The city of Kuchinashi was not far away from Mistral, but it was so very much different. If the crime syndicates of Mistral were to be considered a rot to the city, then Kuchinashi could only be compared to a plague.
After a few hours of walking, she came upon the mountains that were visible from Mistral itself. The entrance to the city was a dark cave tucked in between the mountains. Moving into the cave, Yang barely held back a gasp. The large archway hung a horribly disfigured Grimm, to disfigured to move, but not too injured to track her with his eyes.
"The city seems like something I'd enjoy, Sire. Although I do believe this is meant to serve as a warning. Thread lightly, Lord, and treat everyone here as an enemy. I sense large concentration of Evil Energy in this city, and Evil does not often treat other Evil kindly"
"That seems like a very good advice", Yang thought to herself, still creeped out by the city's idea of a 'warning'.
She continued into the city. She had a job to do.
On the way up to the city, a series of unkempt ropes, gates, and drawbridges are seen. It all gives an abandoned sense of feel, and makes the passage harder, but not impossible. The gates and drawbridges were open. She knew this place wasn't abandoned. Now that Gnarl had mentioned it, when she focused her Magic Sense ability, she could sense the Evil Energies here too, although thankfully no Magic. She confirmed her findings with Gnarl who assured her that he couldn't sense any Magic users here either, although he did say he thought he sensed some magical artifacts here, not all ones that were Overlord's in origin. That gave her a big advantage, and if she finds the artifacts, that'll give her even a bigger advantage. Still, all of this made her feel uneasy.
Once she enters the city, she immediately realizes that it is separated into three sections. She was at the lowest point, and looking up, she could more live up above, instead of the warehouses she seemed to be surrounded with.
She looks away from the upper city. If it's a criminal gang she is looking for, it's likely she'll find it here, or at least their warehouses.
She began looking around for any warehouses bearing the mark of the Hana guild. Soon she came to a possibly problematic realization.
"Most of these bear Hana's mark", Yang mussed to herself. "On one hand, tons of loot to steal, on the other I have no idea where to find their boss".
"May I suggest you take over one of the warehouses and place a Tower Gate there, Sire?", Gnarl suggested, "The loot could be quickly transported into your Evil Domain, and the attack on their property is sure to draw the criminals in."
"And if I beat up enough of them…", Yang continued Gnarl's thought, "The bossman will have to come and find me!"
"Precisely, Master", Gnarl confirmed, "And since he will be coming to you, you can cheat by setting an ambush. Many great beasts, and heroes, fell when they weren't expecting an attack from the back."
Yang nodded, that made sense.
She pointed her left hand at the nearest warehouse, which was coincidently, to the left of her, and commanded her Minions to break down the door and charge in. With happy cheers the Minions did as commanded.
Inside, aside for a few grunts she found no resistance, but oh so plenty of loot.
Yang set up a Tower Gate, and tossed the loot inside, as well as the five grunts the Minions have captured.
"Take them to a dungeon cell, Gnarl", she mentally commanded him, "I might need to question them later. Tie them up too"
"It shall be done, Lord, it shall be done", Gnarl replied.
Only one warehouse and she already got more drugs, weapons, and lien than she knew what to do with.
"Well, time to hit the others", she thought.
After hitting two more warehouses she had to conclude that this was actually pretty fun.
"I'll have to remember to thank the Miss Malachite for this job when I get back. This is amazingly fun", she said to herself
"And rewarding too! Don't forget about that, Master!", Gnarl added.
Yang chuckled.
"Yes, Gnarl, that too. Who knew Evil could be so fun?"
"Evil is more fun that many realize, sire! Can you imagine? Good frowns on wanton destruction and breaking and entering! The horror!", Gnarl said sounding scandalized by the mere thought of being unable to be a party to some destruction.
Yang frowned as she continued hitting up and looting the warehouses.
"But why? This seems so fun! Especially the looting!"
"Exactly, sire! But the Good doesn't understand that! Claims it is 'immoral' ", Gnarl spat out.
Gnarl quickly interrupted whatever Yang was going to answer as he spotted the loot in the warehouse they were currently looting.
