By ProphetOfPuppets
The flow of everlasting torment flew across the lands for many, many years. An indestructible avatar committed atrocities, spreading its obscenity for the ruthless years that it laid waste to good, perverting the queen of the fairies, enslaving Nordberg and every other civilized town. The unblemished lord of evil had laid waste to The Golden,a disgusting cutification plague, when it showed up to counter his reign. The master of dark magic had tried his hand at both deicide and fratricide when he killed his own father who had obtained godhood. The very aspect of darkness had put all his foes to the sword, the mace, and the axe on occasion when the first two weren't available.
This evil of many names was The Overlord, or rather, the 4th overlord, and he had reigned supreme for over a decade.
His subjects taught their children born under his reign a strict, Overlord approved history. Detailing how The Overlord was much cooler than the silly hippy elves he made serve his minions margaritas at Everbright resort, and the dull-witted Nordbergians who kicked him out as a kid and tried selling his childhood friend and mistress to the empire. Not to mention how he defeated the empire and saved all magical creatures from their magicphobic ways.
Contrasting his savior narrative was how his minions handled bothersome creatures like unicorns and the sickeningly cute baby seals, corralling the useful ones into farms and ranches, tamed forests and burned the ones he could not. Finally it detailed how he circumnavigated the world and conquered every single land that did exist. So perfect was his control that surely the mother goddess was fuming.
Evil and enslaved members of every race performed his orders to the letter. Tributes of carefully farmed life force, deeply mined gold, durium and arcanium were brought to his tower,filling his vaults to the ceiling with the rarest and more valuable treasures known. Using all the dark magic in the land he had cured the magical plague caused by the heroes destroying the previous tower heart by constructing another tower heart from a mountain of magical materials, sacrifices, and the few remaining shards of the last tower heart. Once the supreme tower heart was in place,all the corruption that had covered the land because of its predecessor's destruction had been drawn back into its new version.
But there was something that came with killing or corrupting all your rivals, and subjugating every sentient being in your world. It came when you silence the mother goddess by taking over her priests and followers. When there were no more unicorns to make minion mounts of and grind their horns into makeup powder for his mistresses. When there were no more heroes banging on the door at night to try and kill you, when even clubbing baby seals stopped being fun.
It was: Inescapable-omnipresent-boredom. The Overlord was bored, he should be picking pieces of heroes out from his mace flanges and boots. But instead The Overlord was killing the same simulated heroes in the Dark Tower's dungeon arena. They acted like the real thing, but smashing them into life force and absorbing it had become a mechanical process. The minions that usually cheered and jeered at the carnage as well - the blues, the reds, the greens, and even the brutish browns - were bored.
The slaughter for tonight was an entire imperial legion versus The Overlord, no minions, and no magic. Killing five thousand summoned lives, just to hopefully get a rush out of the slaughter. After the first wave of a hundred men came with shields locked and he crushed them into life force with armor fragments sprinkled in, The Overlord realized just how long this would take. The Overlord never thought he could get bored killing, but five thousand human lives were similar to popcorn in terms of substance now. The jaded Overlord continued his grim butchering until there was only a single man left. The arena was painted in four different colors with all the minion life force all over the place, and empty suits of mangled armor, broken shields and sundered swords all covered the sand in a layer of shredded metal.
The Overlord approached the last imperial legionnaire, with a slow, ominous stride. The simulacrum stood bravely against the approaching Overlord, as if the entire empire that the legionnaire was from hadn't been crushed a decade earlier, and he hadn't watched four thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine men die. Heavy arcanium boots thudding in the sand and crushing discarded equipment as he approached. The legionnaire raised his shield to defend himself. With a deft strike from The Overlord's demonic mace, the shield in the legionnaires hand was crushed to bits, pulping the simulacrum's arm. The dummy yelped and fell backwards. The Overlord stepped on the man's chest, hearing simulated bones creak under his weight as the legionnaire howled in pain, and raised his mace to end the pitiful illusion. With a final downwards movement, the fight was over.
