Reviews

SPARTAN-626 - Oh yes the leaders will be shocked, but by the time they learn of this though it'll be too late to do anything.

Chronos0305 - :)

Ecomonocoo: Trust me. This pairing is going to be one of those pairings that you're going to feel so awful for.

Cause shit happens

Strike the Blood: As of right now, Celestine and Olga would one of his mistresses. His harem ain't large. Trying to keep it small here. Who the others are you'll see.

Quathis: Oh things are about to become interesting all right.

Perseus12: Yes. This pleases me.


Vol.1

Act I

Chapter 4


"And now,' said the unknown, 'farewell kindness, humanity, and gratitude! Farewell to all the feelings that expand the heart! I have been heaven's substitute to recompense the good - now the god of vengeance yields to me his power to punish the wicked!"

Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo


One year later...

Black eyes slowly opened and were greeted with the sight of darkness.

Why was it so cold? Gods, he can't even feel his toes. He tried to move his hand down to soothe and provide warmth to his freezing toes but found that he couldn't lift a single hand up. Wherever he is, does not allow adequate space for him to even lift his own head.

"Where…..where am I?"

This question quickly came to Nero's mind. He could not see nor even move, and such a fact was beginning to scare him. It scared him so, that a more viable question came into mind.

Is…..He Dead?

Is this what death is like?

Dark, cold and really confined...almost like he is trapped in a coffin or something.

"Just like that time when I was accidentally mistaken to be dead and placed in a coffin of my own. Heh heh, the look of horror on Kira's face was priceless!"

Nero couldn't help but chuckle, recounting the many reactions that were plastered across his companion's face.

But this small moment of happiness quickly died when he remembered it all.

"Kira… Balthazar, Khairn..."Nero whispered.

From Kira's death to his fellow companion's sacrifice. It all came crashing down on him like a tidal wave upon a cliffside.

His friends, his brothers, and sisters…

His family.

Dead.

Reaching to his chest; his fingers rested upon the christened scar on it.

The fingers curled as his hand clenched tightly into a fist, his face distorting into a scowl; unknowingly his black eyes flashed orange.

Grief, sorrow, and anguish were swept away like dust in the wind, and in their place, an entirely new set of emotions rose.

Rage.

But most of all; Hatred; born from the betrayal of the Black Dogs and a friend.

Born from the slaughter of those who he cared and loved.

His hatred; a flickering flame born at that moment transformed into a raging inferno that could not be quench nor snuffed out.

Volt, the Black Dogs and Byron with his Cataphractii.

They will pay.

They will pay dearly for their crimes.

A distant sound snapped Nero from his thoughts. Something that sounded like-

"Y…..Mas….He…"

"Are those voices?"

The voices as Nero could barely identify, became much clearer to him now as they seemed to get closer.

"H… hey-y!" Nero could barely even shout. His voice was weak and tremulous.

Just how long had he been in here?

Wherever 'here' is.

There were some other noises too; metal hitting stone, almost akin to a pickaxe digging through rocks. Before he could contemplate further the darkness in front of him was replaced with dim lights, although not bright they still blinded him.

He wasn't able to shield his eyes. His arms felt as if they were covered in steel and the pain was too much. He could only force his eyes shut, flashing them open and close in order to adjust his vision.

"Ha ha! Masta lives! Masta lives!"

"Masta finally Awake! Evil is back!"

"Masta is big and strong! Sure this will be best Masta!"

These voices….sounded…like a mentally disabled child crossed with a diseased goat and a crippled goblin.

His eyes finally cleared up themselves, allowing Nero to properly open them.

The owners of those voices, the ones who got him out of wherever he was in…

What the fuck were they?

They were small; smaller than a goblin, with big glowing yellow eyes, pointy ears and brown skin.

"Now now, calm yourselves you useless pieces of literal maggot dung. The Overlord has awaked, but not fully! Giblet! Get the Acid eyewash!" The Gray and Old not-goblin said to another wearing a welding mask.

