"I find your argument unpersuasive," was what Yang heard from the Queen of the Elves, as the Elven woman raised her hand, "and I will not allow your words to try to pervert your way into binding us into an alliance. Nor can I allow your presence to continue to taint and defile this sacred sanctuary."

Yang put a hand on her sword, and her eyes narrowed, starting to glow with Evil energies, both as a warning, and as a sign she was ready to give it her all in the upcoming fight.

The Elven woman pointed her raised hand at Yang and began her prayer.

"May the Mother Goddess grant me power to forever banish this foul intruder from our sacred lands." she said and Yang could feel all of Theophania's considerable power building up in her hand. "May the Mother Goddess find mercy in her heart to take pity and heal this pervasion of nature, so it finally can find peace. May the Mother Goddess have mercy on you, Dark One, because I shall not." she said, and where at the start her voice carried a tinge of pity, the end was determined, and wrathful.

Yang couldn't defend against this spell, and she wasn't sure she could dodge it. "The spell wasn't complete, yet," she thought, "so maybe I can…"

She launched herself at the Queen, all of her Dark Power fueled into her strike, and though evidently, the sword didn't appreciate it, it was willing to channel her power, and Yang struck at the Queen's palm.

Or she would have, at any case, had she not completed her spell mere moment before the attack connected.

"Begone, Foul One, and let your kind never set foot in these sacred lands ever again!", the Queen demanded, and a magical blast of immense power sent Yang flying.

"I'm alive!" Yang yelled back, satisfaction clear in her voice at having survived such a powerful attack. Yet Gnarl was quick to ruin her mood by pointing out that she would not have survived had the spell aimed to kill rather than banish. Yang had to admit, privately and only for herself, that for a spell meant to banish someone, the spell did far more damage to her than she was comfortable with. She withdrew the power she had placed into the strike, and used it to stabilize herself and her injuries, nonvisible, and internal, as they were.

She could feel herself still affected by the Elven spell, and as she was about to attempt to use her spare power to destroy it, suddenly it happened.

She could not feel anything around her, nor hear or see. All of her attention was consumed by the Godly presence she could now feel, reinforcing and supplementing the Elven spell.

It did not feel as nauseous as the feel of the power of the Light, nor as pleasant as Evil, but it felt like nature, creation –both like creation of a spell, and yet so unlike it-, and many other things she could not identify. But most importantly, it felt like home. For a moment, her attention shifted as she felt her very being rebel at the presence before her, and as her attention was once again consumed by the being's presence she understood just what exactly she was sensing.

A God, she realized with a freezing fear. That was not good, for she wanted nothing to do with any of them, and she did not want to attract the attention of any one of them.

It seems that the Mother Goddess has answered her subject's prayers, and now her presence was not upon Yang.

Having done what she wished, the Mother Goddess's presence seemed to regard Yang for a moment, before disappearing completely.

Yang's back hit the grass, and she laid there for a few moments.

She could still feel the spell around her, and it seemed to stick to her very soul. With horrid realization, she understood that she was now as marked by a God as Ozpin was. It was easy to sense the permanence of a spell. She couldn't exactly tell what it was meant to do. It could simply mark her as one affected by a Godly intervention, or be as harsh as permanently enforce every single word that was said in the prayer to the Mother Goddess. Perhaps she has a part to play in the Goddess' grand design?

But, she was a creature of Evil. They rejected the status quo, the natural order of things. She felt her entire being reject the idea that she was to be just a tool to serve the Goddess' will. She was an Overlord! She ought to not bow to anybody! And, yet, could she not swallow her pride for survival?

Yang would shake her head if she could. If she was to serve a God, she'd serve her predecessor, the Third Overlord. Her kind, the Overlords, did not mesh well with the Elves and their God.

Yang's eyes widened in horror.

'and heal this pervasion of nature', the Queen had said, Yang remembered. No! She had given up too much, fought too hard, and did her best to…she could not lose it all! Not her powers!...not her way of life that was all she knew how to live.

She breathed in deep breaths of air, and let her senses sink deeper in herself. She was relieved to find that she was unchanged. Perhaps she is too get atonement for her sins by making the Goddess' will into reality?

She slowly got up.

"I am me," she murmured to herself, "and I am happy with myself."

She had chosen to get remade for power. If she was sure of anything in life, it was that she would not let a God undo it.

She looked around.

She seemed to be in the Forever Fall forest still. And yet…she was getting a sinking feeling that she was missing something important. She felt weird. As if a fire that kindled her had been snuffed out. As if an important part of her was missing.

She frowned. She was still the same Yang that she was ten minutes ago.

She refocused her senses back on herself and tried to sense the root cause of the issue. And soon enough, she knew what the problem was. She could no longer sense her connection to the Tower Heart, and as she attempted to contact Gnarl she received no response.

Panic flooded her, and even more when she realized she could not feel ever a single one of the Tower Gates or Minion Gates. The creation, and maintenance, of the gates was the responsibility of the Tower Heart, and as such she usually didn't pay much attention to it, but as the Overlord she normally was able to sense the gates, and their connection to the Tower Heart. Not now.

