Overlord: Darker Legends.
Chapter 4: Witch Hunt.
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Everyone in the castle was concerned about what the Overlord was planning. He'd brought back a small boy and girl for questioning, and questioning usually meant torture. No-one other than the minions were willing to let the kids go through that and they wanted to protect them. So what happened next was a shock.
Overlord Valgaav ordered his servants to bathe the kids, brush their teeth, and then give them new clothes. And while that was going on, he ordered Rollick to prepare a decent meal for those hungry kids. Which all seemed completely out of character for Valgaav.
"Uh, master? Why are you being so nice to the kids? It doesn't seem like you," asked one of the servant girls.
"Because we're on the same side. What's the point in torturing the information out of them when you can just ask them and they'll willingly give you every detail? I want to find out who's been making deals with the wolves and what else is going on. Those kids were being fed to the wolves by whoever's been making deals with them. They'll want whoever's responsible to face my axe more than everyone else put together. And after what I've done for them, they may also become my loyal informants in Meadowsweet."
His logic and strategy seemed sound. He may have been cruel and evil, but he was smart enough to know when not to be like that, if only for the strategic advantages that came with it. And once the kids were were washed, dressed and fed, Valgaav prepared to go in to talk to them. Then he realized that his imposing figure might scare them too much, so he had Leia and Luna do it.
"Are you kids good now? Good. Now we need you to tell us everything that happened. How did you end up in a cage, about to be eaten by wolves?"
As predicted, the kids were happy to tell them everything. They bought some gingerbread from the guy who ran the candy stall, and after they ate it they went into a trance and wandered out of town. They were then captured by a witch, who apparently had blue monkeys, 'like the ones the big guy in armour was using.' The witch then put them into cages and handed them over to the wolves, along with several others who didn't make it. They were ripped apart and eaten alive right in front of them, and those two kids truly believed they were next. Before they were rescued they had given up all hope of survival, and could only hope that when the wolves ate them, they choked on their bones and died.
This was a lot of good information. 1: The gingerbread seller was in on this and thus knew what was going on. Making him the next piece of information and the next head on the chopping block. 2: There was a witch behind it, and she had made deals with the wolves. 3: The witch had his Blue minions. And if what he overheard in the bar was any indication, they'd almost emptied that small town of its children, and gotten many of its adults, while the rest still couldn't figure things out.
The Overlord thanked the kids for the information and left. The first thing he did was infuse his latest minion relic with 250 life force to max it out and increase his horde to 20, then he upgraded his minion barracks to make his forces stronger, and then he had a hammer forged, as he was ready to try something new that could cause extreme pain and damage to his foes. He would've stuck around longer to break in his newest slave, Red Riding Whore, but if the gingerbread seller found out that the wolves were wiped out, then he'd realize some of his victims might have survived, and he'd skip town and that lead would be gone. And word of his victory was sure to get out soon, so he had to act fast. Hell, it might have already been too late.
He teleported to Meadowsweet, summoned his minions and then headed straight for the gingerbread seller.
"Gingerbread! Gingerbread! On sale for the lowest prices of the year!"
The gingerbread seller was completely unaware that his cover was blown and thus had no clue as to the danger he was in. But when the Overlord kicked down his stall, grabbed him by the throat, and dragged him off, he began to suspect the jig was up. The Overlord accused him of being behind all the missing children, and said in front of the whole town what the kids had told him. He denied it of course, right up until the Overlord tortured the confession of out him. All thoughts of that confession being a false one were dashed when he went into details. He knew stuff that only the truly guilty would know. And as it turned out, it wasn't just the kids who fell victim to the enchanted gingerbread, but also a lot of the adults. The witch Doris made the cookies, hired him to sell them, and those who ate them wandered off to her.
