Chapter 2 : Armoring up

It has been quite a long time since the Overlord came back from his expedition to find a new heart for the tower, his advisor Gnarl would usually be delighted that his new lord committed a massacre and slaughtered people with no mercy in order to accomplish his mission but the minion was more focused on what happened next.

"My lord." Gnarl talked to Matt, the new overlord.

"Yes Gnarl?" The young man answered, sitting on his throne who started to really look like one instead of the rubbles it was a week ago. He could now rest his back as his hands where around two stone skulls.

"Can you explain that to me … ." Gnarl pointed to the middle of the room where a three was taking most of the place,it was the 'heart blossom' a runestone that Matt chose to replace the power source of the tower in order to repair it in a short time although said runestone was more like a giant tree, while it was restoring the tower to its former glory it also helped to develop vegetation inside of it .

"The heart blossom was the only runestone we could take since the others are guarded in fortresses, Plumeria is the only kingdom with no army so why not." That was true, he may be an overlord but he did not possess an army large enough to conquer the other kingdoms nor the resources to fight the Horde, he wanted to rule, not kill himself because he wanted too much.

"I'm not talking about the replacement for the heart BUT THE PRINCESS WHO IS TURNING OUR TOWER INTO A GARDEN." Gnarl complained.

It was true, the throne room used to be an empty place, destroyed, gloomy, there wasn't a roof in the throne room! But now, there were flowers everywhere, from the walls to the ceiling, all thanks to a particular guest.

"Gnarl, none of us know how to take care of a tree, even less a magical one and Perfuma was adamant about our accord, she gives me the heart blossom but she will stay near it." Matt was annoyed that his advisor complained about something as trivial as decorations. The overlord accepted Perfuma's exigence by pur pragmatisme.

Speaking of their guest, the princess of Plumeria just entered the room, she was smiling and waving to him. It seemed she was oblivious that Matt was an evil man.

"Good news, I have repaired the guest room and fields have been created outside." She told them.

"Fields?" Gnarl asked, unsure if he would like the answer.

"Your overlord told me he wanted food from Plumeria so I was thinking 'if I stay here, why shouldn't I make a garden so after a short time, TA-DAA." She pointed to a window, the overlord and Gnarl watched from there and saw the netherworld, the tower always had a garden but there were only stones and fire outside but now there were green grass and trees outside_The kind of place you would bring your family for a picnic_ … it wasn't a proper view for a dark lord's castle.

The old monster sighed, "The cohabitation will be hard; please tell me that the prisoner is being tortured at least." Gnarl asked his lord.

"Of course he is tortured." What kind of Overlord doesn't torture war prisonner? Not Matt.

Pain was all Mantenna felt when he woke up, his face hache and his view was blurred. He tried to move but he was paralised.

Then, his eyes widened in horror as he remembered what happened, the carnage, the bodies, the monsters and that man.

"Aw …awkkk…. awake…. e awake."

The captain turned to the source of the voice as his view got better, he saw the same brown creatures as before but this, five were in front of him, one among them was wearing a black mask covering its face.

just what the hell were they going to do.

"Hello, me whipper, brown minion; you… tell everything ….."the strange creature told him with a bit of difficulty.

"GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY!" The horde soldier shaked in the chains that were holding him to the dungeon's wall as the minion was coming closer to him. Then the little creature was barely two feet away from him. perfectly in sigh and show hhim :

A spoon?

"It just start." The creature croaked to him in its rude language.

Soon after, Mantenna screamin reasoned through the dungeon

"So, now we have food, some weapons from the raid and the tower is going to be repaired in no time; What do we need next?" Matt asked Gnarl. He may be in charge but he got the position only a month ago. Gnarl was still grooming him to be a proper overlord. "Personally I think we should get some people to build weapons for us and I mean the heavy kind like tanks or ships."

"It would be a good idea my lord but it's going to be tricky. While the minions are good with crafting metals it's not the same for technology and the machine depends on the engineer so not only we need a good one but more importantly a loyal one." The old monster told him.

Matt could already feel the headaches coming, how was he going to do that? He only knew the Horde and Plumeria, The rest of Etheria was totally unknown to him _he knew the geography and some rumors but they were from the Horde propaganda so he couldn't trust that_ meaning finding someone to develop machines was going to be tricky. He doesn't know everything and that's why he had Gnarl in the first place, to receive advice but he was also unable to respond, he needed someone who knew everything on Etheria, someone with connection...

"PERFUMA!" Matt called from his throne room.

Then the princess appeared from one of his windows, using a giant plant to arrive at this eigh "Yes"

"Do you know someone who is really good with machines but doesn't work with the princesses? I need someone to build one or two engines for the minions."

"Oh, that's easy. Princess Entrapta, from Dryl, likes to build machines although she doesn't interact with others, I asked if she wanted to join my drum circle but she never answered so I always left a place for her but ….

