Brann had just gotten done with harvesting lifeforce when he heard the annoying tone of Gnarl talking.
"Master! A rather unexpected guest has just arrived and requires your immediate attention!"
"You sound worried. Should I bring the horde?"
"Bring whatever you like, master." Brann walked up into the throne room and what he saw was rather shocking. On the teleporter pad stood an elven woman unlike any Brann had seen before. Her ears were not pointed out to the side like the Everlight creeps, and she held herself with a more regal grace. Her dress looked like it was woven from moonlight itself. She wore a crown of Arcanium with sapphires, and she bared a staff that looked like it was made of sacred elvish wood with a cord of Arcanium spiraling around it. She was surrounded by black dragon knights, all seeming to be on high alert with her around. Sindra even aimed one of the new rocket launchers at the elf woman.
"So... Why are we freaking out about the sparkle princess?"
"Sire, this is Luna, the former queen of Evernight. And she has the audacity to say that she is here to negotiate with you!" Brann was well aware of who Luna was, but did not think that she would look how she did. All pictures depicting her did a great deserves, making her, well, all elves, look like craven skulking bums.
"So your here to negotiate... For what?" Brann said as he sat down on his throne. Luna then took five steps forward and got down on one knee; every blade in the room came within killing range as she did so.
"Overlord Brann, destroyer of the northern Sanctuary, and conqueror of Nordberg. I have come on behalf, but not with the permission of, Queen Fay of Everlight to negotiate terms of an alliance."
"Without your queen's permission? Why do this at all, then? Do you not risk not only death at my hands, but punishment from your own ruler?"
"The empire is on a genocidal campaign to destroy all magical things from this world, you and us. As someone who has survived one genocide, I have a better understanding of the situation than she does, even if she does not intend to heed my advice." Luna further credited her claim by pulling up the sleeve of her dress, exposing the scars on her wrists from when she was the dwarf king's captive. Brann considered her for a moment. She was a voluble servant to his father supposedly. But she was not in service to him any longer.
"And? If do consider joining forces with you goodie two shoes cake munchers, and that is a big if, how would you get your queen to accept me? You just said yourself that she does not heed your council in this."
"The empire has nearly taken Everlight from us, help us reclaim our realm, and she will be convinced to let you join our fight."
"And now here comes the real question, what's in it for me?" Luna then started to chuckle to herself, gently shaking her head back and forth.
"Aside from mutual survival? How about the location of the green minion hive?" His eyes then went wide. They had heard that the greens had found their way to a tropical haven of some sorts, but all the way to Everlight?
"And why would we not just torture the information out of you then?" Luna simply looked up at Brann; her eyes then began to glow blue. Before his knights could strike her down, everyone in the room aside from Brann was frozen solid. She then waved her hand at the frozen knights and smerked.
"You have made your point, and we are coming for the hive. If the elves that we find are hostile, we kill them. If not, we will leave them alone, sound fair?"
"Good enough for now. I will inform my lady that you will be coming as a guest. Farewell, Lord Brann." Luna then teleported away, the ice keeping the knights frozen, then shattered.
"THAT BITCH! I'm going to feed her to the wolves for that!"
"I conquer with Sindra master! That was clearly an act of aggression, and can not be tolerated!"
"I will decide Luna's fate later. For now, is my ship ready?"
"Yes, Sire. The prototype warship is ready to go. I take it you know where its maiden voyage will take place?"
"Indeed I do, Gnarl."
...
The fog on the water masked their approach, to Brann's liking. The ship would look like a terror to anyone watching it come out of the mist. A black Durium ice breaker on the bow, two massive wheels on the sides to propel it forward, and a prototype rocket launcher on the deck. The Nightmare, he named it, and as far as Brann was concerned, it was fitting. Then Gnarl decided to be useful all of a sudden.