"Yes, Gnarl! For the Overlord!"

The Not-Goblin waddled away.

Nero was about to say something before the grey walnut spoke again.

"Alright you sacks of pus, get the Overlord up and carry him to the Main Hall! Quaver made a special dinner of the Master!"

Several of the Brown things saluted before walking all over the place like a bunch of ants. Their clawed and scaly hands wrapped around Nero's body as they were starting to lift him up in the air. Nero wanted to slap the creatures off him and runoff.

But he couldn't.

Nero could only stare as he was hoisted up.

What the fuck was happening!?

As he was being carried around what looked like a series of ancient tunnels the old grey thing loomed over him.

"Do not worry, the acid eye wash will only hurt for a second."

"Wait, acid eyewha-"

Nero could only scream as the grey creature was rubbing his eyes with a rag dipped in the burning liquid.


Later…

There was an awkward silence that hung in the air.

Awkward moments were nothing new to Nero, he had his fair share of these in the past, but there was never a moment that had been this awkward in his entire life.

How awkward you ask? Well, let's see… Nero is standing up instead of sitting down. Why he isn't sitting is because that chair looked dangerous to sit on.

It was less a chair and more of a stool that had been fixed together using rusty nails and rotting, moss-covered wood.

Then there is the fact that the soup looked blacker than tar with strange decomposing thingies sticking out of it, there might be something lurking in his mouldy bread, and to top it all off, he is surrounded by these….creatures...whatever the hell they are.

"Come now sire, drink your soup before it gets cold. Quaver made it especially for you."

Nero peered into the bowl, and to his absolute disgust, a worm slithered out of what once looked like a piece of tomato.

Reeling his head back in disgust, he pushed the bowl away, managing to without any effort, to knock the bowl off the table. A strange octopus like-thing crawled out of it and jumped at the nearest goblin thing, choking it to death right in front of the others, before clawing away with its prey into a crack in the wall and disappearing.

"Is something wrong, Sire?" The Old goblinoid asked.

"What the actual fuck was that thing! Can you guys even cook?" Nero gaped at the bearded creature.

"The Master is not satisfied I see! Very well! I'll prepare another meal for the Sire!" The Goblinoid with a jester hat said, before running off. After what felt like a minute he came back with a rusty steel bowl.

As Nero peered into the bowl, he could already taste vomit in his mouth at the meal given. It was literally a dead rat, mutilated and squashed together between two loaves of mouldy, hard, bread and to top it off, there's a bloody sign on top of it that read "Bon appetite" with an evil looking smiley face drawn.

"...I think I'll pass" Nero replied, pushing the bowl away. "It is obvious that you can't even cook"

"I am hurt, Sire! I, Quaver have been the Jester, entertainer, bard, and Chef of Lords of the past and never has my consistent cooking failed me!"

"Consistent? Consistently shit"

'Quaver' as it called itself, dropped its ears and looked down sadly before walking off.

Nero massaged his forehead, managing to somewhat suppress his growing headache.

"Alright, first of all; who are you and what the fuck are you even?" Nero questioned "And while I'm at it, where am I? What is this place and how long was I here for?"

The Old Goblinoid smirked. It 's yellow and sharp teeth showing and it gave Nero a small feeling of dread.

"Well, Sire. I am Gnarl, Headminion, and Advisor of the Overlord! And we are Minions!

"Wait...Minions of what?"

"Why, EVIL of course!"

Several of the other minions started to cheer and laugh at the mention of evil, only to shut up as Gnarl send them a small glare.

Nero gave Gnarl a questioning look.

"Evil? So basically a bunch of Goblins serving some questionably existing force named EVIL?"

Gnarl looked offended.

"Goblins?! Sire, please do not insult us by putting us together with these degenerates and halfwits! Goblins are wild-beasts with no culture and no-drive! They only sit in dumb caves and beat rocks together like a child with a brain tumour! We, minions, serve only EVIL! We have an EVIL culture! And EVIL mannerisms! We serve only the most EVIL of beings! The Bringers of the End-Times! The Dominators of the Weak! The true Rulers of this world! THE OVERLORDS!"

