The only good Halfling, is an on fire and screaming Halfling.
-Gnarl's Musings
Damion stared at his reflection in the metal of the axe that had been offered to him by Gibblet, the Forge Master minion. He traced his hand under his eyes.
His glowing, yellow, eyes.
'Man. this is weird.' He thought as he looked at his new opticals.
When Damion had agreed to be Overlord, he had done it more out of a need for survival. That and maybe because he was angry. Angry at being stuck here. Angry at being torn from his life, his family. So he took what he could.
Yet it had not what he had expected. But then again, what was he suppose to suspect? This was after all new ground.
Yet that ritual. He had to suppress as shiver when he remembered that ritual. The pain he had felt, was something he couldn't begin to describe. Yet, when it had all been done with, he had felt...well he didn't feel anything. He didn't feel compulsions to beat up puppies or something. He felt that he was in control of his actions, instead of being some puppet.
Yet he was different. Not just his eyes. There was something.....something....well he just felt like his mind was more free. Like he wasn't bound by some rule that he had not known he was bound by.
The ritual had changed him, it would be time to see how far it did.
"Master, your armor is ready." Gnarl said, as he bowed with a flourish as Gibblet presented a suit of armor, greaves and gauntlets that floated over a pedestal.
Damion slowly got up, carrying the helm and approached the armor. He didn't understand how it was floating, and not on a base like clothes were, but something in his mind told him that it was not ordinary armor.
"This suit of armor, has been passed down from Overlord to Overlord. It is magical in nature, and will naturally fit to your form. We did have to modifying a bit, even magic has its limits. We were lucky to have it with us when the Great Cataclysm brought us minions to this world. Like the Hand of Evil, it is a one of a kind." Gnarl explained.
Damion looked at the gauntlet, and then placed it on the armor. Like something similar to an Ironman suit up, the armor opened and began morphing about his form, clicking and sliding into place as it encased him. Finally, with a makeshift tower of minions, Gibblet jumped ontop of the shoulders of the minions to grasp the helmet and place it onto Damion's head. Like the armor it too seemed to reshape itself to fit snuggly on his head.
"Master, evilness truly suits you," Gnarl proclaimed as he clapped his claws, "Now we can go out, and establish a new dark domain."
Damion was then presented with a wide axe, that looked extremely heavy. Yet the ritual had not only changed his eyes, but his physical health had been vastly improved; which to him was kinda cool. With an ease he lifted the axe up with his one hand.
"I can feel the land quaking in fear already." Gnarl finished with a cackle.
Once Damion was fully garbed in his armor, and holding his new axe aloft on his shoulder in a lazy matter, he followed Gnarl to the throne room, where he was greeted to a procession of Brown minions, all cheering and waving their clubs, some swinging the pitchforks and make shift weapons from that village, before all collapsing onto their faces in a bow as Damion crossed the room.
"You're throne room sire." Gnarl declared as he bowed and stood at the side of the make shift throne.
The throne itself was nothing more then a large slab of stone placed on two smaller stones on a small mound of dirt. The throne room itself was nothing more then a wide cave with natural columns in it.
"Alas, given our current situation, your bastion of evil is on a rocky start. Though we have done our best to make these cave systems as livable as possible, we minions are not capable construction workers or builders. It makes me long for the days when we had whole cities of servants to do the work for us." Gnarl sighed, and had a longing sort of look of remembrance on his face for a moment.
But Gnarl shook his head and went on, "But, under your iron hand, a new dark domain will be established on this world. All hail the Overlord!"
"Overlord!"
"Master!"
Damion sat down slowly as the minions all around shouted and screamed with glee.
Crescent Lyric scrubbed the floor of the altar vigorously, something that she had been going at for nearly three hours. Though she had made the entire interior of the chapel clean and sparkling, she still felt that it was filthy.
Defiled.
Tainted.
All because of that thing.
She shivered, remembering when she first saw it. Its form utterly alien to her, its very presence almost an affront to the Sisters. The Father claimed it was a demon brought by the sins of the village. Hence why she worked so hard today, hoping that if she worked extra hard to clean the altar and the chapel, that the sisters might forgive them.
