The golden chest was cool to the touch as Raven attempted to open it. With a satisfying 'click', the chest opened, and its secrets were laid bare before her eyes. Therein laid an intricate wooden staff looking almost unassuming if not for the purple gemstone around which the top of the staff wrapped around. She didn't need Gnarl's help to tell that the staff was magical, mere logic would suffice, though with the help of her Aura, she could sense a deeper power in it, and yet it didn't feel like a Maiden, Gnarl, or her Tower Heart.
She was about to grasp the staff when, annoyingly, her advisor's voice interrupted her from her left. "Perhaps, Sire, we can use this opportunity to practice some simple spells? Telekinesis seems like the perfect choice."
Raven wondered if this was a subtle warning to be careful about the staff. After a bit of thinking she decided he was being honest, seeing an opportunity to have her magically reach an object she desired, something she assumed was much easier to do with the proper intent.
"I can already will the winds to appear, to bring it to me." Raven pointed out. With such ease that she could control her Maiden powers, lesser ability seemed unnecessary.
Gnarl simply smiled at her, and that, more than anything, set her on edge. 'Bam!' the sound echoed across the hallway of her Dark Tower, as mild pain blossomed at the back of her head. The smile of her damned advisor turned smug, so smug that she doubted her ability to replicate it, and with a twirl of his hand, the object that hit her flew to his hand, a decently sized rock.
"Didn't expect that, did you, Master?" he said, his voice as smug as his face. "And the surprise attack allowed me to catch you with your aura down."
The unspoken words needed not be voiced. If he was hostile, that could have been deadly. Raven felt shame course through her, not at being humiliated, but for disappointing herself. Still, she had to admit to herself, despite his lack of knowledge on the specifics of Aura, he must have fought many huntsmen to know that they needed to keep up their Aura for both protection and other Aura-abilities.
"How do I learn it?"
"Extend you hand, Sire, the one with the gauntlet, towards the object of your desire, and fuel your mana through the gauntlet, and will the object to obey"
"Why the gauntleted hand?" confusion tainting Raven's voice. Could she not do it with the other?
"The Gauntlet is custom-forged for an Overlord, and as you've noticed, it is also magically enhanced. For Overlords who have not magic in them, the Tower Heart grants a small portion of its power, and with sufficient time, a Master's body will learn to generate the mana itself. Until then the Gauntlet serves as a way to channel the inner magic the Heart has bestowed. You, luckily enough, are already bestowed by magical energies."
"In other words, it will be easier to use it if I train with this?" Raven asked, seeking clarity. If the gauntlet was made to channel magic for those inexperienced, it only made sense that it'd improve her attempts.
"Among other things, Sire." Gnarl confirmed. "Less magically-inclined Overlords used this to bypass the tedious training to learn spells. In your journeys you may come across objects imbued with an essence of a spell. These spell stones, though not necessarily in that specific form, can be connected to the Tower Heart, and the gauntlet can take advantage of the connection, letting you cast the spell imbued with no training at all. Of course, that does come at the cost of flexibility and power, but there's no real reason you could not use it to hasten your learning."
"Why would anyone make those spell stones?" to Raven these sounded far too specific in use, and so she assumed she was missing some vital information.
"Many were made for Overlords of old, Sire." Gnarl gave the obvious answer, though Raven suspected that there was more to it than that and pressed him on. "There are other numerous uses, that is true. Talented Wizards, for example, often made and used these to train their apprentices, or to make sure their more complicated spells succeeded. If a spell is particularly complex and you aren't sure you can manage it in combat, there's an obvious use there. Magical items in general have many unexpected benefits. Did you know that once the filthy Halflings had used our Tower Heart, after the fall of one of the Overlords, to enhance the growth of their pumpkins? Their feeble brains could not comprehend the true power of what they had stolen."
"Halflings?" to her annoyance the unfamiliar racial terms never stopped. Where had all these creatures hidden all this time? Did they live shrouded in secrecy, discovery dealt with dead that get attributed to the Grimm? A humorous thought occurred to her. Maybe they had their own falling through the world.
"Take the darker aspects of Humanity, mix it with some Dwarven height, add a splash of treason, and some of a rabbit's reproductive abilities, and Master, there you have a good description of the Halflings. They are short, dumb, and viciousness besides, their only talent is agriculture, surprisingly. Minions are stronger, Dwarves smarter, Humans more resourceful, Elves more faithful, you get the picture, Sire. They are the black sheep of the world. But, Lord, do not underestimate them, for they can be quite the troublesome lot."