Nero scratched his head.

"...What the hell is an Overlord? Like those would-like rulers or something"

Gnarl huffed. He turned back and jumped on top of the chair, carefully balancing himself.

"Of course the World has forgotten about the greatest rulers to have ever existed."

The Old Minion stared directly at Nero.

"Tell me, what do you know about the Great Sundering ?"

"The Great Sundering? Of course I'd now, it was taught to us; basically, it destroyed the old world and created a new one in its place, as my teacher told me about it"

"Indeed, but what about the Old world? What do you know about it?"

"Nothing. All records about it were lost during the Sundering. You're basically asking me a question that can't be answered"

The Head Minion started to laugh. All of the other minions started to join in on it.

"Of course they wouldn't know anything about it those fools! No boy! The Records weren't lost! They were destroyed! Destroyed so that there would be no mention of Us ever again! Destroyed so that EVIL could never rise again!"

Gnarl started to waddle right up to Nero's face!

"But they failed! Because if all knowledge of the Old World was gone then we wouldn't exist!"

Nero scoffed.

"Lies. Like I said; all records were lost, besides, how do I even know if you're even telling the truth? How can I take your word for it?"

"Well, Sire you can look at yourself for that." Gnarl snickered.

"What the hell is that supposed to-"

Nero stared down and his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates as he finally took notice of his bulging, beefy muscles. Nero used to have an Athletic yet lean body. Now he looked like a massive brute that could crush a guy's head with his pinky.

"What, where, why, how, WHAT?!"

"Magic Sire! OLD WORLD MAGIC! No potion or Spell could turn your somewhat adequate body structure into that of a POWERFUL MAN!"

"I was not Adequate!"

"Then what would you call it then? Scraggy? Skeletal? Slender? Slim?"

"Slim?! What am I, a girl?"

"Well, some of the Minions did mistake you for one…"

Several Minions started to laugh.

Nero glared at each and every one of them. His glare had an immediate effect of silencing the minions. The message of "Do you want to die" was conveyed very well.

"However Sire, we did not come here to talk about your fragile physique, but you wanted to ask us more questions, yes? Perhaps about the old world ?" Gnarl said, getting the attention back to him.

"Considering what you showed me, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt"

"Very well Sire! Where to Begin?"

Gnarl dramatically turned around.

"Back in the Age before the Sundering! Before Celestine and before even Selenus...there was the Old World.

"The world had been peaceful. The Elves ruled the forests and islands of Everlight, tending to their sacred duties as guardians of Nature. The Dwarves, the predecessors of the new Halflings, build machines and dug in the mines of the Golden Hills peacefully, slowly learning the rules of the universe. And the Humans tended to the lands, farming and growing crops to feed the whole populations.

"It was so awfully DULL. The disgusting niceness, the burning colours, and even that revolting blue sky and FILTHY peacefulness were just so vomit-inducing!

"Yet after all of this, the first TRUE EVIL rose! A Man called the Black Baron realized how dull it was! He wanted to conquer! To Pillage! To Destroy!

"Using forbidden and dark alchemy he created us! His loyal and competent servants! The Minions! And so together we Conquered his county! The armies didn't know what hit them when we cut through them like a hot knife through butter! They knelt in front of his might and the Baron named himself...The Overlord! Harbinger of Evil! Ruler of All!

Yet even with all his might, he was still felled by his own hubris...and cannibalistic tendencies…"

"Did he eat his victims or something?"

"Why yes! He thought that if he would, he would gain their powers. Apparently, he read that in an old tome or something. Shame it was a hoax."

"Yeah, no kidding"

"Anyways, after this, a new person took the mantle of the Overlord and started to conquer even more places than his predecessor! We had fought, killed and looted the lands of our enemies, and dominated all that could not fight back.!"