It was the duty of everypony to atone for the sins that sent the Sisters away, so that they would return.
"Crescent Lyric, I would have thought you would have gone home by now."
Crescent jumped, nearly spilling the bucket of water she had, as she turned to see the robed figure of The Father, or Stout Faith or just Father Faith, saintly clad in the white and black robes of an official priest of the Church of the Twins.
Crescent quickly got up, bowing her head as she fixed her own robes, "Father! I-I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect."
Father Faith chuckled, "It lightens my heart to see such devotion to the sanctity of the chapel in your capable hooves my sweet child."
Crescent blushed, and she looked at her hooves. The father was always so praising of her, it was always embarrassing.
"Thank you father. But I just do what I can to atone for my sins. Just as you teach us." Crescent said modestly.
Father Faith stepped over to Crescent, and placed a hoof on her shoulder and gently rubbed it.
"Truly you are the purest of my flock dear Crescent. If the Sisters are watching, they see that you are truly faithful." Faith said, his rubbing now moving up her neck.
Crescent shivered, blushed, "Th-thank you father...."
"But are you truly sincere?" Father Faith's took a more serious tone now.
Crescent felt her throat catch and she looked at the priest in fear now.
"A demon did show up in our most sacred temple....while you were on duty....perhaps it was drawn by the sins you do not admit?" Father Faith said, his voice accusing and cold.
"NO! I'm pure and faithful!" Crescent shouted, fear gripping her heart now.
"If you are, you must prove it....are you truly standing in the light of the sisters?" Faith said, demanding an answer even as he moved around Crescent and pushed her down, her flank up in the air.
"F-Father...I" Crescent said, fearful now.
"Are you faithful!?" The father demanded, and Crescent felt a hard smack across her flank.
"Y-yes!" Crescent shouted, biting her lip to ignore the pain.
She bit harder even as she felt the father mount her. All she could do was claim her faithfulness, and hope the father believed her.
He did eventually....when they were finished.
Damion stood in a dark cave tunnel, five brown minions behind him. Despite the darkness, he fond the helmet, or perhaps the ritual, or perhaps both, improved his vision in the darkness. He could see as clearly as if it was day light. He wondered if his eyes were glowing like a cats.
Heh well technically his eyes were glowing. He wondered how that looked in the dark. Shame he couldn't get a selfy, that be an awesome picture.
"Can you hear me sire?" Gnarl's voice soon called in the helm, a bit too loudly.
"Aghhh! Yes Gnarl I can!" Damion shouted, lifting the helm to rub at his ears, as the rung a little.
There was some muffled rubbing and some blowing on a mic like sound.
"Ah forgive the volume sire. This thing is a bit musty, it has been awhile since we used it. I am using what is called a Sight Stone, it will allow me to see and hear what you do through your helmet. And allow me to communicate with you to provide any tactical advice, or witty commentary if you like." Gnarl said, the volume now at a normal level.
"Uh...great. So why am I down here exactly?" Damion asked.
"Well sire, it wouldn't be wise, not that I am calling you unwise of course, but in any case it would be best for you to have some training in before you set out on your conquest," Gnarl said, chuckling darkly and Damion was sure rubbing his claws gleefully. "and so the minions and I have set up a training course for you. This will help you get in touch with your new powers and learn the finer arts of combat and minion control as your predecessors before you. I only wish we could have kept that yeti from before. They make such excellent punhing bags heheheheh."
'Yeti?' Damion thought confused, but shrugged it off.
"Well lets get training then." Damion said, hefting his axe over his shoulder.
"That's the spirit master!" Gnarl applauded, "If you proceed down the tunnel master, you can begin the first trial I have set up for you."
Damion moved down the tunnel and came into a cavern where some minions stood ready, clubs in claws, and hissing and snarling at him. His own minions snarled back in retaliation.
"Now Sire, Scabby and his gang have agreed to be your combat instructors. They'll help in learning the finer combat skills and minion control of a true Overlord. Just use the Hand of Evil, to telepathically direct your minions and send them charging in to battle!"
Damion looked at the gauntlet, before in an almost instinctive way he never knew before, he lifted his hand up, and the brown minions beside him charged, screaming and howling little war cries.