"Something must have happened while I was away..." she realized with horror, and she knew she must rush to help her Minions out. Despite the best efforts of Gnarl, she did care for them more than their use as her tools. "And if something takes over the Tower Heart, they could unleash a massive disaster." she thought to herself.

Problem, however, is that there was around 50 minutes of travel by flight to her base of operations. She needed to get there now!

And suddenly the solution hit her like a well placed hammer to an anvil. She got a smirk on her face. Maybe the trip to the Elven lands had some use after all. The Elven Queen's teleportation ability gave her an inspiration. Normally, even she would be smart enough to not risk creating a new spell, with possible horrible consequences, and testing it on herself not in a small, but in a massive test, but she had no time for those thoughts. She was desperate.

She, of course, knew which way the Tower Heart was. She wasn't connected to it, and it distressed her greatly, but as an Overlord, especially one who had been connected to the Tower Heart for so many years, she had an innate attunement to it. It was too far for her senses to reach it, but nevertheless she just knew where it was, for the attunement had nothing to do with her ability to sense.

She surrounded herself with Evil Energies, so much that the grass beneath her feet started to wither slowly, and she seemed surrounded in a dark sphere, and launched her Evil Presence spell at the dark sphere that surrounded her, and enforcing her will, without other distractions, she willed it to teleport her to where she knew the Tower Heart was.

The command given, and enforced, she withdrew her mind from the spell just in time to see the sphere compress around her, and with a crack, she disappeared.

A second later, she felt her feet hit the waters beneath which the Tower Heart floated, and the Evil Energies exploded outwards from her, and a wave of Evil Energy washed over the surrounding area.

"The spell," Yang thought trying desperately to ignore the almost unbearable pain, "at least worked. That was an upside." the pain reminded her of the downside and she looked herself over. Her fingers looked more like melted popsicles, most if not all of her bones felt like they were broken, and the less said about the rest of the body, the better. Fortunately, her hair appeared relatively unharmed. "The downside was, apparently, that it wasn't very user friendly." she'll have to work on that, she decided. If this could be used for short ranged teleportation, it would make her that much more difficult to defeat in combat.

The searing pain brought her attention back to the main issue. "The only way to combat a reckless idea, "she thought, " was with an even more reckless one. "If the Tower Heart had once remade her to what she was now, it probably could also fix her."

She looked over and saw that her Minions seemed, while confused, in no danger at all, and she used her senses to grab onto the feel of the Tower Heart. She requested it teleport her downwards to itself, and the Tower Heart obliged. Yang placed her deformed hand on the Tower Heart and willed it to let her rest in its energies. She felt a bond form between herself and it, for the Tower Heart recognized her as an Overlord and its Master, and suddenly the physical attributes of the orb shifted into one of liquid into which she fell into as the Heart solidified around her. In the middle of the Tower Heart she rested, it healing her broken body.

Gnarl looked down from above.

"It's not always a Master appears so suddenly and spectacularly." he mussed to himself, "Oh well, Evil always finds a way after all."

Yang woke up, and the Tower Heart let her out. She hadn't felt this well rested in years. All that Emperor work must have really taken her toll on her.

"Greetings, Great Master." came a voice from the right, interrupting her thoughts. She did not need to look in that direction to recognize Gnarl's voice.

"Bring me up to date, Gnarl." she commanded. "What happened?"

And when she turned to look at him, she was met with a confused expression from Gnarl.

"My apologies, Master, but I don't understand. We were without an Overlord for many years now, and then you appeared, with a teleportation spell that was wonderfully horrible-" Was that a compliment or an insult? Yang wasn't sure. "and the Tower Heart has deemed you a worthy Master."

Now it was her time to be confused.

"What are you on about? You taught me everything I know. Hell, you helped raise me somewhat even."

Gnarl shook his head.

"I'm afraid I don't recall that. This is the first time we have an Overlord in over three decades." he informed her.

This was getting annoying. "What game was Gnarl playing at?", she wondered.

"Do not lie to me." she said in an cold authoritative tone.

"I would not presume to lie to you." he said, and she could see the honesty on his face.

They stood in silence for a bit before Gnarl resumed speaking.

"Your forces are scattered-" he began saying before Yang interrupted him. "Reds are in Vacuo, Blues in Argus, Greens in Forever Fall forest."

For a moment Gnarl paused before his eyes shined with pleased amusement.

"Your powers are truly great, Sire"

"I had collected you all..." she murmured confused to herself, though it was loud enough for him to hear her. Yang's head suddenly snapped back to him. "Who's in charge of Vacuo? Mistral?

"Theodore and Lionheart respectively, I believe." he said and his eyes showed clear pleasure at seeing her anger at his response. "Oh, yes, you will be a perfect Master, Sire."

"I should hope so." she said her voice tense, and full of anger. "You did train me."

What followed next was a very long string of angry curses, screams of frustration, and the like. In between them one could almost make out words "everything gone" and "all I worked for, disappeared", and to the pleasure of Gnarl, "damn fucking Elves". As Yang very well knew, though now her mind was not on such memories, Gnarl didn't consider any moment inappropriate for Elf-hating,.