Gnarl just wanted to strangle her as she was talking but her powers were too valuable for their cause so he restrained himself.

Matt stopped to listen after 'from Dryl' sure Perfuma had things to tell but he really wanted to have weapons to fight the bastards who 'raised' him. He would never forgive the Horde for what they did to him.

He would burn the Fright Zone to the ground.

"What in the world?" Shadow Weaver watched the security video from the factory at Plumeria , her eyes were wide at what she saw.

It was a bloodbath where monsters were tearing the flesh of soldiers, burning them, eating them. She saw a monster eating the head of a soldier while he was alive. She wanted to puke.

She never saw such savagery in her life and where did the monsters come from? As far as she knows these creatures never appeared in Etheria before.

Then he came, an armored man entered the camera's view, he walked as if everything around him was normal. He stood in silence for a moment before he walked toward a crawling soldier. And sliced him in half with his sword as she had a clear view of his insides.

Just who could do something like that? She knew the Plumerians were pacifists and barely knew how to fight so it's obvious they had nothing to do with that thing. The soldiers in the factory barely finished their formation before this … slaughter.

No one in the Horde, nor the rebellion, ever acted with such violence and cruelty.

She stared at the armored man, he was clearly leading these creatures. The witch tried to find any information on him. Then she saw it : a gauntlet with a skull and a gemstone.

As a powerful witch, she has a good memory and clearly remembers where she saw a gauntlet like that before.

Matt, the cadet who spends time with the insufferable nuisance. She knew it could be a simple coincidence but she had to take into account every possibility.

"Bring me cadet Matt." The witch said by using a pad, she needed to confirm if it was really him or not.

Meanwhile it was a day off for Adora and her squad so they just decided to inform themselves on what happened at Plumeria as everyone was talking about it. Fortunately they were sharing footage of the base's cams. How they regretted watching this.

"That's fucked up. '' Lonnie declared as she watched the video on the datapad with her squad except Catra.

A base near plumeria was destroyed yesterday and it was a slaughter. Sure they heard what war would be like but to see the video of people being killed in such a brutal way.

"I … I … euuuurrr!" Kyle puked at the view of a soldier trying to keep his own guts inside of his body only to get a spear through his skull from a monster. No one blamed him for this.

Adora just stared at the video. Why would someone do that? It was no war but just … murders. The princesses were truly monsters for doing that.

But then she saw an armored figure entering the view. There was something wrong about him as he walked among the monsters. In fact they were worshipping him. Then she saw him killing a man who was crawling to save his own life but she also got a view of his arm.

"Catra." She called her friend who was taking a nap in her bed. The magicat slowly woke up at her voice

"What?"

"Did you see Matt recently?" The blond seemed worried.

"No, why?" Catra hasn't seen him since their argument. She went to her favorite place every day but she hasn't seen him a single time since that day.

"Because someone is wearing the same gauntlet as him."

Catra's eyes widened at the new. She jumped out of her bed to see what Adora was talking about and she saw the armored man sitting on a box as the monsters were looting corpses or even eating some.

But what she noticed the most was the gauntlet. It was the same gauntlet as Matt.

"It's just a coincidence." Catra dismissed the notion that Matt could be this heartless killer that just slaughtered his own people. He would never do that.

In fact, why would she care about him? He wasn't her friend. He was annoying. She didn't need him. He was nothing to her. _That's what she told herself_ But why did she have this feeling of guilt?

"That's Dryl? It looks like the tower" Matt declared as he saw the kingdom. The sky was dark as thunder was rumbling while all he could see was walls and towers. It reminded him of the Fright Zone.

"I know but please remember what I told you." Perfuma was at his right.

Matt needed Entrapta's skills if he wanted to level the odds. The Horde was just a small fraction of Etheria but it almost ruled this planet. Why? Because their weapons and technology are far more advanced. The princess has bows but the Horde has guns, catapults aren't as effective as tanks and a stun baton was more useful than a sword.

But getting Entrapta's support would need diplomacy. Something he cruelly lacks for now but fortunately he had a princess to help him. Perfuma agreed to come with him to Dryl and helped him to correct his attitude such as his brutal honesty. It took time but considering he had to send a messenger to Dryl and wait for an answer he had a long time to work on it.

He walked with Perfuma alongside him. They were welcomed by a man with lavender hair and pointed ears.

"Welcome, Princess Perfuma and Prince Matt. My name is soda pop. I'm in charge of bringing you to the princess." The man told them.

As they followed him, Matt turned to Perfuma. "Prince?" He was an overlord. He told her that when they met.

"I thought it would be more presentable. 'Overlord' isn't a title but the closest title is prince." She explained.

She wasn't wrong. If he started to call himself 'King' then he would get a lot of unwanted attention. It was in his best interest to keep a low profil from now on.

They walked inside of the castle but once they were inside it was more like a maze. A terrible one. They went through a portrait, a secret passage, three other portrait only to end up… in front of the castle.