Raven had to admit, she heard the anti-Faunus movement refer to the Faunus with less apparent bias. But that was neither here nor there, these Halflings could wait, now that her questions have been answered, she extended her gauntleted hand towards the staff, as Gnarl had instructed her previously. She gathered up the feeling she associated with the magic within her, and tried to force it through her hand. Unlike the fluid and natural flow of her Maiden magic, this felt sluggish as if moving through a swamp, but in few minutes time she felt as if her sluggish push was grabbed, and it then easily flowed into the gauntlet. The gauntlet glowed with power, and with surprising speed, the staff shot into her hand, and instinctually, she grabbed it tight.
"Well done, Sire." Gnarl's words of praise were ever present. "With a bit of practice you will learn to have your mana flow more naturally, outside of its predetermined conditions."
Spark of realization shot through her head. That's why it was so difficult, so different. When Ozpin had created the Maidens, he never granted them the full range of magical arts, merely the power over the seasons. She was like a woman who only rode a car being forced to walk for the first time, the gauntlet being a brother she could lean on. Brother she could have leaned on, once.
She dramatically spun and pointed the staff at a wall, and with a command, the shadows within her throne room shoot themselves towards the tip of her staff, coming together to form a spinning orb, which immediately launched itself at the aforementioned wall.
"You are coming into the spirit of the Overlord quite impressively, Dark Lady." Gnarl said in a cherry tone, and with just a bit of bite he continued. "I trust that your mental faculties are sharp enough that you've figured out what your new weapon does."
It was child's play. Clearly its former owner was not content with shadow-filled necromancy to guard his secrets, his tools were infused with much the same power. It, Raven observed, gathered the shadows for a devastating attack, with a thought she directed her Minions to repair the wall, meaning that the strength of her new weapon was conditional on her surroundings, and almost certainly useless in broad daylight. Blocking of light creates a shadow, and it would follow that light itself would weaken it.
"Tell me, Gnarl," Raven started casually and in a good mood, "where should I look for your lost brethren? You know them better than I do."
He didn't bother repeating what areas the other tribes preferred, and Raven was pleased to see that he did not treat her as a fool. "We crave conflict, Dark Lady, and there is where you'll find the rest, lest they be captured by someone other. Regardless, where you shall see enemies, eventually you shall see more of our kind."
"You mentioned that the Tower Heart had available connections to a few more places…" Raven said, remembering the conversation they had when she had first met them, "I take it I won't find them there?"
Gnarl appeared thoughtful for a few moments before replying uncertainly. "Not necessarily, Dark Lady, though it would be unlikely."
She glared at him with a mean look, and stabbed the air in front of her, turning her palm and making a gesture of beckoning. In her mind, she made a note to get a cape like Summer's, that'd make her dramatic gestures look much better. Her advisor was not of an untrained mind, and recognized her gesture for what it was, a demand for him to come forward with information, to elaborate.
"This would require a fair bit of a history lesson," Gnarl warned her, "lesson I had planned for later." Seeing her look he continued. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Sire, you are new to the Overlording game, and there is much indeed to learn. Little use we'll be if you can't avoid the mistakes of your predecessors, and if you cannot learn what needs to be learnt."
"Then give me a short version now. It seems very relevant to the current conversation."
"Very well." he said with a nod, and was about to start his tale, but asked a question instead. "Are you familiar with the concept of other worlds?"
When she first thought of it, she did only so as a joke. She didn't really expect him to pull that Ever After thing on her. She hadn't had to think about it in years, ever since that fateful night, tainted by lies. She had kept her promise, with a now-somber mood she recalled, she had promised to help Summer out, help her with her insane plan, to shoulder the weight of the world. She had helped her get there, but Summer failed, just as she had warned her, the strike at the lifeblood of the world's misfortunes seemingly having not gone according to plan.
"Intimately." she replied with a cold tone. "You don't look like you're from that damned fairy tale."
"I assure you, Master, there is no tale about us in this world. We've been here for quite a few years, learned as many things as one could scavenge."
'More worlds, more tragedy' were her bitter thoughts. Normally she had very little care for the little people of the world, but she had cared for Summer a great deal and her disappearance, and most certain death, affected her greatly.