The Dark Tower's magic cleaned the area and left the equipment and gold that a real breathing, soul bearing legion would've dropped on the sand. The Overlord sighed, glancing up at the minions in the stands and their lack of enjoyment as well. Half heartedly gesturing for one of the minions to come and loot the equipment. Not much of it was intact after The Overlord's mace had its way with them however. Not that minions minded, anything that couldn't be used would be melted down or burned.
He leaves the arena dungeon with no ceremony. Climbing the stairs to his expanded dark tower floors. Stopping in the research hall he had commissioned to be constructed. The large bookshelves stood plum full of books, and reached two Overlords high. Staffed by all the smartest people he could enslave. Out of all the slaves he had,the research personnel were treated the best, full bellies and unbeaten - well the occasional beating, but not as hard as the worker slaves. Not beating enslaved people might give them ideas.
With a raised hand, The Overlord called his head researcher when he arrived at the main research desk. A warlock that used to be patronized by his father the 3rd overlord. Now technically The Overlord was his patron as he had taken his father's title and all of his power. That included but wasn't limited to worship by the silent church and ruling hell. His head researcher dropped to his knees.
"What can I, The dark and humble Glorn do for my eternal master?" The long bearded warlock said groveling before his own personal god. The Overlord would have rolled his eyes if Glorn could see it. With a gesture of the clawed gauntlet at Glorn's purple rune covered robes, The Overlord then pointed at the unfinished spell stones to the left of the head researchers desk.
"Oh! The progress on new spell stones! They're going to be excellent master! Chain lighting! Mass dominance spells! Minion improvements! Converting gold to magic to enchant the stones is expensive though-" Glorn said shaking a little when he noticed The Overlord didn't seem to smile at that last comment. Or be amused at all with the progress.
Glorn got to his feet and ran to get a book and show it to The Overlord. It was full of hypothetical runes detailing how they could be used to quicken or slow time "But lord! If you are not satisfied with that! Well-we've begun work on chronomancy!"
Now that made the Overlord a little happy, if he could be happy after this dry spell of no fun. He dreamed a bit about if that meant he could reverse time and destroy the world all over again. But snapped back to reality when Glorn was still expositing about what they had been doing.
Ignoring what the rest of Glorn was saying simply to keep himself from getting a head ache. To show his dark approval, The Overlord looked to his right. The research budget of the entire hall was represented by a small pile of gold. Focusing slightly, The Overlord summoned some of the treasury's contents to make it rain onto the budget pile. Gems, chests of gold, and shiny gold plated objects all clattered down.
"I think you'll find this more than a sign of my favor towards your floors work," The Overlord said as the treasure rained down. "Now, go get it Glorn, I expect results, after all."
The researchers that worked in the library all scrambled to pick the gold up and bring it to their various kicked enchanters,runecrafters punched the hexers, it was amusing to see a bunch of glorified nerds fighting over the precious metal so they could break it down into mana and materials for their research.
Glorn glanced at The Overlord, then at the gold. The Overlord nodded and Glorn raced off to elbow his way into the finer claims of treasure to fund his own research. Loudly yelling that The Overlord had approved his research above all theirs and that they should back off.
Turning around The Overlord left the scholars,researchers,and mages to their devices. Not that they could betray him, the domination spell stole all rebellious thoughts and most free will from them. Making them just minions with the smarter brain of a human.
A second stop would be needed before he went to his throne room. A one side slaughter had taken its only victim,his hunger. To the kitchens where the best chefs stolen from their lands were employed or allowed to live without pay if you wanted to be factual. The head chef greeted him but The Overlord glared at him.
The Overlord spoke a rather canned sentence, he didn't put much menace into threats anymore because why bother. "If one of your cooks burns something that the mistresses were going to eat because they were too busy saluting me and I hear them complain, it's their head"
The head chef turned and yelled at the rest of the cooks to keep working. Then turned to face his master. The Overlord raised a hand and he commanded "Bring one of the finer dishes to the dining room, I'll be there waiting, do not fail me". With that he lowered his hand and the head chef bowed and began yelling at their cooks to make a meal for The Overlord.