"Are we lost?" Perfuma asked the butler.

"No… of course no…." The man was doing his best to hide his panic but it was especially hard with the tall young man in front of him wearing his scary armor.

"Aren't you a butler?" Matt asked him.

"Yes." Soda Pop felt uncomfortable when Matt was looking at him.

"So how can you serve her if you CAN' T BRING US TO HER?!" Matt was running out of patience, particularly when it came to incompetence.

"Usually I give food and drinks to her robots… they do the rest." The butler muttered.

"So, you're telling me that I went through a maze for forty minutes when you could have just brought us to one of her robots." Matt started to think that maybe technology wasn't the only reason the Horde was winning.

"I'm sorry." Soda pop barely muttered under Matt's glare.

"Just… Just do your job."

It was rather quick after that. They went to the kitchen and waited for a robot to come for food. For a strange reason, Entrapta's Lunch was going to be a tiny cake in a pig shape.

Perfuma and him followed the robot and finally they reached the lab.

Inside the lab, There was a robot hanging on the walls and the back of the room was covered with a screen showing a writing he couldn't understand.

But the oddest thing was the figure in front of him. It seemed to have tentacles on its head. Supporting the body. Etheria truly has strange creatures.

"Hello." Perfuma called the figure who stopped working and turned toward them. They saw a welding mask looking at them.

A hair tentacle went to the mask and raised it. It was the princess Entrapta. She was actually short, she would barely reach Matt's waist if she was standing on her feet. She had purple hair and was wearing heavy gloves, steel-toed boots, arm covers, a welding mask with red lenses, and a pair of overalls worn like pants. The shoulder straps were left loose over a white undershirt, which has been blotted with grease

That was quite different from how Perfuma was dressed. I seemed not every princesses were looking the same way.

"Who are you?" Entrapta asked them.

"Princess Perfuma and Prince Matt." The princess of Plumeria answered

Entrapta was still perplexe.

"We sent you a message about coming here two weeks ago… you said yes." Perfuma was starting to twitch because of her fellow princess' attitude.

"We brought you something." Matt presented to her the gifts Perfuma asked him to take. It was mostly fruits coming from the tower's 'garden'.

"YOU BROUGHT ME TINY FOOD!"

Matt almost winced at her outburst. Entrapta started to eat some of the grappe while looking at him. especially his armor. "It seems like your armor is from an unknown metal. I never saw something like this before." She declared.

"I know but please. I have something important to tell you." Matt tried to be as polite as possible. "My kingdom is underdeveloped and I need technology. You're the best when it comes to it. Please, I need you."

Entrapta looked at him. genuinely concerned. "I .. don't know. I mean I'm not sure if the other princesses will like it if I start helping other kingdoms. If I do that more and more could ask and my kingdom would be participating in the war… I can't do that."

So he wasted his time. All for nothing.

"I only do my experiments because I enjoy it. I just want to make more and more discoveries."

Then Matt got a ray of hope. "Do other kingdoms have skiffs from the Horde?" He asked Entrapta as her eyes widened. "Stun batons?"

Entrapta was interested and Matt knew what he had to say. "Or did they discovered the secret of dimension travel?"

That was too much. In a second Entrapta was in front of him, eyes to eyes. "YOU DISCOVERED DIMENSION TRAVEL! THAT'S UNPRECEDENTED! YOU COULD DISCOVER SO MANY SPECIES AND SHARE KNOWLEDGE YOU COULD EVEN SUPPRESS WORLD HUNGER AND NEVER FEAR SURPOPULATION!" Her eyes sparkled at the news. But then she regained her calm and looked confused. "But wait. If you can do that, why do you need my help?"

"That's easy. Dimension travel is magical not technological and I need weapons since my predecessor made some… bad encounters in some dimensions so my proposition is that if you build weapons for my kingdom and help us with my expansion plan then you will have free reign to study dimension travel and everything we can find through expeditions. In fact. I can provide you with what I raided from a Horde base as a good will gesture."

Entrapta didn't have to think about it; she looked at Matt as if he offered her the world. "I ACCEPT." She was thinking of all the discoveries she could make.

Matt was just happy that it was so easy to get her on his side. He was slowly but surely progressing as an overlord.

Hie everyone, sorry if it has been so long but I was busy with my studies and life and with my other fanfic it wasn't simple to progress on this one but here it is.

So there isn't much violence here because it is more focused on Matt growth as an Overlord. In every game when the overlord start Gnarl help his lord to establish his domination and that's what's happening.

Matt know the Horde is more equipped than him and he is outnumbered by the princesses so he is more focused on building power before attacking.

For those who wonder this chapter start a day after the attack on plumeria and the end is to weeks later and a month before the canon

Thank you all for your reviews I really enjoy them and about the mistresses Yes he will have more than one. it's overlord after all.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter