As the days were rolling by until the day where Plaze would take over Hammer's territory and position himself as a real territory-holding Overlord, he quickly realized one thing.
He doesn't actually know how to fight yet.
Sure, he's had some training with Mehira and he had down the basics of his magic. But none of it has been tested yet in reality. And he's been repeatedly told by Mehira that he's in the bottom half of fighters in terms of talent and should really just rely on brute power or that someone else should fight for him.
While handing off the fighting to his more skilled peers and underlings might be the smarter option, Plaze knew that he had to be somewhat good at winning if he wanted to keep his spot.
So, for the duration of the next major shipment of Plaza consoles and games, Plaze had his workers on the lookout for any idiots who tried to rob his shipments. At the same time, he was putting in the work himself, still going outside every other day or so to fleece newcomers to Hell to steal their souls.
So, as of now, Plaze was the owner of 125 souls and 175 temporary souls for the year. From what he heard from Carmilla, Hammer has about 2,500 permanent souls and about 3,000 souls from both her arcade ownership and her unique decade-long soul deals for the tanks. Since, those who were in the market for tanks usually didn't have the money to actually buy a tank.
Definitely not in the top leagues where Carmilla and Vox were, but still very dangerous.
And also, she would completely demolish Plaze in a fight due to the difference in the amount of souls they wielded. Plaze would need around a thousand souls and become a genuinely good fighter to even stand some semblance of a chance when December rolls around.
According to Mehira, the diminishing returns of a single soul start at around 5 thousand souls before wearing down to basically nothing at 50,000 souls. The major milestones only come after that with an additional 50,000 souls before a noticeable increase in strength occurs.
So, Plaze and Hammer were still playing in relatively small leagues. But it was here that Plaze needed to start really ramping up his soul intake. Advertise his business throughout every city in Hell. Convince anyone with an open soul to sell his soul to Plaze. Ensure that he had the ability to take on Hammer in a fight when he most needed it.
And to do that, Plaze will have to put his name as a candidate by winning a major fight. Something he thought he could do by attacking whoever decided to mess with his shipments of consoles and games.
But, in a route that Plaze didn't quite expect, the denizens of Hell weren't very keen on attacking his stuff these past few weeks.
The way Plaze had it explained to him was that due to the immortality of sinners, once you make yourself an enemy, it basically never goes away. So, if someone tried to go against an Overlord, even a minor one, it risks the Overlord being petty enough to ban the sinner from any of their products for the rest of their life.
Of course, Plaze thought there would be too many thieves in Hell for Overlords to be able to do anything about it. But it seems as though fear was a perfectly good way of making sure that the big Overlords didn't even have a chance of developing a grudge against them.
So, Plaze ended up just giving up on the idea, filing it into the "Maybe when it pops up" compartment of his mind.
Which was why Plaze was a bit surprised to hear his secretary, Alha, say the day after he gave up, "Umm, sir? There appears to be a petty gang leader attacking one of our trucks."
After weeks of his resources being respected, now all of a sudden there's someone testing their hand? Plaze had to say that he was both glad it sounded like a minor Overlord, but also a bit annoyed that it was ultimately a dumb smallfry in the end that won't really boost his numbers.
Either way, this was the perfect time to topple a small time sinner and maybe get a good 20 souls out of scaring them into selling their soul to Plaze.
Grinning, Plaze asked his secretary, "Alright, Alha. Who is the idiot who messed with me and where are they located?"
Looking down at his clipboard, Alha looked back up to Plaze and answered, "Uh, apparently, his name is Lozenge. Some kind of deer demon like Alastor, but a lot weaker. Fights using his limited magic with 20 souls, and uh, located… Er, Las Demonios."
"Perfect!" Standing up, Plaze took out his phone, ready to make a call to Mehira, "Tell the 5 people who wanted to be one of my game developers that today is a free day. I'll handle this small fry myself."
Taking souls one at a time was a bit slow and bothersome. Surely, hunting minor Overlords for their soul and everyone they own should be faster.
Mehira both had a car and knew how to drive, which was very convenient for Plaze because he only had one of those at the moment.