"Once, the world wasn't short of portals to other places." Gnarl began his story. "I remember when one appeared in the minion dung pile, gave Giblet quite a shock." at seeing Raven's look he hurried to explain himself. "I only say this to illustrate that they could appear anywhere and anyplace. Usually, they were portals to Evil Abysses, places where the Evil Dead lived, and not so evil dead suffered, but on a rare occasion there were portals to other places too. Eventually they stopped, there's a long bit of history there involving Divine infidelity, and sometime after, one of your predecessors unknowingly helped kickstart the portals back. Some races used these portals to escape the wrath of generations of Overlords, and after many many years, soon there were plenty of lands to rule, but very few people to rule over. After the demise of last of our Dark Masters, I then knew that our only path forward was to seek the land of misery, and find our Overlord who would one day surely be born therein. The Tower Heart's power is with little equal, and when we found one such world, we had the Heart transport us, and your Dark Tower here, for what Evil Master is without an Evil Seat of Power to rule from, to this land of misery called Remnant. Many years we have searched for our Master, many enemies we have fought, but we are patient, and Evil shone its Dark Gaze on us, and we found you, Dark Lady, an Overlord to succeed the reign of your predecessors. It is possible that in that time some of the tribes wandered back home, if we are particularly unlucky and they preferred the climate of our previous homeland."
Had the Brother Gods reached even there, she wondered. Had she been anyone else she'd have cast away his words as religious, cultist nonsense, but she knew better. Ozpin never strictly told them how he had been granted eternal life, but where her brother was content to obey with little thought, she and Summer had made obvious conclusions. It was obvious, for one, that Salem was eternal too, one could hardly fight a singular enemy for many hundred years if the enemy had mortal life. So many of Remnant's Fairy Tales had, at least, partial truth in them, and no story is more well known then the tale of the two brothers. From there, there remained one final obvious link. Who else but a God can grant a man life without end? She never asked her then-husband whether he suspected something was amiss, and he didn't volunteer the information. She laughed lightly, for all the ways they were different, it seemed like both of them decided to take a step back from this phantom war we were to fight.
She refocused and considered what Gnarl had told her. It seemed that their world was even more plagued then their own, in Remnant worst portal you'd encounter is to the Ever After, and that was beyond rare to begin with, while in their world, one could just casually fall into Hell. She didn't envy the poor bastards.
"How did you know an Overlord would be born in Remnant?" that seemed like a pressing question to her, more pressing than all others.
"There's always an Overlord for us to find, Dark Lady. There is always Good to challenge him. You'll find, Master, that this is the deepest truth of all. An Overlord is born, Good loses, Evil reigns. Good's champion rises to challenge the Overlord. Overlord dies, Good reigns. Then the circle repeats. There's some deviation, obviously, sometimes an Overlord dies before he defeats his opponents, sometimes Good's champion fails, but the circle remains the same, more or less. Where there is Good, Evil will rise to challenge it. Where there is Evil, Good will foolishly seek to destroy it. One Overlord once though he had broken the circle, but he merely prolonged the phase of Evil. Another had the potential power to destroy the circle, but had chosen to take advantage of his momentary departure from it, and stay forever outside of it."
"Forever?" she repeated breathlessly, focusing on the most important part. "Did he find a way to live forever?" her voice calmed down then. "Or did he simply die 'outside' of it, and you're being dramatic?"
"Indeed he did find such a way, though by accident, that was. One who controls the place of death cannot die, surely. Perhaps he would have had something to fear if Heaven was his destination, but he had long since betrayed his Good deeds. Though, Sire, I'd recommend not following those specific steps until you can figure out how to kill those who had already died. One can hardly storm the Infernal Abyss without a way to deal with the armies that cannot die, no place to go when you already live in the Abyss."
"Are you saying that one of your former Masters became the lord of Hell?" she double checked, voice clearly filled with doubt and disbelief to which Gnarl just responded with laughter.
"Former? The Infernal Lord never died, he's still our Master should he ever decide to come back."
She narrowed her eyes. She was right, then, when she thought that these vermin would flock to the strongest in the room. But to say their defiance so blatantly, without the Master they are truly loyal to protect them, that surprised her a great deal.
"Oh, Master, it's nothing personal." he had the gall to claim. "Evil is, as Evil does, and I was always loyal to Evil. There can be only one true Overlord, and I'll gladly have and serve whichever one it is. The Infernal Lord faced a similar issue before, you know, his predecessor lived past death, possessing one of the people who aided in killing him. Once he returned, I told the Infernal Lord, who hadn't yet become immortal, what I told you. Duke it out, and the survivor is who'll I serve."
"And why shouldn't I get rid of this liability right now?" Raven asked with a deadly cold voice.
"You'd be severely cutting your strength by getting rid of all these liabilities, and if a situation where an Infernal Lord would return arises, you'll find significantly less allies at your side. Some Minions perhaps could grow fond of you, as I grew fond of the Infernal Lord. In other scenarios, you can still control them as you do now, with your mental will being the iron hand of control. Naturally, the Infernal Lord can do the same to the Minions you haven't the mental strength to control."