Valgaav was about to deliver the killing blow when he was stopped by the townsfolk. Not because they wanted him to live, but because they wanted to claim their revenge, and just killing him off was too good for him. So they broke his arms and legs to keep him from trying to escape, then they completely shattered the bones in his arms and legs. Then they began putting him through every painful torture they could think of, all while keeping him alive. Because the pits of hell were too good for him.
While the locals were getting their revenge, the Overlord headed back to the bar to collect the ruby and the rest of the gold. After everything that happened, the bartender was happy to pay him in full, and even gave him a bonus. (Partially because his daughter was among those who disappeared, and he was glad she was avenged.) As he headed off he stopped by the Pumpkin Shack to ask how the farms were doing.
"Nim. How are the farms coming along? Has everyone moved back in yet?"
"Not yet my lord. It seems there's now a giant weevil terrorizing the farms."
"Seriously? Are you idiots really so weak that you can't evenhandle a measly bug? Just smash the damned thing and get it over with."
"That's what I told them, but they claim it's bigger than a cow and that it killed one guy with ease. It could be a while before they deal with it."
"If this isn't solved and the farms aren't up and running by the time I'm done with the witch, then I'll do it myself. But I'll be charging you a fortune."
"Fair enough. I'll let them know about the new time limit and price."
The Overlord the continued on his way. He had his minions trash the candy stall, then take the missing spoke for the wheel. Shortly after the bridge was down, they were in the witch's territory, Melancholy Moors. After the second turn they got a good view of the area, but something was off. There were garden patches full of impractically huge candy, mainly lollipops and candy-canes, as if they were being grown, giant lollipops lined the paths, and there were doughy, man-sized gingerbread men walking around like they were alive and were patrolling the area. Add in the decaying forest and it all looked like a kid-friendly Halloween themed area with Christmas candy thrown in.
"Something's wrong about this. This can't be real. It looks like something out of a kid's book. It has to be an illusion or something."
"You can tell that this quickly without even checking?"
"Yes. If it was real, the candy and the walking dough boys would be covered in bugs by now and look disgusting."
"Oh shit, you're right. The witch must've cast an illusion spell on the entire place."
"If I go in there, I'll be fighting blind. But that illusion spell must really be for the kids that ate the gingerbread. As long as they only see a fantasy, they won't realize the danger they're in, and just walk right in."
Then he noticed something out of place.
"Wait. I see something on top of the witch's house."
"That's a vision crystal. That must be what she's using to create the illusions. If you can take that out, the spell will be broken and you'll be able to see exactly what you're doing."
"Do we have any ballistas?"
"No, but if you come back it won't take long to make one."
"Good, I'm on my way."
A waypoint gate had opened up nearby, so he took it to return to the castle. Then he issued his order to build a ballista. Then the two protester girls came up to him.
"Hello my lord. I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves. I'm Juvia, and this is my sister Emily. I know we didn't get off to a good start, but I'm hoping to rectify that."
"What do you want?"
"To join your harem and avoid any more hard labour."
He paused. Sure they looked hot, but were they worth it?
"And to make it worth your while, we'll tell you about a gold mine we discovered in Withering Woods."
"Strip."
Their clothes fell to the floor and they showed off their naked beauty. Then Valgaav took them to his room while molesting them. The girls were cute, pretty, had large breasts, and were extremely skinny and weak. Once in his room he took off his armour and they started giving him a show.
Juvia and Emily kneeled naked on the floor in front of him in a passionate embrace, moaning as they lustfully made out for him, their breasts pressed firmly together as their hands explored each other's bodies.
But that didn't last for long, as Valgaav rid himself of his shorts. His erection sprung free as he grabbed the two girls by the back of their heads to make them continue their heated make out session as he slid his cock between their mouths. They didn't skip a beat, continuing to kiss and lick his cock with even more lust and passion than they did with each other. He started thrusting between their mouths, and the moans the girls let out added vibrations around his shaft as they each moved a hand to caress his thighs.
