To any potential readers, I must advise caution. This story, as it deals with the dawn of the evil known as Overlords, will contain dark and mature themes of violence, death, suffering, and many more such things. Just be sure you are ready for such a story.
Overlord belongs to its proper owners and I make no claim of ownership, this is a fan story made in admiration of the work of the companies and studios involved.
Chapter 1: The First
My body was bound in crude bronze that barely made a cuirass, my wrists wrapped in fur, and my legs guarded by leather alone, all of this covered by a cloak stained a dark red by blood. I stood in contemplation as I stared into the reflection of my face in the bowl of water, seeing a young, but weary man with bright blue eyes that almost seemed to glow, and the short-shaved brown hair in the style of a soldier. This boy had given up his life as a temple worker at the age of thirteen to join the army, always striving to uphold virtue as he defended his city-state. Look at me now.
As the warhorn blew I was quick to grab my (Corinthian) helmet and rush out to join formation with the other soldiers. There was hardly a standard set of armor, for each soldier wore whatever could be scrapped together for them.
The best armed and decorated of us stood ahead, "The forces of Queen Tatiana are bearing down on us, and her army is a thousand strong. Truly no greater army has yet been unleashed upon this world... Our allies have sworn to send aid, but they will not be here before our foe. The plan we recieved is that we keep them back long enough for them to arrive so that a joint effort will secure us... Come on men, why the long faces? This is the chance of a lifetime, we, of a mere two-hundred, facing down against insurmountable odds? They'll be singing songs about our heroism for generations, and, fates be kind, our people will live to see another day!"
He was shaking with fear, but he had redirected that energy to bravery, all of us saw that and in respect and understanding we raised our axes and spears up in a battle cry!
"Come on, let's have some fun before our allies come to even the odds!"
With that we marched, no, we charged forward. As we advanced I imagined the enemy legion would be so dumbfounded by this suicidal run that they'd be taken by surprise and we'd kick a hole in their formation...
Not even being ready for death was enough as they practically marched right over us, hardly did a man of theirs fall to twenty of our own. The army marched along to our city, barely having lost ten minutes to us. Now I lay, amongst my brothers as a dozen of the Tanian soldiers executed the survivors.
"Come on! I haven't had enough yet! Bring it, you cowards!" I watched my commander spit in the face of the enemy that stood over him, and I felt a sense of pride to have served with him, even as the enemy slashed his throat.
"Another one?" I felt myself raised off the ground, "You got the same spirit as him?" My soon to be executioner asked. Weakly I turned my head to face him, but he wouldn't get the last words he wanted, instead I simply glared death at him, to which he scoffed and drove a dagger into my gut. "Defiance will get you nowhere. We will raze your city to the ground, slaughter you every son, and take away your every daughter. No one will even remember the names of your people." The pain was horrid, but I barely gasped, refusing to give him the cries he wanted. With all the strength I had I took the axe I was hiding behind my back and buried it into his neck. I relished the look of shock and horror on his face as he dropped me onto my feat.
Each second I stayed upright was surely a blessing of all the power the gods had. My will alone fueled my dying body as I tore my axe through the arm of another attacking soldier, spilled open the guts of the next, and lodged my axe into the helmet and skull of a final one before I was pierced from three sides by spears. Had I still mortal strength it ran out there, but still my blackening vision was focused on the enemy as I wildly grasped my hands outward, intent to kill them with my bare hands if I had to.
Even as the spears left my body I still refused to fall, and I staggered forward knowing I would kill them all, that I'd stop them from hurting my families, and I'd bring vengeance upon their every man, woman, and child! I'd kill every last one of... I fell...
I kept falling... surely I would hit the ground soon... maybe then I'd be able to see something other than this blackness... and... I did. For my eyes opened upon hell.
I climbed to my feet, my armor battered, my red cape now only covering my shoulders, and my eyes full of such hate that burned to point they were probably glowing. Eventually my senses would return to me and I would find myself before an abyss of magic in a great cavern of blackened stone from which dozens of rivers of molten rock poured out into the depths, a great pillar stood in the center and extended from the ceiling to the unknown of the void, great mountains floated around it as easily as leaves through water, and truly this world was to be seen as the final home to the dead.
My commander used to tell me during training that I could sleep when I'm dead, yet I surprisingly didn't feel tired after everything that I had just gone through. In fact, I had never felt so alive! Sleeping now would be a waste of time. What does that matter to the dead? Well anything is better than spending one's eternal fate laying about in a shrunked and cowardly state. So I went the only path available to me, down the path of a ledge that hung over the precipice.
I didn't know what to expect, but I was fortunate to find a familiar sight. My axe, buried in the chest of an enemy soldier lying on the path.
Even as the ground tore open and swallowed the souls of the fallen soldiers my rage would not subside, thus I gripped my axe and caught hold of one of the damned souls I had killed in the fight and began a struggle that would last through our journey down the earth. Just as I raised my axe to deliver the finishing blow the tunnel we had fallen through opened into an endless chamber. While the other fallen would fade into the fog below I continued my fight, plunging my axe into my opponent and holding tightly to him as I used our momentum to send us onto a ledge.