He was at the very least quite open about the possibility of betraying her, though without doubt he wouldn't consider it 'true' treason. And it was true that he was useful to her. An important question remained, and a few more that are only just less important.
"And you would help me to get the upper hand while this Infernal Lord is not here?"
The Minion bowed to her. "We Minions serve the Overlord, Master. Right now, that's you. And if you surpass even the Divine Defiler, ha! Dark Lady, you'll find no complaints from us there, no siree! But, your Dark Magnificence, be sure that your ambition does not go beyond your means. You strike at the order of all things, you're hardly playing with a full deck of cards."
Raven smirked. "But Evil cheats, I take it?"
Joyful laughter was her response. "You catch on fast, Sire!"
For now she could work with this, a liability she'd bear for its treasures. Besides, if their Infernal Master had not come to them in so many hundreds of years, what are the chances it would appear now?
"You still never answered my question, though." Raven reminded him, to which he cheekily responded that he answered quite a few already. "There have never been any Overlords here that I am aware of. How did you know one would be born here? There must always be Overlord, I can accept that, but must it also be here?"
"There's always an Overlord for us to find," he repeated, Gnarl repeated placing special emphasis on the later parts of the sentence, "the Tower Heart chooses a suitable Master, and aside from the interference of a current Overlord, nothing can change it. Sometimes the Heart guides us to our Master, sometimes we have to make do our Minionselves. Sometimes it makes the choice in the world, sometimes it accepts our choice. But without approval of the Heart you cannot make use of its powers, and Overlording becomes a messy business indeed."
"So, you're, the Minions and the Heart, what creates an Overlord?"
"Perhaps." Gnarl said with an disinterested shrug. "Philosophy is not a Minion-game, not even for an old creaky Minion like me. All I know is that when we look for a Dark Master, we'll find one perfectly suited for that role. And, Sire, Evil shines in strangest places. Once we found the greatest Evil Master, in the greatest Good's Hero. One of our Master's had a saying, 'The Good, they don't know how close to Evil they really are". Fitting that he was then killed by a convert to the Evil game."
Raven summoned her Minions with a gesture and a single thought, and wondered if this was what he had referred to her "iron hand of control". His words implied that her control would only be as strong as her will. She hardly had been left with many Minions to test her theory on, and the village she had them attack had barely a few guards to die. She shook her head and bid her thoughts away. It didn't matter, a small bout of murder and she'll have as many servants as she needed.
"You crave conflict, my Minions? I know just a place."
Their bullhead was taking them to the South East of Anima, almost entirety of that region having been abandoned a few years back. No one knew exactly what had caused all contact with that place to disappear, but no matter who was sent, no one ever returned. Eventually, the area was ruled off as another 'Glenn disaster' and any who would dare to take a step there, and return, would find themselves with a several counts of felonies as a reward for their impossible task, unless they had the approval from Lionheart, or the civilian council. Aforementioned council feared that this was caused by an evolved Grimm, feared that someone would carelessly provoke the Kingdom's death. Before she hadn't a reason to visit despite her curiosity, and she was smart enough to recognize a danger not worth engaging. Now she had reasons aplenty, and the will to see them through.
As they hovered near the beginning of the containment zone, even from there she could see the utter blackened devastation, as if the very horrors of the Great War had woken up to torment them. The land was black as tar, as if a great fire ravaged therein; the very few trees that remained had more holes in them than tree, some even 'thoughtfully decorated' with parts of buildings and even entire cars stuck in them, or more often through them; the buildings, much further in, looked gray and lifeless, but despite all their damage did not look to have been disturbed in around a year, one could hardly grow up outside the walls and not learn the signs of disturbance; and whatever other infrastructure there may have at some point been was invisible to the eye, merely wreckages upon what once could have been called a road. She turned her eyes upward, even the sky seemed unnaturally gloomy.
She looked around the bullhead, an easy steal, and with a small smile regarded her cheering servants. Like to her, the horrors below caught their attention too, and where there was a seeming conflict, they seemed more than happy to be there. They're hardly what she'd call a disciplined army, bickering amongst each other, and not even patient without being forced, but she had to admit, their enthusiasm was a bit infectious.
