After Sergeant Hammer was defeated, most fighters in the area decided to give up fighting and left. The few who did decide to keep fighting were mostly just there to handle personal grudges and decided that today was a good day to get that sorted out.

Plaze dragged the unconscious Tank Overlord to a random warehouse that Hammer owned, while Carmilla ensured that the dirty parts about collecting the spoils stayed out of people's eyes. After all, Carmilla was about to speak a lot and Plaze didn't want people to think she was speaking for him.

Now that Sergeant Hammer was awake, a whole 4 hours before extermination was about to begin, it was time to take what was now theirs.

Plaze and Carmilla stood over Sergeant Hammer, who was chained up by angelic chains, another one of Carmilla's designs.

Apparently, if you were strong enough and struggled against the chains, you could break it, but pressing the angelic steel on your skin would damage you for a while.

Hammer spent no time snarking at the two Overlords, "Oh, great. I was half hoping you'd kill me, but here I am."

In return, Plaze cheerfully told her, "Don't worry, you're not going to live for much longer, we just need a few things from you."

"Few? You moron, you're taking everything," The fallen Overlord bitterly said, "If you want the contracts of my engineers, I'm not giving them up. I would rather die than hand them over."

In response, Carmilla Carmine simply raised her hand, holding an angelic dagger, "This does not have to be the end of you, you know?"

Both Plaze and Hammer were caught off guard by the response.

Is she betraying him? They agreed that Hammer was going to die tomorrow to the angels, why is she going back on their deal now?!

Worst of all, he can't do anything about it because he's still weak from the fighting. How is he going to stop this?

Hammer didn't believe it either, "Oi, I know you. You're not the type to go back on your deals often. Are you really going to just let me go?"
"We only have a few hours before the extermination," Carmilla blandly explained, "I don't have the time to torture you all day to get you to submit."

Narrowing her eyes, Hammer warily asked, "So, if I were to ask for a soul contract…"

Carmilla quickly produced a key, unchaining Sergeant Hammer.

Plaze got ready for combat.

"Plaze," Carmila said threateningly, stopping his intentions.

Yeah, he wasn't going to win that fight.

Fuck her.

Plaze bitterly watched on as Carmilla held out a hand to Sergeant Hammer, "In exchange for handing over all of your soul contracts to me, as well as all of your property, I will not crucify you to the exterminators."

"The physical contracts are in the basement! Deal!" Hammer eagerly accepted, the signs of the contract going through filling the warehouse.

It was Carmilla Carmine's signature which dotted the room, weaponry and roses.

Carmilla took a deep breath as she took in the thousands of souls now under her command.

Then, she looked to Plaze, "Now, Plaze, you crucify her."

Oh.

Plaze happily grinned as he realized that Hammer had been duped.

Soul contracts go by the intention of the deal rather than the exact wording of the deal. And usually, it went by the stronger soul's intention. Carmilla Carmine never had any intention of letting Hammer go, so the loophole to the contract was to simply let someone else do it for her.

If Hammer was more careful, she could've asked for more guarantees in her wording, but so close to death, she was too hasty and sealed her fate.

"Wait- no!" Hammer's voice sounded far weaker than ever before, all of her power stripped from her, "You- You can't just do that! The deal- I had a different idea-"

"I won't crucify you," Carmilla coldly interrupted, "That is my intention, and the deal we will carry out. I simply never intended to stop you from being crucified. Since I am stronger than you, that is how we will carry it out."

Hammer tried to speak further, but Plaze simply gagged her at that point, not wanting to hear her voice.

But still, stronger Overlords can just twist the words of a deal like that? That's dangerous, he's going to have to keep an eye on that in the future.

Then, Plaze picked Hammer up, the former Overlord being much easier to handle than before, mockingly asking, "Say, are those tears in your eyes?"

Hammer tried to speak, but the gag prevented a single word from getting out. Her tears were luckier, as Hammer was desperately pleading with her eyes for mercy.

Not that Plaze would be giving it to her, turning to Carmilla without a care for the prisoner, "So, how do I crucify her?"

"Find a wall and stick two nails in her hands on it," She said, walking out of the warehouse as Plaze followed her, "If you want to be extra, you can make a large cross for her. The exterminators will kill those targets first, since they're the easiest to reach."