The rather hungry Overlord left the kitchen now. Moving to the dining room,the mistresses weren't there so the only other places they could be were in the throne room or their own rooms. They never went in the forge or the spawning chambers so The Overlord was sure of the observation.
The Overlord tapped his gauntleted hand against the stone table as he moved to sit at his dining chair, to say chair was an understatement however as it was more a throne that his minions pushed to the table every time he ate.
With a raising of the gauntlet, minions came from the shadows to push the chair into place after The Overlord sat on it. He began counting the seconds to occupy his time. Slouching on his dining room chair and putting an spiky elbow on the table. Yawning and flicking one of the spikes on his armor just to hear it twang. Of course he sat up straight when his butler came to deliver his meal, he's upheld the evil overlord persona for years and while he's bored and tired, that's no reason to let them know.
Within a few minutes, the first course came. A modest slice of finely marbled unicorn steak cooked to juicy perfection with a serving of finely aged and brutally pillaged fey wine. Waving the servant away, The Overlord took his helmet off when they were gone and began eating.
Enjoyable and a delicacy, the elven hippies that raised this beast are probably in tears as he eats a sacred animal and drinks their treasured wine. At least knowing the suffering that came with his meal made him feel better.
As soon as he set down his fork and put his helmet back on,the second course came. Marinated in the finest looted Ruborian desert salt, Imperial sauces,and fairy spices the minions could find, boulder beast ribs.
Eating the meat from a rocky animal didn't seem possible to many but when marinated just right the rocky flesh became like any other animal's and could be eaten.
The 3rd course was a light finisher for The Overlord and would seem rather anticlimactic to many who assumed The Overlord's diet consisted of babies and the tears of orphans. But everyone needs their fiber, even The Overlord. A salad made out several sacred leafy plants and fruits that he didn't bother remembering. All he remembered was the violence when the Elves, those silly tree huggers, didn't want him to steal it.
Spitting good was a great motivator to get The Overlord to go ruin anyone's day. The meal was a delectable one and it put his boredom in the mental backseat while he was eating it.
But as soon as the evil nostalgia of the memories of how he got these ingredients faded, he was bored stiff again. It was time for him to go sit on his throne and just admire his domain for the near future until he gets an idea of something to do or one of the mistresses send him to get sandworm pearls for one of their outfits. Even if it was a fetch quest it was something to do and something to kill.
Entering his throne room after his minions cleaned up his dining room table, Fay and Kelda paused whatever conversation they were having to look at him. Juno had been sitting in his throne and she looked like a little temptress before The Overlord lifted her out of his seat and sat her on his lap. Gesturing as if to say 'Resume, I want to hear what you were talking about.'
So that was the current status of The Overlord. He was sitting in his tower, on top of the throne he rebuilt from his father's days, listening to Kelda and Fay resume arguing about baby names for the inevitable 5th overlord as Juno sat in his lap trying to coax a reaction out of him.
"Well I think that my child should have a proper human name, none of this flowery fey garbage," Said Kelda harshly at Fay. "Who's going to fear an overlord named Nym? Or Sprite? What's the lad gonna do? Throw pixie dust at them till they cry?"
Fay retorted rather indignantly at the Nordbergian woman. "Those names are far more suited for a half fairy than a purely human overlord sire from a low born Nordbergian, my child would have even greater magical potential than yours and royal blood."
This conversation continued for a while, with both arguing for why they were the superior mother to the potential heir. Key points that weren't just 'the other candidate is a massive tool/a stuck up fey/a peasant barbarian' included: Fay argued her fey bloodline would mean the little overlad would be even stronger magically, and Felda argued that a human overlord would be even stronger physically.
Gnarl, his second in command looked rather aghast at the discussion of babies, their potential power, and when the conversation drifted to who's spawn would be cuter, the wizened minion simply left earshot to perhaps bang his head on a wall and torture a rat. Poor Gnarl, he's almost allergic to anything nice and wholesome,even the discussions of babies makes him itch.
After ten years of 'marriage' with The Overlord, it was surprising that an argument like this hadn't started sooner. But one thing that kept this argument at bay most of the time, was how the mistresses didn't seem to age under his rule. This seemed to prevent Fay from literally just waiting for the other two to die so she could claim The Overlord as her husband. At least the more shallow Juno only wanted shiny things and physical attention from him. Speaking of Juno, she had just tried tickling him under his helmet.