Breaking the kiss Emily moved her mouth to his cock head, taking the first part passed her soft skilled lips, while Juvia moved lower, her tongue playing with Valgaav's balls, making him groan slightly as she tried to suck both balls into her hot wet mouth. Their tongues worked overtime on him in a silent contest to see who could please him the most.
Seeing that Emily wasn't able to get his cock down her throat on her own, he shoved her head down onto his dick, forcing her to deep throat him all the way to the base, and began skull raping her. As her head bobbed faster and deeper than she could handle, she moaned around his shaft and struggled to hold back her tears. Her tits hit against Juvia's face every time she moved down, driving her to back away from his balls.
With a mighty thrust he was soon flooding her throat with his seed, making her moan and whimper. Then Juvia pushed her away, to take her own turn getting skull fucked. She clamped her lips around his cock head to greedily lap up his leftover seed before sucking on it with passion and gusto. She proved able to take his cock far deeper than Emily was without being forced. After a few minutes of that he came, shooting ropes of cum down her throat, and filling her belly.
As Juvia was gasping for air, he pulled them both onto the bed. Knowing what was coming next, she lied on her back with her legs spread, and pulled Emily to lie down on top of her. Their breasts pressed together as they tightly embraced, pressing their groins as close together as they could manage, giving him easy access to whichever hole he wanted.
He slid his dick between their pussies and began thrusting between them. After a minute both girls came at the same time. Then he entered Juvia's cunt. She cried out as he forced his way in, but it was muffled by her sister kissing her. Then he started pumping into her. After a few minutes he stopped and switched to Emily's pussy. Within minutes both sisters were sharing powerful orgasms, their moans and pants becoming muffled as they began to lustfully kiss, screaming into each other's mouths as he fucked them faster and harder, their bodies bucking and jerking as he treated them like fuck dolls.
Between their lustful kisses and moans, Emily and Juvia begged for his cum, for him to fill them with his hot thick jizz, and with a few more thrusts they got their wish, one after the other. Their eyes rolled back in their heads with sheer pleasure as he came hard inside each of them, flooding their insides and making their stomachs bulge out.
A few minutes later, they had recovered just enough to talk.
"Well? Was that good enough Master?"
"Barely. But I'll let you join the harem. After you finish your work."
"What?"
"No fair!"
"I'd say that's more than fair."
They turned to see Luna standing nearby, with a few other girls behind her.
"You may be sorry, but that doesn't excuse your crimes. And like it or not, your jobs still need to get done. Also, your skills at sex sorely lacking. Allow me to show you how a real woman pleases her man," said Luna. Then she dropped her dress to the floor and walked naked to Valgaav with a confident smirk.
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Overlord Valgaav returned to Melancholy Moors, with his minions pushing a giant crossbow on tank treads, officially referred to as a balista. Once they were within range, they loaded it, took aim, and fired. The bolt flew through the air, hit the crystal, shattered it, and kept going without slowing down.
With the vision crystal destroyed, the illusion faded and they could see everything in its true form. The gardens of candy were actually weapon stashes, almost everything was soaked in blood, there were bugs swarming everywhere, and the doughy gingerbread men were actually disgustingly grotesque monsters that looked like disfigured, bloated, troll-goblin-Frankenstein freaks, and were clearly artificially made using real body parts, often with a weapon or two built in to make them more lethal. They were often lopsided due to mismatched parts, and it seemed like no two were the same. They grossed Valgaav out, but not nearly as much as they grossed out the girls back at the castle who were watching. Which they made clear by their their reactions. There were sounds of disgust, complaints on how gross they were, and he thought he heard a couple of them vomiting in the background.
"I think I've heard of these master. They're flesh golems. Monsters that have been pieced together using assorted body parts and brought to life using magic. They're supposed to be pretty strong, but this is the first time I've seen one, so I don't know much about them," said Gnarl.
"Alright, let's just get in there."
Then he noticed the bridge was down and the wheel to fix it was missing some spokes. And then he noticed one of those spokes were in the hands of one of the flesh golems, being held like a weapon.