The brown minion Scabby and his gang charged in kind, and the two groups of minions spent the next few minutes, bashing and clubbing each other about the head and other body parts.
"Ah watch them go sire. Browns are truly at their best when they are ripping something apart. Anything else just makes their little brains hurt." Gnarl mused.
Eventually Scabby and his gang broke off, and ran up a fallen stalagmite onto a raised rock mound. They then began making obscene gestures towards Damion and his minions.
"Scabby and the others have gone to high ground. This is where sweeping can come into play."
"Sweeping?" Damion asked.
"Yes," Gnarl said, no doubt nodding, "The Hand allows you to not only give direct orders of charge or retreat to your minions, it also allows you to gain a sense of control of them. Just direct your will and the Hand will impose it upon the lead minion in your group. He will lead the way and the rest of your minions will follow in whatever direction or path you desire."
Damion gave it a shot, and directed his minions along an alternate path he noticed, allowing his minions to leap down from an above rock and onto Scabby's gang from behind.
"Ha! A fine strategy master!" Gnarl proclaimed, as the minions had leaped onto the backs and heads of the other minions and proceeded to beat them about. One in particular forcing the enemy minion down and proceeding to ride him like a horse, beating his club along his rear.
After awhile, Damion called the minions back as Scabby and his friends pathetically waved small white flags in defeat.
"Excellent master," Gnarl cheered, "You are truly a skilled tactician. Move onto the next tunnel, where we will test your own personal combat and magic skills."
Damion moved on, and came upon another group of minions.
"As you no doubt already have tried master, The Hand of Evil, allows you a number of spells. Unfortunately, most of them are still unavailable to you at the moment, but as the evil energy in you grows, so too will you can access to new powers that the Hand will offer you. For now, your first spell is the Fire spell. Robust fellow, always seems to hang around no matter what happens."
"Now, go and give that axe a few swings. Don't worry, browns are tough and can take a licking." Gnarl said, laughing.
Damion couldn't help but smirk, before hefting his axe up in one hand and charging. The other minions charged in, but where quickly swatted aside as Damion brought down his axe and slapped them about with the flat of the blade; sending them flying. He then felt the power of evil burn in his veins and he directed it into a fiery blast of flames upon the group of minions, who squealed in pain as they began rolling in the dirt to put out the unholy fires. Damion let them burn for a bit, before willing the fire out; leaving the poor minions toasty but at least alive.
"Ah master, you are truly after my cold, evil heart," Gnarl mused, sighing in an almost affectionate way, "You take to this like a natural."
"It does come easy." Damion mused, smirking. He knew that he should perhaps be shocked by how easy this came; yet he couldn't seem to understand why. It was like he did not care anymore.
"Now we can, wait what's that noise?" Gnarl said, as the sound of something digging through rock became evident.
Damion turned toward the source, as several stones and dirt fell from the cavern wall and out fell three strange creatures.
"Gah, this isn't a gem cave. Stupid!" The first creature shouted at another, bonking it on the head.
Damion stared at these creatures, who soon noticed him and stared back. They looked like dogs, only taller and spoke. They wore simple basic colored vests and collars with gems in place of tags.
"What in evil's name are those?" Gnarl asked, seemingly confused.
"Ahh! Intruders!" One of the dog creatures shouted, before all three charged.
Damion swung his axe, catching the first across the head and taking the top part of the head off in a gorey mess of brains and blood, as the other two swung their claws at him, smashing against the armor he wore and causing them to howl in pain.
"Dumb dogs." Damion said to himself, thinking how his own dog would have done things that always got him hurt.
Damion swung again as he ordered his minions to attack the second, killing the second and the minions slowly but surely beating the third to death. With the three dog creatures dead, Damion then focused and drew the remaining life force from the bodies.
"Splendid master," Gnarl laughed, "Those fools will never again attempt such wanton acts of aggression upon you. Though where did such creatures come from. That tunnel no doubt has the answers."
Damion looked at the new tunnel, made by the strange dog creatures. He placed his axes on his shoulder before leading with his minions in tow down the new passage.