So, when Plaze asked Mehira to help him take down a petty Overlord to help watch over him in case anything went wrong with fighting someone who logically shouldn't even be on the same league as him, Mehira was very accepting.
That being said, the car ride to Las Demonios was still 2 hours long, and they had to fill the silence with something. After all, despite being an open-top car, it wasn't exactly the most visually interesting scenery.
In fact, it was mostly just empty land. A bit similar to the time that Plaze went over to the midwest, now that he thought of it…
"So, uh…" Plaze thought about something to fill the void, "Er, have any more interesting and relevant history lessons you want to talk about or that I should know?"
The road was pretty poorly maintained, but it was still a wide road with only a few cars on it. So, Mehira lightly shrugged, "Did you know that the introduction of the car into Hell was the catalyst for many of the centuries old Overlords falling?"
Well, that was certainly a conversation starter. What a fascinating topic.
Plaze shook his head, "No. How did the car end up being the thing that caused all of those old guys to fall?"
He could instantly tell that this was about to become an hour long explanation from Mehira, as she got more comfortable in her seat, starting to smile as she began to monologue, "Well, some background knowledge, for basically the entire history of the Pride Ring, Hell was fairly insulated in their respective cities. So Overlords in Pentagram City would stay in Pentagram City, and the other Overlords in other cities would do the same. It was mostly because if you wanted to go to another city, you first had to pass through whatever wildlife or terrain surrounded your city. For example, Pentagram City is surrounded by forests and mountains. Las Demonios is surrounded by a moat of water. Plus, the pathes weren't very well constructed and the wildlife in Hell is dangerous. It would take a better part of half a day to get anywhere on foot, and that was assuming you weren't killed by the wildlife along the way and forced to regenerate.
Of course, since around the early 1800s, the train was created. But because they operated on tracks, it was fairly easy to get spotted and intercepted. And because of the history, there were many Overlords in the same business, but never able to interact with each other due to the simple fact nobody was willing to reach out.
So, cross-city partnerships weren't very common, even if, technically, it was still done every once in a while.
That all started to change around the early 1900s, which is when the car was created by some sinner whose names aren't really remembered anymore. Then for maybe 10 years after that, nothing in Hell really changed until the cars started getting better and more stable. Then someone, again, nobody is quite sure who, decided it would be a good idea to try and use the developing roads to try and take over an Overlord that was in the same industry as him in another city.
He was successful at the takeover, branding him as a very powerful Overlord for the simple fact that he had a foot in two separate cities at once. But it was the method he used to be able to actually keep that going that interested the other Overlords. So, he popularized the car. I believe that Overlord fell not too long after, the centuries old Overlords were still powerful enough to crush that particular person before he got too big. What the issue was, however, was that he showed the rest of Hell that there were still stars to grab for.
So, for the next 60 years or so until the mid 60s, chaos reigned. People like calling this era the Scramble for Hell. What essentially happened was that a lot of people were beginning to realize that the possibility of not just ruling over a small section of a city, but rather a massive part of Hell was possible. And thousands of upstart Overlords began to jump at the chance to carve their names in Hell's history-"
Swerving the car to avoid someone driving on the wrong side of the road, the right side, Mehira groaned as her story was interrupted by a jackass.
And Plaze was getting really invested into that story too. Asshole.
Extending his arm, Plaze pointed at the rapidly speeding car and shot a bolt of electricity to where he imagined the fuel tank would be.
Not a second later, their car exploded, likely killing the sinner and dooming them to a day's regeneration.
"Thanks," Mehira grumbled, her expression was absolutely pissed, "My mood for storytelling was just cut short."
God damn it. Just when it was about to get good too!
Still, he understood that the best stories are only told under good circumstances, so Plaze shrugged, "You can tell the rest of the story to me later."
Shifting herself into a more comfortable driving position, Mehira said, "I will. The Scramble for Hell is the only interesting era in Hell's history. Everything else is usually just specific Overlords trying their best to sound good."
