The plan was simplicity itself. Brann commandeered the floating fortress the rat mutants used to attack them and fly it to where it came from, fighting his way up from the bottom of the Last Sanctuary. While Luna used the Elf-Gates to send her army and the Black Dragon Knights led by Sindra to attack them from the inside.
"Master, you are approaching the Netherworld opening," Gnarl said in Brann's head. As the floating fortress moved up to fill the opening above, the lack of any resistance was offputting. "Odd, no one is here to greet us. Maybe the girls are causing more of a ruckus than we thought?"
"I do not doubt that they are making a nuisance of themselves, but there should still be some defensive garrison. Considering the strategic assets that are here." Brann then willed his minions to look around. Wolf-riding Browns searched the ground, Spider-riding Greens scurried about the walls, and Blues riding Hippocamps splashed about, looking for anything the wolves might not be able to see. Then the ground started shaking, and a giant red ball of scales and bony spikes rolled in at full force. Brann could barely roll out of the way and just as narrowly willing his Minions to do the same. The rolling beast stopped short of the ledge leading to the Netherworld and uncurled its body. It looked like a horrible bastard child of a t-rex, armadillo, and rhinoceros. The giant red sudo-draconic creature then roared at the intruders.
"That's a Salamander King! Be careful, Master! Where one of these things stomps around, there will surely be hundreds of regular-sized Salamanders!" As Gnarl warned, countless miniature versions of the beast started springing up from holes in the ground. About the same size as the wolves, the rolling beasts started engaging the spread-out Minion riders. The Reds did their best to assist from safe spots away from direct combat, but the beasts they were fighting were immune to fire attacks.
"Looks like it's just me and you, your majesty!" The Salamander King roared at Brann, accepting his challenge. The beast began to spit fireballs the size of sheep at Brann. But with the elemental resistance combined with the regeneration enchantments of his armor, all it did was hurt like a motherfucker, no real damage. He charged through the fire attacks, landing his axe on the brute's leg, making it squeal in agony. But he couldn't pull the axe out; it was stuck in the bone.
"Shit!" The moment of being slowed down was enough time for the terrible lizard king to bend over and scoop bran into its oversized mouth. It began to chew on him, but he was regenerating too fast to break down.
"Master! Get yourself out of there! You don't want to be this thing chew toy!"
"SHUT UP, GNARL!" Brann began to charge his Halo spell. If he overcharged it, it would make a magical explosion big enough to help him get free. The moment he poured every last drop of magic he had into the attack, Brann unleashed a blast of magical energy. He turned to attack the creature bare-handed but then saw that the explosion splattered the monster's head all over the place.
"If I had a gold coin for every time I saw an Overlord creatively use a spell to destroy a fire-breathing lizard from the inside, I would have two coins. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."
"Ya, crazy world," Brann said as he yanked his axe out of the dead beast. But when he turned to attack the Salamanders, he saw they were docile, walking up to him and bowing their heads.
"Look, sire. It seems you've taken the old King's place by killing him! I'm sure your Reds would look quite fearsome riding them into combat!"
"About time I get all my Minions mounted up." The Reds eagerly jumped onto the backs of the Salamanders, and with a fully mounted horde, Brann charged forth with his main objective in mind. Luna had told Brann of four magic shrines that Fay used to make the lower levels of the Wasteland Sanctuary livable; taking them out would deal a blow that the forces of light could never recover from. But as he came to the foundations of one of the elevated platforms the Elves of Everlight so loved to build, the rat mutants started pouring out of the woodwork.
"Scourge of Nature is here!"
"Attack on Elf nest distraction!"
"Empty the tunnels! Burry him in bodies, or drown him in blood!"
"For the Blue Lady!" The vermin horde squeaked and howled as they charged to defend the magic shrine. They were genuinely numberless, an ocean of freakish mutated flesh, claws, teeth, and swords. A lesser man would have backed down, or maybe a sensible one.
"CHARGE!" Brann ordered as he rushed the vile things, his Minions using their mounts to the fullest. Greens rode Spiders up onto the walls to leap forth and assassinate commanders or shoot strings of web to ensnare targets of opportunity. Reds rolled around the enemy formation, boxing them in while peppering them with fireballs. Blues and Browns used their mounts in tandem. Hippocamps stampeded through enemy ranks like a living river, knocking them prone so the Wolf-riders could easily maul them. All the while, Brann swung his mighty axe in great sweeping motions, taking out dozens of the Spell-Born freaks with every blow. Even the Salamanders without riders got in on the fighting, either rolling into the thick of it and exploding upon death or taking up good positions to spit fireballs at the foe.