Gnarl had a spark in his eyes as he looked into nothingness.

"You should have seen it, Sire. The screaming of the innocents, the burning cities, the carnage! The hats! And the Looting!"

Nero slightly cringed at that notion.

"Those were the days. The Age of the Overlords. What made it better was that if an Overlord died or was lost, due to their tendency to breed faster than a bunny, there would always be an heir to take on the Mantle and continue where our old left off.

"At one point we had conquered the whole world! Indeed, no empire, no kingdom and not even the gods themselves stood a chance!"

Gnarl jumped off the chair and made his way to the other side of the room. There the wall had been covered by a large dusty carpet that the Old Minion pulled off.

What it showed made Nero pause of a second.

It was a giant painting.

It depicted a man sitting on a massive throne. The Man wore a sleeveless armour that looked like it had come from the infernal abyss itself! The shoulder plates had an orange glow like magma. His helmet was shaped like a crown made out of the bones of Dragons and Demons alike. Over the open part of his face was a crimson cloth mask the hid the face, the only part visible of it were his menacing glowing orange eyes., looking like to orbs in the shadows. His left hand had a massive demonic looking gauntlet that had a yellow gem stuck to it.

Over his shoulder was a sharp and evil-looking axe that looked like it could chop through even the hardest armour. The throne had a certain Nordic touch to it, but still maintained the evil and spiky look that was present with the being on the painting. Three women sat next to him.

One that wore a rather common-looking dress near his left arm, one in a rather revealing toga on his lap and the last one who was an elf in a rather dark outfit leaned on his right hand.

"This was the Fourth Overlord! Son of the God of the Infernal Abyss! Tyrant of Nordberg and Everlight! The Tower Heart Salvager! The Leader of the Pack and Terror from the North! He was the first to conquer the entire World and rule it with an Iron fist! " Gnarl finished with a smile.

Nero nodded slowly, still processing the information given to him.

"So...what happened to them?" he asked

"Well….They all died."

"...How!?" Nero practically screamed. "They all sound like exceptionally powerful rulers, how would they all just die!?"

"Well, you see the forces of..ugh…'Good', tried to hinder our planes! They would send their champions with their 'colourful' parties and their overpowered holy artefacts. Eight out of Ten times they got crushed by our Lord and their corpses became a nice candle decoration.

"However twice had one of our Lords fallen to the forces of good! Once it was the Second Overlord who had been defeated by the 'Eight heroes'. Luckily the eighth hero took his place and became the third Overlord.

"The other time it was when the 'Shining Justice' came around and used their damned weaponized unicorn farts to kill our kind or turn them 'good'. Our Lord never stood a chance against that one I tell ya." Gnarl said as he looked down, having a PTSD-inducing flashback.

"Unicorn farts? Now you're just pulling my leg!"

"Unicorns are Goodness incarnate Sire! Why do you think that they skip around in fields and most little girls want to ride them? And that they can shoot rainbows out of their skulls? They are GOOD. It was only a matter of time until someone would find a way to turn them into a weapon for creatures of darkness, like us!"

Gnarl made a small pause before composing himself.

"The other thing that kept killing Overlords was their own arrogance! When one gets so much power that you might think that you are untouchable or indestructible, you tend to forget your own mortality! Too many would not pay attention or be distracted!

"The first Overlord also known as the Black Baron's successor slipped after a shower! The Third? He decided it would be a smart idea to invade the infernal abyss, but got stuck down there after the portal closed and left him behind!"

"Eesh, that sounds...rough. Well from what I'm hearing at least none of them like fell down a hill or something"

Gnarl gave him a dry look.

"We do not talk about the Sixth…"

"...Why? Is there something wrong with him or some-"

Gnarl hit him with his stick

"WE DO NOT SPEAK OF HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED!"

"OW! OK FINE! YA PIECE OF-"

Gnarl hit him again.

"ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! IM SORRY!"