What a brutal way of punishment. This definitely feels like a tradition the more Christian version of Hell that Plaze heard about on Earth would partake in.

So, Plaze stored that information in his head as he asked, "Alright, so how are we splitting the souls?"

"Simple, we round the engineers up, or at least round up whoever is alive, and ask who they want to serve," Carmilla said, walking towards the ruins of the Hammer Securities Headquarters.

Well, that makes sense, but then most of the engineers will end up on Carmilla's side…

…But he doesn't have much of a chance against a top-notch Overlord anyways. He's just going to have to accept that he's going to get the lesser end of the stick on this one.

At least with the self-selection, he'll gain the ones who really love the gaming industry. Not any of those worthless engineers just looking for a paycheck.

So, Plaze nodded, "Alright, that works with me. Then… The factories?"

"The arcade factories will go to you, the tank factories will go to me, the territory will belong to you. Simple as that," Carmilla easily summarized as they made it to the ruins of the headquarters, where there were a few stragglers hanging around, "After that, we are even."

"Seriously? Just like that?" Plaze questioned, unsure if they were really even or if Carmilla still had some leftover favors on him.

"Alliances in Hell rarely last," She told him, counting all of the engineers in front of them, including the dead ones, "The ones that last long enough usually doom themselves through jealousy or entitlement. Very few are able to break this curse. I doubt our alliance would."

Well, that makes sense. They were only really allies because they both disliked Sergeant Hammer. After she was gone, what was the point?

Plaze hummed, "Well, alright. That makes sense. We're not going to be enemies the next time we meet though, yeah?"

"We very well could be," Carmilla crossed her arms behind her back, "Do not take anything for granted in Hell. Sergeant Hammer thought herself as secure, just as she had been for the last 50 or so years. All her neighbors tolerated her, I was on the other side of the Pentagram, and she had a network of strong allies who would defend her if she ever truly came into danger. But in the end, I was given a good enough reason, you, to walk in here and take it all from her. The moment I made my choice, she was left to die by the few who could've defended her from me."

…Yeah.

That must suck.

"Noted," Was all Plaze said. He would be sure that he would be strong enough so that something like this didn't happen to him.

As that conversation was wrapping up, all of the living engineers began to gather around them as Carmilla laid out her proposal to them.

Come with her, or Plaze. There were no other options.

In the end, out of some 60 engineers, only 9, including Jessie and her mother, chose to follow the upstart Overlord.

Upon closer inspection, only 4 of those could code, the other 5 having talents in some other areas, but just didn't want to be with another war-themed Overlord.

So, he gained 4 developers and 5 engineers out of the whole ordeal. Not the best, but considering that the industry he was creating was basically brand new, he supposed it was something he was going to have to develop from scratch.

Now that Carmilla no longer loaned him her factories, all of the profits from now on were his, but his production was cut by essentially three-fourths.

Carmilla was nice enough to point him in the direction of the large basement safehouse Sergeant Hammer usually used, so he decided that he was going to take all of his workers with him to that location, or at least those who didn't have a place to hide.

Before he left to go, though, he decided to plant down Sergeant Hammer directly in the middle of the ruined headquarters, making a crappy cross to crucify her on.

Then, to ensure that the angels would hear her to know that she's alive, Plaze took off her gag to ensure she could scream.

"Wait- wait! Plaze! Please!" Hammer begged as he simply turned around to leave, "Come on- let me give you my soul! Please! I'm not ready to die! Let me be your slave! Plaze!"

Plaze didn't turn back, letting Sergeant Hammer's wails of despair disappear into the air.

Mehira texted him saying she was going to go down into the ring below the Pride Ring to hide from the extermination, which lined up with what she said before. She'll contact him after the extermination is over.

Reaching the basement, all there was was a TV, some food, and a bunch of chairs to sit around in waiting for the 24 hours of extermination to end, which would begin in an hour.

So, they sat there and waited.

Castello walked into an underground bar that was doubly used as a safehouse for those who didn't have a dedicated safehouse for themselves.

After his loss to Mehira, he was a bit too injured to make it to his usual place, so he ended up having to decide to just use one of the public safehouses, where it was a 50/50 percent shot whether they were actually going to be safe, or some moron was going to let in an exterminator to kill them all.