"As much as I enjoy this display of anger," Gnarl said interrupting her, "perhaps you could tell me how you got here? That might help us understand as to why our recollections of the world are different."

It took her a few more minutes to calm herself enough to answer him.

"I was in Forever Fall forest, on a diplomatic mission to the Elves-", she began and waited for Gnarl to make some sort of comment. When non arrived she continued. "-on behalf of the other Kingdoms. We had hoped to get the Elves on our side to fight Salem, the Queen of the Grimm."

"It didn't go well, did it, Sire?" he asked somewhat rhetorically.

"No." Yang confirmed. "I failed to convince their Queen, and she cast a banishment spell."

"And Mother Goddess intervened to give it strength?", he said surprising Yang. "I can sense the mark she had left on you. It is likely she has a part for you to play in her plans."

Yang scowled.

"Hopefully not. I don't want to serve her." she shook her head, and continued. "Anyway, I woke up outside of the forest, unconnected to the Tower Heart or you, and fearing the worst, I made my way here."

"That was a wonderful first attempt at a teleportation spell." he said trying to lift her spirits.

Yang furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"How did you know that?"

He actually had the gall to laugh.

"Master, while that was an impressive first attempt, especially considering the distance, it was clearly ill-practiced if for no other reason than that it almost killed you."

"I was desperate..."

"I can tell, Sire." he said in fond amusement. "Still, that shows quite a bit of talent. I can see why the other me chose you."

"Other you?" she asked, and then gasped, "Does that mean you figured it out?"

He nodded.

"I have an idea." he said. "It seems rather simple, really."

She patiently waited for him to continue.

"You were banished to another world, Sire."

She wanted to loudly deny it, but it did make serious amount of sense. She knew there were different worlds, for the Brother Gods have been said to have left for another, and given that it was possible to travel to different dimensions, like the Infernal Abyss, that did not seem impossible. And it did explain why her castle looked as horrid as it did, or why her teacher did not seem to remember her.

She sighed.

"Fuck."

"Aptly put, Master." Gnarl said humorously.

She had spent about a week learning all she could about this world. It seemed similar to her own, only...she also seemed to be in the future. Future where she had not become an Overlord to be exact, nor the Emperor of Vacuo. Gnarl theorized that either the spell happened to throw her into a random point of another world, like jumping into a random cart of a train, or one of the features of the Goddess' intervention was placing her here specifically. Yang had the sinking feeling that this was completely intentional.

This was followed up by a discussion on the Gods. Seemingly, from what these Minions recalled, The Brother Gods did, in fact, be here, and did wipe out humanity like in her world. Gnarl theorized that this meant that the Gods were a "constant on reality". He said that this would mean that if they took broad actions, not specifically, and intentionally, only limited to one person in one world, that in that case their actions would "echo" in other worlds even if the underlying events that caused those actions did not happen. Upon comparison of their world histories this appeared true. In her world, humanity had rebelled against the Brother Gods, and failed, leading to the Brother Gods wiping them all out. From Gnarl's recollections, and the scant Minion lore, there was no such event in this world.

She could not rely on truths of the last world entirely, it seemed. She was also unnerved by the Elven presence, and needed to find allies to deal with it. She had a feeling that the Goddess' mark on her would prevent her from breaching their sanctuary, though Gnarl instead believed it would only apply to the sanctuary in her world. She could not begin to look for a way to go home before her power and security was fully solidified.

Roman, Neo, were both a must. She could trust them, and she considered them friends. She resolved to make their lives a paradise before she left, especially if they establish the same friendship as before. Ozpin was a hard no. She didn't think he'd be willing to let her to destroy the Elves, and she had a hunch that his help would be long term rather than short term as she wanted. She had already tried doing things his ways, and it failed. Ironwood was a maybe. He could be reasoned with. For all others she was unsure. What to do with her ex-servants? Ones she had previously brainwashed? She could do that again, and if Gnarl was right, as he often was, than the mere certainty that she could do it, because she had already done it before, would give her a big advantage in the domination process, but could she justify it to herself? In her world she dominated Lionheart and Malachite out of necessity. Then again, loyal Malachite would be irreplaceable help to her. She would decide later.

Then her thoughts turned to Theodore, and she felt an irrational fear. She respected him for his power and experience. He had plenty of honor too. He taught her in a way, just how big the difference was between them, just how far she'd need to go. Just how much she sacrificed skill for shortcuts in power and speed, and magic. Should she kill him? She could, she was sure. With the power of the Maiden, and with practice of her new spell, she was sure to win...and yet, her previous experience filled her with fear. He left a massive impression on her.

She wanted to fight him, to get over her fear. And she wanted to do it without her Maiden powers if possible, to make it a bit more fair, closer to how she fought him last time. But kill him? And become an Emperor once more? She loved her role, despite the immense stress and strain on her, but she wanted to try something else. And besides, that'd feel like treason to her Empire, as well as consume a lot of her precious time. She wanted gone from here as soon as possible.

She was also, upon inspection, completely broke.

She'd need to solve that too.

She sighed.

"Never a dull moment, huh?", she said aloud.