With a gesture of her hand, the bullhead began to land. She had been surprised to learn that her Minions could pilot, it seemed that when Gnarl had described the Browns at being good at anything that requires usage of hands, he wasn't exaggerating. They finally made contact with the ground, a not so gentle landing, but a good one regardless. The piloting Minion exited the cockpit and gave her a salute, dressed in far too big uniform he had stolen from the butler who was the pilot of this bullhead before. She walked down the ramp and onto the ground and observed how this Minion, she decided she liked him and so named him Peaco –he reminded her a bit of a peacock, but that'd be a silly name-, even went so far as to lock the bullhead up, a surprise to her, because she wasn't sure they even had a concept of locking something up rather than breaking it open. Maybe each was more different than she thought, or maybe they just did their best to live up to the role their Master had assigned them, but then again, Peaco had volunteered to pilot on his own.
The bucket head Minion was also here, she had seen least three separate Minions try to beat him up and steal his bucket on the flight here, all of whom failed. She had considered taking away his stupid bucket, but if he could fight for it, then he could keep it. Five of the Minions that wore dead rats for hats -she hoped they'd find something in this forsaken wasteland that'd make them more distinctive, or at the very least replace the rats- were also present. Lastly, five normal and unremarkable browns, and that made her total force to fifteen. Gnarl complained about his old age and weary bones and would instead serve as her advisor telepathically.
She raised her hand, and once the attention was on her, pointed it forward in a sharp motion, her two fingers extended. The Minions cheered, and rushed to scavenge whatever they could find in this man-forsaken wasteland. She followed them at a brisk pace while using her Aura to sense for ill-intent directed at her. Sensing none, she relaxed, but did not relax her hold on her powers.
She continued moving looking around for anything to interest her, and in few minutes she noticed Peaco walking side by side with her, in his hands a makeshift spear made from what looked like a slightly damaged piece of a chair leg to which a sharp piece of metal was tied to, from an eye, it looked like steel. He was more resourceful than his goofy appearance would suggest, she had to admit, and that only cemented her belief that she made the right choice in making a pact with these creatures.
She hastened her step, and Peaco's immediate hurrying confirmed her suspicions, he has assigned himself as her guard, a somewhat insulting idea –she hardly needed a guard-, but she found the thoughtful action cute. Mentally she contacted Gnarl to make sure that his old hands weren't part of this, and no, it appeared that Peaco decided to forgo more opportunities for loot to guard her instead.
She gave him a quick look and decided to speak up. "You know that I will expect more of you than my other Minions, right?"
The Minion nodded. "Me guard the Dark Lady." he insisted. "No Grimmies get past me!"
Time to test her 'Royal Guard', she decided as she saw a Beowolf in a distance, far enough that it had not yet noticed them. Quick look at her compatriot confirmed that he saw it as well, while his demeanor still seemed cheery, there was a lot more seriousness too –of a type she hadn't seen in any Minion bar Gnarl-, his hands grasped his weapon more tightly, clearly ready to fight, but where his brothers would rush, he stayed put, clearly understanding his main priority.
She mentally commanded the other Minions to not engage, as she used her newly learnt telekinetic power to levitate a small rock up to her hand. While this time it was certainly faster, it was still slow enough to cause her displeasure. She shook her head, and cast the negative thought away, time to see what her new guard was made of.
She tossed the rock at the Grimm and willed the wind to make sure her aim struck true. The Beowolf stood up on its hind legs, and roared, whether in displeasure or as a challenge, Raven wasn't sure. She took a few steps back, and with a flourish, had his test begin.
"All yours, Peaco." she said, and her voice soon turned into a warning. "Do not disappoint me."
Peaco puffed up his chest in what Raven assumed was determination, and took a few steps forward, letting the Beowolf fall on its feet and gallop at them with great speed. In a bit over a minute, the Beowolf reached Peaco and jumped at him. Raven was quick to send him a mental thought informing him that she didn't plan to move, and as her guard, this was something he had to handle. Her words reached him in time, freezing him in place for a brief moment, weight pressed on his right leg as he had prepared to jump out of the way. This plan disturbed, he quickly fell on his back, weapon pointed upwards, and just in time for the creature to skewer itself on Peaco's spear, it driving itself deep into its right shoulder.
"Bad Grimmie!" Peaco chastised him with a smile. "No can have the Dark Lady!
The creature roared and stood on its hind legs, pulling Peaco with him who refused to let go of his weapon, and swiped his left claw at the offending Minion. Said Minion used his legs to kick of his chest, and used the momentum to swing up on the Grimm's shoulder, causing the creature to miss and drive the spear even deeper into its shoulder, until most of the weapon was on the other side. Peaco jumped on the protruding backend, and let gravity and his body weight force the spear out of the Beowolf's body.
