Inspired by the work, Overlord Gothic, by gothicjedi666.
Chapter 1:
A New Evil Rises
Greetings, worshippers of evil! Once more, you will hear the story of a great evil coming into power. This time it is not a hero corrupted or a child living with no knowledge of his great and evil potential. No, this time the Dark One was a man from a world where magic was nothing more than myth and legend. His name is, or rather was, Tyler Alten.
He lived the kind that none would envy. Through his life, there was only one person that he could trust, one person that he cared for: his mother. His mother had raised him, due to his father leaving them both when he'd been conceived. Unfortunately, the pressure of raising her child alone became too much for her and took to "curing" herself of her pain through drugs. To make matters worse, she was forced to whore herself out in order to pay for the basic necessities for herself and her darling son. When he was old enough to understand what it was that his mother was doing to herself, he'd convinced her to stop, which she eventually did. She went "legit" as Alten described.
She managed to turn their lives around; gave them a good place to live, got him educated, and helped him get almost whatever he wanted. He'd been trained in karate and parkour. He also had a computer as a main source of entertainment. It allowed him to view walkthroughs of numerous video games, TV shows, and movies. His eidetic memory allowed him to remember every single detail.
Our story starts not long after he received his college acceptance letter in the mail. He was but 18 years old, barely old enough to be considered a man. While he wasn't an angel by any stretch of the imagination, he kept more or less out of trouble. Where many people in his class situation dressed like gangsters and gangbangers, he just wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans. He didn't feel the need to look tough, as in the past; he'd found that people that felt that need were weaklings. It was those like him that didn't try to look tough that were the really dangerous ones. He had green eyes and brown hair. In terms of musculature, he was somewhere between skinny and normal, though leaning more towards skinny.
He had just got home from his job when he saw something worrying: the door had been broken down. When he went inside, he saw a sight that would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life: his mother on the ground bleeding from multiple wounds and covered in sperm. There was a needle embedded in her soft skin on the inside of her left elbow.
All strength in his body and soul drained from him at the sight, causing him to drop to his knees. He couldn't believe it; his mother, the only person he'd cared for, was gone, taken from him. He'd make sure whoever had done this would pay. He called the police, who examined the scene and asked him a few of the standard questions. When he explained his mother's past, he could almost see their minds only registering the words "prostitute" and "addict," not "former" or "used to be." Alten could see right away that they were chalking this up to either a drug crime or a prostitution one. He figured he'd give the cops the benefit of the doubt and let them investigate them.
Five days later, Alten went into the police department to speak to the guy in charge.
The detective started giving him the run-around almost as soon as he walked in, "Mr. Alten, I can assure you we are doing everything we can to find out. We are investigating all of the drug dealers and pimps that were in the area at the time. We'll find out who did it."
The man's stupidity enraged Tyler. "My mother wasn't involved with drugs. She hadn't for ten years and the same for prostitution. They'd have no reason to go after her."
"With all due respect sir, I think you should let us be certain of that."
Every word out of this guy's arrogant mouth only served to enrage him further. "Have you realized that my mother was left-handed? Why would she inject herself in her dominant hand? Addicts always use their dominant hand for the injections."
"I appreciate your input, sir, but I really should get back to work so I can find out the truth," the detective said in annoyance.
Tyler didn't need subtitles for that statement, Thanks for your unneeded and unwanted information. Now, kindly shut the fuck up and get out so I can figure out a good scapegoat, so I can get onto more important crimes than the murder of your whore addict of a mother.
Tyler left, making his decision in an instant. If he couldn't get justice for his mother, he'd have vengeance and woe to anyone who got in his way.
His first stop was his home where he got a bowie knife that he bought a few years back. He strapped it to his belt and left to meet with an acquaintance of his.
The acquaintance was a man doing a "less-than-legal" deal with another man. He was facing away from Tyler, who was walking towards him.
"Squeak!" Tyler called when he was in earshot.
The dealer, Squeak, made the sound that got him that name before he turned around to face the person calling him, "Oh, Tyler, it's you. I heard about your mom, sorry about that, man."
"Thanks, Squeak, but I'm not hear to talk about that. I'm calling the favors you owe me," Tyler said, referring to the times he'd helped Squeak out of trouble.
"Sure thing, man. How many of them?" Squeak asked.
"All of them," Tyler said in all seriousness.
That got Squeak's attention, "Really? Well, what do you need?"
In response, Tyler handed him a small list.
"Alright, I can get yo-" Squeak stopped to jerk his head back up to look at Tyler and Tyler knew he got to the last item on the list, "Dude, I understand what you're feeling, but this is really not the way to go about it. You can't go after these guys by yourself."
"I can and I will, Squeak. Just get me the stuff and find out where and who they are. That's it," Tyler said.
Squeak sighed, "Alright, man, but don't blame me if you go and get yourself killed. Let me make a few calls," he said before pulling out a cell phone to do just that.