"Dust grenades, sire! We hit the jackpot! Quickly take as many as you can for yourself before tossing the rest into the Gate"
"Uh…Gnarl?", Yang said with a slightly hesitant tone, "I don't want to alarm you, but I don't exactly have pockets to keep them in"
"Curses! Foiled by the protective armor!", Gnarl said displeased, before getting an idea, "Have the Minions carry it then! They can toss it at strong enemies, or you could do it yourself with your levitation powers"
Yang looked over what Gnarl called 'dust grenades'. There were ten of them in total. All of them looked like a small metal pole with a cylinder on top of it. Based on the color of the cylinder she could probably guess what kind of dust was inside.
She followed Gnarl's advice and kept five for herself, while the others, along with the rest of the loot went into the first warehouse and to her castle through the Tower Gate.
She applied a more permanent version of her levitation spell to her sword and attached it at her back. It'll stay there without her needing to focus on keeping it there until she undid the spell. She took one wind grenade and one with electricity dust in it to each of her hands. She handed two more to one of her Reds as they were good throwers, and one of them to one of the browns.
Twenty minutes of looting later, and she came to another problem. Because she didn't leave any witnesses, no enemies were coming. She returned to the first warehouse to think. Soon after she entered inside, the door exploded. She turned around, and saw a tall Faunus with a single horn at his forehead.
"Oh", Yang mussed to herself, "Maybe someone did notice"
The male faunus did not wait for her explanation, and rushed to attack her. His speed surprised her, one moment he was at the entrance, the next he was near her with a gun pointed to her face. Worryingly Yang noticed that it was a very well made gun, one that wouldn't look too out of place in the hands of a Huntsmen.
"A funny coincidence", Yang thought, as she aimed to defuse the situation.
"Hello there!", Yang cheerfully started, before the man screamed in pain and collapsed on her.
She quickly kicked him under his belt and away from her.
As one Minion turned the man on his stomach, Yang saw what caused his collapse and grimaced.
The man was bleeding from the back, one of the weapons they had just looted, an axe of some kind stuck very deeply in his back. One Minion proudly addressed her.
"Me save the Overlord! Mean man no look, and I hit him in the back!"
"It seems, Sire", Gnarl started amused, "that if this man was indeed a Huntsmen as his weapon suggests-"
Yang interrupted him
"He can't be! Huntsmen are supposed to be the good guys!"
"Some turn to Evil for money or power, Sire. They are only human.", Gnarl countered before resuming amused, "as I was saying, if this man was indeed a Hunstmen, then in his quick victory over you he grew overconfident and forgot to put up his aura. A lesson for you, Master, be cautious"
Yang slowly began to realize what had just happened. What bothered her was not her near brush with death, but…
Oh…she just felt the last bits of life leave the man's body, and an orb of Life Force appear on top of him.
Suddenly everything didn't seem so fun. She felt sick.
"Sire, look!", Gnarl interrupted her thoughts and despite her wishes Yang turned her focus back on the now dead Huntsman.
From the man's body a big cloud of Dark, Evil, Energy arouse and stood there, just above his body.
"Evil Energy, Sire", Gnarl said before being interrupted by Yang's annoyed "I know, I can sense it too". Despite this he continued, "It seems this Huntsman truly was Evil. Be careful, Sire, not every enemy moving forward will be as easy to fall as this one"
Yang nodded, although she didn't particularly feel like moving forward anymore. As if sensing her thoughts Gnarl tried to reassure her.
"Don't be sorry for taking a life, Sire. Murder is the bread and butter of an Overlord!"
Yang appreciated him trying, she really did, but that didn't help her feel any better.
"Maybe a Magic Lesson would cheer you up, Master?", Gnarl inquired.
Yang perked up despite the situation. She always did like Gnarl's magic lessons even if due to her age she didn't get to learn many spells before.
"I'll teach you a very easy Evil Spell that I could not have thought you before", he continued.
"Well, that's interesting", Yang thought, "that's the first time he was willing to teach her some Evil Spells no matter how much she had begged when she was younger."