"Looks like I'll have to wipe those freaks out to get that wheel working. Which is fine by me, because it means no outside reinforcements attacking our rear."
He could've charged in to attack them, but instead he chose to use the balista. The minions loaded it, he took aim and fired. Each one killed one of the flesh golems. Once that small area was cleared, they headed to the next, which was past a deep stream with a bridge over it.
"Doesn't look like we'll be able to get the balista over that bridge. Leave it."
They crossed the bridge and entered the next area, which was an empty space with dead grass, an infestation of bees, a bunch of the flesh golems roaming around, and a new spell. To their left was a dead end with a small group of them, to their right was a path with more of them roaming around. They attacked the ones on the left first. They charged in and used their numbers to overwhelm them. As it turned out, those flesh golems were tough enough to take a beating, and strong enough to deal some damage. They were even harder to take on than the bandits or wolves. And somehow they were still pretty juicy. Blood, or rather something like blood that smelled far worse, squirted from every wound inflicted on them.
"Gawd that's nasty!"
"Wait, you can smell that?"
"Yes lord. Your helmet comes with visual sensors, hearing sensors, and nasal sensors. So we can see, hear, and even smell everything you can."
"Is there any way to turn that last part off?"
"You might want to air out the room once I'm done."
"I wanna air out the room now!"
With that group of flesh golems defeated, he had one of the minions grab the missing spoke and return it to the wheel as a few others retrieved the spell. It was the minion frenzy spell, which would greatly increase the minions' strength and durability and send them into the frenzy of uncontrolled destruction. The rest of them attacked the freaks on the path. Had his forces been smaller and weaker, they would've had a lot of trouble. But seeing as how they were levelled up, and were armed and armoured with all the best stuff they managed to pick up on the way over, they were much more efficient in battle, and thus able to take them down. One flesh golem fell after another, and soon the path was cleared and the spokes were returned. They would've kept going, but the stream from earlier blocked their path. Overlord Valgaav used it to clean off the blood and gore from his armour and hammer, then he turned around and headed back.
Once the bridge was fixed, they charged right across. There were a couple chests of gold in the yard and they were emptied before they headed inside. The door to the building was locked, so they broke it down and charged inside.
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The inside of the witch's house looked even worse than her flesh golems. The inside was covered in blood, severed body parts were kept tied up in bundles, discarded body parts were left lying around everywhere, and there were pools of blood deep enough to drown minions. And that was just at the front entrance.
There were also several large cages in there. One held a team of his blue minions, another held a few kids, and one held a woman. The woman and kids were still tripping out on the gingerbread. The Browns busted them all loose and one of them died in the process by getting skewered by a loose bar. But then the Blues revived him as Gnarl explained their powers. The Blues were healers, capable of healing wounded minions and reviving the recently diseased, had a magic attack made for ethereal beings such as ghosts, and were the only minions who could swim.
The woman and kids were slapped until they broke out of their trances, then they were sent unescorted back to town. And all the girls who were watching with Gnarl decided they'd had all they could take and left to go throw up and find something else to do that wouldn't haunt them for the rest of their lives.
"It's just as predicted master. The witch does have the Blues. And that means she must also have the blue hive."
"Gnarl, I get that they can swim through water, but can they handle pools of blood?"
"I don't know. I don't think we've ever tried that before."
"They need to activate that wheel if we're to get inside, which is in the pool of blood."
Valgaav sent his Blues in, and as luck would have it, they were able to handle being in that pool of watered down blood. As they turned the wheel a grate rose up from the pool of blood that was blocking their way. He then called them back and they continued.
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Inside, the witch Doris was meeting with a few men who looked to be from one of the neighbouring countries. The men were dressed in expensive clothing and were packing gold, indicating that they were either part of the ruling nobility, or wealthy aristocrats.
"Don't worry," said Doris. "Once again I've easily met the full quota of flesh golems and they're already loaded up, ready to be taken away."
