December 30th had come far sooner than Plaze wanted it to. Though he knew it was the only way to progress as an Overlord, he still didn't feel confident in his abilities to battle someone several times more powerful and skilled than him.

Alone.

Sure, by now he has 2,000 souls, a respectable amount for an up and coming Overlord. But when his opponent had 5,000, and an entire army of her own, it didn't feel respectable.

Especially when for all this time, he's had to rely on Carmilla to finance everything and even bring her own army to fight for him.

If Plaze had just done the work and talked to Jessie about how to properly finance everything, he would've had a slower start. But his monthly sales so far had nearly reached a million. If he had more independence, it all could've been his…

Alas, that was not how it was. No matter how much he felt Carmilla was pulling him by his strings, there was nothing else he could do but submit to the higher Overlord until their deal was over.

Patiently sitting in a bar, all Plaze could do right now was wait for Carmilla to show up. Most of Carmilla's forces had already arrived, but Plaze himself was waiting for their boss.

The barkeeper wasn't amused by Plaze's lack of drink, annoyedly asking, "You've been here for 20 minutes. Are you seriously not going to order anything? You're wasting space here."

Sneering at the ant sinner, Plaze gestured at the filled bar and told him, "I filled up every other seat for you. They're all ordering shit, why do you care I'm not?"

"You're taking up 2 whole fucking seats at the front because of how fat your tits are, dumbass," The ant sinner insulted, "Who the hell are you anyways?"

The drunk manta ray sinner next to Plaze loudly laughed as he elbowed him, "Haha! He got you there, man! He thinks he's one of us! Hahaha!"

See, this was why every bar in Hell was garbage. No one has any respect in Hell.

Suddenly, white chains manifested around the manta ray sinner.

"Huh?"

Then, he was forcibly yanked back, sending him tumbling to the floor.

The barkeep sighed, "You know you're going to owe…" Then, he realized who had just walked into his bar, "Oh, shit."

Carmilla Carmine pushed the chair next to him away as she stood next to Plaze, "Staying in one spot is dangerous in the radius of tanks, you know."

Plaze shrugged, "If they're not attacking us now, then it's not an issue. So, how many people did you bring?"

"2,000," Carmilla said without much fanfare, "Hammer brought everything, which for her, turns out to be 2,400, plus 50 some minor construction Overlords who independently wanted to help her and their forces. They're not that strong in the grand scheme of things and there's only one who's any problem. That bumps her up to around 3,000. But there are no angelic weapons in play on either side, so don't be worried about it."

Well, that seemed like Carmilla's problem. So he's just going to take her words at face value and not worry about it.

The line about no angelic weapons being in play somewhat surprised him. After all, is the premier creator of those weapons not right in front of him?

But maybe the political fallout over using permanent killing weapons on a relatively small issue like this wasn't worth the hassle. Instead, it was just a really big turf war. It kept things simple.

Well, all Plaze had to do was beat Hammer. Everything else wasn't his problem.

Though, just to be sure, "So, what's the plan?"

"Given the diversity of the abilities present in our forces, most strategists are content with simply giving them a direction to charge at," Carmilla said, "Though, given the tanks present on the other side, I've told everyone to spread out. Then I have the entire compound surrounded, though it's likely to break anyhow, given that there will be opportunists joining in from outside."

…Well, Plaze couldn't say he was shocked. The Overlords seem to be more businessmen than warriors. Plus, he also has no idea how to lead a battle that involves powerful magic-wielding maniacs. That is way out of his pay grade.

Carmilla continues, "I'll help you get to Sergeant Hammer so you can have your duel with her. I've talked to Vox 2 weeks ago, and he's agreed to be neutral, but showing the battle on his televisions. It'll be the moment for you to decide whether you're your own independent Overlord by defeating her alone, or someone who'll be under my thumb for the rest of your life by letting me interfere."

Crossing his arms together, Plaze questioned, "So, what if I lose?"

Without a smidge of hesitation, she answered, "Everything you own is mine."

Yeah, this wasn't unexpected. While Carmilla has been a great help to Plaze over the months he's known her, she was still an Overlord. He can't place too much trust in her.

"Hm, then I guess I'll just win," Plaze casually answered, not upset over her answer.

Standing up, he continued, "It's been a pleasure working with you, good luck in the battle ahead."

"Good luck," Carmilla politely responded, though it was just politeness, as far as he could tell.

Exiting the bar side by side, everyone around us was getting ready for the battle ahead.

An shoe sinner that gained much of Plaze's sympathy the moment he saw him came up to the two, "Miss Carmine, all of our forces are in place, and communications are all active. All we wait for is your command."

"Let's go, don't bother with the fanfare," Carmilla Carmine said, turning to Plaze, "I'd suggest you take a different route than I, at least initially. Though you should still be close to the frontline."

Plaze tilted his head questioningly, "To avoid being seen as your pawn?"

"Precisely," Carmilla nodded.

Well, that was fine with him.

With a nonverbal confirmation, Plaze walked off away from Carmilla, knowing the battle was about to begin.

Then, Plaze spotted Mehira, who was idly watching them on top of a rooftop across the street, sitting off the edge holding her angelic sniper rifle.

While Plaze has been on many rooftops during his time in Hell, he hasn't quite mastered his abilities to become mobile enough to jump on top of a building.

The closest he could do was extend his legs and arms by a lot using some odd demonic body manipulation voodoo that he didn't really understand to climb the building. But that wasn't very cool.