"Evil Magic, sire, requires Evil Energy.", Gnarl explained, "Despite you being an Evil Overlord you haven't yet committed any particularly Evil deeds that would warrant the Evil Energies seeking you out"
"That was on purpose", Yang thought, "I don't exactly feel like getting any corruption in me"
"Concentrate on the Evil Energy before you, Sire, and grab hold of it with your mind", Gnarl instructed her
Yang did so. "That was easy. This sorta control is what I learned ages ago", she thought to herself.
"Now, Sire, pick up a small rock for this demonstration"
Yang levitated a small rock to her eye level.
"Now, put some of that Evil Energy into the rock and launch it at a target of any sort"
Yang put a bit of the Evil Energy in the rock, and launched it at the already-looted warehouse on the other side of the street. The door exploded, and the warehouse caught on fire.
"That was awesome!", Yang shouted out amazed, her sadness for a moment forgotten.
"Isn't it, Sire? That was an Evil Missile spell.", Gnarl explained seemingly happy about her joyful expression, "As you can see the Evil Energy in you, or one from a killed enemy, can be used to imbue any object or even Minion with destructive properties, although if a Minion is used the destruction can have secondary magical effects based on the Minion type"
"Can you teach me more Evil Spells?", Yang hopefully asked.
"Afraid not, Sire.", Gnarl answered with a disappointed voice, "the more stronger Evil Spells require you to have some Evil Energies within."
"Oh", Yang said disappointed.
"In time, though, I will teach you all the spells I know, Sire, when you are ready to learn them"
Yang nodded, and focused on her task. She would have time to come to terms with the consequences of this mission later, now she focused on her anger at being attacked, and the anger at being so easily defeated.
She imbued the remaining Evil Energy in three more rocks, and then when the realization hit her, she smacked her head.
"Sire?", Gnarl asked worryingly, "Why are you hurting yourself?"
"Don't mind that, Gnarl.", Yang said sounding annoyed, "I just realized that we both were pretty stupid"
"How so, Master?"
Yang levitated the grenades out of the Minions' hands, and attached it to her Skull-belt with the same magic as she did her sword. She did the same with the Evil Missiles she had now created.
"Genius, Sire!", Gnarl congratulated her, "You didn't need pockets afterall!"
She was feeling rather pleased that she wouldn't have to order Giblet to install pockets into her armor. That would make it look silly, and she'd be embarrassed to wear her armor.
She realized that she still had no idea where to go.
"Gnarl?", she asked, "What would an Overlord do in my position?"
"Explore, sire", he answered simply, "Although we do have the benefit of you taking prisoners." Gnarl's voice switched to excitement. "You could always come and interrogate them, Sire! Oh, torture, it makes an old Minion's heart sing with joy!"
Yang made a displeased face.
"I don't want to torture anyone.", she said with a voice that left no room for argument, "If you like it so much…", her voice paused for a bit before she steeled herself and after reminding herself that they probably deserved it, "then you can do it yourself"
"Most certainly, Master!", Gnarl replied joyfully, "I'll get right on it"
Yang felt a weird sensation wash over her. It was as if her senses became just a bit sharper, her mind more determined, and her powers stronger.
She relaxed and drew a deep breath before casting her senses around her, trying to sense what had changed. The city seemed as full of Evil Energy as before, but now…she could just barely sense a hint of those magical artifacts Gnarl spoke of. But, no, the change happened in this room. She focused her senses on the room itself. It felt no different to her.
She frowned. But then, what happened?
There! Just barely she caught something with her senses.
She redoubled her efforts and was soon rewarded with a displeasing answer. She could always sense some Evil Magic in her, which was in her through her being an Overlord, and through the Tower Heart's energies through many years reshaping her body to be naturally able to cast Magic even if disconnected at all from the Tower Heart or its artifacts, not that she ever tried. The Evil Magic in her was natural to her, it had always been there. She was, through the Tower Heart, remade in it in a way. But now, she could sense something more. Not Evil Magic, but just a bit of Evil Energy having taken home in her body.
Was her order to torture what caused it?
"Damn!", she cursed to herself, "I need to be more careful about this!"
Still, she couldn't say she wasn't interested in this new energy. She levitated another rock to her, and instead of drawing the Evil Energy from the dead Huntsmen before her, she drew it from herself and into the rock.
Success! She could feel the rock becoming imbued with the energy. She attached it to her belt.
