there was a number of non devil fruit warriors that could storm the island.
But the best way to prepare is to know what they're planning and come up with foolproof countermeasures. And that meant having Erza scope out their plans. He'd have to pay her back for all her hard work.
Soon they were learning everything they needed about the upcoming attack. As it turned out, the ones calling the shots were so arrogant that it made them stupid. Rather than carefully analyzing the situation and picking the best men for the job, they just assumed that any of their high-ranking men could easily get the job done and chose them based on their schedules and locations, as if being at the beck and call of world nobles and chasing pirates was more important than a friggin' war. For a minute Spider thought they'd make some terrible choices, but then they ended up choosing Admiral Aokiji Kuzan, the guy made of ice who could easily freeze the ocean solid and disable his underwater forces. Even though he was picked by luck instead of careful planning, he was still the last guy they wanted to face. Then they went on to chose a series of captains to lead their soldiers. These choices had slightly more thought put into them, as they turned down some of the ones who were proven to be incompetent.
Once the plans and all the soldiers picked for the invasion, Overlord Spider began work on ways to counter and defeat the marines. He knew what they were planning and thus was able to come up with proper countermeasures. Every group of assassins planning to sneak in undetected would be blocked by a wall of warriors who were waiting for them. Their diversions would be ignored. Their formations would be perfectly countered. Their greatest fighters would be faced with warriors who were fully ready for them. And by the time they realized something was up, it'd be too late.
Spider's forces were largely made of pirates who allied with him. His good friends the Spider Pirates were nearly unstoppable, even the weakest of them was at least on par with a marine captain. They were without a doubt the best he had. The rest of them largely consisted of seemingly normal pirates of varying strengths and abilities. Some of them had either devil fruit powers or special training that made them far stronger than normal people, but not really on par with his heavy hitters. None the less, they'd be more than enough to handle a few marines.
But then there were his more notable allies. The Shovel Pirates had already taken a liking to being on his side and had proven themselves to be valuable allies and formidable warriors, even though their strongest members favoured irregular weapons. Then there were the Jurassic Pirates. These guys somehow managed to find some people who were making artificial zoan type devil fruits, and then had them make a series of prehistoric devil fruits for their entire crew. So now every last one of them can turn into a dinosaur or some other prehistoric beast. And their ship looked like it was made from the bones of a giant monster. Then there were the Black Cat Pirates. This group consisted entirely of catgirls, and had a ship that could transform into a floating restaurant, which they all worked at. By changing clothes and transforming their ship, they became impossible to catch as no-one could figure out who they were. And their floating restaurant was loved by everyone in the North Blue. And then there were the Copperhead Pirates. Their captain was some smoking hot chick who could multiply herself endlessly. She used her powers to steal a giant ship and amass a huge crew, which mostly served as her harem. And using her powers, she served as a harem to every last member of her crew. They had plenty of natural talent, but they focused on sex instead of training and the effects of that were easy to spot. At first glance they seemed fairly useless, but they managed to get their hands on some pretty impressive weapons and a mighty ship, making it dangerous to take them lightly. Finding and assigning them important posts and jobs during the war wasn't too hard.
Up next he had to deal with his newest recruits, the Seablade Pirates. This group had plenty of potential and could become a great force in a few years, but right now they were weak, their luck was terrible, they had a mere child as a captain, their strongest member was a magnet for attacks, and the rest of them sorely lacked much needed skills and proper weapons. If he sent them into battle, they'd simply get slaughtered. If they a stronger captain and proper skills and weapons, they'd be able to make it on the Grand Line. But there was no time to give them the needed training, and their captain saved the lives of each and every last member of the crew, so they weren't about to betray him by making someone else captain. Maybe if he met them in person he might figure something out for them.
Their captain was named Ryker, a kid from Devil's Strait, a chain of islands where shipwrecks were a common sight. When he was 8 he claimed salvage rights to a drifting, beat up ship and he spend years restoring it. He was planning on waiting until he was an adult before beginning his life as a pirate, but when a bunch of pirate girls were being executed he saved them. To escape the marines he was forced to take to the seas and become a pirate years ahead of schedule. The kid had guts and potential, but he was still just a skinny kid. With him were his two top crew-members, a big guy with scars called Kraun, and a half naked, dark skinned redhead with huge breasts called Nadia. And they did not come empty handed. They came to him with an offering of a bunch of rare trees that grew unique fruit called Hyoi pears. These pears let anyone transfer their minds into seagulls, taking full control of them and letting them experience the joy of being a bird until their concentration was broken. This would be very useful as it would allow the Overlord and his forces to safely scout out areas and spot any troubles from above. They had also brought with them a number of famous paintings in case the pear trees weren't to his liking.
They talked for a while and according to them, their reported lack of abilities were exaggerated. Ryker was barely into his teens, but he was fast, energetic, unpredictable, and not above fighting dirty. Nadia was a former captain with great leadership skills that she was teaching to Ryker. Kraun was highly skilled in all forms of combat and he was training everybody on the ship. They also had several world class fighters on board along with the world's greatest navigator. And the rest of the crew were certainly no slouches in battle. They only pretended to be below average to deter stronger men from coming after them. The only reason they didn't try sailing the Grand Line was because they lacked proper weapons and equipment, Kraun was a magnet for damage, their captain still had a long ways to go, and their crew needed to get at least a little stronger.
Lucky for them, the Overlord had a solution. He had recently acquired two devil fruits. One was revealed to be the Iron-Iron fruit, (which turned the eater into iron and was perfect for Kraun,) the other wasn't registered in the books yet, so there was no telling what it could be. But they figured that it'd be a serious improvement to Ryker in any case. Kraun and Ryker accepted and ate the devil fruits. Then they almost threw up as the damned things tasted disgusting.
Kraun's entire body was turned to iron, but his appearance remained unchanged. Ryker on the other hand, was rolling around on the floor, groaning in pain as his body inflated, deflated, shifted and contorted. This was very concerning, but it stopped after a minute or two. By the time it was over, Ryker had passed out and his body had completely changed. He had grown to be almost six feet tall, he now had the muscular form of a professional martial artist, his black hair was now spiky, and even his face had changed. He now looked like someone else entirely. But it was an improvement as he became rugged and manly.
"Let's hope improving his looks isn't the only thing it does. Get him outta here, let him sleep it off," said Spider.
Not long after the last of the preparations for the war were completed. Which was good because the invasion had already started. Metallica was under attack, it's defences had been crushed and marines were now storming the island. When they were met with no resistance, they knew something was up. They scoured the area and came up with nothing. Not only was the city empty of people, it was empty of everything. Every building had been looted and then ripped apart for the raw materials.
"How is this possible? We've had a blockade around this island and nothing ever got through it. And somehow they've stolen everything and escaped," the captain ranted.
Then a soldier came running up with a letter.
"I found this on the community bulletin board."
Dear marines, or whatever other government controlled retards have come to take back the island.
What took you so long? I thought you lazy bums would've attacked within a couple weeks at most. Were you too busy terrorizing civilians? Or kissing the asses of the world nobles? Or did you just refuse to get up off your lazy asses? You let me down. You have proven to be stupid, weak, cowardly, and pathetic, and thus not worth my time. It's no wonder why I've been having such an easy time taking over every island in the North Blue. You're practically handing them over. The entire government is unfit to rule, and everyone on the planet knows it. So, I'm going to wipe you all out like the vermin you are. And then I'm going to turn your wives and daughters into fuck slaves.
Nyah nyah!
Sincerely, Overlord Spider.