"Nah uh, Grimmie! No can strike Peaco!" he exclaimed proudly, picking up his spear again, and reading to continue the fight. Raven was impressed, the Minion was capable of basic strategy, and understood his weaknesses and strengths fairly well. While she'd expect more from even someone from pre-Huntsmen academy, like Signal, for someone from a tribe who relied heavily on overwhelming numbers this was impressive. With time, of course, she'd expect much more.
Suddenly Peaco took several steps backwards, and with a growl the Beowolf chased after him. Once it got close, the Grimm swung at him, but the Minion dodged the leftwards swing by jumping backwards and stabbing his left hand. This continued for a few more minutes, the Beowolf would strike, Peaco would dodge, making distance whenever possible, and punishing attacks that failed to hurt him.
The Beowolf was young, that was clear to Raven. It hadn't yet developed pattern recognition, something Peaco happily abused, nor had it developed great protection. Older Beowolves tender to have armor or spikes at their shoulders, protection to prevent this exact scenario. And while Peaco himself didn't seem anywhere as wise, or grammatically gifted, as Gnarl, he was smart enough to direct the threat as far from her as possible; less harm to her, and easier for him to maneuver. She plucked the fish out of water, and it seems like its solution was to evolve and adapt.
"This fight is over" she murmured to herself. There was no point in watching any longer, Peaco would be the obvious, if slow, victor. Taking advantage of the beast's furious roar, Peaco stabbed it in one of the already-made wounds, and pressed his whole weight into the spear. His front limbs having been disabled, the Beowolf had two choices, run, or persist in this foolish fight, with only its teeth available as a weapon. The beast roared again, and then it was over, Raven sheathing her Omen, the Grimm's head cut off, its choice stolen.
"There's plenty of room to grow," Raven started her critique, "this was slow, and you need a lot more strength too." despite that, she smiled at him, and he perked up in response. "Still, the enemy didn't get even close to touching me, and you made sure to lead him as far away from his target. You took advantage of your strengths, and the Grimm's weaknesses, and despite not being in your element, emerged unscathed. Like I said, there's room to grow, but if you can grow as fast as my expectations for you, then you'll do just fine."
If Peaco wished to have a chance to prove himself, to go beyond his limits, he'll have chances aplenty. But for someone who aimed for as high position as her protector, he'll have to survive her. Previous Spring Maiden had been her apprentice once, and had died when she grew tired of the ex-Maiden being unable to live up to her demanding expectations. But where she had come to her broken by the weight of her responsibilities, another failure of Lionheart –and by extension of Ozpin's ilk-, Peaco was devoted to her, and seemed more than ready to challenge the world at her beck and call.
"For now," Raven continued, "I'll grant you the honor. Do not fail me."
The Minion saluted her. "Peaco not fail the Dark Lady!"
With a simple thought she called her Minions to her. "Where there's one Grimm, there are more nearby. On rare occasions they can separate from the pack for months, but that should be no reason to be weak and foolish. Every Grimm we find, overwhelm and exterminate."
With joyful cheers of approval, the Minions rushed forward, eager to find their enemies. Raven followed behind them at much more reserved pace. The Minions looted anything of value –including the Life Force of any dead Grimm they encountered-, and to Raven's relief some the rat-wearers found something to replace the rats; one of them used a pillowcase for a hat; another found a colander; third put on a fedora with a massive bite taken out of it. There was little of use remaining in here, the Grimm had destroyed most of everything.
At the first chance she got, she directed her forces to the shoreline to the South East. If any life survived, Grimm aside, that'd be the oceanlife, and where there's life, there's Grimm to try and extinguish it. There was no guarantee the possibly-evolved Grimm they were searching would be there, but it was a good place to start. Indeed, she was right, as they encountered more Grimm here, attracted by the life of the Ocean, and destroyed by her Minion forces. However, several hours of walking later, and Raven was out of patience, while this area had way larger than normal populace of Grimm, the special Grimm –and she was beginning to think that this area just got swarmed by hordes of small Grimm- was nowhere to be seen, and any attempts at tracking by her proved useless, too many Grimm leaving footprints of many different sizes preventing her from extracting useful information.
"I don't suppose you know any tracking Magic?" Raven asked in what her ex-husband would recognize as a hopeful tone, but to others seemingly ordinary. "Or will we have to do this the hard way?"
"But, Master," Gnarl responded in a festive tone, "even if I did, Master, the hard way is often far more fun!"
Raven smiled to herself. He would have fit in well with Team STRQ in their hayday, they were all troublemakers like him. For all Taiyang complained about her stubbornness getting them into trouble, he was always there alongside her.