The Overlord didn't mind Juno in his personal space normally. The only signs he was awake and not asleep in his throne were the glowing eyes and the reactions when Juno reached under his helmet to caress his face. Said reactions being him softly removing her hand with a gauntleted fist as something inspired him.
The Overlord locked eyes with her and he spoke. "The helmet stays on, now move off me, I'm tired..."
Juno, the former imperial seductress, moved off her Overlord's lap with a "Hmph". He didn't pay her any mind as Fay and Kelda stopped talking. He stood up and gestured in the air. Gnarl sensed something was going on as The Overlord had a different air about him.
Gnarl spoke as he came around the corner of one of the stair cases. "Something evil on your mind master?" the so old he was now grey minion asked.
The Overlord locked eyes with Gnarl and spoke plainly with the truth for the first time in a long time. "There is nothing on my mind" he said, voice rich with palatable boredom and simply walked past all four of them up to his quarters without another word. He cared for his mistresses and his minions of course, but simply wanted to be alone, alone with his own thoughts.
The Overlord's footsteps were heavy, not just from the weight of his arcanium armor, but from the weight of boredom. He wasn't cut out for the domestic life of sitting and living, he needed challenge, excitement, danger!
The Overlord didn't even throw open his quarters doors with vigor anymore so he could hear them shake the walls. Instead he just kind of shoulder bashed them open and kept going until he got to his window and stared outside. The stars were white against the corrupted blood red night sky.
He looked up at those stars and raised a fist as if he could crush them. Maybe he should try to darken the sky, cull the stars next. An act of evil so vile it struck against the goddesses own domain! But there were so many and so far away it was pointless. The tower was huge and it still didn't reach the stars. He wondered if the goddess kept raising them higher when he got close to her domain.
Nevertheless, he set his mace down against the window and sat on his bed, staring at a large mirror. The Overlord was a titan of a man, with his blue rune covered skin, it was a wonder how he didn't terrify his mistresses. But one was a warrior woman who loved the cold and hunting, the other was a gold digger basically, and the last one was forcibly converted to the side of evil.
The Overlord groaned and just laid down on his bed. Laying there for a while before he would get back up to take off the heavier parts of his armor. The Overlord deserved a nice rest. Sleep came to The Overlord and it was pleasant for once in the longest time.
Eventually, The Overlord's mistresses went to sleep as well and Gnarl went to his quarters to oversee the minions and the various workings of the magical tower. The older minion was concerned,usually Overlords are always at war with good and fall eventually to. What was the purpose of an overlord with nothing to do?
Gnarl called a meeting with the other 'leaders' of the colored minions. He knew he had to keep the peace or risk the minions leaving in the dead of night or even worse rebelling!
Their meeting was held inside Gnarls office, it was about the size of a broom closet but when you're only two to three feet tall, it's plenty big for them.
Mortis, the blue leader had power to revive dead minions making him the backbone of the army when they took losses from anything, be they drowning in the shallow end of the pool or a cannonball turning a minion into colored salsa.
Stink,the green leader was perhaps the hardest to see when standing still but the easiest to smell. Naturally the greens had chameleon-like abilities so trying to see an invisible green when they were standing still was always hard even if you could resist gagging on their rotten food smell.
Singe, the red leader was a gibbering pyromaniac, simple as that - if something wasn't on fire screaming, he was on fire screaming. Even if you reminded him he couldn't burn.
Gnarl naturally being a brown by birth but grey from age meant he represented browns until his dying day. He spoke first. "Now I know we've all had concerns about the lack of-well anything in recent years-"
Gnarl was interrupted by Singe banging on the table like a child, his head was on fire and he spoke gibberish that probably made sense if you had to work with him daily.
Gnarl continued after that. "Well yes, we haven't been able to pillage any more villages or burn forests down and-"
This time Stink stabbed the table with his claws and said coherently. "And greens are tired of spying and waiting for Overlord to say we can stab people more!"