Yeah, that makes sense. Plaze is probably going to dump a bunch of money in the future to make himself sound cooler too…
Knowing that the rest of the conversation was dependent on him carrying Mehira's bad mood, Plaze decided to ask, "So, I have a bunch of stories from Earth. Wanna hear about it?"
Lightly shrugging, Mehira said, "Sure. Hit me."
"Alright, so, I was a scalper back in the day. I used to buy things and sell them at higher prices when the stock ran out. Now, I was working with this idiot named Steven, right…"
Though Plaze couldn't 100% confidently state it, he did think that Mehira looked happier than she was earlier, listening to his voice.
Thankfully, Plaze was able to keep it going for 2 hours, successfully making it to Las Demonios.
The city was smaller than Pentagram City, but it was still very big. And very tall, due to the large moat that surrounded it.
Parking the car, Mehira told Plaze, "I'm not really sure where your target is. But that's what your ability is for, right?"
Nodding, the satellite appears out of Plaze's head, firmly searching for "People who attacked The Plaza."
As arrows appeared pointing in a direction, he confirmed, "Yep. I've got a lock on."
Getting out of the car, Mehira opened the trunk to take out her sniper rifle, "I'll tail behind you, then. If you can't handle it, I'll lend you support."
Following the direction where his ability led him, Plaze waved her off, "It's a petty bandit with only 20 or so souls on his side. I'm at 300 now. I'll be safe."
Plaze couldn't see it, but he just knew that Mehira was rolling her eyes right now. It's going to feel pretty good when Plaze starts walking up to his enemies and starts taking their attacks without damage because of his heightened durability.
Heh. That'd be a fun thing to try.
It was also his first time in Las Demonios, so he took the time to look around the city. All of the big billboards were still the same old Hell Sovereign Overlords from Pentagram City. But all of the smaller advertisements were for the smaller Overlords, most of them local.
In fact, Plaze even spotted an advertisement for The Plaza. It was hastily plastered over an old Carmine Industries poster. But it still had his face and slogan posted on it.
"Take your future into your own hands…" Plaze quietly recited the company motto he chose. It still rang quite nicely.
He purposely chose something that would contrast VoxTech's "Trust Us" because everyone essentially told him that Vox would be his greatest rival. So, Plaze wanted to make sure that everyone knew that their two companies were different.
Granted, Plaze still wasn't actually 100% sure if Vox was for or against him. It actually felt like Vox wanted Plaze to join him. But until he meets Vox in person, he couldn't be too sure of it.
Either way, as long as his consoles work on VoxTech TVs, he doesn't totally mind what Vox does. Plaze was planning on trying to take over one of the three big TV Overlords anyways…
He's snapped out of his thoughts as his directional arrow pointed to a suspiciously empty office building.
Looking around, Plaze spotted a few other sinners loitering around with their friends. So, he walked up to one group and asked, "Hey, have you seen anyone walk into that building recently?"
The pirate sinner blinked, "Uh… Yeah, some gang leader and like, 7 of his friends."
Hah. The people around here don't even refer to him as an Overlord. How pathetic.
Plaze gave his thanks to the sinner and turned back towards the building.
All he needed to do was take down 8 sinners of middling power… That should be easy. Plaze was much more powerful than a messy 8 people, right?
Forcefully putting down his common sense which told him not to try and fight 8 people at once, Plaze calmly opened the door.
The intended message that Plaze wanted to convey came across correctly as the two sinners on the first floor froze at his presence.
Looking around the lobby of the office building, Plaze saw no boxes that could've stashed away his stolen products. Clicking his tongue, he said in annoyance, "Heard you stole my stuff. Where is it?"
The penguin sinner quickly ran away further into the building, shouting, "Boss! Boss! Plaze is here!"
The other sinner, literally just a woman, took up a fighting stance as she held up a small knife, "You puppet! I can take you on!"
Holding up a finger, Plaze gathered up electricity to fire off as he shrugged, "Sure, go ahead and try it."
The woman rushed towards Plaze, and he casually flicked his electricity in her direction. Within an instant, she fell to the floor, electrocuted.
"A one shot kill, nice," He boredly remarked as he continued his way into the building.