"Hard way it is, then." she said, smile of nostalgia still present on her face, as she pointed to the base of a cliff to the north. "Minions! Defensive positions there! We'll be fighting for our wretched lives!"
The promise of such a fight energized them beyond belief, and with a quick hail to her, they ran off to carry out her orders. Raven followed them with more restraint as she was finishing the plan in her mind. Finally, they were at their stations, backs to the cliff.
Raven waved her hand in a cylindrical motion, and her Maiden powers obeyed her, eyes glowing with the signature power she wielded, and by her will, a cylinder shaped hole appeared in the gloomy sky, bright sunlight shining upon their location. This would serve to be a marker as to where to find them, and now all she needed is something to grab attention. She raised two of fingers up towards the sky, and the cloudy parts began rumbling, flashing white light every so often, and suddenly, with great speed, she moved her fingers westwards in the distance. Excessively loud thunder boomed as lighting struck down the target-point, as its Mistress commanded. Attention grabbed.
"The Grimm heard that." Raven said matter-of-factly. "The Grimm will see the light. They will come after us." the voice then started to build up in emotion. "But we won't run. We will fight for our lives, and we will slay the Grimm hordes that will attack us. If the evolved Grimm is here, he'll come, if only to observe his enemy. Whether it attacks us, doesn't matter. Do you lot know why?"
"Because we kill it!" the Minions responded in excited cheer, and Raven nodded her head. "Fight loyally for me, and from these dead Grimm we'll create many more of your siblings. You'll be able to tell them fanciful tales of how you and your Dark Master fought endless waves of enemies who failed to pierce our might!"
"For the Overlord!", "For the Dark Master!", "For the Dark Lady!", "For the Minions!" were the constant mixture of chants that could be heard from her small Minion army as they waited for their enemy to show their face.
They didn't have to wait long, Grimm began appearing everywhere they looked, from North –of Raven's perspective-, West, and though they had come from the East, there was –though notably smaller- also group of Grimm from there. With the Grimm hordes having noticed them, there wasn't any more reason to maintain the lightshow, and the sky returned to its dark and cloudy state.
The horde of Grimm raced at Raven's group. They were mainly comprised of Beowolves and Boarbatusks. As the first wave neared it, a devious smirk appeared on Raven's face, and fire sprouted from her hand, as she swung the hand left-to-right, creating a wall of flame in front of Grimm. With a snap of her left hand, wind began picking up in intensity, and in no time at all, the wind picked up the flames and spun them 'round and 'round, forming a fearsome tornado of fire, which Raven sent to the heart of the swarm. She didn't fancy being overwhelmed, and this would serve excellently to thin their numbers.
"Reds love fire." Peaco commented at her side. "Us miss Reds. Dark Lady make sure to find Reds, okay?"
She spared him only a glance, as she cut of the head of a Boarbatusk who managed to avoid the tornado's wrath. "You'll have to survive this first, Peaco."
Peaco stabbed a Beowolf that his brothers were attacking, piercing its midsection, a wound that his siblings were more than happy to elongate until the Grimm was no more.
"We Minions is the true Evil creatures. The silly Grimmies die, and if they can die, then us can kill."
Indeed, Peaco was right, Raven observed. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Minions seemed in their element, ganging up on Grimm after Grimm, stabbing their target everywhere it could be stabbed. She pulled out her staff, having made a make-shift holster for it which was fastened around her left thigh, and shot a devastating orb of shadows at a Beowolf towering over one of her Minions, he had been pulled back from one of the others by aforementioned Beowolf and thrown on the ground, and now the beast lied dead, and her Minion joined back to the fray.
She continued killing the Grimm absentmindedly, on instinct with only a brief look to her enemies, focusing most of her attention at observing her newfound army, as well as interviewing when necessary hoping to keep her casualties low. She believed in the survival of the fittest, but that didn't mean she had to needlessly weaken her ability to operate. She didn't employ this interpretation to her tribe, and she wouldn't do so with her Minions either.
"Dark Lady! DARK LADY!" Peaco's voice interrupted her thoughts, growing more concerned by the second. Another Grimm fell by her hand, and she turned her head to regard him. He pointed to something in the distance, in the sky, and Raven's head followed his pointed direction.
"It's just a cloud, Pea-" she began saying, voice betraying confusion, before she saw what had unnerved him. There was a massive smoke-cloud hovering above the battlefield, and quickly expanding in volume. With wild-abandon, the cloud shot lightning everywhere, and the fierce winds generated by it formed more fire tornadoes from fires generated by the lightning, and Raven had to do a double take when she realized that her one fire tornado was now five.