Gnarl, bless his old heart kept going. "Under the Overlord we have been careful to not terrorize the loyal populace too much for the sake of stability, hence the less raids we've done but,but trust me I think something is just around the corner-"
Gnarl stopped as if he was waiting for Mortis to interrupt him too like the others. But Mortis, ever the level headed, just leaned against the table and motioned for Gnarl to continue.
"Well, where was I?- ah yes, something is coming my friends, something big! I can feel it in my gizzard and my gizzard has never failed us! It brought us to the 3rd overlord and to our current master!" Gnarl shuffled off to his window to push it open theatrically to help his pitch of remaining calm for the masters sake. Then resumed,gesturing at the blood red moon. "Something out there is gonna bring us a fresh new fight! Good always balances things out"
Singe started salivating as Stink sharpened his claws simply nodded as Gnarl riled up the other leaders with his speech.
"There'll be new forests to burn! More peasants to terrify! Just give The Overlord some more time to find it!" The minion generals clapped and Mortis spoke up.
"I felt strange magic stirring deep in the netherworld,so maybe,just maybe you're correct Gnarl,good might come back with a fury and we'll be ready" Mortis produced from somewhere on his person a mirror. "In the underworld I saw a tear into another land and it was every bit as vibrant as you said,the magic is coming, I saw it earlier today but knew not how to tell The Overlord as he was busy fighting legionnaires all day" The mirror showed an image of a happy village of humans working their daily lives. Everyone present knew it to be nowhere in the known land as the sky was blue there.
The tower began shaking as soon as Mortis showed the vision mirror to the other leaders. All of them expressed concern and Mortis simply said, "I don't know what that is, wrath of the goddess? Overlord's new plan? Earthquake? Grab onto something and let's find out" The minions grabbed onto anything they could and held on.
Across universes, a force was tugging on the twin tower of the nether and the overworld from one side. The other side was pushing against the tower hearts anchor in this the goddess was evicting The Overlord personally. The tower heart struggled against it until a tipping point during The Overlords slumber dragged the entire structure into the void between worlds. The shaking went from a gentle wobble to a violent rumble that woke every living being in the castle, from the rats that stole grain, to the mighty slumbering Overlord.
Both towers arrived in the new world immediately, a loud crash as stone was shattered against the tower walls. It seems the towers pushed any matter that was in their way that would stop them from appearing. A chill was felt as cold winds swept into the Dark Tower,meanwhile the Nether Tower was placed inside a large frozen cavern underneath the Dark Tower.
The first thing The Overlord heard that wasn't shaking or the foundation settling was Juno yell about someone needing to close the windows or she was going to freeze her bits off. So at the very least the skimpiest mistress was ok, if a little loud.
The Overlord,now freed from being shaken like an ant in a glass jar,leapt from his bed and onto his feet. Throwing on his helmet before calling his minions in to get the rest of his armor on.
Once dressed, The Overlord threw open his room's window to see an unfamiliar mountain range that it appeared the Dark Tower had taken root on. The stars were nothing like he knew, and the final conclusion that this wasn't his perfectly corrupted world was the sky.
No ash tainted the air, corruption wasn't palatable on the tongue when you breathed through your mouth, and the sky wasn't as red as blood. His hands gripped the dark stone that made the window sill. A million thoughts came at once to his dark and corrupt heart.
"Good is in this land-" The Overlord said excited at the chance to clash with heroes and nature again. Where there was good, there were naive and stuck up heroes who thought they were above it all. Or at least The Overlord hoped it was so in this world.
Turning around kicking an unfortunate brown minion that tried looking with him out of his way, commanding the minions to close his window or die trying. The Overlord came crashing down the stairs to his throne room. Heart beating quick for the first time in years. There was Gnarl shivering as his wives came from their respective rooms. Kelda and Fay didn't seem fussed by the cold but poor Juno had surrounded herself with red minions with their heads aflame to keep herself warm.
Juno being in such a state made The Overlord almost chuckle if it weren't for the situation at hand, turning away from the girls to look at Gnarl to ask his wizened adviser.
"Where are we?"