"Good to hear it. Here's the gold we agreed upon."
"But it looks like you're having some trouble."
"It seems some righteous fool's in the midst of a pathetic attempt to put me down. I caught a glimpse of him. One idiot in armour and a handful of goblins that can't hold a candle to my flesh golems. If they aren't dead already, then they will be shortly."
"They won't cut into production, will they?"
"No. In fact, production's gone way up. I'm now able to produce ten times what I was earlier. If you can get me more bodies and gold, your orders can be bigger than ever. And making a replacement vision crystal is an easy task. With all things considered, that fool could set me back no further than a batch of burnt cookies."
"Wonderful. And if you really can start giving us ten times the current amount, then we'll take them. We're trying to start a war, and for that we need an army of these things. And we'll need them as soon as possible."
"You get me the gold and the bodies, whether they're freshly killed or still alive, and I'll make you your army. Your current shipment's around back."
The men then left the building, taking a different exit than the one the Overlord was at. He went after them, but a group of flesh golems emerged from two large machines, formed a wall, blocked his path. They weren't about to move from that spot, but they were ready and eager to tear apart anything the got too close to them.
"What's going on?"
Valgaav analyzed the whole thing.
"Those machines are what's making the flesh golems. And rather than coming after me, it seems they're just blocking off the path I want to take. And I doubt they'll ever break their shield formation. And as long as those machines keep making more of them, I'll never break through. But it looks like they're steam powered. I bet I can use my Reds to put out the fires and shut them down."
"Brilliant lord!"
Overlord Valgaav led his forces through the flesh golem factory. Boxes of body parts lined the halls, bodily fluids covered the floors, flesh golems were patrolling the inside and eager to attack them on sight, and there were giant pools of blood, as deep as Valgaav's chest. But they persevered, slaughtered the golems one after another, and cleared the way. Even as several were firing arrows from crossbows attached to their arms.
They made it through the monsters and to the first machine, and the roaring fire that powered it. He could have sent his Reds in to absorb the flames to shut the machine down, but he suddenly had an even better idea. He closed off all ventilation and had his Reds more than double the strength of the fires, which instantly caused the pressure to skyrocket, which caused the machine to rupture and explode. It also took out the pipes that were connected to it, opening another path.
"That's one down sire! One to go."
Then a horde of flesh golems came running, and they had to fight their way through them. More and more of them kept coming, and the Overlord and his minions were getting overwhelmed. For a while he feared that an infinite number of them were pouring out of the other machine, all were coming after him, and he had no way to get out of there alive.
But then their reinforcements stopped coming, and Valgaav was finally able to turn the tides and overcome them. If his forces were weaker, fewer in number, or didn't have the Blues there to revive them, then they would've lost.
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Before going further, he went back to investigate a room he passed. Once he broke the door down, he saw that it was a storage room for the witch's treasures. There were bags of gold and boxes of assorted stuff. He had the minions take everything worthwhile back to the castle, then they trashed the rest of it.
With that done he headed down the hall towards the next big machine that churned out horrifically disgusting crimes against nature. He passed by the flesh golem shield wall and saw that his efforts were indeed successful, but the other machine meant that the shield wall was still there. Given that the amount they could churn out was cut in half, odds were that Valgaav could break through them with enough effort. The thought never even crossed his mind, due to how clearly foolish it was. Trying that without shutting the other machine off first would mean they would keep coming, and if he broke through he'd just get himself surrounded. Instead he kept going after barely giving them a glance.
He soon saw that the number of flesh golems increased as they were also being produced by smaller versions of the big machines. But their smaller size meant they were being made at a much slower rate, giving Valgaav the time he needed to cut them down and send the Reds in to shut the machines down.