"This reef helps bar the way to Everlight. The elves believe it's nature's blessing. I believe it's just to keep the wet sops in one place!" As they entered the reef, a Netherworld gate popped up on the closest island as empire soldiers struggled and cowered on chunks of recked ships.
"Hmmm, so the empire and the elves have been having some carnage fun without us! From the looks of things, the empire was winning before the waters started to rise... Possibly due to, oooohh, a teensy bit of ice melting!"
"I refuse to believe that what little ice we melted caused all of this, even if we did light the tar pits on fire! Something isn't right..." Brann said as he tried to think about what could have possibly caused all this, before his train of thought was interrupted by the crying of empire troopers
"But we were winning... We were winning!"
"Don't leave me for the sharks!"
"If you losers denounce the empire and join me, sure, why not. The same goes for you elves to BTW!"
"NO WAY! We elves will never betray our queen!"
"We humans will be happy to betray the empire! JUST SAVE US!" Brann had his minions throw the empire troops a few ropes and pulled them in before sending them back to the Netherworld. He then sailed on, ramming into the elves on purpose as he went on his merry way. Soon he found his way to a charming sight, the other side of the reef.
"These are the gates to Everlight, lord, and it seems that the elves appear to have left them open in the confusion!" As soon as Gnarl said that, the elves had moved four glowing statues off of their pads, closing the gate.
"Way to jinks it, Gnarl. I don't suppose we could just blast the hinges of the door off, right?"
"There is no way to know if the doors will fall in a way that would let us through. Sorry master, but you have to hunt down those gate keys! It looks like Luna's invitation is as good as the word of an elf usually is! Typical elven mistif!" Brann ignored Gnarl, grumbling as he looked for a place to park his boat. After making landfall, Brann soon found both a gate key, and some elves fighting empire troops. He decided to make a good impression and helped the elves fight the empire.
"The evil one has come!"
"Quick, get into battle position!"
"Put your ears out, dreads! I came to Everlight under the invitation of Queen Luna. So how about you help me open that door?"
"No way, man! We know all about Luna's betrayal of our true queen. You will never see the shores of Everlight!"
"Well, so much for talking it out. PREPARE TO DIE KNIFE EARS!" Brann then cut a path of death and destruction through the elves, getting the gate key back in place before moving on. After getting the second keystone in place, he could see from where he was that the elves were loading the thrid on onto a ship.
"Those elves are trying to escape with the last keystone, sire, stop them!"
"If you insist, Gnarl." Brann then quickly got back to his boat. He was impressed when he saw the elves ram their way through a stone wall, but not at how easy it was for him to burn their sails. After boarding and killing the entire crew, He willed his minions to man the other ship as well, sailing it back to the Netherworld gate before going back to business. Slaughtering his way through some mermaids, he put the keystone where it belonged. He sailed to the rock barrier blocking his path.
"I could rame through it as the elves did... But it would be a dame shame if I never fire this thing even once!" Brann said as he fired a rocket at the rock wall, making it crumble to nothing. After having his fun, he sailed in and docked. The fight up the stairs was nothing short of a blood bath, The elves were making their last stand, and it sure felt like it. By the time he secured the gate key, he had lost half of his horde. But at last, the gate was open, to Gnarl's delight.
"You did it, magnificent one! Now onto Everlight, and onto more elven extermination!"
"Later, I spent three days sailing here, and I'm going back to sleeping in a bed. Have some knights and minions secure the reef and fortify it while I rest."
"As you command, dark one!" Gnarl said as Brann sailed back to the Netherworld gate and went straight to bed.
((Hello everyone, this is your one true king, Mrgoblinking7! Remember when I said I would give you guys more of a heads up with the next contest? Well here it is. I'm going to let you guys decide the fate of the elves! Overlord Zephyr spared the elves of Evernight for pretty selfish reasons, because he liked Oberon. Brann has no such sentimental reasoning behind his judgment! So whatever the majority of you guys think I should do, that is what will happen. Have a wonderful life, my little goblins!))