The minion huffed.

"After the Sundering there had been no suitable candidate to command us. We had been searching! From the Far North to Dragundaala to even the southern countries of Eostia, we found NO ONE. The world has gone soft...we are a relic of the past and have no place here…"

"Sad life for you lot huh, being without someone that you can call master"

"Indeed. It had been 600 years since we THOUGHT we found someone, but it was a mistake...Now we are without a lord, without land, and without a purpose."

"Well sucks for you then, cause you won't be finding any good candidates around here anytime soon"

Gnarl simply gave Nero a crooked smile.

"Oh, but we have found one! They say he was the leader of one of the most powerful mercenary companies in the lands! That he had slain many monsters, making his name a curse to them! He is even loved by the people, so loved in fact that even the 'Goddess' respects him!"

"Oh please don't tell me who I think he's referring to!" Nero dreaded "He's not implying about Volt now is he!"

Gnarl pointed at Nero.

"You."

"...what…"

"You, Nero Argyros are to be our new Overlord and master of eternal DOOM!"

Nero waved his hands in front of Gnarl "Wait a minute, wait a minute, what!?"

"Sire, please don't tell me you have gone deaf? A Deaf Overlord isn't very effective at world-domination."

"I…" he pointed to himself "I am your chosen candidate?"

"Yes! Don't tell me you lost your smarts too?"

"The Chosen One!?"

"Our Lord and saviour...like I have said three times now.."

"Just...hold on just a moment!" Nero massaged his forehead. "First of all, I'm not your lord and saviour! Secondly, I am not evil to even be your Overlord"

"Well your wickedness, that can be worked on! Kick down a few babies from the stairs and you'll be evil enough! It's that simple!"

Nero chose to ignore Gnarl's suggestion.

"Out of all the possible candidates, why even me?"

Gnarl let out a tired sigh.

"Because we are desperate, my Lord."

Gnarl had turned about to the Painting, looking over its glorious evilness.

"We first tried to contact the Queen of the North, Olga Discordia. We heard she was considered the 'Evil Queen of the Dark Elves' and while I might have a distaste for these melodramatic twits, she was our best option. We arrived at her castle and presented ourselves! We offered her power and a way to become our NEW Overlord! The Harlot laughed at us! She then called us pathetic and had us kicked from the castle! The GULL! Even if she is using OUR BIRTHRIGHT!"

"Well, then what about Volt? Why not him?"

"What about Volt!? We tried to contact him, but those idiots he calls his 'soldiers' always attacked us because those brainless idiots mistook us for Goblins! Can you believe it? Besides, I know what kind of a man he is. Being an Overlord takes still a form a STYLE! Evil means also Elegance! And the way he acts he gets a zero and he wouldn't make it far. However, I do have to praise him for the strategy to literally 'Screw' the country over. Quite creative I must say."

"...what did you just say"

A malicious grin formed around Gnarl's face.

"Oh, you didn't hear? Volt had led a revolution against the Seven Shield Alliance and won. He turned it into a literal 'Cuntry' as he calls it"

Nero could only silently take that piece of information in.

"How long had I been asleep?"

"Oh, only what? A Year?"

Nero's could only drop to his knees.

This had to be a joke, right?

"A year…?" Nero could only whisper,. "No….then that means…"

"Welcome to the Future, Sire. All of your allies are dead and your land got taken over by a perverted rapist. "

Nero could only place a hand on his face.

"Oh, gods…"

"So what will you do?" Gnarl asked.

"What?"

"What will you do? You cannot return to your allies since they are well...quite dead. You cannot go to the Seven Shields since Volt took over them and is giving them QUITE the pounding. So will you leave these lands like a coward? Will you try to raise an Army that will probably fail since none of them will ever be fully loyal to you."

Gnarl waddled over to Nero and pointed his walking stick on the human's chest.

"Or will you choose to become our Lord and take revenge upon that fool?"

Nero revolted at Gnarl's words "And be evil just like you and your previous masters?"