Eyeing the Bloodsport Overlord in the bar, though, it seems as though this one was pretty safe.

Zilla was chatting up some of her athletes who happened to be at the same bar as her. Castello didn't know why she was here instead of somewhere she built herself, but if an Overlord deemed it safe enough, then he won't complain.

Going up to the bar, he asked the barkeep, who was some sort of sinner whose head was replaced by a lantern, for a drink.

A bit too loud, it seems, as he inadvertently pulled the attention of his former rival.

"Oh! Castello! I haven't seen your face in a while!" Zilla happily greeted as she moved over to his side, quickly pushing away every sinner in-between the two, "You here to try and start shit again?"

"I'm afraid the days of me challenging you are long gone," Castello responded, taking the drink which the barkeep quickly served, "After all, I was one of the fallen Overlords in that war, don't you remember?"

Zilla chuckled, "Yeah, I remember that 5-man alliance that fucked you over."

"Thank you again for beating the shit out of them afterwards," Castello politely repeated his earlier thanks as he took a sip of his drink.

It was ass, but hey, who was he to expect a good quality drink from a public safehouse turned bar?

As Zilla loomed over the golem sinner, she asked, "By the way, how's Duval doing these days? That guy used to give me a lot of trouble, remember? Guy had no business being able to control fish like that."

"He's dead right now, he'll probably return after the extermination," Castello informed, not even looking at her, "By the way, I'm around 2,500 souls right now. I can barely hand some of my excess souls to him, hell, I can't do any of the things I used to be able to do either."

Finding that amusing, Zilla teased him, "Aww, poor ol' defeated Overlord. You were pretty smart back in the day. Wanna sign your soul over to me?"

"Not a chance," Castello immediately shot down, "I won't be signing my soul over to anyone."

"Even if I never yank on your chain?"

"Even if."

Zilla frowned, grabbing someone else's drink who was unfortunate enough to be in her grab distance, "Shame. Welp, now that Hammer's gone, how are you planning to proceed now?"

Distantly looking forward, Castello simply replied, "I have no idea."

It was a new age, and he would simply have to adapt or die, just as it's always been in Hell.

Like clockwork every year, the Vee's Tower had every window shut with metal and every entrance barred to ensure that nobody could enter or exit. After that, every single valuable worker was massacred and their guts spread all over the tower to ensure that they remained dead for at least 24 hours.

To date, no exterminators have gone out of their way to stab something that was already dead. So they felt comfortable in being dead for the extermination.

Meanwhile, the big bosses, who had to ensure everything was working as intended after the extermination, was deep underground under their tower, hundreds of computer monitors ensuring that they could see whatever was going on outside.

The exterminators weren't one for causing destruction to the area, rather focusing their efforts on the sinners. So the cameras were rarely ever actually damaged.

So, in the few minutes before the extermination began, Valentino casually striked up a conversation, "So, about Plaze…"

Munching on popcorn, Vox raised his eyebrow, "Yeah? What about him?"

"I know you've been eyeing the guy for a while now. Are we going after him right after the extermination?" Valentino questioned, polishing his nails, "Or are we going to wait a while?"

Vox spoke while chewing, "Well, mm, his egos the highest it'll ever be, and… Mm, I heard Carmilla took away some of her factories dedicated to making his consoles so his sales are going to drop because of the lack of production…"

Swallowing his popcorn, the TV sinner finished, "So, I'm going to go to him after his first big hit doesn't hit the sales numbers he wants, cuz he couldn't make enough. That should be enough to conquer his ego and get him on our side."

Valentino hummed, "Right… So, what, are we going to be the VPs? The PVs?"

"Eh, we can figure it out later, maybe Plaze will change his name or something," Vox shrugged it off as the monitors in front of him began glowing, "Oh, it's beginning! Val, what was your bet again?"

"10% dead."

"I'm aiming for 8% this year, actually," Vox eagerly said, continuing to munch on popcorn, "I have a good feeling about the next few months…"

AN:

Extermination chapter is next, then I can focus on my other stuff.

Written November 19th.

[Backlog now extends to chapter 30.]