I came too with a groan a couple of hours later as it was nighttime.
'Huh, the moons white instead of red. Looks a lot bigger though than it used too. Maybe I arrived during the Prinny reincarnation thingy.'
It was one of the sub plots I liked a lot from the first Disgaea game.
"So I see my beloved Overlord has finally awaken from his nap. I can't wait to hear what you've fucked up this time. Other than your forehead. Your running out of room to accessorize by the way."
"Shut up Mya." I barked half-heartedly from the ground, and to my surprise she did.
My head still hurt. But only moderately so. I pushed the pain aside and creaked open an eye where I saw Mya.
"You're covered in blood" She was, Mostly on her hands, but some on her fatigues and face.
She blinked before waving it off. "No worries, it's mostly yours anyways. You sat down for a couple of minutes then you suddenly made this weird grunting- girly screaming noise"
For the record I do not have a girly scream.
"Then all of a sudden you spout another stone thing out of your forehead. Anyways, it was bleeding a lot and I didn't want you to bleed out so I took a shot in the dark and tried to keep pressure on the area around it, not sure how well it worked or if it was needed, but hey your alive so there ya go."
'I was perfectly happy thinking she was a bitch, and then she goes and pulls shit like this'
"Thanks for that" I said with complete sincerity. She seemed somewhat thrown off by my thanks, but then smiled.
"No problem, you can pay me back later, in cash." she said jokingly, at least I think she was joking.
Regardless I plan on doing so, Evil Overlord rule number i-dunno, I will reward those who save my life, it will encourage them to do so again. Or something like that. Being an literal Overlord it seems appropriate to borrow where applicable and the Netherworld from what I could recall seemed like the kind of place that kind of attitude would reap benefits.
Deciding to investigate her earlier statements I tentatively touched my forehead.
'Man this thing is going to drive me crazy.' I had a tendency to rub my forehead when I was thinking or frustrated, and now I have a stone that could fit comfortably in my palm growing out of it. It felt like the rest of the stones I already had. Maybe it was flatter and thus protruded a bit less, but otherwise it felt the same overall. Except it was inflamed as all Hell. The skin for a good portion around it had the signs of bleeding earlier which redoubled my desire to take a shower which I already wanted badly, it also felt a bit puffy and raw, and touching either it or the stone by indirect contact, hurt.
"So what happened anyways? Mya asked while I was prodding my newest Injury.
I sat up and started to explain. "So I started trying to use my Mana got it all ready to go, at least I think I did."
"You think?" Mya interjected
"It worked making my body and summoning you didn't it?" I noted.
"Not so sure about the second one there" she added with a deadpan glare.
"Your alive aren't you?" I shot back, then I continued before she could start up again. "Anyways, so first I wished for a fortress but it didn't work. Then I wished for a Castle and that didn't work either."
"Do you know anything about defensive structures?" she asked, rubbing the bridge of her nose which I'm assuming is her default, 'What did I do to deserve this?' gesture.
"A fair amount actually" I had an engineering class where we had to design and model castles, and I did some research defensive structures.
This surprised her and she nodded approvingly, which made me happier than it really should. The toughest critics are the most pleasing to receive approval from I guess.
"Okay then,i guess assuming you knew what you where doing, How big did you make it. If it was too big there no way you could make it in one go. And your Mana shouldn't react at all,"
'Ahh, that would do it then.'
She continued, "as a rule of thumb Mana is nonreactive which is why its useless in combat as it tends to be a stabilizing force. So if you don't have enough Mana to stabilize your, 'wish' or whatever, it should fizzle. I think that may have been what happened to me" She added the last line quietly which hit me with another guilt trip.
For a simulation of how I feel, imagine you accidentally hit someone with a car, and they are sobbing in pain as you drive them to the hospital, and then you become friends, but they get this far away look sometimes whenever they remember and you know the painful memory is your fault.
'Note to self, see if there are any Netherworld shrinks for me and Mya as we both probably will need one before we get through.'
Mya snapped out of it, and asked "So how big where you trying for with the castle anyways?"
"Umm, big?"
"Bigger than the crater?" she asked with an annoyed glare.
The woman had a talent with glares by the way, so many emotions with one expression.
"...yes." I could see her analyzing my answer.
".A lot bigger than the crater then.." she stated, not asked.
The crater wasn't massive by any means about the size of a large house. But yea, in hindsight my mental picture of what qualified as a castle most defiantly outstripped it by a lot.
My thoughts more or less jumped to the most grandiose castles and modern fortresses I could think of. And they where so large my little impact crater would be a feature held within them.
Heh, whoopsie.
"Okay so that's why we don't have a home yet. Then what happened?" she asked tiredly, I could tell she hadn't slept very much.
"I got frustrated, and I accidentally wished my Mana was easy to use like it was in one of my games.."
She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again.
"Okay, for once that actually sounds like something that might turn out to be useful and honestly I'm to tired to worry about it tonight."
"Go ahead and go to sleep, ill keep watch" I had guessed what she was staying up for. Sleeping out in the open in the netherworld sounded like a good way to get mugged, and we don't have anything of value so they would probably kick our asses twice as hard for the wasted effort or something like that.
I got an honest smile from her as she nodded without complaint. So either she is really just that tired or she doesn't actually think I'm as big of a screw up as she likes to say.
She took off her vest revealing the loose tube top I forced myself to avert my eyes from as she folded the vest into an impromptu pillow. She then pulled her helmet over her eyes, but lifted it up once more to give me a parting glare. "Don't get any fresh ideas just because I'm going to sleep."
"Wouldn't dream of it psycho-knife-girl." That got me a smirk, thereafter she let herself wind down for some, somewhat deserved, R&R.
'Only somewhat, given how she kicked my ass today' I noted reflecting on my already healing bruises.
And then for the first time, I stood vigil over my now desolate new home.