Now that I remembered what had happened I reached down and pulled my axe free, being briefly surprised to hear the soldier scream in pain. I should not have been surprised, after all, we were already dead. Reaching down again I picked up my fallen foe in my left hand with strength I never had before and raised him up over the edge, letting his feet dangle over infinity.
"No! Don't you dare! Please! We can talk about this!" What was that he had said earlier? Wasn't he taunting me about how he'd brutally torture and kill my people? I couldn't really remember. Instead I just chuckled in a very deep voice with a sinister manner as I released my grip and watched him fall into nothingness.
"Ooh!" I heard something laugh as it clapped its hands. Turning to look down the path I saw a small creature, hunched, with long and pointy ears, sharp teeth, and big yellow eyes. It seemed to have liked the display I had just put on so much that it was dancing with joy. As I approached it the imp began to run down the path, "Follow me! Hehe!" Seeing how I was already headed this direction I went ahead with the creature as my guide.
Even when we reached a much wider surface the strangeness of this place didn't end as there were still boulders floating high above being pulled in an unseen current and magma streamed from rock. My new little friend eventually lead me to a ledge that overlooked a pit where a few dozen similar creatures ran around doing various things, all seemingly in service to a large being, in the shape of a man, but horned, fanged, and made entirely of magma.
"You strong, you smash him!"
That seemed like a rather large demand, but it didn't sound like a bad idea to me. So I made my way down to the little party ground this demon had set up for itself. The demon, sitting on its crude throne, seemed to not notice me at first, occupied by eating a large chunk of meat that was cooked by his grip alone. The little imps seemed far more interested in my arrival, many them stopping their work of carving rock and preparing food.
"What are you worthless sacks doing!?" The demon roared when he found that he had not yet received another dish, "If you don't get back to work I'll hang your carcasses over the wall for decoration do I make myself clear? Now then..." It was then that it it had gone through enough of its tantrum to notice me. "Now what could this be? A mortal that didn't quite land where it was supposed to. I suppose you think its your lucky day? Unfortunately whatever luck it was has run out." The monster rose from its seat, "Two choices, you can get to work serving me alongside my minions, or I can kill and eat you while repurposing your life force to just make a new minion. You know what? I think I'll choose for you." He raised his fist and swung it at me, but instead of dodging it I raised my left hand and caught his fist. I winced in pain as not only was that strike stronger than expected, but I also felt the skin of my hand being burnt away.
Not wasting this chance by crying in pain I would use the opening to swing my axe against the demon, leaving a large gash which yellow fire poured from. The demon roared in pain, yet rather than falling to what I expected to be a fatal wound it would instead strike me with its left fist and send me flying to the floor. "Gah, huhuh. Minions!" He called as he raised his left arm revealing a bracer of grey metal with a glowing circle in the center, "Deal with this pest!" He commanded with a thrust of his hand to signal an attack.
The minions seemed compelled to follow his command. I don't think it would have mattered to me normally if the enemy commanded slave soldiers, but when I saw that the minion leading the charge was the same that guided me here I decided, on a whim, to instead simply smack him away with the side of my axe. The next minion I would grab by the head and toss against the next one, and the fifth minion I would kick down with my boot. It seemed that he could only command five at a time as the rest of the minions just watched the fight, but perhaps five were all that were needed. The knocked down minions were quick to get back on their feet, they were tenacious little guys I'll commend, and they rushed and jumped at me. Though I could bat away most of them one still managed to land on my back and proceed to start beating on the top of my helmet like a drum before I pulled him off.
The minions were far to resilient to go down without being killed, so I knew I had to do something else to stop the fight, so while the minions were still on the ground I rushed the demon, who raised his left arm to swat me away. Unfortunately for him this was exactly what I wanted, and as he swung his arm I took my axe and brought it against his arm with all my might, cleaving it off just below the elbow. The demon howled as he stumbled back, but in desperation he swung his right hand at me, which I easily ducked under before slashing him across the face witn my axe.
The demon hunched over in pain, but I could already see the yellow magma pouring from his wounds was starting to cool and reform his body. It was was clear I had to finish this, and so, as the minions danced around in excitement, I reached into the demon's right eye socket and pulled out a burning yellow orb before quickly throwing the fireball back at the demon blasting away the left half of his face and knocking him on his back. Finally I ended things by jumping up onto his gut and bringing my axe down into his core, bathing it in the demon's life force as the monster turned to stone and black clouds of concentrated energy rose from the corpse.
Stepping off with the fight finished I expected to find myself exhausted, yet my composure hadn't changed. Looking around I found the minions cheering joyfully. One of them, the one who lead me here, approached me. He bowed his head and presented me with the demon's metal bracer, melted and reshaped to a more fitting size, "For the master."
Taking the piece of armor I equiped it to myself. When I did that I felt a rush of power flow through me, as well I could tell the burning in my left hand was going away, and that I was stronger for it. Raising my arm I heard my power call out like a horn as I summoned all of my minions to my side. Looking at my axe, which had been coated in a strong and sharp obsidian-colord stone, I knew that quite the adventure had just begun.
Thank you for reading the first chapter of this story that will be the first of this account.
I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but I can promise that when it is I'll be bring you even more darkness like nothing the games ever had, combined with the classic goofy charm that made us all fall in love with this series.