They fought their way through before being stopped by a hall flooded with bloody water. He had to send the Browns and Reds back and continue on with only the Blues. That didn't last long though, as once they were through, Brown and Red minion gates appeared. The only problem was, they appeared in a pool of bloody water and they drowned upon being summoned. Valgaav had to make the Blues revive them all before they could continue.
After that they had to go through even more flesh golems and deal with more of the smaller machines. It was a tough fight and Valgaav had to use the blood and mana pits that were in the factory. But they pulled through and made it to the second machine.
They used same tactic of overloading it and making it explode as they did with the first one. And like the first one, an army of flesh golems came running in immediately afterwards. Every last flesh golem in the building came for them. Valgaav realized what was going on. They realized they could no longer reinforce their numbers and were now making a desperate, last ditch attempt to take down the intruders before they got wiped out. Which may have seemed like a good thing, especially considering they broke their formations, but now it seemed they were overcome by rage, which made them tougher and stronger, and caused them to rampage wildly, and all were targeting Valgaav.
The Overlord's magic lightning shocked and fried his foes, while his hammer broke weapons, shattered bones, and made heads explode. It also made what looked like juicy tumours explode. The minions bashed, slashed, stabbed, and burned. And a couple jumped up and down on the carcasses. And the rampaging flesh golems charged through, slashed, bashed, grabbed, tore, bit, and pummelled. Neither side was dominating, but as more minions fell, the flesh golems seemed to gain the upper hand.
Thinking fast, the Overlord grabbed and throttled a Red, then sent him into the group of flesh golems. He hit them and went out in a fiery explosion, taking out the nearest flesh golems and disrupting the rest enough to give the Overlord the opening he needed to turn the tides.
They took down one after another, until the Overlord stood victorious.
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With all the defenders of the factory finally gone, the Overlord got healed, replenished his minion horde and prepared to deal with the witch and find the blue minion hive.
The witch Doris was in her kitchen, which was behind a waterfall, that actually consisted of clean water. He had to leave his Browns and Reds behind before going in, washing all the blood, bile and gore off in the process. Then he had the Blues turn off the water to let the rest of the minions join them.
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"Here ya go. Here's your share of this week's takings," said Doris as she handed over a basket of gold, to none other than Overlord Valgaav's sister, Gerda.
"I take it my hive is working out well then?"
"Yes. Making flesh golems could never have been this easy without those blue things. Just by tossing a bunch of them into those machines, I was able to step up production like you wouldn't believe."
"Right, I have to get this gold to the dwarves. Widget needs more parts for his contraptions. This war isn't going to start itself!" Gerda said as she walked away.
Valgaav watched and listened to the whole thing, and they failed to notice him. He would've tried to kill his sister, but that would've given the witch an easy escape. So he waited until she was gone before making his presence known.
"What?! How did you get past my flesh golems?!"
"I sent them back where they belong. The bottom of my boot! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"Prepare to die!"
"Likewise."
She hopped onto her broom and took flight. A magical energy shield surrounded her and she kept out of their reach while flying around, attacking with fireballs, magic bombs, and spells that immobilized them. Her shield blocked all of the Overlord's spells, and she stayed out of reach of everything else. After a minute or two of fending off her attacks, he realized that the Blues and Reds could pick up and carry the bomb-like spells she dropped, then those could be taken to some of her cooking supplies and catapulted into the air at her. She wasn't often in their path, but it only took one hit to bring her down. Then the whole lot of them started wailing on her. She managed to break free and get off the ground despite her injuries, but she didn't change her tactics and after they knocked her down again, they managed to finish her off. The fight ended with Valgaav's hammer smashing the witch's head to paste and splattering her brains everywhere.
With victory in hand, they grabbed the blue hive, and carried it to a nearby waypoint gate that just opened up. Then they proceeded to loot the place. As they were doing that, they uncovered a teenage girl, who was so scared that she fainted when the Overlord got close.
"Who's that girl?"
"Probably the witch's granddaughter. She's now our prisoner until further notice," Valgaav said as he sent her to the castle before heading there himself.
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