A couple of hours later, Tyler was leaving his apartment for what he knew to be the last time, one way or the other. He'd changed into a black hoodie, black jeans, and black gym shoes. He had the hood on his head. He was heading to the location that Squeak left the things for Tyler. He failed to notice the two men, wearing white robes, standing on the rooftop across the street.
"This is the one?" one of the men asked incredulously, "This is who the Master thinks will be the next bastion of evil?"
"That is what he said, yes," the second man said simply.
"Should we not just kill him now, then?" the first man asked.
"No, to do so now, would be to kill an innocent. He has done nothing wrong yet and to kill him now would dishonor the Order," the second man replied, "Besides, he may still turn away from this path of darkness that he finds himself on."
"That is highly unlikely."
"Unlikely, certainly, but not impossible."
"Fine. We'll wait, but when he has his petty vengeance, we kill him. Agreed?"
"Agreed," the second man said.
Neither of the two men nor the target of their surveillance notice a third party watching them all; a third party with glowing yellow eyes, asking, "Mastah?"
In the parking lot that Squeak described, Tyler found the car he requested: a black hummer. The keys were behind the rear left wheel. In a hidden panel in the trunk, he found a crate containing a desert eagle, a bulletproof vest, a map with a location circled, and a note.
"Tyler, here's the stuff. The location on the map is where the guys like to hang out. They don't let anyone in their base, so the only people that'll be in there, will be the people you're looking for. Good luck. You'll need it. –Mouse" the note read.
He drove off, reaching his destination in half an hour. It was an old, abandoned warehouse. He moved the car into position and locked the gas pedal into place before jumping out of it to let it plow into the wall of the warehouse. Two of the men came out to investigate, but Tyler had already closed the distance and reached the warehouse. He shot one of them between the eyes and stabbed the other one in the shoulder to spin him around and use him as a meat shield. He walked his captive inside, instantly drawing the attention of the others. They opened fire on the two killing their former ally, but missing their true enemy as Tyler pulled the knife out and dove behind cover. He moved around, sticking to the shadows and moving quickly to avoid the shots. As he ran, he used his parkour skills to run up walls or pillars to get a clear shot at the defenders and move closer to them. Two died before he got in range to use his knife. He sliced one man's throat open before stabbing another in the eye and shooting another. Tyler grabbed another that tried to hit him with a bat and put the thug between him and his allies who opened fire on them, once more killing their ally and missing the target. He delivered a roundhouse kick to one, spinning on his heel to give his next knife stab momentum as he drove it into another man's neck. Then, he jumped into the air and delivered a hard kick with both of his heels, sending the man flying back.
He, then, shot the two prone men in the head. With their deaths, there was only one man left, the one Tyler knew to be the leader.
Tyler walked towards the man, who looked about ready to piss himself. He raised his own gun and prepared to fire. Tyler fired his own gun first, aiming it carefully in the blink of an eye. The shot entered the thug leader's barrel and connected with his bullet, causing the two to ricochet in his barrel and making it explode. Tyler then shot the leader in both of his knees. As the leader screamed in pain, Tyler grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into the office of the warehouse, but not before taking a pair of knives from the dead thugs and some chains. He put the leader in a chair and tied him down. He then took the jumper cables from the car and, using some things he'd picked up in one of his past jobs, hooked them into the building's electrical wiring. He jabbed the two knives into the leader's legs, making him scream in pain.
"W-what are you doing!?" the leader asked, his voice filled with fear.
Tyler grabbed the ends of the cables not connected to the building's wires and tapped them together, causing sparks to fly. He turned off the switch and connected the cables to the inch of the blades that he'd left exposed.
"You ever see the movie 'Taken?'" Tyler said with a dark smile before flipping the switch causing the man to scream as he was electrocuted.
After a few seconds, Tyler turned the switch off again and let the man regain his thoughts.
"W-what the fuck do you want!? Who are you?" the leader demanded.
Tyler walked up to him and kneeled down to look him in the eye. He pulled out a picture of his mother and held it to him to let the leader see her. The thug's eyes widened in surprise.
"I see you recognize her," Tyler said, "She was my mother. Now, with that information, take a wild guess as to what I want."
"I-I'll do anything! I'll turn myself in! I'll do anything, just don't kill me!"
"Oh, I'm afraid we're way past that point," Tyler said before leaving to grab a couple containers filled with gasoline, which he then proceeded to dump onto the leader.
"Fuck! What the fuck!? You know what? Fuck you, you sick fuck! Your old lady moaned like a whore as we used her! She begged us for more and more! She was licking up our seed when we started cutting her up!"
Tyler's expression darkened even more, "I was just going to let you suffer for a few minutes before slitting your throat, but you just gave up that little privilege," he said before moving back to the switch and looked at the gasoline-drenched leader, "Burn in Hell, you son of a bitch," he flipped the switch to start electrocuting the gang leader again, which caused sparks to light gasoline. The enflamed man screamed louder than ever before. Tyler left the building and him behind.
After about twenty minutes of walking, he'd heard an explosion that marked that the fire had spread enough to reach the car he'd left behind and caused it to explode. He turned down an alley.