She could feel her Evil Energy restoring, as if she had opened a hotel room in her body, and once she kicked out one piece of Evil Energy, another took its place.
She cast her sharpened mental powers through her connection to the Tower Heart, and through it to the dungeons. She could sense some torture happening there. She could never had sensed this precisely before.
She thrust her senses into Gnarl's mind, and established a mental connection to him.
"Sire?", Gnarl sounded surprised, "I wasn't aware your powers coul-Ah! Congratulations Sire!"
"Thank you", Yang responded more pleased with the increase in her powers than the cause of it, "Stop torturing the prisoner. I will make him show me the way"
"Are you sure, Sire?", Gnarl asked dejected, "I was having such a grand old time"
"The Prisoner, Gnarl!", Yang snapped, "To me! NOW!"
Yang could feel with her senses Gnarl smiling, "As you command, Master." She could feel the Minions release the prisoner from his bondage, and seal his wounds with hot iron. "May I say, Sire, your new assertiveness really is refreshing"
Yang thanked him and cut the connection.
It seems she was a bit more assertive of her Minions as well now. She spent the remainder of the time until the arrival of the prisoner trying to sense if there were any other changes to her personality. She couldn't sense any, which is good. And now that she could sense her increased assertiveness, she thought she could suppress that bit of corruption with her new powers.
She gathered up her willpower and slammed it on the corruption willing it to retreat. And it did. She felt weaker too.
"An interesting technique, Sire", Gnarl commented inside her mind, "But temporary I'm afraid. Later, when we have more free time, I can teach you how to strengthen your willpower. That is far more effective strategy of resisting corruption than suppression is. Suppression is taxing of a technique to apply all the time, and as you no doubt notice, your new powers have weakened too."
"And strengthening my willpower will help?", Yang asked.
"Indeed. Those with strong wills can ignore the greatest of corruptions and reap all the benefits of the power it brings", Gnarl explained, "but, Sire, don't become too confident in your power to resist the corruption. That, in the end, is what causes the fall. You must always be aware of it. There are many heroes who thought themselves too strong to fall. That arrogance not only drew more corruption to them, but they were too blind to see it coming."
Yang released her hold on the corruption, and her new powers returned as well.
She turned to look at the prisoner held hostage by two sword-armed Minions.
"Where is you Master?", Yang asked, "Tell me!", she demanded.
The man tried to laugh, but only succeeded in coughing up some blood on the ground
"Or what, you'll kill me?", he asked bitterly, "My boss will too when he finds out I betrayed him"
Yang lifted her arm, and the man got slammed to the wall with her telekinesis powers.
"You can tell me, and live. You will remain a prisoner in my Domain until I deal with your boss", she started explaining him his options, "or you can die, and one of the other prisoners will show me the way", she finished with a bluff. "You did see more men there before you were sent for torture. Are all of them as loyal as you are?"
The man thought for a bit, then cursed.
"Fuck! Fine!", he conceded, "But you gotta protect me! No way am I betraying the boss without a guarantee of safety!"
"Lead me to your boss. Then run back here, and step on this gate you came through. You will be protected.", Yang promised before uttering a warning, "Flee from me, however…"
The man nodded
"Loose ends, yeah, I fucking get it. Now will you release me, or will we stand here all day?"
Yang released her telekinetic hold on him, and he fell to the floor, thankfully, on his feet.
Yang extended her arm towards the exit from the warehouse
"Lead the way"
The man nodded and started walking, only suddenly stopping when he noticed the dead body of a Huntsman.
"Oh, shit, fuck, is that Crystal?"
"He didn't give his name before he attacked me", Yang replied simply.
"Fuck man, he was good. His semblance was super speed. The bossman always sent him to take care of any trouble"
"It seems he failed. As will the boss you betrayed.", Yang said simply before snapping at him, "Move!"
The man straightened and started moving
"Yes, Boss-Lady, follow me."
"Boss-Lady?", Yang thought amused, "that was a new one".
The journey didn't take long at all, they went to one of the last Warehouses she looted, and there the man showed her a secret passageway that lead to the base.