But the swarm just kept coming and coming, and the vile things seemed never-ending. The horde of one hundred strong was slowly widdled down throughout the battle. But every Minion life was bought with hundreds of enemy troops, and Brann was able to advance, but slowly. Eventually, the vermin tried to slow to a crawl, and with one last slash of his axe, it was ended. And atop a mountain of dead, Brann would look upon the now-empty battlefield, his last twelve minions cheering and clapping.
"Well done, sire! I haven't seen a demonstration of power since your father conquered the Infernal Abyss!" Gnarl cheered as a Nethergate popped up next to the pile of dead.
"Let's collect the crystals from the shrines, and quickly. The others are going to need help fighting Fae." The Overlord then gathered a new horde, moved the now unguarded light magic crystals back to the tower, and went to the elevator that would take him to his most brutal fight yet.
...
Black Dragon Knights clashed with Elven swordsmen, creatures of darkness fought with creatures of light, and in the center of all, three warriors battled against a queen.
"Surender, Fay!" Luna said as she blasted a beam of ice at her former mentor. "I will plead with the Overlord for mercy!"
"No!" Will said as he pulled all the souls of the fallen from around him to fire necrotic blasts of energy at the fairy. "No mercy! No compromise! This blue hour dies for what she did to my family!"
"I am loathed to admit it, but the Necromancer is correct," Fay said from behind the protection of her magic shield. "I will die before submitting to evils clutches!" She then fired two blasts of blue magical energy, fending off both casters as Sindra charged forth and smashed through the shield with her sword. Fay then responded by forming two cutlasses from pure energy and dueled Sindra in swordplay before sending her flying as well with a blast of energy. "Evil will not triumph this day!"
"Your general said something similar." All eyes then turned to Brann as he walked in, his Minion horde fanning out to turn the tide of the battle around them. "Right before I killed him."
"I suppose it was too much to hope Glitter Puff would have finished you off."
"When you come at the King, you best not miss. And you..." His eyes then began to glow as the Minions descended on Fay. "...Missed by a mile!" Fireballs pelted her from all sides as Reds rolled on their mount. Spiders jumped onto her and began trying to web her up before being blasted away. Wolves then lept at her, knocking her to the ground, but being fended off before they could sink their teeth in. And lastly, Hippocamps stampeded at herm, trying to drown her in their liquid bodies. Only for all of them to be repelled by Fay's massive shockwave of energy, the fairy standing tall but bloodied and filled with rage.
"You have not won yet, Scourge of Nature! I will-"
"Look around you, Fay! I have won!" She looked like she would spit an insult, but then she saw it. Her army was routed, those who didn't run were cut down, and the forces of light were lost.
"No..." Fay said, her eyes now locked onto Brann's. "You may have won the battle. But now you lose the war!" The entire cavern began to shake and shiver, loose rocks falling from the roof as Fay radiated blue energy.
"Master! She is bringing the entire cavern down!" Gnarl screamed. "Best make like a slug in a salt mine and get yourself out of there!"
"We can't leave!" Luna interjected. "There are still civilians here, non-combatants who had nothing to do with this!" She then took to the air, creating great ice pillars to try and slow the cave-in. "Do whatever you must; just stop her before she dooms us all!"
"Brann, time to go, love."
"Ya, that would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it, Sin?" Brann then moved to walk right up to Fay and used his casting hand to start trying to absorb her magic.
"What is this!? What are you doing!?"
"Taking your power while you can't fight back. Unless you want to take a break from killing us all to try and fight me off?" Fay just gritted her teeth and began to double her efforts to bring the Sanctary crashing down around them. But the more power she put into it, the faster it was being taken away, but even scarier, something else was taking her power's place.
"Your dark power... It is filling the place of my siphoned light... How dare you try to corrupt me!"
"That would be your hell, wouldn't it?" Brann began to chuckle. "Becoming the opposite of everything you have ever stood for. Becoming the force of evil, you saught to cleanse from this world." Brann then intensified his magic drain. "No more fitting a punishment than for killing my mother!"
"I refuse to become a whore to darkness!" Fay then formed a magic sword and stabbed herself in the chest, collapsing to the ground, silently passing as her light dimmed to nothing. The cavern stopped shaking, and all was as well as hoped for.
"It is done. Loot whatever we can get our hands on without pissing off our allies. We have dead to mourn."
"Sire, as much as it would loath me to deny you your time of mourning."
"And yet you're going to try just that," Brann said through gritted teeth to Gnarl's voice in his head.
"The Spell-Born have occupied the Old Tower. They are either immune, or at least resistant, to Wasteland radiation. If we allow them to entrench themselves, they could become a threat we might not be able to handle next time."
"Fine, ready the siege engines. I want this over with as soon as possible."