He didn't really want to rely on just a single attack for all of his fights. So, Plaze was going to try some different attacks as well.
He's heard of demons with many souls under their control being able to access a "Full demon" transformation. It might be good to unlock it out here instead of trying to unlock it in the middle of fighting Hammer.
Another sinner wielding a baseball bat came down the nearby stairs to try and hit him, likely trying to stall for time as their leader was informed what was going on.
Plaze decided to just punch them. But he missed the first punch and took a baseball bat to the stomach. Which didn't hurt or stagger him at all due to his increased durability. Then Plaze elbowed his neck from behind, dropping him to the ground.
How the hell did he miss his first punch? That's a bit embarrassing. But Plaze wasn't punished for his mistake, so he decided to just put a bookmark into the topic of learning how to not miss a punch.
Climbing up the stairs, Plaze continued his slow march until he found where the panicked voice of Lozenge was.
"I-I can't fucking believe Plaze himself is coming here! Why the fuck is he here?!" Lozenge wailed out, clearly pacing around whatever room he's in.
A woman's voice followed, "Look, boss! I'm sure you can convince him of- Fuck, I don't know!"
"He walked in the front door!" Another sinner's voice, probably the penguin's, shouted in despair, "He knows we're weak!"
Lozenge growled in frustration, "Well we can't just fucking roll over and die!"
Plaze finally reached the door, and again, he calmly opened it as though he owned the place.
Knowing full well what he was there for, essentially every member of Lozenge's gang froze in fear. Despite Plaze only having 300 souls, a drop in the bucket compared to other Overlords, they all knew that the power difference between them was already insurmountable.
Lozenge quickly shouted out, "Please we-"
"Don't surrender too fast," Plaze interrupted without much empathy in his voice, "I'm just using you all as practice."
Throwing his extended arm, Plaze punched one of the random members on the side, knocking them out. Now, there were only 5 members to fight.
Two members pulled out a gun, and Plaze immediately braced for impact.
Bullets tore through Plaze's body. Despite Plaze's heightened resistance, he was still not fully immune to gunfire.
Through instinct, Plaze tried to harden the defenses of his body using whatever magic he could use. And so, he managed to create a small barrier of electricity in front of it.
It, of course, shattered after a few bullets, but Plaze will remember how to recreate it and eventually refine it.
Swinging his right arm, Plaze casted a wave of electricity, forcing everything to stop and spasm. Then, he sent more focused beams of electricity towards the two gunners, likely killing them.
Plaze has much better aim with his magic than both his fists and guns, he noticed.
As three remained, the two nameless goons decided that it would be better to jump out the window. So they autodefenestrated, Lozenge shouting after them, "What the fuck?!"
Though Lozenge was obviously furious at his underlings taking the smarter way out, he didn't follow them.
Slightly tilting his head, Plaze asked, "So, you use your magic as your primary means of fighting, right? Why don't you show me?"
Obviously fearing for his life, Lozenge took a step back, falling to the floor as he pleaded for one last time, "Hey, hey, hey! I know we stole from you but you didn't have to come out all this way for us! Just spare us!"
If Plaze still had regular eyes or even just a regular face, he would've loved to show his annoyance by twitching his face. However, all he could do now was give a blank stare that hopefully showed his disappointment, relying heavily on his frown to convey his emotions.
It was clear that the only reason why Plaze had the ability to walk into here and win single-handedly was both that his power as an Overlord with hundreds of souls terrified his opponents, and that Lozenge was a complete coward.
A real deer, then.
Before Plaze could speak, someone louder from outside began to shout, their voice reaching them.
"LOZENGE! YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR FUCKING MONEY THIS MONTH!"
The moment Lozenge heard that voice, he went from shivering in fear of Plaze, to petrified at having to pay someone.
Plaze quietly guessed, "Debt collectors?"
Well, that won't do. Plaze wanted to take Lozenge's soul. He's not sure about who would owe them the money in that scenario. Would it be Lozenge, because he's still a sinner that's alive, or would it be Plaze, who would own Lozenge's soul? Would he be obliged to take on his debt?