"Warning, Boss-Lady, there's going to be plenty of ex-Huntsmen around in there"
Yang nodded in thanks as she moved on, and the man ran away. Yang gave a mental thought to Gnarl to give the man one of their guest rooms. Might as well reward him for the help.
The secret passageway lead to a tall tower –like building that connected through the floor to, presumingly, the upper city floors. The entrance bore the sign of a flower, which confirmed to Yang that she was going the right way.
She gathered her Evil Energy and infused it to the door, once finished, she used her telekinetic powers to launch the door into the room, where upon a contact with an ex-Huntsmen it exploded and took down three others with him.
"Trickery and cheating will be your path forward, Master", Gnarl told her, "You cannot hope to defeat the Huntsmen on your own"
She felt more than capable of doing that, but she held herself back and listened to his advice. Gnarl had yet to steer her wrong.
"Do not expect others to fall as easily as these have, Sire. They'll have their Aura ready, if you can, attack them one at a time!"
As Gnarl finished saying this, one ex-Huntsmen rushed through the only door forward, Yang lifted her hand, and shot a fireball to the top of the doorway to slow the others down. The doorway crumbled.
Yang smiled. She wasn't able to do that before.
She heard a sound of a gun firing and brought up her shield and aura. The explosion damaged her, but she wasn't badly hurt.
The Browns started to distract the Huntsman attacking him from all sides, and although his aura protected him, it was taking damage.
"No matter how strong an enemy is, Master, he will struggle fighting effectively against superior numbers. That is your only path forward, Sire."
By now the Huntsman managed to shake off the Browns who had climbed on top of him and were stabbing him, and was about to kill a few with his Gun-Sword. Instead he got him by the fire attacks from the Reds, giving the Browns the opportunity to escape. Yang also launched one of her four rocks at him, the explosion throwing the man to the collapsed doorway.
The Brown Minions rushed in and finished him off.
From above her, Yang heard a small explosion, and barely managed to dodge the bits of falling celling. She did not manage to dodge the swing from a hammer from an ex-huntsmen who entered from the hole in the celling. Yang flew to the wall, and hit it hard face to the wall, making a big impact in the wall. Pieces of her armor fell off at the back, broken by the Huntsman's attack, exposing the back of her shirt.
The Browns rushed to attack the newcomer, but with the wide swings of his hammer he had no trouble throwing them away, and he dodged the fire attacks of the reds easily enough.
"You caused us quite some trouble", the Man remarked, "and you even managed to kill one of the top dogs here in this gang of ours. But this ends here"
Yang weakly stood up, and turn to face him. Just from that one unprotected attack she felt like she was dying.
The man rushed at her, not as fast at the man with the speed semblance, but fast enough, and Yang launched a fireball at him. As she did so, she commanded three of her Reds to attack to the right of the man, and two to the left.
The man dodged to the right, and was hit by the fire attacks, and then by ten of her Browns ganging up on him.
She saw another ex-Huntsman looking down at them from above, ready to jump in. She fired a fireball at the celling, and then another one at the ceiling above the hole she just made. The ex-Huntsman fell to the ground floor, and then parts of the celling collapsed on him. Hopefully that will hold him for a bit.
Her current opponent managed to throw off her Minions, and she rewarded him with a slash to the chest. He stepped a few steps back from the pain, and tripped over a well-positioned Minion.
She stabbed the man through the heart, and laughed bitterly.
"Ends here, huh? You wish".
She turned to the man who was getting out from under the ruble, and send two more of her Evil Missiles at him. He stayed down after that.
She leaned on the wall for support.
That was close. If she had made even one mistake she would have been done for. It made her realize just how outclassed she was, and just how essential the Minions were to her survival.
She felt tired too, but she still had some magic left in her, as well as five dust grenades and one prepared Evil Missile.
She used her Minions as makeshift stairs to climb up to the second floor, and the Minions then pulled each other up to her level as well.
She looked around. There were grunts in front of her, but they were all quickly subdued by her Minions.
"It seems, Sire, that these Huntsmen were sent ahead to defeat you. I don't sense anyone strong ahead, except the Boss of their organization.", Gnarl said, as he warned her, "Beware, Sire, and gather your strength, I can sense great strength in him, and Evil unlike any of his servants"
Yang took his advice to heart, and began slowly rising the tower, only using her sword and Minions to take care of the Grunts. Luckily, it seemed that this Vermillion did not have many ex-huntsman on hand.