"Pyrocumulonimbus, I believe it's called." Gnarl supplied in a helpful tone telepathically. Raven knew what it was, at least by its more common name of 'fire storm cloud'.
"In hindsight, releasing my control of the fire tornado wasn't my brightest idea" she murmured to herself with just a bit of self-shame. Summer would tell her to think positively, and to that end, this accidental natural disaster was doing wonders at thinning the Grimm horde. She eyed the cloud with caution. Problem was it was about to do a wonderful job at thinning out her forces. With a shrug, and her Maiden powers, she sent the cloud to her north. Menagerie better hope it dissipates before arriving to their homeland. With another wave of her hand the tornadoes shot into the air and merged into a large fiery ball, and as she slammed her hand downwards, the ball crashed downwards, sea of fire consuming anything it could touch. Before it could reach them, Raven used her powers to make a moat around herself and her Minions, the flowing fire falling inside.
She surveyed the landscape. The settlers are certainly going to have their work cut out for them to make this area livable again. Her aura senses warned her of hostility and she diverted her eyes to its source. To her west on a large rock laid another Grimm, Boarbatusk twice the size of a normal one, the normal white boneplates being the color of steel. Raven could see it in its eyes, fear. She surveyed him closer, his protections were full of dents and scratches, husks appeared broken, and there was much damage visible everywhere. Understanding dawned on her, it evolved much quicker than normal by constant and near-fatal combat, over and over again. Maybe it even was one of the Grimm who originally assaulted this place all those years back, and came out of that as a rare evolution. Most Grimm evolutions happened due to age, Grimm rarely survived many encounters with capable humans, and ones that did evolved precisely to counter them. Raven would be willing to bet an extensive amount of money that it not only looked like his bone-coverings were made out of steel, but that it had evolved to consume steel to reinforce itself, to aid in its own survival.
The area in front of her was still ablaze, and so she sheathed her Omen, and attached the blue blade, made from ice dust, and with a quick Iaido strike, made herself a narrow pathway formed from ice. With an order for her Minions to not engage, she stepped on, and then walked slowly, on her newly made pathway, eyes locked with her prey. Determination replaced the fear, the beast realized the truth of this world; there can only be life through death. It stood on its hind legs, and let out a fearsome roar, and that allowed her to see that its weakpoint, the belly, had protections as well. Someone must have not managed to finish the job. Raven smirked, she could certainly fulfill that legacy.
The beast curled up in a ball and rolled at her, taking advantage that her narrow-made path left little room to dodge. She dodged backwards and slashed again, ice forming around it, trapping it in place. If he had built up speed, that wouldn't have really worked, but his failures were Raven's gains. Raven sheathed her Omen and attached a different blade.
"I wonder if your bones are really made of steel." Raven said half tauntingly, and half mussing aloud. "Metal conducts electricity, doesn't it?" she unsheathed her sword with the lightning-blade attached, and showed it off. "I wonder what the conducted electricity would do to your insides?"
The evolved Boarbatusk struggled in his bindings, and then seemed to grow deadly still. As Raven was about to strike him, he roared with all his might, and it was so powerful that it both staggered Raven and broke the ice bindings. He took advantage of her momentary weakness, to curl up and roll away through the fiery ground. He had gained enough intelligence to understand when he was fighting a losing battle, and was dead set on living another day. He was gaining speed quickly, even generating enough wind to disperse the fires in front of him, and while that may have been sufficient enough to escape a run-of-the-mill Huntsmen, Raven was anything but ordinary. She reattached her ice-blade, and made herself a pathway to the point where the Boarbatusk's speed began clearing out the fires.
As she stepped on the ice-made pathway she thought to herself. "Gnarl did say Evil Energy would increase my power, didn't he? I've done plenty of Evil acts in my life, he even acknowledged it. Maybe I should give my new powers a test run?"
She reattached her lightning-blade, and got into a sprinting position. Her target was getting faster and faster, and was already a good half-mile away. An athletic woman could make that distance in three minutes. A female running world champion could make it in two. Before she became the Overlord, she could make it in slightly less than a single minute. She gave a mental command to Gnarl to start the timer, and she set off. She ran, pulled out her sword, caught up to her target and tapped him with her Omen's lightning-blade.
"35 seconds, Sire." Gnarl informed her.
She watched the Grimm twitch on the ground, dying from inside and smiled to herself, feeling accomplished. Slightly over half-mile, and about 57% faster…
"And Huntsmen said Evil doesn't pay"