The other way he tried was to turn himself into electricity so he could move up which… Well, it didn't really work. The same thing with trying to turn into radio waves. Or shadows.

No matter how he tried to visualize it, it just didn't seem like he could turn himself into some other material, like Vox with his own electricity,

Maybe it was something he needed more power to do, like that transformation thing other Overlords do.

Either way, Mehira seemed amused at Plaze's lack of ability to travel up buildings, and mercifully floated down to his level.

"I hope you had a good conversation with her," Mehira said before explaining what she's going to do, "As you know, I'm not immortal like you are. So I'm going to just pick off people from a distance using my angelic sniper rifle."

"None of Carmilla's forces brought their own angelic weapons, and she told me none of Hammer's forces brought them too," Plaze revealed, Mehira's expression turning confused, "So, uh, maybe be picky on who you're assassinating? You don't want a target on your back, right?"

"Seriously?" Mehira seemed displeased, "I'd figure that they'd want to take advantage of all the construction Overlords congregating here, but they don't want to? That's… A shame."

Well, he does see what she's saying. If Carmilla managed to kill a lot of the minor construction Overlords here, then she can get her own pawns into the construction market and gain more power that way.

Instead, the status quo will remain after this fight- Even if all their businesses are slightly slowed down by the fact that Hammer won't be blowing up blocks every other week.

Actually, depending on how picky Carmilla is with selling the tanks, destruction may be on the decline overall due to tanks not being as plentiful as before…

Well, that's not his problem. He's not a construction Overlord, he's the Gaming Overlord.

Plaze shrugged it off, "Well, it's her industry, who are we to complain?"

Mehira sighed, "I suppose so. I just needed the chaos for something else, but I'll have to do something different."

"Oh? What did you want it for?" Plaze curiously asked.

"Not telling."

Plaze's face fell, "Well, fine. Keep your secrets… Although, now that you know that, are you going to change your plans for this fight? Maybe get into the fight yourself and sling magic around?"

Mehira shook her head, "Too risky. I didn't bring any other weapon with me today either, and I'd rather not get on Carmilla's bad side for something random. I'll just keep an eye on your fight, to sway it in your direction if you get too close to losing."

He appreciated the offer, but he said, "Apparently, Vox is going to be recording the entire battle, so I'd rather not face accusations of someone helping me fight my own battles."

"Would you rather die?" Mehira blandly asked.

Plaze opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it after a moment.

Thinking it over again, he replied, "You know what, fair enough. Help me if I'm getting my ass kicked too hard. It's better than losing."

Mehira scoffed, leaving it at that.

Shifting the conversation, Plaze pulled out his phone, "I'm going to give Jessie a call just to make sure she's alright. She's my most valuable- Well, maybe Herta is giving her a run for her money… But she's definitely my most loyal."

Calling Jessie's number, he patiently waits for his worker to pick up.

Jessie does not pick up.

They both knew what this meant.

"...Hey, Mehira."

"I'll get her back for you. Of course, if she isn't a pincushion for angelic spears by now."

"...Thanks."

"C'mon, Ma!" Jessie quietly but urgently pushed her mother, Pam, to pick up her pace out of Sergeant Hammer's compound.

Pam, the overweight doll sinner, looked extremely stressed for a doll, "Kiddo, stop shouting at me like that! I don't even know your plan!"

"It'll be fine, I have someone on the outside waiting for me, and we can just stay out of the battle and get a new job right away!" Jessie said, getting a confused look from her mom.

"Where did you get all the time to do that?"

"My subordinates were competent and I just gave them all the work."

Rushing out the door of the compound, Jessie and Pam breathes in the hot air of Hell, and finds themselves looking at the horde of soldiers ready to fight for Sergeant Hammer.

Gulping, Jessie quickly looked around for an escape, but the entire compound was surrounded, both by their own troops and the enemies.

If they could just walk through them and act like civilians…

"Say, didn't I tell you to stay inside, Jessie, Pam?"

The two froze, knowing who had just spoken from behind them.

"I also heard you say that your subordinates are competent, you should really say that to their face instead of behind their backs, Jessie," Sergeant Hammer said, out and about in her smallest form.

Putting her hand on the head of Jessie, who was 2 feet shorter than Hammer, Jessie knew that it was over.

Sergeant Hammer smiled, "You're not getting out of here that easily."

AN:

Missed the October upload deadline because my finger got bit that month, stopping me from writing for like 2~3 weeks because writing with 9 fingers sucks. Now it's the middle of November and this chapter just got finished on the 15th. My bad.

Now, hopefully, I'll lock in and get this entire arc finished in a timely manner.

Also, I forgot to mention this before, I think, but you can read the backlog on the Discord server. It was the case all along, but then I ran out of backlog.

Now I made my own Discord server, Fair and Balanced Incorporated, so if you want to be pinged by me whenever I cook something up, you can be pinged there.

The invite code is ZPrVHumQJv

Additionally, I have it set up so that there's an outline chapter ahead of the backlog/published releases, so people can see what I'll write in that chapter before I get to it.

My prediction is that I'll be able to upload this weekly for about another 10 chapters before I run out of backlog again lol.

Maybe I should just write 1 arc at a time before publishing it all weekly…

Well, things to think about.

Also, during my recovery, I drew another shitty MS Paint lol. For all my 3 main fics. (FFN doesn't wanna let images on the website, though. So if you want to see a crappy MS Paint, it's on Ao3 or the Discord server.]

[As of uploading this, I got to chapter 23. 6 weeks of backlog isn't bad, yeah?]