In no time at all, she reached his office, and turning the wooden door into a Evil Missile, launched it into the office.
As the dust from the explosion cleared, the man seemed mostly unharmed, having taking refuge behind his desk which caught the brunt of the damage. The desk was now also on fire.
The Man, Vermillion Raddock, was a tall, dark skinned man with red hair. He wore a dark grey pig mask, and a red leather jacket with sleeveless gloves and pants.
"May I know the name of my would-be assassin?" the man asked politely with a deep accent.
"The Overlord", Yang replied simply.
"A strange name, for a strange person.", Vermilion replied pulling out his weapon 30-foot flail.
"A strange weapon, for a strange person", Yang bit back.
Vermillion chuckled.
"Indeed.", he thought for a bit and said, "You must be good to come this far, and more determined still. I'd be a fool not to offer you to join me"
"Sorry", Yang replied, "but I'm taking you with me. Dead or alive"
"Pity", the man said disappointed.
The distance between them was no more than seventy feet, and he quickly rushed to close the distance.
Yang let him get close, to about forty feet, then activated her wind grenade as she dropped it to his feet, and jumped back to dodge his swing.
"You fool!", Vermillion taunted her, "The Grenade is nowhere near me!"
Yang pushed it hard with her telekinesis, and it exploded as it landed, unexpectedly to him, under his feet. The grenade exploded with a massive upwards-gust that slammed him against the celling, smashed through it, and then launched him further into the air. He then fell back down, crashed through several floors with the bits of celling from before falling on him.
"Holy shit", Yang remarked surprised, "What the hell is in these things?"
"One of these Grenades, this one called the Tornado grenade if memory serves, has enough power to shatter a bridge"
"Oh…", Yang remarked simply, "So that's why you wanted me to take as many of them as I could"
"Exactly, Sire!", Gnarl remarked happily.
Yang then turned angry.
"You could have warned me about this before, you know! Could have saved me trouble downstairs"
"My apologies, Master. In my defense, they were far less likely to be cautious of a thrown rock".
"Well, the fight was anti-climactic, but she won, so all was good", she supposed.
She had her Minions gather all defeated Huntsmen and their boss, toss them into the newly made Tower Gate, and loot all the money this place had.
"And the paintings Sire! This one would look well above your fireplace!", Gnarl implored her.
"We don't have a fireplace, Gnarl", Yang responded annoyed.
"Perfect time to get one then! Still, grab anything of value, Sire, could prove useful!"
They looted the place for all it's worth, stealing even the nice chairs, and tossed everything back into the castle.
The door to Miss Malachite bar was kicked open. Her guards immediately drew their weapons, but lowered them slightly when they saw a familiar face.
Yang tossed the body of Vermillion onto Miss Malachite table, clad in only his underwear.
"Vermillion Raddock is dead, his warehouses and hideout looted, and his men are either dead or captured. One turned traitor and joined me. He's mine. The rest are yours"
Malachite looked Yang over. Frankly she looked like shit. The armor was deeply cracked in almost everywhere, and most of it looked ready to collapse into pieces. The shadow hiding the face was still there, but her eyes, interestingly were violet now instead of orange.
She turned over the man on her table on to his backside, and looked him over. She could see that his bones were clearly fractured, and his face in places broken, but that was Vermillion, she was certain. For such a well done job, she was willing to forgive the lack of respect, and the frankly rude entrance. She motioned for her bodyguards to lower their weapons.
"You have gone above and beyond your task. I would be happy to call you my ally", Malachite truthfully said.
And it was truth, indeed. That was a near-suicide mission even for a team of full trained huntsmen. If she managed to do that, whatever through luck or skill, then she was an ally she just had to have. And to go so far beyond the mission objective…how did she get everything out of there so quickly? She wasn't sure if she even took longer than was needed to just get to the city and back.
"For every turned over man, I will handsomely reward you, Overlord.", Malachite honestly said.
"Then can we discuss our deal?", Yang impatiently asked
"It would be my pleasure."