In the end, Plaze decided that he wanted the souls more than he wanted the money. So, Plaze leaned down and told the deer, "So, I'm feeling alright today, I'll cut you a deal. I'll own your soul, and you keep collecting souls to funnel up to me. In return, I'll deal with your dumb debt issue, alright?"
Waking up from his fear, Lozenge quickly nodded his head in agreement, "Yes! Yes I'll do exactly that!"
Lozenge practically leapt for Plaze's hand, accepting his deal.
The room was lit up with the green symbols of Plaze's soul. Lozenge and his 19 souls were now in Plaze's grasp.
Plaze stood back up straight, satisfied, "Hm. This is a lot faster than preying on new souls. That's good."
Perhaps, instead of hunting for new souls, he should just hunt for minor gang leaders instead…
Well, he'll chew on that later. For now, he should deal with the loan sharks.
Ah, but then he remembered something.
"By the way…" Plaze pulled Lozenge by the neck closer to his own face, knowing full well he can't do anything about it anymore, "Give me back my shit."
Lozenge quickly nodded as best as he could, ignoring his choking sensation as best as he could.
Plaze smiled, "Good."
Dropping and leaving Lozenge behind, trusting him to figure out what to do after this, Plaze walks all the way back down and exits the building.
The loan sharks were all sinners of various types. But the leader seems to be… Another deer sinner. But more deer than human, so that was rather nice to see.
"Huh, are deer sinners common in this city?" Plaze asked, actually curious about the subject.
However, they weren't as receptive, "Who gives a shit? And where the hell is Lozenge?"
If Plaze wasn't on the high of getting 20 souls in one fell swoop, he might've been a bit more annoyed. But he answered truthfully, "He's in the building behind me. I own his soul now because he tried to rob me. I hope that doesn't mean I take his debts?"
The deer sinner snarled, "It means exactly that, dipshit. $20,000, all to our Overlord, Zepid."
$20,000 was basically nothing to Plaze. And he wasn't exactly sure who Zepid was, but it was probably just better to pay the meager amount than to mess with someone he didn't even know.
"Tell Zepid to ask The Plaza for his cash, then. I'll have my secretary handle it," Plaze sighed, realizing that he didn't exactly get much experience from the whole expedition, "Well, I'll see you gentlemen later, then."
For a few moments, Plaze did think about just attacking the loan sharks. After all, they were carrying weapons and he wanted to test out to see how he can defend against it some more.
However, it was still October, and Plaze was doubtless to gain at least a thousand souls by December. His defenses would have to be redone to defend against other Overlords, since Plaze was likely to become bullet proof due to his heightened durability thanks to his body.
Still… If there was a silver lining to this, Plaze now knew that he should graduate from taking the souls of new sinners, and instead just rely on taking down small gang leaders who would take souls for him.
It might not be as efficient as owning each soul. But, provided that they do their jobs, it would help Plaze gain souls much quicker. In time for December.
As Plaze was returning to the car, Mehira suddenly appeared at his side. Teleportation? Or maybe he wasn't just paying attention.
"You let yourself get shot." Mehira didn't sound disappointed or even curious. But even so, she did expect an answer.
The best he could do was shrug, "Wanted to try an electricity shield. I did it."
Her eyes thinned as she replied, "Hm. Alright."
…She was most definitely judging him.
Well, now that Plaze has a more concrete method of gaining souls, he asked, "So, are there any small gang leaders that I could beat the crap out of to get their souls?"
Mehira was a bit more excited about that, "Well, I do know a few people here that might want an upstart taken care of…"
AN:
Next chapter is gonna be tiny. Because I have a lot of stuff to work on that is gonna be longer.
Next chapter is Plaze actually working with his game developers that he hired off-screen, by the way. Sorry for making that off screen, but I didn't want to write that scene at the start of this chapter.
[Also, the Scramble for Hell lore stuff will be expanded on at a later date. I just prevented Mehira's yapping from taking half the chapter. She's the paragraph Overlord istg.]
[Yes, I just learnt Autodefenestration was a word today. It's a very funny word meaning "Throwing yourself out of a window."]