"Evil is a relative term sire. True while I do enjoy the slaughter of innocent peasants, if you were to become our lord we would have to follow your orders for ...good... Or ill."

"Hmmm, and if I am going to be your Overlord would you really follow my orders for good?"

"Why of course Sire! We live to serve, even if you were to act so disgustingly nice to all. Just let the minions crack some heads and they'll be happy!"

Nero merely gave Gnarl a doubting look.

"Come now Sire, We healed you back. You can trust us."

"Yeah, you did heal me…" Nero sighed. "Alright then...I trust you"

"So you'll do it? You will become our Lord?"

"Yes...I'll be your Lord"

Cheers erupted around Nero as hundreds of Minions popped out of their hiding place, laughing and cheering

"We got new masta! We Got new masta!"

"Hail the new masta!"

"All Hail da Overlord!"

"Well Master, let me be the first to congratulate you on your choice!" Gnarl said bowing slightly.

"Now we have many things to do Master. Many Evil deeds need to be done and scheming is required. After all, one does not conquer lands by just sitting around."

"Yeah yeah, I get you" Nero sighed. Before Nero could say anything Quaver made his way to the Center.

"Oi! All hail to the New Overlord! I say this calls for a celebratory poem!"

The minions all around Nero started to groan.

"Oh no, here he goes again…" Gnarl cringed

Quaver let out a few coughs before starting.

"Nero the Hero, was betrayed by the Black Dogs!

But now as our Master, he'll run them off like Wild Hogs!

Once serving as an Icon of Humanity!

Now he'll terrorize the lands and take the people's sanity!

All hail the new Overlord! May he conquer the lands to the Last!

So you better run, cause we'll kick yer ars-"

A minion threw a rock at Quaver knocking the Jester out cold.

"I'm terribly sorry Master. It's been too long since he's made any poems for any of our Lords. Still, if he starts getting annoying, just give him a good kick and he'll stop...usually." Gnarl said before ordering a few browns to take Quaver back to the Nests.

"At least his rhymes are better than his cooking...So when can we start?" Nero asked.

"Very well Master! But first...A Little gift."

Gnarl turned around.

"GIBLET YOU LAZY PILE OF DUNG! BRING IN THE ARMOR!"

The distant sound of metal clattering, a minion dying and other painful sounding noises, made Nero wince.

After a few seconds, Two minions entered the room carrying a set of Armor.

"While you were having your beauty sleep, we took out liberty to fix that travesty you called an armour into something...more fitting."

True to what Gnarl said, they really did "fixed" his armour. His old Corinthian helmet now had spikes attached to it in the shape of a crown, his chest plate was now muscle armour with a skull carving on it and his bracer also has the carving of a skull on it.

The armour's bronze colour had been replaced by a dark steel colour and the once white fabric had been replaced by a crimson one. The feathers on his helmet had also been dyed red.

"So, Master...what you think?"

"...honestly this looks really great."

And Thus Evil would rise.


END.

I credit Mr Quentin; my Beta Reader and friend for providing me with the insults and helping me write the parts for Gnarl and minions. :)

Got some news to tell you all before I close this so better pay attention.

First of all, I have recently created a Discord; where fans of my works and others can come together and talk about pretty much anything with me; as long as it follows the rules of course. Here you can also ask me questions about certain things within my story and what not, so if you're interested in joining my discord link is on my profile page.

If you're unable to access my Discord, or you can't see the link for whatever reason, then the link is here for you to copy.

/XpUxbmD

Secondly, I'm finally finished College! Meaning four months till I go to College again. My course: which is Creative Digital Media, only last for one year and the course that I'm taking in University lasts for three years. This leaves me five free months to write, do work and youtube videos!

Although now I have work on weekdays now xD

So the only times I'm able to write stuff would on weekday evenings and the weekend, so yeah, plenty of free time now to do shit at last.

So yeah, hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next chapter! (Or on my Discord)