He'd just reached a five-way intersection of the alley when he was confronted by men that gave him pause, not because they looked frightening or because they were cops, but because of how strangely they were dressed. They wore white robes with hoods. The men blocked every one of the paths, even the one he came from. They slowly started advancing on the man, while mumbling something that Tyler couldn't make out.
As they got closer, Tyler said, "Look, guys, I don't know who you are, but now is really not a good time for you to try and piss me off. So, why don't you just let me pass an-" he lost the ability to speak when balls of light formed in their hands. Beams of light, then, went around and connected each of the balls to form a barrier of light, a barrier that shrank as they moved closer to him. He drew his pistol, but as soon as he did, a beam of light shot out of one of the balls and knocked it out of his hand and the boundary.
"It's over, boy," one of the robed men said, "Just let us win and it'll be quick."
"Fuck you, you bastard," Tyler said, "If you want to kill me, you're going to have to work for it."
"As you wish," the man said as the robed figures started closing the circle even faster.
Suddenly, there was a loud jubilant battle cry, most of it was wordless, but Tyler thought he heard someone say, "For the Mastah! For the Overlord!" but he doubted it because that was something from a video game and who would yell that? Dark shapes piled on some of the robed men, but Tyler couldn't make out who or what they were, but he though he saw glowing yellow eyes. A couple of the robed men were either knocked unconscious or killed by the attack from the new enemies, Tyler didn't really care which, just that the barrier dropped.
When it did, one of his saviors called to him, "Mastah! This way, Mastah!" gesturing down one of the alleys.
When Tyler moved down there, he saw that it was a Minion! A flesh and blood Minion from the Overlord franchise. Tyler had always liked the Overlord series, he'd watched it several times online, but never got the chance to play it. He decided to take a chance and assume he wasn't completely losing his mind. He followed the minion with the rest following behind, while holding off the pursuing wizards. The minions ended up running through a tear in reality.
Hearing his new "friends" catching up to him, Tyler said, "Ah, fuck it," before leaping through the portal.
There was a sense of falling before falling out of portal to land flat on his face on a cold stone floor.
"What's this?" he heard a voice ask. He looked up and saw a very familiar wizened walnut with ears. A minion mumbled into its ears. "Hmm, this is the last hope for evil? He's a tad scrawny."
Tyler jumped to his feet and crossed his arms in annoyance, "Who're you calling 'scrawny,' Shorty?"
The wizened minion laughed, "You've got a sharp tongue, I'll give you that! It's just most of our candidates are of a more…bulky demeanor," he said before the other minion started mumbling in his ears, "What's that? Screams? Blood? Torture? Chaos? And he managed to earn the ire of Order of Light, too!? That is good news!" the minion master said excitedly before turning his attention back to Tyler, "Greetings, sire. My name is Gnarl-"
"Minion master and devoted servant of evil," Tyler interrupted.
Gnarl looked surprised, "You know me?"
Tyler nodded, "In my world, you're a video game character, a work of fiction. As a result, I know the stories of the Overlord that fought the seven corrupted Heroes and ended up trapped in the Infernal Abyss, as well as the story of the Demon lord of Nordberg, at least as far as his victory over Florian Greenheart."
"Interesting," Gnarl said stroking his beard, "If that's the case, then I suppose you know why you are here."
Tyler nodded again, "Either the emotional pain from my mother's death has driven me insane or this is real and you want me to be the new Overlord."
"The two are not mutually exclusive," Gnarl chuckled, "But yes, I believe you have the makings of an Overlord, assuming the Netherworld will accept you. Would you like to try?"
Tyler thought about it for a second, frowning, "All my life, I wasn't given anything. Everything I had, I earned through hard work, but the universe still never gave me anything that it gave others: a happy life, good clothes, never knowing hunger, none of it. The universe only took and took and the one time I needed, actually needed something, it took away my mother. The way I see it, I'll be taking what I'm owed and those that get in the way can burn like the bastard that took my mother."
Gnarl smiled, "That's what I like to hear! Now, if you'll just stand in the center of the room, we'll see if the Netherworld will choose you."
Tyler did just that and waited. It was only a few seconds before lightning came out of nowhere and struck Tyler. It wasn't painful, in fact it made him feel more powerful, almost invincible. It lifted him up as he felt changes start to occur. When it stopped, he dropped to the ground, landing on his feet. The changes that had occurred were quite obvious. His lightly tanned skin now had blue ley lines etched into his skin. His eyes glowed yellow. His muscle mass was increased to Arnold Schwarzenegger standards and he was suddenly almost a foot taller, putting him at 6'6". Despite his new body's size, Tyler didn't feel any slower, in fact he felt faster, not to mention stronger.
"Guess it likes me," the new Overlord said.
"So it would appear, my lord. So what shall I call you, my lord?" Gnarl asked.
The new Overlord thought for a second, "My birth name no longer suits me. The name died with the person who used it. Call me…Overlord Noir."